The Challenge of Change - Psychology at Work - New Zealand

People who are resilient work smarter, and can negotiate the inevitable changes that are the one certainty of life.  People who know what teamwork really means can turn good teams into great ones.

The Challenge of Change is measurable and results focused.   Amongst Resources you will find Case Studies, Latest Research Findings, and other downloads, all useful to share with colleagues or attach to proposals.

Research News & Developments Sept 2011

Revised ECQ scale published in Current Psychology

"The Rumination and Emotional Inhibition scales that form part of the Challenge of Change Profile were derived from larger research scales that were first published in 1987 as the Emotion Control Questionnaire (ECQ).  The ECQ comprised two other scales that form part of the extraversion constellation, and subsequent research using the ECQ focused on Rumination and Emotional Inhibition.  Using physiological measures like cardiovascular recovery, cortisol secretion and immune function led to the definition of stress as ruminating about emotional upset, which forms the basis for the Challenge of Change Resilience training: resilient people don't get stressed, and to avoid stress requires learning how to avoid rumination.  The research programme then focused on a further expansion of the Rumination and Emotional Inhibition scales.  The Challenge of Change Profile was revised to reflect these additions, and the expanded version of the research scale, entitled the Inhibition-Rumination Scale (I-RS) has recently been published (Roger, D., Guarino de Scremin, L., Borrill, J. & Forbes, A. (2011)  Rumination, inhibition and stress: The construction of a new scale for assessing emotional style.  Current Psychology 30(3), 234-244)."

Research News & Developments June 2011

Exploratory factor analysis
The preliminary form of the avoidance scale, based on items culled from an extensive scenario study, have now been subjected to exploratory factor analysis.  The scree plot suggested two or three factors.  An unrotated unifactor solution included around 60% of the items, indicating that the item-pool does indeed have structure, and running orthogonal rotations showed that three factors offered the best solution.  The first comprised a broad-based general avoidance factor, which had been expected following the unrotated solution, while the second and third factors comprised items assessing emotional avoidance and interpersonal avoidance.

Research News & Developments March 2011

There are currently several strands of research to extend the programme: 

New two-factor scale developed
(i) A new scale has been developed from the original ECQ, focusing on just the two key dimensions of Rumination and Emotional Inhibition.  The process included an extended scenario study as well as the incorporation of social support models, and the new two-factor scale is entitled the Inhibition-Rumination Scale (I-RS).  The scale has been validated in a number of ways, including data from self-harming behaviour derived from collaboration with Dr. Jo Borrill at the University of Westminster, London (Borrill, Flynn, Fox, Roger, 2009).  A paper reporting the findings for the new I-RS will shortly be submitted for publication.

Call for data contributors
(ii) Prior to leaving the University of York and moving to New Zealand we began a project to revisit the coping process, and in particular the role of avoidance.  This work has now been picked up by a new PhD student, Lehan Stemmet, whose work I’m supervising at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.  Lehan’s background in biochemistry makes him an ideal candidate to explore the role of the new scales using physiological indices.  The project is well under way, and a provisional item-list arrived at using scenarios will be factor analysed as soon as there is a sufficiently large sample to do so.  Enquiries from any readers who would like to contribute data from large samples would be welcome!

Detached coping
(iii) The coping research at York led to the development of a four-factor Coping Styles Questionnaire (CSQ - Roger, Jarvis & Najarian, 1993), which included a new Detached coping dimension in addition to the conventional rational, emotional and avoidant ones.  Detached coping has proved to be a powerful predictor of resilient behaviour, and subsequent work has suggested a 3-factor structure in which the detached and emotional components are merged into a single dimension.  Validation studies have been conducted for the new scale, and a paper is in preparation.

Research project into management and leadership effectiveness
(iv) Work using the Challenge of Change Profile suggests that having particular combinations of scores would impact significantly on management and leadership effectiveness.  A research project to explore these issues is currently in progress.  

To read about the history of the research, please click here.

Research News & Developments October 2010

Validation to extend through 2011 - with UK and Spanish research teams 

An investigation into the underlying structure of avoidance was launched this year. The research is the theme of a PhD thesis by Lehan Stemmet, who Derek is supervising at the University of Canterbury. The research is now well under way, and a provisional scale is anticipated early in the new year. Validation of the initial scale will extend through 2011, and will include international collaboration with research teams in the UK and Spain. Derek has been invited to the University of Palma in Spain as Visiting Professor during 2011, and will spend three weeks at the University there in March/April next year.

Planned research for two CoC Profile dimensions

Another study currently in the planning stages is aimed at providing further confirmation for the importance of two dimensions derived from the Challenge of Change Profile. The first, ‘detached compassion’, amalgamates the Detached Coping and Sensitivity scales into a measure of sensitivity to others' emotional feelings but without becoming identified or involved in them. The second is the Profile index of Toxic Achieving, in which the simple motive to achieve is distorted by the addition of time pressure, thinking that the means justifies the ends, and anger when people fail to deliver. The first dimension characterises effective managers, and while the second will produce results, it does so at the cost of resentment and high staff turnover. The planned research will test directly the relationship between these dimensions and manager evaluations based on 360-feedback.

Inhibition-Rumination Scale (I-RS)

The original research on the Emotion Control Questionnaire in the 1980s has been refined to provide a new questionnaire focussing on just two of the emotional style dimensions: rumination and emotional inhibition. The validation of the new scale, entitled the Inhibition-Rumination Scale (I-RS), is reported in a paper currently under review for publication.

Revision of Coping Styles Questionnaire

Another paper currently in preparation is a revision of the Coping Styles Questionnaire. The original scale comprised 4 dimensions, but subsequent statistical analyses showed that two of them could be merged into what became the Detached Coping scale that forms part of the Challenge of Change Profile. Additional validation studies have provided further evidence for the scale, and the paper will report on this new evidence.

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