Thursday, 26 September 2024

Γιατί τα αδέλφια μαλώνουν και τι δεν πρέπει να κάνουν ποτέ οι γονείς


ΦΙΛΙΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΜΑΡΑ07 ΑΥΓΟΥΣΤΟΥ, 2024

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Αν είστε γονείς και αναρωτιέστε , θυμηθείτε τη δική σας παιδική ηλικία και τη σχέση με τα αδέλφια σας. Πόσες φορές είχατε «πλακωθεί» με τον αδελφό ή την αδελφή σας και πόσες φορές τα «ξαναβρήκατε»;
Τι να κάνετε

Χωρίστε τα αλλά μην τα απειλείτε: Εξηγήσετε τις επιπτώσεις των πράξεών τους χωρίς απειλές. Το κάθε παιδί καταλαβαίνει ότι με το να χτυπήσει το άλλο παιδί προκαλεί πόνο. Τονίστε ότι αυτή η συμπεριφορά (ξύλο και φωνές) είναι απαράδεκτη. Όμως φροντίστε κι εσείς με τη σειρά σας να μην συμπεριφέρεστε με τον ίδιο τρόπο στα παιδιά ή να μη φωνάζετε το ζευγάρι μεταξύ σας.

Μην τα συγκρίνετε. Συμπεριφερθείτε το ίδιο στα παιδιά, ανεξάρτητα από την ηλικία τους. Μη λέτε «Εσύ είσαι μεγάλος ή εσύ είσαι μικρή, σταμάτα πρώτος», ενισχύει την πιθανότητα να εκπαιδεύετε «θύματα» και «θύτες».

Μην παίρνετε τη θέση του ενός παιδιού. Αυτό ενισχύει τον ανταγωνισμό μεταξύ τους.



Μην επεμβαίνετε διαρκώς: Ένας στόχος του καυγά τους είναι να σας κάνουν να εμπλακείτε. Μην το κάνετε παρά μόνον όταν θεωρήσετε ότι είναι απαραίτητο.


Διδάξτε τους την ενσυναίσθηση: Μάθετε στα παιδιά να μπαίνουν στη θέση του άλλου ώστε να καταλαβαίνουν τις προθέσεις και να σέβονται τα συναισθήματά των άλλων.

Αφήστε τα να εκφραστούν: Το στερεότυπο της «ιδανικής οικογένειας» όπου απουσιάζουν τελείως οι καυγάδες, οδηγεί πολλούς γονείς στο να εμποδίζουν τα παιδιά τους να εκφράσουν τα συναισθήματά τους ελεύθερα. Δείξτε τους αποδεκτούς τρόπους έκφρασης των συναισθημάτων του θυμού, της ζήλιας ή της απογοήτευσης. Το παιδί πρέπει να καταλάβει ότι δεν είναι κακό που ζηλεύει, κακός είναι ενδεχομένως ο τρόπος με τον οποίο εξωτερικεύει τη ζήλια του.

Επαινείτε τη θετική συμπεριφορά, μην εστιάζετε μόνο στην κακή.

Δίνετε απλές και συγκεκριμένες οδηγίες. Μην λέτε: «παίξτε όμορφα». Πείτε: «παίξτε χωρίς να φωνάζετε, μοιραστείτε τα παιχνίδια σας κ.λπ.».

Ανακαλύψτε τι κρύβεται πίσω από τον καυγά: Τα παιδιά καυγαδίζουν επειδή πιστεύουν πως μόνον όταν κερδίζεις είναι σημαντικά ή μήπως γιατί νιώθουν απογοήτευση και θέλουν να κάνουν και τον άλλο να νιώσει το ίδιο; Μήπως γιατί έτσι διασκεδάζουν, ή γιατί έτσι μαθαίνουν να διεκδικούν; Δεν είναι πάντα εύκολα να το ανακαλύψετε αλλά έχετε αυτές τις ερωτήσεις στο μυαλό σας όταν διερευνάτε τα αίτια του καυγά. Να θυμάστε πάντως ότι κάποιες φορές οι καυγάδες λειτουργούν και σαν παιχνίδι. Οπότε αφήστε τα να «παίξουν».

ΠΗΓΗ:

Tuesday, 24 September 2024

In the slow zone: Time Expansion in sport


Steve Taylor with a theme from his new book.

16 September 2024


Have you ever experienced time expansion? When a moment expands by many orders of magnitude, maybe 10 to 40 times? In other words, a period of three seconds may seem to stretch for half a minute, or even up to two minutes. Such Time Expansion Experiences (or TEEs) happen most frequently in accidents, such as car crashes and falls. In my research – documented in my new book Time Expansion Experiences – 54 per cent of the reports of TEEs I have collected and analysed occurred in this context.

The second most prevalent context was spiritual/psychedelic experiences. The third was sport, accounting for 10 per cent of the reports I collected. It's those experiences I'm going to focus on here, because I believe that the characteristics of TEEs could be a key to sporting success.



As I study them, TEEs are distinct from moments of much milder time dilation, such as when we travel to unfamiliar environments or when we are bored. These are common experiences, whereas TEEs happen infrequently.

Emergency TEEs (or ETEEs, as I refer to them) have several core characteristics, along with their fundamental feature of time-expansion. For example, they usually involve a sense of wellbeing. Even though their lives might be in danger, people feel strangely calm and relaxed. They may even describe their experience in 'spiritual' terms, with characteristics of serenity, transcendence and oneness. They also usually involve a sense of alertness or heightened awareness. Perception becomes much more vivid and intense than normal, so that people notice more detail and beauty.

ETEEs also often feature very rapid thought and action. In accident situations, people are often surprised by the amount of time they seem to have to think and act. Another characteristic, particularly in life-threatening situations, is a sense of detachment, as if the person is watching from above or from a distance. Less frequently, there is a sense of external sounds becoming muffled or wider surroundings being blurred (Taylor, 2022).

In ETEEs, many people told me they were certain that time expansion enabled them to take preventative action that would be impossible in normal time. Many also described detailed and complex thought processes that appeared to transcend normal time perception. As a result, almost all my research participants were certain that they were experiencing time expansion in the moment rather than in retrospect. For example, a participant who reported a TEE in which he avoided a metal barrier falling on to his car told me, 'It was an event that happened in the present. It's not a recollection of memories or events. For me the slowing down of the moment made me escape and decide how to escape the falling metal on us' (Taylor, 2024, pp.51-52).

So, I argue, TEEs are real experiences that happen in the moment. They are not – as has been suggested by some researchers, such as Stetson et al. (2007) – an illusion of recollection, caused by an increased number of memories created in unusual situations. This has important implications for sporting TEEs.
Sporting TEEs

One participant described a TEE to me that occurred while playing ice hockey, in which 'The play which seemed to last for about 10 minutes all occurred in the space of about 8 seconds [of measured time]' (Taylor, 2024, p.64). Similarly, a man described a game of table tennis that suddenly 'turned into slow motion … I could see the ball and its flight and spin perfectly, anticipating its precise bounce, and position my body, arm, hands and wrist to hit perfect returns and sometimes from seemingly impossible positions where the ball was falling below table height and still hit a winner' (Taylor, 2024, p.64).



