Personality Systems Interaction Theory Research Articles

Stacking bricks or building a cathedral? How affective shifts shape perceptions of daily task significance

One of the most fundamental experiences of deriving positive meaning from work stems from perceptions of task significance. Although interactions with managers and beneficiaries can provide inspirational cues that make the significance of employees' work tasks salient (Grant, 2012, 2008), relying solely on an understanding of these discrete experiences may limit an employee's ability to consistently perceive the significance of work tasks from day to day. To expand understanding of the influences that shape perceptions of daily task significance, we draw on personality systems interaction theory (Kuhl, 2000) to examine the influence of affective shifts. Using a daily diary design over 10 workdays, results from 292 daily observations nested within 38 employees showed that upshifts in positive affect and downshifts in negative affect were positively related to daily task significance. In turn, daily task significance was positively related to helping behaviors and negatively related to work withdrawal. Daily task significance also exhibited an indirect effect on the subsequent workday's start-of-day mood. Employees who perceived high significance today were more likely to start tomorrow off with lower negative mood due to higher helping behaviors the day before and with lower positive mood due to lower work withdrawal the day before. The results yield new insights into the experience of daily task significance and offer significant implications for theory and practice on affect, task significance, and work performance.

Personality systems interactions theory: an integrative framework complementing the study of the motivational and volitional dynamics underlying adjustment to chronic pain.

In the endeavor to advance our understanding of interindividual differences in dealing with chronic pain, numerous motivational theories have been invoked in the past decade. As they focus on relevant, yet different aspects of the dynamic, multilevel processes involved in human voluntary action control, research findings seem fragmented and inconsistent. Here we present Personality Systems Interactions theory as an integrative meta-framework elucidating how different motivational and volitional processes work in concert under varying contextual conditions. PSI theory explains experience and behavior by the relative activation of four cognitive systems that take over different psychological functions during goal pursuit. In this way, it may complement existing content-related explanations of clinical phenomena by introducing a functional, third-person perspective on flexible goal management, pain acceptance and goal maintenance despite pain. In line with emerging evidence on the central role of emotion regulation in chronic pain, PSI theory delineates how the self-regulation of positive and negative affect impacts whether behavior is determined by rigid stimulus-response associations (i.e., habits) or by more abstract motives and values which afford more behavioral flexibility. Along with testable hypotheses, multimodal interventions expected to address intuitive emotion regulation as a central process mediating successful adaptation to chronic pain are discussed.

An energizing microintervention: How mindfulness fosters subjective vitality through regulatory processes and flow experience at work.

Can adopting one's morning routines influence employees' experiences throughout the day? To answer this focal question, we examine the daily effects of a brief meditation in the morning on well-being throughout the day considering spillover effects from the home to the work domain and back. To identify the dominant underlying mechanisms of this daily spillover, we draw on the personality systems interactions theory that distinguishes between autonomous self-regulation and effortful self-control as two psychological processes that reflect the regulation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in alignment or contradiction with one's interests, values, and goals. Accordingly, we hypothesized that meditating in the morning before work fosters autonomous self-regulation and reduces effortful self-control in the work domain, which subsequently facilitates the experience of flow at work and hence fosters subjective vitality in the home domain after work. A quasi-experimental daily-diary study over 10 days with a brief 10-min mindfulness intervention during the final 5 days with 78 participants (588 day-level data points) supported most of our predictions. More specifically, our data suggest a positive indirect effect of the intervention on subjective vitality in the evening via self-regulation and flow experience. However, there was no indirect effect of the intervention on subjective vitality via self-control. The results help to clarify how a mindfulness-based intervention can influence distinct regulatory processes and well-being, crossing boundaries between the work and home domains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Fueled by a Fearful Leader: When, to What Extent and How Leader Fear of COVID-19 Promotes Employee Performance

The literature generally surmises that negative affective states of leaders are detrimental to leader effectiveness and work outcomes. Taking the opposite view, this study explores how the negative affective experiences of leaders related to COVID-19 may foster team commitment and employee performance. By integrating personality systems interaction theory, cognitive appraisal theory, and the literature on stress-based emotions, we develop a model that clarifies when, how, and to what extent leader fearful states related to COVID-19 drive employee performance. Using three-wave and multisource data from 579 employees and their leaders from 69 teams, we found that among leaders who exhibited higher levels of positive affectivity, leader fear of COVID-19 indirectly fostered employee performance via the mediating roles of leader promotion of team goals and team commitment. Moreover, these moderated indirect effects were strongest at moderate levels of leader fear of COVID-19. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for research on leader affective states.

The benefits of prosocial power motivation in leadership: Action orientation fosters a win-win.

