Challenge versus threat effects on the goal–performance relationship

Drach‐Zahavy, Anat; Erez, Miriam

doi:10.1016/s0749-5978(02)00004-3

Cited by 183 publications

(153 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…RAs were unaware that group sex composition was the experimental manipulation; they believed variations in group composition were a natural part of scheduling. After participants got acquainted with their teammates, but before they started the group task, they were taken to private cubicles where they worked on the engineering problems alone, after which we assessed how threatened or positively challenged they felt in anticipation of the group task using reliable self-report measures (35,36,37,40). Participants then worked with their teammates on the engineering problems for 15 min.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female peers in small work groups enhance women's motivation, verbal participation, and career aspirations in engineering

Dasgupta

Scircle

Hunsinger

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

234

167

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For years, public discourse in science education, technology, and policy-making has focused on the "leaky pipeline" problem: the observation that fewer women than men enter science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields and more women than men leave. Less attention has focused on experimentally testing solutions to this problem. We report an experiment investigating one solution: we created "microenvironments" (small groups) in engineering with varying proportions of women to identify which environment increases motivation and participation, and whether outcomes depend on students' academic stage. Female engineering students were randomly assigned to one of three engineering groups of varying sex composition: 75% women, 50% women, or 25% women. For first-years, group composition had a large effect: women in female-majority and sex-parity groups felt less anxious than women in female-minority groups. However, among advanced students, sex composition had no effect on anxiety. Importantly, group composition significantly affected verbal participation, regardless of women's academic seniority: women participated more in female-majority groups than sex-parity or female-minority groups. Additionally, when assigned to female-minority groups, women who harbored implicit masculine stereotypes about engineering reported less confidence and engineering career aspirations. However, in sexparity and female-majority groups, confidence and career aspirations remained high regardless of implicit stereotypes. These data suggest that creating small groups with high proportions of women in otherwise male-dominated fields is one way to keep women engaged and aspiring toward engineering careers. Although sex parity works sometimes, it is insufficient to boost women's verbal participation in group work, which often affects learning and mastery.stereotypes | STEM diversity | science education | gender | social psychology I n today's globalized world, innovation in science and technology is vital for American economic competitiveness, quality of life, and national security. For the United States to maintain global leadership and competitiveness, the nation must invest in research and innovation and grow a talented, large workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Indeed, much of the future job growth in the United States is expected to be in STEM fields, and American businesses search globally for talent (1). This raises concerns about Americans' preparedness for these jobs because too few domestic students enter STEM fields and among those who do, attrition is high. For example, only 28% of the STEM workforce is female (2), even though women represent 50% of the American population and 58% of its college-bound population (3). Clearly, women are untapped human capital that, if leveraged, could increase the STEM workforce substantially. Accomplishing this goal involves identifying academic stages in the STEM pipeline where women are less likely to enter STEM fields and more likely to exit these fiel...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female peers in small work groups enhance women's motivation, verbal participation, and career aspirations in engineering

Dasgupta

Scircle

Hunsinger

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

234

167

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Since the potential for losses is particularly salient when the prevention focus is activated, the possibility of a negative outcome should be perceived as rather high when negative expectancies are given. Therefore, when prevention concerns are activated, the demands for successful goal attainment (i.e., the avoidance of a poor performance) should be evaluated as fairly high in view of a negative expectancy, which can lead to reduced performance (see Drach-Zahavy & Erez, 2002, for the impact of challenge vs. threat appraisals on performance). In contrast, even though high (i.e., positive) expectancies as such are rather demanding, we propose that under prevention focus conditions-when the concern is not with performing very well, but with not performing poorly, and positive expectancies are therefore less relevant-positive expectancy situations are perceived as less threatening than negative expectancy situations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When positive and negative expectancies disrupt performance: regulatory focus as a catalyst

Keller

Bless

2007

Euro J Social Psych

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The present research investigates the impact of negative and positive stereotypic expectancies on cognitive test performance. A theoretical framework that relates expectancy effects to self-regulatory processes as postulated by Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT) is presented. Building on the differential sensitivity hypothesis proposed in this theoretical model, we argue that when self-regulation in a prevention focus is activated individuals are particularly sensitive with regard to negative cues and therefore negative expectancies are likely to result in poor test performance due to an apprehension about meeting minimal goal standards. Conversely, when self-regulation is guided by a promotion focus individuals are particularly sensitive with regard to positive cues and hence likely to show impaired performance when confronted with positive expectancies due to an apprehension about meeting maximal goal standards. The results of four experiments, relying on both situational and chronic regulatory focus, support these assumptions.

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“…Drach-Zahavy & Erez, 2002;LePine et al, 2005). This theoretical approach follows the cognitive-relational model of stress appraisal proposed by Lazarus and his colleagues (e.g., Lazarus & Folkman, 1984;Lazarus, 1999), which posits that, relative to a situational demand, threat and challenge appraisals synergistically interact to produce stress appraisals.…”

Section: Differential Relationships Of Role Stressors With Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

A Meta-Analysis of Work Demand Stressors and Job Performance: Examining Main and Moderating Effects

Gilboa

Shirom

Fried

et al. 2013

From Stress to Wellbeing Volume 1

239

348

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We quantitatively integrated 169 samples (N = 35,265 employees) that have been used to investigate the relationships of the following 7 workrelated stressors with job performance: role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, job insecurity, work-family conflict, environmental uncertainty, and situational constraints. Overall, we obtained a negative mean correlation between each job performance measure and each stressor included in our analyses. As hypothesized, role ambiguity and situational constraints were most strongly negatively related to performance, relative to the other work-related stressors. Analysis of moderators revealed that (a) the negative correlation of role overload and performance was higher among managers relative to nonmanagers; (b) publication year moderated the relation of role ambiguity and role overload with performance, although in opposite directions; (c) the correlations obtained for published versus unpublished studies were not significantly different; and (d) using the Rizzo et al. scale of role ambiguity and role conflict decreased the magnitude of the correlations of these stressors with performance, relative to other scales. Theoretical contributions, future research directions, and practical implications are discussed.Psychosocial stressors at work represent a ubiquitous and multifaceted phenomenon (Lazarus, 1993); several theoretical frameworks predict that they affect employee attitudes and behaviors (Jex & Crossley, 2005). Most past meta-analytical reviews of these relationships focused only on the linkages of role conflict and role ambiguity with job performance, none of

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Challenge versus threat effects on the goal–performance relationship

Cited by 183 publications

References 32 publications

Female peers in small work groups enhance women's motivation, verbal participation, and career aspirations in engineering

Female peers in small work groups enhance women's motivation, verbal participation, and career aspirations in engineering

When positive and negative expectancies disrupt performance: regulatory focus as a catalyst

A Meta-Analysis of Work Demand Stressors and Job Performance: Examining Main and Moderating Effects

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