Psychology Chapter on Needs and Goal Setting

Social Needs

• Include interaction with others, building friendships, and community activities like company cafeterias and picnics.

Ego Needs

• Satisfied through recognition via awards, praise, promotions, and a good office environment.

Self-Actualization Needs

• Boredom in a job diminishes motivation; engaging and challenging work enhances motivation.

Goal Setting Theory

• Goals represent objectives individuals aim to achieve. Types of goals include:
  • Specific goals, e.g., achieving an ‘A’ on an exam.
  • General goals, e.g., performing well in college.
• Two orientations:
  • Learning orientation focuses on knowledge and skill enhancement.
  • Performance orientation concentrates on achieving specific performance metrics.

Effects of Goals on Behavior

• Goals initiate actions necessary to reach them, such as studying.
• Goals promote greater effort, leading to enhanced concentration and more effective studying.
• Persistence increases as individuals spend more time working towards their goals.
• Goals motivate the search for effective strategies in learning.

Social Relationships: Compliance, Obedience, and Conformity

Compliance

• A form of social influence where individuals follow requests, differing from obedience because it does not involve direct orders.
• Classic techniques include:
  • Foot-in-the-door: Agreeing to a small request makes individuals more likely to comply with larger requests later.
  • Door-in-the-face: A large initial request followed by a smaller, more reasonable one increases compliance chances.
  • Lowball technique: Gaining a commitment and later increasing the commitment's costs.

Obedience

• Involves changing behavior due to orders from authority figures, distinct from the social matching behavior of conformity.
• Types of obedience:
  • Destructive obedience: Following commands that harm self or others.
  • Positive obedience: Following rules for beneficial reasons, such as obeying traffic laws for safety.

Conformity

• Changing personal behavior to align with group actions, driven by social acceptance.
• Influenced by:
  • Informational influence: Conforming due to a desire for correctness based on others' knowledge.
  • Normative influence: Conforming to gain acceptance or avoid punishment, even against personal beliefs.

Managing Emotions at Work

Understanding Emotions

• Emotions are specific, short-lived feelings influenced by environmental events, differing from longer-lasting moods.
• Types of emotions include:
  • Positive (e.g., excitement, joy) and negative (e.g., anxiety, anger).
• Positive experiences often result in positive emotions, while negative interactions can induce negative feelings.

Effects of Moods

• Positive moods correlate with increased creativity, job satisfaction, and performance.
• Negative moods are linked to dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and turnover.

Emotion Regulation

• Involves monitoring and controlling emotional expressions through:
  • Amplification: Exaggerating emotions.
  • Suppression: Hiding emotional displays.

Emotional Intelligence

• Emotional intelligence involves recognizing and managing one's own emotions and understanding others.
• Key characteristics include:
  • Self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy, and motivation.
• Higher emotional intelligence is associated with greater job satisfaction and performance.

Emotional Labor

• Involves displaying emotions that may not be genuinely felt, leading to stress and potential burnout.
• Types of emotional display:
  • Surface acting: Faking emotions without changing internal feelings.
  • Deep acting: Attempting to modify internal emotions to match external expressions, resulting in authenticity.

Personality: Big Five Model and Johari Window

Big Five Model

• A widely accepted personality theory identified by McCrae and Costa, summarized as OCEAN:
  • Openness to experience: Willingness to consider new ideas and intellectual pursuits.

Johari Window

• A self-awareness model developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham.
• Comprises four quadrants to illustrate personal knowledge:
  • Arena (Public Self): Known to self and others.
  • Mask (Hidden Self): Known to self but hidden from others.
  • Blind Self: Unknown to self but recognized by others.
  • Unconscious (Unknown Self): Not known to self or others, encompassing untapped potential.

Importance of Self-Awareness

• Greater self-awareness leads to improved cooperation, trust, and productivity within teams.

Explore social, ego, and self-actualization needs in this quiz. Understand goal setting theory and how it influences behavior and motivation. Test your knowledge on the types of goals and their impact on performance and persistence.