PART 3: THE FUTURESELVES FRAMEWORK

Futureselves: Practice & Application

Barrett, M. S., Chua, W. J., Crits-Christoph, P., Gibbons, M. B., & Thompson, D. (2008). Early withdrawal from mental health treatment: Implications for psychotherapy practice. Psychotherapy (Chic), 45(2), 247-267

Despite more than 50 years of research on client attrition from therapy, obstacles to the delivery and success of treatments remain poorly understood, and effective methods to engage and retain clients in therapy are lacking. This article offers a review of the literature on attrition, highlighting the methodological challenges in effectively addressing the complex nature of this problem. Current interventions for reducing attrition are reviewed, and recommendations for implementing these interventions into psychotherapy practice are discussed

Campbell, M., & Taylor, E. R. (2019). A way of being: Integration of possible selves into solution-focused therapy. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 38(3), 1-10.

The concept of possible selves offers solution-focused therapists another way to talk with clients and construct meaning. By integrating possible selves into solution-focused therapy, the therapeutic conversation shifts to a focus on “being.” This shift allows clients to create goals based on hoped-for selves and address concrete steps with a focus on “doing” to help them realize their goals. By focusing on being, clients see possibilities for the future where they find meaning and motivation. The authors provide a comparison of solution- focused therapy to the concept of possible selves and offer a case study to illustrate how possible selves might enhance current solution-focused practice.

Shepard, B., & Marshall, A. (1999). Possible selves mapping: Life-career exploration with young adolescents. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 33(1), 37-54.

Possible selves are cognitive manifestations of goals, aspirations, values, and fears. Although relevant to adolescents’ exploration of future personal and career roles, most research and practical application involving possible selves has been with adults. An interview called the Possible Selves Mapping Interview (PSMI) was developed and employed with 42 young adolescents aged 11 to 13. All participants generated at least two hoped-for and two feared selves. Occupational hoped-for and safety feared selves were the most prevalent themes. Only a few gender differences were noted. Implications for counsellors are discussed, including the use of possible selves mapping in personal and career counselling.

Chishima, Y., & Wilson, A. E. (2020). Conversation with a future self: A letter- exchange exercise enhances student self-continuity, career planning, and academic thinking. Self and Identity, 1-26.

We expected that enhanced future self-continuity could benefit students planning future academic and career pursuits, and tested a new method to foster self-continuity. A pilot study demonstrated that future self-continuity predicted academic and career planning and was lower in vocational-oriented than academic-oriented high school students. In Study 1, vocational-track students’ future self continuity was higher after a letter exchange exercise with their future self (send and reply). In Study 2, students randomly assigned to a letter exchange (send to and reply from future self) condition showed increases in future self-continuity, career planning, and academic delay of gratification relative to students assigned to a sendonly condition. Perspective taking with a future self can close the gap between present and future selves.

Kerpelman, J. L., Shoffner, M. F., & Ross-Griffin, S. (2002). African American mothers’ and daughters’ beliefs about possible selves and their strategies for reaching the adolescents’ future academic and career goals. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 31(4), 289-302.

The current study combines qualitative and quantitative data to examine beliefs and strategies related to possible selves within a sample of 22 rural African American female adolescents and their mothers. Mother–daughter pairs responded to interview questions pertaining to the adolescents’ desired possible selves. Pairs also completed a possible selves Q-sort focusing on the personal attributes, roles, and life circumstances that might be expected for an adolescent’s future adulthood. Academic and occupational selves were the most prominent possible selves discussed during the interviews. A mother’s exposure to college influenced her strategies for helping her daughter reach academic and career goals. Findings from the Q-sort data indicated two distinctive mother–daughter groups, with one group emphasizing daughter’s personal attributes and the other group putting greatest weight on the daughter’s future occupations and life circumstances. The relative importance of possible selves was related to the strategies that mothers and daughters used to help the adolescent reach her goals.

Loveday, P. M., Lovell, G. P., & Jones, C. M. (2018). The best possible selves intervention: A review of the literature to evaluate efficacy and guide future research. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(2), 607-628.

Since its inception in 2001, the best possible selves (BPS) activity has been the focus of more than 30 studies which have shown it to be a viable intervention for increasing optimism, positive affect, health and well-being. It is timely to critically review the findings from the BPS literature and suggest directions for future research. The majority of BPS studies have used an experimental methodology and have administered the BPS activity to diverse groups including students, adults, depressive individuals and suicidal inpatients. The BPS intervention can be effective when administered in-person or on-line and repeating the activity appears to enhance efficacy. Suggestions for future research include: (a) investigation of mediator variables, (b) additional outcome variables such as hope and appreciation, (c) comparative studies regarding dosage to enhance effectiveness, (d) extension of the BPS into a best-possible-other activity, (e) diversity of delivery methods, and (f) thematic content analysis of BPS text.

Carrillo, A., Rubio-Aparicio, M., Molinari, G., Enrique, Á., Sánchez-Meca, J., & Baños, R. M. (2019). Effects of the best possible self intervention: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS ONE, 14(9), Article e0222386.

The Best Possible Self (BPS) exercise promotes a positive view of oneself in the best possible future, after working hard towards it. Since the first work that attempted to examine the benefits of this intervention in 2001, studies on the BPS have grown exponentially and, currently, this is one of the most widely used Positive Psychology Interventions. However, little is yet known about its overall effectiveness in increasing wellbeing outcomes. Thus, the aim of this meta-analysis is to shed light on this question. A systematic literature search was conducted, and 29 studies (in 26 articles) met the inclusion criteria of empirically testing the intervention and comparing it to a control condition. In addition, BPS was compared to gratitude interventions in some of the included studies. A total of 2,909 participants were involved in the analyses. The outcome measures were wellbeing, optimism, depressive symptoms, and positive and negative affect. Results showed that the BPS is an effective intervention to improve wellbeing (d+ = .325), optimism (d+ = .334) and positive affect (d+ = .511) comparing to controls. Small effect sizes were obtained for negative affect and depressive symptoms. Moderator analyses did not show statistically significant results for wellbeing, except for a trend towards significance in the age of the participants (years) and the magnitude of the intervention (total minutes of practice). In addition, the BPS was found to be more beneficial for positive and negative affect than gratitude interventions (d+ = .326 and d+ = .485, respectively). These results indicate that the BPS can be considered a valuable Positive Psychology Intervention to improve clients’ wellbeing, and it seems that it might be more effective for older participants and with shorter practices (measured as total minutes of practice)

Oyserman, D. (2015). Identity‐based motivation. In R. A. Scott, S. M. Kosslyn & M. Buchmann (Eds.), Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource (pp. 1-11). John Wiley & Sons.

In the contemporary world where global crises are mutually reinforcing, and increasingly pushing disciplinary boundaries for their prognosis, the demand for more social science, better social science and inter-disciplinary social science is increasing. Social Science Research is also required much more today owing to the fierce debate on issues of national unity and identity. However, to rise to the challenge of wicked problems of the global world, SSR discourses and methods need a fundamental overhaul to become a broad-front social sciences that studies phenomena in its entirety, beyond the confines of any single discipline. This paper attempts to make a case to end the disconnector war- between pure and social sciences, and advocates the need for recognition of their respective strengths and for evolution of integrated sciences. It also identifies few challenges of conducting inter-disciplinary research in social sciences, drawing from scant literature on the subject and author’s experience in supporting development research and independent public policy research institutions.

Morgan, A. J. (1993). The evolving self in consumer behavior: Exploring possible selves. Advances in Consumer Research, 20, 429-432.

This paper proposes the incorporation of an explicitly future-oriented dimension into the study of the self-concept in consumer behavior. The first sections of the paper briefly discuss the progress of self-concept studies in the consumer literature, as well as the limitations of this earlier work. Next, some of the more recent perspectives on the self which have emerged in the field will be explored. Finally, the possible self concept will be introduced through discussion of its theoretical foundation, definition and functions, specific propositions and testing issues and implications for the study of consumer behavior.

Hooker, K., & Kaus, C. R. (1992). Possible selves and health behaviors in later life. Journal of Aging and Health, 4(3), 390-411.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether self-regulatory processes were related to health behaviors in a sample of older adults. We hypothesized that individuals with a possible self in the domain of health would be motivated to engage in health-protective behaviors and thus score more highly on a health behaviors inventory. We also predicted that self-regulatory variables rated in relationship to health-related possible selves would explain a significant amount of variance in health behavior scores. Analyses largely supported these predictions and showed that these self-system variables were more predictive of health behaviors than were global health values. There were differential findings for positive health motivations as opposed to disease avoidance motivations. Results are discussed in reference to the literature on health behavior and aging.

Nurra, C., & Oyserman, D. (2018). From future self to current action: An identity- based motivation perspective. Self and Identity, 17(3), 343-364.

Adults ask children what they want to be when they grow up, hoping that this will motivate children to focus on their schoolwork- this does not necessarily happen. Identity-based motivation theory predicts that one way to increase the odds is for children to experience their adult future self as connected to their current self. Five studies test this prediction (N = 641). We find that children can be guided to experience connection between their current and adult future self. Children guided to experience high connection work more and attain better school grades than children guided to experience low connection. Experienced connection works by moderating the effect of seeing school as the path to one’s adult future self.

Prochaska, J. O., Redding, C. A., & Evers, K. (2002). The transtheoretical model and stages of change. In K. Glanz, B. K. Rimer & F.M. Lewis (Eds.), Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice (3rd ed.). Jossey-Bass, Inc.

The Transtheoretical Model (TTM) has for some time now enjoyed fame (or even notoriety). Indeed, Health Education Research has been pleased to publish a number of articles over recent years. We were especially pleased to publish Adams and White’s (Adams and White, 2004) interesting and arguably heretical paper which appears in this edition of the Journal (and was published in advance on our website). We felt this would be an excellent opportunity to repeat our recent venture in which we invited a Commentary Group of distinguished researchers to react to three articles on the European Smoking Prevention Framework Approach in Health Education Research, 18(6), 664–677 (2003). Accordingly, we invited six equally distinguished commentators to provide a critical review of the TTM.

Fidancı, I, Ozturk, O., & Unal, M. (2017). Transtheoretic model in smoking cessation. Journal of Experimental and Clinical Medicine (Turkey) 34, 9-13.

Smoking is one of the major public health problems and a major cause of preventable diseases. Today there are many ways to combat with tobacco use which is the chief risk factor for avoidable diseases. Pharmacotherapy and other supportive therapies based on motivation and cognitive-behavioral approaches are used in treatment. Among those, concentrating on behavioral changes are gaining more popularity as number of people who stop smoking using behavioral therapies are increasing, so is the interest on psychological models. Transtheoretic model is known as behavioral changes model which is widely used in smoking cessation and developed for the first time by Prochaska and DiClemente. It uses appropriate intervention according to the stage of the individual. According to Transtheoretic model, five stages are to be passed for behavior change. Motivational techniques are important for succesfull passing of a stage and should be structured for preparation to the next stage. Each stage should be evaluated for the transition to the next stage. Transtheoretic model is a significant tool for smoking cessation with its ability to use different models of behavior changes. This flexibilitaly of Transtheoretic model makes the model treatment of choice in different addictions. In this review we focus on the features of Transtheoretic model.

Parkin, F. & Plimmer, G. (2004). Managing the presence of personal issues in career counselling: Using transactional analysis with possible selves. Australian Journal of Career Development, 13(1), 7-14; Dunkel, C. S., Kelts, D., & Coon, B. (2006). In C. Dunkel & J. Kerpelman (Eds.), Possible selves: Theory, research and applications (pp. 187–204). Nova Science Publishers.

Research indicates that career counsellors who integrate a client’s personal issues into career counselling are rated more highly in terms of effective outcomes (Kirschner, Hoffman & Hill, 1994; Nevo, 1990). The challenge is how to address the personal and feeling component of clients’ lives within career counselling contexts, where there is limited time and money. This paper presents a working solution. It argues for the use of the possible selves construct, as a framework for career counsellors to work with their clients in the processes of career development, and transactional analysis as a framework for the processes of career counselling.

Englert, P., Sommerville, S., & Guenole, N. (2009). Application of the social marketing model to unemployment counseling: A theoretical perspective. Journal of Employment Counseling, 46(3), 107-114.

A. R. Andreasen’s (1995) social marketing model (SMM) is applied to structure feedback counseling for individuals who are unemployed. The authors discuss techniques used in commercial marketing and how they are equally applicable to solving societal problems; SMM and its application to social interventions; and structured feedback that moves a person from contemplating change to sustained behavioral modification, which can facilitate attitudinal and behavioral change. The relationship of SMM to motivational theories that support the potential of SMM for unemployment counseling is also discussed. The article concludes with a review of the integration of SMM by the New Zealand Employment Service.

Exploration

International Coaching Federation. (2020). 2020 ICF Global Coaching Study. https://coachingfederation.org/research/global-coaching-study

The 2020 ICF Global Coaching Study (GCS) quantifies the size and value of the coaching industry worldwide and by region. The study was designed to engage with as many coach practitioners and managers/leaders using coaching skills as possible to provide an up-to-date picture of the coaching profession and empower coaches to embrace the opportunities and meet the challenges ahead

Pennebaker, J. W., Evans, J. F., & Evans, J. F. (2014). Expressive writing: Words that heal. Idyll Arbor. Pennebaker, J. W., & Smyth, J. M. (2016). Opening up by writing it down: How expressive writing improves health and eases emotional pain. Guilford Publications.

Expressive Writing: Words that Heal provides research results, in layman’s terms, which demonstrate how and when expressive writing can improve health. It explains why writing can often be more helpful than talking when dealing with trauma, and it prepares the reader for their writing experience. The book looks at the most serious issues and helps the reader process them. From the instructions: ”Write about what keeps you awake at night. The emotional upheaval bothering you the most and keeping you awake at night is a good place to start writing.”

Englert, P., & Plimmer, G. (2019). Moving from classical test theory to the evaluation of usefulness: A theoretical and practical examination of alternative approaches to the development of career tools for job seekers. Journal of Employment Counseling, 56(1), 20-32.

This article critiques the common use of principles of classical test theory (CTT) as the key means of assessing the effectiveness of career instruments for employment counseling. The authors argue that excessive reliance on CTT has hindered the development of career assessment tools that better meet the diverse and changing needs of those seeking guidance in their career choice. The authors argue for an alternative paradigm based on notions of usefulness. A computerized career tool is evaluated to illustrate the limitations of CTT and the benefit of alternative methodologies for the assessment of instruments designed to provide effective career guidance.

Plimmer, G. (2012). Adult career counselling using possible selves—A quasi- experimental field study in naturalistic settings. Journal of Career Assessment, 20(1), 53-70.

This study examined the effectiveness of an adult career development program designed to reflect the diversity and demands of career choices, the low level of comfort many have with career choices, and the limited resources available to resolve complex adult career problems. A possible selves process was used, delivered through a blend of computer and one-on-one counseling. Compared with a control group offered general career counseling, the program was particularly effective in raising participants’ level of comfort with career direction, particularly for those with very low scores on this dimension. Similarly, the possible selves process was effective in increasing the level to which participants were decided about their career direction. Interviews with practitioners found the computerized possible selves-based approach to be effective in engaging clients where career and personal issues were intertwined, and in helping clients find solutions to career problems.

For a complete review of one of the most researched interventions using free text descriptions of possible selves please see: Loveday, P. M., Lovell, G. P., & Jones, C. M. (2018). The best possible selves Intervention: A review of the literature to evaluate efficacy and guide future research. Journal of Happiness Studies, 19(2), 607- 628.

Self-Authoring Suite. (2020.) https://selfauthoring.com/

The Self-Authoring Suite is a series of online writing programs that collectively help you explore your past, present and future.

Hershfield, H. E. (2011). Future self-continuity: How conceptions of the future self transform intertemporal choice. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1235, 30- 43.

With life expectancy dramatically increasing throughout much of the world, people have to make choices with a longer future in mind than they ever had to before. Yet, many indicators suggest that under-saving for the long term often occurs: in America, for instance, many individuals will not be able to maintain their preretirement standard of living in retirement. Previous research has tried to understand problems with intertemporal choice by focusing on the ways in which people treat present and future rewards. In this paper, the author reviews a burgeoning body of theoretical and empirical work that takes a different viewpoint, one that focuses on how perceptions of the self over time can dramatically affect decision making. Specifically, when the future self shares similarities with the present self, when it is viewed in vivid and realistic terms, and when it is seen in a positive light, people are more willing to make choices today that may benefit them at some point in the years to come.

