Leadership predictors of innovation and task performance: Subordinates' self‐esteem and self‐presentation as moderators

This study examined self‐related subordinate variables as moderators of relationships between supervisors' leadership behaviours (transformational as well as active‐corrective transactional leadership) and subordinates' innovative behaviour and task performance. Based on behavioural plasticity and self‐monitoring theory, we hypothesized that these associations would be moderated by subordinates' organization‐based self‐esteem and by their propensity to modify self‐presentation, a major facet of the self‐monitoring construct. Field survey data (N=161) collected in research and development, marketing and human resources departments of several German companies revealed that transformational leadership positively predicted both criteria, whereas active‐corrective transactional leadership negatively predicted innovation. As hypothesized, transformational leadership related more strongly and positively to innovation for subordinates low in organization‐based self‐esteem. When subordinates were low in self‐presentation propensity, active‐corrective transactional leadership was negatively, and transformational leadership was positively associated with task performance.     

Three preparatory studies for promoting implementation of outpatient schema therapy for borderline personality disorder in general mental health care

ObjectiveThree studies were conducted to prepare for the implementation of Schema Therapy (ST) for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in general mental healthcare settings. Two were surveys to detect promoting and hindering factors, one was a preliminary test of a training program in ST.MethodsIn 2004, a diagnostic analysis of factors promoting and hindering implementation of a new treatment for BPD was conducted among both managers (n = 23) and therapists (n = 49) of 29 Dutch mental healthcare institutes through a written survey (Study 1). Next, a training program, including a set of DVDs displaying the major therapeutic techniques, was developed and tested among eight therapists. The training program was evaluated by the participants. After the training, three independent raters evaluated therapists' adherence and competence, viewing videos of the therapists completing structured role-plays (Study 2). In 2008, a second written survey was conducted in 22 mental health institutes to study factors for future nationwide implementation of ST (Study 3).ResultsBoth surveys indicated that the situation in most institutes was favorable for implementing a new effective treatment, as participants were not satisfied with the existing treatments, had suitable professional backgrounds, worked in settings with (B)PD-oriented care programs, and expressed a need for change. The surveys yielded clear results for promoting or hindering successful implementation of ST. Promoting factors included scientific evidence for the effectiveness of the treatment, structural changes in the patient's personality, rapidly noticeable effects for the patient, low drop-out rates and a favorable cost-effectiveness. Possible barriers included implementation mandated unilaterally by management, choosing ST based on financial or organizational needs, extending implementation over a lengthy period of time and providing telephone support by therapists beyond office hours. The eight-day training program received very positive ratings. After the training, therapists were rated as sufficiently adherent and competent applying ST to treat BPD patients, with peer supervision and supervision recommended as a supplement to the training.ConclusionThis study showed that the situation in 2005 was advantageous to start implementation of ST. Evaluation of the training and the achieved competence scores of trainees concluded that the training program was a good basis for training therapists in ST. Outcome of the survey in 2008 demonstrated that there was a clear interest for implementation of ST for BPD patients in the future.     

Asymmetric Comparison in Choice Processes

Since Tversky's (1977) seminal paper on asymmetric comparisons was published, comparisons of different options are generally believed to be directional. Interestingly, the asymmetry involved in comparisons has not been considered systematically for choices between different options. This paper argues that, in decision situations, one of the options serves as a dominant standard against which the others are evaluated, which results in asymmetric comparisons and, in turn, has important and systematic consequences for the choice process. This paper outlines which conditions should result in asymmetric comparisons. Taking existing models of asymmetric comparisons into account, a process model will be presented using the loss of a previously available choice option as an example.     

The Role of Inference in Attribute Framing Effects

Previous research has shown that a speaker's choice between logically equivalent frames is influenced by reference point information, and that listeners draw accurate inferences based on the frame. Less clear, however, is whether these inferences play a causal role in generating attribute framing effects. Two experiments are reported, which suggest that frame‐dependent inferences are sufficient to generate attribute framing effects, and that blocking such inferences may block framing effects. Experiment 1 decomposed the typical framing design into two parts: One group of participants saw a target described in one of two attribute frames and reported their estimates (inferences) of the typical attribute value. These estimates were then given to a second group of yoked participants, who evaluated the target. Although this latter group was not exposed to different attribute frames, they nevertheless exhibited a “framing effect” as a result of receiving systematically different inferences. In contrast, Experiment 2 shows that experts—who are familiar with an attribute's distribution and are therefore less likely to draw strong frame‐based inferences—exhibit a diminished framing effect. Together, these findings underscore the role of inferences in the generation and attenuation of attribute framing effects. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Expertise on the Hindsight Bias