Power motivation is considered a key component of successful leadership. Based on its dualistic nature, the need for power (nPower) can be expressed in a dominant or a prosocial manner. Whereas dominant motivation is associated with antisocial behaviors, prosocial motivation is characterized by more benevolent actions (e.g., helping, guiding). Prosocial enactment of the power motive has been linked to a wide range of beneficial outcomes, yet less has been investigated what determines a prosocial enactment of the power motive. According to Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) theory, action orientation (i.e., the ability to self-regulate affect) promotes prosocial enactment of the implicit power motive and initial findings within student samples verify this assumption. In the present study, we verified the role of action orientation as an antecedent for prosocial power enactment in a leadership sample (N = 383). Additionally, we found that leaders personally benefited from a prosocial enactment strategy. Results show that action orientation through prosocial power motivation leads to reduced power-related anxiety and, in turn, to greater leader well-being. The integration of motivation and self-regulation research reveals why leaders enact their power motive in a certain way and helps to understand how to establish a win-win situation for both followers and leaders.

The art of getting things done: Training affective shifting improves intention enactment.

Effectively managing to-do lists and getting things done is a desirable competence. However, when things get difficult or demanding, many individuals struggle to put their intentions into subsequent actions. According to Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) theory, changes in positive affect are decisive for efficient intention enactment. Based on this understanding, in the present study we designed and evaluated an affect-focused intervention that practices shifting between high and low positive affect. In a control group design (N = 252, Mage = 26.40, SD = 10.24, range 18-66) the affective shifting intervention was contrasted against two other conditions (affective boosting and neutral). To test our assumptions, personal real-life intentions were assessed, and multifaceted measures (self-report, nonreactive) were applied and measured at different time points. To evaluate affective shifting, we tested interindividual benefits in the Stroop task. Additionally, we analyzed intervention effects on positive affect and intention enactment in real life. In line with our assumptions, we found that specifically those individuals who struggle with intention enactment (i.e., state-oriented) benefited in terms of better intention enactment ability in the Stroop task. Further, affective shifting fostered the decisive self-regulation of positive affect that directly improved intention enactment 3 weeks after the intervention. Lastly, affective shifting led to more self-coherent intention enactment, meaning a greater integration of Expectancy × Value considerations 3 weeks after the intervention. Discussion of our findings highlights the importance of theory-driven and affect-related interventions to close the gap between intention and action. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A Stochastic Model of Personality Differences Based on PSI Theory

Personality Systems Interactions (PSI) theory explains differences in personality based on the properties of four cognitive systems—object recognition (OR), intuitive behaviour (IB), intention memory (IM) and extension memory (EM). Each system is associated with characteristic modes of perception and behaviour, so personality is determined by which systems are primarily active. According to PSI theory, the activities of the cognitive systems are regulated by positive and negative affect (reward and punishment). Thus, differences in personality ultimately emerge from four parameters—the sensitivities of up- or downregulating positive and negative affect. The complex interactions of affect and cognitive systems have been represented in a mathematical model based on a system of differential equations. In this study, the environment of a person represented by the mathematical model is modelled by a time series of perturbations with positive and negative affect that are generated by a stochastic process. Comparing the average activities of the cognitive systems for different parameter sets exposed to the same time series of affect perturbations, we observe that different dominant cognitive systems emerge. This demonstrates that different sensitivities for positive and negative affect lead to different modes of cognition and, thus, to different personality types such as agreeable, conscientious, self-determined or independent. Varying the relative frequencies of negative and positive affect perturbations reveals that the average activities of all cognitive systems respond linearly. This observation enables us to predict that conscientious and independent personalities benefit from increased exposure to positive affect, whereas agreeable and self-determined personalities achieve a better balance of their cognitive systems by increased negative affect.

The concert of personality: Explaining personality functioning and coherence by personality systems interactions

Several psychological approaches concern explaining the dynamic psychological processes and mechanisms that render personality a coherent whole, a “well-sounding concert.” Building upon personality systems interactions (PSI) theory, which explains personality functioning on the basis of interactions among cognitive and affective-motivational personality systems, we demonstrate how diverse perspectives on personality coherence may functionally be integrated. To do so, we describe interactions among four cognitive personality systems considered to underlie and optimize two meta principles of personality functioning—self-growth (in terms of the integration of adverse experiences) and action control (in terms of goal pursuit). These meta principles establish different subtypes of personality coherence differentially focused by psychological perspectives. We highlight the interdisciplinary relevance and practical application of the present approach and conclude with implications for future research.

EVALUATING THE ORGANIZATION’S INNOVATION CAPABILITY: A NEW GUIDING METHODOLOGY

Will our organization be innovative? The answer to this question essentially defines tomorrow’s business success. The purpose of this article is to introduce the organizational personality (TOP) framework as a new, qualitative methodology for evaluating and predicting an organization’s innovation capability. TOP framework leverages personality systems interactions theory, a groundbreaking integrative framework model of personality that is currently widely unknown in the business world. By differentiating between content of thinking (what we think) and forms of thinking (how we think), TOP framework demystifies the inner workings of the innovation process and represents a powerful 360-degree thinking and evaluation grid to steer innovation from a meta level.

