“Practical Applications of The Seligman Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ)”

2. NZ Industrial & Organisational Psychologists SIG - February 2003 “Practical Applications of The Seligman Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ)” Jamie Ford Attitude Coach The Foresight Institute Tel: + 64 9 478 4066 Fax: + 64 9478 4077 E-mail: jamie.ford@foresight.co.nz

3. Agenda: 1 What is the SASQ? 2 Who is Dr. Martin Seligman? 3 Does Your optimism matter? 4 The range of optimism’s influence? 5 Can you immunise children against depression? 6 What’s the value of the SASQ to business? 7 Application in pre-employment assessment? 8 Do we need more resilient people? 9 Discussion -

4. 1- What is the SASQ? • Explanatory style questionnaire - causal attributions (Attributional Style)B Weiner - Attributional Theory of Achievement • 48 Items • 12 Situations - 6 negative, 6 positive • 36 Likert 7 point scales measuring 3 dimensions • Permanence, Pervasiveness, Personalisation • Listed in Mental Measurement Yearbook

5. SASQ Sample Question

6. What is the SASQ? cont. • Measuring Optimism for 2 types of situations: 1 - Reaction to Adversity 2 - Reaction to Success • Outputs on 5 pointLikert scales • 1 X Overall Optimism • 4 X Reaction to Adversity / Overall and for each dimension • 4 X Reaction to Success / Overall and for each dimension

7. SASQ Outputs Overall Optimism

8. SASQ Outputs Reaction to Adversity

9. SASQ Outputs Reaction to Success

10. OPTIMISM • The Seligman Definition • Internal dialogue • Automatic beliefs and explanations about the causes of events that occur to you Believing that the causes of success are permanent, global, and mainly personal to you. Believing that the causes of adversities and setbacks are temporary, specific to a situation, and mainly externalfrom you.

11. MEASURING OPTIMISM/BUILDING RESILIENCE • Two Types of Events/Situations - SUCCESS & ADVERSITY • Three Characteristics of Causation/Explanations ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE HOW YOU EXPLAIN TO YOURSELF THE CAUSES OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE Optimists SUCCESS EXPLANATION EXPLANATION Pessimists Permanence Always Everywhere Me Seldom Just Here Not Me Pervasiveness Personalisation Optimists Pessimists ADVERSITY

12. OPTIMISTIC • The Seligman sense of its meaning • Explanations for events that have happened! • Backward focused! • The general sense of its meaning • A positive/hopeful view of the future! • Forward focused! LITTLE IMPACT ON FUTURE! BIG IMPACT ON FUTURE!

13. OPTIMISM = • Resilience • Persistence • Perseverance

14. 2 - Who is Dr. Martin Seligman? http://www.positivepsychology.org/

15. Martin Seligman • Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology, Dept. of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania • 20 books • 200 articles on motivation and personality • 14 years Dir. of clinical training at Upenn • Past President Clinical Psychology Division, APA • Past President, APA - 1996 to 1999 (by largest vote in modern history of APA) • Voted 1 of 10 most important psychologists in history of psychology (150,000 APA Members) • Focus on Positive Psychology • Received critical acclaim for: • The “Learned Helplessness Studies” • Developed the SASQ in the course of investigating psychological immunity for depression

16. 3 - Does Your Optimism Matter? • 600 validation studies - known? • 100 Universities • Point - to Point relationship between Optimism Score and Results! • Industry use arose from a presentation to the CEO’s of Life Insurance Coy’s. PERFORMANCE • Earlier - Aptitude + Motivation = Success • Now - Aptitude + Motivation + Optimism = Success

17. 4 - The Range of Optimism’s Influence? • Sporting Achievement: • Optimists achieved faster times than Pessimists - Berkeley swim team studies (incl. Matt Biondi) • Optimistic teams outperformed Pessimistic teams - Baseball and Basketball - Upenn. CAVEing studies • Optimists recover faster from injuries than Pessimists - study of elite rugby league players - James Cook Uni. • Educational Achievement: • Students with higher optimism for negative events received better grades • Pessimistic students did not achieve grades predicted by the standard battery of tests • The more pessimistic students at West Point were more likely to give up and drop out

