Research Group
Flexible Behaviour Control [FlexBe]

Due to changing work demands, self-control at the workplace is of increasing importance. Employees are expected to behave in accordance with certain organizational rules or standards and at the same time to override or inhibit automatic, habitual or spontaneous action tendencies, urges, or emotions that would otherwise interfere with the expected patterns of behaviour. Although self-control is related to success in many aspects of life, the exertion of self-control is also associated with psychic costs which have not been given much attention in applied research so far. Aim of the research group is the analysis of these costs including work-related measures of their prevention.

Scientific Members

• Stefan Diestel
• Herbert Heuer
• NatalieFreund
• Thomas Kleinsorge (head)
• Klaus-Helmut Schmidt

Current research

• Field of research "Endogenous reconfiguration with dynamically changing tasks"
  (Thomas Kleinsorge, Juliane Scheil)
  In modern working environments it is of increasing importance to flexibly adapt to dynamically changing task demands. This is associated with both chances and risks. In this project, we investigate the psychological functions underlying this flexibility in the laboratory. Experimental investigations of task switching play a prominent role in this respect. Part of our research focuses on differences between internally controlled and externally prompted task switches.
• Field of research "Modulation of emotion-induced interference"
  (Thomas Kleinsorge)
  The achievement of work-related goals often requires the control of spontaneous or exogenously triggered emotional responses. From a psychological perspective, at least two factors are important in this respect. One is the degree to which emotional responses interfere with task demands. The second factor is closely related to the mechanisms by which people try to control their emotions. We investigate the interplay of these two factors with a special focus on anticipatory processes.
• Field of research "Strain effects of self-control demands in real work contexts"
  (Stefan Diestel, Klaus-Helmut Schmidt)
  The demands of our modern working world necessitate a controlled and target-orientated behaviour. In dealing with these demands, employees do not only have to show the behaviour desired by their company, but also need to exert self-control to suppress habitual behaviour patterns and spontaneously emerging emotions. In this field of research we follow the question whether and under what circumstances work-related self-control demands impact job strain.
• Field of research "Self-control demands and burnout"
  ( NatalieFreund, Klaus-Helmut Schmidt)
  Dealing with self-control demands especially manifest in the experience of burnout. Moreover, high burnout levels involve deficits in certain (lab-experimentally induced) control functions (such as e.g. inhibition of dominant reactions tendencies and sustained attention). Consequently, different degrees of burnout will be analysed in different persons as to whether such control deficits are also verifiable in tasks necessitating the use of other control functions (e.g. emotional control, task switching).
• Field of research "Age heterogeneity in work groups"
  ( Klaus-Helmut Schmidt)
  Long-time cooperation with different state administrations in North Rhine-Westphalia grants access to field settings allowing examining what effects the expected increase of age heterogeneity in work groups can have on indicators of group efficiency against the background of demographic change. In doing so, a variety of moderating variables such as cognitive and social conflicts and task complexity are being analysed in longitudinal cohort studies alongside group performance and indicators of health. Statistical evaluation is performed via multiple-level-analyses.

Research facilities

• Reaction-time Laboratories
• International Affective Pictures System

Recent grants

• 2010-2012 "Altersdifferenzierte Arbeitssysteme" (DFG)
• 2010-2012 "Vorinformation und die Effizienz von Aufgabenwechseln bei variierender Aufgabenzahl" (DFG)
• 2011-2013 "Kontrolle valenzbasierter Störungen der Informationsverarbeitung" (DFG)

Co-operations

in the realm of science

• Prof. Dr. R. Kanfer (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Prof. Dr. J. Kuhl (University Osnabrück)
• Prof. Dr. W. Kunde (TU Dortmund)
• Prof. Dr. van der Linden (University of Nijmegen)
• Prof. Dr. R. von Dick (University Frankfurt)
• Prof. Dr. J. Wegge (University Dresden)

in the realm of practice

• BAHN-Betriebskrankenkasse, Frankfurt a. M.
• Berufsgenossenschaftliches Institut "Arbeit und Gesundheit" (BGAG), Dresden
• Einrichtungen der stationären Altenpflege
• Finanzverwaltung von NRW
• Versorgungsverwaltung von NRW

Selected publications

• Diestel S, Schmidt K-H: Mediator and moderator effects of demands on self-control in the relationship between work load and indicators of job strain. Work & Stress 23: 60-79 (2009).

• Kleinsorge T: Anticipation selectively enhances interference exerted by pictures of negative valence. Exp Psychol 56: 228-235 (2009).

• Kleinsorge T: Stimulus-response compatibility based on affective arousal. Cogn Emot 23: 663-674 (2009).

• Schmidt K-H, Neubach B: Selbstkontrollanforderungen als spezifische Belastungsquelle bei der Arbeit. Z Personalpsychol 8: 169-179 (2009).

• Kleinbeck U, Schmidt K-H (Hrsg.) (2010). Arbeitspsychologie. Enzyklopädie der Psychologie. Göttingen: Hogrefe.

• Neubach B, Schmidt K-H: Haupt- und Interaktionseffekte von Selbstkontrollanforderungen auf Indikatoren der Arbeitsbeanspruchung. Z Arbeits Organisationspsychol 52 (NF 26): 17-24 (2008).

• Schmidt K-H, Neubach B: Personal goals, organizational goals and indicators of job strain. Z Arbeitswiss 62: 88-98 (2008).

• Wegge J, Roth C, Neubach B, Schmidt K-H, Kanfer R: Age and gender diversity as determinants of performance and health in a public organization: The role of task complexity and group size. J Appl Psychol 93: 1301-1313 (2008).

• Kleinsorge T: Anticipatory modulation of interference induced by unpleasant pictures. Cogn Emot 21: 404-421 (2007).

• Wegge J, Schmidt K-H, Parkes C, van Dick R: 'Taking a sickie': job satisfaction and job involvement as interactive predictors of absenteeism in a public organization. J Occup Organiz Psychol 80: 77-89 (2007).

• Schmidt K-H: Organizational commitment: a further moderator in the relationship between work stress and strain? Int J Stress Management 14: 26-40 (2007).

• Kleinsorge T, Gajewski PD: Transformation of task components into an integrated representation during task switching. Acta Psychol 125: 334-345 (2007).

• Schmidt K-H, Neubach B, Heuer H: Self-control demands, cognitive control deficits, and burnout. Work & Stress 21: 142-154 (2007).

• Schmidt K-H, Neubach B: Self-control demands: a source of stress at work. Int J Stress Managem 14: 398-416 (2007).

• Publications