Category Archives: *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Personality characteristics that make the grade
Conscientiousness, which refers to being goal-oriented and self-disciplined, and openness, which refers to being creative and curious, predict academic performance, according to University of California at Davis psychologists Erik E. Noftle & Richard W. Robins. Across four different samples that utilized four different measures of personality, openness was the strongest predictor of SAT verbal scores, and conscientiousness was the biggest predictor of high school and college GPA.
Further, conscientiousness was still able to predict college GPA regardless of high school GPA and SAT scores. These results have many applications, and for employers wanting to consider personality in their hiring decisions, GPA could serve as a proxy measure of self-discipline and SAT verbal scores could be considered a proxy measure of creativity and curiosity.
Mental predictor of performance
Topic: Selection
Publication: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2004)
Article: Academic performance, career potential, creativity, and job performance: Can one construct predict them all?
Authors: Nathan R. Kuncel, Sarah A. Hezlett, & Deniz S. Ones
Reviewed By: Scott Charles Sitrin, M.A.
Cognitive ability – typically defined as a collection of mental skills such as memory, attention, reaction speed, and the capacity to learn – has been shown to predict academic performance. Does it predict performance in other domains, such as the workplace? Kuncel, Hezlett, and Ones set to find out, as they reviewed many studies related to predictors of performance from the current literature, a process known as a meta analysis, and evaluated a sample of over 20,000 subjects. In the studies reviewed, the Miller Analogies Test – which was related to other measures of cognitive capacity such as the Graduate Record Examination and the Raven’s Progressive Matrices – served as the indicator of cognitive ability. Results indicated that cognitive ability not only predicted academic performance in graduate school, but it also predicted job performance, career potential, and creativity.
These results provide further evidence that cognitive ability is a valid predictor of performance across various domains. So, as you decide whom to hire, make sure to assess the applicant’s cognitive ability and incorporate the results with other pieces of information, such as previous experience, personality, and education background.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
To Praise or Not to Praise (IO Psychology)
Topic: Development
Publication: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1998) Article: Praise for Intelligence Can Undermine Children’s Motivation and Performance
Authors: C. M. Mueller & C. S. Dweck
Reviewed By: Scott Charles Sitrin, M.A.
Imagine that you are the head of a department and have nine employees that report to you. When one does well, do you praise him or her for performance or effort? Do you say, “Great work on closing that deal,” a type of praise focused on performance, or do you tell your employee, “Way to really work hard,” a praise focused more on effort. While you mull that over, consider a study of fifth graders. Though a school and business are different in the demographics of the population and the task of the organization, as the goal of a school is typically to educate while the goal of a business is to generate profit, they are similar in that they are both contexts in which there is a supervisor-type figure, a teacher in a school and a boss or manager in a business, that is responsible for the performance of his or her direct reports (i.e., students or employees). In their study that explored the relationship between praise and performance, Mueller and Dweck found that when children were praised for effort, they performed better than those who had been praised for ability. Children who were congratulated for their hard work solved more problems successfully than those who were told that they were smart. Further, it was also found that those praised for effort have learning goals (i.e., aspire to improve and learn more), high levels of task persistence and task enjoyment, and a tendency to attribute setbacks to a lack of effort. In contrast, those who were praised for being intelligent had performance goals (i.e., aspire to get perfect grades), low levels of task persistence and task enjoyment, and a tendency to attribute setbacks to a lack of ability. These results were found through six randomized-control studies that examined, among other variables, the goals, persistence, learning goals, task enjoyment, attribution of failure, theory of intelligence, and performance on a problem-solving task of hundreds of fifth graders. These results suggest that praising an individual for how hard he or she worked instead of what a great job he or she did has many benefits, including increasing performance. If these results hold and are applicable to adults in a business setting, managers and heads of departments may want to evaluate how they praise their employees.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
Does Your Brain Get Tired? (IO Psychology)
Topic: Burnout
Publication: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (MAY 2008)
Article: Making Choices Impairs Subsequent Self-Control: A Limited-Resource Account of Decision Making, Self-Regulation, and Active Initiative
Authors: Kathleen D. Vohs, Roy F. Baumeister, Brandon J. Schmeichel, Jean M. Twenge, Noelle M. Nelson, and Dianne M. Tice
Reviewed By: Scott Charles Sitrin
Does decision-making impair subsequent self-discipline? In other words, after you decide if you want to read this review or not, will you no longer be able to resist the glazed donut in the office kitchen? Though some previous research has shown that making decisions can be exhausting, little research had explained why.
In their study, the investigators found that the more choices people made, the less self-discipline they had. Specifically, as the number of decisions increased, the ability to pursue goal-directed action, perform tasks such as math problems, and persevere decreased. In explaining the results, the investigators said that, similar to physical energy, individuals have a limited amount of mental energy. As mental energy gets depleted by decision-making, there is less energy to perform other mental tasks such as self-discipline.
These results suggest that in order to prevent burnout, the limits of mental energy and capacity should be recognized. Just as a coach does not want to over train an athlete, a boss should not over train an employee.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
The Predictive Power of Grit: How to Select Successful People
Topic: Selection, Human Resources
Publication: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2007)
Article: Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals
Authors: Angela L. Duckworth, Christopher Peterson, Michael D. Matthews, and Dennis R. Kelly
Reviewed By: Scott Charles Sitrin
Imagine that you are the head of Human Resources, and are tasked with hiring your Fortune 500 Company’s next CEO. You have narrowed the applicant pool down to 10 men and women who are smart (e.g., have high IQs), have previous experience (e.g., CEOs of other Fortune 500 Companies), and come with stellar letters of recommendation (e.g., amazingly, the Dali Lama has endorsed two, President Obama three others, and Warren Buffet one). How do you differentiate between these candidates, and select the individual that will successfully lead your company to the land of milk and honey? True grit.
