Study Guide with article summaries with Social Psychology in Organisations at Leiden University

What is the Pygmalion effect?

Employee engagement in learning is defined as discretionary behaviors in ongoing learning activities to master new knowledge, skills, and abilities. Employee learning is important for maintaining organizational effectiveness. Managing and supporting employee learning should be considered an essential part of leaders´ responsibilities. However, research indicates that leaders allocate their investments in employees in accordance with their expectations of those employees. These expectations may initiate a self-fulfilling prophecy, called the Pygmalion effect. Leader expectations activate certain leader behaviors, which in turn affect employee attitudes and behaviors in the expected direction. 

Which are the potential mediators of the Pygmalion effect in organizations?

Based on Rosenthal´s four-factor Pygmalion model, the following mediators are derived, mediating between leader expectations and employee engagement in learning activities: 

• Leader-member exchange (LMX relationship). A warm social emotional climate resembles a high-quality LMX relationship - a relationship of trust, respect, and obligation between leader and employee. 
• Goal setting. Teaching increasingly difficult material implies that students must acquire a higher level of knowledge and skills as each step in the learning process requires that students meet higher goals. Teachers use implicit and explicit forms of goal setting which may be a mediating factor. 
• Providing learning opportunities. Leaders in organizations may stimulate employee learning by providing more learning opportunities, such as time and resources, to employees they value highly. 
• Providing feedback.

What is the expected underlying mechanism of the positive outcomes of a high LMX relationship?

Employees in high LMX conditions have been found to have higher levels of satisfaction with their supervisors and their work, more organizational commitment, more role clarity, and better job performance. The underlying mechanism is expected to be the concept of social exchange. The valuable resources (knowledge, skills, and expertise) that leaders invest has positive effects on the employees´ development. These employees tend to receive greater opportunities for personal growth and challenging work assignments, have a quicker career progression, and engage more frequently in learning activities. 

How do specific and more difficult goals result in better employee engagement?

Specific goals direct action through informing employees about the desired behavioral repertoire and focusing employees on goal-relevant activities. They will be able to activate stored knowledge, skills, and cognitive processes to find the right strategy. Difficult goals inform employees about the desired performance level, stimulate effort and persistence, and help employees develop task-specific strategies. 

How does providing learning opportunities influence employee engagement in learning activities? 

Leaders can offer many different learning opportunities for employees, like giving challenging job assignments, assigning membership to a special task force, and starting up new operations. The exposure to new situations requires that the employees learn new or update existing routines and behaviors. Research has shown that a learning-oriented work environment enhances learning behavior. It is thus suggested that leader expectations affect leaders´ provision of learning opportunities and that these opportunities enable employees to engage in learning activities. 

How is feedback expected to mediate the relationship between leader expectations and employee engagement in learning activities?

Feedback has become a popular tool for stimulating employee engagement. By providing feedback, leaders create a gap between current and desired performance. Employees will make an effort to close this gap. Especially feedback interventions that direct attention to adequate on-task behavior have shown to lead to more rapid learning, decreased errors during training, and improved performance. 

What is concluded in this study about the Pygmalion effect and employee engagement in learning activities? 

Leader expectations were related to employee engagement in learning activities. Employees engaged more actively in learning behaviors when their leaders had higher expectations about the ability to learn new knowledge and skills. Leaders also showed more of the leader behaviors associated with their higher expectations, namely they developed higher quality LMX relationships, set more specific and difficult goals, and provided more learning opportunities, and gave more feedback. Setting specific goals and providing learning opportunities were related to employee engagement in learning activities. The results are thus in accordance with Pygmalion theory.

What is team creativity?

Team creativity emerges from interactions between members to evaluate diverse perspectives to collectively generate novel and useful ideas for the team. Requirements for teams to be creative include members´ attention to problems and flaws related to their work, an openness to sharing and discussing new ideas and learning from others, and willingness to evaluate one´s own and others´ ideas objectively to find creative ways of improvement. 

How can leader humility influence team creativity?