Quinlan, S. L., Jaccard, J., & Blanton, H. (2006). A decision theoretic and prototype conceptualization of possible selves: Implications for the prediction of risk behavior. Journal of Personality, 74(2), 599-630.

The present study explores a new framework for conceptualizing possible selves for the prediction of behavior. The framework uses decision theory, attitude theory, and classic expectancy-value models. The focus is on using possible-self constructs that (a) correspond to behavioral alternatives, (b) focus on self dimensions directly tied to the behavioral criterion, and (c) use expectancy-value constructs to assess the core features of a given possible self-dimension. A study of 305 college students was undertaken to predict alcohol use from possible self constructs using the framework. Results affirmed the utility of the approach, showing that possible-self constructs predicted behavior over and above current self-image and constructs in the Theory of Planned Behavior. Possible-self constructs associated with negative attributes of both binge drinkers and nonbinge drinkers were predictive of behavior.

Amundson, N. E. (1998). Active engagement: Enhancing the career counselling process. Ergon Communications.

Challenges traditional career counselling practice and presents a compelling alternative to its conventions. A truly innovative book based on firm theoretical ground.

Englert, P., & Plimmer, G. (2019), Moving from classical test theory to the evaluation of usefulness: A theoretical and practical examination of alternative approaches to the development of career tools for job seekers. Journal of Employment Counseling, 56(1), 20-32. https://doi:10.1002/joec.12100

For a good readable article on the topic please see: Rousmaniere, T. (2017, April). What your therapist doesn’t know. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/what-your-therapist- doesnt-know/517797/

Big Data has transformed everything from sports to politics to education. It could transform mental-health treatment, too—if only psychologists would stop ignoring it.

Plimmer, G. & Englert, P. (1997). Downsizing and vocational guidance: The erroneous interest in interest inventories and the possibilities of possible selves. In G. M. Habermann (Ed.), Looking back and moving forward: 50 years of New Zealand Psychology (pp. 215-223). The New Zealand Psychological Association.

Organisational downsizing is continuing in New Zealand, and the burden of job loss often falls disproportionally on mid-aged and older workers. The manner in which organisations deal with downsizing issues has effects on outcomes for the organisation. Perceptions of fairness, or procedural justice, of the downsizing process seems to guide survivor reactions. These responses can reduce organisations’ ability to adapt to market changes, often when such adaptation is most needed, setting up a cycle of organisational decline. Outplacement assistance, counselling and vocational retraining are aspects of a sound downsizing process.

Vocational tools such as the Self-Directed Search and the Strong Inventory are commonly used in outplacement counselling. They are known as interest inventories and borrow heavily from Holland’s model of career selection. However, existing interest have serious flaws relating to equity, methodology and usefulness, particularly when applied to older adults, clients. They typecast people into narrow career options, they are unreliable, and they explain too little, to be useful for adult career decision making. They fail to deal adequately with other career change issues such as self-efficacy and motivation.

Possible selves may be an appropriate alternative to interest inventories. They refer to all the distinct notions a person has about what is possible for him/her to become. They are cognitive representations that may direct new behaviour. This chapter outlines the development of New Zealand Possible Selves Inventory (NZPSI). Applications to outplacement and vocational guidance will be discussed. It will be argued that the NZPSI presents a superior alternative to interest measurement for ethical downsizing in organisations.

Gottfredson, L. S.(1986). Special groups and the beneficial use of vocational interest inventories. In W. W. Bruce & S. H. Osipow (Eds.), Advances in Vocational Psychology Applications (pp. 127-197). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

examines the appropriateness of interest inventories in counseling members of special groups and explores how interest inventories might be used beneficially in the career counseling of both minority and majority populations / these issues are pursued in three sections. The first section outlines recent concerns about special groups and the impact those concerns have had on the structure of interest inventories and on perceptions of the role interest inventories do or should play in the counseling process. The second section suggests that the use of any counseling tool, including inventories, can be improved by a more analytical understanding of the career choice problems that people have. The final section proposes nine principles for the beneficial use of interest inventories for both minority and majority populations.

Korman, A. K., Mahler, S. R., & Omran, K. A. (1983). Work ethics and satisfaction, alienation, and other reactions. In W. W. Bruce & S. H. Osipow (Eds.), Handbook of Vocational Psychology, Vol. 1: Applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Failure to comply with work ethics by employees working in Health Information Technology (HIT) Departments and their negative attitudes about organizational justice may have an adverse impact on patient satisfaction, quality of care, collecting health statistics, reimbursement, and management and planning at all levels of health care; it can also lead to unbearable damages to the health information system in the country. As so far there has been no research on HIT managers to assess the moral and ethical aspects of works and their relationship with organizational alienation and justice, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between work ethics and organizational justice and alienation among the HIT managers.

Selecting your Futureselves

Huffington, A. S. (2014, March 25). Thrive: The third metric to redefining success and creating a life of well-being, wisdom, and wonder. [Audiobook]. Random House Audio.

Arianna Huffington’s personal wake-up call came in the form of a broken cheekbone and a nasty gash over her eye–the result of a fall brought on by exhaustion and lack of sleep. As the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group–one of the fastest growing media companies in the world–celebrated as one of the world’s most influential women, and gracing the covers of magazines, she was, by any traditional measure, extraordinarily successful. Yet as she found herself going from brain MRI to CAT scan to echocardiogram, to find out if there was any underlying medical problem beyond exhaustion, she wondered is this really what success feels like?

As more and more people are coming to realize, there is far more to living a truly successful life than just earning a bigger salary and capturing a corner office. Our relentless pursuit of the two traditional metrics of success–money and power–has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress-related illnesses, and an erosion in the quality of our relationships, family life, and, ironically, our careers. In being connected to the world 24/7, we’re losing our connection to what truly matters. Our current definition of success is, as Thrive shows, literally killing us. We need a new way forward.

UK Government. (2018, October 16). PM launches Government’s first loneliness strategy [Press release]. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-launches- governments-first-loneliness-strategy#:~:text=Prime%20Minister%20Theresa%20May%20launches%20Government’s%20first%20loneliness%20strategy.&text=The%20Prime%20Minister%20confirmed%20all,and%20voluntary%20services%20by%202023.

Loneliness is one of the greatest public health challenges of our time, Theresa May said today as she launched the first cross-Government strategy to tackle it.

The Prime Minister confirmed all GPs in England will be able to refer patients experiencing loneliness to community activities and voluntary services by 2023.

Three quarters of GPs surveyed have said they are seeing between one and five people a day suffering with loneliness, which is linked to a range of damaging health impacts, like heart disease, strokes and Alzheimer’s disease. Around 200,000 older people have not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month.

The practice known as ‘social prescribing’ will allow GPs to direct patients to community workers offering tailored support to help people improve their health and wellbeing, instead of defaulting to medicine.

Nozal, A. L., Martin, N., & Murtin, F. (2019). The economy of well-being: Creating opportunities for people’s well-being and economic growth (SDD Working Paper No. 102). OECD. http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=SDD/D OC(2019)2&docLanguage=En

As well-being has matured as a statistical and measurement agenda, it has become increasingly relevant as a “compass” for policy, with a growing number of countries using well-being metrics to guide decision-making and inform budgetary processes. One remaining challenge has consisted in providing policy-makers with a better understanding of the linkages between the drivers of well-being and economic growth. This paper develops the concept of an “Economy of Well-being” as a basis for highlighting these linkages and showing how policy can most effectively leverage them. The paper defines an economy of well-being around the idea of a “virtuous circle” in which individual wellbeing and long-term economic growth are mutually reinforcing. It also explores the characteristics of an economy of well-being and the conditions under which it can be sustained. Secondly, based on a survey of existing empirical evidence, the paper contributes to outline how economies of well-being can be built. It provides analysis of several important channels through which economic growth and well-being support and reinforce one another, focusing on the multidimensional impact of policies in four areas that research has shown to be important for well-being: Education and Skills; Health; Social Protection and Redistribution; and Gender Equality.

Krems, J. A., Kenrick, D. T., & Neel, R. (2017). Individual perceptions of self- actualization: What functional motives are linked to fulfilling one’s full potential? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(9), 1337-1352.

Maslow’s self-actualization remains a popular notion in academic research as well as popular culture. The notion that life’s highest calling is fulfilling one’s own unique potential has been widely appealing. But what do people believe they are doing when they pursue the realization of their full, unique potentials? Here, we examine lay perceptions of self-actualization. Self-actualizing, like any drive, is unlikely to operate without regard to biological and social costs and benefits. We examine which functional outcomes (e.g., gaining status, making friends, finding mates, caring for kin) people perceive as central to their individual self-actualizing. Three studies suggest that people most frequently link self-actualization to seeking status, and, concordant with life history theory, what people regard as self-actualizing varies in predictable ways across the life span and across individuals. Contrasting with self-actualization, people do not view other types of well-being—eudaimonic, hedonic, subjective—as furthering status-linked functional outcomes.

Kaufman, S. B. (2018). Self-actualizing people in the 21st century: Integration with contemporary theory and research on personality and well-being. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167818809187

More than 70 years ago, Maslow put forward an integrated theory of human motivation that still captures the public imagination. Still, integration with modern theory and research remains elusive. The current study aims to fill this gap in the psychological literature, linking Maslow’s theory to contemporary theory and research on personality and well-being. Toward this aim, the new 30-item “Characteristics of Self-Actualization Scale (CSAS)” was developed. Scale validation showed that 10 characteristics of self-actualizing people as proposed by Maslow load on a general factor of self-actualization and demonstrate external validity. Those reporting more characteristics of self-actualization were more motivated by growth, exploration, and love of humanity than the fulfillment of deficiencies in basic needs. The characteristics of self-actualization were also associated with greater well-being across a number of indicators of well-being, including greater life satisfaction, self-acceptance, positive relations, environmental mastery, personal growth, autonomy, purpose in life, and self-transcendent experiences. Self-actualization scores also predicted work-related outcomes and creativity across multiple domains of achievement. The results provide support for Maslow’s proposed characteristics of self-actualization and basic motivational framework, bringing the concept of self-actualization so frequently discussed by the founding humanistic psychologists firmly into the 21st century.

Bakewell, S. (2016). At the existentialist café: Freedom, being, and apricot cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others. Other Press.

Bakewell (Univ. of Oxford, UK) laces together the lives of many of the major and minor figures responsible for existentialism, the philosophical view that holds that one’s experiential existence is of utmost importance for action and reflection. The main proponents of the movement, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, pulled various strands of philosophy and other art forms together into a set of compelling personal life strategies. The problem has always been in the details: just what is involved in an existentialist life? Bakewell does a magnificent job connecting the personal events in thinkers’ lives with their philosophical view’s without oversimplifying or avoiding existentialism’s inherent ambiguity. However, what can seem like biographical voyeurism may seem irrelevant to the project of evaluating existentialist propositions. Still, the stories of these people are interesting if not always riveting, and readers will find it much easier to grapple with the challenging material when it is presented in this form.

Nietzsche, F. W., & Kaufmann, W. A. (1974). The gay science: With a prelude in rhymes and an appendix of songs. Vintage Books.

Walter Kaufmann’s commentary, with its many quotations from previously untranslated letters, brings to life Nietzsche as a human being and illuminates his philosophy. The book contains some of Nietzsche’s most sustained discussions of art and morality, knowledge and truth, the intellectual conscience and the origin of logic.

Most of the book was written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the last part five years later, after Beyond Good and Evil. We encounter Zarathustra in these pages as well as many of Nietzsche’s most interesting philosophical ideas and the largest collection of his own poetry that he himself ever published.

Walter Kaufmann’s English versions of Nietzsche represent one of the major translation enterprises of our time. He is the first philosopher to have translated Nietzsche’s major works, and never before has a single translator given us so much of Nietzsche.

Frankl, V. E. (1985). Man’s search for meaning. Simon & Schuster.

Dr. Frankl gives a moving account of his life amid the horrors of the Nazi death camps, chronicling the harrowing experience that led to his discovery of his theory of logotherapy. A profound revelation born out of Dr. Frankl’s years as a prisoner in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, logotherapy is a modern and positive approach to the mentally or spiritually disturbed personality. Stressing man’s freedom to transcend suffering and find a meaning to his life regardless of his circumstances, it is a theory which, since its conception, has exercised a tremendous influence upon the entire field of psychiatry and psychology. Here, Dr. Frankl not only describes the genesis and development of logotherapy but also explains its basic concepts, and in this revised and enlarged edition, has included a new chapter, entitled “The Case for a Tragic Optimism,” in which he updates theoretical conclusions of the book. The result is an invaluable work by one of the world’s preeminent psychiatrists.

Holiday, R. (2014). The obstacle is the way: The timeless art of turning trials into triumph. Penguin Books.

The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

Ryan Holiday shows us how some of the most successful people in history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—have applied stoicism to overcome difficult or even impossible situations. Their embrace of these principles ultimately mattered more than their natural intelligence, talents, or luck.

If you’re feeling frustrated, demoralized, or stuck in a rut, this book can help you turn your problems into your biggest advantages. And along the way it will inspire you with dozens of true stories of the greats from every age and era.

Holiday, R. (2016). The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living. Portfolio.

Why have history’s greatest minds—from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with today’s top performers from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities—embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise.

The Daily Stoic offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you’ll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms.

By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you’ll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.

Gardiner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. Basic Books.

The book that revolutionized our understanding of human intelligence.Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences has been hailed by educators for decades and applied in hundreds of schools worldwide. In Frames of Mind, Gardner challenges the widely held notion that intelligence is a single general capacity possessed by every individual to a greater or lesser extent. Amassing a wealth of evidence, Gardner posits the existence of eight different intelligences, each as important as the next, that comprise a unique cognitive profile for each person. In this updated edition, the author reflects on thirty years of work on Multiple Intelligences theory and practice.

Wood, P., & Englert, P. (2009). Intelligence compensation theory: A critical examination of the negative relationship between conscientiousness and fluid and crystallised intelligence. The Australasian Journal of Organisational Psychology, 2, 19-29.

This study investigates the negative relationship between fluid and crystallised intelligence and Conscientiousness subfactors within the New Zealand workplace. Fluid and crystallised intelligence were assessed via the General Reasoning Test Battery 2 (GRT2; N = 1629). Two personality inventories were employed: The Fifteen-Factor Questionnaire (15FQ; N = 546), and the Occupational Personality Profile (OPP; N = 1083). 15FQ subfactors of Conscientious and Disciplined negatively correlated with fluid and crystallised intelligence. OPP subfactors of Detail-Conscious and Conformity also negatively correlated with fluid and crystallised intelligence. Subfactors for both personality measures correlated more strongly with crystallised than fluid intelligence. This finding is contrary to an earlier finding that Conscientiousness negatively correlates with fluid, but not crystallised intelligence (Moutafi, Furnham, & Paltiel, 2004). An explanation for this difference is discussed and the Intelligence Compensation Theory is introduced as an explanation for the observed relationships.

While the model breaks down into further clusters, these are the two major clusters of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattell%E2%80%93Horn%E2%80%93Carroll_theory

The Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory (commonly abbreviated to CHC), is a psychological theory on the structure of human cognitive abilities. Based on the work of three psychologists, Raymond B. Cattell, John L. Horn and John B. Carroll, the Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory is regarded as an important theory in the study of human intelligence. Based on a large body of research, spanning over 70 years, Carroll’s Three Stratum theory was developed using the psychometric approach, the objective measurement of individual differences in abilities, and the application of factor analysis, a statistical technique which uncovers relationships between variables and the underlying structure of concepts such as ‘intelligence’ (Keith & Reynolds, 2010). The psychometric approach has consistently facilitated the development of reliable and valid measurement tools and continues to dominate the field of intelligence research (Neisser, 1996).

Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262-274.