There are also many reports of TEEs from successful professional athletes. One sport where TEEs are particularly common is motor racing. For example, the Finnish driver Mika Häkkinen reported that, when driving at his best, 'Everything becomes like slow motion – even though you're going at unbelievable speed around the Monaco track' (Brolin, 2017, p.20). The British driver called Mark Hughes – now a well-known motor racing journalist – described 'one of the greatest days in his life' when he began a race in 26th position but finished third. According to his testimony, Hughes achieved this remarkable feat by driving in an altered state of consciousness in which time disappeared. As sometimes occurs in falls, he experienced a strange sense of detachment, as if he was watching from outside his body. As he described it, 'It probably didn't last long but it felt like a long time. It's funny and it sounds weird but it felt unconnected to time … It's not really time …You felt you could go back, analyse and have a look … I felt like I could do anything and there was nothing stopping me from doing whatever I pleased' (Brolin, 2017, pp.141–2).

TEEs can also occur during short duration events, such as sprints. The American sprinter Steve Williams – who equalled the men's 100- and 200-metre world records in the 1970s – described how, when he was running well, '10 seconds seems like 60. Time switches to slow motion' (Murphy & Whyte, 1995, p.42).


Easy Access to Time Expansion

What if an athlete regularly – or even continually – experienced time expansion, with all the advantages this confers?

In my view, a tiny proportion of extraordinary athletes have had easy access to time expansion experiences. One example is the baseball player Ted Williams, whose career ran from 1939 to 1960. Williams is usually regarded as one of the greatest hitters (if not the best) ever, with the highest on-base percentage in baseball history (.482) – meaning that he reached base more frequently in games than any other player. (To put this in perspective, the average on-base percentage in major league baseball is around .300.) In fact, Williams is sometimes credited for coining the term 'in the Zone', which he used to describe his own experiences. He claimed to be able to see the stitches on the seam of the ball as it flew toward him at 100 mph. He described how the ball sometimes appeared to grow, so that it seemed like a beach ball floating toward him in slow motion. Outside sport, Williams claimed he could read the labels on records spinning at 78rpm.

This may also be true of the contemporary footballer Lionel Messi, usually described as the best player of modern times. The Argentinian has won the Ballon D'Or – the global award for the footballer who performs best over a calendar year – a record seven times. He is renowned for his 'impossible' goals that seem to defy the laws of physics. He threads through tiny spaces between groups of opponents, curls the ball more acutely than any other player, accelerates and decelerates with impossible rapidity, all while keeping the ball fixed at high speed. As the ex-footballer Rio Ferdinand commented insightfully of Messi, 'I just feel that in his own eyes and his own vision, the game just slows down for him. He plays in slow-motion because it comes to him so easy and so naturally' (Bristow, 2024).
Altered States of Consciousness

As I suggested in a previous article in The Psychologist (Taylor, 2021), the key to understanding TEEs is altered states of consciousness. Our normal time perception is linked to our normal state of consciousness. When we shift into altered states of consciousness, our experience of time may change radically. In intensely altered states, time is most likely to expand dramatically, or to apparently disappear altogether. This is why radical time expansion (or even time cessation) is a common feature of psychedelic drugs, and of intense awakening (or spiritual) experiences. The same is true of accidents and emergencies. The sudden shock of an accident may disrupt our normal psychological processes and functions, causing an abrupt shift in consciousness.

In sport, a shift into an altered state of consciousness occurs in a different way. In my view, it is the result a state of very intense absorption (which I refer to as 'super-absorption'). Absorption normally makes time pass faster (for example, a speeding up of time is a common feature of the 'flow' state, as researched by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi). However, when absorption becomes especially intense, over a long period of sustained concentration, a more drastic change occurs.



In some cases, an athlete builds up concentration gradually over the course of a game or contest. A racing driver or a golfer may concentrate hard for hours, eventually attaining a state of intense absorption. Here the game is akin to a meditation, in which a person gradually focuses their mind, attaining deeper states of stillness and wellbeing. In other cases, an athlete shifts quickly into super-absorption during a critical period of a game – for example, when they (or their team) are losing and making a concerted effort to catch up or in the final minutes of a game when scores are tied or close. The intensity of the situation has a powerful focusing effect, rapidly intensifying.



It's as if, at a certain pitch of concentration, we are like a ship passing through an estuary into the wide ocean. And in this different domain, along with major changes to our perceptions and our performance, time expands dramatically.
The main key?

Many factors contribute to sporting ability – for example, physical fitness, strength, technical skill, tactical knowledge. But perhaps the main key to extraordinary sporting ability is the capacity to enter an altered state of consciousness, through intense absorption. And the most important feature of this altered state – in terms of contributing to a higher level of performance – is time expansion. Dr Steve Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Leeds Beckett University, and a past Chair of the British Psychological Society's Transpersonal Psychology Section. S.m.taylor@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

Time Expansion Experiences: The Psychology of Time Perception and the Illusion of Linear Time is out in November.

SOURCE:

Τα προβλήματα γύρω από τον ύπνο δημιουργούνται συνήθως από τους γονείς


THE MAMAGERS TEAM31 ΑΥΓΟΥΣΤΟΥ, 2018

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Κάθε βράδυ την ώρα του ύπνου σε πολλά σπίτια που έχουν μικρά παιδιά υπάρχει ένα θέμα. Τα παιδιά δεν θέλουν να πάνε για ύπνο. Μόλις οι γονείς καταφέρουν να τα βάλουν στο κρεβάτι, τα παιδιά θυμούνται πως θέλουν νερό, ή και ένα ακόμη παραμύθι, ή το φως αναμμένο, τις κουρτίνες τραβηγμένες, μετά τις κουρτίνες ανοιχτές, και μετά θέλουν να ξανάπανε στη τουαλέτα και τελικά μετά από μια εξουθενωτική πάλη η κατάληξη είναι κλάματα από τα παιδιά, φωνές από τους μεγάλους και το θέμα συνεχίζεται καθημερινά.
Ας καταλάβουμε το παιδί, τον γονιό, την κατάσταση

Κατ’ αρχάς δεν υπάρχει παιδί που δεν θέλει να παρατείνει την ώρα της δράσης λίγο ακόμα. Το να θέλουν να ανήκουν στη δράση είναι ανθρώπινη ανάγκη. Τα σοβαρά προβλήματα γύρω από τον ύπνο δημιουργούνται συνήθως από τους γονείς. Όσο πιο συγκεκριμένη και σταθερή γίνεται η ρουτίνα του ύπνου κάθε βράδυ, τόσο πιο γρήγορα θα γίνει συνήθεια και στο παιδί. Οι γονείς επιτρέπουν στο παιδί να τους χορεύει!
Προτάσεις

1. Χρειάζεται να είστε παρών και αφοσιωμένος στη διαδικασία και όχι να κάνετε ταυτόχρονα άλλα πράγματα. Ένας λόγος που τα παιδιά ζητούν κι άλλη προσοχή είναι γιατί δεν έχουν πάρει τη σωστή δόση.