Humility is an interpersonal trait that embodies three interdependent aspects, namely a willingness to view the self accurately and acknowledge limits, the appreciation of others´ strengths and contributions, and teachability. Team leaders should create enabling conditions to promote team creativity. Leader humility is how a leader views shortcomings and others´ strengths and whether the leader is open to new ideas. Leaders with humility view problems and mistakes as opportunities. They are appreciative of divergent ideas from members. Leaders with humility facilitate creativity-relevant team mechanisms. Two interpersonally oriented team factors that connect leader humility to team creativity are identified, namely information sharing and psychological safety.

How is leader humility related to team information sharing?

Information sharing refers to the process of exchanging ideas and information among members.The authors give three reasons of why leader humility is expected to be positively related to team information sharing:

• Humble leaders have a healthy self-awareness that allows them to be open to limitations and admitting to problems. A humble leader will proactively look for limitations of teamwork and actively exchange information. 
• Humble leaders appreciate others´ contributions. 
• Humble leaders are open to different ideas. 

How is leader humility related to psychological safety?

Psychological safety refers to the extent to which members feel the team is interpersonally nonthreatening. It is a shared belief that the team is a safe place for risk taking. The authors give three reasons of why leader humility is expected to be positively related to team psychological safety:

• Humble leaders signal to members that making mistakes and taking risks are acceptable, which generates a climate of safety in the team. 
• Humble leaders recognize members´ strengths, making them feel appreciated, valued, supported, and more confident. 
• Humble leaders prioritize growth for themselves and for the members. This encourages the members to embrace a learning attitude and creates a shared belief that members will not disrespect or embarrass someone for making a new suggestion. 

How are team information sharing and psychological safety expected to be positively related to team creativity?

Team information sharing broadens the scope of team skills, inspires members to look for new solutions, and generates new ideas. The psychological safety climate serves as a supportive social context for team members to respectfully manage diverse and even conflicting creative perspectives. They will be able to effectively integrate alternative courses of action that contribute to team creativity. The cognitive process of generating creative ideas for the team contributes to team creativity. 

What is power distance and how does it relate to leader humility?

The extent to which humility benefits leaders and teams may be context specific. The benefits of leader humility on creativity-relevant processes are contingent on whether members see humility as desirable. Power distance is the extent to which members see the distance between leaders and themselves as legitimate. This may influence how members react to leader humility. When team power distance is high, members expect leaders to be dominant, take charge, and give strong direction. In these conditions, humility in a leader may be negatively interpreted. When team power distance is low, most team members desire more power sharing. In those conditions, team members are more willing to follow the leaders´ guidance and they feel safe to take risks and share information. 

Which factors facilitate team creativity according to the theory of the team climate?

The theory of team climate distinguishes four factors that facilitate team creativity, namely:

• Vision refers to the clearly defined objectives and mission for the team. 
• Participative safety refers to the creativity-relevant environment in which more people participate in decision making through having influence, interacting, and sharing information, and are met with non-threatening trust and support. 
• Task orientation refers to the focus on producing quality task outcomes.
• Support for innovation refers to the practical support for novelty that is often expressed in documents, policies, and statements, as well as resources provided for innovation. 

What are the main results from this study?

• Leader humility did not have a direct significant effect on team creativity. However, leaders´ characteristics and behaviors are important as input for team effectiveness and may influence team performance through mediating roles. 
• Leader humility indirectly contributed to team creativity through promoting team members´ information exchange, but not through a psychological safety climate. 
• The relationship between leader humility and psychological safety depended on team power distance values. 

How can the moderating role of team power distance values of the relationship between leader humility and psychological safety be interpreted? 

In teams with low power distance, leader humility was positively related to team information seeking but not to psychological safety. This may suggest that psychological safety in low power distance teams has drivers other than leader humility and that simply working with a humble leader is not enough to feel safe. In high power distance teams, leader humility was not related to team information sharing, and negatively related to team psychological safety. Humble leaders working in teams who expect leaders to be dominant may cause feelings of dissatisfaction and frustration with the leader. These negative emotions with regards to the leaders may damage the psychological safety feelings of the members.

What are the five key aspects of feedback seeking?

Research has identified the following key aspects of feedback seeking:

• Frequency and how often individuals seek feedback
• Method. Methods by which people may seek feedback are inquiry (explicit verbal requests for feedback), monitoring (observing aspects of the environment, particularly other people, that provides indications of how one is doing), and indirect inquiry (using indirect questions and third parties to seek information and testing limits to prompt spontaneous feedback from others). 
• Timing of feedback seeking, for example directly after a performance or after a delay. 
• Target of feedback seeking. This choice may involve a consideration of the role relation of the target to a performer, or the target’s mood. 
• Topic

What are the three motives that underlie feedback seeking?

