Psychological Capital refers to a unique combination of traits that lead to greater motivation at work, better performance outcomes, more satisfaction, and greater happiness…

Sounds like a winning formula, right?

The interesting thing about it is that it’s made up of 4 traits that you wouldn’t typically think make much of a difference - but trust me… and trust all the research - when combined, they absolutely do!

So ask yourself these questions:

🎯 ‘Do I believe that I have what it takes to achieve my goals?’ (Self-efficacy)

😃 ‘Am I generally a positive person?’ (Optimism)

🏀’ When faced with setbacks, am I able to bounce back?’ (Resilience)

💫 ‘Do I have hope that things will work out for me in the future?’ (Hope)

(Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007)


The best part about these four qualities is that they’re not ‘traits’, they’re ‘state-like’, which means you can develop them - and this starts with becoming aware of what you’re telling yourself and reframing your thoughts.

Of the four traits (Self-efficacy, Optimism, Resilience, Hope), which do you find comes most naturally?
And which will you make a commitment to work on in 2022? 👇


📚 Reference:

Luthans, F., Youssef, C. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2007). Psychological capital: Developing the human competitive edge (Vol. 198). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

📚📚 Selected recent research exploring the construct:

Mao, Y., He, J., Morrison, A. M., & Andres Coca-Stefaniak, J. (2021). Effects of tourism CSR on employee psychological capital in the COVID-19 crisis: from the perspective of conservation of resources theory. Current Issues in Tourism, 24(19), 2716-2734.

Kleine, A. K., Rudolph, C. W., & Zacher, H. (2019). Thriving at work: A meta‐analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(9-10), 973-999.

Chmitorz, A., Kunzler, A., Helmreich, I., Tüscher, O., Kalisch, R., Kubiak, T., ... & Lieb, K. (2018). Intervention studies to foster resilience–A systematic review and proposal for a resilience framework in future intervention studies. Clinical psychology review, 59, 78-100.