This article summarizes the practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research in personnel selection. On the basis of meta-analytic findings, this article presents the validity of 19 selection procedures for predicting job performance and training performance and the validity of paired combinations of general mental ability (GMA) and the 18 other selection procedures. Overall, the 3 combinations with the highest multivariate validity and utility for job performance were GMA plus a work sample test (mean validity of .63), GMA plus an integrity test (mean validity of .65), and GMA plus a structured interview (mean validity of .63). A further advantage of the latter 2 combinations is that they can be used for both entry level selection and selection of experienced employees. The practical utility implications of these summary findings are substantial. The implications of these research findings for the development of theories of job performance are discussed.

Wraw, C., Deary, I. J., Gale, C. R., & Der, G. (2015). Intelligence in youth and health at age 50. Intelligence, 53, 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2015.08.001

Few cognitive epidemiology studies on mental health have focused on the links between pre-morbid intelligence and self-reports of common mental disorders, such as depression, sleep difficulties, and mental health status. The current study examines these associations in 50-year-old adults.

Higher intelligence in youth is associated with a reduced risk of self-reported mental health problems at age 50, with age-at-first-interview and sex adjusted Bs as follows: CES-depression (B = – 0.16, C.I. – 0.19 to – 0.12, p < 0.001), sleep difficulties (B = – 0.11, C.I. – 0.13 to – 0.08, p < 0.001), and SF-12 mental health status (OR = 0.78, C.I. 0.72 to 0.85, p < 0.001; r = – 0.03 p = 0.075). Conversely, intelligence in youth is linked with an increased risk of receiving a diagnosis of depression by the age of 50 (OR 1.11, C.I. 1.01 to 1.22, p = 0.024; r = 0.03, p = 0.109). No sex differences were observed in the associations. Adjusting for adult SES accounted for most of the association between IQ and the mental health outcomes, except for having reported a diagnosis of depression, in which case adjusting for adult SES led to an increase in the size of the positive association (OR = 1.32, C.I. 1.16 to 1.51, p < 0.001).

Bartels, J. M., Ryan, J. J., Urban, L. S., & Glass, L. A. (2010). Correlations between estimates of state IQ and FBI crime statistics. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(5), 579-583.

Previous research suggests that crime is negatively associated with IQ at the individual level and the aggregate state level. The purpose of the present study was to further explore the relationship between state IQ estimates and various categories of violent and property crimes. State demographic information including the gross state product, pupil/teacher ratio, and percent Black, Asian, and Hispanic were included in the correlational analyses. State IQ was significantly and negatively correlated with the violent crimes of murder, aggravated assault and robbery as well as the property crimes of motor vehicle theft, theft and burglary. Additionally, regression analyses were conducted for each crime significantly related to state IQ, controlling for significant state demographic variables. In general, results suggest that the prevalence of both violent and property crimes is associated with lower state IQs.

Holley, P., Yabiku, S., & Benin, M. (2006). The relationship between intelligence and divorce. Journal of Family Issues, 27(12), 1723-1748.

Intelligence has long been a topic of special interest to social scientists, but research that involves intelligence as a predictor of behavior usually focuses on domains such as crime and delinquency, academic achievement, and socioeconomic status. In this article, the authors address this gap in the literature and develop a theoretical framework to hypothesize why intelligence may be related to an important family behavior: divorce. The authors propose three hypotheses in terms of ascribed statuses, achieved statuses, and direct mechanisms, each of which could potentially explain the relationship between intelligence and divorce. The results are consistent with a direct influence of intelligence on divorce, net of ascribed and achieved statuses. The authors conclude by explaining the observed effect on divorce rates through three distinct but interrelated aspects of intelligence: direction, adaptation, and criticism.

Grossmann, I., Na, J., Varnum, M. E., Kitayama, S., & Nisbett, R. E. (2013). A route to well-being: Intelligence versus wise reasoning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142(3), 944-953.

Laypeople and many social scientists assume that superior reasoning abilities lead to greater well-being. However, previous research has been inconclusive. This may be because prior investigators used operationalizations of reasoning that favored analytic as opposed to wise thinking. We assessed wisdom in terms of the degree to which people use various pragmatic schemas to deal with social conflicts. With a random sample of Americans we found that wise reasoning is associated with greater life satisfaction, less negative affect, better social relationships, less depressive rumination, more positive vs. negative words used in speech, and greater longevity. The relationship between wise reasoning and well-being held even when controlling for socio-economic factors, verbal abilities, and several personality traits. As in prior work there was no association between intelligence and well-being. Further, wise reasoning mediated age-related differences in well-being, particularly among the middle-aged and older adults. Implications for research on reasoning, well-being and aging are discussed.

Kaufman, J. C., Kaufman, S. B., & Plucker, J. A. (2013). Contemporary theories of intelligence. In J. Reisberg (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Psychology. Oxford University Press.

The nature of human intelligence has been discussed and debated for literally thousands of years. The purpose of this chapter is to identify and critique several contemporary theories of human intelligence. In general, we attempted to identify those theories that are currently having a significant impact within the social sciences, including psychology, cognitive science, and education, or those that have potential for having such an impact. We highlight some theories, such as the CHC theory and the PASS model, that are closely tied to the measurement of intelligence. We then discuss theories (such as Multiple Intelligences and Successful Intelligence) that have been created, in part, to respond to what is missing in traditional intelligence tests. Finally, we highlight theories that are grounded in the latest research on cognition and neuroscience. This last group includes the Multiple Mechanisms Approach, the Parieto-frontal Integration, Minimal Cognitive Architecture, and Dual-Process theories.

Gray, J. A. (1982). Oxford psychology series. The neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of the septo-hippocampal system. Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press.

This book provides an updated theory of the nature of anxiety and the brain systems controlling anxiety, combined with a theory of hippocampal function, which was first proposed thirty years ago. While remaining controversial, the core of this theory, of a ‘Behavioural Inhibition System’, has stood the test of time, with its main predictions repeatedly confirmed. Novel anti-anxiety drugs share none of the side effects or primary pharmacological actions of the classical anti-anxiety drugs on the actions of which the theory was based; but they have both the behavioural and hippocampal actions predicted by the theory. This text is the second edition of the book and it departs significantly from the first. It provides, for the first time, a single construct — goal conflict — that underlies all the known inputs to the system; and it includes current data on the amygdala. Its reviews include the ethology of defence, learning theory, the psychopharmacology of anti-anxiety drugs, anxiety disorders, and the clinical and laboratory analysis of amnesia. The cognitive and behavioural functions in anxiety of the septo-hippocampal system and the amygdala are also analysed, as are their separate roles in memory and fear. Their functions are related to a hierarchy of additional structures — from the prefrontal cortex to the periaqueductal gray — that control the various forms of defensive behaviour and to detailed analysis of the monoamine systems that modulate this control. The resultant neurology is linked to the typology, symptoms, pre-disposing personality and therapy of anxiety and phobic disorders, and to the symptoms of amnesia.

Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., & Judge, T. A. (2001). Personality and performance at the beginning of the new millennium: What do we know and where do we go next? International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 9(1‐2), 9-30.

As we begin the new millennium, it is an appropriate time to examine what we have learned about personality-performance relationships over the past century and to embark on new directions for research. In this study we quantitatively summarize the results of 15 prior meta-analytic studies that have investigated the relationship between the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality traits and job performance. Results support the previous findings that conscientiousness is a valid predictor across performance measures in all occupations studied. Emotional stability was also found to be a generalizable predictor when overall work performance was the criterion, but its relationship to specific performance criteria and occupations was less consistent than was conscientiousness. Though the other three Big Five traits (extraversion, openness and agreeableness) did not predict overall work performance, they did predict success in specific occupations or relate to specific criteria. The studies upon which these results are based comprise most of the research that has been conducted on this topic in the past century. Consequently, we call for a moratorium on meta-analytic studies of the type reviewed in our study and recommend that researchers embark on a new research agenda designed to further our understanding of personality-performance linkages.

Schoen, H., & Schumann, S. (2007). Personality traits, partisan attitudes, and voting behavior. Evidence from Germany. Political Psychology, 28(4), 471-498.

Political psychology has paid rather little attention to personality traits when explaining political attitudes and political behavior in mass publics. The present paper argues that personality traits contribute to our understanding of political attitude formation and decision making of ordinary citizens. Based on the Five Factor Model of Personality, we state hypotheses regarding the effects of personality traits on partisan attitudes and vote choice in Germany. We test the hypotheses using survey data obtained from a random sample of the Germans eligible to vote. The evidence confirms that personality traits indirectly affect partisan attitudes and voting behavior in Germany in predictable ways even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. More specifically, Openness makes citizens more inclined to support parties endorsing social liberalism whereas low scores on Conscientiousness increase the likelihood of liking and voting for parties subscribing to economic or social liberalism as do high levels on Agreeableness. High levels of Neuroticism appear to promote support for parties that offer shelter against material or cultural challenges.

Weston, S. J., Hill, P. L., & Jackson, J. J. (2015). Personality traits predict the onset of disease. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6(3), 309-317.

While personality traits have been linked concurrently to health status and prospectively to outcomes such as mortality, it is currently unknown whether traits predict the diagnosis of a number of specific diseases (e.g., lung disease, heart disease, and stroke) that may account for their mortality effects more generally. A sample (N = 6,904) of participants from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal study of older adults, completed personality measures and reported on current health conditions. Four years later, participants were followed up to see if they developed a new disease. Initial cross-sectional analyses replicated past findings that personality traits differ across disease groups. Longitudinal logistic regression analyses predicting new disease diagnosis suggest that traits are associated with the risk of developing disease—most notably the traits of conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. Findings are discussed as a means to identify pathways between personality and health.

Lachmann, B., Sariyska, R., Kannen, C., Błaszkiewicz, K., Trendafilov, B., Andone, I., … & Montag, C. (2018). Contributing to overall life satisfaction: personality traits versus life satisfaction variables revisited—is replication impossible? Behavioral Sciences, 8(1), 1.

Virtually everybody would agree that life satisfaction is of immense importance in everyday life. Thus, it is not surprising that a considerable amount of research using many different methodological approaches has investigated what the best predictors of life satisfaction are. In the present study, we have focused on several key potential influences on life satisfaction including bottom-up and top-down models, cross-cultural effects, and demographic variables. In four independent (large scale) surveys with sample sizes ranging from N = 488 to 40,297, we examined the associations between life satisfaction and various related variables. Our findings demonstrate that prediction of overall life satisfaction works best when including information about specific life satisfaction variables. From this perspective, satisfaction with leisure showed the highest impact on overall life satisfaction in our European samples. Personality was also robustly associated with life satisfaction, but only when life satisfaction variables were not included in the regression model. These findings could be replicated in all four independent samples, but it was also demonstrated that the relevance of life satisfaction variables changed under the influence of cross-cultural effects.

Hudson, N. W., & Fraley, R. C. (2015). Volitional personality trait change: Can people choose to change their personality traits? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(3), 490-507.

Previous research has found that most people want to change their personality traits. But can people actually change their personalities just because they want to? To answer this question, we conducted 2, 16-week intensive longitudinal randomized experiments. Across both studies, people who expressed goals to increase with respect to any Big Five personality trait at Time 1 tended to experience actual increases in their self-reports of that trait—as well as trait-relevant daily behavior—over the subsequent 16 weeks. Furthermore, we tested 2 randomized interventions designed to help participants attain desired trait changes. Although 1 of the interventions was inefficacious, a second intervention that trained participants to generate implementation intentions catalyzed their ability to attain trait changes. We also tested several theoretical processes through which volitional changes might occur. These studies suggest that people may be able to change their self-reported personality traits through volitional means, and represent a first step toward understanding the processes that enable people to do so.

Herman, T. (2019). The alter ego effect. Blackstone/Harper Audio.

An award-winning performance expert reveals the secret behind many top athletes and executives: creating a heroic alter ego to activate when the chips are down.

There’s only one person in the way of you untapping your capabilities: You. There’s also one person who can move you out of the way so you can perform at your peak.

That person is already inside you. You just need to unlock them. This other part of you is your Heroic Self and you unlock it with an Alter Ego. After twenty-one years of working with elite athletes, performers and leaders, Todd Herman is revealing how you can use your alter ego to achieve the seemingly impossible. It all clicked for Todd when he met Bo Jackson.

When Herman met Bo Jackson, the professional athlete told him, “Bo Jackson never played a down of football in his entire life.” Bo explained that when he was young, he’d get into trouble because chaos caused by his anger issues. Then, he saw Friday the 13th and became fascinated by the cold, calculating nature of Jason Vorhees. In that moment, he resolved to stop being Bo Jackson, and start being Jason the moment he stepped on the field.

Carroll, S. (2017). The big picture: On the origins of life, meaning, and the universe itself. Penguin Books.

Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on Higgs bosons and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions: Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void? Do human purpose and meaning fit into a scientific worldview?

In short chapters filled with intriguing historical anecdotes, personal asides, and rigorous exposition, readers learn the difference between how the world works at the quantum level, the cosmic level, and the human level—and then how each connects to the other. Carroll’s presentation of the principles that have guided the scientific revolution from Darwin and Einstein to the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe is dazzlingly unique.

Carroll shows how an avalanche of discoveries in the past few hundred years has changed our world and what really matters to us. Our lives are dwarfed like never before by the immensity of space and time, but they are redeemed by our capacity to comprehend it and give it meaning.

Plimmer, G. & Englert, P. (1997). Downsizing and vocational guidance: The erroneous interest in interest inventories and the possibilities of possible selves. Proceedings of the New Zealand Psychological Association Conference.

Greenwald, A. G. (1980). The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history. American Psychologist, 35(7), 603-618.

Argues that (a) ego, or self, is an organization of knowledge; (b) ego is characterized by cognitive biases analogous to totalitarian information-control strategies; and (c) these totalitarian-ego biases function to preserve organization in cognitive structures. Ego’s cognitive biases are egocentricity (self as the focus of knowledge), “beneffectance” (perception of responsibility for desired, but not undesired, outcomes), and cognitive conservatism (resistance to cognitive change). In addition to being evident in recent studies of normal human cognition, these 3 biases are found in actively functioning, higher level organizations of knowledge, exemplified by theoretical paradigms in science. The thesis that egocentricity, beneffectance, and conservatism act to preserve knowledge organizations leads to the proposal of an intrapsychic analog of genetic evolution, which in turn provides an alternative to prevalent motivational and information interpretations of cognitive biases.

Robinson, M. D., & Ryff, C. D. (1999). The role of self-deception in perceptions of past, present, and future happiness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(5), 595-606.

Previous research suggests that self-deception is maximized when (a) there is a lack of concrete information, and (b) the motivation to self-deceive is high. In applying this model to past, present, and future judgments about the self, the future is unique because of its uncertainty, whereas the past is unique because of its lesser relevance to current motivations. We therefore predict that people will be the most self-deceptive when thinking about their future, a prediction supported in four studies ( Ns = 96, 125, 40, and 298) using various measures of self-deception and subjective well– being. Studies 1 and 2 provide basic evidence for future self– enhancement, whereas Studies 3 and 4 demonstrate that concrete information about the future reduces this bias. More generally, the findings highlight the special status of future well-being judgments as well as the flexible link between self-deception and self-evaluation.

Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. (1976). Learned helplessness: theory and evidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 105(1), 3-46.

Reviews the literature which examined the effects of exposing organisms to aversive events which they cannot control. Motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects of uncontrollability are examined. It is hypothesized that when events are uncontrollable the organism learns that its behavior and outcomes are independent, and this learning produces the motivational, cognitive, and emotional effects of uncontrollability. Research which supports this learned helplessness hypothesis is described along with alternative hypotheses which have been offered as explanations of the learned helplessness effect. The application of this hypothesis to rats and man is examined.

Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1988). Depressive realism: Four theoretical perspectives. In L. B. Alloy (Ed.), Cognitive processes in depression (p. 223-265). The Guilford Press.

Beck’s cognitive theory of depression has provided a successful description of depressive thinking, with one major exception. The hypothesis that depressed people show biased negative thinking seems contradicted by research indicating that Ss scoring 9 or above on the Beck Depression Inventory were more accurate than their nondepressed counterparts in judging contingencies between their responses and outcomes, seemingly showing “depressive realism”. Depressive realism research has attracted attention in numerous areas of psychology, along with critical commentary focused on such issues as whether realism is limited to mild depressive states, whether laboratory tasks are sufficient to document realism, and whether realism is a general characteristic of either depressed or nondepressed people. We analyze the main critiques and show how debates about depressive realism can be heuristic for refinement of cognitive theory of depression.