How achievement motive enactment shapes daily flow experience and work engagement: The interplay of personality systems

In the present study, we examined how different forms of achievement motive interact to predict daily flow experience and work engagement. In particular, we conducted two diary studies to examine the main and interaction effects of motive enactment via extension memory (a macrosystem that enables holistic and experience-based information processing) and via the object recognition system (an alert-oriented macrosystem). In study 1, in line with personality systems interaction (PSI) theory, we found that motive enactment via extension memory fosters both day-specific flow and work engagement, whereas the conjunction of both forms of motive enactment has beneficial effects on flow and work engagement (two-way interaction). In study 2, we found that role clarity moderates the interaction of the two forms of enactment, indicating that the two-way interaction occurs when role clarity is low. Our results imply that the interplay of different dispositional forms of achievement motive enactment shapes how employees experience flow and engagement.

Ego-depletion or invigoration in solving the tower of Hanoi? Action orientation helps overcome planning deficits

Personality systems interaction (PSI) theory postulates two executive control modes: Self-control and self-regulation. Self-control, typical of state oriented persons, should result in “ego depletion” whereas self-regulation, typical of action oriented persons, should result in invigoration. State- and action-oriented participants performed the Plan-a-Day and the 5-disk Tower-of-Hanoi tasks. There were no differences between them on the first task, but action had better performance than state oriented in terms of number of moves and solution time on the second task, independently of differences in self-determination. Better performance in the Tower of Hanoi correlated positively with activation, and negatively with apathy. We conclude that whereas self-control is associated with depletion, self-regulation is associated with invigoration in performing the Tower of Hanoi task.

Just a click away: Action-state orientation moderates the impact of task interruptions on initiative.

ObjectiveThe present research examines the role of individual differences in self‐regulation (i.e., demand‐related action–state orientation) on initiative to resume an interrupted task.MethodIn three studies (N 1 = 208, 55% male, M age = 33.2; N 2 = 457, 62% male, M age = 31.7; N 3 = 210, 60% male, M age = 32.6), participants were notified about a network interruption while playing a computer game. Participants could dismiss the interrupting notification by clicking a continue button or wait until the notification timed out. We manipulated demand by presenting notifications during (demand) versus after game rounds (no demand).ResultsDemand‐related action orientation was associated with higher probability to dismiss the notification during a game round, controlling for dismissal after a game round. Findings occurred when controlling for task ability and task motivation, were specific for demand‐ and not threat‐related action orientation, were complemented by shorter dismissal latencies, and were stable across interruption timeouts (Studies 1–3). Exposure through repetition resulted in adaptation (Study 3).ConclusionThe findings suggest that people with lower action orientation have less self‐regulatory ability to initiate goal‐directed action and resume interrupted tasks—even if they are just a click away. Findings are discussed within the framework of Personality Systems Interactions theory.

The hare and the tortoise: The impact of action- versus state-orientation on entrepreneurial progress and persistence

Action-orientation is portrayed as key for entrepreneurship. To understand the conditions under which action-orientation is indeed favourable for entrepreneurs, we introduce the personality-systems-interaction (PSI) theory to entrepreneurship research. PSI theory distinguishes action- versus state-orientation and explains how both dispositions influence an entrepreneur’s cognition (including goals), emotional reactions and the resulting behaviour. It provides a novel basis for understanding individual differences in persistence and progression through the venture creation process. Based on the tenets of PSI theory, we develop propositions to explain how action-oriented versus state-oriented individuals respond differently to the demands of the entrepreneurial process.

The vocational ID – connecting life design counselling and personality systems interaction theory

ABSTRACTWe introduce the Vocational ID that integrates linguistic and visual representations of a career counselling client’s self. Based upon findings from the Life Design paradigm [Savickas, M. L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J.-P., Duarte, M. E., Guichard, J., … van Vianen, A. E. M. (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the twenty-first century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75(3), 239–250. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004] and the Personality Systems Interaction theory [Kuhl, J. (2000b). The volitional basis of personality systems interaction theory: Applications in learning and treatment contexts. International Journal of Educational Research, 33(7–8), 665–703. doi:10.1016/S0883-0355(00)00045-8], the Vocational ID facilitates working on clients' vocational identity. In this article, we present the theoretical framework, its practical applications, and a case study.

Becoming who you are: An integrative review of self-determination theory and personality systems interactions theory.