The three motives underlying feedback seeking are:

• The instrumental motive to achieve a goal or perform well
• The ego-based motive to defend or enhance one’s ego
• The image-based motive to protect or enhance the impressions that others hold of one

The interplay among these three motives can influence decisions to either seek or avoid feedback information. 

What is the instrumental motive of feedback seeking?

Instrumental people seek feedback because it has informational value that helps them meet their goals and regulate their behavior. This motive becomes more apparent in certain situations and as the perceived value of feedback increases, individuals seek it more frequently. For example, especially in an organizational setting the process of feedback is important. It helps employees to understand the organization and improve their performance. Even more so when someone starts a new job, possibly a difficult job, as feedback seeking also reduces uncertainty. 

How does the instrumental motive influence the key aspects of feedback seeking?

The instrumental motive increases the frequency of feedback seeking. With regards to the method of feedback seeking, the results are mixed. In some studies both monitoring and inquiry were increased, but in other studies only either one. The instrumental motive influences from whom people seek feedback and the performers prefer feedback from a credible source with a high instrumental value of the feedback. 

What is the ego-based motive of feedback seeking?

A major factor in determining feedback seeking behavior is the need for self-protection. People are motivated to defend and protect their egos. They prefer favorable information about them that helps them maintain a positive self-view. It causes people to use cognitive mechanisms to avoid or change information that hurts their self-image, as especially information about the self, such as feedback, is more emotionally charged. 

What paradox is found in the relationship between self-esteem and feedback seeking?

Research has shown mixed results with regards to the relationship between self-esteem and feedback seeking. Some propose that people with high self-esteem are more capable of dealing with negative feedback and that people with low self-esteem have a higher need to protect their egos and prefer to avoid feedback. However, self-verification research showed that people seek feedback that is consistent with their self-views. In that case, people with low self-esteem actively seek negative feedback to verify their negative self-appraisal.

How does the ego-based motive influence the key aspects of feedback seeking?

The potential that feedback has for injury of the self-view causes people to avoid or discount feedback and thus influences the frequency of feedback seeking. It also influences who they seek feedback from and may avoid people who they think will give them negative feedback if they are not emotionally capable of handling the feedback. With regards to the method used, people who expect the feedback to be negative are more likely to monitor for feedback than to use an active inquiry strategy. 

What is the image-based motive of feedback seeking?

The image-based motive involves protecting or enhancing the impressions that others hold of someone. There are two ways that image may be hurt or enhanced by feedback seeking. The first is in how the source may evaluate the act of the feedback seeking of the performer. The second is the source´s actual verbalization of the feedback. This motive especially influences public feedback seeking as image costs could be higher when feedback is sought in public. In a public context, people must weigh the instrumental or ego benefits of feedback against potential image costs. On the other hand, people can also publicly seek feedback to enhance their image. This often shows when feedback is being sought that has no informational value (for example when a favorable performance review has already been done). 

How does the image-based motive influence the key aspects of feedback seeking?

When performers perceive that seeking feedback could damage their image, for example because it makes them look uncertain, incompetent, or insecure, they may change their method from inquiry to monitoring. Research has also confirmed that when people experience stereotype threat, they tend to increase the frequency of their feedback monitoring. Finally, other research has shown that newcomers tend to seek more feedback if it increases their opportunity to be in contact with potential targets. 

What is the feedback seeking context? 

Context has been thought of as the feedback environment which is made up of the various feedback sources. There are many variables in the context that influence the different motives, such as uncertainty, the degree of organizational centralization, the degree of autonomy, and the availability of feedback sources. A supportive context with supportive feedback and positive peer relations may increase feedback seeking. A good relationship with the supervisor that reduces fears of potential image costs could also increase feedback seeking. In this way, there are many different variables in the context that influence the motives for and the key aspects of feedback seeking. 

What are the outcomes of feedback seeking?

