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Feeling left out, but affirmed: Protecting against the negative effects of low belonging in college
Abstract
Evaluative domains such as work and school present daily threats to self-integrity that can undermine performance. Self-affirmation theory asserts that, when threatened, people can perform small but meaningful acts to reaffirm their sense of competency. For instance, brief self-affirmation writing interventions have been shown in numerous studies to boost the academic achievement of those contending with negative stereotypes in school because of their race, gender, or generational status. The current paper tested the protective effects of self-affirmation for students who have the subjective sense that they do not belong in college. Such a feeling is not as visible as race or gender but, as a pervasive part of the students' inner world, might still be as debilitating to the students' academic performance. Among a predominantly White sample of college undergraduates, students who felt a low sense of belonging declined in grade point average (GPA) over three semesters. In contrast, students who reported low belonging, but affirmed their core values in a lab-administered self-affirmation writing activity, gained in GPA over time, with the effect of affirmation sufficiently strong to yield a main effect among the sample as a whole. The affirmation intervention mitigated—and even reversed—the decline in GPA among students with a low sense of belonging in college, providing support for self-affirmation theory's contention that affirmations of personal integrity can lessen psychological threat regardless of its source.
... People who make effective use of optimistic affirmations are said to have a mindset that is more open to being taught and corrected. In addition, there is a connection between higher academic accomplishment and positive affirmations, specifically among students whose GPAs are falling (Layous et al., 2017). People who used positive affirmations increased their quantity of physical activity when the emphasis of their affirmations and goals was on getting more exercise. ...
... As human beings, we can reap a great many advantages from listening to and repeating positive affirmations to ourselves. This finding was also consistent with the finding of (Layous et al., 2017) who showed that there was a connection between better academic accomplishment and positive affirmations, especially among students whose grade point averages are falling Based on the statement of various previous research provided it can be concluded that those who utilized positive affirmations increased the amount of physical activity they engaged in when the emphasis of their affirmations and objectives was placed on engaging in physical movement. ...
... Because there is a correlation between higher academic achievement and positive affirmations, particularly among students with lower GPAs, it is important so that people who do not have enthusiasm for learning can be advised to listen to word affirmation podcasts. This is because there is a correlation between higher academic achievement and positive affirmations (Layous et al., 2017), When students listen to podcasts to improve their English listening skills, it's important that they don't quickly become bored with the content because the podcast offers a variety of topics that students can enjoy each time they practice their listening skills. This keeps students from becoming easily bored when they listen to podcasts (as can be seen in excerpt 2). ...
A plethora of studies in Indonesia have investigated the research of the use of technology on students’ listening skills but research about the use of English word affirmation podcasts in improving students' listening skills based on student perception is still limited. This study aimed to investigate students' views on the effect of listening to “English words of affirmation” on their listening skills. This research employed a qualitative case study methodology. By using a closed-ended questionnaire and a semi-structured interview, 24 English students from one of North Sumatera's state universities were recruited to fulfill the demographic survey. The participants were selected by using purposive sampling, as the researchers selected only those who frequently listened to “English word affirmation” in their daily lives to enhance their English proficiency, particularly their listening skills. The questionnaire was disseminated through a Google Form to collect the demographic survey of students who were familiar with listening to the “English word affirmation podcast”. The interview was then conducted via the Zoom application to delve deeper into students' perceptions of the positive influence of listening to the “English word affirmation podcast” on improving their listening skills. This study discovered that listening to the “English word of affirmation” podcast could improve students' listening skills. This study suggested that educators and students could use English word affirmation podcasts as a reference in the English learning process, particularly for listening skills.
... Furthermore, it is not only students' grades that can be improved by self-affirmation interventions in educational settings, but other important outcomes, also. Affirmations have also been found to reduce academic stress (Hadden et al., 2020), increase trust (Sherman & Cohen, 2006), reduce defensiveness (Sherman & Cohen, 2006), and to benefit those who feel like they do not belong to college (Layous et al., 2017). Binning and colleagues (2019) also found that self-affirmation interventions promoted better behavior among US middle-school students, decreasing disciplinary infractions over students' three years of middle school. ...
... Indeed, some moderators have already been identified at different levels of analysis. Individual-level moderators have been identified, including proxies for social identity threat-such as group membership, prior performance , and sense of belonging (Layous et al., 2017)-and those based on coding of the written exercises, such as level of student engagement (Borman et al., 2018) and whether the students reflected on feelings of belonging (Shnabel et al., 2013). ...
... These moderators demonstrate the importance of understanding the wider context in which self-affirmations are implemented and, in particular, recognizing how the context can determine which groups are likely to be experiencing threat and are thus likely to benefit from selfaffirmation interventions (Binning & Browman, 2020;Easterbrook & Hadden, 2021;Manstead et al., 2020). Critically, however, there has yet to be an empirical demonstration that threat moderates (or mediates) the effectiveness of self-affirmation interventions in education, as proxies for social identity threat are often operationalized as objective indicators of group membership (e.g., ethnicity or eligibility for free school meals, but see Celeste et al., 2021;Layous et al., 2017). This is, in part, because there are not yet valid, reliable, and established measures of threat. ...
Self‐affirmation, operationalized as value‐affirmation interventions, can have long‐term beneficial effects on the academic performance and trajectories of members of negatively stereotyped groups, thus reducing achievement gaps. Yet, there is significant heterogeneity in the effectiveness of value affirmations, and we do not yet have a clear understanding of why. In this introduction to the special issue, we review the literature on self‐affirmation theory in educational contexts, providing overviews of the heterogeneity in the effectiveness of affirmation interventions, the methods of implementation, potential moderators, and underling processes. We identify several questions that are important for researchers to address, the answers to which would progress the field towards being able to more confidently implement value‐affirmations in contexts in which, and/or for groups for whom, they are most likely to produce benefits. We then introduce the articles included in this special issue, which showcase several of the latest theoretical and empirical advances to self‐affirmation theory in educational contexts.
... A robust and interdisciplinary literature illustrates that cultural differences between students' homes and schools often undermine educational outcomes for Black, Latino/a, and Native American students, and for students from low-income households, regardless of racial/ethnic background (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). This cultural mismatch can degrade students' sense of belonging and, ultimately, their academic engagement, moti vation, persistence, and performance (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). For decades, scholars have argued that remedying this mismatch and advancing educational equity necessitates the creation of culturally inclusive learning environments (5,7,(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). ...
... We advance the discussion by reporting findings from a research-practice partnership (RPP) (23) designed to support educators in changing the cultures of their schools to foster inclusion and belonging for students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Research provides ample evidence of strategies for enhancing students' academic experiences, particularly their sense of belonging, through direct-to-student interventions (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Our approach differs in that we sought to change elements of school environments (e.g., values, policies, and practices) that set the stage for students' experiences (24). ...
Despite an abundance of support for culturally inclusive learning environments, there is little consensus regarding how to change educational contexts to effectively and sustainably foster cultural inclusion. To address this gap, we report findings from a research–practice partnership that leveraged the Culture Cycle Framework (CCF) to expand educators’ praxis to include both independent and interdependent models of self. Most U.S. schools validate independent cultural models (i.e., those that prioritize individuality, uniqueness, and personal agency) and overlook interdependent models (i.e., those that prioritize connectedness, relationality, and collective well-being), which are more common among students from marginalized racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Using a quasi-experimental longitudinal design, we trained school leadership to integrate ideas about cultural inclusion (i.e., validating the importance of both independent and interdependent cultural models) into school-wide flagship practices. We assessed downstream indicators of culture change by surveying teachers and students across the district and found that a) leadership-level training enhanced school-wide beliefs about cultural inclusion, b) teachers’ endorsement of culturally inclusive beliefs predicted their use of culturally inclusive practices, and c) teachers’ use of culturally inclusive practices predicted enhanced psychosocial and academic outcomes among students. This research represents a comprehensive culture change effort using the CCF and illustrates a means of fostering inclusion-focused educational culture change and assessing downstream consequences of culture change initiatives.
... Studies in this arena reveal that microaggressions, while seemingly inconsequential, have significant ramifications for marginalized groups in our society because they: 5. Saturate the broader society with cues that signal the devaluation of social group identities (Layous et al., 2017), 6. Lower work productivity and problem-solving abilities (Kunst et al., 2022;Rees & Salvatore, 2021), and 7. Contribute and amplify inequities across all sectors (Layous et al., 2017). ...
... Studies in this arena reveal that microaggressions, while seemingly inconsequential, have significant ramifications for marginalized groups in our society because they: 5. Saturate the broader society with cues that signal the devaluation of social group identities (Layous et al., 2017), 6. Lower work productivity and problem-solving abilities (Kunst et al., 2022;Rees & Salvatore, 2021), and 7. Contribute and amplify inequities across all sectors (Layous et al., 2017). ...
Microaggressions are brief, intended or unintended, commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities that communicate derogatory, hostile, or negative insults and slights toward people who do not classify within the 'normative' standard. Those who microaggress are often unaware that they engage in such communications when they interact with people who differ from themselves. In the workforce, these interchanges are exacerbated, as issues regarding implicit biases tend to play themselves out in communal settings. In response to this, the discussion of microaggressions in its numerous forms, coupled with its manifestations in the workplace, adds to the growing knowledge base on aversive behavior and its short-and long-term impacts. The authors begin by investigating the residual effects of everyday "isms" on the work productivity and quality of life of those on the receiving end. They conclude with suggestions for institutional-level education, training, and research-specific to organizational settings-in the effort to reduce microaggressions in the professional environment.
... Interestingly -and positively -the current study found that our gratitude contemplation intervention increased feeling of gratefulness but not indebtedness. The result is inconsistent with several past works that have shown evidence that gratitude interventions elicit feelings of indebtedness, especially in collectivist cultures (Layous et al., 2017;Shin et al., 2020). The lack of indebtedness observed might be unique to the use of gratitude contemplation intervention in the current study, which requires individuals not only to list the things that they are grateful for, but to also contemplate and provide reasons as to why they are grateful for them (Locklear et al., 2021). ...
... The lack of indebtedness observed might be unique to the use of gratitude contemplation intervention in the current study, which requires individuals not only to list the things that they are grateful for, but to also contemplate and provide reasons as to why they are grateful for them (Locklear et al., 2021). Given that most of the previous works studying the relation between gratitude and indebtedness have relied on either behaviorallyexpressed gratitude or on purely recalling grateful experience without further contemplation (e.g., Layous et al., 2017;Oishi et al., 2019;Shin et al., 2020), the reasoning and elaboration of grateful experiences in the current gratitude contemplation intervention may help individuals to process the grateful experiences without inducing a sense of indebtedness. ...
