Motivating and Counseling the Unemployed

During a ‘learning goal orientation’ training course for unemployed people, one of the participants, a woman in her forties, had a lot of resistance to participate in the course. I persuaded her to stay and assured her that all she had to do was sit down and watch. She persevered in her idea that this was a waste of time and even tried to convince me that I was also wasting my time. Two weeks after the training course, I called her for a follow-up interview to measure her job-search intentions and behavior. Her first response was: “I have to apologize for my behavior. After the training course I passed a temporary agency for elderly people and remembered what you had said about trying different strategies. And guess what, I now have a job and not just any job but exactly the job that I have wanted for so long”. This anecdote illustrates the potential impact that employment counseling and training courses can have on individuals who have lost their job. Losing one’s job is a life event with far reaching economic, psychological, and physical consequences (McKee-Ryan, Song, Wanberg, & Kinicki, 2005; Paul & Moser, 2009) and is considered to be one of the top 10 traumatic life experiences (Spera, Buhrfeind, & Pennebaker, 1994). Besides these consequences, unemployment also deprives a person of the additional gains from being employed, such as time structure, personal identity, interpersonal contact, and activity (Jahoda, 1982; Warr, 1987). Furthermore, the negative consequences of being unemployed tend to increase with increasing duration of unemployment (Rowley & Feather, 1987). Unemployment affects a substantial number of people in present day economies. For example, in the first three months of 2012, 11% of the labor force in Europe and 8.2% of the labor force in the United States were unemployed (Eurostat, 2012; U.S. Department of Labor, 2012). Approximately half of these individuals were long-term unemployed (i.e., more than six months) at that time. These numbers equal the numbers of the 1980s recession

The role of perceived quality of problems in the association between achievement goals and motivation in problem-based learning

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of perceived problem quality in the relationship between students’ (N = 226) achievement goals and autonomous motivation to study in a problem-based learning (PBL) environment. Specifically, the relationships between students’ achievement goals (mastery-approach, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and mastery-avoidance goals), problem quality-related characteristics (triggering interest, familiarity, stimulating collaborative learning, resulting in intended learning objectives, and promoting critical reasoning), and autonomous motivation to study were investigated. The findings indicate that the perceived quality of problems (i.e., familiarity, resulting in intended learning objectives, promoting critical reasoning, and by that triggering interest) fosters autonomous motivation to study and that the perception of this quality is influenced by students’ achievement goals. Therefore, the quality of problems and students’ achievement goals should be taken into account in a PBL environment

Thriving Under Uncertainty: The Effect of Achievement Goal Orientation on Job Insecurity and Flourishing

Flourishing, a construct encompassing optimal human functioning, is an indicator of well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the direct and indirect effects of employees’ achievement goal orientation (mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal orientation) on flourishing, through the appraisal of quantitative (concerns about continued existence of the job) and qualitative (concerns about continued existence of important job features) job insecurity. Data were collected from 275 employees in an organization on the brink of a substantive downsizing. The results of structural equation modelling showed that mastery approach and—avoidance goal orientation positively predicted flourishing. Furthermore, flourishing was negatively predicted by qualitative job insecurity but not by quantitative job insecurity. Qualitative job insecurity mediated the effects of mastery- and performance-approach goal orientation on flourishing but the effects were not significant. Hence, in an environment with a substantial threat of job loss, a mastery goal orientation contributed directly to flourishing. Our results plead for more attention for the effects of achievement goal orientation and qualitative job insecurity on flourishing under uncertainty

Move more:Combining gamification and physical nudges to promote walking breaks and reduce sedentary behavior of office workers. A randomized controlled trial

Background: Sedentary behaviour (SB) and lack of physical activity (PA) have been associated with poorer health outcomes and are increasingly prevalent in individuals working in sedentary occupations, such as office jobs. Gamification and nudges have attracted attention as promising strategies to promote health behaviour change. However, most studies of effectiveness so far lacked active controls, and few studies have tested interventions combining these two strategies. Objective: This study investigated the effectiveness of an intervention combining a gamified digital intervention with physical nudges to increase PA and reduce SB in Dutch office workers. Methods: Employees of the municipality of Rotterdam (N = 298) from two office locations were randomized at the location-level to either a 10-week intervention, combining a five-week gamification phase encompassing a gamified digital intervention with social support features and a five-week physical nudges phase, or to an active control (i.e. limited digital application with self-monitoring and goal-setting). The primary outcome was daily step count objectively measured via accelerometers. Secondary outcomes were self-reported PA and SB. Mixed-effects models were used to analyse the effects of the intervention on the primary and secondary outcome measures of participants up to one month after the intervention. Results: A total of 234 participants completed the study and provided accelerometer data. During the gamification phase, participants in the intervention condition significantly increased their number of daily steps (from 10138 to 10901; 763.5 increase) compared to those in the active control (from 10403 to 10619; 215.6 increase) (p = 0.01). These improvements were not sustained during the physical nudges phase (p = 0.76) or follow-up (p = 0.88). Conclusions: A digital intervention with gamification and social support features significantly increased the step count of office workers, compared to an active control encompassing self-monitoring and goal-setting. Physical nudges in the workplace were insufficient to promote maintanence of behaviour change achieved in the gamification phase. Future research should explore how to improve the long-term effectiveness of gamified digital interventions