It is both conceptually and empirically difficult to assess the outcomes of feedback seeking, as it needs to answer the question if feedback seeking helps a performer to obtain an accurate self-view, meet instrumental goals, and/or maintain a positive image. The direct outcomes of feedback seeking need to be examined as well at the impact of the feedback seeking behavior. For example, research has shown that negative feedback seeking is not necessarily bad for one´s image and that there are positive image consequences of feedback seeking. Negative feedback seeking has shown to be associated with higher effectiveness ratings by supervisors, and the seekers were judged to be more concerned, effective, and interested than non-seekers. 

Does feedback serve instrumental goals?

With regards to the instrumental motive, the goal would be to obtain accurate data. Evidence suggests a link between feedback seeking and the accuracy of the information received, namely that people are reluctant to give feedback, especially negative feedback. Other studies suggest that whether seeking feedback serves instrumental goals depends on the nature of the feedback and characteristics of the seeker, including what the seeker does with the feedback information. Future research needs to assess the mediating mechanisms through which feedback influences the attainment of instrumental goals such as performance, one´s advancement potential, job satisfaction, and adaptation. 

What should future feedback seeking research focus on?

The authors mention the following topics as interesting for further research:

• Cognitive processes that underlie feedback seeking behavior. There is not yet a full understanding of how individuals process and integrate the feedback they receive. Two modes of operation are distinguished. Conscious processing involves awareness and effort and can be controlled with conscious effort to achieve purposes and goals. Automatic processing is effortless and does not require conscious guidance and allows freeing up the limited cognitive and attentional capacities.Whether conscious or automatic processes dominate depends on whether a goal is salient and on the performance environment. 
• Feedback seeking tendencies of leaders. The CEO disease refers to people's fear of giving honest appraisals to those who are above them. Theories suggest that this shortage of feedback should increase the instrumental motive to seek it, the reality is that leaders tend to be intolerant of feedback and don't actively seek it. Many leaders were raised according to the heroic model which depicts leaders as regulating others and confronting enemies. This mindset is inconsistent with feedback seeking, which requires leaders to slow down and seek input. Also, according to the Theory X assumption, in which leaders assume that people are self-interested and untrustworthy, leaders are discouraged from seeking feedback from their employees. 
• Domain contingency. A distinction is made between global- and domain-specific feelings of self-worth. Not all domain-specific self-evaluations are relevant for global self-worth. Only evaluations in contingent domains (performance domains in which individuals measure their self-esteem) are relevant for self-worth. In these domains, self-esteem is fragile and people tend to avoid feedback when they expect it to be negative and seek it when they expect it to be positive. 
• Bringing in a cross-cultural perspective. Future research should examine how feedback seeking is different in other cultures (other than the USA), and also how feedback seeking processes take place between two people from different cultures in the same organization. 

What is goal orientation?

There are two classes of underlying goals that a person can pursue, namely: 

• A learning goal orientation to develop competence by acquiring new skills and mastering new situations. It is associated with an incremental implicit theory. Ability is viewed as a malleable attribute that can be developed with effort and persistence. Effort is seen as the primary determinant of success. Feedback is viewed as information on how to improve. 
• A performance-goal orientation to demonstrate competence and validate worth by seeking favorable judgments and avoiding negative judgments about one´s competence. It is associated with an entity implicit theory. Ability is viewed as a fixed, innate attribute that is difficult to develop. Ability is seen as the primary determinant of success. Feedback is viewed as an evaluation of aspects of the self. 

How does one’s goal orientation influence feedback seeking?

Learning goal-oriented people will seek negative feedback for its contribution to their learning goals. Their instrumental motive to seek feedback is enhanced because they have a desire to develop, focus on the diagnostic value of feedback, and believe that ability can be developed. Performance-goal oriented people view ability as a fixed attribute and so the instrumental motive to seek feedback is reduced. They view potential negative feedback as an indictment about their ability. These concerns increase the cost of ego and image motives and thus reduce feedback seeking. 

How is cultural variability related to feedback seeking?