2. Μείνετε σταθεροί στις αποφάσεις σας αλλά με ευγένεια. Τα παιδιά ξέρουν πολύ καλά όταν λες αυτό που εννοείς και όταν εννοείς αυτό που λες.


3. Αφού πέσουν στο κρεβάτι αρνηθείτε να παίξετε άλλο το παιχνίδι τους. Αν σηκωθούν ευγενικά και σταθερά οδηγήστε τα ξανά στο κρεβάτι. ΧΩΡΙΣ ΛΟΓΙΑ. Οι πράξεις είναι πολύ καλύτερες από τα λόγια. Μπορεί να χρειαστεί να το επαναλάβετε πολλές-πολλές φορές πριν καταλάβουν ότι το εννοείτε. Αν τα παιδιά έχουν καταλάβει ότι σας κάνουν ότι θέλουν θα πάρει 3-4 βραδιές να αλλάξει το σκηνικό.


4. Συζητήστε μαζί τους ότι αυτό που κάνατε ως τώρα ήταν λάθος. Έτσι θα τους δώσετε την ευκαιρία να καταλάβουν ότι κανείς δεν είναι αλάνθαστος και ότι σπουδαίο είναι να μαθαίνεις από τα λάθη σου.
Προγραμματίζοντας το μέλλον

1. Συζητήστε μαζί τους τη διαδικασία του ύπνου κατά τη διάρκεια της μέρας και όχι όταν προκύπτει το πρόβλημα. Βάλτε τα παιδιά να φτιάξουν μια λίστα με το τι χρειάζεται να έχει γίνει πριν πάνε για ύπνο. Μια λίστα που θα περιγράφει τη δική τους ρουτίνα και η οποία ποικίλει ανάλογα με την ηλικία του παιδιού. Για παράδειγμα: μαζεύουμε τα παιχνίδια, φοράμε πιτζάμες, πλένουμε δόντια, πάμε στην τουαλέτα, διαλέγουμε ρούχα για την επόμενη μέρα κλπ. Για τα μικρά παιδιά μια καλή ιδέα είναι να βρούνε εικόνες από περιοδικά που περιγράφουν τη διαδικασία αυτή και να την κολλήσουν σε ένα χαρτόνι. Αυτό το χαρτόνι το κολλάτε στην πόρτα του δωματίου. Βοηθήστε στο να διαμορφώσουν τον χρονικό προσδιορισμό της διαδικασίας αυτής.

2. Όταν έρθει η ώρα για να αρχίσει η διαδικασία του ύπνου πείτε απλώς «Είναι ώρα για ύπνο» και όχι «Πρέπει να πας για ύπνο» βοηθήστε λέγοντας «Τι είναι το πρώτο πράγμα που κάνεις όταν πηγαίνεις για ύπνο;» Δώστε επιλογές «Θέλεις να διαλέξεις εσύ παραμύθι ή εγώ;».

3. Δώστε τους να καταλάβουν ότι θα είσαστε διαθέσιμοι για παραμύθι 10΄ πριν την καθορισμένη ώρα για τον ύπνο. Αν είναι έτοιμα καλώς αν όχι το παραμύθι θα περιμένει ως αύριο. (ΣΤΑΘΕΡΑ και ΕΥΓΕΝΙΚΑ).

4. Για τα παιδιά που θυμώνουν γιατί τα μεγαλύτερα αδέλφια πηγαίνουν αργότερα για ύπνο μπορείτε να πείτε πως είναι εντάξει να αισθάνονται θυμωμένα αλλά δεν είναι εντάξει να μην πηγαίνουν την ώρα που πρέπει για ύπνο.

5. Δώστε τους την ευκαιρία να μένουν λίγο αργότερα τις Παρασκευές και τα Σάββατα (ΛΙΓΟ).

6. Ας καταλάβουν ότι η ώρα που έχει συμφωνηθεί είναι να πάνε στα δωμάτιά τους και να πέσουν στα κρεβάτια τους, δεν είναι απαραίτητο και να κοιμηθούν. Άλλα παιδιά θέλουν να διαβάσουν, άλλα θέλουν παίξουν. ΑΡΚΕΙ ΝΑ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΣΤΟ ΔΩΜΑΤΙΟ ΤΟΥΣ.

Ερατώ Χατζημιχαλάκη, Οικογενειακή Σύμβουλος

ΠΗΓΗ:

Friday, 13 September 2024

Helping leaders harness humility



Tom Loncar considers ways in which people can struggle with ‘I might be wrong’, and processes for fostering psychological flexibility.

16 August 2024


The idea that 'I might be wrong here' can be difficult for leaders to accept. Leaders don't do that. The strong leader is decisive, inspirational and right.



In my executive coaching practice, such rightness can manifest as inflexibility in my clients' perceptions of the environments they operate in. Responses such as 'this is how I am', 'this is how it is' and 'this is what is expected of me' can limit richer exploration of learning opportunities. How do we find a path through these rigid positions and towards psychological flexibility and adaptive growth in leaders, while also fostering wider psychological safety for the people who work with them?


Zombified leadership and psychological safety

These rigid positions on what leaders can and can't do often trace back to lingering tenets of 'zombie leadership' – ideas that, despite being demonstrably false, refuse to die and continue to walk among us (Haslam et al., 2024). This includes the endowment of a rarefied 'specialness' to those who make it to the top of their organisational charts; 'leaders-as-saviours', in possession of extraordinary skills that those who follow will never have.

Such a dichotomous view of leader separateness can embed beliefs and expectations around leader infallibility, where any hint of 'I might be wrong on that' is unwelcome. The knock-on effect for their wider group is one that can undermine psychological safety; questioning a leader's position or merely offering an alternative view can be seen as a risk not worth taking (Edmondson, 1999; Torralba et al., 2020).


The role of intellectual humility

Effective leaders who rise above such zombie quagmires instead welcome a good kind of fallibility; a place where they don't know everything, and where they recognise the value of others' opinions. They are intellectually humble. In my coaching work, clients who open the door to intellectual humility can bring less helpful beliefs and assumptions to the surface, which can then be more consciously observed and tested through intentional experimentation. Through this they learn and establish more effective patterns of behaviour, which can foster personal learning, enhance interpersonal relationships and bring wider organisational benefits.

