Nico W. Van Yperen

University of Groningen | RUG · Department of Psychology

In clinical practice, junior doctors regularly receive supervision from consultants. Drawing on Basic Psychological Needs Theory, consultants’ supervision styles are likely to affect junior doctors’ intrinsic motivation differently in terms of psychological need frustration and psychological need satisfaction. To examine the effects of (de)motivati...

Background There has been an increasing interest in the development and prevention of sports injuries from a complex dynamic systems perspective. From this perspective, injuries may occur following critical fluctuations in the psychophysiological state of an athlete. Our objective was to quantify these so-called Early Warning Signals (EWS) to deter...

Previous research on sports performance has mostly been conducted: (a) at a single point, or at most, a few points in time, (b) at the group level, and (c) as a causal chain of monodisciplinary predictor and outcome variables. In the present research, we argue and demonstrate that the next important step should be to monitor, analyze, and visualise...

Previous research on sports performance has mostly been conducted: (a) at a single point, or at most, a few points in time, (b) on the group level, and (c) as a causal chain of monodisciplinary predictor and outcome variables. In the present research, we argue and demonstrate that the next important step should be to monitor, analyze, and visualize...

Athletes are exposed to various psychological and physiological stressors, such as losing matches and high training loads. Understanding and improving the resilience of athletes is therefore crucial to prevent performance decrements and psychological or physical problems. In this review, resilience is conceptualized as a dynamic process of bouncing...

Linked to technological and societal developments, including the COVID‐19 pandemic, employees are increasingly being given the opportunity to blend onsite and remote working including flexibility as to when and where they work. Despite the proliferation of such blended working, there is little empirical research on how leaders in organizations can...

Previous studies have shown that enjoyment is one of the key predictors of dropout from organized sport, including organized football. However, prospective studies, particularly studies focused on long-term dropout, are largely lacking. Drawing on the basic principles of interdependence theory, in the present prospective study among 1,762 adolescen...

When evaluating one’s own or others’ performances, there is a strong tendency to rely on social comparison information. Remarkably, however, the extant achievement goal research suggests that the prevalence of other-based goals is very low, also in sport contexts. In the present research, we argue and demonstrate that in the context of a sports mat...

Purpose: The study of load and recovery gained significant interest in the last decades, given its important value in decreasing the likelihood of injuries and improving performance. So far, findings are typically reported on the group level, whereas practitioners are most often interested in applications at the individual level. Hence, the aim of...

In blended working arrangements (BWAs), employees have discretion over when and where they work. Although BWAs are proliferating worldwide, the lack of predefined temporal and locational structures is unlikely to appeal to every employee. To investigate with whom and when BWAs cause positive reactions, we conducted two experimental vignette studies...

Background Novel virus outbreaks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may increase psychological distress among frontline workers. Psychological distress may lead to reduced performance, reduced employability or even burnout. In the present study, we assessed experienced psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic from a self-determination theor...

Due to restrictions against the COVID-19 pandemic, spectators were not allowed to attend soccer matches at the end of the 2019/2020 season. Previous studies suggest that the absence of a home crowd changes the home field advantage in terms of match outcomes, offensive performance, and referee decisions. However, because of the small sample sizes, t...

While activity-based working is gaining popularity worldwide, research shows that workers frequently experience a misfit between the task at hand and their work setting. In the current study, experience sampling data were used to examine how perceived fit in activity-based work environments is related to user behavior (i.e., the use of work setting...

Generativity entails both the motive and the behavior to support and guide younger people and to benefit "future generations." Given its relevance for work and career outcomes, research on generativity in the work context has accumulated over the last three decades. To synthesize this work, we developed a conceptual model based on generativity, lif...

The aim of the present research is to test whether resilience in a motor task enhances or diminishes when encountering stressors. We conducted a lateral movement task during which we induced stressors and tracked the movement accuracy of each participant over time. Stressors corresponded to organismic constraints (i.e., visual occlusion), task cons...

