Mariola Laguna
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
Poland
Positive psychological capital
and entrepreneurship
Erasmus Intensive Programme IP
Prague, July 2011
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Poland
Europe
Lubli
n
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My research
• Associated professor at the Institute of
Psychology KUL Lublin
• Research interests:
– personality (self-concept, self-efficacy, self-esteem,
optimism, hope, goal directed behavior);
– psychological assessment and diagnosis;
– work & organizational psychology.
• Publications in Journal of Applied Social Psychology,
Journal of Career Development, Journal of Mental
Changes; books (author and editor), e.g.
Laguna M. (2010). Self-referent beliefs and goal directed behavior.
Gdansk: GWP. (in Polish)
www.kul.pl/laguna
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Stories...
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Albert Einstein
Thomas Edison
Sigmund Freud
Walt Disney
What help them to succeed?
Why didn’t they give up?
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"Our greatest glory is not in never falling
but in rising every time we fall."
Confucius
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career.
I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been
trusted to take the game winning shot ... and
missed. I've failed over and over and over again
in my life. That is why I succeed."
Michael Jordan
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Positive psychology movement
• Seligman and Csikszentmihalayi (2000) postulate a
shift toward studying human potentialities,
strengths and talents. Positive psychology – new
movement:
– It is interested in ‘the science of optimal human
functioning’.
– It wants to learn what works from studying human
success rather than human failure or weaknesses.
– It focuses attention on positive subjective experiences
as well as positive human characteristics.
– It is not just interested in individuals but in how group
structures can induce positive emotion and encourage
the use of strengths.
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Character Strengths and Virtues
– The strength already exists within us,
whether to a greater or lesser extent.
– When people are using their
strengths, they feel like they are being
the “real me,” not the person that
someone else wants them to be, but
the person who they really are.
– When people use their strengths, they
feel as if they have more energy
available to them.
‘Much like the DSM, the CSV provides a theoretical framework
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to practical applications for positive psychology.’
Character Strengths
and Virtues
• 6 classes of virtue - "core virtues", made up of 24
character strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)
• Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, openmindedness, love of learning, perspective
• Courage: bravery, perseverance, honesty, zest
• Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
• Justice: teamwork, fairness, leadership
• Temperance: forgiveness & mercy, modesty &
humility, prudence, self-regulation
• Transcendence: appreciation of beauty &
excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality 8
Exercise: Strengths and virtues
• What are your
own personal
strengths?
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Exercise: Strengths and virtues
• Try to evaluate which of
character strengths seems
to be most important for
entrepreneurs.
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Positive psychological capital
• Traditionally, three types of resources have been
isolated in management:
– 1. financial resources,
– 2. physical or technological resources,
– 3. human resources.
• Luthans and his team propose also fourth type of
resources that may increase competitiveness in
the marketplace:
– 4. positive psychological capital.
(Jensen & Luthans, 2006; Luthans & Youssef, 2004)
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Positive psychological capital
in entrepreneurship
• What helps people undertake entrepreneurial
activity even if it is a demanding task?
• Do positive psychological factors matter in
entrepreneurship?
• We still need more research to explain how
and to what extent positive psychological
factors affect the entrepreneurial process.
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Study 1 Results - SEM model
dV
-,13
Self-esteem
Value
,32
,38
,33
,20
,22
Entrepreneurial
self-efficacy
,52
,50
,14
,12
,29
,16
dI
,30
Intention
,43
Hope
,43
,35
,15
,41
Expectancy
Optimism
,19
dE
N = 332; chi2 = 5,494; p = 0,359 ; RMSEA = 0,018; GFI = 0,994 13
Study 2 Results - SEM model
dV
Self-esteem
-,20
,18
dI
,15
,31
Value
,35
,53
Entrepreneurial
self-efficacy
,51
,25
,12
,26
,11
dP
Intention
,71
,72
Plan
,54
,49
,47
,17
,19
,26
Expectancy
,22
Hope
,33
,08
,50
dE
-,07
Optimism
N = 606; chi2 = 3,734; p = 0,880 ; RMSEA = 0,001; GFI = 0,998 14
Hope in psychology
• Do you recognize any
symbols of hope?
• How can we define
hope?
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"Hope in a Prison of Despair" by Evelyn de Morgan
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Snyder’s conception
Snyder defines hope as a
thinking process in which the
person perceives that s/he can:
– (1) conceptualize goals,
– (2) produce the routes to these
goals (pathways thinking),
– (3) initiate and sustain movement
along those pathways (agency
thinking - will).
