Capability is claimed to depend on a physiological and attentional state that can be deliberately altered in moments.
Two distinct claims are bundled. That performance varies with arousal, mood and attention is well established, and the arousal relationship is the Yerkes-Dodson material. That one can move oneself between states at will by movement and focus, with large effects, is the seminar version, and its experimental support collapsed with the power-posing literature.
In practice
- A performer who is physically warmed up and attentionally settled does better, which nobody disputes.
- An audience jumping and shouting before a session is measurably more energised and not more capable.
- Possible explanations
- The explanation bundles two claims: that performance varies with arousal, mood and attention, and that these can be altered deliberately in moments by posture, breathing and focus.
- In its favour
- The first claim is well established, and state-dependent memory and mood-congruent recall are real if modest effects.
- Against it
- The claim that deliberate physical manipulation produces large rapid changes in capability rests on the power-posing literature that failed to replicate, and the evidence offered is testimonial and selected on success.
- Standing
- State-dependent memory and mood-congruent recall are real and modest. The claim that deliberate physical manipulation produces large rapid changes in capability rests on the posture and expression literatures, which have largely failed to replicate.
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- Moralists, aphorists and the self-help tradition