Resilience is a key construct to understand when athletes continue to perform optimally, or when they break down. Although there is consensus that resilience can be conceptualized as a dynamic process, it remains an open question whether studying such a process on a group level adequately represents the individuals within a given sample. As a first...

Proactive behavior has emerged as a key component in contemporary views of individual work performance. Hence, a central question in the literature is how to enhance employees’ proactive behavior. We investigated whether the more that employees experience a sense of vitality (i.e., energizing positive affect), the more likely they are to show proac...

In the current study, we applied the dynamical systems approach to obtain novel insights into resilience losses. Dyads (n = 42) performed a lateral rhythmical pointing (Fitts) task. To induce resilience losses and transitions in performance, dyads were exposed to ascending and descending scoring scenarios. To assess changes in the complexity of the...

An important theoretical debate in the literature on psychological needs concerns the potential moderating role of individuals’ need strength in the effects of basic psychological need satisfaction. The present study adds to the relatively small literature with inconsistent findings by examining whether the relations between work-related basic psyc...

In the past decades, much research has examined the negative effects of stressors on the performance of athletes. However, according to evolutionary biology, organisms may exhibit growth under stress, a phenomenon called antifragility. For both coaches and their athletes, a key question is how to design training conditions to help athletes develop...

Statistics on study disruptions and delays and their negative impact on academic performance call for action-regulation strategies that students can use to manage their performance and well-being. In the present research, we rely on the action-regulation model of selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC), which was developed in the lifespan d...

Our purpose was to show that highly skilled student-athletes (n = 146, 41.1% female, mean age 14.1 years) differ across domains with regard to their need for competence, effort, and attributions. As hypothesized, the results show that relative to the school domain, in the sport domain, student-athletes had a stronger need for competence, a higher w...

What could be the impact of a last-minute equalizer on players’ psychological momentum (PM) in a high-stake, knock-out football match? In the current study, 86 competitive male players were asked to imagine that they were playing in a cup final in which they were trailing 1–0 or leading 1–0. Subsequently, participants watched a video clip in which...

Activity-based work environments are widely adopted; however, research shows mixed findings regarding privacy issues, satisfaction with the work environment, and task performance. To further our understanding, two complementary studies drawing on Person-Environment fit theory were conducted: (1) A field study using experience sampling, and (2) A la...

In our target article, we proposed the application of the dynamical systems approach to studying how the dynamic process of resilience unfolds over time. Sparked by the commentaries by Bryan and colleagues, Galli and Pagano, and Kiefer and colleagues, we aim to provide clarifications of the dynamical systems approach as well as possible extensions...

The popular media has repeatedly pointed to pride as one of the key factors motivating leaders to behave unethically. However, given the devastating consequences that leader unethical behavior may have, a more scientific account of the role of pride is warranted. The present study differentiates between authentic and hubristic pride and assesses it...

This work examines the hypothesis that older workers’ responses to negative events at work depend, in part, on daily fluctuations of subjective age bias (SAB; how old people feel compared to their actual age) and age group identification (age GI). We tested whether SAB and age GI fluctuate over time, whether they influence attributions of negative...

Satisfaction with activity-based work environments (ABW environments) often falls short of expectations, with striking differences among individual workers. A better understanding of these differences may provide clues for optimising satisfaction with ABW environments and associated organisational outcomes. The current study was designed to examine...

Confidence intervals and p-values for the correlations. (DOCX)

Assumptions and diagnostic plots of model residuals. (DOCX)

In the current research, we aimed to address the inconsistent finding in the brainstorming literature that cognitive stimulation sometimes results from novel input, yet other times from non-novel input. We expected and found, in three experiments, that the strength and valence of this relationship are moderated by people’s psychological needs for s...

To become competent professionals, students should work on both their strengths and weaknesses. Considering students' limited amount of time and energy to work on multiple subjects, it is important to know what determines their allocation of effort to their perceived relative strengths or weaknesses. In a series of five studies, we examined the mod...