High status-identity cultures (where status is gained by birthright or gender) there is more distance between employees and leaders. It requires more effort to obtain feedback and the possible costs of ego and image are higher. People in holistic cultures care about relationships and avoid embarrassment. In these cultures there is less inquiry and more monitoring. In collectivist cultures, individuals tend to seek more feedback about the group as a whole than individuals and don't often seek via inquiry, to avoid embarrassment. In collectivist cultures there is also a stronger desire for feedback on failures, whereas in individualistic cultures there is a stronger desire for feedback on successes. This is explained by the theory that in individualistic cultures the self is defined as a set of fixed inner attributes and a strong motive to see oneself in a positive light, leading to a desire of self-enhancement. In collective cultures the self is seen as mutable, leading to an emphasis on efforts toward meeting obligations, leading to a desire of self-improvement.

How can a dispositional resistance to change cause emotional exhaustion (at work)?

Employees who face changes at work may experience increased stress that damages their well-being. How employees react to change differs due to their individual dispositions. When individuals are change-oriented, resilient, conscientious, cognitively flexible, and emotionally intelligent, they tend to handle change better. When individuals are dispositionally resistant to change, they will respond more negatively. 

What is the person-environment fit theory?

According to this theory, when individual characteristics fail to fit with environmental or organizational demands, individuals will experience higher levels of strain and stress. Individuals who are dispositionally resistant to change may experience a more pronounced misfit to demands of their organization during times of change, which may cause increased stress reactions and emotional exhaustion. The success of organizational change is highly dependent on the support and well-being of the employees. 

What is trait activation theory?

According to this theory, individuals express certain personality traits as a function of trait-relevant situational cues. It states that people are likely to act according to a latent personality trait when a current situation provides or lacks certain characteristics. The predictive value of a trait is specific to the surrounding circumstances, which are trait-relevant whenever an individual´s responses (or lack thereof) indicate their individual level of the respective trait. Looking at the work environment, it is possible that the activation of an employee´s dispositional resistance to change may vary according to the situational cues that are provided by relevant internal contextual factors. 

What are perceived organizational support and informational climate as internal contextual factors?

Perceived organizational support and informational climate are the two internal contextual factors (e.g. trait-relevant situational cues) that are being measured in this study as they are important in the change context. Perceived organizational support refers to the general belief that the organization values their employees´ contribution and cares about their well-being. It is likely that the level of organizational support is a cue that triggers employees´ dispositional resistance to change. Informational team climate refers to the perceived exchange of information within the team. A higher informational team climate may activate employees´ dispositional resistance to change as they share stressful thoughts. 

How is a dispositional resistance to change expected to be related to emotional exhaustion?

A dispositional resistance to change reflects an individual's tendency to resist or avoid making changes, to devalue change generally, and to find change aversive across diverse contexts and types of change. In this study two dimensions of a dispositional resistance to change are examined, namely routine seeking and emotional reaction. Routine seeking involves the extent to which one enjoys and seeks out stable and routine environments. Emotional reaction reflects the extent to which individuals feel stressed and uncomfortable in response to imposed change. Many changes can take place in the work environment and these can cause stress, strain, and emotional exhaustion ( the feeling of being over-extended and depleted of one's emotional resources). Especially a misfit between individual characteristics and the environment can cause stress and negatively affect the employee´s health and well-being. 

How can perceived organizational support moderate the effect of dispositional resistance on emotional exhaustion? 

Perceived organizational support refers to the employees subjective perception that the organization cares about their well-being. Perceived organizational support is positively related to performance, work engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. It is also negatively related with strain, withdrawal behaviors, and turnover intentions. Perceived organizational support has been found related to a positive evaluation of change and may be a boundary condition that can influence employees´ reactions to change. If the work unit shares a common understanding that the organization cares about them and their well-being, it may reduce apprehensions regarding the changes. Resistance to change as a trait may then be deactivated and may decrease emotional exhaustion. 

How can the informational team climate moderate the effect of dispositional resistance on emotional exhaustion?

The team climate refers to the shared objectives or vision, group participation and safety, team support for innovation, and the group´s task orientation. In this study they look at the informational team climate, which describes open and comprehensive information sharing. As colleagues share their perceptions of the changes and discuss their experienced strain, the change situation may become more salient. In this way, the informational team climate may activate a dispositional resistance to change, enhancing the perceived misfit, and cause more emotional exhaustion.  

What are the main results from this study?