Of course, intellectual humility is not an all-contexts panacea; the discerning application of decisiveness is a key leadership competence (Anderson & Adams, 2015). But intellectual humility is often unexercised and too easily overlooked in situations that would particularly benefit from its application. Here, I'll describe five scenarios that illustrate its palpable absence in leadership development, followed by an examination of psychological flexibility processes that can help surface and nurture it. But first, let's look at intellectual humility's emergence as a focus of interest across psychology.


Intellectual humility in psychology

Intellectual humility 'involves recognizing that there are gaps in one's knowledge and that one's current beliefs might be incorrect' (Porter et al., 2022, p.524). It sounds simple enough, but such recognition is all too easily bypassed.

As humans, we have a natural tendency toward naïve realism (Ross & Ward, 1996) where our views of the contexts we face are assumed to be objective and complete, rather than a thin slice of data filtered by idiosyncratic blends of cognitive biases. While examinations of intellectual humility by philosophers and theological scholars date back centuries, it is only in the last decade or so that it has come under scrutiny in psychology (Bąk et al., 2022).

Subfields which have taken a strong interest in intellectual humility include social-personality, cognitive, clinical and educational psychology, and leadership and organisational behaviour (Porter et al., 2022). Indeed, the British Psychological Society's Research Digest has covered intellectual humility across a diverse range of journals, including the Journal of Positive Psychology (intellectual humility's role in knowledge acquisition; Krumrei-Mancuso et al., 2020), Self and Identity (openness to opposing views; Porter & Schumann, 2018), Memory (accuracy of self-knowledge in the presence of penalties; Arnold et al., 2016) and Personality and Individual Differences (perceptions of self-assessed intelligence; Howard & Cogswell, 2018).

The Psychologist has also featured articles from psychologists applying their own perspectives to the topic, including Elaine Fox's Switchcraft: Harnessing the Power of Mental Agility to Transform Your Life (Fox, 2022a). According to Fox, intellectual humility 'helps to strip away our natural tendency to interpret the world around us with a lens that is heavily coloured by our own personal biases, self-interests, and experience' (Fox, 2022b). Against a wider emerging backdrop of political polarisation, conspiracy theories and fake news where 'truth' has become contestable, intellectual humility is becoming an activated area of interest for psychologists (e.g. Bowes & Tasimi, 2022; Smith, 2023).

While there is some variation in how intellectual humility is explored across subfields of psychology, a comprehensive 2022 review by Tenelle Porter of the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues noted a significant commonality; there is a 'metacognitive core' to the construct 'composed of recognizing the limits of one's knowledge and awareness of one's fallibility' (Porter et al., 2022, p.525). It's an internal acknowledgement that one doesn't and can't know it all.

While cognitive psychology focuses on this metacognitive core, other subfields such as social and personality psychology extend to social aspects of intellectual humility, where it is demonstrated through behaviour and through 'valuing the intellect of others' (Porter et al., 2022, p.525). Absences of intellectual humility can manifest as 'an unfounded insistence that one's own beliefs are correct and a disregard of people who hold different views' (Leary et al., 2017, p.793).

This wider contextual lens is useful in examinations of leadership, where actions – and interactions – invariably speak louder than thinking alone. Leaders who are adept at attuning to the interpersonal and contextual challenges they face with a modicum of intellectual humility can facilitate wider sustained effectiveness in their organisations, as the studies below highlight.


How does it matter to leadership?

It is perhaps natural to assume that intellectual humility might bring a gentler qualitative edge to leadership. Its impact is far stronger; the benefits extend to real business outcomes in often challenging market settings. For example, a study of 105 CEOs leading companies in the hypercompetitive tech sector found that higher CEO humility yielded a more collaborative executive team, an enhanced strategic orientation, and stronger financial performance (Ou et al., 2018). Another tech sector study that explored leader–innovation relationships across 135 teams revealed that humble leadership is key for both team processes and innovation via sharing and adaptation to new ideas (Lei et al., 2022). Both of these studies referenced Owens et al.'s (2013) conceptualisation of leader humility as accurate self-awareness, appreciation of others' strengths, and openness to new insights; all necessary ingredients to facilitating a learning orientation and wider psychological safety.

There may also be a significant benefit in intellectual humility being cultivated in emerging leaders, laying the foundations for wider application as careers mature. Krumrei-Mancuso and Rowatt (2023) examined follower reports on 78 young leaders in the role of university residential advisors. Leaders who were reported to have respect for diverse viewpoints yielded followers who were significantly more satisfied with their leader's interpersonal abilities and also their justice orientation.


Intellectual humility's absence in leadership – scenarios

Clearly, intellectual humility can be useful to leaders. And while many leaders will grasp its potential benefits, and may even apply it usefully across many situations, it may lie dormant and unseen as an option in others. Let's consider some scenarios that highlight the costs of that.



A) The ouch of feedback

While many organisations can proffer the cute soundbite that 'all feedback is a gift', such offerings can be jarringly unwelcome if they clash with personal beliefs on competence. A key vehicle for such perturbances is multi-rater '360 degree' feedback where leaders are evaluated on a set of competency measures (e.g. The Leadership Circle; Anderson, 2006) by those who work with them (including bosses, peers, direct reports and key clients/stakeholders).

Such evaluations can be a rite of passage for those settling into their first chapter of leadership. Blindspots invariably emerge and can be both positive (where the leader rates themselves lower than their evaluators) and negative (where their evaluators' rating is lower). It is in the case of the latter where a personal belief about my competence as a leader is placed on the stage, and next to an alternative and unexpected 'truth'. A lack of intellectual humility can manifest in unproductive behaviours in response to these gaps. Whether it is an opening to dispute ('that is plain wrong – look at this evidence!'), disappointment ('can't they see how hard I'm working!'), conspiracy theorising ('well, they would say that!'), or any other manner of inflexible decoding, a road less expansive emerges. For such leaders, unforeseen feedback compels defence or retreat, rather than informing a springboard for developmental attention.



B) Assumed awfulness – the malaise of the upward but stagnating SME

A distinct manifestation of a lack intellectual humility can often be seen in transitions by subject matter experts (SMEs) to higher roles where they are expected to lead others. In this scenario, an entirely different form of contribution is called for, where substantive delegation to direct reports is key. While they can appreciate the more elevated mandate that is expected in their new role, they can nonetheless feel compelled to stay 'in the weeds', with only tokenistic attention to delegating significant tasks. The costs can include working excessively long hours, micromanaging and being experienced as a 'doer' rather than a leader.

Some of the assumptions perpetuating this malaise can include 'this is the only way I can definitely prove my value' (personal), 'my staff will make mistakes so need to be closely supervised' (interpersonal), and 'any mistakes that might arise in doing things differently will be too difficult to handle' (contextual). A lack of intellectual humility means that these assumptions are treated as being entirely true and so are never tested through substantive experimental attention – it would be too awful to do so.