Given the rise in the global prevalence of stress and depressive symptoms, there is an increasing need to identify promising interventions that promote well-being. One potential intervention that has been widely discussed in the literature on improving well-being is the practice of gratitude. However, findings on its effectiveness have been marred by inconsistency and publication bias. Building upon past studies, the current study aims to revisit the effect of a gratitude contemplation intervention on multiple well-being outcomes by using a within-person experimental design with a daily diary approach. Multilevel modeling showed that the gratitude contemplation intervention had a significant within-person effect on multiple daily well-being outcomes including negative affect, perceived stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Moreover, the results were robust across varying levels of personality traits. Our study provides another line of evidence to the literature supporting the benefits of gratitude contemplation intervention.
... Belonging. In recent studies and reviews [3,48,57,58], students noted relationships, social supports and a sense of belonging to, and identification with the university as vital to their wellbeing and academic performance. Indeed, interacting with classmates is linked to greater social and emotional wellbeing after class, feelings of belonging, as well as enjoying university to a greater degree [59]. ...
... To counteract rising student loneliness [60], feeling connected is not only vital in meeting psychosocial needs, but learning too. Students with a low sense of belonging often have lower GPAs, but in-class strategies like a writing exercise to affirm one's values was effective in reversing GPA and improving wellbeing [57]. Strategies can be useful in managing disappointments around learning, particularly as students downgrade subsequent learning goals in the face of failure [61]. ...
How happiness is defined depends on who is asked. In the case of universities, student happiness should prevail, yet their voices are often overlooked. This is also the case in the research literature where non-Western views are less frequently reflected. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country whose population is comprised of nearly 90% expatriate residents, is a good study case as campuses are filled with international students and the wellbeing of residents is a national priority. Responses from 80 UAE-based expatriate students reveal they are happiest with friends and in social activities and interactions; they want more opportunities to connect socially in classrooms and campuses, efforts which can be crafted by faculty. They also want joyful, inspiring learning where they can discuss and be exposed to other views, with many driven by the need to feel productive, efficacious and engaged. Solutions included the need for faculty to develop warmer student relationships, the maintenance of online learning to reflect realities of work and relationships, and for students to be treated with more respect as fee-paying adults. As the number of international students rise, research into their happiness and what universities can do to increase it remains a global priority.
... According to self-affirmation theory, if a domain that defines the self is threatened, the threat can be compensated for by identifying other values that are also considered important (Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Sherman & Cohen, 2006). This process of broadening the self-concept allows individuals to gain resilience against the threats that they confront (e.g., receiving health risk messages, being criticized by a teacher, or being excluded from a social gathering) (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Layous et al., 2017;Sherman, 2013). ...
... For now, much research has investigated the relationships between self-affirmation and individuals' strategies of dealing with risk messages or criticism in the context of face-toface situations (Critcher & Dunning, 2015;Layous et al., 2017;Sherman, 2013). Although evidence of such a relationship in CMC has not been examined enough, self-affirmation in CMC may be even more promising for reducing or preventing individuals' negative emotions from criticism, taking into account that encountering criticism online can be more hurtful than doing so offline (Allen, 2012;DeClerck & Holtzman, 2018). ...
The online environment for video conferencing lacks cues compared to offline, so one can hear the interlocutor's criticism more sensitively, and the fear of presenting in front of the camera can hinder participation in the meeting. It is known that interface design affords a role in improving public speaking and has a possibility of changing user behavior. To examine how the interface design of video conferencing affects video debating participation, 2 (visual anonymity: avatar vs. face) Â 2 (self-affirmation vs. no self-affirmation) between-subjects experiment was conducted. Results showed that using an avatar, when properly used together with self-affirmation, has a positive effect on active participation in discussions, but derogating others' critical messages. These results indicate unique underlying mechanisms of the effects of the avatar; the deindividua-tion effect of visual anonymity, and the effects of improving participation when customizing self-value reflected avatars.
... Mcdermott et al. (2020) focused their sample on undergraduate nursing students. Five studies exclusively examined students majoring in social sciences (e.g., psychology) or humanities (Graham et al., 2019;Layous et al., 2017;van Herpen et al., 2020;Vayre & Vonthron, 2019;Zumbrunn et al., 2014), whereas remaining studies used samples from a diverse set of departments or did not specify. Several studies collected samples from courses from specific domains (e.g., introductory psychology) but did not focus on a specific major. ...
Given the theorized importance of college belonging for academic success, we conducted a scoping review of studies examining relationships between sense of belonging and academic achievement and persistence for postsecondary students. In our scoping review, we included 69 reports (78 unique samples) published between 2003 and 2023. We observed an unexpected level of heterogeneity among the associations between belonging and academic outcomes (GPA, persistence, and intent to persist); most associations were positive but small with several small, negative associations. Across a few studies, there was a pattern of larger associations between belonging and academic achievement for marginalized college students, such as racially/ethnically minoritized students (compared to students in the racial majority) or women (compared to men) in historically exclusionary settings such as STEM disciplines. We identified gaps in the literature reflecting underreporting of student identities, including but not limited to gender identity, sexual identity, social class, religious identity, disability status, and first-generation status, in sample characteristics and a lack of attention to contextual factors, such as the type of institution (e.g., predominantly White institutions, community colleges, minority-serving institutions). In all, our findings provide an updated mapping of the literature, pointing to a much-needed refinement for how individual and institutional factors may moderate the associations between belonging and academic outcomes in postsecondary settings.
... According to the JN figures ( Fig. 2 and Fig. 3), the social comparison behavior of players with high levels of game frustration has stronger explanatory power for avatar identification and continuous willingness to play compared to players with low levels of game frustration, i.e., higher levels of game frustration promote stronger avatar identification and continuous willingness to play. Some scholars suggest that when someone's self-image is threatened, it motivates them to act to affirm their self-worth and maintain their self-image (Layous et al., 2017;Teng, 2019). In order to enhance players' sense of superiority, MOBA games repeatedly highlight high-power performance through the design of game elements, which implicitly strengthens players' downward social comparison. ...
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games are a popular genre in the current gaming field, and the highly competitive ranking mode is one of the core parts of the gameplay, and the study of the factors affecting players’ continuous willingness to play is a necessary issue to ensure the sustainable profitability of these games. This study has developed a conceptual model delineating the continuous willingness of players within the MOBA game ranking mode, employing the frameworks of self-determination theory (SDT) and social comparison theory (SCT). In this study, 396 valid data samples were collected using questionnaire method. The results show that, social comparison enhances players’ continuous willingness and avatar identification, and indirectly enhances their continuous willingness through mediation by avatar identification, while game frustration has a significant positive moderating effect in both paths. This study contributes to both theoretical explorations and practical approaches to MOBA game ranking mode.
... Many studies have used the SSF as a base to select a subset of items from one-item, three-item, four-item, and six-item scales (65)(66)(67)(68). Most recently, Maghsoodi, Ruedas-Gracia, and Jiang (2023) conducted three exploratory factor analyses using five-, four-, and three-factor models with a randomized selected sample of 282 college students (38). ...
The global expansion of higher education has led to an increased enrollment of first-generation students, presenting opportunities and challenges for institutions. Despite efforts to support these students, they often face lower graduation rates and higher dropout rates. Among the factors influencing student success, the sense of belonging has emerged as a critical determinant. This study reports the validation of the Spanish version of the Sense of Social and Academic Fit (SSF) scale in the context of a private university in Santiago, Chile, with a predominantly first-year student sample. The psychometric evaluations of the scale included: (i) factor structure, (ii) internal consistency, and (iii) association with several individual (e.g., history of academic achievement in high school, grit, self-control, motives for attending college) and contextual factors (e.g., parents´ education background, attendance to private, subsidized and state schools, financing higher education). Results indicated a multifactor structure, with three underlying factors identified as a Sense of belonging, a Sense of educational alienation, and a Sense of affinity. Internal consistency for all subscales and the total scale was good. Association analyses found that private school dependency was positively associated with the SSF total score, and the extrinsic self-oriented motives subscale was negatively associated with the SSF total score. This study contributes to the literature by examining the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the SSF scale in a Latin American context.
... Thus, subjective feeling in class includes not only academic emotions but also includes students' physical, cognitive and virtuous facets. However, when exploring subjective feelings beyond academic emotions, researchers have frequently concentrated on one feeling, such as a sense of belonging (Layous et al., 2017), loneliness (Diehl et al., 2018;Ti et al., 2022), or self-efficacy (Chemers et al., 2001;Zakariya, 2022). This approach could potentially restrict a comprehensive understanding of students' learning experiences. ...
Background: Students' subjective feelings during learning construct their diverse and complex educational experience, and are essential to self-definition and learning quality, yet these have not been thoroughly examined in an integrated manner. Aims: This study aims to expand the understanding of students' subjective feelings during class learning, using a unique lexical approach. Samples: 112 university students and 24 middle school students participated in Study 1; 818 third-year undergraduate students participated in Study 2. Methods: In Study 1, initial feeling words were collected from educational classics, literature and students' self-report (open-ended questionnaires and interview). In Study 2, a survey based on this lexicon was administered. Students were supposed to rate the frequency of experiencing these feelings in their core curriculum on a five-point Likert scale. Results: In study 1, a lexicon of 104 feeling words were identified through a series of methods including cluster analysis, expert's labeling, and frequency analysis. In Study 2, the overall report of sampled students indicated a positive classroom learning experience. A structure of two primary clusters and eight unique subcategories of the lexicon were identified through hierarchical cluster analysis. The frequency of experienced feelings varied significantly with achievement level. Conclusions: This study provides a novel perspective for understanding student learning, suggesting a tool that has a strong potential to offer an integrated, comprehensive, flexible, and interactive approach.
... For example, previous studies have found that self-affirmations-prompting people to focus on their overall self-worth-can remind them of their psychosocial resources and intrinsic aspirations, foster an approach orientation to challenges, and help to clarify purpose in life [36][37][38]. Self-affirmation is considered an effective intervention tool in many domains, such as regulating negative emotions and preventing alcohol or smoking abuse [39][40][41]. Therefore, it might be helpful to acquire psychological resources to engage in goal-oriented behaviors rather than remaining stuck in a mindset of scarcity. ...