We present data from three experiments examining the effects of objective and subjective expertise on the hindsight bias. In Experiment 1, participants read an essay about baseball or dogs and then answered questions about the baseball essay to the best of their ability, as if they had not read the essay, or to the best of their ability, although they read about dogs. Participants also completed a quiz about baseball rules and terminology, which was an objective measure of expertise. Results demonstrated that as participants' baseball expertise increased, their inability to act as if they never read the essay also increased; expertise exacerbated the hindsight bias. To test the effects of subjective expertise on hindsight bias and investigate factors underlying the relationship, participants in Experiment 2 ranked five topics in order of expertise and gave feeling‐of‐knowing (FOK) ratings for questions from these topics. Foresight participants then saw each question again and answered the questions; hindsight participants saw the questions and answers and gave the probability they would have known the answers had they not been provided. Hindsight bias increased with subjective expertise as did average FOK ratings. In Experiment 3, we experimentally manipulated perceived expertise but found that neither average FOK ratings nor hindsight bias was affected by experimentally induced expertise. Taken together, the results demonstrate that expertise exacerbates both objective and subjective hindsight bias but that an FOK, which likely exists only when expertise is naturally acquired, is necessary to engender the detrimental effect of expertise on the hindsight bias. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who benefits the most? Teacher expectations and their relation with students’ achievement in mathematics in primary school

Over the past 50 years, many studies have investigated the impact of teacher expectations on student achievement and indicated small to moderate effects. Currently, it is still unclear which student-related factors (e.g. socioeconomic status, or gender) moderate the expectation effect. There is still a need to gain a better understanding of the relation between teacher expectations and students' characteristics. The present study aims to examine the accuracy of teacher expectations as well as student-related moderators of the expectation effects on students' achievement. The analyses are based on data from a longitudinal study including 28 primary school teachers and their students (N = 509). The results show that high expectations of teachers correlated positively with student achievement in mathematics, although no significant moderating effects were found. These findings strengthen the importance of ensuring high teacher expectations for all students.     

One executive function never comes alone: monitoring and its relation to working memory,reasoning, and different executive functions

Monitoring is involved in many daily tasks and is described in several theoretical approaches of executive functioning. This study investigated the relative relationship of cognitive processes that are theoretically relevant to monitoring, such as concept formation, reasoning, working memory, and general cognitive control functions. Data from 699 participants who performed the Balanced Switching Task, aiming at capturing monitoring, were used. Subsamples also performed standard tasks assessing the processes assumed to be related to monitoring. Structural equation modeling revealed that general cognitive control processes are particularly relevant. They mediate the relationship between working memory, reasoning, and monitoring. Updating and maintaining information, as well as concluding from information which strategies can guide behavior toward predefined goals, is required for the ability to exert general cognitive control, which again may be relevant for implementing strategies in a goal-directed way. Together, these processes seem to be necessary to adequately monitor behavior in complex tasks.     

Lost in space: multisensory conflict yields adaptation in spatial representations across frames of reference

According to embodied cognition, bodily interactions with our environment shape the perception and representation of our body and the surrounding space, that is, peripersonal space. To investigate the adaptive nature of these spatial representations, we introduced a multisensory conflict between vision and proprioception in an immersive virtual reality. During individual bimanual interaction trials, we gradually shifted the visual hand representation. As a result, participants unknowingly shifted their actual hands to compensate for the visual shift. We then measured the adaptation to the invoked multisensory conflict by means of a self-localization and an external localization task. While effects of the conflict were observed in both tasks, the effects systematically interacted with the type of localization task and the available visual information while performing the localization task (i.e., the visibility of the virtual hands). The results imply that the localization of one’s own hands is based on a multisensory integration process, which is modulated by the saliency of the currently most relevant sensory modality and the involved frame of reference. Moreover, the results suggest that our brain strives for consistency between its body and spatial estimates, thereby adapting multiple, related frames of reference, and the spatial estimates within, due to a sensory conflict in one of them.