Christina Mühlberger

• Mag. Dr.
• PostDoc Position at University of Salzburg

The coachee's self is central to coaching. Yet the roles that different self‐related concepts play in coaching have been insufficiently studied. Specifically, self‐control and self‐regulation have been conflated or treated as identical concepts. Using the theory of personality systems interactions, we investigated how the development of self‐manage...

Psychological reactance is a motivational state that leads people to regain threatened or lost freedoms. It is accompanied by anger and negative cognitions and causes various effects such as resistance, aggression, and increased attractiveness of the original freedom. Despite a wealth of studies exploring the causes and consequences of reactance, t...

Interventions can foster personal growth. However, our understanding of the specific mechanisms for change and the types of interventions driving this growth process remains limited. In this study, we focused on emotion regulation ability as a potential mechanism. We examined the effects of an affirmation coaching intervention on changes in emotion...

Empathy is an important factor for coaching success. Yet there has been little research on whether it is useful at every stage of a coaching process. To explore this research question, 221 coaching sessions from 48 coach–client dyads with a focus on business- and career-related goals were analyzed, differentiating sessions both along a timeline and...

Regulatory focus theory suggests that promoters are more concerned with growth and preventers are more concerned with security. Since coaching is a growth-oriented process, it seems to be more suitable for clients high on promotion than for clients high on prevention. Applying regulatory fit theory, the present research investigates how preventers...

According to Regulatory Focus Theory, two systems determine our strategies to pursue goals – the promotion and the prevention system. Individuals with a dominant promotion system focus on achieving gains, i.e., promoters, and individuals with a dominant prevention system focus on avoiding losses, i.e., preventers. Regulatory Fit Theory suggests tha...

Zusammenfassung Theorien reduzieren die Komplexität der Wirklichkeit und können dadurch für Berater:innen als wichtige Orientierung für ihr praktisches Handeln dienen. Dies wird anhand von drei Theorien aus der Motivations- bzw. Sozialpsychologie illustriert, die für das Verständnis des Prozesses der Zielverfolgung im Coaching, zur Gestaltung der B...

Cognitive empathy, expressed as either imagine-self (imagining oneself in the other’s situation) or imagine-other (imagining the other person in his/her situation) empathy, is essential for self-change and satisfaction in coaching. In two studies, we investigated the difference between coaches’ imagine-self versus imagine-other empathy. In a survey...

In this set of studies we explored the influence of the client’s affiliation and potential competition on the coach’s empathy. We expected that both competition and low affiliation would negatively affect the coach’s inner empathy. In three studies we manipulated the coaching client in terms of affiliation and competition. In the first study (N₁ =...

Coaching is an effective intervention to achieve organizationally, professionally, and personally beneficial goals. Although the coach-coachee working relationship constitutes the most critical indicator of coaching success, specific coach behaviors that create effective interaction are poorly understood. Using well-established psychological theori...

Purpose This study aims to investigate how university students' basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) determine whether coaching or training is more supportive for them. Design/methodology/approach Real-life coaching ( N 1 = 110) and training ( N 2 = 176) processes with students as clients were examined, measuring the st...

Research extracted political disenchantment as an important driver for the recent spreading of right-wing populism. The cultural backlash approach explains this relationship as a counter response to progressive socio-political developments in Western societies. Drawing on previous work, the present research examines motivational and affective facto...

There is mixed evidence whether reflecting on an existential threat increases negative affect and thereby elicits subjective arousal and physiological activation. Additionally, it is debated whether different existential and non-existential threats elicit different arousal responses, although systematic comparisons are lacking. The current study ex...

Woran lässt sich ein gutes Coaching festmachen? Anders gefragt: Von welchen Wirkfaktoren hängt der Erfolg eines Coaching-Prozesses ab? In einem großangelegten Forschungsprojekt, an dem 1.217 Coaching-Kli- enten teilnahmen, wurde diesen Fragen nachgegangen. Erste Auswertun- gen bestätigen, dass sich ein positives Coaching-Ergebnis, bestehend aus Zie...

Mandatory policies are needed to mitigate environmental problems but often elicit resistance if individuals perceive them as freedom restrictions. Encouraging people to take the perspective of individuals who suffer from environmental problems may help increase support. This should especially be the case with imagine-self as opposed to imagine-othe...

A client's trust in the coach is essential for a well-functioning coaching interaction. This trust depends on the coach's trustworthiness in terms of ability, integrity, and benevolence. In three mixed-method studies, we investigated how these components of trustworthiness were established by the coach asking inexperienced (N1 = 42) and experienced...

Research has demonstrated that freedom restrictions evoke psychological reactance—a strong motivation to take action to regain the threatened freedom. We hypothesized that the underlying motivational state of reactance is approach-related. We used either a behavioral measure (line bisection task) or electroencephalography to assess relative left fr...

