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Psychology 1230: Psychology of Adolescence

Don Hartmann

Autumn 2005

Lecture #22: © Achievement

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Administrative Announcements

Autobiographical term paper due today, Monday, November 28th. Please do NOT email your papers to me.

The class dumped on me over the weekend. I must have had 20-25 abstracts/references. In order to edit them and return them to you, I had to be brief and not as gentle as I would like to have been. My apologies.

Note: More WEB discussion groups disbanded due to overdue summary/evaluations.

Office hours tomorrow (Tuesday) are iffy; I have a 9-12 service call arrangement that may not be complete before 11. Sorry

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Final WEB Discussion Topic (#30)

#30: Guardian’s Role in Education. 4♀ + 1♂ V. (Summary-Evaluation due on Monday, December 12th): John’s parents are stationed in a faraway country during his early high school years, and so John lives with his grandparents. (They have the opportunity to do IT better than they did with John’s parent.) What should the school counselor (or some similar individual) tell John’s grandparents about their role in John’s education?

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WEB Discussion Process

Group #3 due #4 due #5 dueWhippets 10/27 (10/26) 11/14** Disbanded4♀+1♂ 10/28 (10/28) 11/18 (11/18) 12/12JusticeLeague11/15** DisbandedPithHelmets 11/09 (11/09) 11/28MAJACS 10/25 (10/25) 11/11 (11/11) 12/07Psyched 12/12

----------Note: Anyone can contribute to any WEB discussion; group members are responsible to

summarizing the discussion. The last day to contribute to any discussion is 3 days before the due date. Dates in parenthesis indicate the date handed in. Bolded dates indicate that material handed in was incomplete; more is required.**Where is the summary??

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Handout Summary Handout WEB

Date Date

39. Quiz 2 from Spring ’05 10/31----- 40. Lect. #17: Autonomy 11/07 41. Handout: Supplemental Project #2 11/04 42. Handout: Supplemental Project #3 11/07 43. Lect. #17b: Family Conflict 11/08 44. Study Guide #10 11/08 45. Lect. #18: Peers 11/10 46. Lect. #19: Peers II: Pop. & Friendship 11/11 47. Lect. #20: Bullying 11/17 48. Study Guide #11 (corrected) 11/21 49. Lect. #21: Schools 11/21 50. Study Guide #12 11/21 51. Lect. #22a: Achievement 11/28 52. Study Guide #13 11/28

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Everyone Needs Something!

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Supplementary Reading

Brophy, J. (1998). Motivating students to learn. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Covington, M. V. Making the grade: A self-worth perspective on motivation and school reform. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Weiner, B. (1986). An attribution theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer.

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Achievement: Overview

Weiner’s attribution theory of achievement Working with students with achievement

“problems” Coordinates with text, pp. 430-434, 438-442 Next: Lecture #22b: Culture

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Weiner’s Attribution Theoryof Achievement

A cognitively‑based theory that argues that individuals are cognitive beings who want to know why they and others are behaving the way they are

When we classify the behaviors of ourselves or of other, that are certain dimensions that we regularly use for the classification of causes: locus, stability, and controllability.

What kinds of self-attributions do you make about achievement situations?

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Three Dimensions of Causal Attributions

Locus: Internal‑external– Internal factors are those internal to us ‑‑ traits,

abilities, motives, and such. – External are factors out there: Environmental and

situation factors, such as a reward or external inducement such as access to the family car.

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$Stability: ─ Stable factors are those that remain largely the same, such as ability or education. ─ Unstable factors are such things as luck and effort

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Three Dimensions of Causal Attributions (continued)

Controllability: The extent to which the individual can control a cause.

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Combinations of Causal Attributions & Explanations for Failure

Int-St-Uncont Low aptitude Int-St-Cont Never study Int-Unst-Uncont Sick the day of the test Int-Unst-Cont Did not study for this particular test Ext-St-Uncont School has tough requirements Ext-St-Cont The instructor is biased Ext-Unst-Uncont Bad luck Ext-Unst-Cont Friends failed to help

Causal Attribution Reason Given for Failure

-----Int=Internal; Ext=External; St=Stable; Unst=Unstable; Cont=Controllable; Uncont=Uncontrollable

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Attributions and Achievement

If we attribute success to internal causes, our success is more likely to produce in- creases in self-esteem

• If we attribute our success to stable factors, we are more likely to anticipate success again under similar circumstances

• Controllability relates to felt emotions

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Study by Wilson & Linville

Used college freshman who were not performing well in school and who were anxious about grades

Two-group (experimental and control group) design. The independent variable (IV):

– Half of participants told how grades invariably improved after the first year, and saw videotapes of seniors talking about how their grades improved after the first year.

– The other half had no such information. The results: The group made to believe their failure was

temporary (unstable) did better on achievement tests—dependent variable (DV)—administered immediately after the instructional manipulation, as well as on grades one year later

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Careful of your standards!

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Working with Low Achieving Kids

Brophy’s strategies for improving the motivation of hard-to-reach, low-achieving kids. Three cases:

Low achievers with low ability who have developed low achievement expectations (e.g., Hartmann’s dancing)

Kids with failure syndrome Kids obsessed with protecting their self-worth by

avoiding failure.

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Low achievers with low ability who have developed low achievement expectations

Provide support: – Individualize instructions and related materials

E.g., might require a careful task analysis

– instructional goals consistent with kid’s capacity.

Emphasize the importance of effort (attributional portion of program)

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Kids with failure syndrome

Failure syndrome involves having low expectations for success and giving up at the first sign of difficulty. Kids who don’t put forth enough effort: Often have low self-efficacy or attribution problems

Use cognitive retraining methods (continued)

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Cognitive retraining methods: I

Method Goals ProceduresEfficacy retraining Improve self-efficacy Teach specific, proximal,

expectations challenging, goals—goals that can be achieved.

Monitor progress & support with confidence-building talk.

Minimize social comparisons.

Demonstrate with coping models.

Attribution retraining

Strategy retraining

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Cognitive retraining methods: II

Method Goals ProceduresEfficacy retraining

Attribution retraining Change Teach attributing failure to factors attributions that can be changed.

Attribute success to competency & hard work

Work to develop mastery (process) orientation.

Strategy retraining

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Cognitive retraining methods: III

Method Goals ProceduresEfficacy retraining

Attribution retraining

Strategy retraining Improve strategy Teach what to do, how to do it, when to do it. Also teach self-monitoring, self-evaluation and self-reinforcement

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Adolescents Motivated to Protect their Self-worth by Avoiding Failure

These are kids who use self- handicapping strategies…

Strategies for dealing with self-handicappers:– Give them challenging tasks that are within their

area of competence; gradually increase– Strengthen association between effort & self-

worth– Set up situations so everyone can be a winner

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Summary Achievement

Weiner’s analysis of attributions Dealing with low-achieving kids Next: Lect. #22b: Culture

Go in Peace