Psychological Capital

What is Psychological Capital?

Psychological Capital is the motivational propensity to achieve a goal*. It is a mental resource and skill that affects the way you see and interact with the world. It is made up of Hope, Self-Efficacy, Resilience and Optimism and can be developed to increase employee engagement, performance, well-being and reduce stress. These four components work synergistically to improve your odds of success and they are easy to learn. Simply put, it is a mental resource that helps you reach a goal.

Psychological Capital (PsyCap) can occur in different areas of your life. Currently, there are measures of PsyCap in the areas of work, health, overall life and school. My research with doctoral students has focused on linking PsyCap to engagement in work settings, as well as training employees and students to increase their PsyCap and subsequent engagement and academic engagement**. Read on to learn more about how to set a goal, how to find purpose, overcome obstacles how to increase confidence, and reduce stress related to your goal. Learn how to increase your own Psychological Capital!

How To Set a Goal

Believe it or not, there are scientifically better ways to set goals and there are unproductive ways to set goals. Research has shown that there are many factors that go into setting goals that either help us reach the goal or hinder us from reaching the goal. It is common that we either may not use good goal setting techniques, or we use hindering techniques and then believe we cannot reach the goal. This is problematic because we believe we do not have the ability to reach a goal, when we simply have a poor process for achieving the goal. In addition to using SMART goal strategies (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound), one of the positive psychology principles I teach is to use an “approach” goal.

Turns out, our brain, and more specifically our right hemisphere isn’t keen on the word “no” or “not”. We don’t like to hear it, process it or feel restrained. It is common parenting advice to refrain from saying “no” and instead tell your child what they should be doing. You aren’t too different. Your brain operates better when you tell it WHAT to do rather than WHAT NOT to do. One of the most profound strategies you can start with today is to change your goal from an avoid goal to an approach goal.

How to Find Purpose Related to Your Goal

You also need to have a clear purpose related to your goal. You have many things competing for your time and attention, and clarifying your life purpose statement and how that relates to your goal can greatly increase your motivation. In psychology, we call this increasing agency. This task can take a lot of journaling, personal reflection, clarifying of your personal values, what causes you stand for and what causes break your heart. What you may find is that you have set a goal for which you do not have strong, sufficient motivation. What is key is to find alignment between your purpose and your goal.

Once you have an approach goal and you have found alignment in your purpose, the next step is to plan. There are two key elements to planning: making many pathways to your goal and planning for obstacles. Typically, when we think of a goal, we settle on one pathway and when it is blocked, we get discouraged or quit. You need a back up plan in the form of alternate pathways. Plan out at least 4-8 alternate pathways to your goal. Next, think of what an obstacle might be for each of those pathways and prepare your next steps will be.

How to Increase Confidence Related to Your Goal

Overcoming Obstacles Related to Your Goal

The second component of PsyCap is called Self-Efficacy and is the confidence you have in your ability toward a particular task, in this case, your goal. Self-Efficacy can be impacted by several things that I group into two categories: strengths and support. Strengths pull on internal knowledge, skills and abilities as well as character strengths which can be discovered in a short survey here for free and more business related strengths here for $60. Support details the mentoring and emotional support you need to reach a goal. One tip is that you want to make sure you have active constructive responders around you. Those are people who amplify the good things that happen in your life. They are both constructive and celebratory toward the positive events happening in your life, not just supportive in the disappointing events in your life. You want to find people who support your goal, who believe in you and who will be an active constructive responder toward your goal.

How to Reduce Stress Related to Your Goal

One of the interesting things about stress is that it is a perception. We all know people who from our perspective should be stressed, but they are not. We also, perhaps more commonly, know people who experience stress, but from where we sit, we believe they should not be stressed. According to the Job Demands Resource model, stress is the perception of greater demands than resources available.*** Stress occurs when we believe that we do not have the resources to meet the demands that are presented to us. What is interesting is that demands can be self-imposed. Further, we are looking at the balance of two beliefs - one of what is being asked of us and one of what our abilities and support are toward some task. This model and research was developed and tested in the workplace, but we can easily see how it may apply to our personal lives as well. When we have set our mind to a goal, and begin to experience stress, we can either reduce the demands or increase the resources.

One quick tip for increasing the resources is listing them all out. I find this step can often bring immediate relief because there are resources that I have forgotten about. There may be resources I haven’t followed up on yet. There may be a resource I haven’t thought of yet, and that is where your support team may be a resource or suggest a resource. In a broader sense, the two components of PsyCap that I think are useful for reducing stress are increasing Resilience and Optimism.

References

*Luthans, F., Avoilio, B.J., Avey, J.B. & Norman, S.M. (2007). Positive Psychological Capital: Measuraement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel Psychology, 60, 541-572.

**Thompson, J. L. (2019).  Psychological Capital Training for Student Success.  Paper presented at Six World Congress on Positive Psychology, Melbourne, Australia.

Gavin, D.J. & Thompson, J. L. (2019).  Training PsyCap and Signature Strength to Instill a Self-Regulated Virtuous Cycle of Employee Engagement.  Paper presented at Six World Congress on Positive Psychology, Melbourne, Australia.

Sager, H. & Thompson, J.L. (2019).  Psychological Capital as a Catalyst for Effective Organizational Change Implementation. Paper presented at Six World Congress on Positive Psychology, Melbourne, Australia.

Straetsman, M. & Thompson, J. L. (2015).  Psychological Capital as a Predictor of Employee Engagement.  Paper presented at Fourth World Congress on Positive Psychology, Buena Vista, FL.

***Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Verbeke, W. (2004). Using the job demands-resources model to predict burnout and performance. Human Resource Management, 43(1), 83–104. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20004