Scarcity refers to a state in which an individual’s resources do not satisfy his/her needs. A sense of scarcity evokes negative emotions. A fundamental strategy for coping with this negative threat is for people to emphasize the desirability of their personal traits. In this study, a 2 (sense of scarcity: high or low) × 2 (valence: positive or negative) mixed-design experiment was conducted to examine whether and how a sense of scarcity affected one’s self-evaluation. Participants were assigned randomly to a high- or low-scarcity group. The chances of assistance rendered to an individual during a word puzzle task were manipulated to induce a high or low sense of scarcity. Then, participants were asked to make positive and negative trait judgments of themselves compared with their average peers. The results showed that people judged their personalities to be more desirable (i.e., more positive and less negative traits) than their average peers, manifesting the above-average effect. More importantly, people with a high sense of scarcity manifested a greater above-average effect than those with a low sense of scarcity. This study suggests that people could highlight their positive aspects to cope with predicaments in social life.
... For first-year students, the initial weeks on campus are spent attempting to find a place to belong, striving to fulfill a basic human need missing in their new surroundings. Their success or failure plays a key role in subsequent decisions about whether or not to drop out (Bowman et al., 2019), in their academic achievement (Davis et al., 2019;Layous et al., 2017), and in their mental and emotional health (Gopalan & Brady, 2019). Nevertheless, in one study 54% of students reported feeling lonely in the previous year, which was the most common issue for which students sought counseling (American College Health Association, 2021), and of course loneliness is even greater for students without a roommate (Henninger et al., 2016). ...
The number of room change requests by first-year college students can be influenced by several factors, including race and socioeconomic status. This study adds to the body of research by also examining the role of residence hall architecture, roommate similarity, and academic performance in room change requests. Findings indicate that residence hall architecture was the first differentiator of these requests. Other differentiators were first-semester GPA, age, and differences between roommates in socioeconomic status and race. The results indicate that residence hall architecture has important effects on students’ college experience, which can influence the development of social networks and form the context through which personal characteristics and roommate differences affect interpersonal interactions. Employing policies and programming that support student autonomy, create social connections, and reduce interpersonal barriers can foster a rich and positive environment for developing culturally diverse student experiences.
... Women, as the minority group in some STEM fields such as geosciences, may also experience belonging uncertainty and lack of social connections to their discipline (Walton & Cohen, 2007). Research indicates that when women feel less valued, less welcomed, or feel pushed away by the chilly climate in STEM disciplines, they are more likely to lose their interest (Hausmann, Schofield, & Woods, 2007), switch to another field, or even drop out of college (Layous et al., 2017). While it is clear that belonging is linked to interest development, there has been scant research on the degree to which different sources of social support (e.g. ...
... For example, previous studies have found that self-affirmations-prompting people to focus on their overall self-worth-can remind people of their psychosocial resources and intrinsic aspirations, foster an approach orientation to challenges, and help to clarify purpose in life (Gu et al., 2016;Kessels et al., 2016;Sherman, 2013). Moreover, self-affirmation is considered an effective intervention tool in many domains (Layous et al., 2017;Morgan & Atkin, 2016;Voisin et al., 2016). Therefore, it might be helpful for acquiring psychological resources to engage in goal-oriented behaviors, rather than remaining stuck in a mindset of scarcity. ...
Scarcity refers to a state in which an individual’s resources do not satisfy his/her needs. A sense of scarcity evokes negative emotions. A fundamental strategy for coping with this negative threat is for people to emphasize the desirability of their personal traits. In this study, two behavioral experiments were conducted to examine whether and how a sense of scarcity affects one’s self-evaluation. Participants were assigned randomly to the high or low scarcity group. Financial status (experiment 1) and the amount of assistance rendered to an individual during a riddle guessing task (experiment 2) were manipulated to induce a high or low sense of scarcity. Then, the participants were asked to make trait judgments of themselves compared with their average peers. The results showed that people with a high sense of scarcity judged their personality to be more desirable than those with low sense of scarcity. The results of this study suggest that a sense of scarcity enhances an individual’s above-average effect in social comparison.
... As others have noted, little is known about its factor structure and other psychometric properties (Knekta et al., 2020;Pyne et al., 2018), resulting in unstandardized usage. Ad hoc selection of subsets of the measure has led to studies with one-item (Destin et al., 2017), three-item (Layous et al., 2017), four-item (Pyne et al., 2018), and six-item (Stephens et al., 2014) versions, all ostensibly measuring the same construct. Among other concerns, the use of unvalidated scales makes it difficult to synthesize results across studies (Clark & Watson, 2019). ...
Sense of belonging is theorized to be a fundamental human need and shown to have important implications in many domains of life, including academic achievement. The Sense of Social Fit scale (SSF; Walton & Cohen, 2007) is widely used to assess college belongingness, particularly to study differences in academic experiences along lines of gender and race. Despite its wide use, the instrument’s latent factor structure and measurement invariance properties have not been reported in the published literature to date. Consequently, researchers regularly use subsets of the SSF’s items without psychometric justification. Here, we explore and validate the SSF’s factor structure and other psychometric properties, and we provide recommendations about how to score the measure. A one-factor model in Study 1 showed poor fit, and exploratory factor analyses extracted a four-factor solution. Study 2 CFAs demonstrated superior fit of a bi-factor model with four specific factors (from Study 1) and one general factor. Ancillary analyses supported a total scale scoring method for the SSF and did not support computing raw subscale scores. We also tested the bifactor model’s measurement invariance across gender and race, compared latent mean scores between groups, and established the model’s criterion and concurrent validity. We discuss implications and suggestions for future research.
... For example, this research highlighted the critical roles of resilience and a sense of school belonging, which could become targets of intervention efforts (Albott et al., 2020;Allen et al., 2021). Several studies have shown how belonging or resilience can be improved using rigorous interventions (e.g., Allen et al., 2018;Brunwasser et al., 2009;Lambert et al., 2013;Layous et al., 2017). A sense of belonging could be enhanced by encouraging positive relationships between students and others, such as their classmates, instructors, and school personnel (see Allen et al., 2021 for a review). ...
Previous studies on student well-being have focused on a limited number of factors. However, well-being is facilitated or hindered by many different factors. Therefore, focusing on a limited set of constructs could lead to an incomplete understanding of the various factors that predict student well-being. The current study drew on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) dataset to understand the importance of background, non-cognitive/metacognitive, and schooling constructs in understanding well-being. This study focused specifically on understanding different well-being dimensions including positive affect, negative affect, life satisfaction, and eudaimonic well-being. The data were from 12,058 15-year-old Chinese students from Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. China presents an interesting case given its high levels of achievement but low levels of well-being. Using a machine learning approach (i.e., random forest regression), the results indicated that factors belonging to “non-cognitive/metacognitive” and “schooling” constructs were found to be the most important predictors of well-being. More specifically, students’ positive affect and life satisfaction were best predicted by school belonging and resilience. Negative affect was best accounted for by school belonging and fear of failure. Eudaimonic well-being was best predicted by resilience and work mastery. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... For example, in educational contexts, self-affirmation removes psychological defensiveness among threatened groups of students (e.g. racial minorities) and, thus, improves their academic performance (Wu et al., 2021), reduces academic stress (Hadden et al., 2020) and increases trust (Binning et al., 2019) and belongingness to schools (Layous et al., 2017). In health domains, self-affirmation has been found to reduce resistance to health-risk information among individuals with high health risk and increase their self-efficacy in adopting healthful habits (Armitage et al., 2008;Fielden et al., 2016;Sherman et al., 2000). ...
Purpose
Previous research has demonstrated that affirming an individual’s self-worth in intrinsic, stable aspects (e.g. personal attributes) enhances their pro-relationship tendencies, as compared to affirming extrinsic aspects of the individual (e.g. performance). This is especially so among people in certain dissatisfying relationships (e.g. romantic relationships). Extending this finding to organizational contexts, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of affirmation type (intrinsic vs extrinsic affirmations) on responses to workplace offenses among employees with high versus low job satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Studies 1 ( N = 224) and 2 ( N = 358) examined the effects of intrinsic versus extrinsic affirmations on responses to hypothetical and real workplace offenses. Furthermore, to compare the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic affirmations to the baseline level, Study 3 ( N = 441) added a control condition and examined the effects of affirmation type (intrinsic vs extrinsic vs control) on responses to workplace offenses.
Findings
For employees with low (but not high) job satisfaction, (1) intrinsic (vs extrinsic) affirmations promoted more prosocial responses (forgiveness and reconciliation) to workplace offenses; (2) although not as effective as intrinsic affirmations, extrinsic affirmations (vs baseline) also triggered prosocial intentions toward workplace offenses.
Originality/value
First, the study enriches the literature on workplace offenses by focusing on an individual-level factor – self-worth – that can be intervened (e.g. affirming one’s self-worth) by organizations and managers so as to promote prosocial responses to workplace offenses. Second, the study expands the scope of the self-affirmation theory in organizational contexts by examining the effectiveness of intrinsic and extrinsic affirmations in coping with workplace offenses. Third, practically speaking, the study provides a brief intervention (the writing task of describing an intrinsic or extrinsic affirmation experience) that can boost pro-relationships in the workplace.
... When asked to describe their most important values, research participants nearly always focus on self-transcendent ones that involve helping or connecting with others (Crocker, Niiya, & Mischkowski, 2008;Sagiv et al., 2017). Further, in some past research high-value-focus manipulations made people more magnanimous only if the value-focus manipulation induced selftranscendent focus (Burson, Crocker, & Mischkowski, 2012;Cook, Purdie-Vaughns, Garcia, & Cohen, 2012;Crocker et al., 2008;Layous et al., 2017;Schimel, Arndt, Banko, & Cook, 2004;Shnabel, Purdie-Vaughns, Cook, Garcia, & Cohen, 2013;Yeager et al., 2014;see Crocker & Canevello, 2012, for similar effects for self-transcendent but not for self-enhancement goals on well-being and effectiveness). For example, value-focus effects on smokers' reduced defensiveness about their habit were completely mediated by the extent to which value-focus revolved around themes of love and connection (Crocker et al., 2008). ...