People believe they possess certain freedoms. When these freedoms are threatened, psychological reactance emerges – a motivational state directed toward restoring or securing the freedom. The current chapter discusses the construct of reactance by addressing its measurements, its determinants, and studies investigating reactance in the applied cont...

Welche Karriereentwicklungsmaßnahme ist die beste Wahl, um das Potenzial von Mitarbeitenden voll auszuschöpfen bzw. in welche Mitarbeitende sollte mit welcher Maßnahme investiert werden, um das Geld nachhaltig im Interesse des Unternehmens anzulegen? Um Antworten auf diese Fragen zu finden, vergleichen wir vier Karriereberatungsformate miteinander,...

In unserer digitalisierten, vernetzten und flexiblen Welt werden nicht mehr nur rein fachspezifische Kompetenzen erwartet. Gefordert werden auch solche Kompetenzen, die es ermöglichen, Wissen in verschiedenen Situationen zu reflektieren, anzuwenden, Verantwortung für eigenes Verhalten zu übernehmen und so zu Problemlösungen beitragen. Aufgabe der U...

Im Coaching hat das Hinbewegen von einem aktuellen Istzustand zu einem erwünschten Zielzustand einen essenziellen Wert. Um diese Diskrepanz zu überwinden und ein Ziel zu erreichen, bedarf es effektiver Selbstregulation. Die Theorie des Regulatorischen Fokus (Higgins 1997) geht von zwei motivationalen Orientierungen aus, die bestimmen, welche Selbst...

Ziele werden in Beratungen oft so konkret wie möglich auf Verhaltensebene formuliert. Ist eine Person jedoch unsicher und besorgt, wenn sie über ihr Ziel spricht, kann davon ausgegangen werden, dass die Identifikation mit dem Ziel zu gering ist, als dass es handlungswirksam werden könnte. Eine Ursache können Konflikte zwischen bewussten und unbewus...

Im Coaching hat das Hinbewegen von einem aktuellen Istzustand zu einem erwünschten Zielzustand einen essenziellen Wert. Um diese Diskrepanz zu überwinden und ein Ziel zu erreichen, bedarf es effektiver Selbstregulation. Die Theorie des Regulatorischen Fokus (Higgins 1997) geht von zwei motivationalen Orientierungen aus, die bestimmen, welche Selbst...

Welche Karriereentwicklungsmaßnahme ist die besteWahl, um das Potenzial von Mitarbeitenden voll auszuschöpfen bzw. in welche Mitarbeitende sollte mit welcher Maßnahme investiert werden, um das Geld nachhaltig im Interesse des Unternehmens anzulegen? Um Antworten auf diese Fragen zu finden, vergleichen wir vier Karriereberatungsformate miteinander,...

When making financial decisions bank customers are confronted with two types of uncertainty: first, return on investments is uncertain and there is a risk of losing money. Second, customers cannot be certain about their financial advisor’s true intentions. This might decrease customers’ willingness to cooperate with advisors. However, the uncertain...

The reward positivity (RewP) and the stimulus preceding negativity (SPN), two ERPs associated with reward delivery and reward anticipation, are modulated by motivational intensity. Motivational intensity is the effort organisms would make to exert behaviors, and it varies with the difficulty of exerting that behavior. If a task is perceived as impo...

In the current study we test the prediction that having a sense of control over outcomes increases the Stimulus Preceding Negativity (SPN) and Reward Positivity (RewP) compared to having no sense of control. Previous research has shown that the SPN and the RewP are modulated by motivational intensity. In this context, motivational intensity can be...

In social interactions, individuals may sometimes pursue their own interests at the expense of their interaction partner. Such self-interested behaviors impose a threat to the interaction partner’s freedom to act. The current article investigates this threat in the context of interdependence and reactance theory. We explore how vested interests inf...

Threats to our freedom are part of our daily social interactions. They are accompanied by an aversive state of motivational arousal, called reactance, which leads people to strive to reestablish their threatened freedom. This is especially the case if the threat seems to be illegitimate in nature. However, reactance theory suggests that reactance s...

This paper describes the construction and empirical evaluation of an instrument for measuring state reactance, the Salzburger State Reactance (SSR) Scale. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis supported a hypothesized three-factor structure: experience of reactance, aggressive behavioral intentions, and negative attitudes. Correlations with...

Since Brehm first proposed reactance theory in 1966, many studies have explored the remarkable psychological phenomenon of reactance, which Miron and Brehm reviewed in 2006. We present an overview of research that has been done since then. A variety of studies have provided interesting new insights into the theory, adding to what is known about the...

Previous research has demonstrated a considerable amount of negative consequences resulting from psychological reactance. The purpose of this study was to explore opportunities to reduce the amount of reactance. Using the method of perspective taking as an intervention, the current study of 196 Austrians and 198 Filipinos examined whether reactance...