Work engagement and task performance within a global Dutch ICT-consulting firm: The mediating role of innovative work behaviors

The information and communication technology (ICT) sector within the Netherlands is a major driver of globalization, the country’s economic growth and innovation. The Dutch ICT sector’s performance is increasingly becoming dependent upon employee driven innovations in order to address the needs of the sectors they service. In other words, the ICT sector within the Netherlands is largely dependent upon the performance and innovative capacity of its employees; both of which are functions of employee engagement. Given the high demand, and low supply of talent within this sector, ICT organizations need to develop innovative ways to enhance the performance capacities of its people. Developing an engaged and highly innovative workforce seems to be an efficient way to activate employees’ performance. As such, the aim of this paper was to investigate the mediating function of employee driven innovative work behaviors in the relationship between work engagement and task performance within the a Dutch ICT consulting firm. A cross-sectional survey-based research design, employing a census-based sampling method, was employed to obtain data from a global ICT consulting firm within the Netherlands (n = 232). The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Innovative Work Behavior Scale and the Task Performance Scale was used to assess the associative subjective experiences of ICT employees. The results showed that work engagement is a significant driver for innovative work behaviors, which in turn affects the task performance of employees. Further, innovative work behaviors are therefore important to translate the engaging energies of employees into performance. This paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

     

The Role of Emotional Distress Tolerance on Fear Responding in a Heights-Fearful Sample: Perceived Versus Actual Behavior

Emotional distress tolerance (EDT)—or the ability to withstand negative emotional states—is considered a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. Although EDT is theorized to play a role in anxiety development and maintenance, research aiming to delineate the relationship between anxiety and EDT is lacking. The current study tested whether self-reported EDT predicted self-reported and actual avoidance in the presence of feared stimuli using a heights-fearful sample. Moreover, the study tested whether EDT predicted other in-the-moment fear responses, such as peak anxiety, anxious cognitions, and bodily sensations. Participants (N = 128) completed questionnaires assessing fear of heights, negative affect, anxious cognitions, and bodily sensations, as well as two heights behavioral avoidance tasks (BATs). Results demonstrated that EDT did not predict actual avoidance or other in-the-moment fear responses, except for peak anxiety in one BAT. However, EDT predicted self-reported avoidance of heights beyond fear of heights and negative affect. Taken together, results suggest that perception of ability to tolerate emotional distress predicts perception of avoidance of heights, but not actual avoidance of heights or reactions to heights (with the exception of peak anxiety in one BAT). Given these findings, self-reported EDT may not adequately predict how individuals react in anxiety-provoking situations.     

From children’s expressive control to emotion regulation: Looking back,looking ahead

Abstract

In 1984, Carolyn Saarni published an important cross-sectional study on the development of children’s expressive control. That paper, as with much of her early work, presaged interest in the development of emotion regulation and of the efforts to understand emotion regulation both in typical and at risk children. In this paper, we look back on Dr. Saarni’s work on expressive control and studies that used her creative disappointment task. We discuss conclusions from that work and how this germinal work on expressive control contributed to the study of the broader concept of emotion regulation. We look ahead to the next steps that carry this line of research forward contributing to the development of emotional competence and mental health.     

College student normative misperceptions of peer study habit use

We examined the extent to which college students’ self-reported study strategy use relates to perceived peer strategy use, allowing us to determine whether college students misperceive peers’ use of different study strategies. College students (n = 195) reported their use and perceived peer use of 10 different study strategies. Study strategy use positively related to GPA. Moreover, students perceived higher rates of peers’ use of relatively ineffective strategies (e.g., highlighting/underlining) and perceived lower rates of peers’ use of the highly effective strategy of distributing practice, compared to actual reports. Perceiving that peers are more likely to utilize ineffective strategies and less likely to utilize effective strategies may contribute to continued use of counterproductive or ineffective study behavior.     

Efficacy of the Circle of Security Intervention: A Meta-Analysis

The Circle of Security (COS) intervention aims to teach caregivers to become more responsive to their children’s needs. The present study is a meta-analysis that examined the efficacy of the COS intervention in relation to child attachment patterns, quality of caregiving, caregiver self-efficacy, and caregiver depression. Studies were eligible if they carried out a version of the COS intervention and provided quantitative data amenable to meta-analysis. A total of 10 studies were determined eligible for this meta-analysis. A random effects model was used and Hedge’s g was calculated for the overall effect sizes. Results indicated a medium effect size for the efficacy of the intervention for child attachment security (g = 0.65, p = .003, k = 4), quality of caregiving (g = 0.60, p = .012, k = 4) and reduction of caregiver depression (g = 0.53, p < .001, k = 3). There was a significant large effect for improved caregiver self-efficacy (g = 0.98, p < .001, k = 2). Results suggest that while the efficacy of the COS intervention demonstrates promising results, more research is needed.     

Characterizing the subjective experience of episodic past,future, and counterfactual thinking in healthy younger and older adults

Recent evidence demonstrates remarkable overlap in the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying episodic memory, episodic future thinking, and episodic counterfactual thinking. However, the extent to which the phenomenological characteristics associated with these mental simulations change as a result of ageing remains largely unexplored. The current study employs adapted versions of the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire and the Autobiographical Interview to compare the phenomenological characteristics associated with both positive and negative episodic past, future, and counterfactual simulations in younger and older adults. Additionally, it explores the influence of perceived likelihood in the experience of such simulations. The results indicate that, across all simulations, older adults generate more external details and report higher ratings of vividness, composition, and intensity than young adults. Conversely, younger adults generate more internal details across all conditions and rated positive and negative likely future events as more likely than did older adults. Additionally, both younger and older adults reported higher ratings for sensory, composition, and intensity factors during episodic memories relative to future and counterfactual thoughts. Finally, for both groups, ratings of spatial coherence and composition were higher for likely counterfactuals than for both unlikely counterfactuals and future simulations. Implications for the psychology of mental simulation and ageing are discussed.     

Using equivalence‐based instruction to teach piano skills to college students

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of equivalence‐based instruction (EBI) on the emergence of basic music reading and piano playing skills. Six female college students learned to identify three musical chord notations given their respective dictated names. Participants also learned to play chords on the piano following the dictated name of the chord, and to play the chords to a song on a keyboard. Results are consistent with past research, in that stimuli became substitutable for each other and acquired a common behavioral function. Data suggest that EBI was an effective and efficient procedure to teach adults to read musical notation, as well as play chords and a song on a piano keyboard.