Fidelity with self-transcendent values is hailed as a hallmark of mature and magnanimous character by classic psychological and philosophical theories. Dozens of contemporary experiments inspired by self-affirmation theory have also found that when people are under threat, focus on self-transcendent values can confer magnanimity by improving psychological buoyancy (less anxious and more courageous, determined, and effective) and decreasing belligerence (less defensive, extreme, and hostile). The present research was guided by the postulate that both aspects of magnanimity—its buoyancy and its freedom from belligerence—arise from the approach motivated states that self-transcendent foci can inspire. Experimental manipulations of self-transcendent foci (values, spirituality, compassion) heightened state approach motivation as assessed by electroencephalography (Study 1, n = 187) and self-report (Study 2, n = 490). Further, even though the heightened approach motivation was transient, it mediated a longer-lasting freedom from moral (Study 1) and religious (Study 2) belligerence. Importantly, self-transcendent-focus effects on approach motivation and belligerence occurred only among participants with high trait meaning search scores. Results support an interpretation of meaningful values and spiritual ideals as self-transcendent priorities that operate according to basic motivational mechanics of abstract-goal pursuit. The transient, approach-motivated state aroused by transcendence-focus causes longer lasting relief from preoccupation with threat, leaving people feeling buoyant and generous. Relevance of results for self-affirmation theory and the psychology of spirituality are discussed.
... However, changing social stereotypes, equalizing representation (of LGBTQ+ professionals in leadership, of women across the STEM pipeline, or of African Americans across professional fields), eradicating prejudice, and changing cultural norms or lay theories conveyed in organizations will inevitably take substantial time. Thus, the conclusion of much social identity threat research is bleak, suggesting that threat will persist over time, and that the most effective recourse for interventions is to address the consequences of threat (e.g., targeting feelings of not belonging; G. L. Cohen & Garcia, 2008;Walton & Cohen, 2011; or providing alternative sources of self-worth through values affirmation, Kinias & Sim, 2016;Layous et al., 2017;Martens et al., 2006), rather than the source of threat itself. In identifying a previously overlooked source of threat that is highly malleable-the instrumentality embedded in organizations' diversity cases-this work offers a major theoretical advance to the study of social identity threat, by showing that it may be possible to mitigate threat itself by changing an organization's diversity case-an easier-to-achieve and more immediate action than suggested by previous research. ...
Many organizations offer justifications for why diversity matters, that is, organizational diversity cases. We investigated their content, prevalence, and consequences for underrepresented groups. We identified the business case, an instrumental rhetoric claiming that diversity is valuable for organizational performance, and the fairness case, a noninstrumental rhetoric justifying diversity as the right thing to do. Using an algorithmic classification, Study 1 (N = 410) found that the business case is far more prevalent than the fairness case among the Fortune 500. Extending theories of social identity threat, we next predicted that the business case (vs. fairness case, or control) undermines underrepresented groups’ anticipated sense of belonging to, and thus interest in joining organizations—an effect driven by social identity threat. Study 2 (N = 151) found that LGBTQ+ professionals randomly assigned to read an organization’s business (vs. fairness) case anticipated lower belonging, and in turn, less attraction to said organization. Study 3 (N = 371) conceptually replicated this experiment among female (but not male) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) job seekers. Study 4 (N = 509) replicated these findings among STEM women, and documented the hypothesized process of social identity threat. Study 5 (N = 480) found that the business (vs. fairness and control) case similarly undermines African American students’ belonging. Study 6 (N = 1,019) replicated Study 5 using a minimal manipulation, and tested these effects’ generalizability to Whites. Together, these findings suggest that despite its seeming positivity, the most prevalent organizational diversity case functions as a cue of social identity threat that paradoxically undermines belonging across LGBTQ+ individuals, STEM women, and African Americans, thus hindering organizations’ diversity goals.
... As they enter college, young people are thrust into a new environment with new social pressures and cultures that they must learn to navigate. Developing a sense of self and connectedness to community, already a fundamental social task of emerging adulthood, is made complicated by this major social shift, leaving many students feeling that they do not belong at their universities (Layous et al., 2017;Talaifar et al., 2021). Belongingness Theory posits that humans have a fundamental drive to belong and that failing to do so, as a subset of college students do, causes significant emotional and cognitive distress (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). ...
This randomized controlled trial examined the impact of The Connection Project, an experiential, relationship‐focused intervention designed to improve school belongingness and decrease symptoms of depression and loneliness among new college students. Participants were 438 first‐year and transfer students (232 treatment, 206 waitlist‐control) at a medium‐sized, 4years, predominantly White public university in the Southeastern United States. At postintervention, the treatment group reported significant relative increases in school belonging and significant relative reductions in levels of loneliness and depressive symptoms in comparison to waitlist‐controls. Program effects were stronger for students from marginalized racial or ethnic backgrounds, students from lower socioeconomic status households, and transfer students. Results are interpreted as suggesting the utility of experiential, peer‐support prevention programming to promote college students' well‐being, particularly college students who hold identities that are traditionally disadvantaged in this context. Participants report reduced depression and loneliness relative to waitlist‐controls. Participants report increased belongingness at their school, even when remote. Program benefits are strongest for marginalized students, most at‐risk for disconnection. Experiential programming and supportive peer relationships promote college students' well‐being. Prevention programming may be a first line to reducing burden on college mental health services. Participants report reduced depression and loneliness relative to waitlist‐controls. Participants report increased belongingness at their school, even when remote. Program benefits are strongest for marginalized students, most at‐risk for disconnection. Experiential programming and supportive peer relationships promote college students' well‐being. Prevention programming may be a first line to reducing burden on college mental health services.
... Among our biology students, feelings of connection to faculty were higher for students with higher GPAs. This was not unexpected considering that student GPA is positively correlated with the quality of student relationships with faculty (22) and that a low feeling of belonging has a negative impact on students' GPAs (23). Thus, we recommend that faculty make particular effort to encourage students with lower GPAs to participate in community-building events in an attempt to improve connections between students and faculty and a sense of belonging for students. ...
ABSTRACT Connections between students and faculty on campus may influence students’ sense of belonging, and a greater sense of belonging has a positive effect on student success. We developed a low-cost, faculty-led program of community-building events and implemented the program in the biology department at a small liberal-arts institution with the goal of improving students’ sense of community. Student responses to surveys indicated that the majority of students felt connected to faculty and students in the department; however, Black or African American students initially felt a lower level of connection to faculty than did white students. After implementing our series of community-building events, students surveyed reported high levels of satisfaction with the events. Furthermore, there was a trend toward a higher percentage of Black or African American students than white students reporting that they were more likely to reach out to faculty after participating in the community-building events. Thus, our low-cost program improved connections between students and faculty in the biology department. Collectively, our results suggest that academic departments can implement community-building programs to improve students’ sense of belonging.
... The sense of inclusivity resonates with that of blending in [19] [20] [21][22] [23] , fitting in [24] , and learning in unison [25] , but certain circumstances are hard to explain in grades and numbers and needs a little digging up in a more personal domain to understand the truth behind every experience [26] . The closest study conducted of student personal experience, the feeling of being left focused on the exploration of the negative effects of low belonginess [27] . ...
Academic performance in the form of grades have been the defining factor for a student to be classified into groups. With the questions on the quality of teaching and learning, it is best to focus on students who felt left out of the academic circle. Thus, Phenomenological Research, with the of a semi-structured interview, identified and explored the college students' life experiences who felt being left out because of their deviation from typical high achievers. The research was based on Sternberg's Theory of Thinking Styles and Perry's Theory of Cognitive Development. From the data analyses with implementation of the Colaizzi Process, three major themes emerged: (1) Admitting Limitation; (2) Understanding Exclusion; and (3) Self-Worth Valuation. The result showed that these students shared an experience of being excluded due to their academic ability. They mostly end up leaving the academic circle as a major resort in escaping the feeling of being left out. Despite such unfortunate predicament, they aspire to do good in areas where they excel and slowly gain the confidence in believing one's self. It is recommended that the schools place equal value and attention to all types of students. Further and in-depth studies is also recommended.
... First-generation students also tend to experience cultural mismatch, with the relatively interdependent norms of their upbringing being incongruent with the relatively independent norms of university culture (Stephens, Fryberg, et al., 2012). Students from more affluent and educated backgrounds, by contrast, are normative for the university and are less likely to experience a lack of belonging stemming from their demographic or high school background (Layous et al., 2017). We posit that having peers from one's high school present at the university provides students with social capital to help navigate the transition and thrive in college. ...
The social experience of transitioning to a 4-year university varies widely among students. Some attend with few or no prior contacts or acquaintances from their hometown; others attend with a large network of high school alumni. Using a sample (N = 43,240) of undergraduates spanning 7.5 years at a public university, we examine what factors predict high school peer prevalence (HSPP) on campus and whether HSPP predicts college achievement above and beyond such factors. Analyses found that HSPP was predicted by variables associated with societal privilege (e.g., being White, continuing generation). Above and beyond these variables, HSPP independently predicted higher grades in gateway STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses and, among first-generation college students, higher retention. The role of HSPP in fostering equity and inequity is discussed. A preprint of this article is available at https://psyarxiv.com/xhpuc/ .
... The No Child Left Behind Act was implemented to make sure that students feel included, that they are valued, and they are excelling with their peers (Abedi, 2004;Klein, 2015;Menken, 2009 (Reay et al., 2010), and learning in unison (Foureaux Koppensteiner, 2014), but certain circumstances are hard to explain in grades and numbers and need a little digging up in a more personal domain to understand the truth behind every experience (Symeonides & Childs, 2015). The closest study conducted on student's personal experience, the feeling of being left, focused on the exploration of the negative effects of low feeling of belongingness (Layous et al., 2017). It can be noted that to truly grapple the essence of academic performance, one must fully immerse in the experiences of the students in terms of their sense of relatedness and fitting in, and how they perceive themselves. ...
This is to introduce you to an excellent and incomparable system of education for true human development and peace!
We can see, if we look around carefully with a little watchful eye, the whole human race is going through a terrible crisis and severe illness. And as the days go by, the intensity of this misery and suffering is increasing.
To this day, no one has been able to stop the inhumane acts of injustice, corruption, oppression, rape, deception, violence, hatred, cruelty, destructive activities, etc. that are perpetrated by people all over the world. Religion, monarchy or politics, administration or any powerful system or organization has not yet been able to solve this difficult problem of mankind.
The root cause of most man-made problems is the lack of consciousness and knowledge. The blind-faith, blind devotion, superstition and mental illness all arises from that.
