Progress-focused

As a psychology student in the 1980s, I learned that researchers Schmidt and Hunter indicated that IQ tests were strongly predictive of job performance, with correlations ranging from 0.51 to 0.65. However, recent research by Steel and Fariborzi (2025) suggests that this correlation may have decreased to as low as 0.16.

A new study by Zhao et al. (2024) provides insight into the benefits of a growth mindset. The study examines how a growth mindset can contribute to greater mental resilience and adaptability. This specifically examines the role of cognitive fusion and negative information bias.

An old woman had just lost her husband. I spoke to her on the phone. While I was talking to her, she mentioned that a butterfly flew into the room. The butterfly landed on her late husband's watch in front of her. She let out a cry of wonder and said, “This can't be a coincidence! The butterfly was his favorite animal. He comes to greet me.”  I could understand her reaction and did not contradict her. But David J. Hand's book “ The Improbability Principle ” offers insight into why events we think cannot be a coincidence are more common than we think and why our intuitive responses are often misleading.

Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett previously wrote the books The Spirit Level (2010) and The Inner Level (2019) about the effects of economic inequality. The Spirit Level demonstrated a strong correlation between health and social problems in societies and income inequality, suggesting that greater equality leads to better social outcomes. The Inner Level examined how economic inequality contributes to psychological problems such as status anxiety, low self-esteem, stress, depression, narcissism, and materialism. In a new article, they discuss the increasing inequality in British society and its detrimental effects on people's health and wellbeing.

The mental health of pupils and students has become an important topic of concern in recent years. The pressure to perform, social expectations, and learning challenges can place a heavy burden on young people. A recent study by Kroeper et al. (2024) provides insight into a crucial factor contributing to this stress: the perception of mindset in the classroom. They discovered a vicious circle of mindset and psychological stress.

Democracy is under pressure worldwide. In a recent post , I expressed my concern about whether the democratic constitutional state is in good hands with the new Dutch government. For a long time, I had the impression that many people thought and understood that democracy was good. But in personal conversations, I have noticed in recent years that people find it difficult to give specific and substantiated answers to the question, “Is a democracy better than a dictatorship, and if so, why?” I think it would be useful to consider the psychological benefits that democratic systems offer compared to autocratic regimes.

In the world of personal development and psychology, we often use terms such as autonomy, independence, and freedom interchangeably. Although these concepts may seem similar, they represent different aspects of the human experience and motivation. Below I explain why autonomy is different from independence and freedom, and why it is important to understand these differences.

Recent studies show that visualizing goals can have a powerful influence on human behavior and performance. A new study ( Voigt et al., 2024 ) focuses on understanding the mechanisms behind this phenomenon. In particular, they examined how visual representations of goals can influence individuals' motivation and performance.

Previously, I wrote about toxic negativity and toxic positivity . In this article, I present the Negative-Positive Response Model (NPR), a 2x2 model for dealing with problems and contradictions. This model contrasts three ineffective ways of responding to problems with a progress-focused attitude.

Management practices are based on fundamental assumptions about what motivates people. In a recent article , Marylène Gagné and Rebecca Hewett set out two contrasting views on this: agency theory and self-determination theory. Agency theory assumes that people are primarily motivated by external incentives and control, while self-determination theory states that people are driven by the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Although self-determination theory is supported by decades of research demonstrating the added value of autonomous motivation, agency theory is still the dominant assumption in management practices.

A manager in our training said that he was going to ask employees for feedback. It was about the following topic. Research by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer shows that a positive inner work experience has to do with how positively you feel about your work, how good you feel at work, and that you have the feeling that your work matters. This work experience largely determines how well you function, also as managers. We gave our managers a checklist with examples of actions they could take to increase the positive inner work experience of their employees. We also gave the checklist examples of actions that undermine employees’ inner work experience and that they should therefore avoid.

During a recent training that we gave to managers, we discussed research by Teresa Amabile on inner work experience. One of the implications of Amabile's research is that, as a manager, it is wise to try to limit negativity in your own communications. When we addressed this, one participant asked, “But how do you deal with someone else who is very negative?” This question is understandable and provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on the topic of negativity.