One of the enduring missions of personality science is to unravel what it takes to become a fully functioning person. In the present article, the authors address this matter from the perspectives of self‐determination theory (SDT) and personality systems interactions (PSI) theory. SDT (a) is rooted in humanistic psychology; (b) has emphasized a first‐person perspective on motivation and personality; (c) posits that the person, supported by the social environment, naturally moves toward growth through the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. PSI theory (a) is rooted in German volition psychology; (b) has emphasized a third‐person perspective on motivation and personality; and (c) posits that a fully functioning person can form and enact difficult intentions and integrate new experiences, and that such competencies are facilitated by affect regulation. The authors review empirical support for SDT and PSI theory, their convergences and divergences, and how the theories bear on recent empirical research on internalization, vitality, and achievement flow. The authors conclude that SDT and PSI theory offer complementary insights into developing a person's full potential.

Giving in when feeling less good: Procrastination, action control, and social temptations.

Emotion-regulation perspectives on procrastination highlighting the primacy of short-term mood regulation focus mainly on negative affect. Positive affect, however, has received much less attention and has not been considered with respect to social temptations. To address this issue, we examined how trait procrastination was linked to positive and negative affect in the context of social temptations across two prospective studies. Action Control Theory, Personality Systems Interactions Theory, and a mood regulation theory of procrastination served as guiding conceptual frameworks. In Study 1, moderated mediation analyses revealed that low positive affect explained the link between trait procrastination and time spent procrastinating on academic tasks over a 48-hr period in a student sample (N=142), and this effect was moderated by the presence of social temptations. Parallel results for goal enjoyment assessed at Time 2 were found in Study 2 with a community sample (N=94) attempting to make intended health behaviour changes over a 6-month period. Our findings indicate that procrastinators are at risk for disengaging from intended tasks when social temptations are present and positive task-related affect is low.

To branch out or stay focused? Affective shifts differentially predict organizational citizenship behavior and task performance.

We draw from personality systems interaction (PSI) theory (Kuhl, 2000) and regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) to examine how dynamic positive and negative affective processes interact to predict both task and contextual performance. Using a twice-daily diary design over the course of a 3-week period, results from multilevel regression analysis revealed that distinct patterns of change in positive and negative affect optimally predicted contextual and task performance among a sample of 71 employees at a medium-sized technology company. Specifically, within persons, increases (upshifts) in positive affect over the course of a workday better predicted the subsequent day's organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) when such increases were coupled with decreases (downshifts) in negative affect. The optimal pattern of change in positive and negative affect differed, however, in predicting task performance. That is, upshifts in positive affect over the course of the workday better predicted the subsequent day's task performance when such upshifts were accompanied by upshifts in negative affect. The contribution of our findings to PSI theory and the broader affective and motivation regulation literatures, along with practical implications, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Investigating the effectiveness of working memory training in the context of Personality Systems Interaction theory.

Previous research has shown mixed results for the ability of working memory training to improve fluid intelligence. The aims of this study were first to replicate these improvements, and then to explore the moderating role of Personality Systems Interaction (PSI) personality factors. By using three different training methods and an active-contact control group, we examined the effects of 25days of cognitive training on 142 participants. After examining our results in context of PSI theory, we found that different training methods yielded different IQ gains in participants, depending on their personality styles. In addition, these correlations suggested a meaningful pattern, indicating that PSI theory may be able to account for the different outcomes of cognitive training studies. Our findings may facilitate tailor-made cognitive training interventions in the future, and can contribute to explaining the mechanisms underlying the far transfer of working memory training to fluid intelligence.

Being Someone: The Integrated Self as a Neuropsychological System

AbstractFully functioning persons are characterized by a unity in thought, emotion, and action that amounts to “being someone” or having “an integrated self.” Psychologists have typically treated the integrated self as merely a descriptive term that summarizes significant behavioral achievements. In the present article, the authors seek to place the integrated self on firmer theoretical grounds by relating the integrated self to a neurobiological system with distinct processing characteristics. Building on personality systems interactions theory (Kuhl, ), the authors suggest that the integrated self is supported by parallel‐distributed processing in the right anterior cortex and can be distinguished from simpler self‐related states of mind. From this neuropsychological model, the authors derive seven functions of the integrated self: emotional connectedness, broad vigilance, utilization of felt feedback, unconscious processing, integration of negative experiences, extended resilience, and extended trust. The authors discuss the seven functions and their mutual relations along with relevant behavioral and neurobiological evidence. Finally, the authors highlight the importance of positive relationships for optimal development of the integrated self and discuss how the integrated self might be further cultivated to improve self‐regulation and health.

To Branch Out or Stay Focused?: Affective Shifts Differentially Predict Employee Performance

We draw from personality systems interaction theory (PSI; Kuhl, 2000) and self-regulatory theories of affect and motivation (Carver & Scheier, 1990; Higgins, 1997) to examine how dynamic positive a...