18. The Range of Optimism’s Influence? - cont. • Health • Optimists had half the infectious disease rate of the pessimists - Upenn. Student study • Human immune system studies show depressed levels of healthy cellular activity for subjects with a pessimistic explanatory style • High optimism is a common factor for women who have survived two bouts of breast cancer • Dramatic increases in natural killer cell activity, over the control group, were found in a group of cancer patients who received optimism training • Mental Health of Children: • The Penn Resiliency Project • Damaging effects of self-esteem teaching

19. The Range of Optimism’s Influence? - cont. Sales Performance Those with higher optimism scores outsell those with low scores by: • 33% / 319% - Real Estate sales • 20% - Motor Vehicle sales • 29% / 39% - Telecommunications • 39% - Office Products • 25% - Banking • 50% - Customer Service (top performers) 20% - 40% - On Average

20. 5 - Immunising Chidren against Depression • The Penn Resilience Project - intermediate age: • At risk of depression (explanatory style assessment). Control group & training group • 2 hours of optimism (explanatory style) teaching per week over 12 weeks Outcomes assessed at conclusion & Intervals over 2 years • Reduction in strong depressive symptoms for 35% on conclusion • Reduction in strong depressive symptoms for 100% after 2 years • Reversal of trend for increased depression in children going through and beyond puberty • Effects of learning optimism get stronger over time 2003 - $2.8m Project with High School age Students - Largest grant in history of US Education Service

21. 6The Value of the SASQ to Business

22. Metropolitan Life Case Study Act ii Scene 1

23. Metropolitan Life Case Study Act i Scene 1

24. Metropolitan Life Insurance Study • Recruitment drive using standard hiring process plus SASQ • Regular Force • hired from standard process only • Special Force • failed standard process but SASQ identified as highly optimistic

25. Metropolitan Life Insurance Study • Year 1 • regular force optimists +8% • *special force +21% • Year 2 • regular force +31% • *special force +57% • *2 year total = 78% over the low optimists (pessimists) Special Force stayed 3 times longer

26. Characteristics of Optimistic Sales People • Persistent and Undaunted • Resilient from setbacks • Energised by defeat • Immune to rejection • Motivated and inspired by success

27. Metropolitan Life Case Study Act iii Scene 1 The Robert Dell Case

28. CLIENT Z - NATIONAL SALES FORCE NEEDS ASSESSMENT RESULTS

29. Resilient Attitude Skills Training - Australian Client • 100 salespeople • Manufacturing business • 2 days training • 2 weeks application • $2.8m increase in business

30. Resilient Attitude Skills Training - NZ Client • 28 salespeople • Manufacturing business • Reduction in turnover from 30+% to 5% • Positive impact on customer relations

31. CLIENT K - NATIONAL SALES FORCE NEEDS ASSESSMENT RESULTS

32. 7Pre-employment Assessment

33. ACTION: Decision made to employ on grounds of technical competence, and with disregard for optimism test results. CASE STUDY - RECRUITMENT POSITION: Business Development (BD) Manager APPLICANT ISSUES: Technically – above average. Presented well, enthusiastic, motivated, very keen. Attitude - below average optimism test score. OUTCOMES: - Not Pro-active. - Failure to deliver results. - Decision to redesign role to suit technical strengths. - Re-advertise B D Pos. - Opportunity cost - Decision to give optimism testing greater weighting in decision process.

34. NAB Case Study Coles Supermarket Banking Project Greg Gilbert - Project Manager for NAB Requirements - Resilient Salespeople • World Search for an Attitude Testing Tool • Selected Foresight’s Seligman Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ) • SASQ measures Optimism (resilience) in adversity and success OUTCOME: New employees show high levels of resilience and adapted well to role and sales results requirements

35. 8Do we need more Resilient People

36. ACTION: Attitude/Resilience Coaching ASSESSMENT: Low Optimism Low - 2 Adversity Dimensions - 3 Success Dimensions CASE STUDY - RESILIENCE ATTITUDE CHANGE CHRISTINE: Marketing and Sales Manager ISSUES: Loss of productivity. Low energy. Poor morale in sales force. Poor business results from division. Talk of resigning. OUTCOMES: - Significant improvement within two months. - 2 years later MD reported a productivity increase of 30 – 40% from the intervention.

