International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring (Aug 2024)
When is neuroscience stretched too far?: a spotlight on ‘coaching to the pea’
Abstract
We provide a critical review of a foundational article in neuroscience (Boyatzis & Jack, 2018) which set out to provide the neuroscientific foundations of Coaching to the PEA, a coaching model. Our critique questions the validity of the underpinning neuroscientific research; the appropriateness of selectively stimulating specified brain networks; the problematic positioning of the coach working with the brain; the rhetorical effects and paradigmatic challenges of integrating neuroscientific findings alongside other sources of knowledge; the risk of reductionism and of generalising findings from limited empirical research. Our critique questions how far neuroscience can be applied in coaching.
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