Jeffrey B. Vancouver
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (Michigan State University, 1989)
Research Area
Affiliation: Social Judgment and Behavioral Decision Making
Track
Affiliations: Industrial/Organizational, Social, Behavioral Decision Making
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, as 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
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, reducing 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. & Putka, D. J. (in press).
Analyzing Goal-Striving Behavior and a Test of the Generalizability of
Perceptual Control Theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes.
Vancouver,
J. B. (2000). Self-regulation in
Industrial/Organizational Psychology: A tale of two paradigms. In M. Boekaerts, P.R. Pintrich, & M.
Zeidner, (Eds.), Handbook of Self-Regulation (pp. 303-341). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Austin,
J. T., & Vancouver, J. B. (1996). Goal constructs in psychology: Structure,
process, and content. Psychological Bulletin,120(3), 338-375.
Vancouver,
J. B., & Morrison, E. W. (1995). Feedback inquiry: The effects of source
attributes and individual differences. Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, 62, 276-285.
Vancouver, J. B., & Millsap, R., Peters, P. A. (1994). Multilevel Analysis of Organization Goal Congruence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 666-679.
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)
Some
Recent or Upcoming Presentations (full list)
Vancouver
J. B., Putka, D. J., & Scherbaum, C. A. (2000, August). How Control Theory Accounts for
Goal-Setting: An Empirical Investigation. To be presented at the annual Academy
of Management conference, Toronto, Canada.
Vancouver,
J. B. (2000, June). Unified Theories in Psychology and the Machine-Analogy
Criticism. To be presented at the annual American Psychological Society
conference, Miami Beach, FL.
Vancouver
J. B. & Thompson, C. M. (2000, April). When Increasing Self-Efficacy
Decreases Performance: An Experimental Study. To be presented at the annual
meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, New
Orleans, LA. Poster
Vancouver,
J. B. Williams, A. A. & Thompson, C. (1999, August). Another Paper on Goals, Self‑Efficacy
and Performance, But a Very Different Set of Findings. Presented at the 59th Annual Academy
of Management Conference. Overheads
Courses
Taught (syllabi
and current course notes)
- Undergraduate: Survey of
Industrial and Organizational Psychology (7); Statistics (2); Laboratory
in Social and Organizational Psychology (2)
- Masters: Work Motivation
Programs (3); Training in Organizations (2)
- Ph.D.: Survey of Industrial
and Organizational Psychology (1); Work Attitudes and Motivation (6); The
Psychology of Group Behavior (1) Context Analysis (2); Experimental
Methods (1)
Affiliations
- American Psychological
Society
- Academy of Management
- Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology
- Ad hoc Reviewer: Journal of
Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Journal of
Management, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal,
Journal of Community Psychology, Organizational Research Methods, National
Science Foundation, Academy of Management & Society for Industrial
& Organization Psychology Conferences.
Graduate Students (with links to their pages)
Steven Kehnel
E. Casey
Tischner
Contact Information
Department of Psychology
Ohio University
223 Porter Hall
Athens, OH 45701-2979
Phone: (740) 593-1071
Fax: 740-593-0579
Email: vancouve@ohio.edu
Last updated: May 17, 2000