Vorontsova, N., & Ellett, L. (2017). Depression, goals and motivations in people with persecutory delusions. Psychiatry Research, 254, 133-134.

Goals motivated by avoidance, rather than approach, and by external, rather than internal, motivations, have been implicated in the persistence of depression. This paper reports the first empirical investigation of the goals and motivations of individuals experiencing persecutory delusions. Participants completed assessments of goals and motivations, depression and paranoia. Higher levels of depression were associated with more avoidant motivations and lower goal self-concordance, but not with numbers of approach motivations. More avoidant motivations were also associated with greater paranoia. The findings are consistent with proposals that avoidant and externally-motivated goal pursuit could contribute to symptom persistence.

Koppe, K., & Rothermund, K. (2017). Let it go: Depression facilitates disengagement from unattainable goals. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 54, 278-284.

Background and objectives: Previous studies have demonstrated that clinging to unattainable goals is linked to the onset of depression. The present study investigated whether symptoms of a clinical depression are adaptive in that they facilitate disengagement from unattainable goals. Methods: A group of depressive inpatients (n = 40) was compared to a non-depressive control group (n = 38) in regard to how much time they spent on unsolvable anagrams, while controlling for group differences in the time spent on solvable anagrams. Results: In line with our hypothesis, depressive inpatients spent less time on unsolvable anagrams. There was no group difference in the time needed to solve the solvable anagrams. Limitations: Our study tested disengagement from anagram tasks in the lab in a sample of depressive inpatients and thus may not be representative for contexts of disengagement from personal goals outside the lab or for people with milder or briefer forms of depression. Follow-up questions thus concern the development of goal disengagement processes in everyday life during the course of a major depressive episode. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence for the view that clinical depression, although pathological, might also serve an adaptive function. We discuss possible implications of our findings for psychotherapy.

Blumberg, M., & Pringle, C. D. (1982). The missing opportunity in organizational research: Some implications for a theory of work performance. Academy of Management Review, 7(4), 560-569.

Existing theory fails to provide strong and consistent prediction of individual job performance. This paper argues that the failure stems from a neglect of an important dimension of performance—the opportunity to perform—and the interaction of opportunity with known correlates of performance. A three dimensional interactive model of work performance is proposed; suggestions for future research and for managerial practice are offered.

Schwartz, B. (2004). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. Harper Perennial.

Whether we’re buying a pair of jeans, selecting a long-distance carrier, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. We assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of choice overload: it can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains why too much of a good thing has proven detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. Synthesizing current research in the social sciences, he makes the counterintuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, he offers practical steps for how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on the important ones and ignore the rest, and, ultimately, derive greater satisfaction from the choices you do make.

Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science, 7(3), 186-189.

Happiness, or subjective well-being, was measured on a birth-record-based sample of several thousand middle-aged twins using the Well-Being (WB) scale of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Neither socioeconomic status, educational attainment, family income, marital status, nor an indicant of religious commitment could account for more than about 3% of the variance in WB From 44% to 52% of the variance in WB, however, is associated with genetic variation Based on the retest of smaller samples of twins after intervals of 4 5 and 10 years, we estimate that the heriability of the stable component of subjective well-being approaches 80%

Gilbert, D. (2009). Stumbling on happiness. Vintage Canada.

Bringing to life scientific research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics, this bestselling book reveals what scientists have discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future, and about our capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there.

In this brilliant, witty, and accessible book, renowned Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert describes the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight that cause each of us to misconceive our tomorrows and misestimate our satisfactions. With penetrating insight and sparkling prose, Gilbert explains why we seem to know so little about the hearts and minds of the people we are about to become.

Kaufman, S. B. (2020). Transcend: The new science of self-actualization. TarcherPerigee.

A bold reimagining of Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs–and new insights for realizing your full potential and living your most creative, fulfilled, and connected life.

When psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman first discovered Maslow’s unfinished theory of transcendence, sprinkled throughout a cache of unpublished journals, lectures, and essays, he felt a deep resonance with his own work and life. In this groundbreaking book, Kaufman picks up where Maslow left off, unraveling the mysteries of his unfinished theory, and integrating these ideas with the latest research on attachment, connection, creativity, love, purpose and other building blocks of a life well lived.

Kaufman’s new hierarchy of needs provides a roadmap for finding purpose and fulfillment–not by striving for money, success, or “happiness,” but by becoming the best version of ourselves, or what Maslow called self-actualization. While self-actualization is often thought of as a purely individual pursuit, Maslow believed that the full realization of potential requires a merging between self and the world. We don’t have to choose either self-development or self-sacrifice, but at the highest level of human potential we show a deep integration of both. Transcend reveals this level of human potential that connects us not only to our highest creative potential, but also to one another.

Neher, A. (1991). Maslow’s theory of motivation: A critique. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 31(3), 89-112.

This critique of Maslow’s theory of motivation examines all of its major components. The theory is summarized and its basic propositions are analyzed in the light of internal logic, other relevant theories, and related research. This examination points up many deficiencies in Maslow’s theory, which enjoys wide acceptance, especially among humanistic psychologists. Suggestions are made regarding modifications to the theory that would remedy many of its more serious problems but at the same time preserve its perceptive insights.

https://flowpsychology.com/messiah-complex-psychology/

Most people today are having curiosity about messiah complex psychology. Actually, this is a complex psychological state when a person believes that he or she is a savior today or he or she will be like that in the near future. The world “messiah complex” is does not concentrates on the statistical and diagnostic delusions or delusion of grandeur. This kind of psychological issue is usually acquired by patients who have schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. According to some surveys, about 10 percent of psychological patients suffer from this. It is true that people can always be a savior. However, acting as the savior of the whole world is somewhat impossible.

Goal Setting

Mayo, E. (1933). The human problems of an industrial civilization. Macmillan.

In this volume Mayo discusses the Hawthorne experiments, relating the findings about human relations within the Hawthorne plant to the social environment in the surrounding Chicago area. The Chicago School of Sociologists were studying aspects of social disorganization and this was a topic pioneered by Emile Durkheim.

Gillespie, R. (1991). Manufacturing knowledge. A history of the Hawthorne experiments. Cambridge University Press.

What motivates workers to work harder? What can management do to create a contented and productive workforce? Discussion of these questions would be incomplete without reference to the Hawthorne experiments, one of the most famous pieces of research ever conducted in the social and behavioral sciences. Drawing on the original records of the experiments and the personal papers of the researchers, Richard Gillespie has reconstructed the intellectual and political dynamics of the experiments as they evolved from the tentative experimentation to seemingly authoritative publications. Manufacturing Knowledge raises fundamental questions about the nature of scientific knowledge, and about the assumptions and evidence that underlay debates on worker productivity.

Kolata, G. (1998, December 6). Scientific myths that are too good to die. New York Times.

EVERYONE has heard about the LSD-soaked stickers given away to schoolchildren. The stamp-size tabs are reportedly decorated with blue stars or pictures of Superman, butterflies or clowns.

Or how about the story of the child who is dying of cancer and wants postcards sent to him? Or how about Neiman Marcus’s $250 cookie recipe?

They are all urban myths, of course, stories that refuse to die no matter how many times they are roundly debunked.

Science is different, right? Study results become part of the annals, authenticated by weighty papers and validated by panels of experts. This is the usual route to credibility. Then there are the myths.

Take the ”Hawthorne effect,” which is much embraced in social psychology. It refers to a study from 1927 to 1933 of factory workers at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Plant in Illinois. It showed that regardless of the changes made in working conditions — more breaks, longer breaks or fewer and shorter ones — productivity increased. These changes apparently had nothing to do with the workers’ responses. The workers, or so the story goes, produced more because they saw themselves as special, participants in an experiment, and their inter-relationships improved.

Gale, E. A. M. (2004). The Hawthorne studies—a fable for our times? QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, 97(7), 439-449. https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hch070

Discusses the Hawthorne effect, whereby people change their behavior when they think they are being watched. This is related to the first of many experiments performed at the Hawthorne works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago from November 1924 onwards. This work has entered the folklore of medicine, as an ‘effect’ that everyone refers to, but that no-one can source or define. The original aim in the Hawthorne studies was to examine the effect of changes in working arrangements upon productivity. Output did indeed rise in response to shorter hours and the introduction of rest breaks, but it continued to rise regardless of any changes made to the experiment. While academics began to build their reputations around these findings, the management at Hawthorne was quick to apply them. Rest breaks were introduced across the factory, with a general increase in productivity. Although the studies were initiated by company officials who approached worker output as if it was a problem in engineering, they were well aware of the human factor, but lacked the vocabulary to describe it. It is suggested that academics rescued them by transforming a series of poorly performed experiments into a potent myth. It is concluded that Hawthorne is a reminder there are times when context is more important than science.

Compton, R. J. (2003). The interface between emotion and attention: A review of evidence from psychology and neuroscience. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 2(2), 115-129.

This review addresses the interconnections between emotional and attentional processing, with an emphasis on both behavioral and neuroscientific findings. Are emotional stimuli encoded automatically, and what does that mean? How are emotional stimuli selected for enhanced processing within a limited capacity system? Evidence suggests a two-stage process: First, emotional significance is evaluated pre-attentively by a sub-cortical circuit involving the amygdala; and second, stimuli deemed emotionally significant are given priority in the competition for access to selective attention. This process involves bottom-up inputs from the amygdala as well as top-down influences from frontal lobe regions involved in goal setting and maintaining representations in working memory. The review highlights limitations in the current literature, directions for fruitful future research, and the need to move beyond simple dichotomies such as ‘cognition’ versus ’emotion.’

Cole, S., Balcetis, E., & Zhang, S. (2013). Visual perception and regulatory conflict: Motivation and physiology influence distance perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142(1), 18-22.

Regulatory conflict can emerge when people experience a strong motivation to act on goals but a conflicting inclination to withhold action because physical resources available, or physiological potentials, are low. This study demonstrated that distance perception is biased in ways that theory suggests assists in managing this conflict. Participants estimated the distance to a target location. Individual differences in physiological potential measured via waist-to-hip ratio interacted with manipulated motivational states to predict visual perception. Among people low in physiological potential and likely to experience regulatory conflict, the environment appeared easier to traverse when motivation was strong compared with weak. Among people high in potential and less likely to experience conflict, perception was not predicted by motivational strength. The role of motivated distance perception in self-regulation is discussed.

Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and Motivation. Wiley.

Why do people choose the careers they do? What factors cause peopleto be satisfied with their work? No single work did more to makeconcepts like motive, goal incentive, and attitude part of theworkplace vocabulary.

This landmark work, originally published in 1964, integrates thework of hundreds of researchers in individual workplace behavior toexplain choice of work, job satisfaction, and job performance.Includes an extensive new introduction that highlights and updateshis model for current organization behavior educators and students,as well as professionals who must extract the highest levels ofproductivity from today’s downsized workforces.

Bandura, A. (1986) Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Prentice Hall.

A comprehensive theory of human motivation and action from a social cognitive perspective is presented in this book. It deals with the prominent roles played by cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective, and self-regulatory processes in psychosocial functioning. The book is organized to emphasize the reciprocal causation through the interplay of cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors. Albert Bandura systematically applies this social cognitive theory to personal and social change.

Among its highlights, the book: covers a wide range of issues relating to human thought, motivation, and behavior; provides a theory of social diffusion and innovation that integrates modeling and social-network influences; shows how converging technological changes are transforming the nature and scope of human influence; [and] analyzes the determinants and processes governing personal and social change. Because of its relevance it [the book] will be of interest to readers in many different disciplines including psychology, education, sociology, communications, political science, business, and law.

Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.) Advances in Experimental and Social Psychology (Vol. 2, 267-300). Academic Press.

Based on the view of equity theory, this article divides salary transparency into four conditions through two arrangements—result equity and process equity. The paper draws a conclusion that the effect of salary transparency on staff’s sense of fairness will vary with enterprise actual situation and then it discusses the key factors of the influence of choosing the salary transparency. On this basis, according to the financial reporting, the article recognizes enterprise life cycle and chooses the corresponding salary transparency plan as well.

Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behaviour. MacMillian.

Designed as an introduction to psychology, the subject matter is presented in an essay-like manner, with the author’s concept of “operant behavior” serving as the core of the book. 6 sections (29 chapters) include these topics: The possibility of a science of human behavior; the analysis of behavior; the individual as a whole; the behavior of people in groups; controlling agencies; the control of human behavior.

Vansteenkiste, M., Simons, J., Lens, W., Soenens, B., Matos, L., & Lacante, M. (2004). Less is sometimes more: Goal-content matters. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(4), 755-764.

According to expectancy-value theories, increasing the utility value of a learning activity should result in higher motivation and better learning. In contrast, self-determination theory posits that the content of the future goals (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) that enhance the utility value of the learning activity needs to be considered as well. Contrast-cell analyses of an experimental study showed that double goal framing (intrinsic plus extrinsic) facilitated a mastery orientation, performance, and persistence and decreased a performance-approach orientation compared with extrinsic goal framing. However, double goal framing resulted in a less optimal pattern of outcomes compared with intrinsic goal framing, suggesting that the content of the provided goals matters. Goal content effects on both performance and persistence were fully mediated by mastery orientation.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78.

Human beings can be proactive and engaged or, alternatively, passive and alienated, largely as a function of the social conditions in which they develop and function. Accordingly, research guided by self-determination theo~ has focused on the social-contextual conditions that facilitate versus forestall the natural processes of self-motivation and healthy psychological development. Specifically, factors have been examined that enhance versus undermine intrinsic motivation, self-regulation, and well-being. The findings have led to the postulate of three innate psychological needs–competence, autonomy, and relatedness– which when satisfied yield enhanced self-motivation and mental health and when thwarted lead to diminished motivation and well-being. Also considered is the significance of these psychological needs and processes within domains such as health care, education, work, sport, religion, and psychotherapy.

Lee, T., Locke, E., & Latham, G. (1989). Goal setting theory and job performance. In L. Pervin (Ed.), Goal Concepts in Personality and Social Psychology, (pp. 291-326). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Is behavior motivated? And if so, can it be motivated by the anticipation of future events? What role does cognition play in such motivational processes? And, further, what role does motivation play in ongoing cognitive activity? Questions such as these provide the foundation for this book, originally published in 1989. More specifically, the chapters in this book address the question of the utility of goals concepts in studying motivation and social cognition.

Kanfer, R. (1994). Work motivation: New directions in theory and research. In C. L. Cooper & I. T. Robertson (Eds.), Key reviews in managerial psychology: Concepts and research for practice (p. 1–53). John Wiley & Sons.

The current state of motivation theory is reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the internal, unobservable aspects of motivation and the distinction between motivation and behavior and performance. Major theories of motivation concerned with the arousal and choice of behavior are examined, problems of implementation are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested. They include study of the circumstances under which any given motivational theory is most effective. The long-run objective should be a contingency type model of motivation.

Steers, R. M. & Porter L. W. (1974). The role of task-goal attributes in employee performance. Psychological Bulletin, 81(7), 434-452.

Many studies have demonstrated the relatively successful performance implications of formalized goal-setting programs in organizations. However, these findings typically do not identify the specific factors behind such techniques that are largely responsible for their success. Toward this end, research relating to 6 factor analytically derived attributes of employees’ task goals is reviewed to ascertain which attributes are more consistently related to performance. The 6 task-goal attributes are goal specificity, participation in goal setting, feedback, peer competition, goal difficulty, and goal acceptance. Although goal specificity and goal acceptance were found to be most consistently related to performance, several intervening variables emerged that tended to affect significantly the impact of certain attributes on performance. Findings are discussed within a motivational framework. It is argued, based on the data, that performance under goal-setting conditions is a function of at least 3 important variables: the nature of the task goals, additional situational-environmental factors, and individual differences.

Amundson, N. E. (1995). Action planning through the phases of counselling. Journal of Employment Counselling, 32(2), 147-153.

The position put forth in this article is that both clients and counselors must be regarded as active agents within the counseling process. Using 4 phases of counseling, client actions at each phase are viewed in terms of their implications for action planning. Adopting this perspective has implications for both counseling practice and evaluation.

