Resolutions can work. But you need to focus on the process of change, not just the outcome.
Click here to read the original blog in full on the Management Today website - Psychology at Work Blog, a blog page about the psychology of business, management and leadership written by Pearn Kandola.
The relationship between money and well-being is unusual. The common wisdom is that the more we have the happier we become. However, consider this analogy. Over the Christmas period, it is tradition to stuff our faces with turkey and chocolates until we feel satisfied and happy (and probably sick). Come January though, I for one will be glad to see the back of it and will avoid probably avoid eating the stuff for several months...alright, maybe not the chocolates, but you get my point. As humans, we tend to consume something to the point where our needs are met and then we take a break.
Not so, it seems, with money. To quote Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, "the desire for food is limited in every man by the narrow capacity of his stomach. But the desire of [money] seems to have no limit or certain boundary."
Economists and psychologists have been wrestling with the relationship between money and happiness for decades. Humans devote much of their time and energy to earning it, seemingly motivated by the belief that money will have a substantial impact on their overall life satisfaction. However, given the current economic crisis is leading most organisations to freeze pay increases and withdraw bonus packages, this is undoubtedly going to lead to feelings of frustration and anxiety.
Research shows that people tend to drastically overestimate the impact that income has on well-being. For example, recent research in the Journal of Positive Psychology, found that people are notoriously bad at predicting the levels of happiness associated with differing levels of income. It is true that individuals who live on or below the poverty line tend to display lower levels of well-being - i.e. it hurts to be cold, hungry and tired. However, once people have achieved a threshold level of income to buy their way out of hardship, then our prediction that money and happiness grow together breaks down. Studies actually show that increases in income have increasingly less of an impact on actual levels of happiness.
So, why do we hold on to the erroneous belief that more money means more happiness? Why do we continue to stuff our pockets when we would not continue to stuff our faces?
The answer to these questions will be a continuing topic of debate amongst economists, psychologists, philosophers and...well, everyone for many years to come. However, what I do know is that people tend to attribute too much emphasis to this one variable, and overlook the plethora of other variables that positively impact global life satisfaction (love, friendship, esteem, variety, achievement, challenge, recognition...the list goes on). Perhaps the festive period is a chance for all of us to take stock and consider what really matters (in between mouthfuls of turkey).
Gordon Brown warns of a "climate catastrophe" if we don't do more to tackle climate change. One of the critical problems is changing the public's behaviour to be more 'green'. Warnings of droughts, floods and soaring temperatures are very dramatic so why aren't we doing more?
From a psychological perspective five key factors make it hard to turn us 'green'. The first reason is what psychologists call salience. This means people tend to overestimate the likelihood of things that are easy to imagine and underestimate the importance of something that might happen in the future. Heat waves and scorching temperatures are probably difficult for many UK citizens to imagine given our recent experiences of cold, wet summers. These factors lead us to underestimate the effects of climate change.
Secondly, as psychologists we know that when confronted by too many options people feel confused and so default to doing nothing. We therefore need clear guidance on the impact of the many 'environmentally friendly' options to help us choose what is most suitable for us.
Thirdly, we need leaders to act as better role models because we look to people in authority to see how to act. Whilst leaders tell us to cycle, take public transport and car share we see them being driven to work usually in gas guzzling cars. This is hardly conducive to changing our driving habits.
Fourthly, even small habits are hard to change so we need suitable alternatives. It is a struggle to get us to drive less when public transport is unreliable, inconvenient and too expensive.
Finally, people tend to be loss averse which means we need to position the benefits of change in terms of avoiding a loss rather than making a gain. For example, telling someone that if they do not use energy conservation methods they will lose £350 a year is more effective than telling them that if they do use energy conservation methods, they will save £350 a year.
If leaders want to make us more 'green' they need understand what makes us more likely to change and invest in ensuring that we do. We need examples that are easy to relate to, clarity about the impact of our options, role modelling of desired behaviours, suitable alternatives and to know what we stand to lose rather than what we will gain.
A survey designed to show how good managers are at spotting liars has actually revealed how suspicious we are.
Click here to read the original blog in full on the Management Today website - Psychology at Work Blog, a blog page about the psychology of business, management and leadership written by Pearn Kandola.
Almost half of UK employees say their boss bullies them. But why is this happening?
Click here to read the original blog in full on the Management Today website - Psychology at Work Blog, a blog page about the psychology of business, management and leadership written by Pearn Kandola.
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