The only solution to this is to introduce the fundamental man-making education system in every school for the students to become rational in the right way and gain mental development.
... The No Child Left Behind Act was implemented to make sure that students feel included, that they are valued, and they are excelling with their peers (Abedi, 2004;Klein, 2015;Menken, 2009 (Reay et al., 2010), and learning in unison (Foureaux Koppensteiner, 2014), but certain circumstances are hard to explain in grades and numbers and need a little digging up in a more personal domain to understand the truth behind every experience (Symeonides & Childs, 2015). The closest study conducted on student's personal experience, the feeling of being left, focused on the exploration of the negative effects of low feeling of belongingness (Layous et al., 2017). It can be noted that to truly grapple the essence of academic performance, one must fully immerse in the experiences of the students in terms of their sense of relatedness and fitting in, and how they perceive themselves. ...
In the era of the 21st Century to make teaching more effective and interesting for learner’s technology plays a vital role. Teaching refers as an act of stimulus for the psychological and intellectual growth of a person. Learning technology refers to the technological tools which assist for learning, teaching and assessment. So we can say that in today’s pedagogy combination of teaching and technology which help the learning process for both teachers and learners. In this learning process the multimedia has a better tool to explore the new teaching method. Multimedia in ESL classroom provide an opportunity for both teachers and students to make learning and teaching more interesting with illustrated features so that learners become motivated to teach. This article aims to analyze the role of multimedia in ESL classroom with its useful strategies, the role of teachers dealing with multimedia assisted teaching and implementation of multimedia in ESL classroom in context of teaching perspective.
... Second, because individuals spend so much of their time at school, research has sought to understand the relationship between school connectedness and factors such as academic success (Blum and Libbey, 2004). Layous et al. (2017) found that students with low school connectedness declined academically over the course of 3 semesters. However, those who had a low sense of school belonging and then completed a self-affirming writing activity found that their academic achievements rose. ...
This study advances our understanding on the relationship between ethnic identity and school connectedness in adolescents. Exploration in this research area is fundamental as the UK has shown an increased prevalence for which wellbeing difficulties can be identified, and an increase in ethnic diversity in children and young people (NHS Digital, 2018 and Ainscow et al., 2016). The associated challenges for education provisions are that wellbeing requires more action towards promotion and intervention, and ethnic group differences should be minimised to encourage equality. Applied to an educational setting, research has shown that both school connectedness and ethnic identity can contribute to the prediction of an individual’s outcomes, e.g. academic attainment, however, it appears from the results of the study’s systematic literature review that little research in the UK has examined the relationship between the two. Using a cross-sectional survey design, secondary school students (n=295) were able to provide their self-assessed ethnic identity and to consider statements regarding the strength of their ethnic identity, and their feelings of school connectedness. The results of the study found that strength of ethnic identity was significantly higher for students who were Asian/Asian British compared to their White ethnic group peers. Additionally, strength of identity was significantly higher for Year 10 students compared to Year 7. Students who were Asian/Asian British had significantly higher feelings of school connectedness in comparison to their White or Black/African/Caribbean/Black British peers. Positive correlations were found between all measures of strength of identity (centrality, private, and public regard) and school connectedness. Centrality and private regard, when considered together, were the best predictors of school connectedness. The results indicate that there are some ethnic group differences for both strength of ethnic identity and feelings of school connectedness. The implications of findings are that educators should give consideration to strengthening ethnic identity as this will contribute to an increase in school connectedness. An increase for both will help to promote wellbeing and positive individual outcomes.
... Many of the studies in our final sample included more than one outcome estimate; we therefore have multiple effect sizes (with 190 Brady et al. (2016) Values-affirmation 2 0.017 0.157 Gripshover et al. Study 4 (2017) Values-affirmation 2 − 0.130 0.077 Values-affirmation 4 0.017 0.100 Layous et al., (2017) Values-affirmation 2 0.407 0.207 Miyake et al. (2010) Values-affirmation 6 − 0.067 0.146 Tibbetts et al. (2016) Values-affirmation 2 0.008 0.101 Walton et al. Study 1 (2015) Values-affirmation 2 0.020 0.150 Woolf, McManus, Gill, and Dacre (2009) Values-affirmation 4 0.115 0.155 ...
... However, changing social stereotypes, equalizing representation (of LGBTQ+ professionals in leadership, of women across the STEM pipeline, or of African Americans across professional fields), eradicating prejudice, and changing cultural norms or lay theories conveyed in organizations will inevitably take substantial time. Thus, the conclusion of much social identity threat research is bleak, suggesting that threat will persist over time, and that the most effective recourse for interventions is to address the consequences of threat (e.g., targeting feelings of not belonging; G. L. Cohen & Garcia, 2008;Walton & Cohen, 2011; or providing alternative sources of self-worth through values affirmation, Kinias & Sim, 2016;Layous et al., 2017;Martens et al., 2006), rather than the source of threat itself. In identifying a previously overlooked source of threat that is highly malleable-the instrumentality embedded in organizations' diversity cases-this work offers a major theoretical advance to the study of social identity threat, by showing that it may be possible to mitigate threat itself by changing an organization's diversity case-an easier-to-achieve and more immediate action than suggested by previous research. ...
... Another strategy is to measure psychological threat using validated scales. For example, in Layous et al. (2017), White men were found to have a relatively low level of belonging in school and exhibited the greatest benefit of the affirmation. ...
A theory-based intervention known as “self-affirmation” provides people with the opportunity to
affirm a sense of self-integrity, a global image of moral and adaptive adequacy, at moments of
psychological threat. By assuaging threat, affirmations can allay stress and defensive responding. The positive impact of self-affirmations has been shown in many domains including health, intergroup conflict, prejudice, and education. In these domains, persistent threats to self-integrity can impede adaptive outcomes. Affirmations, by broadening the perceived bases of self-integrity, render these threats less dire. The focus of the present chapter is on affirmations in educational institutions, although it will touch on affirmation research conducted in other contexts. On the whole, affirmation interventions have been shown to be powerful yet conditional in their effects.
They have large and lasting benefits under theoretically specified conditions: when people are
under persistent psychological threat that impedes adaptive outcomes, when the affirmation is
well-timed to this threat and activates the self-affirmation process, and where other resources for positive change are available and thus likely to be activated once psychological threat has been assuaged. The mechanisms behind both short-term and long-term effects of self-affirmation
interventions are discussed. To illuminate the theoretical and practical considerations in applying self-affirmation interventions, a case study is presented. Researchers working in a German school system with a large immigrant population sought to apply self-affirmation. Because the intervention was developed in North America, the successful application depended on being attentive to the underlying mechanisms and theoretical moderators. In a final section, lingering theoretical and applied questions are discussed.
... Various other studies showed that specific educational problems can also be addressed by targeted interventions. For instance, helping first-year students with the college transition [4] [5], closing achievement gaps for racial/ethnic minority students [6] [7], motivating students to pursue science careers [8] [9], enhancing student learning outcomes [10] [11], promoting STEM career among women [12], and psychological processes relevant to the problem [13] [14] are all examples of targeted interventions. ...
... Belonging is important for intentions to persist in academic endeavors. 43 Strategies such as values affirmation, ie, affirming the importance of a task for achieving goals, can ameliorate the consequences of reduced belonging 61 and may be incorporated into surgical curricula as interventions to promote self-worth and motivation. ...
Importance
Factors contributing to underrepresentation of women in surgery are incompletely understood. Pro-male bias and stereotype threat appear to contribute to gender imbalance in surgery.
Objectives
To evaluate the association between pro-male gender bias and career engagement and the effect of stereotype threat on skill performance among trainees in academic surgery.
Design, Setting, and Participants
A 2-phase study with a double-blind, randomized clinical trial component was conducted in 3 academic general surgery training programs. Residents were recruited between August 1 and August 15, 2018, and the study was completed at the end of that academic year. In phase 1, surveys administered 5 to 6 months apart investigated the association of gender bias with career engagement. In phase 2, residents were randomized 1:1 using permuted-block design stratified by site, training level, and gender to receive either a trigger of or protection against stereotype threat. Immediately after the interventions, residents completed the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) assessment followed by a final survey. A total of 131 general surgery residents were recruited; of these 96 individuals with academic career interests met eligibility criteria; 86 residents completed phase 1. Eighty-five residents were randomized in phase 2, and 4 residents in each arm were lost to follow-up.
Intervention
Residents read abstracts that either reported that women had worse laparoscopic skill performance than men (trigger of stereotype threat [A]) or had no difference in performance (protection against stereotype threat [B]).
Main Outcomes and Measures
Association between perception of pro-male gender bias and career engagement survey scores (phase 1) and stereotype threat intervention and FLS scores (phase 2) were the outcomes. Intention-to-treat analysis was conducted.
Results
Seventy-seven residents (38 women [49.4%]) completed both phases of the study. The association between pro-male gender bias and career engagement differed by gender (interaction coefficient, −1.19; 95% CI, −1.90 to −0.49; P = .02); higher perception of bias was associated with higher engagement among men (coefficient, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.19-2.24; P = .04), but no significant association was observed among women (coefficient, −0.25; 95% CI, −1.59 to 1.08; P = .50). There was no evidence of a difference in FLS score between interventions (mean [SD], A: 395 [150] vs B: 367 [157]; P = .51). The response to stereotype threat activation was similar in men and women (interaction coefficient, 15.1; 95% CI, −124.5 to 154.7; P = .39). The association between stereotype threat activation and FLS score differed by gender across levels of susceptibility to stereotype threat (interaction coefficient, −35.3; 95% CI, −47.0 to −23.6; P = .006). Higher susceptibility to stereotype threat was associated with lower FLS scores among women who received a stereotype threat trigger (coefficient, −43.4; 95% CI, −48.0 to −38.9; P = .001).
Conclusions and Relevance
Perception of pro-male bias and gender stereotypes may influence career engagement and skill performance, respectively, among surgical trainees.
Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03623009
Students in STEM programs often face difficult or ‘weed out’ courses in their first year of declaring their major and are frequently confronted with academic threats such as lack of understanding complex concepts, or receiving poor grades. The U.S. is estimated to need at least 1 million more STEM majors to meet the growing job market in STEM fields, and nearly 60% of students who declare a STEM major eventually switch to a non-STEM major or leave without any degree (Turetsky et al., 2020). Drawing on self-affirmation theory, this quantitative study explores the role that academic confidence and a sense of belonging play in STEM major persistence through a lens of self-affirmations. Fifty-four undergraduate students participated in a pre-test/post-test survey with a double-blind affirmation intervention in an introductory chemistry I course. Findings revealed a remarkably high STEM major persistence rate of 102%, but no statistically significant findings, challenging the notion of standalone affirmation interventions as a quick solution for retention. While the intervention did not yield statistically significant results, post-test belonging scores suggest a more significant influence on persistence than academic confidence. The study underscores the complexity of promoting STEM major persistence. Future research could explore longitudinal impacts, additional institutions, and mechanisms underlying student belonging to develop more effective retention strategies.
Belonging to a community is essential for wellbeing, but potentially unattainable for those dissimilar from a group. In the present work, we ask whether belongingness is better predicted by acting and thinking like peers or believing you act and think like peers. Students (N = 1181) reported their belonging and how much they, their friends, and an “average student” endorsed local behavioral norms and general values. We calculated difference scores for behaviors and values capturing perceived similarity to the average, actual similarity to the average, and accuracy around the norm. Key results indicate that perceived behavioral similarity to the average, when controlling for other differences, predicts belonging and most robustly mediates between identity and belonging. Using social network analysis, we find behavioral differences from friends are meaningfully linked to network density and racial homophily. Efficient interventions for enhanced belonging could highlight similarities between students and their peers.
School and university can be stressful contexts that can become an important source of identity threats when social prejudices or stereotypes come into play. Self-affirmation interventions are key strategies for mitigating the negative consequences of identity threat. This meta-analysis aims to provide an overview of the effectiveness of self-affirmation interventions in educational settings. A peer-reviewed article search was conducted in January 2023. A total of 144 experimental studies that tested the effect of self-affirmation interventions in educational contexts among high school and university students from different social and cultural backgrounds were considered. The average effect of self-affirmation interventions was of low magnitude (dIG+ = 0.41, z = 16.01, p < 0.00), with a 95% confidence interval whose values tended to lie between 0.36 and 0.45 (SE = 0.0253). In addition, moderators such as identity threat, participants’ age, and intervention procedure were found. Through a meta-analysis of the impact of self-affirmation interventions in educational contexts, this study suggests that interventions are effective, resulting in a small mean effect size. Thus, self-affirmation interventions can be considered useful, brief, and inexpensive strategies to improve general well-being and performance in educational settings.
Evidence indicates that value affirmations can reduce the achievement gap in science classrooms. Self-affirmation theory suggests that interventions work with students with under-developed self-efficacy and that self-affirmation repairs this negative effect. An exploratory sequential mixed methods design involving text analysis software was used to investigate linguistic differences of 1,414 students in an introductory chemistry course who participated in a value affirmations intervention. Using exploratory factor analysis and Key Words in Context (KWIC), results indicated statistically significant differences within grade categories for high-achieving women in the treatment group. For these high-achieving women, reflecting on close relationships might mitigate the effect of environmental threats, rather than merely belonging to social groups. These findings have relevance in the decision-making for administrators in higher education.
This study examined an intervention designed to improve sense of belongingness for new students at a medium-sized, four-year, public university in the Eastern United States. A randomized controlled trial was used to assess the impact of The Connection Project, a novel, 9-session intervention in a sample of 128 first-year students (77 treatment, 48 waitlist control). Given the onset of COVID-19, students received a hybrid in-person/online intervention. At post-intervention, the intervention group reported a significantly higher sense of school belongingness, after accounting for baseline levels, than control group students. Post-hoc analyses of moderation by demographic variables indicate that the intervention functioned similarly for students from a variety of backgrounds in this sample. These results are interpreted as suggesting the potential value of this intervention to promote a sense of community and connection among new students in college, whether delivered in-person or online.
Addressing labor shortages within nursing and allied health professions, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, requires increasing persistence and equity among community college students pursuing these fields. In this study, we adapted and combined three values-based interventions (values affirmation, goal congruence, and utility values) into one treatment, delivered via interactive text messages, with the goal to support reenrollment among pre-allied health students during the pandemic. Using institutional data from a statewide community college system, we randomized pre-allied health students who were enrolled in Fall 2019 and/or Spring 2020, and who had a valid mobile number on file, into treatment (n = 1,649) or control (n = 1,650) groups. Fully treated students received an average of 17 text messages over 8 weeks of Summer 2020; control students received business as usual support from the college. After adjusting for baseline differences in prior enrollment, the treatment significantly increased reenrollment by 3 percentage points (74% vs. 71%). Examination of individual differences revealed that effects were concentrated among men (+11 percentage points), Black/African American students (+7 percentage points), and students who were not enrolled in Spring 2020 (+13 percentage points). Values-based interventions, therefore, can be an important tool for addressing shortages and inequities in healthcare education and the labor force, an important step toward improving public health. Moreover, community colleges seeking to engage students who withdrew before or during the COVID-19 pandemic should leverage evidence-based practices to boost reenrollment.
We explored the influence of supervisor positive feedback on employees' in-role and extrarole performance, and the mediating role of promotion focus in these relationships. Data were gathered at three time points from 373 Chinese employees and their immediate supervisors. We used hierarchical linear regression and the PROCESS macro to test our hypotheses. The results show that supervisor positive feedback was positively related to promotion focus, which was also positively related to employees' in-role and extrarole performance. In addition, promotion focus mediated the supervisor positive feedback–employee performance relationship. Our findings suggest that organizational managers should provide employees with positive feedback to improve their promotion focus, thereby enhancing employees' in-role and extrarole performance.
Environments that are hostile to one or more marginalized groups are known to have a negative effect on the mental health and well-being of both targets and observers. Anti-fat attitudes have been well documented in medical education, including the use of derogatory humor and discriminatory treatment toward higher-weight patients. However, to date, it is not known what effect observing weight stigma and discrimination during medical school has on medical students’ psychological health and wellbeing, sense of belonging, and medical school burnout. The present study surveyed a total of 3994 students enrolled across 49 US medical schools at the start of their first year and at the end of their fourth year. Participants reported the frequency with which they had observed stigmatizing and discriminatory behaviors targeted at both higher-weight patients and higher-weight students during their four years of medical school. Observed weight stigma was prevalent, and was associated with worse psychological and general health, reduced medical school belonging and increased medical school burnout. The indirect effects of observed weight stigma on medical school burnout, via belonging, psychological health, and general health, were statistically significant in the sample as a whole, but were more pronounced in higher-weight students. This effect may be explained, in part, by the relationship between observed stigma and medical school belonging. Higher levels of observed stigma were associated with reduced feelings of belonging in higher-weight but not normative-weight students. Top-down institutional culture change is needed to rectify this situation, which is detrimental to both students and patients.
Objective: Prior research suggests that social connectedness is associated with lower levels of depression among college students. The aim of this exploratory study was to determine if an association existed between social activity, need to belong, and depression. Variations in study measures by race, gender, and student status were also explored. Participants: Data was collected from students attending a large university in the southeastern United States during the Spring 2019 academic semester (N = 299). Methods: Participants completed an anonymous self-administered survey, which was offered in both electronic and paper formats. Results: Need to belong significantly predicted depression among college students even when accounting for social activity and response bias. Study measures varied significantly based on race, gender, and student status. Conclusion: Belonging and social connectedness may be utilized by collegiate stakeholders to increase student and university outcomes.
Sense of belonging plays a key role in college students' persistence and successful degree completion. This study evaluated how social factors contributed to students’ sense of belonging at a major Midwestern university when controlling for individual-level and academic factors. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that students’ sense of belonging was significantly associated with underrepresented backgrounds, personality traits, adjustment to college, and friendship variables. We discuss the potential implications of these relationships in promoting retention and student success.
This meta-analysis assessed the impact of values affirmation on the academic achievement of students under social identity threats in actual classrooms. After a systematic search yielded 58 relevant studies, multilevel analyses identified an overall affirmation effect for identity-threatened students (Hedges' g = 0.15), not for identity-nonthreatened students (Hedges' g = 0.01). Heterogeneity in the affirmation effect was moderate to high for identity-threatened students, with effect sizes associated with (1) a larger covariate-controlled achievement gap between nonthreatened and threatened students in the control condition, suggestive of psychological underperformance, (2) the availability of financial resources in school, (3) more distal performance outcomes, and (4) the presentation of values affirmation as a normal classroom activity rather than a research study or a non-normal classroom activity. Affirmation appears to work best when it is delivered as a normal classroom activity and where identity threat co-occurs with resources for improvement and time to await cumulative benefits.
https://osf.io/guxrc/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/KJDZHDFMABPS6DVYJST5?target=10.1111/josi.12415
The present experiment investigated the personal meaning of a behavior and state social anxiety as predictors of behavioral action. Participants (N = 68) were given the chance to take the behavioral action of recording a statement for a video blog. Participants were randomized to personal meaning (n = 34; assigned to speak on the social issue most important to them and completed a personal meaning enhancement writing task) or control (n = 34; assigned to speak on the social issue least important to them and completed a control writing task) conditions. The results indicated that having personal meaning in a behavior significantly predicted the behavioral action. The findings suggest that having personal meaning in a social anxiety‐provoking behavior can increase the likelihood of that behavior. Clinical implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.
Self-affirmation is a promising brief intervention for reducing the academic achievement gap between majority and stigmatized groups (e.g., underrepresented minorities, women in STEM fields). Affirmations are thought to improve academic performance among stigmatized groups by expanding one’s sense of self, buffering social belonging, and reducing social identity threat. Despite encouraging results, some studies suggest that affirmations may inadvertently decrease the academic performance of nonthreatened White students. We conducted experimental studies to evaluate whether an affirmation focused on the theme of social belonging (i.e., belonging-affirmation) decreased the math performance of White males. We hypothesized that the belonging-affirmation would enhance performance for female participants but diminish math performance for White male participants. Two studies were conducted to evaluate these hypotheses: (1) a lab-based study involving 122 White male and mixed-ethnicity female undergraduates, and (2) an online study involving 197 young adult White males and females. Results failed to support study hypotheses, with no substantive differences in math performance found between male and female participants randomized to a belonging-affirmation versus neutral writing control. These findings are consistent with recent large-scale field replication failures of self-affirmation interventions, indicating that the phenomena may be more nuanced and fragile than suggested by early research findings.