McCormick, R. M., & Amundson, N.E. (1997). A career-life planning model for first nations people. Journal of Employment Counselling, 34(4), 171-179.

A career-life planning model for use with First Nations people is described. This model uses a communal counseling process and focuses on key components such as connectedness, balance, needs, roles, gifts, and values.

Amundson, N. E. (1995). An interactive model of career decision making. Journal of Employment Counseling, 32(1), 11-21.

The decision-making model described in this article highlights the interaction between contextual factors, decision triggers, establishing a perspective (frame) of the problem, reframing, and action planning. The interactive perspective is based on process and change and seems particularly relevant in the current social and economic situation. Career counseling with an interactive decision-making approach requires an acknowledgement of external influences as well as of individual variables.

Wieland, J. W. (2017). Responsibility for strategic ignorance. Synthese, 194(11), 4477-4497.

Strategic ignorance is a widespread phenomenon. In a laboratory setting, many participants avoid learning information about the consequences of their behaviour in order to act egoistically. In real life, many consumers avoid information about their purchases or the working conditions in which they were produced in order to retain their lifestyle. The question is whether agents are blameworthy for such strategically ignorant behaviour. In this paper, I explore quality of will resources, according to which agents are blameworthy, roughly, depending on their moral concern. The account I will propose—the Maximal Account—has three innovative features: (1) it utilizes a suitable concept of maximal moral concern, (2) it offers an accountability version of the account which significantly differs from the more familiar attributability variant, and (3) it maintains that agents without maximal concern are blameworthy

Locke, E. & Latham, G. (1990). Work motivation and satisfaction: Light at the end of the tunnel. Psychological Science, 1(4), 240-246.

After decades of research it is now possible to offer a coherent, data-based theory of work motivation and job satisfaction. The present model combines aspects of the following theories: goal setting, expectancy, social-cognitive, attribution, job characteristics, equity, and turnover-commitment. The resulting model is called the high performance cycle. It begins with organizational members being faced with high challenge or difficult goals. If high challenge is accompanied by high expectancy of success or self-efficacy, high performance results, given that there is: commitment to the goals, feedback, adequate ability, and low situational constraints. High performance is achieved through four mechanisms, direction of attention and action, effort, persistence, and the development of task strategies and plans. High performance, if rewarding, leads to job satisfaction, which in turn facilitates commitment to the organization and its goals. The model has implications for leadership, self-management, and education.

Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2001). On the self-regulation of behavior. Cambridge University Press.

This book presents a thorough overview of a model of human functioning based on the idea that behavior is goal-directed and regulated by feedback control processes. It describes feedback processes and their application to behavior, considers goals and the idea that goals are organized hierarchically, examines affect as deriving from a different kind of feedback process, and analyzes how success expectancies influence whether people keep trying to attain goals or disengage. Later sections consider a series of emerging themes, including dynamic systems as a model for shifting among goals, catastrophe theory as a model for persistence, and the question of whether behavior is controlled or instead “emerges.” Three chapters consider the implications of these various ideas for understanding maladaptive behavior, and the closing chapter asks whether goals are a necessity of life. Throughout, theory is presented in the context of diverse issues that link the theory to other literatures.

Sulllivan, D. (2020) The Gap and the gain. Academy Elite.

Most people, especially highly ambitious people, are unhappy because of how they measure their progress. We all have an “ideal,” a moving target that is always out of reach. When we measure ourselves against that ideal, we’re in “the GAP.” However, when we measure ourselves against our previous selves, we’re in “the GAIN.”

That is where the GAP and the GAIN concept comes in. It was developed by legendary entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan and is based on his work with tens of thousands of successful entrepreneurs. When Dan’s coaching clients periodically take stock of all that they’ve accomplished-both personally and professionally-they are often shocked at how much they have actually achieved. They weren’t able to appreciate their progress because no matter how much they were getting done, they were usually measuring themselves against their ideals or goals.

In this book you will learn that measuring your current self vs. your former self has enormous psychological benefits. And that’s really the key to this deceptively simple yet multi-layered concept that will have you feeling good, feeling grateful, and feeling like you are making progress even when times are tough, which will in turn bolster motivation, confidence, and future success.

IBM Oyserman, D., Lewis Jr, N. A., Yan, V. X., Fisher, O., O’Donnell, S. C., & Horowitz, E. (2017). An identity-based motivation framework for self-regulation. Psychological Inquiry, 28(2-3), 139-147.

Identity-based motivation theory is a social psychological theory of motivation and goal pursuit (self-regulation). It differs from other theories of self-regulation by highlighting three components: dynamic construction of identity, interpretation of experience, and action-readiness. These three components work in tandem as associative knowledge networks. By focusing on dynamic construction, identity-based motivation theory provides a nuanced set of testable predictions about how personal and social identities shape self-regulation and are shaped by features of the immediate context. By highlighting the macro–micro interface between the personal and the social structural, identity-based motivation helps to explain how macrolevel features of the context including culture, poverty, and stigma influence successful self-regulation and goal pursuit.

Ludwiczak, A., Osman, M., & Jahanshahi, M. (2020). Redefining the relationship between effort and reward: Choice-execution model of effort-based decisions. Behavioural Brain Research, 383, 112474.

Neuroscientific studies reliably demonstrate that rewards play a crucial role in guiding our choices when confronted with different effortful actions we could make. At the same time, psychological and economic research shows that effort we exert is not reliably predicted by the rewards we end up receiving. Why the mismatch between the two lines of evidence? Inspired by neuroscientific literature, we argue that value-based models of decision-making expose the complexity of the relationship between effort and reward, which changes between two crucial stages of the effort-based decision making process: Choice (i.e. action selection) and Execution (i.e. action execution involving actual effort exertion). To test this assumption, in the present study we set up two experiments (E1: N = 72, E2: N = 87), using a typical neuroscientific effort-based decision-making task. The findings of these experiments reveal that when making prospective choices, rewards do guide the level of effort people are prepared to exert, consistent with typical findings from Neuroscience. At a later stage, during execution of effortful actions, performance is determined by the actual amount of effort that needs to be exerted, consistent with psychological and behavioral economic research. We use the model we tested and the findings we generated to highlight critical new insights into effort-reward relationship, bringing different literatures together in the context of questions regarding what effort its, and the role that values play.

Ulysses pact. (2021, February 19). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_pact

A Ulysses pact or Ulysses contract is a freely made decision that is designed and intended to bind oneself in the future. The term is used in medicine, especially in reference to advance directives (also known as living wills), where there is some controversy over whether a decision made by a person in one state of health should be considered binding upon that person when they are in a markedly different, usually worse, state of health.

Ayres, I. (2010). Carrots and sticks: Unlock the power of incentives to get things done. Bantam.

Need to lose weight and keep it off, stop smoking, or overcome procrastination or any other personal difficulty or character flaw? Behavioral economics might hold the answer. Drawing on ongoing research in that field, New York Times best-selling author Ayres (Super Crunchers) here details commitment contracts of incentives based on a system of personally chosen punishments and rewards, using anecdotes to illustrate practical examples. Actor/narrator John H. Mayer adeptly and engagingly presents the material. Recommended for anyone seeking further insight into successfully changing human behavior on the personal or organizational level.

Salgado, S., & Berntsen, D. (2018). To be and when to be: How far into the future do people project their self-images? Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 5(3), 312-323.

Little research has been conducted as to how far older and younger adults extend their self-images into the future, that is, their imagined future selves, such as imagined future family roles, future hobbies, or future traits. According to one line of research, we should expect aging to be associated with changes in future time perspective, such that older adults perceive their futures as more limited and less central compared with younger adults. According to another view, the distance with which individuals project themselves into the future may not simply be a function of age-related changes in perspectives, but may be formed by age-independent cognitive and motivational constraints. To address these questions, this study examined the temporal distribution of future self-images generated by a large representative sample of Danish adults from 18 to 70 years of age (998 participants), using the “I will be” task (Rathbone, Conway, & Moulin, 2011). The results showed that participants concurred on a surprisingly short future horizon, dating their future self-images within the first 5 to 10 years from their present, irrespective of any demographic factor. The findings also revealed that all age groups generated considerably more positive future images and that these were closer to their present whereas negative ones were pushed further into their future. The results suggest motivational and cognitive constraints producing uniformly short future horizons of the self-projections across all age groups.

Koul, R., Sosik, J. J., & Lerdpornkulrat, T. (2017). Students’ possible selves and achievement goals: Examining personal and situational influences in Thailand. School Psychology International, 38(4), 408-433.

This survey study conducted in vocational and academic secondary schools investigated the association of 1,060 Thai students’ self-reports of mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goal orientations with the salience and content of their hoped-for possible selves reflecting existence, relatedness, and growth needs. Results of mixed-design MANCOVA indicated mastery orientation to be higher for students identifying possible selves reflecting growth or relatedness needs than existence needs as most salient, and performance-approach orientation to be higher for students identifying possible selves reflecting existence rather than growth needs as most salient. Also, school type interacted with students’ most salient possible selves reflecting existence, relatedness, or growth needs to relate to their achievement goal orientations. The results are discussed in terms of the classic person versus situation approach to the study of achievement goals in schools, and their implications for classroom and school administration.

Mitchell, J. P., Schirmer, J., Ames, D. L., & Gilbert, D. T. (2011). Medial prefrontal cortex predicts intertemporal choice. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(4), 857-866.

People often make shortsighted decisions to receive small benefits in the present rather than large benefits in the future, that is, to favor their current selves over their future selves. In two studies using fMRI, we demonstrated that people make such decisions in part because they fail to engage in the same degree of self-referential processing when thinking about their future selves. When participants predicted how much they would enjoy an event in the future, they showed less activity in brain regions associated with introspective self-reference–such as the ventromedial pFC (vMPFC)–than when they predicted how much they would enjoy events in the present. Moreover, the magnitude of vMPFC reduction predicted the extent to which participants made shortsighted monetary decisions several weeks later. In light of recent findings that the vMPFC contributes to the ability to simulate future events from a first-person perspective, these data suggest that shortsighted decisions result in part from a failure to fully imagine the subjective experience of one’s future self.

Macrae, C. N., Mitchell, J. P., Tait, K. A., McNamara, D. L., Golubickis, M., Topalidis, P. P., & Christian, B. M. (2015). Turning I into me: Imagining your future self. Consciousness and Cognition, 37, 207-213.

A widely endorsed belief is that perceivers imagine their present selves using a different representational format than imagining their future selves (i.e., near future = first-person; distant future = third-person). But is this really the case? Responding to the paucity of work on this topic, here we considered how temporal distance influences the extent to which individuals direct their attention outward or inward during a brief imaginary episode. Using a non-verbal measure of visual perspective taking (i.e., letter-drawing task) our results confirmed the hypothesized relation between temporal distance and conceptions of the self. Whereas simulations of an event in the near future were dominated by a first-person representation of the self, this switched to a third-person depiction when the event was located in the distant future. Critically, this switch in vantage point was restricted to self-related simulations. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.

Jay, M. (2013). Defining decade: Why your twenties matter and how to make the most of them now. Twelve.

his is not an academic book, nor one written for therapists (or analysts!). It is a popular book written for 20-somethings who are struggling and the people who love them. Nuance, complexity, and acknowledgment of limitations are not in its purview. The discussion could be enriched by acknowledging individual difference and variability. Instead, Jay’s model reflects specific social contexts and value systems and a strikingly limited range of cultures. The case examples that she provides are college-educated, predominantly White, and heterosexual. Her path to success is defined by career, marriage/ partnership, and family/children—all established by the time you are 40. However, many of her insights and interventions are clinically useful. Although Jay’s book could be enriched by a consideration of multiple perspectives, or at least an acknowledgment of her value-laden prescriptions, her model of working with 20-somethings offers some valuable guidance for clinicians working with this age group

Quoidbach, J., Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2013). The end of history illusion. Science, 339(6115), 96-98.

We measured the personalities, values, and preferences of more than 19,000 people who ranged in age from 18 to 68 and asked them to report how much they had changed in the past decade and/or to predict how much they would change in the next decade. Young people, middle-aged people, and older people all believed they had changed a lot in the past but would change relatively little in the future. People, it seems, regard the present as a watershed moment at which they have finally become the person they will be for the rest of their lives. This “end of history illusion” had practical consequences, leading people to overpay for future opportunities to indulge their current preferences.

Johnson, J. T. (2009). The once and future self: Beliefs about temporal change in goal importance and goal achievement. Self and Identity, 8(1), 94-112.

College students (n = 244) predicted that the current goals of both themselves and an acquaintance would remain relatively stable into the future. In contrast, they believed their level of achievement would increase more in the future than it had in previous years. They also believed that the relevant goals were more important to them than to their acquaintances, and comparisons of predicted future (but not present) achievements exhibited a self-enhancing bias. In addition to demonstrating the relative perceived stability of covert aspects of the current self, the findings suggest a fundamental difference between conceptualizations of self and conceptualizations of acquaintances. They suggest that participants may define themselves, more than others, in terms of current aspirations and expectations that those aspirations will be met.

Oettingen, G. (2014). Rethinking positive thinking: Inside the new science of motivation. Current.

First published in 1952, Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking birthed a philosophy rooted in the belief that a positive outlook attracts a positive outcome and that visualizing the positive while rejecting negative thinking will increase your chances of success and wish fulfillment. Having spent more than 20 years studying how optimism affects accomplishment, success and general well-being, New York University psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen believes that positive thinking alone can actually prevent us from achieving our goals.

Based on studies that she and others carried out, Oettingen came up with mental contrasting, an approach to reaching goals that involves “juxtaposing our dreams with the obstacles that prevent attainment.” Oettingen offers advice on how to apply the method to your life and introduces a simple four-step process with the handy acronym WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan).

Say your wish is to go jogging after work. The outcome might be feeling balanced. The obstacle could be feeling tired when you get home. Once you’ve articulated the obstacles, make a plan to work around it. Although Oettingen overplays the science, her practical advice is worthwhile, and the method makes sense.

Cross, A., & Sheffield, D. (2016). Mental contrasting as a behaviour change technique: a systematic review protocol paper of effects, mediators and moderators on health. Systematic reviews, 5(1), 1-6.

Mental contrasting is a self-regulation strategy that is required for strong goal commitment. In mental contrasting, individuals firstly imagine a desired future or health goal that contrasted with the reality proceeding the goal state, which after reflection is viewed as an obstacle (Oettingen et al. J Pers Soc Psychol 80:736-753, 2001). Mentally contrasting a positive future with reality enables individuals to translate positive attitudes and high efficacy into strong goal commitment. A systematic review of the literature is proposed to explore the efficacy of mental contrasting as a behaviour change technique (Michie et al., Ann Behav Med 46: 81-95, 2013) for health. The review also aims to identify the effects of mental contrasting on health-related behaviour, as well as identifying mediator and moderator variables. This will be the first systematic review of mental contrasting as a health behaviour change technique. With sufficient studies, a meta-analysis will be conducted with sensitivity and sub group analyses. If meta-analysis is not appropriate, a narrative synthesis of the reviewed studies will be conducted.

There is also an app and website dedicated to helping people create goals using the WOOP framework: https://woopmylife.org/en/practice

The WOOP app is designed to support you in your daily life. You will learn how to identify and fulfill your most important wishes. These wishes may refer to different time spans and different life domains (academics/career, health, and interpersonal relations). The app allows you to save your wishes and observe your progress. By teaching you the WOOP strategy, the app empowers you to sort out what is important in your day-to-day routine. Over time, you’ll find and achieve what you really want.

Chen, P., Powers, J. T., Katragadda, K. R., Cohen, G. L., & Dweck, C. S. (2020). A strategic mindset: An orientation toward strategic behavior during goal pursuit. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many attractive jobs in today’s world require people to take on new challenges and figure out how to master them. As with any challenging goal, this involves systematic strategy use. Here we ask: Why are some people more likely to take a strategic stance toward their goals, and can this tendency be cultivated? To address these questions, we introduce the idea of a domain-general “strategic mindset.” This mindset involves asking oneself strategy-eliciting questions, such as “What can I do to help myself?”, “How else can I do this?”, or “Is there a way to do this even better?”, in the face of challenges or insufficient progress. In three studies (n = 864), people who scored higher on (or were primed with) a strategic mindset reported using more metacognitive strategies; in turn, they obtained higher college grade point averages (GPAs) (Study 1); reported greater progress toward their professional, educational, health, and fitness goals (Study 2); and responded to a challenging timed laboratory task by practicing it more and performing it faster (Study 3). We differentiated a strategic mindset from general self-efficacy, self-control, grit, and growth mindsets and showed that it explained unique variance in people’s use of metacognitive strategies. These findings suggest that being strategic entails more than just having specific metacognitive skills—it appears to also entail an orientation toward seeking and employing them.

