Psychological Capital
Psychological capital is a positive psychological state with four components: self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resiliency. Self-efficacy means having confidence in oneself to complete goals. Optimism is more than just being positive; it is purposely and positively reframing external negative experiences. Hope is about persevering toward goals, redirecting yourself when faced with a setback. And resiliency refers to one's ability to bounce back from adversity. Together they are greater than the sum of their parts.
Psychological capital, like widely recognized concepts human and social capital, is a construct similar to economic capital, where resources are invested and leveraged for a future return. Psychological capital is different from human (‘what you know') and social (‘who you know') capital, and is more directly concerned with ‘who you are' and more importantly ‘who you are becoming' (i.e., developing one's actual self to become the possible self).
Psychological capital is operationally de?ned as an individual's positive psychological state of development that is characterized by:
(1) having con?dence (self-ef?cacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks;
(2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future;
(3) persevering toward goals, and when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and
(4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio).
Questions (if possible, offer personal examples):
• Can psychological capital impact satisfaction and organizational commitment?
• Can wages affect the psychological constructs of psychological capital?
• Can psychological capital be developed via training and impact individual performance?
Helping College Grads Transition to Work
Cultivate ‘psychological capital' to help college grads transition to work.