Goal choices and planning: Distinct expectancy and value effects in two goal processes

Expectancy and value have emerged as two major determinants of motivation. However, the exact nature of their functioning is less clear given that previous research failed to test adequately different goal processes. Based on the recent nonmonotonic, discontinuous model of expectancy elaborated by Vancouver, More, and Yoder (2008), two studies were conducted and found that expectancy and value functions in different forms during the goal choice versus goal planning processes. Specifically, the two constructs positively and jointly predicted one’s goal choice, whereas they played independent and opposite roles in affecting the allocation of effort during the goal-planning process. These findings address gaps in theories of motivation, allow for more precise specifications of the roles for expectancy and value within such models, and further efforts toward integrating theories of motivation within a goal-centered, self-regulation framework

Trait Emotional Intelligence: Modelling Individual Emotional Differences in Agent-Based Models

. The construct of emotional intelligence (EI) is strictly related to the individual experience of emotions. The aim of the Ph.D. project is the development of agent-based models able to take into account the individual differences related to the management of the emotional experiences and affecting decision-making process-es (especially in order to recreate the social mechanisms studied by social and or-ganizational psychology). We believe that the implementation of trait emotional intelligence inside agents endowed with beliefs, desires and intentions (i.e. BDI agents) can improve the capability of agent-based models to reproduce individual differences related with the emotional sphere. We propose to implement the con-cept of trait EI associating it with the agents' decision-making processes in order to improve the complexity related to the individual differences: that is to say, modelling individual emotional differences

Managing job stress among nurses : what kind of job resources do we need?

Aim. This paper is a report of a study to investigate the functionality of different kinds of job resources for managing job stress in nursing. Background. There is increasing recognition that healthcare staff, and especially nurses, are at high risk for burnout and physical complaints. Several researchers have proposed that job resources moderate the relationship between job demands and job-related outcomes, particularly when there is a match between the type of demands, resources, and outcomes. Method. Based on the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Model, cross-sectional survey data were collected between November 2006 and February 2007 by a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The final sample consisted of 69 nurses from a Dutch nursing home (response rate 59·4%). Data were analyzed by hierarchical regression analyses. Results. High physical demands had adverse effects on both physical complaints and emotional exhaustion (i.e. burnout), unless employees had high physical resources. A similar pattern was found for high physical demands and emotional resources in predicting emotional exhaustion. The likelihood of finding theoretically-valid moderating effects was related to the degree of match between demands, resources, and outcomes. Conclusion. Job resources do not randomly moderate the relationship between job demands and job-related outcomes. Both physical and emotional resources seem to be important stress buffers for human service employees such as nurses, and their moderating effects underline the importance of specific job resources in healthcare work. Job redesign in nursing homes should therefore primarily focus on matching job resources to job demands in order to diminish poor health and ill-being