Ericsson, A., & Pool, R. (2016). Peak: Secrets from the new science of expertise. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Psychologist Ericsson (The Road to Excellence) and science writer Pool (Beyond Engineering) skillfully examine the eternal debate of nature vs. nurture with this thoughtful treatise supporting the latter. The authors posit that deliberate, focused practice is the key to learning and mastering any new skill, whether or not an underlying natural talent is present. “Generally the solution is not ‘try harder,’ but ‘try differently,'” they explain. Using such diverse examples as the prodigal young Mozart and a neophyte golfer hoping to make the PGA Tour, the authors explain the importance of “purposeful practice,” adaptability, and mental representations–defined as structures that organize one’s remembered information about an object or idea. For the truly motivated, a chapter entitled “The Road to Extraordinary” offers a step-by-step guide to acquiring new skills and “reachfing] the frontier of human capabilities.” Throughout, the authors encourage dreaming big, even when conventional wisdom might dictate otherwise. This is an empowering, encouraging work that will challenge readers to reach for excellence.

Bixter, M. T., McMichael, S. L., Bunker, C. J., Adelman, R. M., Okun, M. A., Grimm,K.J.,…&Kwan,V. S.(2020). A test of a triadic conceptualization of future self-identification. PloS ONE, 15(11), Article e0242504.

People encounter intertemporal decisions every day and often engage in behaviors that are not good for their future. One factor that may explain these decisions is the perception of their distal future self. An emerging body of research suggests that individuals vary in how they perceive their future self and many perceive their future self as a different person. The present research aimed to (1) build on and extend Hershfield’s et al. (2011) review of the existing literature and advance the conceptualization of the relationship between the current and future self, (2) extend and develop measures of this relationship, and (3) examine whether and how this relationship predicts intrapsychic and achievement outcomes. The results of the literature review suggested that prior research mostly focused on one or two of the following components: (a) perceived relatedness between the current and future self in terms of similarity and connectedness, (b) vividness in imagining the future self, and (c) degree of positivity felt toward the future self. Additionally, differences in how researchers have labeled the overall construct lead us to propose future self-identification as a new label for the three-component construct. Our research built on existing measures to test the validity of a three-component model of future self-identification. Across three samples of first-year undergraduates, this research established the psychometric properties of the measure, and then examined the relationships between the components and four outcome domains of interest: (1) psychological well-being (self-esteem, hope), (2) imagination of the future (visual imagery of future events, perceived temporal distance), (3) self-control, and (4) academic performance. We demonstrated that the three components of future self-identification were correlated but independent factors. Additionally, the three components differed in their unique relationships with the outcome domains, demonstrating the utility of measuring all three components of future self-identification when seeking to predict important psychological and behavioral outcomes.

O’Connor, E. (2017). The psychology of performance: How to be your best in life. [Audiobook]. Audible Audio, Great Courses, The Teaching Company.

In The Psychology of Performance: How to Be Your Best in Life, clinical sport psychologist Eddie O’Connor, Ph. D., shares the best ways for you to reach your personal Carnegie Hall based on the latest scientific research—whether your performance environment is music, dance, business, or sport.

McCarroll, C. J., & Cosentino, E. (2020). Rewarding one’s future self: Psychological connectedness, episodic prospection, and a puzzle about perspective. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 11(2), 449-467.

When faced with intertemporal choices, which have consequences that unfold over time, we often discount the future, preferring smaller immediate rewards often at the expense of long-term benefits. How psychologically connected one feels to one’s future self-influences such temporal discounting. Psychological connectedness consists in sharing psychological properties with past or future selves, but connectedness comes in degrees. If one feels that one is not psychologically connected to one’s future self, one views that self like a different person and is less likely to wait for the future reward. Increasing perceived psychological connectedness to one’s future self may lead to more far-sighted decisions. Episodic prospection may help in this regard. Episodic prospection is our ability to ‘pre-experience’ the future by mentally simulating it, drawing on information from episodic memory and other sources. Episodic memory and prospection are thought to involve a special form of consciousness, which underpins the capacity to appreciate the connection between one’s past, present, and future selves. Simulating the future self through prospection may increase felt psychological connectedness and support future-oriented decision-making. Yet this is where a puzzle arises. The imagery of episodic memory and prospection is perspectival: often one views the visualised scenario from a detached perspective, seeing oneself from-the-outside as if viewing another person. The aim of this paper is to characterise how the perspectival imagery of prospection relates to psychological connectedness, and to show that even though such imagery involves a detached perspective it can still be used to help reward one’s future self.

Blouin‐Hudon, E. M. C., & Pychyl, T. A. (2017). A mental imagery intervention to increase future self‐continuity and reduce procrastination. Applied Psychology, 66(2), 326-352.

This research examined how mental imagery practice can increase future selfcontinuity to reduce procrastination. A total of 193 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a present-focused meditation or to a future selffocused mental imagery condition. Participants in both conditions were asked to listen to their respective audio recording twice per week for four consecutive weeks and to complete a pre-intervention, half-point, and post-intervention questionnaire. At the four-week mark, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both future self-continuity and empathic perspective taking were significantly higher for the mental imagery condition than the meditation condition. While vividness of future self moderated change in future selfcontinuity, affective empathy for future self mediated the relation between vividness of future self and future self-continuity. Lastly, only empathic perspective taking was a significant moderator of change in procrastination across time. The influence of empathy and future self-continuity on procrastination is discussed.

Teoh, J.K., & Englert., P. (2020). Investigating Relative Effectiveness of Subcomponents of a Goal Setting Protocol. [Unpublished Masters thesis]. Nanyang Technological University.

Procrastination is an almost universal affliction, but often is poorly understood. In the present research, we investigated the effect of goal setting, interest enhancement and energy on procrastination. In addition, demographics were examined. Using a mega-trial, a sample of 9351 persons, the relationship of sex and age on procrastination was replicated and refined. Further, lack of energy showed the strongest relationship and mediated the effect of interest enhancement on procrastination. Also, a new boundary for goal setting was established, that its efficacy can be partially preempted when combined with interest enhancement. Building on this, future research should focus on other such interactions so we might determine what motivational techniques are redundant and choose the strongest interventions for specific people.

McGonigal, J. (2015). SuperBetter: A revolutionary approach to getting stronger, happier, braver and more resilient. Penguin.

Playing games, according to McGonigal (Reality Is Broken, 2011), teaches us to focus our attention, make allies, and increase our heroic qualities, such as determination, compassion, and willpower. When McGonigal, a game designer, suffers a serious concussion, she decides to use these same strategies to batde her condition. Flat on her back and unable to read or watch television, McGonigal begins by mapping out a series of “quests” (some as simple as looking out of the window for 15 minutes). As her tasks become progressively harder, she enlists help from friends, adopts a superhero as her “secret identity,” battles the bad guys (pain, medication), and scores some epic wins. Using her success as a springboard, McGonigal created the SuperBetter program, aimed at anyone facing a life challenge. Each chapter explains one of the program’s steps for designing a game plan and is filled with “quests” that give players a chance to apply the program’s principles. A “mission accomplished” segment recaps the important points. The process is quirky, but it will appeal to readers willing to try a fresh approach to problem solving.

Controlling the Environment

Fogg, B. J. (2019). Tiny habits: The small changes that change everything. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

BJ Fogg starts off by addressing an issue with this audiobook: his voice. He’s the first to tell you it’s high and that it’s taken a lot of practice to get it lower than it used to be. The Stanford researcher and behavioral scientist uses this example to encourage listeners to make changes by taking a lot of baby steps to make change fit into their lives. Fogg injects humor into his examples, including describing his own plan to floss just one tooth to ease into the habit of flossing. Later on, he has a lot of fun recounting stories of the sabotage he’s seen people run into when making improvements. Throughout, he explains concepts such as motivation and reward, so listeners can work on their own changes.

Rogers, T., Milkman, K. L., & Volpp, K. G. (2014). Commitment devices: using initiatives to change behavior. JAMA, 311(20), 2065-2066.

Unhealthy behaviors are responsible for a large proportion of health care costs and poor health outcomes. Surveys of large employers regularly identify unhealthy behaviors as the most important challenge to affordable benefits coverage. For this reason, employers increasingly leverage incentives to encourage changes in employees’ health-related behaviors. According to one survey, 81% of large employers provide incentives for healthy behavior change. Here, Rogers et al discuss the potential and limitations of an approach that behavioral science research has shown can be used to influence health behaviors but that is distinct from incentives: the use of commitment devices.

Davidai, S., & Gilovich, T. (2018). The ideal road not taken: The self-discrepancies involved in people’s most enduring regrets. Emotion, 18(3), 439-452.

Research on the structural features of people’s most enduring regrets has focused on whether they result from having acted or having failed to act. Here we focus on a different structural feature, their connection to a person’s self-concept. In 6 studies, we predict and find that people’s most enduring regrets stem more often from discrepancies between their actual and ideal selves than their actual and ought selves. We also provide evidence that this asymmetry is at least partly due to differences in how people cope with regret. People are quicker to take steps to cope with failures to live up to their duties and responsibilities (ought-related regrets) than their failures to live up to their goals and aspirations (ideal-related regrets). As a consequence, ideal-related regrets are more likely to remain unresolved, leaving people more likely to regret not being all they could have been more than all they should have been.

Willink, J. (2017). Discipline equals freedom: Field manual. St. Martin’s Press.

For Jocko Willink, former Navy SEAL and author of the New York Times best-seller Extreme Ownership, the only way to make real progress is through discipline. Without discipline, Willink says, it’s too easy to quit. Discipline Equals Freedom is a guide to preparing yourself to succeed.

Part One focuses on your thoughts. “To reach the goals,” Willink writes, “and overcome obstacles and become the best version of you possible will not happen by itself and it will not happen cutting corners, taking shortcuts, or looking for the easy way. There is no easy way.” In Part Two, Willink highlights the importance of your actions, how to properly fuel your body, prevent injury and recover. And for those who are really looking to push themselves, the appendix is filled with specific and intense workouts. If you attempt them, remember: Don’t cut corners.

Wood, W. (2019). Good habits, bad habits: The science of making positive changes that stick. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

In her enlightening debut, Wood, professor of psychology at USC, rejects the popular narrative that links willpower to lasting behavioral change, and instead proposes that most human conduct stems from learned habits, not conscious decision-making. Wood contends that the way to create new behavioral patterns that will eventually become second nature is to engage in habitual, repetitive action. Wood acknowledges research that shows that some people might possess innate powers of self-control that defy the norm, but she argues that these supposedly high levels of self-control should really be understood as efficient habit formation. She eloquently explains current research on the role habits play in everyday activities such as snacking, exercising, and commuting. She also offers strategies for stopping undesirable habits by distupting the contexts that enable them, and shares real-life examples of habit change. For instance, she demonstrates how laws banning smoking in public spaces forced a widespread change of habits and led to a national decline in smoking. Her insightful, data-driven advice includes tactics such as “stacking”–grouping desired behaviors together with already-established behavioral patterns to incorporate actions into routines. Wood’s research and perspective on the malleability of habits will bring hope to any reader looking to create long-term behavioral change.

Prelec, D., & Bodner, R. (2003). Self-signaling and self-control. In G. Loewenstein, D. Read, & R. Baumeister (Eds.), Time and decision: Economic and psychological perspectives on intertemporal choice (p. 277–298). Russell Sage Foundation.

Ever since leaving tropical areas, where food supply in spite of its seasonal changes was always sufficient to guarantee species survival, mankind engages in taking care of future needs. Whereas evolutionary biology assumes that such future concerns are genetically encoded, in economics we usually rely on intertemporal preferences and rational deliberation on whether to consume immediately or to delay rewards. Denying any type of forward looking deliberation for mammals seems as wrong as assuming that homo sapiens has a well behaved intertemporal utility function allowing him to derive his optimal intertemporal consumption pattern. This questions the rational choice-approach as well as “The Evolution of Patience” (Alex Kacelnik) and calls for a third research tradition, namely that of psychology which is more inspired by empirical findings rather than by abstract ideas. The collection of essays, edited by George Loewenstein, Daniel Read, and Roy F. Baumeister, which were partly already published before, tries to provide such a more complete account of “Time and Decision” and continues what started with the essays about “Choice Over Time,” by the same publisher.

Clear, J. (2018) Atomic habits. Random House.

James Clear, an expert on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. He draws on proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible.

DeSteno, D. (2018). Emotional success: The power of gratitude, compassion, and pride. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

In his compelling new book Emotional Success, he spells out why three emotions-gratitude, compassion and pride-are what we need the most to achieve the kind of success that is sustainable over the long run, not the instant gratification or superficial high we might experience in the moment of a job well done.

Brewer, J. (2021) Unwinding anxiety. Ebury Publishing.

A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits

We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.

We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it’s also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can’t think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work.

Goldberg, E. (2009). The new executive brain: Frontal lobes in a complex world. Oxford University Press.

Through an accessible but rigorous narrative, the author shows how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes. They control our judgement, and our social and ethical behaviour. The effects of damage are also explored.

The Executive Brain is the first popular but rigorous book to explore the most ‘human’ region of the brain, the frontal lobes. Writing in a lively and accessible style, the author shows how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes, how they control our judgment and our social and ethical behavior, how vulnerable they are to injury, and how devastating the effects of damage often are, leading to chaotic, disorganized, asocial, and even criminal behavior. Replete with fascinating case histories and anecdotes, Goldberg’s book offers a panorama of state-of-the-art ideas and advances in cognitive neuroscience. It is also an intellectual memoir, filled with vignettes about the author’s early training with Luria, his escape from the Soviet Union, and later interactions with patients and professionals around the world.

Graybiel, A. M., & Grafton, S. T. (2015). The striatum: where skills and habits meet. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 7(8), a021691. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a021691

After more than a century of work concentrating on the motor functions of the basal ganglia, new ideas have emerged, suggesting that the basal ganglia also have major functions in relation to learning habits and acquiring motor skills. We review the evidence supporting the role of the striatum in optimizing behavior by refining action selection and in shaping habits and skills as a modulator of motor repertoires. These findings challenge the notion that striatal learning processes are limited to the motor domain. The learning mechanisms supported by striatal circuitry generalize to other domains, including cognitive skills and emotion-related patterns of action.

Duhigg, C. (2014). The power of habit: Why we do what we do in life and business. Random House.

An award-winning New York Times business reporter, Duhigg explores why habits exist and how they can be changed. Using his ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg creates a new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation. Along the way, he shows why some people and companies struggle to change despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. Habits aren’t destiny, as Duhigg shows: By harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities and our lives.

Hoppmann, C. A., Gerstorf, D., Smith, J., & Klumb, P. L. (2007). Linking possible selves and behavior: Do domain- specific hopes and fears translate into daily activities in very old age?. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 62(2), 104-111.

We used time-sampling information from a subsample of the Berlin Aging Study (N = 83; M = 81.1 years) to investigate the link between possible selves in three domains (health, everyday cognition, and social relations) and performance of daily activities. In the domains of health and social relations, hoped-for selves were associated with higher probabilities of performing daily activities in those domains. There were no associations in the cognitive domain or between feared selves and activities. Individuals who engaged in hope-related activities reported concurrent higher positive affect and subsequently had a higher probability of survival over a 10-year period. These findings speak to important associations between beliefs about possible selves and activities in advanced old age and the value of considering associations between microlevel and macrolevel indicators of successful aging.

Heylighen, F., & Vidal, C. (2008). Getting things done: the science behind stress-free productivity. Long Range Planning, 41(6), 585- 605.