On the road to excellence, it is essential to develop resilience, that is, to be able to positively adapt within the context of significant adversity. Researchers tend to agree that resilience is a complex process with a multitude of underlying variables. To stimulate research on the process of resilience, we propose the dynamical system approach t...

Integrating the social identity and aging literatures, this work tested the hypothesis that there are two independent, but simultaneous, responses by which adults transitioning into old age can buffer themselves against age discrimination: an individual response, which entails adopting a younger subjective age when facing discrimination, and a coll...

Data of Experiment 3. (SAV)

Data of Experiment 1. (SAV)

Data of Experiment 2. (SAV)

This chapter starts by discussing possible consequences for the organization and the worker, that is, a discussion of for whom and when blended working does work. Blended working combines on-site and off-site working, enabled by the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) that provide workers with almost constant access to...

The perceived possibility of movement between groups, referred to as permeability of group boundaries, is considered a key factor in explaining intergroup relations. However, so far, permeability has been conceptualized in different ways and there exists no validated measure. Integrating different conceptualizations, we developed a scale distinguis...

Based on in-depth interviews, Hardy et al. focused on the role of psychosocial factors in the development of elite and super-elite athletes. They reveal interesting differences and commonalities in the frequencies at which certain aspects related to life events, personality, contextual factors, etc. were reported. Here, we argue that insights in th...

Blended working, a term we recently introduced, combines on-site and off-site working, enabled by the utilization of information and communications technologies (ICTs) that provides workers with almost constant access to jobrelevant information and coworkers. In this commentary, we respond to three articles on blended work that appeared in the Octo...

The purpose of this research was to examine the joint impact of leader achievement goals and hierarchical position of the voicer of creative ideas (subordinate vs. superior) on the extent to which leaders (intent to) integrate these voiced creative ideas with their own ideas (integrative idea management). In a scenario-based survey (study 1; N = 18...

It has been proposed that emotional competencies are subject to age-related increases and, thus, represent strengths of older workers. However, this assumption is based on limited evidence for positive age differences in one particular emotional competency, namely emotion regulation. Age-related differences in two other key emotional competencies,...

Over the past two decades, the selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) model has been applied in the work context to investigate antecedents and outcomes of employees’ use of action regulation strategies. We systematically review, meta-analyze, and critically discuss the literature on SOC strategy use at work and outline directions for futu...

This study on psychological momentum (PM) in sports provides the first experimental test of an interconnection between short-term PM (during a match) and long-term PM (across a series of matches). Twenty-two competitive athletes were striving to win a prize during a rowing-ergometer tournament, consisting of manipulated races. As hypothesized, athl...

Disidentification refers to people's active psychological distancing from a group due to a negative self-defining affiliation with the group. Because disidentification can threaten group survival and group functioning, it is important to gain insight into factors that potentially buffer its occurrence. A field study and an experiment (with 2 repli-...

The aim of this study was to examine (1) the temporal structures of variation in rowers’ (natural) ergometer strokes to make inferences about the underlying motor organization, and (2) the relation between these temporal structures and skill level. Four high-skilled and five lower-skilled rowers completed 550 strokes on a rowing ergometer. Detrende...

We review three articles in which we examined how leader’s achievement goals affect their reactions to creative ideas voiced by their employees. Across a series of studies, we expected and found that leaders pursuing performance goals (to do better than others) tend to be less receptive and more opposing to voiced creative ideas than leaders pursui...

Leaders’ reactions to radical creative ideas voiced by employees: The role of leaders’ achievement goals Leaders’ reactions to radical creative ideas voiced by employees: The role of leaders’ achievement goals We review three articles in which we examined how leaders’ achievement goals affect their reactions to creative ideas voiced by their employ...

In dit artikel geven we een overzicht van meerdere studies waarin is onderzocht hoe prestatiedoelen van leidinggevenden van invloed zijn op de wijze waarop zij reage‐ ren op creatieve ideeën die worden aangedragen door medewerkers. Meer specifiek laten we in een reeks van studies zien dat leidinggevenden met performancedoelen (het beter doen dan an...