C) Here, but not here = 'executive absence'

Back-to-back meetings are an increasing post-Covid norm (Laker et al., 2022) – there are too many of them and a dilution of presence becomes inevitable. This can be through multitasking in situ (e.g. one eye on the meeting, the other on incoming emails… or in the case of some of my clients, on other meetings!) or through a withdrawal of intentionality (this is something I've got to do, rather than get to do), as has become the fate of many once-useful daily stand-up meetings (Gilkey, 2023).

While such behaviours may bring some efficiency gains in the short term, they can also build patterns that cumulatively support executive absence and inattention. While interpersonal situations were once a forum for building executive presence, an odd opposite is now too often the reality. The intellectual humility deficit in such situations is more insidious – everyone's doing it – but unchecked it amounts to a wilful and persistent attention away from potentially useful data in the environment.



D) 'But that's me being authentic'

This is a common retort from leaders who feel unacceptably constrained by the notion that they would benefit from changing behaviours that they feel are values-based and 'authentic', in order to accommodate a wider need. It might be over-sharing of personal information, the framing of feedback, the unnuanced intensity of how they apply their 'strengths', or similar behaviours that serve to emphasise their authenticity. In such cases, a lack of intellectual humility shows up as an inability to recognise, value and then attune to the needs of others in complex contexts, due to a discordant sense of personal compromise that such an act would entail.



E) My 'helpful' view is required asap

The final scenario is also related to meetings, though this time with an unintended psychological safety impact. A leader's well-meant early offering of an opinion at the start of agenda items can sometimes inadvertently inhibit wider dialogue. As Cornell University social psychologist Vanessa Bohns perceptively puts it: 'even an offhand suggestion by someone in power can feel like a command to someone in a position of low power' (Bohns, 2021, p.136). Offering something different could indeed be seen as a career-limiting move! This is particularly relevant in cross-cultural teams; members from high-context cultures can tend to shy away from any potential for disagreement (Toegel & Barsoux, 2016). Thus, while other people's ideas may potentially be valued by the leader, they are discouraged through a lack of appreciation of the power dynamics at play; the absence of this kind of intellectual humility can suppress the development of psychologically safe conditions where a wider array of ideas can be surfaced.



So, low intellectual humility can nullify or diminish situations that might otherwise be opportunities for learning and connection. These scenarios highlight a range of rigidities that can both overtly and more perniciously detract from personal, interpersonal and wider contextual effectiveness. They also highlight distinct opportunities for a flexibility shift, where intellectual humility is engaged and welcomed. These can be examined through the lens of psychological flexibility.


Six processes of psychological flexibility

Psychological flexibility can be defined as 'the ability to adapt to a situation with awareness, openness, and focus and to take effective action, guided by your values' (Harris, 2008, p.35). It facilitates a capacity for shifting 'mindsets or behavioral repertoires when these strategies compromise personal or social functioning' (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010, p.865). This attunement of a values-based inner core to complex situational demands presents as a useful lever to meeting the challenges in the scenarios I've described.

Psychological flexibility was originally conceptualised as the target of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) (Doorley et al., 2020; Hayes et al., 2004). In ACT, psychological flexibility is established through focus on six interrelated processes, which I will now link to our scenarios.



Cognitive defusion (scenario A: de-ouching feedback)

When feedback feels like an unwelcome jolt, it can indicate that cognitive fusion is present. This is a rigidity in thinking about how I, we, they and/or it 'should' be, and it might lie dormant until a challenge (such as unforeseen feedback) is felt.

Cognitive fusion is psychological inflexibility characterised by thought processes seeking to impose a 'false order' (Hayes, 2019, p.151). Perturbances to this order through feedback can call into action a range of defensive reactions that might include ruminative problem solving, blaming others or chastising oneself (Harris, 2006). Rather than being a springboard for insight, feedback is instead an opening to a range of defensive or protective reactions.

The psychologically flexible response instead is cognitive defusion, where we look at the information; it is just data after all. As in all living systems, openness to feedback loops is crucial to one's agility in changing environments (El-Samad, 2021). An intellectually humble leader is open to such feedback and is not threatened by it; any initial 'ouch' is followed by 'wow'. Surprising data will inspire interest rather than defence, and be considered as an input that can inform development.



Perspective-taking (scenario A: adding intentionality to feedback and scenario E: facilitating psychologically safe environments)

Opening up to feedback can also be a conscious gateway to perspective-taking. This process involves moving beyond an egocentric conceptualisation of the self, to a wider awareness and intentionality of experience 'across people, place and time' (Hayes, 2019, p.175). Feedback can be a confirmation that we can be experienced very differently by different groups of people; it is rare for an individual leader to have the same 360 profile across the various groups that have evaluated them. For example, they may 'manage up' well, while having ineffective relationships with peers or direct reports; indeed, they may be perceived as 'kissing up, while kicking down' (Loncar, 2016).

Such segmented data views that 360 reports can provide can activate conscious experiments in areas which might benefit from targeted attention with specific groups. Perspective-taking is crucial to what matters here? … and how can I show up to support that intention … one situation at a time. This also reveals the unfolding temporal aspect of the perspective-taking process; 'I used to be uncomfortable with X' is a reflection that many intellectually humble leaders have in their narratives; developmental attention is cumulative and crucial to conscious learning.

Perspective-taking is also key to cultivating cultures of psychologically safety where leader egos are consciously put to the side and a message of 'I need to hear from you' is communicated and reinforced (Edmondson, 2024). This will include curtailing seemingly benevolent urges to speak first and instead nurture skills that draw out contributions from others.

In summary, intellectually humble leaders are skilled at stepping back and making useful connections, and through this show up intentionally attuned to the people and contexts they are with.



Acceptance (scenario B: testing assumptions of awfulness)

The assumptions about delegation described in scenario B are examples of avoidance in the face of assumed pain ahead; a retreat back from a threshold of a bigger leadership contribution. The acceptance process instead opens up to this and purposefully goes through the sensed threshold; it represents a 'willingness to experience odd or uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, or physical sensations in the service of response flexibility', thereby opening the door to a fuller participation (Hayes, 2011).

Substantive experiments in delegation will often feel difficult to initiate (one client described the very idea as 'complete abandonment') but are indeed necessary to enabling learning in the leader and their team. An intellectually humble leader will recognise assumptions serving to enforce both subtle and more pronounced patterns of avoidance, and be prepared to substantively test them in service of their own and their team's learning and growth.



Presence (scenario C: from 'executive absence' to presence through useful noticing)

The psychologically flexible alternative to 'executive absence' in meetings is the process of presence. While this may seem obvious, it is clearly not easy in the face of the many competing forces compelling and dividing attention.

Presence involves greater orientation to the internal and external environment in the here and now, with deliberate and flexible attention; simply put, it is 'useful noticing' (Hayes, 2019, p.211). This accords with wisdom from pioneering leadership scholar the late Warren Bennis who often observed that the most successful leaders are also 'first-class noticers' (e.g. Bazerman, 2014; Bennis & Thomas, 2002, p.19).