Duckworth, Peterson, Mathews, and Kelly define grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. These investigators found that an individual’s level of grit affected performance in a variety of domains, including educational attainment, grade point average, military retention, and ranking in the National Spelling Bee. Six studies were performed. The first two explored the
relationship between levels of educational attainment and amount of grit among of nearly 3,000 adults; the third looked at grit and grade point averages of 139 undergraduates at an Ivy League College; the fourth and fifth investigated levels of grit and rates of retention of 1,218 West Point Undergraduates; and the sixth examined the relationship between grit and performance of 175 finalists in the 2005 Scripps National Spelling Bee. On average, grit accounted for 4% of the variance in success outcomes in the six studies.
These results suggest that an individual’s personality, and specifically their level of grit, will
affect their performance in academics, the military, and competitions. Grit’s predictive power does not appear to be domain specific, and though it was not shown to predict success among CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies, it seems likely that it could differentiate the great from the good. True grit.
human resource management,organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
Are Whites’ Perceptions of Exclusion Driving Their Negative Reaction to Diversity Initiatives?
Topic: Diversity, Human Resources
Publication: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (MAY 2011)
Article: “What About Me? Perceptions of Exclusion and Whites’ Reactions to
Multiculturalism
Authors: Victoria C. Plaut, Flannery G. Garnett, Laura E. Buffardi, Jeffrey Sanchez-
Burks
Reviewed by: Mary Alice Crowe-Taylor
The support of White Americans is crucial for diversity efforts to be effective. The best model for designing diversity initiatives is the multiculturalism approach. This approach encourages the understanding and acceptance of different cultural backgrounds of employees. It has been shown through research to be more effective than taking a color-blind approach (the other dominant framework). Color-blind programs ask participants to view everyone as the same, and don’t highlight or promote cultural differences.
Herein lies the problem that this research article is exploring: White Americans are more likely to resist diversity initiatives based on multiculturalism versus color-blindness. Why? This research suggests that their lack of support for multiculturalism is due to perceptions of exclusion. How so? There is a basic, psychological need to be included, to belong, and if multiculturalism is perceived as “only for minorities” White Americans feel excluded. This perceived exclusion results in “diversity resistance.”
So how did these researchers reach these conclusions? They conducted five studies in simulated and actual work organizations that showed, first, that White Americans do associate multiculturalism with exclusion. In the second study they found that this association can be weakened by using subtle cuing (re: specifying both: inclusion of all groups; and European Americans in wording of multiculturalism materials). A third study examined the role that self-concept plays in employee reactions to diversity initiatives. The extent to which multiculturalism fit respondents (using a Me/Not Me Self- association measure) was more important than actual group membership in prediction of support for diversity efforts. That is, feeling included was key.
I’ll Have What She’s Having … An Explanation for Inaccurate Group Decisions
Topic: Decision Making
Publication: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Article: Knowing others’ preferences degrades the quality of group decisions (MAY 2010)
Author: A. Mojzisch, S. Schulz-Hardt
Reviewed by: Sarah Teague
Not too long ago I wrote a review about a technique for generating ideas called “brainwriting.” According to Heslin (2009), asking individuals to generate ideas independently before pooling them with a group is likely to improve the final quality of ideas (compared with traditional group brainstorming) – largely because this independent initial process eliminates social pressures associated with group decisions. A recent article by Mojzisch and Schulz-Hardt (2010) provides some support for these ideas.
Hidden profiles are a traditional paradigm used to study group decision-making involves distributing providing each group member with only a few pieces to the puzzle and observing how they work toward a solution. In order to reach the correct (or best) solution, each piece must be shared AND adequately attended to. The authors of the current article proposed that a lack of attention, as opposed to a lack of information sharing, is often the root of group failure. Findings from four different experiments supported their hypothesis, showing that individual group members pay less attention to future information after learning other members’ preferences, resulting in incorrect selection decisions
This study is directly relevant to any organization that utilizes selection committees or any other decision-making group. Results suggest that it is important for individual group members to minimize expressing preferences prior to sharing all pertinent objective information. In fact, this is one situation where “brainwriting” could prove to be extremely useful. Stay tuned for further updates on this emerging topic!
Thank you! Why do these two words mean so much?
Topic: Citizenship Behavior, Work Environment
Publication: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Article: A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior (JUN 2010)
Authors: A. M. Grant, and F. Gino
Reviewed by: Sarah Teague
In recent years, employees’ jobs and job tasks have become increasingly interconnected, necessitating an increase in teams and groups in the workplace. This integration means that employees must interact with many different people at work on a regular basis and places a high value on interpersonal skills, even for non-service jobs. Modern organizations need employees who can function well in teams and work together to help achieve a common goal. As such, it is important for these organizations to understand how to promote prosocial (helping) amongst their employees.
One simple way to increase prosocial behavior is to express gratitude. That is, a simple “thank you” often does the trick … but WHY does this work? Grant and Gino (2010) proposed two competing explanations based on the dimensions of agency and communion. The agency perspective suggests that expressions of gratitude can enhance an individual’s feeling of competence (e.g.,), while communion predicts that gratitude increases feelings of social worth
The current article sought to determine whether expressions of gratitude make the helper feel more confident about his/her helping abilities or make him/her feel more valued.
