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Jeffrey B. Vancouver

Research Area:
Social Judgment & Behavioral Decision Making

Specializations:
Industrial/Organizational, Social, Behavioral Decision Making

Contact Information:

Office: 223 Porter Hall

Phone: (740) 593-1071

E-mail: vancouve@ohio.edu

Research Interests: (more details)

My current research focuses on the role of goals and feedback in motivation and learning, which have direct implications of performance appraisal, training, work motivation and managerial effectiveness. Feedback, or information in general, is useful for developing goals and assessing progress on achieving or maintaining those goals (self-regulated learning and self-regulated behavior, respectively). Indeed, it appears we sometimes forms goals about the desire for information. Differences between individuals and within individuals over time regarding seeking and processing this information has consequences for the effectiveness in which one can maintain their goals. When the goals arise from others, common in an organizational setting, the factors that relate to these differences become crucial. Furthermore, these differences, whether measured or manipulated, give us important clues regarding the underlying structure of the processing mechanism.

A second, but related line of research focuses on the role of beliefs in goal processes (e.g., adoption, planning, striving, and revision). In particular, we have been focusing on competence beliefs (e.g., self-efficacy). Generally, the higher the relative competence belief regarding a set of behaviors, the greater the likelihood that a goal will be adopted and a set of behaviors will be exhibited. On the other hand, during goal striving, higher competence beliefs can lead one to allocate fewer resources toward the behavior set and lower competence beliefs. This might reduce performance, though if the beliefs reflect true capability (i.e., they are well calibrated), this allocation effect is efficient and may not adversely affect performance. Delineating these effects, and developing a model of human information processing that explains them, is the purpose of this line of research.

Across much of my research, I consider the problem from multiple levels of analysis. For instance, one might consider the goals of individuals and the goals of the organizations in which those individuals are employed (i.e., individuals nested within organizations). Alternatively, one can examine the behavior of an individual over targets or time (i.e., observations nested within individuals). These analytic techniques allow the researcher to better tie the measurement of properties (e.g., mood) to the level of the element (e.g., person at a time point) and explore some hitherto unexplored phenomena.

Selected Publications: (full list with abstracts)

Vancouver, J. B., More, K. M., & Yoder, R. J. (2008).

Self-efficacy and resource allocation: Support for a discontinuous model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 35-47.

 

Vancouver, J. B. & Kendall, L. N. (2006).

When self efficacy negatively relates to motivation and performance in a learning context. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1146-1153.

 

Vancouver J. B., Putka, D. J., & Scherbaum, C. A. (2005).

Testing a Computational Model of the Goal Level Effect: An Example of a Neglected Methodology. Organizational Research Methods, 8, 100 127.

 

Vancouver, J. B. (2005).

The Depth of History and Explanation as Benefit and Bane for Psychological Control Theories. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 38-52.

 

Austin, J. T., & Vancouver, J. B. (1996).

Goal constructs in psychology: Structure, process, and content. Psychological Bulletin,120(3), 338-375.

Recent Grants: (full list)

• A multi-level approach to developing selection systems: assessing the effect of situation differences on predictor and outcome relationships. Aon Consulting; PI 99 ($600).
• A proposal for an evaluation of the New York State Department of Health Health Personnel Rate Adjustment Program. New York State Department of Health; Co-PI. 92-93; (~$700,000) & Extension 1994 (~$9,000)
• Creating a simulated work environment for the study of control hierarchies. NYU Challenge Fund; PI: 93-94 (~$4,000)

Selected Presentations: (full list)

Vancouver, J. B. (2008, March).

Applying control theory to sequential foreign policy decision-making. In C. F. Hermann (chair), Blowback! Adverse Feedback to Major Foreign Policy Commitments & Policy Makers Reaction. Paper to be presented at the International Studies Association annual conference, San Francisco, CA.

 

Vancouver, J. B. (2007, October).

Goal Acquisition: Learning a New Goal. Presented at the annual Society of Organizational Behavior conference, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.

 

Steel, P., Vancouver, J. B., & Lord, R. G. (2007, April).

Unifying Theories of Motivation. Theoretical Advancement Session submitted to the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York.

 

Vancouver, J. B., Gullekson, N., & Bliese, P. (2007, April).

Lagged Regression as a Method for Causal Analysis: Monte Carlo Analyses of Possible Artifacts. Poster submitted to the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New York.

 

Courses Taught: (syllabi and current course notes)

Undergraduate:
Survey of Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Statistics; Laboratory in Social and Organizational Psychology

Graduate:

Survey of Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Motivation; Learning & Training in Organizations; The Psychology of Group Behavior; Context Analysis; Research Methods

Affiliations:

• American Psychological Society
• Academy of Management
• International Association of Applied Psychology
• Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Graduate Students:

• Nicole Gullekson
• Kristen More
• Kevin Tamanini
• Ryan Yoder
• Justin Weinhardt