First-class noticing can too easily take a back seat in modern interpersonal contexts where distractions and patterns of divided and device-tethered attention abound. Committing to noticing more deliberately in meetings can surface many benefits for leaders, including opportunities for future dialogue with individual participants and 'strengths spotting' in junior staff (Linley, 2008). Furthermore, Gallup research has shown that noticing which supports recognition of others can significantly contribute to broader employee engagement (Lorenz, 2022).

An intellectually humble leader, then, is conscious about where their attention is placed; they orient to being first-class noticers and recognise there is always valuable information to be discerned.



Values (scenario D: authenticity with responsibility in this situation and scenario E: facilitating psychologically safe environments)

Such presence is potentiated through reference to one's values across the contexts that matter. Values are self-determined qualities of action enabling meaning and purpose to be created by choice (Hayes, 2019). Importantly, self-determined does not mean self-centred, as more rigid manifestations of 'that's me being authentic' can embody, often with an adverse psychological safety impact.

Stanford social psychologist Deborah Gruenfeld characterises such interpretations of authenticity as impulsivity at the expense of responsibility (Stanford Seed, 2022). When aspiring to be effective and enabling as a leader, it's not just about you and so values must be consciously and adaptively engaged.

Leading ACT clinician and trainer Russ Harris likens the dynamic-while-robust nature of an individual's core values to continents on a spinning globe of the world (Harris, 2019). They are always there, but not all of them will be seen at once. An intellectually humble leader will temper any impulsivity and lead with their values consciously calibrated to the people and situations they face, and through this foster wider psychological safety.



Committed action (all scenarios: wider patterns of values-based effectiveness)

Enveloping the above processes is where the 'rubber meets the road' (Atkins et al., 2019, p.62; Hayes, 2015) – the process of committed action. Rather than being sporadic events, psychologically flexible committed action has cumulative benefits; the values-based foundations bring an inherent meaning and vitality that naturally support widening patterns of action and with them a commensurate sense of life competence (Hayes, 2019; Hayes et al., 2022).

In place of behaviours oriented to feedback aversion, insular self-focus, avoidance, 'executive absence' and impulsivity, the intellectually humble leader's behaviours are more openly attuned to what's in front of them, valuing the people and situations they are in with discernment, while also consciously engaging their own values – they cultivate learning experiences and include others in the journey.


Overlapping and interrelated, with options

These six psychological flexibility processes are 'overlapping and interrelated' (Hayes, Luoma, et al., 2006, p.17). Any of the described intellectual humility scenarios could validly be examined through the lens of an alternative process; for example, feedback aversion through acceptance, authenticity through perspective-taking, assumed awfulness through defusion, and so on. There is an elevating shift from rigidity when psychological flexibility is engaged, as previously obscured options for consideration and action become apparent.

And option generation is key. As the maxim of corporate finance states: 'options have value' (Beinhocker, 1999, p.105). Leaders who lack intellectual humility tend to see only black and white. There is no acknowledgement of the possibility for grey, and so the potentiality that resides there is unexplored. Intellectually humble leaders, on the other hand, acknowledge their initial instincts might be wrong and with psychological flexibility can surface options that would otherwise be bypassed. In the scenarios we've examined, intellectual humility helps leaders to:

Be open to feedback without defensiveness or protective recoil; external perspectives provide valuable data that can inform developmental action.
Move from avoidance to experimentation, and lean into opportunities for adaptive learning.
Engage a wider and more flexible presence that orients to 'useful noticing'.
Apply intentionality over impulsivity, where values are consciously and responsibly attuned to the situations they are in.
Foster conditions that support psychological safety across their wider group, where contributors know they can speak up and that their voice will be valued.



Intellectually humble leaders are mindful of their fallibility… and that's ok. For everyone.



Tom Loncar (MSc Psychology & Neuroscience of Mental Health, MBA, PCC) is a Sydney-based executive coach and founder of GrowGRAVITAS®Leadership Development.




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SOURCE:

Monday, 9 September 2024

Βαριέσαι να παίζεις συνέχεια με το παιδί; Δεν είσαι η μόνη


THE MAMAGERS TEAM30 ΑΥΓΟΥΣΤΟΥ, 2024

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Όταν η κόρη μου ήταν πιο μικρή -μέχρι τα 3 της περίπου- ήμουν διαρκώς μαζί της. Εκτός από τη φροντίδα της, είχα πολλή όρεξη να της δείξω τα πάντα. Να πάμε βόλτες, να της δείξω τον ουρανό, τα δέντρα, τα λουλούδια. Να κάτσουμε σπίτι να παίξουμε με τις ώρες με τα κουκλάκια και να της διαβάζω παραμύθια. Να της λέω ιστορίες και να της μαθαίνω πράγματα. Μετά το παιχνίδι άλλαξε, όπως είναι φυσικό.

Μετά εκείνη ήθελε να ορίζει το παιχνίδι, χωρίς κανόνες, χωρίς σταματημό. Να παίζουμε ότι είμαστε σε ένα κατάστημα και αγοράζουμε φρούτα, να κάνουμε ότι μπαίνουμε στο τρένο, να παίζουμε επιτραπέζια που ούτε όταν ήμουν μικρή δεν μου άρεσαν. Κι εκεί κουράστηκα ή μάλλον βαρέθηκα. Ανάμεσα στη δουλειά, στο μαγείρεμα, την καθαριότητα, το πήγαινε-έλα σε δραστηριότητες, ήθελα ξεκούραση. Αλλά η ώρα της ξεκούρασής μου για το παιδί ήταν ελεύθερος χρόνος “για να παίξουμε μαμά”. Και δεν άντεχα να παίξω ούτε για 5 λεπτά.



Ντρεπόμουν να το μοιραστώ με άλλες μαμάδες και κυρίως ένιωθα τύψεις, πως δεν είμαι καλή μαμά. Μα ποια μαμά δεν θέλει να παίζει με το παιδί της; Ρώτησα την ψυχολόγο μου. Το βρήκε φυσιολογικό. Οι ενήλικες δεν μπορούν να παίζουν όπως τα παιδιά. Χωρίς κανόνες και ενδιαφέρον για το παιχνίδι κουράζεσαι. Και κάποιοι ενήλικες… δεν ξέρουν να παίζουν. Δεν έπαιζαν όταν ήταν παιδιά και κανείς δεν έπαιζε μαζί τους.


Η λύση που μου έδωσε ήταν να παίζω για όσο αντέχω και να βρω τρόπους που δεν με κουράζουν για να περνάω χρόνο με το παιδί. Να μαγειρεύουμε μαζί, να κάνουμε τα ψώνια μαζί, να με βοηθάει στις δουλειές. Όλα αυτά στα μάτια των παιδιών είναι παιχνίδι, ειδικά αν το κάνουμε κι εμείς σαν παιχνίδι.