• There is a significant correlation of change impact and emotional exhaustion. 
• The correlation of emotional exhaustion and position indicates that employees experience higher levels of emotional exhaustion than supervisors. 
• Both perceived organizational support and informational team climate significantly moderate the positive relationship between dispositional resistance to change and emotional exhaustion. 
• Perceptions of low organizational support strengthen the positive relationship between dispositional resistance to change and emotional exhaustion. In this case, the lack of certain situational clues (organizational support) increased trait activation. 
• Informational team climate enhanced the positive effect of dispositional resistance to change on emotional exhaustion. Open and frequent interactions between colleagues provide relevant situational clues that activate the trait of dispositional resistance to change. Exchanging stressful thoughts and experiences reinforces stress. 
• Employees without managerial responsibilities were more emotionally exhausted than supervisors. This may be because supervisors are more involved active participants who are aware of the change processes, whereas non-managerial employees are less informed and less involved and the changes may have a larger impact on their stress reactions. 

How can these results be used by organizations undergoing change? 

To avoid negative effects of organizational change on employees´ stress levels and their well-being, occupational health management should join personal and organizational development. They should develop integrated strategies to create healthy work environments in times of change. Trainers and coaches could provide support and identify and target employees that are high in dispositional resistance to change. They could offer support opportunities, enhance resources, and help employees adapt to changing job demands. With regards to perceived organizational support, organizations should examine if they are offering relevant help in times of change. For example, they could organize team-building interventions for work units, conduct surveys, or have group discussions.

What are the underlying assumptions of the traditional rational economic man model?

The rational economic man model of decision making views humans as capable of optimizing. The perspective holds the following underlying assumptions:

• The decision maker has full knowledge of relevant aspects of the environment (including alternatives, events, probabilities, and associated outcomes). 
• The decision maker possesses a well-organized and stable set of preferences. 
• The decision maker has computational abilities and is capable of optimization. 
• The decision maker is not influenced by emotions and stress. 
• The decision maker has immediate access to costless information. 

How did Herbert Simon intend to complement the theory of the rational economic man?

Herbert Simon viewed these assumptions as unrealistic. Humans experience cognitive, perceptual, and situational constraints. Searching and finding information is not free nor limitless. According to him, humans are generally not capable of optimizing their decisions, but instead, seek to satisfice and find the first acceptable alternative. 

What are the underlying assumptions of Simon's model of the administrative man?

Herbert Simon presented a so-called `new rationality` that kept in mind his above-mentioned concerns. The model of the administrative man is based on the following assumptions:

• The existence of a bounded rationality in which the decision maker tries to find satisfactory solutions within cognitive, perceptual, situational, and other limitations. 
• Aspiration levels are dynamic. Successes and failures may lead to changes in the levels of aspiration and changes in what is thought to be acceptable and unacceptable. 
• Gathering information is time consuming, effortful, and costly. The question of the best level of persistence in pursuit of a goal involves a trade-off between the potential costs and benefits of the search. 
• Preferences are fluid. They may change with time and maturation. Also, consequences can change one´s payoff function. Sometimes, the decision maker does not know his own preferences because of lack of experience and a reluctance to explore alternatives. 

What are policy capturing and process tracing approaches?

Policy capturing and process tracing approaches are used to carefully examine human decision processes and outcomes. With policy capturing, an individual is presented with a series of profiles giving the scores of alternatives on major dimensions. Then, regression analysis, analysis of variance, or related procedures are used to optimally relate inputs to outputs in order to `capture` the decision maker´s policies. Policy capturing in this way offers a model of the relationship of inputs to outputs, but without reflecting the decision maker´s actual decision processes. Process tracing on the other hand is used to examine the decision process itself. 

What are heuristics?

The many constraints on rationality result in the use of a variety of heuristics. Heuristics are simplifying rules of thumb. The following important heuristics can be identified:

• The availability heuristic refers to the tendency to estimate the probability of an event on the basis of how easy it is to recall examples of the event. 
• The representativeness heuristic is the tendency to place something in a class if it seems to represent the class. Whereas stereotyping views those within a class to share common characteristics, representativeness views those who share common characteristics as falling within a class. 
• Anchoring and adjustment is the tendency to use an early bit of information as an anchor and then use new information to adjust that initial anchor. It leads to giving too little weight to new information and insufficient adjustment. 
• The default heuristic refers to the tendency people have to simply accept the default presented to them. 

