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Pathways to Success Through Identity-Based Motivation

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Abstract

Imagine a twelve-year-old boy; on the one hand, he wants to do well in school and hopes to become an all ‘A’ student. On the other hand, schoolwork is not all that interesting; it is not clear how well he will do; and when he looks around to figure out what boys care about and value, what their goals are, and how they act, he sees girls outperforming boys academically. How do these competing sets of knowledge (“I want to do well,” “Girls outperform boys”) influence how he is likely to interpret his experiences at school? School and gender are salient for most children from an early age, so he is likely to notice that gender and school performance seem to go together. If schoolwork is associated with girls, then gender is an easy at-hand interpretation for any difficulty he might experience with schoolwork. The interpretation goes something like this: “Of course this schoolwork is hard for me, I am a boy and boys do not do schoolwork as well as girls.” This interpretation undermines effort; it implies that trying is a waste of time and that he might as well shift his attention elsewhere. Does this example suggest that boys are doomed to underachieve compared with girls, or are there small changes in context that can make a boy’s feelings about his gender compatible with school attainment, just as being a girl currently does? The same scenario can be played out by substituting racial-ethnic, national, or religious heritage or social class for gender, and all sorts of books promise to explain the secrets behind group-level differences in attainment. These are the sorts of question that this book is meant to answer, but rather than thinking about group-level effects, I focus on the dynamics of what I term identity-based motivation.
Daphna Oyserman (2015)
Pathways To Success Through Identity-Based Motivation.
NY, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534146-1
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Abstracts by Chapter
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Imagine a twelve-year-old boy; on the one hand, he wants to do well in school and hopes to become an all
‘A’ student. On the other hand, schoolwork is not all that interesting; it is not clear how well he will do;
and when he looks around to figure out what boys care about and value, what their goals are, and how
they act, he sees girls outperforming boys academically. How do these competing sets of knowledge (“I
want to do well,” “Girls outperform boys”) influence how he is likely to interpret his experiences at
school? School and gender are salient for most children from an early age, so he is likely to notice that
gender and school performance seem to go together. If schoolwork is associated with girls, then gender is
an easy at-hand interpretation for any difficulty he might experience with schoolwork. The interpretation
goes something like this: “Of course this schoolwork is hard for me, I am a boy and boys do not do
schoolwork as well as girls.” This interpretation undermines effort; it implies that trying is a waste of time
and that he might as well shift his attention elsewhere. Does this example suggest that boys are doomed to
underachieve compared with girls, or are there small changes in context that can make a boy’s feelings
about his gender compatible with school attainment, just as being a girl currently does?
The same scenario can be played out by substituting racial-ethnic, national, or religious heritage or social
class for gender, and all sorts of books promise to explain the secrets behind group-level differences in
attainment. These are the sorts of question that this book is meant to answer, but rather than thinking
about group-level effects, I focus on the dynamics of what I term identity-based motivation.
Introduction
Even very young children can imagine their future selves—they can tell you who they want to be when
they grow up—and these future selves are often quite positive and education-linked. Sometimes
imagining a future self matters for behavior. This book focuses on aspiration-attainment gaps, the
shortfall between the self that one aspires to become and the self one actually attains and how situations
can encourage or discourage a good outcome. Progress toward an aspired self or away from a feared
future requires that people take action or plan to act. Unfortunately they often start too late and commit
too little effort before turning their attention elsewhere or failing to use effective strategies. As a result,
their high hopes and earnest resolutions often fall short. Rather than considering this a personal failing or
character flaw, this book focuses on situational constraints and affordances that trigger or impede action.
Chapter 1 outlines the theory of identity-based motivation, a situated social cognition theory predicting
that people prefer to act in identity-congruent ways but that, for a number of reasons, the identity-to-
behavior link is opaque. Chapter 2 outlines the stakes. Education matters not only for the child but for
society. Chapter 3 has three parts. It outlines how to translate identity-based motivation theory into a
usable, feasible, and sustainable intervention; outlines the intervention; and provides empirical evidence
that it works. Chapter 4 provides the implementation manual and fidelity measures (including fidelity of
delivery, receipt, and outcome).
Keywords: motivation, self, identity, education, success, procrastination
CHAPTER 1: IDENTITY-BASED MOTIVATION
This chapter starts with the seeming paradox that people can imagine and care about their future selves
and at the same time fail to take future-focused action. It describes why that might be and what can be
done about it by using identity-based motivation theory. In doing so, it focuses on the possibility that the
average person has the capacity to act in a future-oriented way but that this capacity is not necessarily
evoked in context. As summarized in this chapter, small changes in context can increase or decrease the
likelihood that people will act in service of their future selves. Evidence from experiments demonstrates
that average people can come closer to their aspirations if the future feels psychologically relevant to the
present, strategies feel identity-congruent, and difficulties along the way are interpreted as meaning that
the future self is important to attain.
Keywords: motivation, possible identity, future self, behavior, education
CHAPTER 2: A FOCUS ON EDUCATION
Across ethnicity, nationality and socioeconomic status, students and their parents have high educational
aspirations and expectations even if their own educational and economic attainments are low. Children
and their parents have it right. As outlined in this chapter, education is a resource. More education is
associated with better individual outcomes, whether assessed in terms of earnings, career, health, well-
being, or risk of physical and mental health problems. Children with more education become better
parents and citizens. Better education means more economic growth. Yet education is a leaky pipeline;
many start and too few complete their schooling, resulting in inadequate education, whether assessed at
the high school or postsecondary level. This chapter outlines the evidence that education is a resource; it
highlights transition points and suggests that a key dilemma for educators is figuring out which
interventions work and which are likely to work in their own settings.
Keywords: education, risk, prevention, substance use, depression, obesity, citizenship
CHAPTER 3: TRANSLATING IDENTITY-BASED MOTIVATION TO
INTERVENTION: PATHWAYS TO SUCCESS FROM SCHOOL TO JOBS
AND LIFE
This chapter describes how to translate the components of identity-based motivation (IBM) theory into a
testable, usable, feasible, and scalable intervention for use in schools and other settings to improve
academic outcomes. To do so, this chapter has three sections. First the choices made in developing the
intervention and their links to IBM are described. Then the sequenced activities constituting the
intervention are described. Finally the evidence that the intervention succeeded in changing academic
outcomes through the process predicted by IBM is summarized. The links between choices made IBM
and the context of education are made explicit, so that, if interested readers need to change a particular
activity to fit their setting, they can use each of these to effectively to make informed decisions.
Keywords: translation, fidelity, process model, short intervention, school-based, academic outcomes
CHAPTER 4: SCHOOL-TO-JOBS IMPLEMENTATION MANUAL
INCLUDING FIDELITY AND OUTCOME MEASURES
This chapter constitutes the implementation manual for the School-to-Jobs intervention, a brief universal
intervention to promote academic outcomes by helping students leverage the motivational power of their
own future selves. To do so, this chapter provides an overview, pointers for all sessions, detailed
instructions as to how to read the manual, detailed session-by-session activities, materials, brief “session
at a glance” outlines, and a detailed set of fidelity measures. Fidelity of delivery measures are detailed
checklists of the flow of activities for easy observer ratings. Fidelity of receipt measures operationalize
the core constructs of each session and the planned feel of each session. Outcome fidelity measures
(teacher, school record, student) focus on whether the intervention changes the expected outcomes by
influencing the expected processes. The manual is set up so that teachers and other end users can use all
the materials without the need for guesswork.
Keywords: intervention, manual, school, academic performance
!
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