Articles

What Makes a Board Game Interesting?

 By Brad Bell

When I was younger, I played chess quite often.  I found the game fascinating, challenging, and enjoyable.   I could play chess many times without feeling bored.   Chess is one of a number of interesting board games that may be considered enjoyable by many people.   Some board games may be perceived to be more interesting or enjoyable than other board games.  What makes a board game interesting?   This is an important question concerning the psychology of board games.   In my view, the factors that may determine the extent to which a board game is interesting include novelty, challenge, and creativity.

Novelty

 Novelty may determine how interesting something is perceived to be.  A board game that is quite different from other board games may be more interesting.  People may be more motivated to play a board game that is quite different from other board games that they have played.  Also, if there is novelty in the playing of the game at different times, then it may be perceived to be more interesting.  For example, one reason that I think that chess is very interesting is that each game that is played involves a different sequence of moves.

Challenge

 A board game may be more interesting if it is perceived to be more challenging.  Chess may be very interesting because it is perceived to be a challenging game.  Chess may be perceived to be challenging because it takes much effort and concentration, it involves extensive thinking, and it require significant skill.   It may be that the challenge of a board game depends more on the degree of thinking that is involved than on how complex the rules are.  Thus, it would be good to design thinking board games.

Creativity

 A basic criticism of some board games may be that they do not involve much creativity.  A board game may be more interesting if it involves significant creative expression.  Expressing creativity may be enjoyable partly because it may involve self-expression.  Thus, it may be good to design creative board games that involve creating a song, telling a story, or drawing a picture.

Can Reading Self-Help Books Increase Self-Actualization?

By Brad Bell

There are a significant number of self-help books.  Some of these books may be read by a large number of people.  One important question is whether there is any benefit of reading these self-help books.  One possible benefit of reading self-help books is an increase in self-actualization.   Self-actualization involves personal growth in which a person achieves his or her true potential.  Self-actualization is part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory.  In Forest’s (1987) experiment, participants read either no book, or one of two self-help books.  Also, whether participants completed a pretest concerning self-actualization measures was manipulated in the experiment.  Some participants had a pretest, and other participants did not have a pretest.  All of the participants were female.   Only two self-actualization subscales were used in the study.  One of them was Time Competence, and the other was Inner-directedness.  Forest (1987) found that posttest scores on the Inner-directedness measure were influenced by whether participants read a self-help book.  On the average, participants who read a self-help book had higher posttest scores on the Inner-directedness measure than participants who read no book (this was true for both self-help books).  With respect to the Time Competence measure, on the average, participants who read Book 1 had higher posttest scores on the Time Competence measure than participants who read Book 2 or no book.  These findings suggest that reading some self-help books may increase some dimensions of self-actualization.  However, it is unclear about the generality of the findings.  We do not know if there are some self-help books that would not increase self-actualization.  Also, it is not clear whether the effect on self-actualization is relatively short-term, or whether it may be long-term.

References

Forest, J. J. (1987).  Effects on self-actualization of paperbacks about psychological self-help.  Psychological Reports, 60, 1243-1246.

Using Examples in Teaching

By Brad Bell

It may be a very good idea to use a number of examples in teaching.  Providing examples of concepts may help students learn and understand concepts.  In Balch’s study (2005), all the students received a booklet with definitions of psychology terms.  Students either received repeated definitions of the terms, or an elaboration.  There were three types of elaboration. (1)   One of the types of elaboration involved a specific example.  The students took a multiple-choice test with both definition and example questions.   Balch found that students who received examples of the psychology terms performed better on both types of questions than students who received only the repeated definitions.  Using examples in teaching may be one of the effective teaching strategies for improving comprehension.

Notes

1.  There were three elaboration conditions in this study (paraphrase, example, and mnemonic).  See Balch (2005) for more information about these conditions and other findings.   

References

Balch, W. R. (2005).  Elaborations of Introductory Psychology Terms:  Effects on Test Performance and Subjective Ratings.  Teaching of Psychology, 32, 29-34.

What Do People Find Rewarding About Companionship with Birds?

