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[Effort--a form of self-imposed stress]
1Institut für Psychologie, Freie Universität Berlin.
Zeitschrift Fur Die Gesamte Hygiene Und Ihre Grenzgebiete
|August 1, 1990
Summary
Increased effort can enhance work performance, but effectiveness depends on individual differences. High intelligence and low anxiety are key to managing the mental load associated with greater effort.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Context:
- Autonomous work procedures often involve self-regulated effort.
- Understanding effort's impact on performance is crucial for optimizing productivity.
Purpose:
- To analyze effort as a top-down process influencing work efficiency.
- To investigate how varying effort levels affect speed, accuracy, task difficulty, and focus.
- To examine the moderating roles of task assignment and individual differences (intelligence, anxiety).
Summary:
- Higher effort instructions generally improved performance across speed, accuracy, difficulty choice, and focus.
- A 'law of diminishing returns' suggests balanced effort utilization is optimal.
- Performance variations were significant based on experimental conditions and personality traits.
Impact:
- Effort impacts multiple performance dimensions, but not uniformly.
- Individual differences, particularly low anxiety and high intelligence, mitigate the negative load of high effort.
- Findings inform strategies for managing effort and optimizing performance in autonomous work settings.