The purpose of this research was to meta-analyze studies which experimentally induced an achievement goal state to examine its causal effect on the individual’s performance at the task at hand, and to investigate the moderator effects of feedback anticipation and time pressure. The data set comprised 19 papers, 79 individual effect sizes, and 3,482...

The purpose of the present research was to investigate if and when leaders’ trait-like tendency to experience contempt would result in a lack of constructive attitudes and behaviors towards subordinates and an increase in destructive attitudes and behaviors towards subordinates. Previous research shows that increased power aligns individuals’ behav...

We identified leaders’ achievement goals and composition of creative input as important factors that can clarify when and why leaders are receptive to, and supportive of, subordinates’ creative input. As hypothesized, in two experimental studies, we found that relative to mastery goal leaders, performance goal leaders were less receptive to subordi...

The present research sought to examine when and why transformational and transactional leadership are perceived by followers to be effective. A series of five studies revealed that perceived effectiveness of transformational and transactional leadership is influenced by the fit between leadership style-driven encouraged strategies and followers' pr...

In various domains, experts are found to possess elaborate domain-specific representations they developed over years. In this study, we provide the first systematic attempt to characterise the short-term representations among individuals with different expertise levels. We showed videos of soccer game plays to expert, near-expert and non-expert soc...

Similarly to related developments such as blended learning and blended care, blended working is a pervasive and booming trend in modern societies. Blended working combines on-site and off-site working in an optimal way to improve workers' and organizations' outcomes. In this paper, we examine the degree to which workers feel that the two defining f...

Although creativity is often seen as requiring spontaneity and flexibility, recent work suggests that there is creative potential in a structured and systematic approach as well. In a series of four experiments, we show that when Personal Need for Structure (PNS) is high, either chronic (Study 1) or situationally induced (Study 2), creative perform...

In business and sports, teams often experience periods of positive and negative momentum while pursuing their goals. However, researchers have not yet been able to provide insights into how psychological and behavioral states actually change during positive and negative team momentum. In the current study we aimed to provide these insights by intro...

During the past three decades, the achievement goal approach to achievement motivation has emerged as an influential area of research, and is dedicated to understanding the reasons behind the individual's drive to achieve competence and performance. However, the current literature on achievement goals is segmented rather than integrated. That is, c...

Feedback is a basic tool that is used to stimulate learning and performance at all organizational levels. However, negative feedback can sometimes evoke defensive responses such as feelings of anger or the repudiation of the feedback. In two experiments we explored whether people’s negating responses to feedback are grounded in their emotional inst...

In the present research we investigated when and why leaders tend to oppose or adopt radical creative ideas voiced by their subordinates. In a field study (Study 1, N = 127) we showed that leaders’ performance goals were positively related to their tendency to oppose radical creative ideas, whereas leaders’ mastery goals were positively related to...

If people's goals and evaluative standards were aligned, then individuals with mastery-based goals should, theoretically, primarily rely on temporal comparison information (i.e., on how they performed relative to before). In contrast, individuals with performance-based goals should rely on social comparison information (i.e., on how they performed...

Individuals often do not seek as much performance feedback as they actually need in order to adapt to their environment and to improve their performance. The aim of the present research is to examine which individuals are less likely to seek feedback and what their underlying motives are. Across three studies, we argue and show that individuals are...

Although negative feedback is usually provided with the best of intentions, it often causes unfavorable affective reactions in the receiver such as anger and shame. The purpose of the present research is to identify factors that may attenuate or intensify these reactions to negative feedback. We argue and show across a laboratory experiment and a f...

Over the past decade, an increasing body of literature supports the validity and utility of the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework (Elliot & McGregor, 2001). From this foundation, researchers have begun to investigate the complex antecedents and consequences underlying achievement goal pursuit. In the current studies, we investigated the relations be...