This research tested the idea that the perception of the state of the macroeconomic environment impacts the psychology underlying an essential organizational function: The evaluation of employees’ work and the associated promotion and demotion decisions. We predicted that when the macroeconomic environment is perceived to be more (less) prosperous, people’s generalized sense of the extent to which individuals have control over outcomes increases (decreases), leading them to attribute more (less) responsibility for work outcomes to individuals rather than contextual influences. In Study 1, we tested this theory using data from 124,400 respondents surveyed across 57 countries and 19 years and data about objective indicators of their macroeconomic environments. We found that in more prosperous times, people reported a higher generalized sense of control and were less likely to believe that contextual influences, such as luck, matter for work success. In Studies 2 and 3, we manipulated the perception of the macroeconomic environment among employees working in organizations, and we found that those who perceived their economic environment to be more prosperous had a higher generalized sense of control and in turn attributed more responsibility for a work outcome to the individual performing the work, resulting in more extreme promotion and demotion decisions. The consideration of the macroeconomic context of organizational decision making bridges the macro–micro divide in organizational sciences to provide a novel explanation for individual psychology and behavior underlying fundamental organizational processes.

Objectives

The objective of this study is to determine to what degree sleep disturbances predict academic success, relative to other known risk factors for decreased academic performance.

Methods

We performed regression analyses on data from the Spring 2009 American College Health Association National College Health Assessment II dataset (n=55,322 students) to isolate the relative contribution of the frequency of sleep problems in the previous week to GPA and the likelihood of withdrawing from a course. In our estimations, we also controlled for other factors that influence academic success such as demographic and academic variables, drug and alcohol use, perceived stress, and employment hours.

Results

Sleep disturbances were found to be a significant independent predictor of academic problems; on average, each additional day per week that a student experienced sleep problems raised the probability of dropping a course by 10% and lowered the cumulative GPA by 0.02. Factors such as stress, binge drinking, marijuana and other illicit drug use, which typically receive more attention by university administrators, had similar or relatively smaller negative associations with academic success as compared to disturbed sleep. Approximately three quarters of students surveyed reported never receiving information about sleep from their university.

Conclusions

Sleep education represents an underutilized opportunity for universities to maximize retention rates and academic success.

How can family firms unlock their innovation potential? Despite the recent growth in research on family business innovation, existing literature has yielded controversial findings. Family firms are recognized as more conservative and steadfast to their tradition, however many of the most innovative firms worldwide are family businesses. This points to an apparent willingness-ability paradox in family business innovation. Drawing on family business innovation and family systems literature, we argue that family characteristics are an important yet overlooked driver of this paradoxical tension. We develop the construct of family business innovation posture, and identify a typology of four ideal types: Seasoner, Re-enactor, Digger, and Adventurer. Furthermore, we explore and illustrate with empirical data the necessary fit between the family business innovation posture and family-related dimensions to resolve the willingness-ability paradox. The article examines the implications of the typology for family business innovation research by exploring the effects of intra-family succession, outlining important directions for future research aimed at advancing current understanding of the role of the family in family business innovation, and providing practical insights for family business owners, managers, and consultants.

Behavioral economics is a field of study that is often thought of as interdisciplinary, insofar as it uses psychological insights to inform economic models. Yet the level of conceptual and methodological exchange between the two disciplines is disputed in the literature. On the one hand, behavioral economic models are often presented as psychologically informed models of individual decision-making (Camerer & Loewenstein, 2003). On the other hand, these models have often been criticized for being merely more elaborated “as if” economic models (Berg & Gigerenzer, 2010). The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate by looking at a central topic in behavioral economics: the case of social preferences. Have findings or research methods been exchanged between psychology and economics in this research area? Have scientists with different backgrounds “travelled” across domains, thus transferring their expertise from one discipline to another? By addressing these and related questions, this paper will assess the level of knowledge transfer between psychology and economics in the study of social preferences.

This paper undertakes a critical appraisal of the prospects for fictionalist inquiry in psychology, which runs contrary to the traditional dissociation between fiction and knowledge-laden discourse. Following a review of the contested boundary between fiction and nonfiction, a portrait of essential aspects of fiction emerges, which includes authorial warrant, imaginative prescription, and performative engagement. The paper then proceeds to outline fictionalism as a philosophical approach, with reference to early and more modern variants of the position. This leads to a little discussed epistemic position called the fictional stance, which is then developed and applied to various psychological domains including the psychology of fiction, the fictional constructions, and the narrative study of lives. The viewpoint that emerges sees the epistemic value of fictional thinking in the unique access it provides to intuitive powers of the psychological imagination and to non-conceptual understandings of psychological life.

Laboratory experiments have many benefits and serve as a powerful tool for social psychology research. However, relying too heavily on laboratory experiments leaves the entire discipline of social psychologist vulnerable to the inherent limitations of laboratory research. We discuss the benefits of integrating archival research into the portfolio of tools for conducting social psychological research. Using four published examples, we discuss the benefits and limitations of conducting archival research. We also provide suggestions on how social psychological researchers can take advantage of the benefits while overcoming the weaknesses of archival research. Finally, we provide useful resources and directions for utilizing archival data. We encourage social psychologists to increase the robustness of this scientific literature by supplementing laboratory experiments with archival research.

In the sustainability transitions literature, social phenomena have mostly been examined in relation to – and at the level of – collective forms of action. Here our focus is on psychological, primarily individualistic approaches to understanding action as behaviour, with particular attention to consumption and technology acceptance. We document and discuss the ways in which the psychology of agents or actors has been described and theorised in these contexts within the sociotechnical transitions literature to date, both implicitly and explicitly. A review of the latter literature shows that while actor motivation and behaviour are often implicitly referred to, these are rarely theorised explicitly using psychological concepts. Reasons for the limited use of individual-level, psychological constructs are discussed and suggestions for how these may be more closely connected to structural and collective processes are made.