In 2001 David Allen proposed ‘Getting Things Done’ (GTD) as a method for enhancing personal productivity and reducing the stress caused by information overload. This paper argues that recent insights in psychology and cognitive science support and extend GTD’s recommendations. We first summarize GTD with the help of a flowchart, and then review the theories of situated, embodied and distributed cognition that purport to explain how the brain processes information and plans actions in the real world. The conclusion is that the brain heavily relies on the environment to function as an external memory, a trigger for actions, and a source of ‘affordances’, disturbances and feedback. We show how these principles are practically implemented in GTD, with its focus on organizing tasks into ‘actionable’ external memories, and on opportunistic, situation-dependent execution. Finally, inspired by the concept of stigmergy, we propose an extension of GTD to support collaborative work.

The action model incorporated in the Futureselves framework has been drawn from: Allen, D. (2015). Getting things done: The art of stress-free productivity. Penguin Books.

Based on the concept that “your head is for having ideas, not storing them,” [David Allen]’s system offers a solid, all-encompassing system for achieving Zen-like master)’ over one’s responsibilities (and desk!). The book was originally conceived as a business-productivity method, and anyone with more than two responsibilities will find myriad benefits here as well.

Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667-683.

Unfulfilled goals persist in the mind, as asserted by ample theory and evidence (e.g., the Zeigarnik effect). The standard assumption has been that such cognitive activation persists until the goal is fulfilled. However, we predicted that contributing to goal pursuit through plan making could satisfy the various cognitive processes that usually promote goal pursuit. In several studies, we activated unfulfilled goals and demonstrated persistent goal activation over time. Unfinished goals caused intrusive thoughts during an unrelated reading task (Studies 1 and 5B), high mental accessibility of goal-related words (Studies 2 and 3), and poor performance on an unrelated anagram task (Study 4). Allowing participants to formulate specific plans for their unfulfilled goals eliminated the various activation and interference effects. Reduction of the effects was mediated by the earnestness of participants’ plans: Those who ultimately executed their plans were those who also exhibited no more intrusions (Study 4). Moreover, changes in goal-related emotions did not appear to be a necessary component of the observed cognitive effects (Studies 5A and 5B). Committing to a specific plan for a goal may therefore not only facilitate attainment of the goal but may also free cognitive resources for other pursuits. Once a plan is made, the drive to attain a goal is suspended—allowing goal-related cognitive activity to cease—and is resumed at the specified later time.

Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Penguin Books.

The fundamental argument, that classical economic thinking regards individuals as making decisions in their own best interests (making it an inappropriate framework for regulation design), is flawed on two grounds: classical economics does not make this claim, but rather claims that individual are better placed to make decisions in their own best interests than a regulator; and regulators, as individual decision‐makers, suffer from the same decision‐making limitations as private citizens. Considered more broadly, people consume more energy from fossil fuels than necessary, drive when walking is a viable alternative, purchase products from companies known to employ child labour or who employ environmentally unfriendly production processes (such as emitting too much carbon, disposing effluent in waterways, catching other species of marine life when fishing). […]in the cafeteria example, if promotion of healthy eating habits is the desired outcome, the libertarian paternalist would place fresh fruit at eye level and fried fatty foods in a less conspicuous place. Parts II‐IV apply libertarian paternalism to specific fields, such as the credit markets, retirement savings, marriage, organ donations, health insurance and school choice.

Working with Helping Professionals & Working Through the Past

Blix, I., Kanten, A. B., Birkeland, M. S., & Thoresen, S. (2018). Imagining what could have happened: Types and vividness of counterfactual thoughts and the relationship with post-traumatic stress reactions. Frontiers in Psychology, 20(9), 515.

A growing body of research suggests that counterfactual thinking after traumatic events is associated with post-traumatic stress reactions. In this study we explored frequency of upward and downward counterfactuals in trauma-exposed individuals, and how trauma-related counterfactuals were represented in terms of vividness. We examined the relationships between vividness and frequency of counterfactual thoughts and post-traumatic stress reactions in two groups who had experienced different types of traumatic exposure, namely survivors and bereaved from the fire on the ferry Scandinavian Star in 1990. Even after 26 years, both survivors and bereaved reported that they currently entertained thoughts about what could have happened during the fire on Scandinavian Star. Survivors reported more downward counterfactuals than the bereaved, whereas the bereaved reported more upward counterfactuals than the survivors did. Vividness of counterfactual thoughts, as well as reported frequency of upward and downward counterfactuals, were associated with post-traumatic stress reactions. Our results suggest that both upward and downward counterfactuals can be harmful, and that vivid counterfactuals about a traumatic event might play a similar role in post-traumatic stress as trauma memories. Therefore, traumatized individuals who entertain counterfactual thoughts may benefit from interventions that target these thoughts specifically.

Gingerich, W. J., & Eisengart, S. (2000). Solution‐focused brief therapy: A review of the outcome research. Family Process, 39(4), 477-498.

Critically reviews all 15 of the controlled outcome studies of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) to date to assess the extent to which SFBT has received empirical support. Five studies were well-controlled and all showed positive outcomes—4 found SFBT to be better than no treatment or standard institutional services, and 1 found SFBT to be comparable to a known intervention: Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression. Findings from the remaining 10 studies, which were moderately or poorly controlled, were consistent with a hypothesis of SFBT effectiveness.The 15 studies provide preliminary support for the efficacy of SFBT but do not permit a definitive conclusion.

Vieth, A. Z., Strauman, T. J., Kolden, G. G., Woods, T. E., Michels, J. L., & Klein, M. H. (2003). Self-System Therapy (SST): a theory-based psychotherapy for depression. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(3), 245-268. doi:10.1093/clipsy/bpg023

This article introduces Self-System Therapy (SST), a brief, structured psychotherapy for the treatment of depression. SST conceptualizes depression as a failure of self-regulation and is intended for individuals whose depression and/or premorbid functioning are characterized by particular problems in self-regulation. This article provides an overview of SST, including its origins in basic and clinical research on self-discrepancy theory and self-regulation, the hypothesized etiological role of self-regulation in depression, the primary components of the treatment, and comparisons of SST with other psychotherapies for depression. The general structure of a course of treatment with SST is outlined, and a case example is presented to illustrate the goals and strategies of each phase.

Porges, S. W. (2009). The polyvagal theory: new insights into adaptive reactions of the autonomic nervous system. Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, 76(Suppl 2), S86.

The polyvagal theory describes an autonomic nervous system that is influenced by the central nervous system, sensitive to afferent influences, characterized by an adaptive reactivity dependent on the phylogeny of the neural circuits, and interactive with source nuclei in the brainstem regulating the striated muscles of the face and head. The theory is dependent on accumulated knowledge describing the phylogenetic transitions in the vertebrate autonomic nervous system. Its specific focus is on the phylogenetic shift between reptiles and mammals that resulted in specific changes to the vagal pathways regulating the heart. As the source nuclei of the primary vagal efferent pathways regulating the heart shifted from the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus in reptiles to the nucleus ambiguus in mammals, a face–heart connection evolved with emergent properties of a social engagement system that would enable social interactions to regulate visceral state.

Hari, J. (2018). Lost connections: Uncovering the real causes of depression – and the unexpected solutions. Bloomsbury.

Award-winning journalist Johann Hari suffered from depression since he was a child and started taking antidepressants when he was a teenager. He was told—like his entire generation—that his problem was caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. As an adult, trained in the social sciences, he began to investigate this question—and he learned that almost everything we have been told about depression and anxiety is wrong.

Across the world, Hari discovered social scientists who were uncovering the real causes—and they are mostly not in our brains, but in the way we live today. Hari’s journey took him from the people living in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin—all showing in vivid and dramatic detail these new insights. They lead to solutions radically different from the ones we have been offered up until now.

Ellis, A. (2005). Rational emotive behavior therapy. In R. J. Corsini & D. Wedding (Eds.), Current psychotherapies (p. 166–201). Thomson Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.

Now in its eleventh edition and used in top Counseling, Psychology and Social Work programs, CURRENT PSYCHOTHERAPIES helps you learn, compare and apply the major systems of psychotherapy in a way that will be meaningful in your future practice. Every chapter is written by either an originator or a leading proponent of a system. Each of these distinguished figures describes the basic principles of the system and highlights how it differs from other systems. A case example in every theory chapter guides you through the problem, evaluation, treatment and follow-up process.

Ellis, A. (1980). Rational-emotive therapy and cognitive behavior therapy: Similarities and differences. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 4(4), 325-340.

The main theoretical and practical applications of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive Therapy (CT) are examined and found to be similar to each other in most respects, but REBT bases its concepts of improved treatment of neurotic disorders and of severe personality dysfunctioning largely on philosophical, existential, and humanistic bases, while CT tends to align them with empirical results of outcome studies. Both REBT and CT, however, use philosophic and empirical outcome studies to construct and validate their theories.

Mulholland, T. (2007). The power of positive thinking. Wisdom Tree; Mulholland T. (2006). Turning life’s lemons into lemonade. Wisdom Tree.

In this phenomenal bestseller, “written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life,” Dr. Peale demonstrates the power of faith in action. With the practical techniques outlined in this book, you can energize your life—and give yourself the initiative needed to carry out your ambitions and hopes.

Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2011). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change. Guilford Press.

Since the original publication of this seminal work, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has come into its own as a widely practiced approach to helping people change. This book provides the definitive statement of ACT–from conceptual and empirical foundations to clinical techniques–written by its originators. ACT is based on the idea that psychological rigidity is a root cause of a wide range of clinical problems. The authors describe effective, innovative ways to cultivate psychological flexibility by detecting and targeting six key processes: defusion, acceptance, attention to the present moment, self-awareness, values, and committed action. Sample therapeutic exercises and patient-therapist dialogues are integrated throughout.

Harris, R. (2019). ACT made simple: An easy-to-read primer on acceptance and commitment therapy. New Harbinger.

Why is it so hard to be happy? Why is life so difficult? Why do humans suffer so much? And what can we realistically do about it? No matter how rewarding your job, as a mental health professional, you may sometimes feel helpless in the face of these questions. You are also well aware of the challenges and frustrations that can present during therapy.

If you’re looking for ways to optimize your client sessions, consider joining the many thousands of therapists and life coaches worldwide who are learning acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). With a focus on mindfulness, client values, and a commitment to change, ACT is proven-effective in treating depression, anxiety, stress, addictions, eating disorders, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder (BPD), and myriad other psychological issues. It’s also a revolutionary new way to view the human condition—packed full of exciting new tools, techniques, and strategies for promoting profound behavioral change.

Hayes, S. C. (2004). Acceptance and commitment therapy, relational frame theory, and the third wave of behavioral and cognitive therapies. Behavior Therapy, 35(4), 639-665.

The first wave of behavior therapy countered the excesses and scientific weakness of existing nonempirical clinical traditions through empirically studied first-order change efforts linked to behavioral principles targeting directly relevant clinical targets. The second wave was characterized by similar direct change efforts guided by social learning and cognitive principles that included cognitive in addition to behavioral and emotive targets. Various factors seem to have set the stage for a third wave, including anomalies in the current literature and philosophical changes. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is one of a number of new interventions from both behavioral and cognitive wings that seem to be moving the field in a different direction. ACT is explicitly contextualistic and is based on a basic experimental analysis of human language and cognition, Relational Frame Theory (RFT). RFT explains why cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance are both ubiquitous and harmful. ACT targets these processes and is producing supportive data both at the process and outcome level. The third-wave treatments are characterized by openness to older clinical traditions, a focus on second order and contextual change, an emphasis of function over form, and the construction of flexible and effective repertoires, among other features. They build on the first- and second-wave treatments, but seem to be carrying the behavior therapy tradition forward into new territory.

Hayes, S. (2021, March). ACT randomized controlled trials since 1986. Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. https://contextualscience.org/act_randomized_controlled_trials_since_1986

The intent of this list is to add all randomized controlled trials of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and its components that have appeared in the scientific literature, whether alone or in combination with other methods, under the label “ACT” or the closely related terms such as “Acceptance-based behavior therapy” or “mindfulness-acceptance-commitment” and so on, regardless of outcome, language, or country of origin. Only articles appearing in a scientific journal will be included in the list. Dissertations, theses, working papers, conference presentations, studies in book chapters, and so on are not listed until they appear in a scientific journal.

Strosahl, K. D., Robinson, P. J., & Gustavsson, T. (2012). Brief interventions for radical change: Principles and practice of focused acceptance and commitment therapy. New Harbinger.

As a mental health professional, you know it’s a real challenge to help clients develop the psychological skills they need to live a vital life. This is especially true when you are working with time constraints or in settings where contacts with the client will be brief. Brief Interventions for Radical Change is a powerful resource for any clinician working with clients who are struggling with mental health, substance abuse, or life adjustment issues. If you are searching for a more focused therapeutic approach that requires fewer follow-up visits with clients, or if you are simply looking for a way to make the most of each session, this is your guide.

In this book, you’ll find a ready-to-use collection of brief assessment and case-formulation tools, as well as many brief intervention strategies based in focused acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). These tools and strategies can be used to help your clients stop using unworkable behaviors, and instead engage in committed, values-based actions to change their lives for the better.

The book includes a practical approach to understanding how clients get stuck, focusing questions to help clients redefine their problem, and tools to increase motivation for change. In addition, you will learn methods for rapidly constructing effective treatment plans and effective interventions for promoting acceptance, present-moment awareness, and contact with personal values.

With this book, you will easily integrate important mindfulness, acceptance, and values-based therapeutic work in their interactions with clients suffering from depression, anxiety, or any other mental health problem.

Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2006). Schema therapy: A practitioner’s guide. Guilford Press.

Designed to meet the formidable challenges of treating personality disorders and other complex difficulties, schema therapy combines proven cognitive-behavioral techniques with elements of other widely practiced therapies. This book–written by the model’s developer and two of its leading practitioners–is the first major text for clinicians wishing to learn and use this popular approach. Described are innovative ways to rapidly conceptualize challenging cases, explore the client’s childhood history, identify and modify self-defeating patterns, use imagery and other experiential techniques in treatment, and maximize the power of the therapeutic relationship. Including detailed protocols for treating borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder, the book is illustrated with numerous clinical examples

Madeson, M. (2021, March 15). Seligman’s PERMA+ model explained: A theory of wellbeing. Positive Psychology. https://positivepsychology.com/perma-model/

The pursuit of happiness is one that humans have been working toward since the beginning of time. Yet the concept of “happiness” is often hard to accurately define. Living the good life, flourishing, self-actualization, joy, and purpose are words that come to mind with happiness. Is it possible to experience any of these in the middle of a chaotic world and negative circumstances? Can we learn to grow or find skills that lead to this “good life?”

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. Scribner.

Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Duckworth, now a celebrated researcher and professor, describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not “genius” but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance.

In Grit, she takes readers into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.

Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Ballantine Books.

World-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, in decades of research on achievement and success, has discovered a truly groundbreaking idea-the power of our mindset. Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn’t foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success. With the right mindset, we can motivate our kids and help them to raise their grades, as well as reach our own goals-personal and professional. Dweck reveals what all great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.

Kennedy, D. K., & Hughes, B. M. (2004). The optimism-neuroticism question: An evaluation based on cardiovascular reactivity in female college students. The Psychological Record, 54(3), 373-386.

In order to assess the competing roles of dispositional optimism and neuroticism on reactivity to psychological stress, we selected 50 women (mean age = 18.76 years; SD = 1.9 years) from a screening sample of 150 college students on the basis of having high and low scores in dispositional optimism. In a laboratory, participants provided cardiovascular measures before, during, and after a mentally challenging task, as well as anxiety scores before and after the task. Participants also supplied measures of neuroticism and ratings of task-stressfulness. It was found that neuroticism and not optimism exerted an influence on diastolic blood pressure responses, that neither variable influenced systolic blood pressure responses except in the case of unstable change scores, and that the two variables suppressed each other’s influence on anxiety levels (but that neuroticism had a stronger association with anxiety). It was also found that participants’ ratings of the stressfulness of the laboratory task, although positively associated with cardiovascular reactivity, did not mediate the relationships among optimism, neuroticism, and cardiovascular measures. The present study confirms the suspicion that optimism is not independent from neuroticism as an index of disease risk.

Seligman, M. E. (2006). Learned optimism: How to change your mind and your life. Vintage.