Three studies examined the effects of randomly assigned messages of social exclusion. In all 3 studies, significant and large decrements in intelligent thought (including IQ and Graduate Record Examination test performance) were found among people told they were likely to end up alone in life. The decline in cognitive performance was found in complex cognitive tasks such as effortful logic and reasoning: simple information processing remained intact despite the social exclusion. The effects were specific to social exclusion, as participants who received predictions of future nonsocial misfortunes (accidents and injuries) performed well on the cognitive tests. The cognitive impairments appeared to involve reductions in both speed (effort) and accuracy. The effect was not mediated by mood.
First-generation college students (students for whom neither parent has a 4-year college degree) earn lower grades and worry more about whether they belong in college, compared with continuing-generation students (who have at least 1 parent with a 4-year college degree). We conducted a longitudinal follow-up of participants from a study in which a values-affirmation intervention improved performance in a biology course for first-generation college students, and found that the treatment effect on grades persisted 3 years later. First-generation students in the treatment condition obtained a GPA that was, on average,.18 points higher than first-generation students in the control condition, 3 years after values affirmation was implemented (Study 1A). We explored mechanisms by testing whether the valuesaffirmation effects were predicated on first-generation students reflecting on interdependent values (thus affirming their values that are consistent with working-class culture) or independent values (thus affirming their values that are consistent with the culture of higher education). We found that when first-generation students wrote about their independence, they obtained higher grades (both in the semester in which values affirmation was implemented and in subsequent semesters) and felt less concerned about their background. In a separate laboratory experiment (Study 2) we manipulated the extent to which participants wrote about independence and found that encouraging first-generation students to write more about their independence improved their performance on a math test. These studies highlight the potential of having FG students focus on their own independence.
First-generation college students (students for whom neither parent has a 4-year college degree) earn lower grades and worry more about whether they belong in college, compared with continuing-generation students (who have at least 1 parent with a 4-year college degree). We conducted a longitudinal follow-up of participants from a study in which a values-affirmation intervention improved performance in a biology course for first-generation college students, and found that the treatment effect on grades persisted 3 years later. First-generation students in the treatment condition obtained a GPA that was, on average, .18 points higher than first-generation students in the control condition, 3 years after values affirmation was implemented (Study 1A). We explored mechanisms by testing whether the values-affirmation effects were predicated on first-generation students reflecting on interdependent values (thus affirming their values that are consistent with working-class culture) or independent values (thus affirming their values that are consistent with the culture of higher education). We found that when first-generation students wrote about their independence, they obtained higher grades (both in the semester in which values affirmation was implemented and in subsequent semesters) and felt less concerned about their background. In a separate laboratory experiment (Study 2) we manipulated the extent to which participants wrote about independence and found that encouraging first-generation students to write more about their independence improved their performance on a math test. These studies highlight the potential of having FG students focus on their own independence. (PsycINFO Database Record
A key question about achievement motivation is how to maintain it over time and in the face of stress and adversity. The present research examines how a motivational process triggered by a social-psychological intervention propagates benefits over a long period of time and creates an enduring shift in the way people interpret subsequent adversity. During their first or second year of college, 183 Latino and White students completed either a values affirmation intervention or control exercise as part of a laboratory study. In the affirmation intervention, students wrote about a core personal value, an exercise that has been found in previous research to buffer minority students against the stress of being negatively stereotyped in school. This single affirmation improved the college grade point average (GPA) of Latino students over 2 years. Students were re-recruited for a follow-up session near the end of those 2 years. Results indicated that GPA benefits occurred, in part, because the affirmation shifted the way Latino students spontaneously responded to subsequent stressors. In particular, in response to an academic stressor salience task about their end-of-semester requirements, affirmed Latino students spontaneously generated more self-affirming and less self-threatening thoughts and feelings as assessed by an open-ended writing prompt. They also reported having a greater sense of their adequacy as assessed by measures of self-integrity, self-esteem, and hope, as well as higher academic belonging. Discussion centers on how and why motivational processes can trigger effects that persist over surprisingly long periods of time.
Many students start college intending to pursue a career in the biosciences, but too many abandon this goal because they struggle in introductory biology. Interventions have been developed to close achievement gaps for underrepresented minority students and women, but no prior research has attempted to close the gap for first-generation students, a population that accounts for nearly a 5th of college students. We report a values affirmation intervention conducted with 798 U.S. students (154 first-generation) in an introductory biology course for majors. For first-generation students, values affirmation significantly improved final course grades and retention in the 2nd course in the biology sequence, as well as overall grade point average for the semester. This brief intervention narrowed the achievement gap between first-generation and continuing-generation students for course grades by 50% and increased retention in a critical gateway course by 20%. Our results suggest that educators can expand the pipeline for first-generation students to continue studying in the biosciences with psychological interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
People have a basic need to maintain the integrity of the self, a global sense of personal adequacy. Events that threaten self-integrity arouse stress and self-protective defenses that can hamper performance and growth. However, an intervention known as self-affirmation can curb these negative outcomes. Self-affirmation interventions typically have people write about core personal values. The interventions bring about a more expansive view of the self and its resources, weakening the implications of a threat for personal integrity. Timely affirmations have been shown to improve education, health, and relationship outcomes, with benefits that sometimes persist for months and years. Like other interventions and experiences, self-affirmations can have lasting benefits when they touch off a cycle of adaptive potential, a positive feedback loop between the self-system and the social system that propagates adaptive outcomes over time. The present review highlights both connections with other disciplines and lessons for a social psychological understanding of intervention and change.
Two experiments examined for the first time whether the specific content of participant-generated affirmation essays-in particular, writing about social belonging-facilitated an affirmation intervention's ability to reduce identity threat among negatively stereotyped students. Study 1, a field experiment, revealed that seventh graders assigned to a values-affirmation condition wrote about social belonging more than those assigned to a control condition. Writing about belonging, in turn, improved the grade point average (GPA) of Black, but not White students. In Study 2, using a modified "belonging-affirmation" intervention, we directly manipulated writing about social belonging before a math test described as diagnostic of math ability. The more female participants wrote about belonging, the better they performed, while there was no effect of writing about belonging for males. Writing about social belonging improved performance only for members of negatively stereotyped groups. Implications for self-affirmation theory and practice are discussed.
To the extent that stereotype and identity threat undermine academic performance, social psychological interventions that lessen threat could buffer threatened students and improve performance. Two studies, each featuring a longitudinal field experiment in a mixed-ethnicity middle school, examined whether a values affirmation writing exercise could attenuate the achievement gap between Latino American and European American students. In Study 1, students completed multiple self-affirmation (or control) activities as part of their regular class assignments. Latino American students, the identity threatened group, earned higher grades in the affirmation than control condition, whereas White students were unaffected. The effects persisted 3 years and, for many students, continued into high school by lifting their performance trajectory. Study 2 featured daily diaries to examine how the affirmation affected psychology under identity threat, with the expectation that it would shape students' narratives of their ongoing academic experience. By conferring a big-picture focus, affirmation was expected to broaden construals, prevent daily adversity from being experienced as identity threat, and insulate academic motivation from identity threat. Indeed, affirmed Latino American students not only earned higher grades than nonaffirmed Latino American students but also construed events at a more abstract than concrete level and were less likely to have their daily feelings of academic fit and motivation undermined by identity threat. Discussion centers on how social-psychological processes propagate themselves over time and how timely interventions targeting these processes can promote well-being and achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Much research has shown that after being self-affirmed, people respond to challenges in healthy, productive ways, including better task performance. The current research demonstrates that self-affirmation can also deflate motivation and performance, a pattern consistent with goal disengagement. We posited that being self-affirmed and then attempting but failing at a task would lead people to retreat from the goal. In support of this hypothesis, 4 experiments found that the combination of self-affirmation and the experience of failure led to demotivation and effort reduction. Experiment 1 found that self-affirmed participants, more so than nonaffirmed participants, reported being open to goal disengagement. Experiment 2 found that affirming core values before trying a task beset with failure reduced task motivation and performance. Experiment 3 demonstrated the robustness of the effect and found that failure on one task reduced motivation and performance on a new but related task. Experiment 4 revealed that being self-affirmed and experiencing failure caused participants to feel less capable of pursuing their goals, which produced poorer performance. These findings suggest that affirming the self can lead people to internalize the implications of failure, which in turn leads to goal disengagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Five studies tested hypotheses derived from the sociometer model of self-esteem according to which the self-esteem system monitors others' reactions and alerts the individual to the possibility of social exclusion. Study 1 showed that the effects of events on participants' state self-esteem paralleled their assumptions about whether such events would lead others to accept or reject them. In Study 2, participants' ratings of how included they felt in a real social situation correlated highly with their self-esteem feelings. In Studies 3 and 4, social exclusion caused decreases in self-esteem when respondents were excluded from a group for personal reasons, but not when exclusion was random, but this effect was not mediated by self-presentation. Study 5 showed that trait self-esteem correlated highly with the degree to which respondents generally felt included versus excluded by other people. Overall, results provided converging evidence for the sociometer model.
Two longitudinal field experiments in a middle school examined how a brief “values affirmation” affects students' psychological experience and the relationship between psychological experience and environmental threat over 2 years. Together these studies suggest that values affirmations insulate individuals' sense of belonging from environmental threat during a key developmental transition. Study 1 provided an analysis of new data from a previously reported study. African American students in the control condition felt a decreasing sense of belonging during middle school, with low-performing students dropping more in 7th grade and high-performing students dropping more in 8th grade. The affirmation reduced this decline for both groups. Consistent with the notion that affirmation insulates belonging from environmental threat, affirmed African American students' sense of belonging in Study 1 fluctuated less over 2 years and became less contingent on academic performance. Based on the idea that developmentally sensitive interventions can have long-lasting benefits, Study 2 showed that the affirmation intervention was more effective if delivered before any drop in performance and subsequent psychological toll could unfold. The role of identity threat and affirmation in affecting the encoding of social experience, and the corresponding importance of timing treatments to developmentally sensitive periods, are explored.
