"Worse than I anticipated" or "This isn't so bad"?: The impact of affective forecasting accuracy on self-reported task performance.

Various motivational theories emphasize that desired emotional outcomes guide behavioral choices. Although motivational theory and research has emphasized that behavior is affected by desired emotional outcomes, little research has focused on the impact of anticipated feelings about engaging in behavior. The current research seeks to partly fill that void. Specifically, we borrow from affective forecasting research in suggesting that forecasts about engaging in performance-relevant behaviors can be more or less accurate. Furthermore, we suggest that the degree of accuracy has implications for self-reported task performance. To examine these ideas, we conducted two studies in which individuals made affective predictions about engaging in tasks and then later reported how they actually felt during task engagement. We also assessed their self-reported task performance. In Study 1, 214 workers provided affective forecasts about upcoming work tasks, and in Study 2, 185 students made forecasts about studying for an exam. Results based on polynomial regression were largely consistent across the studies. The accuracy of the forecasts did not conform to the pattern of affective forecasting accuracy typically found outside the performance domain. Furthermore, anticipated and experienced affect jointly predicted self-reported task performance in a consistent manner. Collectively, these findings suggest that taking into account anticipated affect, and its relationship with later experienced affect, provides a more comprehensive account of affect's role in task performance.

Development of a Measure of Informal Workplace Social Interactions.

A measure of informal, non-task-related workplace social interactions that captures both the frequency of interactions and the positive affect that can accompany such interactions was developed and validated. In two samples of employees (N = 188 and N = 315, respectively), the factor structure, reliability, and incremental predictive validity of the newly developed measure were evaluated. Results support the anticipated two-factor structure, demonstrate strong psychometric properties, and reveal that the new measure explains additional variance in employee outcomes (job satisfaction and job-related positive affect). This newly developed, 16-item scale provides a psychometrically sound measure for researchers and organizations to use in assessing, and potentially improving, two dimensions of workplace social interactions.

An examination of two positive organizational interventions: For whom do these interventions work?

Owing to the importance of employee psychological well-being for a variety of work- and non-work-related outcomes, practitioners and scholars have begun to broaden the scope of workplace well-being interventions by incorporating principles from positive psychology. Among such positive interventions, gratitude exercises have arguably emerged as the "gold standard" practice, with much research pointing to their effectiveness. However, existing workplace interventions lack a true (i.e., no intervention) control group, and effects have been observed for some-but not all-outcomes tested. Therefore, the purpose of this brief report was to conduct a concise but methodologically rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness of 2 positive psychology workplace interventions in improving employee affect, and to examine potential moderators of intervention effectiveness. Ninety-two employees in a large social services agency were assigned to (a) a gratitude intervention, (b) an intervention in which participants alternated between the gratitude activity and one involving increasing social connectedness, or (c) a wait list control condition, for 1 month. Neither intervention produced a main effect on any of the 3 affective outcomes measured. However, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and job tenure were significant moderators of intervention effectiveness. We discuss the implications of these preliminary results in an effort to advance the literature on workplace positive psychology interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Trauma resuscitation: can team behaviours in the prearrival period predict resuscitation performance?

Background: Optimising team performance is critical in paediatric trauma resuscitation. Previous studies in aviation and surgery link performance to behaviours in the prearrival period. Objective: To determine if patterns of human behaviour in the prearrival period of a simulated trauma resuscitation is predictive of resuscitation performance. Design: Twelve volunteer trauma teams performed in four simulation scenarios in a paediatric hospital. The scenarios were video recorded, transcribed and analysed in 10-second intervals. Variation in the amount of utterances per team member in the prearrival period was compared with team performance and implicit coordination during the resuscitation. Key results: Coders analysed 18 962 s of video. They coded 5204 team member utterances into one of eight communication behaviour categories. Inter-rater reliability was excellent (an average of 83.1% across all four scenarios). The average number of communications occurring during the prearrival period was 18.84 utterances, with a range of 2-42 and a SD of 9.55. The average length of this period was almost 2 minutes (mean =117.30 s, SD=39.20). Lower variance in team member communication during the prearrival better was associated with better implicit coordination (p=0.011) but not team performance (p=0.054) during the resuscitation. Conclusion: Patterns of communication in the prearrival trauma resuscitation period predicted implicit coordination and a trend towards significance for team performance which suggests further studies in such patterns are warranted.