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NLI SCARF Research Summary Week 1

NLI SCARF Research Summary Week 1

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205 views2 pages

NLI SCARF Research Summary Week 1

NLI SCARF Research Summary Week 1

Uploaded by

jhemzweed07
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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SCARF Research Summary

As many as five times a second, your brain scans your environment for social threats or rewards (Rock, 2008).
The SCARF Model maps this monitoring, and its social impact, across five domains.
®

AWAY THREAT TOWARD REWARD


STATUS
CERTAINTY
AUTONOMY
RELATEDNESS
FAIRNESS
Threat Is Stronger Reward Is Better

Status Certainty Autonomy Relatedness Fairness


Is about relative Concerns about Provides a sense Is a sense of Is a perception
importance to ability to predict of control over safety with of fair exchange
others the future events others: friend, between people
not foe

THE SCARF® MODEL IS BUILT UPON THREE CENTRAL IDEAS

1 The brain treats many 2 The capacity to make 3 The threat response
social threats and rewards decisions, solve problems, is more intense, more
with the same intensity as and collaborate with others is common, and often needs
physical threats and rewards generally reduced by a threat to be carefully minimized
(Lieberman et al., 2008). response and increased by a in social interactions
reward response (Elliot, 2008). (Baumeister et al., 2001).

The SCARF Model provides a way of bringing conscious awareness to your interactions. It helps alert
®

you to people’s core concerns (which they may not even understand themselves) and shows you how to
adjust your words and actions for a more positive impact.

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© NeuroLeadership Institute 2014. Not to be shared or copied without permission
SCARF Research Summary ®
continued

THREAT AND REWARD

Threat circuits in the brain are those systems that help us detect and avoid dangers. Reward circuits in the
brain are those systems that let us know we are on the right track and to do more of what was working.

THE IMPACT OF THREAT AND REWARD


Away Toward

Threat Reward

When we experience strong threat or reward,


these brain systems tend to take over. And, when
we experience too much threat or reward, our
more automatic, primitive brain systems drive
our behavior. Under conditions of high threat, SCARF® DOMAINS
it becomes hard for the newer, evolved frontal
regions of the brain to operate (Arnsten, 1998). We It turns out that feeling socially threatened or
rely on those newer and more frontal parts of the socially rewarded affects the brain in many of
brain for things like self-control, planning, making the same ways as physical threat or reward
tough decisions, and staying focused on what we (Lieberman et al., 2008). This is where the power
want to focus on (Arnsten et al., 2005). These are of understanding threat and reward become most
precisely the types of tasks that we want people to important. Just as you wouldn’t put someone in
be skilled at in most jobs. agonizing pain and then expect them to perform
However, there is an imbalance that is important to well, so too you shouldn’t put them in strong social
keep in mind. It is very easy to go too far with threat, pain and expect them to perform well. To many
and is a lot harder to go too far with reward. When parts of the brain, there is no difference between
presented with potential threat, we respond more social and physical threat.
powerfully and quickly (Baumeister et al., 2001). ®
The SCARF Model holds the five most common
This is to say that threat is a more strong and urgent social domains in which we can most easily feel
system than reward. At the same time a threatened threatened. It is a tool for thinking about the ways
brain has a hard time being creative, opening to we socially threaten and reward others, whether we
ideas and input, and coming to new insights (e.g. mean to or not, and the ways they socially threaten
Jung-Beeman et al., 2008). and reward us.
A rewarded brain, by contrast, has an easier time with Status: Less than or better than
collaboration, creative thinking, insight, and cognition Certainty: Perception of familiarity
in general. Thus, limiting the experience of threat
Autonomy: Perception of choice
and moving towards an experience of reward is often
what we want to do to help people be mentally well- Relatedness: In-group or out-group
equipped for the challenges at work. Fairness: Perception of fair exchange

REFERENCES
Arnsten, A. F. T. (1998). The Biology of Being Frazzled. Science 280, 1711-1712.
Arnsten, A. F. & Li, B. M. (2005). Neurobiology of Executive Functions: Catecholamine Influences on Prefrontal Cortical Functions. Biological Psychiatry, 57, 1377-1384.
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E. & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is Stronger Than Good. Review of General Psychology, 5(4) 323-370.
Elliot, A. (2008). Handbook of Approach and Avoidance Motivation. New York: Psychology Press.
Jung-Beeman, M., Collier, A. and Kounios, J. (2008). How Insight Happens: Learning From the Brain. NeuroLeadership Journal, (1). 20-25.
Lieberman, M.D. & Eisenberger, N.I. (2008). The Pains and Pleasures of Social Life, NeuroLeadership Journal, (1) 38-43.
Rock, D. (2008). SCARF: A Brain-Based Model for Collaborating With & Influencing Others. NeuroLeadership Journal, (1) 44-52.

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© NeuroLeadership Institute 2014. Not to be shared or copied without permission

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