Conservation of Resources Theory
Hobfoll · 1989 · COR
Summary
Conservation of Resources (COR) theory holds that people are motivated to obtain, retain, and protect things they value — material, social, personal, and energy resources. Stress emerges when resources are threatened, lost, or when investment fails to yield gain. Two principles structure the theory: loss salience (resource loss is disproportionately more impactful than equivalent gain), and resource investment (people must invest resources to protect against loss, recover from it, and gain new resources). COR explains stress trajectories across burnout, work-family conflict, and trauma research, and gives an account of why initial losses produce loss spirals.
Canonical constructs
- construct.personal_resources (unresolved)
- Resource Loss
- Resource Gain
- Psychological Strain
- Burnout
Canonical relations
| From | Predicate | To | Central | Mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| construct.resource_loss | predicts | construct.psychological_strain | yes | Loss is disproportionately impactful relative to gain (loss asymmetry). |
| construct.resource_loss | predicts | construct.burnout | yes | |
| construct.personal_resources | moderates | construct.resource_loss | yes | Resource caravans buffer further loss. |
Synthesized priors (where available) live under /registry/priors/{from}/{predicate}/{to}.
Related theories
Theories sharing one or more canonical constructs with this one.