37. ACTION: Attitude/Resilience Coaching. ASSESSMENT: Average Optimism Very Low - 1 Adversity Dimension - 1 Success Dimension CASE STUDY - SALES RESULTS & ATTITUDE CHANGE NICK: Key Account Manager Hi Tech Industry ISSUES: Poor productivity. Low sales. Final notice ready for immediate termination. OUTCOMES: 2 months - Budget. 4 months - No. 3 on sales ladder. 5 months - No. 1 on sales ladder. 12 months - Consistently in top 3 for sales results. - Bringing in largest and most profitable sales.

38. Leadership Development BHP Billiton • Leading edge leadership provider • Future requires resilient leaders • Assess Optimism • Develop Resilience - optimism module

39. Sport Performance • Referred by Jon Ackland - Performance Lab • Silver medallist in the New-Zealand Sprint • Tri-Championships three out of five years • Top 6 inches preventing Gold! • Resilience Coaching at Foresight • Gold Medal - World masters Oct. 2002 • 18/70 - World Tri-champs Nov. 2002 • Gold Medal - NZ Sprint Tri-Champs Jan. 2003 Shorty Clark Tri-Athlete

40. How can you get access to the SASQ? • Pencil & Paper - no charge • Over the Web • On disc • All from Foresight

41. My Question To You: WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS TO THE USE OF THE SASQ?

42. “If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.” -- JOHN R. MILLER

43. THANK YOU For further Information - Tel: + 64 9 478 4066, Mbl + 64 21 772 079, Fax: + 64 9 478 4077 jamie.ford@foresight.co.nz www.foresight.co.nz

45. EXPLANATORY STYLE COACHING SUPER 12 RUGBY - 2002 Waikato Chiefs vs NSW Watatahs Waratahs 42 Chiefs 25 • Chiefs Coach Kevin Greene was reported in Monday’s NZ Herald as saying, by way of explanation for the loss against the Waratahs, We gifted them two or three tries through a lack of urgency on defence. … My concern is the lack of urgency and involvement, we probably had 60 to 70 per cent of territory. … They had a lot of decoy runners and ran angles, and we stood off and ended up tackling nobody. …“

46. YOUR ANALYSIS TASK Type of event? SUCCESS / FAILURE - GOOD / BAD The explanation?What kind of words does Kevin Greene choose to use in his explanation of the cause of the loss? Permanence- Permanent, or Temporary? Pervasiveness- Global & Universal, or Specific? Personalisation- The Chiefs, or not the Chiefs? The Future?What does Explanatory Style Predict?

47. MODEL ANALYSIS SOLUTION 1- PVS We gifted them two or three tries through a lack of urgency on defence. … Waratahs scored tries because of the Chiefs defensive failures. *PERSONAL - INTERNAL expl. for failure My concern is the lack of urgency and involvement, we probably had 60 to 70 per cent of territory. … no time boundary & not specific to a period of play PERMANENT, GLOBAL & UNIVERSAL expl. for failure They had a lot of decoy runners and ran angles, and we stood off and ended up tackling nobody. …“ (Waratahs success due to what they did do and Chiefs did not do) EXTERNAL expl. for success of Waratahs* A PESSIMISTIC EXPLANATION FOR THE LOSS! The Future: High probability of more failure!

48. MODEL SOLUTION HOW AN AUSSIE WOULD EXPLAIN THE CHIEFS LOSS TO THE WARATAHS “They (The Waratah’s) saw a few opportunities and took them! ... EXTERNAL expl. for failure There was a lack of urgency and involvement for short periods of time, but we had 60 to 70 per cent of territory. … Time bound & specific to a period of play SPECIFIC expl. for failure They (The Waratah’s) got lucky with their fancy decoy runners & angles. That kind of luck doesn’t last long though! TEMPORARY & EXTERNAL expl. for success of Waratahs AN OPTIMISTIC EXPLANATIONFOR THE LOSS! The Future:Increased probability of Success!

50. EXPLANATORY STYLE COACHING AMERICA’S CUP - 2003 • Dean Barker was reported in Monday’s NZ Herald as saying, by way of explanation for the 2nd loss against Alinghi; • "We made a couple of mistakes and that caused the race to end up being a lot closer than it needed to be," Barker said afterwards. • Barker personalised the loss - Pessimistic explanation • "Alinghi just outsailed us right at the end." • Barker attributes win to Alinghi, rather than luck, windshifts etc. - Pessimistic explanation • "Now it's just up to us to make sure we don't make the same mistakes. It's not going to be a one-sided contest." • Barker personalised the loss - Pessimistic explanation