What are biases?

Constraints on human decision making also lead to a variety of systematic biases. The following important biases can be identified:

• Conservatism in information processing leads to inadequate response to changing situations. When presented with new information, people tend to under revise their past estimates. 
• Framing effects refers to the influence of the way information is framed on our choices. 
• Hindsight bias refers to the tendency for people who learn of the outcome of an event to believe falsely that they would have predicted the reported outcome. It leads to distorted views of the accuracy of past decisions. One explanation for hindsight bias is creeping determinism, a fast and unconscious process in which outcome information is immediately and automatically integrated in a person's knowledge of events preceding the outcome. 
• Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek, interpret, and recall information in ways that confirm our preconceptions. People prefer information sources that favor our preconceptions and avoid disconfirming sources. Ambiguous situations are more likely to be interpreted to favor our views, and people are more likely to remember confirming than disconfirming information. 
• Overconfidence bias occurs when people´s subjective confidence in their judgements is greater than their objective accuracy. 
• Illusory correlations is the tendency to see relationships between variables that do not actually exist (could be because of stereotypes or expectations). 
• Escalation of commitment, also known as the sunk cost fallacy, is the tendency to continue to invest in a course of action, not based on the future benefits and costs, but on the basis of sunk costs (like money and lives already invested). 

What is the clinical-actuarial controversy?

The clinical-actuarial controversy refers to the discussion about how the accuracy of human clinical decision making compares to that of actuarial statistical models. Clinical decisions are made every day that have direct consequences for the lives of many people. Research strongly indicates that actuarial models consistently outperform clinical judgements and that decisions should be based on actuarial methods. 

What are proper and improper models? 

In a proper model predictors are optimally related to outcomes. It is sometimes however not possible to create such a model, for example when there are not enough observations or a measurable criterion doesn´t exist. In that case an improper linear model can be used. An improper linear model is a model in which the weights of the predictor variables are obtained by some nonoptimal method (such as set to be equal, or determined at random). An example of an improper model is the model of man, which shows to have perfect reliability and enhancing validity. With this model policy capturing is used to develop a linear model of an individual's decision process. THat model is then used to make decisions in place of the individual. 

What is clinical synthesis?

Many people are opposed to replacing clinical decision making with actuarial models. This has led to the use of clinical synthesis, where output of actuarial models is provided to the individuals as input to their decisions. This improves their decision making, though it is still not as good as if they simply used the output without modification. Especially individuals with more experience and expertise are reluctant to use the output of actuarial models, and it often negatively influences their decision making. 

What is automatic information processing? 

A lot of decision making is not the consequence of a conscious deliberative process, but it occurs automatically at nonconscious levels. Individuals often behave without conscious consideration of elements of the rational economic model. When people repeatedly face a decision situation they may develop scripts. Scripts are models held in memory that specify behaviors or event sequences that are appropriate for specific situations. They can be effective when dealing with routine situations, but they tend to cause problems in new situations. 

How can statistical groups and prediction markets help overcome the limitations of human decision making?

Statistical models of decision makers perform at a level that is equal to that achieved by averaging many people´s inputs. Taking the average of many individuals´ judgements reduces unreliability. Using statistical groups can thus be useful. It then makes sense also to use prediction markets, which pool individual judgements to forecast the probabilities of events. In such markets, individuals bid on contracts that pay a certain amount if an event occurs. 

What is paternalistic intervention?

Paternalistic intervention refers to the process of using knowledge about human cognitive limitations and tendencies to nudge people towards desirable behaviors. This phenomenon causes a lot of controversy, as there are ethical questions regarding the use of unobtrusive nudges and the question of who determines what behaviors are desirable. Those who are pro-paternalistic intervention say that nudges are needed when decisions are difficult and rare, when there is no prompt feedback, in the case of investment goods for which costs occur now but aren't seen until later (e.g. exercise), and sinful goods for which pleasure is immediate but negative consequences are not seen until later (e.g. smoking). One example of a nudge is to automatically have all citizens be organ donors, unless they register their unwillingness. This generally leads to more organ donors as most people don't object to being organ donors, but do not normally make the effort to register themselves to be organ donors.

