HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1554567
The Interaction Discrepancy Model: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Person-Environment Interactions
Provisionally accepted
Robin Umbra*
Ulrike Fasbender- University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
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This manuscript introduces the Interaction Discrepancy Model (IDM), a theoretical framework designed to enhance our understanding of person-environment interactions. Traditional models often overlook the dynamic, iterative, and feedback-driven nature of these interactions, typically focusing on episodic and isolated psychological processes and conscious mechanisms. The IDM addresses these limitations by integrating the dynamics of cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes at both conscious and non-conscious levels. The model outlines an eight-stage process: (1) perception, (2) interaction construal, (3) verification, (4) congruence/discrepancy, (5) appraisal, (6) autoregulatory response, (7) action plan, and (8) feedback. This comprehensive approach seeks to explain the varied responses observed in empirical research and real-life scenarios. The IDM's applicability extends across multiple contexts, including aggression, delinquency, conflict management, and industrial-organizational psychology, emphasizing the critical role of perceived discrepancies in triggering affective and behavioral responses. By incorporating contextual factors and providing a structured framework for falsifiability, the IDM offers a robust tool for future research and practical applications. This model significantly advances the theoretical literature on person-environment interactions, providing a holistic understanding that captures the complexity of human experience.
Keywords: Interaction Discrepancy Model (IDM), Person-environment interactions, Conceptual framework, Theoretical Model Development, moral emotions
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Umbra and Fasbender. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Robin Umbra, robin.umbra@outlook.com
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