Offering many simple techniques anyone can practice, Dr. Seligman explains how to break an “I–give–up” habit, develop a more constructive explanatory style for interpreting your behavior, and experience the benefits of a more positive interior dialogue.

With generous additional advice on how to encourage optimistic behavior at school, at work and in children, Learned Optimism is both profound and practical—and valuable for every phase of life.

Taylor, S., & Brown J. (1988). Illusions and well being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103(2), 193-210.

Many prominent theorists have argued that accurate perceptions of the self, the world, and the future are essential for mental health. Yet considerable research evidence suggests that overly positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism are characteristic of normal human thought. Moreover, these illusions appear to promote other criteria of mental health, including the ability to care about others, the ability to be happy or contented, and the ability to engage in productive and creative work. These strategies may succeed, in large part, because both the social world and cognitive-processing mechanisms impose filters on incoming information that distort it in a positive direction; negative information may be isolated and represented in as unthreatening a manner as possible. These positive illusions may be especially useful when an individual receives negative feedback or is otherwise threatened and may be especially adaptive under these circumstances.

Buris, R., & Martin, J. (1997). The therapeutic construction of possible selves: Imagination and its constraints. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 10(2), 153-166.

In psychotherapy, clients often are helped to elaborate, and subsequently to appropriate, possible self-theories that are made available in therapeutic conversations and activities. In this study, the ability of 6 clients (all substance abusers) to express, elaborate-explore, and synthesize feelings and experiences during role-plays in which they imagined 2 future scenarios was investigated. Clients directly expressed feelings and experiences in the more familiar, negative possible self role-play to a greater extent than in the less familiar, positive possible self role-play. However, clients’ participation in the positive self role-play may have helped them to synthesize newly realized or more fully recognized feelings and experiences. These results are discussed in the light of recent conceptualizations of psychotherapeulic change from both social constructionist and personal constructivist perspectives.

Dunning, D., & Story, A. (1991). Depression, realism, and the overconfidence effect: Are the sadder wiser when predicting future actions and events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(4), 521-532.

Examined whether depressed individuals make more realistic judgments than their nondepressed peers in real world settings. Depressed and nondepressed Ss in 2 studies were asked to make predictions about future actions and outcomes that might occur in their personal academic and social worlds. Both groups of Ss displayed overconfidence, that is, they overestimated the likelihood that their predictions would prove to be accurate. Of key importance, depressed Ss were less accurate in their predictions, and thus more overconfident, than their nondepressed counterparts. These differences arose because depressed Ss (a) were more likely to predict the occurrence of low base-rate events and (b) were less likely to be correct when they made optimistic predictions (i.e., stated that positive events would occur or that aversive outcomes would not). Discussion focuses on implications of these findings for the depressive realism hypothesis.

Goleman, D. J. (1989). What is negative about positive illusions? When benefits for the individual harm the collective. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 8(2), 190-197.

Considers the broader implications of the processes of illusion in terms of the individual’s capacity for self-deception as a survival mechanism, which plays a vital role in the psyche of the healthy person. Neurobiology and self-deception are examined from the perspectives of opioids (characterized as the brain’s analgesics), which are part of the body’s stress response. Denial is seen as functioning psychologically to soothe, a principle similar to the opioids, and is at work at the psychological and neurological level. In the psyche, denial and illusion work hand-in-hand. Illusions and well-being, the collective self and group illusions, and collective self-deception are discussed.

Oyserman, D., & Destin, M. (2010). Identity-based motivation: Implications for intervention. The Counseling Psychologist, 38(7), 1001-1043.

Children want to succeed academically and attend college but their actual attainment often lags behind; some groups (e.g., boys, low-income children) are particularly likely to experience this gap. Social structural factors matter, influencing this gap in part by affecting children’s perceptions of what is possible for them and people like them in the future. Interventions that focus on this macro—micro interface can boost children’s attainment. We articulate the processes underlying these effects using an integrative culturally sensitive framework entitled identity-based motivation (IBM). The IBM model assumes that identities are dynamically constructed in context. People interpret situations and difficulties in ways that are congruent with currently active identities and prefer identity-congruent to identity-incongruent actions. When action feels identity congruent, experienced difficulty highlights that the behavior is important and meaningful. When action feels identity incongruent, the same difficulty suggests that the behavior is pointless and “not for people like me.”

McFarlin, D. B., & Baumeister, R. F. & Blascovich, J. (1984). On knowing when to quit: Task failure, self-esteem, advice, and non-productive persistence. Journal of Personality, 52(2), 138-155.

Past research has found the performance of persons with high self‐esteem to improve after failure, especially on tasks for which persistence correlates positively with performance. However, persistence may be nonproductive in some situations. Experiment 1 used a task for which persistence and performance were uncorrelated; subjects high in self‐esteem persisted longer but performed worse than did those with low self‐esteem, particularly after prior failure feedback. Experiment 2 tested whether differential sensitivity to advice about the efficacy of persistence mediates nonproductive persistence. High self‐esteem subjects who received explicit advice against nonproductive persistence on a puzzle‐solving task still tended to persist longer on unsolvable puzzles than did low self‐esteem subjects. The implications of high self‐esteem subjects’ tendency to engage in nonproductive persistence are discussed.

Cross, S. E., & Markus, H. R. (1994). Self-schemas, possible selves, and competent performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86(3), 423-438.

College students were classified as either schematic for being a good problem solver (i.e., they believed they were very good in this area, and this ability was very important to their self-evaluation) or aschematic for this ability (i.e., they believed they had moderate ability in this area, and this ability was of moderate to low importance to their self-evaluation). In Study 1, schematic and aschematic Ss performed equally well in an initial problem-solving test; however, aschematic Ss did not enjoy the task and had negative possible selves related to logical ability active in working memory. In Study 2, aschematic Ss maintained competent performance on a problem-solving test only when given failure feedback on an earlier test. The results point to the importance of the self-concept in the development and maintenance of competence

Kuhl, J. (1986). Motivation and information processing: A new look at decision making, dynamic change and action control. In R. M. Sorrentino, and E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundations of Social Behaviour (pp. 404- 434). Guilford Press.

The apparent success of cognitive principles in accounting for several behaviors has led social psychologists to question the need for motivations and other “hot” dispositional constructs. In their place, they postulate nonmotivational “cold” cognitions. Behavioral variations between individuals are thus reduced to differences in information processing abilities, while biases and other apparently motivated behaviors are explained on the “faulty computer” model. However, as many cognitive psychologists now acknowledge, this mechanistic theory fails to tie the processing of information to the performance of actions. In a creative attempt to bridge this gap, Richard Sorrentino, Tory Higgins, and other investigators have begun to challenge the prevailing hot/cold, either/or dichotomy. Instead, the editors propose the “warm look”—a synergistic approach to the roles of “hot” motivations and “cold” cognitions in the production of behavior. This comprehensive, authoritative handbook, the first to attempt an integration of these contrasting approaches to behavior, discusses the dual contributions of cognition and motivation to affective states, the development and evaluation of the self, and the setting and attainment of goals. Central themes include the notion of different public and private selves forming distinct influences on motivational behavior; the key role of affect in mediating social information processing; and the differences between informational and affective value, or between behavior geared to finding out versus behavior prompted by a desire to feel good.

An ambitious and original attempt to bridge the gap between thought and action, the “Handbook [of Motivation and Cognition: Foundations of Social Behavior]” is an indispensible reference for all social, cognitive, and developmental psychologists, investigators of personality and motivation, and advanced students in these areas.

Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The power of passion and perseverance (First ed.). Scribner.

Educators spend a great effort on student retention, yet we are still faced with student failure and college dropouts. We may have now found a key to students’ academic achievement and college success from Angela Duckworth. Duckworth has pursued a question long sought by psychologists, “What makes some people succeed and others fail?” We commonly believe that the “smartest” and “most talented” are admitted and will succeed in college. College Learning Center professionals and developmental educators now have scientific evidence to support what they have long observed in our field of helping students learn and achieve. Persistence and passion, ie. grit, matters more than a student’s talent.

Duckworth builds on the findings of Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006). Dweck distinguished between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. She defined a growth mindset as a belief that our most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Brains and talent can be developed and are not determined from birth as viewed by those with a fixed mindset. Dweck contends that we can learn to develop a growth mindset, even if we first think of our talents as innate.

GRIT summarizes Duckworth’s research on the psychology of success, expanding on Dweck’s premise and other research in this field. It traces her journey of discovery to the development of the Grit Scale, which can accurately determine a Grit score, thus predicting one’s potential to “stick it out” when faced with a challenge. Her scale is applicable to college students, but also in other arenas.

Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta- analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(3), 492-511.

Grit has been presented as a higher order personality trait that is highly predictive of both success and performance and distinct from other traits such as conscientiousness. This paper provides a meta-analytic review of the grit literature with a particular focus on the structure of grit and the relation between grit and performance, retention, conscientiousness, cognitive ability, and demographic variables. Our results based on 584 effect sizes from 88 independent samples representing 66,807 individuals indicate that the higher order structure of grit is not confirmed, that grit is only moderately correlated with performance and retention, and that grit is very strongly correlated with conscientiousness. We also find that the perseverance of effort facet has significantly stronger criterion validities than the consistency of interest facet and that perseverance of effort explains variance in academic performance even after controlling for conscientiousness. In aggregate our results suggest that interventions designed to enhance grit may only have weak effects on performance and success, that the construct validity of grit is in question, and that the primary utility of the grit construct may lie in the perseverance facet.

Baumeister, R. F. (1989). The optimal margin of illusion. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 8(2), 176-189.

This article proposes that optimal psychological functioning is associated with a slight to moderate degree of distortion in one’s perception of self and world. Past evidence suggests that substantial distortions provide a dangerous basis for action, yet recent research has shown that highly accurate perceptions are associated with depression and other maladaptive patterns. By seeing things as only slightly better than they really are, the individual may enjoy the affective benefits of illusions while avoiding the pragmatic, behavioral risks of acting on false assumptions. Departures from this optimal margin of illusion are associated with risks and difficulties, and power hierarchies may be an important arena for studying these problems.

Kwik, J. (2020). Limitless: Upgrade your brain, learn anything faster, and unlock your exceptional life. Hay House Inc.

JIM KWIK, the world’s #1 brain coach, has written the owner’s manual for mental expansion and brain fitness. Limitless gives people the ability to accomplish more–more productivity, more transformation, more personal success and business achievement–by changing their Mindset, Motivation, and Methods.

These “3 M’s” live in the pages of Limitless along with practical techniques that unlock the superpowers of your brain and change your habits.

For over 25 years, Jim Kwik has worked closely with successful men and women who are at the top in their fields as actors, athletes, CEOs, and business leaders from all walks of life to unlock their true potential. In this groundbreaking book, he reveals the science-based practices and field-tested tips to accelerate self learning, communication, memory, focus, recall, and speed reading, to create fast, hard results.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. Basic Books.

Have you ever been so engrossed in an activity that you haven’t realised how much time has passed? If so, you are experiencing flow.

Finding Flow is an interesting exploration of flow theory applied to work and leisure. The author argues that we can maximise our flow by being more aware of how we spend our time and by approaching routine tasks in different ways, ultimately making us more engaged and productive. It will make you rethink how you plan your training, your work and even your spare time.

Staying the Course

Harris, S. (2016). Lying. Four Elephants Press.

“As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie. In Lying, best-selling author and neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that we can radically simplify our lives and improve society by merely telling the truth in situations where others often lie. He focuses on “white” lies—those lies we tell for the purpose of sparing people discomfort—for these are the lies that most often tempt us. And they tend to be the only lies that good people tell while imagining that they are being good in the process.”

Branden, N. (1995). The six pillars of self-esteem. Bantam Dell Publishing Group.

We live in times of rapid and complex change. Social structures, ways of doing business, and the economy are in a constant state of uncertainty. An information revolution is taking place, and the challenge is not only to survive, but to flourish in this brave new world of technology. The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, a new book by psychologist Nataniel Branden, links the ability to effectively manage change to the possession of self-esteem. Although the term “self-esteem” is much overused and little understood, Branden persuasively demonstrates that, because of the changes taking place, self-esteem is needed now more than ever, both on a personal level and in the workplace.

Quinlan, S. L., Jaccard, J., & Blanton, H. (2006). A decision theoretic and prototype conceptualization of possible selves: Implications for the prediction of risk behavior. Journal of Personality, 74(2), 599-630.

The present study explores a new framework for conceptualizing possible selves for the prediction of behavior. The framework uses decision theory, attitude theory, and classic expectancy‐value models. The focus is on using possible‐self constructs that (a) correspond to behavioral alternatives, (b) focus on self dimensions directly tied to the behavioral criterion, and (c) use expectancy‐value constructs to assess the core features of a given possible self‐dimension. A study of 305 college students was undertaken to predict alcohol use from possible self constructs using the framework. Results affirmed the utility of the approach, showing that possible‐self constructs predicted behavior over and above current self‐image and constructs in the Theory of Planned Behavior. Possible‐self constructs associated with negative attributes of both binge drinkers and nonbinge drinkers were predictive of behavior.

Eyal, N. (2019). Indistractable: How to control your attention and choose your life. BenBella Books.

The author writes that the drive to relieve discomfort is the root cause of all our behavior and that we should not blame a smartphone for causing distraction. The author lists four factors that make satisfaction temporary: 1. boredom; 2. negativity bias; 3. rumination (or our tendency to keep thinking about bad experiences); and 4. “hedonic adaptation,” or the tendency to quickly return to a baseline level of satisfaction. Eyal offers additional tips to prevent distraction while in the office or working from home, noting that we should “hack back” external triggers such as “notifications, pings, dings, alarms, and even other people.”

Newport. C. (2016). Deep Work. Rules for focused success in a distracted world. Grand Central Publishing.

To remain valuable in the new economy, mastering the art of quickly learning complicated things is paramount. This kind of task requires ingraining a crucial ability called deep work to stay competitive in a globally competitive information economy. However, a 2012 McKinsey study found that the knowledge worker on an average is spending more than 60 per cent of the work week engaged in electronic communication and Internet searching, with close to 30 per cent of a worker’s time dedicated to reading and answering e-mails. Cal Newport in his Wall Street journal bestseller book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World has a valid reason to state that ‘the reason knowledge workers are losing their familiarity with deep work is well established: network tools’. It is quite evident that the rise of social media networks combined with ubiquitous access to them through smart phones and networked office computers has fragmented most knowledge worker’s attention into slivers. There is increasing evidence today of the knowledge workers not been involved in cognitively demanding tasks qualified as deep work but rather in more logical style mundane tasks, which the author refers to as shallow work. To substantiate with an example, say, if we set about trying to brainstorm different approaches to a problem at hand, that is deep work. If we just answer a reply all in a department, that’s shallow work. The author observes that if our nature of work is primarily shallow in nature and does not warrant intellectual abilities, we increasing lose our capacity to perform cognitively challenging work referred to as deep work by the author. Therefore, the proposition of the book is based on the hypothesis that the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time when it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.

Young, S. H. (2019). Ultralearning: Master hard skills, outsmart the competition. Harper Business.

Yerkes-Dodson law. (2021, March 25). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerkes%E2%80%93Dodson_law

The Yerkes–Dodson law is an empirical relationship between pressure and performance, originally developed by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908. The law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point. When levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases. The process is often illustrated graphically as a bell-shaped curve which increases and then decreases with higher levels of arousal. The original paper (a study of Japanese dancing mice) was only referenced ten times over the next half century, yet in four of the citing articles, these findings were described as a psychological “law”.

Kaufman, S. B. (2020). Transcend: The new science of self-actualization. TarcherPerigee.

A bold reimagining of Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs–and new insights for realizing your full potential and living your most creative, fulfilled, and connected life.

With never-before-published insights and new research findings, along with exercises and opportunities to gain insight into your own unique personality, this empowering book is a manual for self-analysis and nurturing a deeper connection not only with our highest potential but also with the rest of humanity.

Waking Up Course, LLC. (2020). Waking Up: Guided Meditation (Version 1.6.51) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from http://itunes.apple.com

Don’t think of Waking Up as a conventional meditation app—think of it as a new operating system for your mind, and a guide to living a better life.

We aim to offer a far deeper approach to mindfulness than you’ll find elsewhere—one that fundamentally transforms how you see yourself, and the world around you…