By Brad Bell

Pets are important. They provide joy, laughter, and companionship.  Some people may see them as members of their families.  Just like dogs and cats, birds as pets help make our lives meaningful and rewarding. In Anderson’s (2003) study, 106 parrot owners responded to an essay question involving what they thought was most rewarding concerning avian companionship.  The most frequent response was love/unconditional love (39% of the 106 participants). The second most frequent response was perceiving birds as family members (38% of the 106 participants).  Twenty-nine percent listed companionship for this question.  Providing joy was listed by 23%.   Moreover, it is interesting that making them (owner) laugh was indicated by 26%. It appears that the parrot owners are quite attached to their parrots.   This is also reflected in the amount of time they spend with their parrots.   About forty-six percent of them spend more than three hours interacting
with their birds each day. (1)

Notes

1.  See Anderson’s article for other findings.

References  

Anderson, P. K. (2003).  A bird in the house:  An anthropological
 perspective on companion parrots.  Society & Animals, 11, 393-418.

Do We Believe That Our Pets Are Better Than the Average Pet?

By Brad Bell

Pets are very important to us.  We may consider them part of the family.  Does our attachment to our pets make us feel that they have more positive attributes than the pets of other people?

In Study 1, El-Alayli, Lystad, Webb, Hollingsworth, and Ciolli (2006) had participants rate their pets and the average pet on 22 personality attributes.  Some of these were positive (e.g., loyal and friendly), and some of them were negative (e.g., lazy and mean).  On the average, the participants rated their own pets as higher on the positive attributes than the average pet.  Moreover, on the average, the participants rated their own pets as lower on the negative attributes than the average pet. In their second study, participants rated their own pets and the “average person’s pet” on the same 22 attributes. The findings of their secondly replicated the above findings.  Moreover, they found that this bias for perceiving one’s own pet more favorably was correlated with pet attachment.  

In other words, people who were more attached to their pets were more likely to exhibit a stronger bias in the evaluation of their pets. (1) Imagine the implications of the findings.  If your dog is running loose in the neighborhood, you may describe him as an “explorer.”   However, your neighbors may describe him as “reckless.”

Notes

1.  See their article for other findings.

References

El-Alayli, A., Lystad, A. L., Webb, S. R., Hollingsworth, S. L., & Ciolli, J. L. (2006).  Reigning cats and dogs:  A pet-enhancement bias and its link to pet attachment, pet-self similarity, self-enhancement, and well-being.  Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28, 131-143.

Can a Joke on a Card Increase Tips?

By Brad Bell

If you are a wait person you probably are concerned about the tips that you receive from customers.  The tips you receive may greatly help you pay the bills. Your earnings from the job may seem much more reasonable with the tips you receive.  Is there a way to increase tips?   One simple way may be to leave a joke on a card with the bill.   

Gueguen (2002) conducted a study that involved tipping at a bar.  Each person in the study was randomly assigned to one of three conditions.  In the advertisement card condition, the customers received an advertisement on a card with their coffee and bill.  In the joke card condition, the customers received a joke on a card with their coffee and bill.   In the control condition, the customers did not receive a card.

Gueguen found that a higher percentage of customers gave a tip in the joke card condition than in the other two conditions.  In contrast, the difference between the advertisement card condition and the control condition with respect to the percentage of people tipping was not statistically significant.

These findings clearly indicate that humor may increase tips.  Providing a joke on a card with the bill may be a simple way to increase tips.

One possible explanation of the effect of humor on tipping is that it reflects the reciprocity principle.  The reciprocity principle suggests that we should help someone who helps us.  Providing a joke on a card can be viewed as helping the customer.  It may make the person more happy and cheerful. The customer may wish to reciprocate the expression of kindness by providing a tip.

References

Gueguen, N.  (2002).  The effects of a joke on tipping when it is delivered a the same time as the bill.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1955-1963.    

What Do Couples Say Are the Reasons for Why Their Marriages Lasted?

By Brad Bell

Some marriages may have relationship problems and end in several years. Other marriages may last for more than fifty years.  How can we explain why some marriages may last for a long time?

Lauer and Lauer (1985) conducted a survey with 351 couples.  The couples had been married for  15 years or longer.  They were asked about why their marriages had lasted.  The most common answer for men and women was perceiving one’s spouse as a best friend.  The second most frequent answer for both men and women was liking one’s spouse as a person.  Viewing marriage as a long-term commitment was the third most frequent response for both men and women.  The fourth most common answer for both men and women was seeing marriage as sacred.  It is interesting that laughter was also important.  Laughing together was the ninth most frequent answer for men, and the eighth most frequent answer for women.

In short, these findings suggests that couples perceive close friendship and commitment as two essential elements of an enduring marriage.  However, we cannot make causal conclusions from these findings.  We do not know whether the reasons that the couples provided are the true reasons for enduring marriages.