• „I will do this”
Hope theory: rainbows in the mind (Snyder, 2002)
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Hope
Thinking process, includes:
– Goal conceptualization
– Pathways – I am able to
produce the routes to my
goals
– Agency - I am able to initiate
and sustain movement along
those pathways „I will”
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Hope
• According to Snyder (2002) - interconnected
self-beliefs concerning a sense of successful
goal-directed determination (agency), and
planning of ways to meet goals (pathways)
• Individuals with a high level of hope approach
goals as challenge, concentrate on the
possibilities of success rather than failure,
and assess highly the probability of goal
attainment.
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How to develop hope
• Setting specific, realistic, challenging goals
• Planning ways to meet these goals
– „stepping” – breaking a long-term goal down into smaller
substeps
– planning several routes in case one should be blocked
• Developing agency – motivation to use those
routes
– accentuate strengths and positive movement toward a
goal
– view the barriers as challenges rather than failures and
as normal part of life
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– recall how overcame previous barriers
Exercise: hope recipe
• Try to use these
suggestions to
increase your own
level of hope for goal
achievement.
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Preparing exercises for the
training programme
• Discuss the ways of developing hope in
the context of entrepreneurship.
• Propose exercises, activities (e.g. role
plays, cases) which may be useful for
hope development during the training
for potential or actual entrepreneurs.
• Prepare a short presentation of your
training activities.
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Exercise description
• Title of the exercise
• Learning objectives - What the participants
will be able to do as a result of this learning activity?
• Time frame - How much time does it take?
• Materials, resources - What will be necessary
for this exercise?
• Description of the exercise
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Exercises developing hope
Propose exercises developing hope in the
context of entrepreneurship by:
a) setting specific, realistic, challenging
goals
And one of these two ways:
b) planning ways to meet these goals
c) developing agency – motivation to use
those routes
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Self-efficacy
• Defined as people's beliefs about their
capabilities to produce designated levels of
performance that exercise influence over
events that affect their lives.
• „I can do this”
• Determine how people feel, think, motivate
themselves and behave.
• Produce these diverse effects through
cognitive, motivational, affective and selection
processes.
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Self-efficacy beliefs affect human
agency in diverse ways:
• Choice behavior - People tend to avoid
engaging in a task where their efficacy is low, and
generally undertake tasks where their efficacy is
high
• Effort expenditure and persistence - The
stronger the perceived self-efficacy, the more
vigorous and persistent are people's at their
efforts
• Thought patterns and emotional reactions Perceived self-efficacy shapes causal thinking
"Perceived self-efficacy contributes to the development of
subskills, as well as draws upon them in fashioning new
behavior patterns" (Bandura, 1986, p. 395)
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People with a strong sense of selfefficacy
• Approach difficult tasks as challenges to be
mastered rather than as threats
• Set themselves challenging goals and
maintain strong commitment to them
• Heighten and sustain their efforts in the face of
failure
• Attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient
knowledge and skills which are acquirable
• Approach threatening situations with
assurance that they can exercise control over
them
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How to develop
self-efficacy
1. Mastery experiences, enactive attainment
2. Vicarious experiences, modeling
3. Social persuasion, positive feedback
4. Somatic and emotional states
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Guided mastery principles
The best way to develop self-efficacy - allowing people to
experience success, by guided mastery principles, which
consists of three components - learners:
1. Learn the basic rules and strategies necessary to
perform a task or job - appropriate skills are modeled.
2. Receive guided practice under conditions simulating
real life situations (e.g. by role play exercises or simulator
training), which allows to develop proficiency in the new
skills; receive informative feedback (e.g. videotapes);
attention needs to be directed to the corrective changes that
need to be made.
3. Are provided with a graduated transfer program that
helps them to use their new skills in real life situations.
(Bandura, 1997)
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Preparing exercises for the
training programme
• Discuss the ways of developing self-efficacy
in the context of entrepreneurship.
• Propose exercises, activities which may be
useful for self-efficacy development during
the training for potential or actual
entrepreneurs.
• Prepare a short presentation of your training
activities.
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Exercise description
• Title of the exercise
• Learning objectives - What the participants
will be able to do as a result of this learning activity?
• Time frame - How much time does it take?
• Materials, resources - What will be necessary
for this exercise?
• Description of the exercise
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Exercises developing selfefficacy
Propose exercises developing self-efficacy in
the context of entrepreneurship using:
a) Mastery experiences, enactive attainment,
b) Vicarious experiences, modeling,
c) Social persuasion, positive feedback,
d) Somatic and emotional states.
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Positive psychological capital
• Not as constant as personality traits.
– I can do this
– I will do this
• Beliefs that are measurable.
• Can be developed and modified.
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Homework
• Take one of your strengths and for the
following day use the strength in a new
way.
• Think about:
– How can you demonstrate this strength?
– What are the examples of this strength?
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• Questions?
• Comments?
Thank you
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Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...
words and music by Eric Idle
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