Focusing on full involvement in the present moment is an answer of flow research on the question what makes a life good. In this chapter the flow model of optimal experience and development is described, measuring of flow is explained, recent work is discussed and directions for future research is identified.

Optimal experience and its role in development

The origin of flow research and theory comes from a desire to understand intrinsic motivation or activities that are rewarding of itself. Two conditions for entering flow are: having perceived challenges or opportunities for action and having clear proximal goals with immediate feedback about the progress. When these conditions are met, one can enter a subjective state with intense and focused concentration on the present moment, merging of action and awareness, loss of reflective self-consciousness, sense of control of one’s actions, distortion of temporal experience and experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding.

The original model of the flow state is robust, it states that flow can be experienced when perceived opportunities for action are in balance with one’s perceived skills. The flow experience is shaped by person and environment and therefore involves ‘emergent motivation’ in an open system.

Flow, complexity and development

An individual can achieve an ordered state of consciousness by absorbing the attention in the challenges at hand. Growth is achieved because of replicating flow experiences and mastering challenges in an activity.

The autotelic personality

Actually everyone can experience flow, but the frequency and quality of the experience differs. A person with an autotelic personality tends to enjoy life or does things for own sake. This type of personality is distinguished by ‘meta-skills’, for example curiosity and interest in life. This enables the person to enter and stay in the flow. Psychological capital (PK) is an broader set of meta-skills that allow a person to increase the likelihood of enjoying future experiences besides enjoying whatever one does at the moment. Optimal life-span development involves the formation of PK.

Measuring flow and autotelic personality

Measuring flow

Using a semistructured interview provides a holistic account of the flow experience. A questionnaire has been used when the dimensions of the flow experience are measured and differences across contexts or individuals. The Flow Questionnaire and the 10-item Flow Scale are two ways to measure this. The frequency of flow and the degree to which flow dimensions characterize an experience or event are to scales to measure. The experience sampling method focuses on moments when the conditions for flow exist and when the flow state is reported. This way of objective measurement painstaking and time-intensive however. Also a computer game is developed to measure flow with laboratory manipulation.

Measuring the autotelic personality

‘Time spent in the high-challenge, high-skill situations conductive to flow’ and ‘intrinsic motivation in high-challenge, high-skill situations’ have been the most common used measures of the general propensity toward flow. It is expected that measures of psychological capital will encompass what has been known as autotelic personality.

Recent directions in flow research

Consequences of flow

According to longitudinal research, students who experienced more flow, are less anxious, perform better and probably have a better self-esteem. Experiencing flow encourages a person to persist in and return to an activity, like the model proposes.

The nature and dynamics of flow

The flow state is an end in itself, it is an self-justifying experience. It is universal across different activities. On the other hand nuanced pictures of flow are yielded by research. Increasingly research is done in educational contexts. Under specific circumstances, students experience more flow. For example active pedagogies such as cooperative learning make that students experience more flow than passive pedagogies. Research done in work contexts shows that there are facilitators for flow, for example self-efficacy and job resources. These resources create a positive upward spiral that positively affects work-related flow. Flow can have its fluctuations.

When challenges and skills are in balance and also above average levels, flow is fostered. There are different representations of the model of flow state. One representation shows that flow is experienced when perceived challenges and skills are above a person’s average levels and when they are below, apathy is experienced. Intensity of experience increases with distance from the person’s average levels of challenge and skill.

Both relaxation and flow might be intrinsically rewarding, relaxation because of the conservation of energy and flow because of the use of skills to seize greater opportunities. Finally, increasingly research is examining how dispositions affect the experience of flow.

Interventions and programs to foster flow

There are two types of interventions: for shaping activity structures and environments to foster flow or obstruct it less and for attempting to assist in finding flow. These interventions are applied in different areas, for example educational, but also in companies or therapies. The focus lies on identifying activities that a person enjoys and learning how to invest attention in the work of these activities.

Directions for future research

Some questions about flow need further research. For example, questions about the nature of the attentional processes that foster flow and how attentional practices can be formed optimally. For example how it is learned what goals deserve attention or how flow can lead to addiction to computer games for instance. Also the situating of flow is an important issue for future research.

Conclusion

Flow serves as a buffer against adversity and it also prevents pathology, its major contribution to the quality of life consist in endowing momentary experience with value.