References

Lauer, J., & Lauer, R.  (1985, June).  Marriages made to last. Psychology Today, 22-26.

Is Social Interest Associated with Happiness?

By Brad Bell

Social interest is an important personality characteristic that reflects an interest in others and being concerned about others.  People who are high in social interest are likely to value being sympathetic, considerate, and helpful.  Social relationships are important to many people. They may be a primary source of happiness and meaning in life.  Social interest may be related to happiness because our lives seem more meaningful.  Feeling connected to others and concerned about others may be a primary source of finding meaning in life.

Crandall (1980) found that among college students there was a statistically significant positive correlation between social interest and happiness for two measures of happiness. (1)   Thus, greater social interest was associated with greater happiness.  However, because these findings are correlational, we cannot make causal conclusions from the findings.  There may be other variables that could explain the relation between social interest and happiness.  (2)

Notes

1.  There was a significant positive correlation between social interest and happiness for both measures of happiness in the total sample.  However, only one of the two happiness measures was significantly correlated with social interest among men. Moreover, only one of the two happiness measures was significantly correlated with social interest among women.  The measure of happiness that was significantly correlated with social interest among men was different from the measure of happiness that was significantly correlated with social interest for women.

2.  See Crandall’s article for information on other findings.

References

Crandall, J. E. (1980).  Adler’s concept of social interest:  Theory, measurement, and implications for adjustment.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 481-495.

What Is Leadership?

By Brad Bell

Leadership is an important concept in psychology.  What is leadership?   One important question concerns how to define leadership.  There are many possible leadership definitions.  In this article, I wish to provide a leadership definition that is different from many other possible definitions of leadership.   This may help in thinking in creative ways about leadership.

A Definition of Leadership:

Leadership is the collaborative process of developing and implementing ideas to achieve positive change in an organization.

There are some important elements of the above definition.  First, leadership is perceived to involve a thoughtful process of developing good ideas.  Leadership development is about learning to develop good ideas.  Leadership is not simply the process of communicating and implementing a vision or plan.  It would not matter whether there is someone in an organization who can effectively implement a vision or plan if the ideas that are part of the vision or plan are not likely to produce positive change in the organization.  Ideas may sound convincing, but they may be too simplistic, based on faulty assumptions, or fail to take into account all relevant variables.  The foundation of good leadership is good ideas.  The process of selecting ideas must involve extensive critical evaluation.  The ideas should reflect a full-scale model of organizational change.  This model should be comprehensive, based on research findings, and involve a complete analysis of the causal relationships among the variables.

Second, leadership is perceived to be a collaborative process.  Leadership may often be viewed as reflecting the influence of one particular person.  In contrast, the above definition suggests that positive outcomes may be a product of the collaborative efforts of a number of individuals (team leadership).   No one person may be able to develop all of the possible ideas about organizational change.  Sometimes the best ideas are an integration of ideas from a number of individuals.  Organizations should strive to consider ideas from everyone in the organization.  All ideas should be evaluated using the same objective standards (e.g., consistency with scientific evidence).  Evaluating all ideas using the same objective standards can be viewed as an element of authentic leadership.

Third, leadership is perceived to involve achieving positive change.  Leadership is not merely providing direction to maintain current standards or procedures.  Leadership is about striving for positive change that may involve creating new standards and procedures.  It may involve evaluating the culture of the organization to find ways to improve the culture.  It may also involve revising the vision and mission statements.   This element of the leadership definition provides insight concerning the leadership vs. Management distinction.  Leadership, but not management, may involve organizational change.

Can Time Management Training Influence Perceived Control of Time, Perceived Stress, and Job Performance?

By Brad Bell

Work may be stressful when we feel that we do not have enough time to complete the work.  We may wish to find a way to better manage our time.  This could include a number of things, such as prioritizing tasks and developing plans to achieve goals.

Hafner and Stock (2010) conducted an experiment that addressed the effects of time management training.  Participants were randomly assigned to either a training group or a control group (the control group was training at a later time).   Their findings suggest that the time management training increased perceived control of time and reduced perceived stress. However, their findings suggest that the time management training did not affect overall job performance ratings (supervisor ratings). (1)

Although time management training may not affect job performance, it still may be beneficial.  It could lead to greater happiness because of less perceived stress.  It may lead to lower perceived stress because the person feels that he or she has more control of time.

Notes

1.  See their article for information on other findings.

References

Hafner, A., & Stock, A. (2010).  Time management training and perceived control of time at work.  The Journal of Psychology, 144, 429-447.