Κι όσο κι αν πλέον νιώθω καλύτερα με τον τρόπο που το διαχειρίζομαι, οι τύψεις κάθε φορά που η μοναχοκόρη μου λέει “μα παίξε μαζί μου με τις Barbie πρέπει κάποιος να κάνει την άλλη φωνή” είναι πολλές. Για αυτές τις τύψεις -που πολλές μαμάδες νιώθουν – αφού για κάποιο λόγο οι μπαμπάδες συνήθως έχω διάθεση για παιχνίδι(!) μίλησε ο εκπαιδευτικός Μάριος Μάζαρης στην τελευταία του ανάρτηση.

Όπως έγραψε: “χαίρεσαι ή ντρέπεσαι; τίποτα από τα δυο δε χρειάζεται, να είσαι ο εαυτός σου. κι αυτός ο εαυτός δε θέλει να παίζει πάντα, για την ακρίβεια δεν του αρέσει και τόσο. Είναι υποχρεωτικό δηλαδή, είναι στα καθήκοντα των γονέων το παιχνίδι; Σίγουρα βοηθάει στη σύνδεση, ενώ προσφέρει στο παιδί την εικόνα του ενήλικα που τσαλακώνεται, είναι κι αυτός παιδί και έρχεται στο ύψος μου, γελάει με αυτά που γελάω και παίζει με αυτά που παίζω. Αν όμως δεν αντέχει ο ενήλικας, πόσο να υποκριθεί; Καλό είναι να εξηγούμε στα παιδιά τις ανάγκες μας, τις επιθυμίες, τα θέλω μας. κατά βάθος εκτιμούν την ειλικρίνεια και ότι κάνουμε επιλογές, τι σημαντικό μήνυμα, δεν κάνουμε πάντα αυτά που θέλουν οι άλλοι, έχουμε δικαίωμα να πούμε τη γνώμη μας, να ζητήσουμε χρόνο, να διαπραγματευτούμε. Τώρα θα κάνω κάτι για σένα, μετά εσύ κάτι για μένα. Ή το ανάποδο: αφού δε σε πιέζω να κάνεις πράγματα που δε σου αρέσουν, ούτε εσύ θέλω να με πιέζεις. Η σχέση με τα παιδιά πρέπει να είναι αμφίδρομου σεβασμού. Κι αυτό θέλει χρόνο και πολλή κουβέντα για να γίνει κατανοητό. γίνεται όμως μάθημα ζωής. Εσύ παίζεις, θέλεις, αντέχεις; Δεν είναι κακό να μη θες!”.

Οι πολύτιμες συμβουλές του εκπαιδευτικού:







ΠΗΓΗ:

‘Bad things happen when good people choose to stay quiet’



Ella Rhodes reports on the Infected Blood Inquiry.

07 June 2024


'This disaster was not an accident' – these were the words of Sir Brian Langstaff on the publication of his report into the biggest scandal in the history of the NHS. Over the course of two decades 30,000 people who were treated with contaminated blood and blood products contracted viruses including Hepatitis C and HIV. 3,000 of those people have died – with that number still increasing.

A former High Court judge, Langstaff was appointed as Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry in 2018 and since then he and his team have heard from those infected and affected by the scandal, campaigners, government witnesses, and expert groups including psychologists. His subsequent report not only shone a light on the harrowing experiences of those who were infected and their families, following decades of their vehement campaigning, but also outlined in stark detail a concerted effort by government and doctors to cover up the scandal.
'Successive governments compounded the agony'

In an event to launch his report, Langstaff pointed out that doctors and the government had been aware since the 1940s that blood could cause hepatitis infections. However, despite this, and subsequent guidance produced in the 1950s by the World Health Organisation which outlined ways to reduce the risk from blood, the UK made no effort to monitor or screen blood and blood products.

The NHS used plasma drawn from large pools of people – including US prisoners who are at increased risk of hepatitis and HIV. They also failed to give patients information about the potential risks of receiving plasma treatment or blood transfusions.

Langstaff said that people had put their faith in doctors and the government to keep them safe, but that their trust was betrayed. 'The NHS and successive governments compounded the agony by refusing to accept that wrong had been done. More than that, the government repeatedly maintained that people received the best available treatment and that testing of blood donations began as soon as the technology was available, and both claims were untrue.'

Many different patient groups were infected with blood and blood products including plasma. Around 1,250 people, including around 380 children, with bleeding disorders such as haemophilia were treated with blood products and were infected with HIV – many of them were also infected with Hepatitis C, B and D. Three quarters of them have died. The report says that between 2,400 and 5,000 people with bleeding disorders were infected with a hepatitis virus and developed Hepatitis C.

Around 100 of those given infected blood transfusions, during surgery or childbirth, or to treat thalassemia, sickle cell disease or leukaemia, were infected with HIV, and around 26,800 were infected with Hepatitis C. The report says that a significant number of people who received blood products, and some who had transfusions, have also been told they are at increased risk of developing Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

Not only were patients infected with these viruses – many were not told that they had been infected. Some patients were told about their diagnosis years later, some were informed in an offhand way by medical professionals who assumed they were already aware, and many were told about diagnoses despite having no knowledge of being tested for these viruses.
'To do full justice to the experiences and awfulness…'

As part of the inquiry Sir Brian Langstaff appointed expert groups to provide evidence on areas including AIDS, hepatitis, haemophilia, blood transfusion, immunohematology and psychosocial issues. Professor of Psychology as applied to Medicines at King's College London and Co-Director of the KCL/KHP Centre for Adherence Research & Education, John Weinman, was asked to convene a group to provide evidence on the many psychosocial issues arising from the scandal.

The group comprised of Professor of paediatric and adolescent psychology and lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist for paediatric and adolescent psychological services at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Deborah Christie; Sian Edwards – a nurse who has worked in HIV care for more than 30 years; and Dame Lesley Fallowfield, Professor of Psycho-oncology at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex. Also, Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge, Professor Emeritus of Medical Sociology at King's College London Myfanwy Morgan, and Dr Nicky Thomas, a consultant Health Psychologist working in Haematology at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals Foundation Trust.

Weinman told me that the group was asked by the inquiry team to provide evidence on certain areas – including the broader psychosocial impact of infection, as well as more specific issues including poor communication from medical professionals about the risks from treatment and results from tests and the impact of not being told of diagnoses.

The group was also asked to write an additional report on the impact of childhood bereavement which Weinman and Christie worked on together. This covered areas including the social stigma on children of having a parent, or parents, with HIV during the 80s and 90s, the impact on children of not being told that their parent was terminally ill, and the impact of childhood bereavement on education and future employment.

Weinman and his fellow experts attended many of the inquiry hearings and listened to the testimony of those infected and affected, as well as reading transcripts from these hearings. He told me that it was during those hearings that he realised how appallingly people had been treated.

