Author: The Pip

We all know that stress can have negative effects on mental and physical health but another important question that we need to ask is how does stress affect performance and decision making abilities in the workplace? This is something that many employers find themselves worrying about when their employees are stressed.

Like many things in life there is a fine balance between when stress is good and when stress is bad. There is a lot of research showing that stress affects people’s abilities to make decisions but whether this provides an advantage or disadvantage depends on the task at hand. For example, when a stressful task is seen as a challenge rather than a threat it can enhance the cognitive abilities that people need to make a good decision [1]. Often, however, work pressure can be such that stress starts to impair people’s abilities to make good decisions. When people are stressed they are more likely to make hasty decisions without considering all of the possibilities [2].

Secondly, when people are stressed they are more likely to succumb to what is called the ‘reflection effect’. This is the tendency to make conservative decisions when there is a chance of gaining something and risky decisions when there is a chance of losing something [1]. Thirdly, the more decisions that people have to make the more likely they are to suffer from what is called ‘decision fatigue’ or the inability to make any further decisions due to a depleted amount of self-control. For example, researchers found that people who are faced with multiple decisions, no matter how inconsequential, were more likely to give up on tasks early than those who had not previously had to make multiple decisions [3]. Add stress to the mix and you may find employees who end up making hasty, risky, fatigued decisions. Not something that you want to encourage in the workplace.

So what can be done to improve decision-making under stress in the workplace? We have already written about the benefits of building resilience to aid decision making (see link here). In our next installment we will discuss other methods that may reduce stress and improve decision making in your workplace.

1. Starcke, K. and M. Brand, Decision making under stress: a selective review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2012. 36(4): p. 1228-1248.
2. Keinan, G. (1987). Decision making under stress: Scanning of alternatives under controllable and uncontrollable threats. Journal of personality and social psychology, 52(3), 639.
3. Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., Schmeichel, B. J., Twenge, J. M., Nelson, N. M., & Tice, D. M. (2014). Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: a limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative.

Two weeks ago we discussed what emotional intelligence is and how it can affect the decisions you make ( http://bit.ly/2czbXID ). It has long been recognised that some people are low in emotional intelligence and some are high and that this can have an effect on academic success, work performance and relationships. The good news is that emotional intelligence is an ability that can, to a certain extent, be trained.

Emotional intelligence training programmes are still in the relatively early days with many interventions still being tested in research studies. Nevertheless, these types of interventions have thus far been successful in improving emotional intelligence in adults, in university students who are planning the next stages of their careers and in teenage boys who were less aggressive, hostile and angry following the training [1-3]. But what is emotional intelligence training? Most programmes focus on four key aspects:

1) Understanding emotions – sometimes in life we have a tendency to downplay our emotions in favour of carrying on with the business of life. But as we discussed last week your emotions can have unintended consequences on the decisions we make as well as what we attend to, learn and create. For example, people who are feeling blue are more likely to have their attention drawn towards sad things than to pleasant things [4].

2) Identifying emotions – can you easily recognise your own and others’ emotions? Sometimes it is easier said than done and one emotion can mask another. For example, if a child does something dangerous and you react with anger this may not be true anger but rather the fear you had that they could have hurt themselves.

3) Expressing emotions – this is thinking about how you express emotions and how you can harness them to your advantage. Trying to think of a happy memory when feeling blue actually changes activity in the brain and can help to alleviate a bad mood [5].

4) Managing emotions – in order to healthily manage emotions you need to be aware of them and of the coping strategies you use. Do you avoid and shutdown negative emotions when they appear? Or do you dwell on them? How does your mood from earlier affect your interactions now? Are you feeling blue and is this affecting how you are viewing the current situation? Learning to recognise your appraisal of a situation and how your emotions may affect it, including considering that your appraisal might be wrong, is an important aspect of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence programmes may still be in the early days but starting to ask yourself some questions about your emotions and how they affect you – for good or for bad – may be a good start to becoming more aware and more in control.

1. Castillo, R., Salguero, J.M., Fernandex-Berrocal, P, Balluerka, N. (2013). Effects of an emotional intelligence intervention on aggression and empathy among adolescents. Journal of Adolescence(36), 883-892.
2. Nelis, D., Quoidbach, J, Mikolajczak, M, Hansenne, M. (2009). Increasing emotional intelligence: (How) is it possible? Personality and Individual Differences(47), 36-41.
3. Pool, L. D., Qualter, P. (2012). Improving emotional intelligence and emotional self-efficacy through a teaching intervention for university students. Learning and Individual Differences(22), 306-312.
4. Becker, M.W. and M. Leinenger, Attentional selection is biased toward mood-congruent stimuli. Emotion, 2011. 11(5): p. 1248.
5. Cooney, R.E., et al., Remembering the good times: neural correlates of affect regulation. Neuroreport, 2007. 18(17): p. 1771-1774.

The long days of summer are drawing to a close. The new school semester can bring with it excitement but also some stress for the whole family. Here we give you some tips to help.

Organisation is key: Our minds do not like having unfinished tasks. Much like an app running in the background of a smartphone will drain the battery, having a huge list of unfinished tasks will drain your mental ability to complete tasks [1]. One way to help you focus is to write down what you are going to do and when. Have to buy uniforms? Write that down in the diary for Wednesday. Stocking up on food for school lunches? That’s a task for Sunday. The simple act of planning exactly when you will do something turns off that background fretting leaving your mind clear and focussed [2].

Give them some control: Feeling in control of your life is a big predictor of health and happiness [3]. Children and teens don’t have much control over the big things but you can give them control over the small things. Let them choose what pencil case they want for the year or what healthy lunch they want on the first day back. This will make them excited about using their new things, and therefore about going to school, as well as giving them a stress-busting sense of control over a big change in their lives.

Adjust to regular bedtimes: Sleep is important for everyone but it is particularly crucial for children and teens. Sleep disruption is more damaging for children and teens than for adults. Children under 12 need as much as 10-12 hours of sleep per night and teenagers need 8-9 hours to be able to concentrate at school and to help their brains develop [4] (See our earlier blog on tips to help sleep). Start earlier bedtimes a few days before they go back to school to help children adjust to a new schedule after a summer of freedom. This will avoid sleepy tears (both yours and theirs!) on the first day back and help them to enjoy their first day of a new school term.

Children are very attune to emotions and can pick up on your stresses and anxieties without you realising so don’t forget to look after yourself as well. Take some time out to relax and enjoy the last days of summer as you prepare for the new school term.

1. Masicampo, E. and R.F. Baumeister, Unfulfilled goals interfere with tasks that require executive functions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2011. 47(2): p. 300-311.

2. Masicampo, E. and R.F. Baumeister, Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011. 101(4): p. 667.

3. Lachman, M.E., S.D. Neupert, and S. Agrigoroaei, The relevance of control beliefs for health and aging. Handbook of the psychology of aging, 2010: p. 175-190.

4. Dewald, J.F., et al., The influence of sleep quality, sleep duration and sleepiness on school performance in children and adolescents: a meta-analytic review. Sleep medicine reviews, 2010. 14(3): p. 179-189