'As a health psychologist my expertise is in the psychological impacts of long-term illness, but this was in almost a different league because of the contextual aspects of it. People were infected because of so-called treatments and were treated very badly – both in terms of the cover-ups which came afterwards, and by the people around them due to the stigma of HIV and other infections. The impact that hearing this evidence had on me was really quite profound. I'd gone from knowing a bit about it to getting a true sense of just how appalling it was for all of the infected and affected people. You couldn't help but be moved and upset by what you heard – and outraged as well. This inquiry represents the first time in decades that people have started to be aware of what happened.'

Weinman said it was shocking to hear evidence of cover-ups, including evidence that some of those affected were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements following earlier compensation payments. 'It felt really important that finally a proper inquiry was taking place, and Sir Brian Langstaff was truly impressive. The way he dealt with people at the hearings, the level of empathy and concern he showed, and the commitment he had to doing the right thing – to do full justice to the experiences and awfulness of it all – was very powerful to see.'

The inquiry report was launched at an event in Westminster Central Hall which Weinman attended. 'The launch event was primarily for the individuals and families who had been infected and affected, and when Sir Brian Langstaff came into the room the 2,000 or so people in the audience stood and applauded him – which I think shows how important he had been. He emphasised that this report was only possible because of those in the audience. It was just truly impressive what he was able to do – to assimilate and incorporate all of the evidence, and be there as a champion for all these people who had suffered so much.'

I asked Weinman about what his involvement in the inquiry had told him about psychology's role in healthcare and in preventing scandals such as this in the future. He said that health psychology was very strong in the UK and it was important that the discipline continues to provide a better understanding the needs of people with particular illnesses and their experiences of healthcare as well as developing evidence-based interventions to facilitate adjustment to and recovery from illness and treatment.

'I think where there's more of an indirect effect of psychology, and particularly health psychology, is in the training of healthcare professionals. My original lectureship was in a medical school with my main job being teaching psychology as applied to healthcare – all medical and other health schools would have that in their curriculum but it tends to be fairly piecemeal. I think health psychologists have huge potential in the training of healthcare staff. That would include training in good communication, raising awareness of the psychological impacts of illness, the needs of patients, the issues that are raised by illnesses which might be particularly stigmatising or difficult, and also helping people to manage treatment and make sure they are getting honest and open shared decision making with clinicians.'
Understanding 'self-protection' mode

I also spoke to psychosocial expert group member Professor Dame Lesley Fallowfield (Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex), who was similarly affected by working on the inquiry. She said that, despite working in psycho-oncology and often hearing about the sad experiences of patients experiencing cancer, nothing had prepared her for the harrowing accounts she heard from those infected or affected by this scandal.

'I read through hundreds of the witness statements and sat at the inquiry listening with increasing anger, outrage and despair to those still alive to share their quite awful recollections – the lies, stigma and discrimination suffered. When I got home I quite honestly wept a couple of times at the cynical, dismissive behaviour exhibited by so many of those healthcare professionals who had meant to care for patients and their relatives. The "cover-up" by successive politicians was also disgraceful.'

Fallowfield said she believed there was a role for psychologists in understanding why organisations go into 'self-protection' mode in the face of potential scandals rather than seeking to immediately rectify the situation – which can exacerbate the harms caused to people. 'Understanding the way that victims are sometimes treated by members of the public is another interesting line of research. It was striking how fear of the infectivity of the AIDS virus, for example, led to quite cruel and discriminatory behaviours from friends, schools and workplace colleagues of individuals.

'Psychologists also have a potentially huge role initiating emotional support services for those harmed and perhaps also for the perpetrators caught up in the cover-up who might have wanted to whistle-blow but did not… the old adage of bad things happen when good people choose to stay quiet.'
The need for sanctions

In a recent article in The Conversation Professor in Occupational and Organisational Psychology Anthony Montgomery (Northumbria University) explored why organisational cover-ups are so common. He wrote that in these scandals, institutions and corporations skilfully control the narrative until their bubble of lies bursts. 'Enforced transparency and a fair playing field could break this pattern.'

Montgomery also points to an absence of convictions or meaningful repercussions following almost all scandals, calling this 'abysmal'. 'Restorative justice has a role to play, but wilfully perverting the course of public justice needs to be sanctioned.'

He also points to the role of leadership and writes that we cannot depend on leaders to do the right thing if we educate them to put their mission first and people second. 'We promote and hire on the basis that leaders put their organisations first. The overused explanation of a "bad" culture being responsible for dysfunctional organisations simply means that everybody clearly understood the real vision and objectives, and committed to doing what was needed. The biggest lie at the centre of most organisational failures… is that something unexpected and unpredictable happened.'

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Is being unique going out of style?


The need to be unique dwindled between 2000 and 2020, according to recent analyses.

23 August 2024

By Emily Reynolds


Many of us long to be unique and stand out from the crowd. Achieving this sometimes competes with a different goal, though — to belong. Striking that balance can be a tricky thing to do, as we both seek acceptance and to express our individuality. Some research has even suggested that with social anxiety rising, we're experiencing an uptick in the need to belong, rather than stand out.

Developments in how we interact with one another over the last few decades, primarily in the sphere of social media, may also have moderated the way we seek to express ourselves. Writing in Collabra: Psychology, William Chopik and team present the results of an investigation suggesting that there have been significant changes in our desire for uniqueness since the year 2000.

Data was taken from a longitudinal study that took place between 2000 and 2020 which sought to understand changes in personality over time. For this research, the team looked at participants' answers to a questionnaire on uniqueness, which was conceptualised via three components: lack of concern around other people's reactions, a desire to not always follow the rules, and a willingness to publicly defend one's beliefs. Demographic information was limited for this study.

The results showed that the need for uniqueness has indeed been decreasing over the years (interestingly, with a seeming uptick around 2020 — a facet which isn't explored in this paper). This was the case both for a need for uniqueness in general, as well as in the three separate domains. The most dramatic difference across the years was in people's willingness to defend their beliefs publicly.

This was particularly the case for those with a lower level of education and older people, though the team notes that these results were not significant and based only on participants who had actually provided demographic information (around 25% of the sample, and for only five years). Future research could look more closely at how this story has played out for different demographics.

The team has a number of suggestions as to why this may be the case. As we mentioned up top, one is that it's linked to increases in social anxiety, which might make people feel a deeper need for security and in-group acceptance. It's also possible that modern online environments which punish people for expressing outlying opinions could have moved this particular needle.

This pattern could, however, also be due to something more positive. With the rise of online communication and social media, we have more opportunities than ever to find our tribes and express ourselves how we want. A decrease in measures of our need for uniqueness could, paradoxically, be because that need is increasingly being met.

Which explanation may explain this trend, however, remains a mystery for now. Future studies diving into data from previous decades may further elucidate the factors at play.

Read the paper in full:

Chopik, W., Götschi, K., Carrillo, A., Weidmann, R., Potter, J. (2024) Changes in Need for Uniqueness From 2000 Until 2020. Collabra: Psychology, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.121937

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