A brief intervention aimed at buttressing college freshmen's sense of social belonging in school was tested in a randomized controlled trial (N = 92), and its academic and health-related consequences over 3 years are reported. The intervention aimed to lessen psychological perceptions of threat on campus by framing social adversity as common and transient. It used subtle attitude-change strategies to lead participants to self-generate the intervention message. The intervention was expected to be particularly beneficial to African-American students (N = 49), a stereotyped and socially marginalized group in academics, and less so to European-American students (N = 43). Consistent with these expectations, over the 3-year observation period the intervention raised African Americans' grade-point average (GPA) relative to multiple control groups and halved the minority achievement gap. This performance boost was mediated by the effect of the intervention on subjective construal: It prevented students from seeing adversity on campus as an indictment of their belonging. Additionally, the intervention improved African Americans' self-reported health and well-being and reduced their reported number of doctor visits 3 years postintervention. Senior-year surveys indicated no awareness among participants of the intervention's impact. The results suggest that social belonging is a psychological lever where targeted intervention can have broad consequences that lessen inequalities in achievement and health.
Three studies investigated whether self-affirmation can proceed without awareness, whether people are aware of the influence of experimental self-affirmations, and whether such awareness facilitates or undermines the self-affirmation process. The authors found that self-affirmation effects could proceed without awareness, as implicit self-affirming primes (utilizing sentence-unscrambling procedures) produced standard self-affirmation effects (Studies 1 and 3). People were generally unaware of self-affirmation's influence, and self-reported awareness was associated with decreased impact of the affirmation (Studies 1 and 2). Finally, affirmation effects were attenuated when people learned that self-affirmation was designed to boost self-esteem (Study 2) or told of a potential link between self-affirmation and evaluations of threatening information (Study 3). Together, these studies suggest not only that affirmation processes can proceed without awareness but also that increased awareness of the affirmation may diminish its impact.
A 2-year follow-up of a randomized field experiment previously reported in Science is presented. A subtle intervention to lessen minority students' psychological threat related to being negatively stereotyped in school was tested in an experiment conducted three times with three independent cohorts (N = 133, 149, and 134). The intervention, a series of brief but structured writing assignments focusing students on a self-affirming value, reduced the racial achievement gap. Over 2 years, the grade point average (GPA) of African Americans was, on average, raised by 0.24 grade points. Low-achieving African Americans were particularly benefited. Their GPA improved, on average, 0.41 points, and their rate of remediation or grade repetition was less (5% versus 18%). Additionally, treated students' self-perceptions showed long-term benefits. Findings suggest that because initial psychological states and performance determine later outcomes by providing a baseline and initial trajectory for a recursive process, apparently small but early alterations in trajectory can have long-term effects. Implications for psychological theory and educational practice are discussed.
The use of growth-modeling analysis (GMA)--including hierarchical linear models, latent growth models, and general estimating equations--to evaluate interventions in psychology, psychiatry, and prevention science has grown rapidly over the last decade. However, an effect size associated with the difference between the trajectories of the intervention and control groups that captures the treatment effect is rarely reported. This article first reviews 2 classes of formulas for effect sizes associated with classical repeated-measures designs that use the standard deviation of either change scores or raw scores for the denominator. It then broadens the scope to subsume GMA and demonstrates that the independent groups, within-subjects, pretest-posttest control-group, and GMA designs all estimate the same effect size when the standard deviation of raw scores is uniformly used. Finally, the article shows that the correct effect size for treatment efficacy in GMA--the difference between the estimated means of the 2 groups at end of study (determined from the coefficient for the slope difference and length of study) divided by the baseline standard deviation--is not reported in clinical trials.
A hypothesized need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships is evaluated in light of the empirical literature. The need is for frequent, nonaversive interactions within an ongoing relational bond. Consistent with the belongingness hypothesis, people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being. Other evidence, such as that concerning satiation, substitution, and behavioral consequences, is likewise consistent with the hypothesized motivation. Several seeming counterexamples turned out not to disconfirm the hypothesis. Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.
Human beings can be proactive and engaged or, alternatively, passive and alienated, largely as a function of the social conditions in which they develop and function. Accordingly, research guided by self-determination theory has focused on the social-contextual conditions that facilitate versus forestall the natural processes of self-motivation and healthy psychological development. Specifically, factors have been examined that enhance versus undermine intrinsic motivation, self-regulation, and well-being. The findings have led to the postulate of three innate psychological needs--competence, autonomy, and relatedness--which when satisfied yield enhanced self-motivation and mental health and when thwarted lead to diminished motivation and well-being. Also considered is the significance of these psychological needs and processes within domains such as health care, education, work, sport, religion, and psychotherapy.
Three studies examined the effects of randomly assigned messages of social exclusion. In all 3 studies, significant and large decrements in intelligent thought (including IQ and Graduate Record Examination test performance) were found among people told they were likely to end up alone in life. The decline in cognitive performance was found in complex cognitive tasks such as effortful logic and reasoning; simple information processing remained intact despite the social exclusion. The effects were specific to social exclusion, as participants who received predictions of future nonsocial misfortunes (accidents and injuries) performed well on the cognitive tests. The cognitive impairments appeared to involve reductions in both speed (effort) and accuracy. The effect was not mediated by mood.
Six experiments showed that being excluded or rejected caused decrements in self-regulation. In Experiment 1, participants who were led to anticipate a lonely future life were less able to make themselves consume a healthy but bad-tasting beverage. In Experiment 2, some participants were told that no one else in their group wanted to work with them, and these participants later ate more cookies than other participants. In Experiment 3, excluded participants quit sooner on a frustrating task. In Experiments 4-6, exclusion led to impairment of attention regulation as measured with a dichotic listening task. Experiments 5 and 6 further showed that decrements in self-regulation can be eliminated by offering a cash incentive or increasing self-awareness. Thus, rejected people are capable of self-regulation but are normally disinclined to make the effort.
Two randomized field experiments tested a social-psychological intervention designed to improve minority student performance and increase our understanding of how psychological threat mediates performance in chronically evaluative real-world environments. We expected that the risk of confirming a negative stereotype aimed at one's group could undermine academic performance in minority students by elevating their level of psychological threat. We tested whether such psychological threat could be lessened by having students reaffirm their sense of personal adequacy or "self-integrity." The intervention, a brief in-class writing assignment, significantly improved the grades of African American students and reduced the racial achievement gap by 40%. These results suggest that the racial achievement gap, a major social concern in the United States, could be ameliorated by the use of timely and targeted social-psychological interventions.
Stigmatization can give rise to belonging uncertainty. In this state, people are sensitive to information diagnostic of the quality of their social connections. Two experiments tested how belonging uncertainty undermines the motivation and achievement of people whose group is negatively characterized in academic settings. In Experiment 1, students were led to believe that they might have few friends in an intellectual domain. Whereas White students were unaffected, Black students (stigmatized in academics) displayed a drop in their sense of belonging and potential. In Experiment 2, an intervention that mitigated doubts about social belonging in college raised the academic achievement (e.g., college grades) of Black students but not of White students. Implications for theories of achievement motivation and intervention are discussed.
Five studies tested hypotheses derived from the sociometer model of self-esteem according to which the self-esteem system monitors others' reactions and alerts the individual to the possibility of social exclusion. Study 1 showed that the effects of events on participants' state self-esteem paralleled their assumptions about whether such events would lead others to accept or reject them. In Study 2, participants' ratings of how included they felt in a real social situation correlated highly with their self-esteem feelings. In Studies 3 and 4, social exclusion caused decreases in self-esteem when respondents were excluded from a group for personal reasons, but not when exclusion was random, but this effect was not mediated by self-presentation. Study 5 showed that trait self-esteem correlated highly with the degree to which respondents generally felt included versus excluded by other people. Overall, results provided converging evidence for the sociometer model.
This chapter discusses, improving the academic performance of college students with brief attributional interventions. Attribution theory originated in the late 1950s and these theorists advocated a phenomenological approach to the study of human behavior. Consistent with a phenomenological approach, the focus is on the way the students perceive the causes of their poor performance because these attributions are believed to have important consequences that are independent of the actual causes. Attribution theory assumes that within this range of abilities, the explanation people make for their performance is crucial. The chapter reviews attempts to use attribution therapy to help college students improve their academic performance, beginning with a brief review of the history of attribution therapy. Re-attribution approach arose from a confluence of different research traditions. The chapter concludes that, re-attribution is a technique that attempts to change people's explanations about the dysfunctional behavior itself, regardless of whether that behavior is accompanied by physiological arousal.
We present an "affirmation as perspective" model of how self-affirmations alleviate threat and defensiveness. Self-threats dominate the working self-concept, leading to a constricted self disproportionately influenced by the threat. Self-affirmations expand the size of the working self-concept, offering a broader perspective in which the threat appears more narrow and self-worth realigns with broader dispositional self-views (Experiment 1). Self-affirmed participants, relative to those not affirmed, indicated that threatened self-aspects were less all-defining of the self (although just as important), and this broader perspective on the threat mediated self-affirmation's reduction of defensiveness (Experiment 2). Finally, having participants complete a simple perspective exercise, which offered a broader perspective on the self without prompting affirmational thinking (Experiment 3a), reduced defensiveness in a manner equivalent to and redundant with a standard self-affirmation manipulation (Experiment 3b). The present model offers a unifying account for a wide variety of seemingly unrelated findings and mysteries in the self-affirmation literature.
The authors tested the hypothesis that affirming self-transcendent values attenuates negative consequences of self-threat better than affirming self-enhancement values. If value-affirmation buffers against threat because it bolsters the self, then affirming either a self-transcendent or self-enhancement value should similarly prevent typical decreased self-control after exclusion. However, if value-affirmations buffer the effects of threat because they promote self-transcendence, then affirming values related to self-transcendence should provide a better buffer against decreased self-control after exclusion. Ninety-two undergraduate students received either intentional or unintentional social exclusion. Participants then affirmed either a self-transcendent or self-enhancement value, or wrote about their daily routine. Consistent with predictions, participants ate more cookies when they were intentionally rather than unintentionally excluded; this effect was attenuated by affirming an important value, especially a self-transcendent value. This suggests that value-affirmation may be a particularly effective method of coping with self-threats when it increases self-transcendence.
Significance
Chronic exposure to adverse social environments is associated with increased risk of disease, and stress-related increases in the expression of proinflammatory genes appear to contribute to these effects. The present study identifies a biological mechanism of such effects in the ability of the sympathetic nervous system to up-regulate bone marrow production of immature, proinflammatory monocytes. These effects are mediated by β-adrenergic receptors and the myelopoietic growth factor GM-CSF, and suggest new targets for interventions to protect health in the context of chronic social stress.
Self-affirmation processes are being activated by information that threatens the perceived adequacy or integrity of the self and as running their course until this perception is restored through explanation, rationalization, and/or action. The purpose of these constant explanations (and rationalizations) is to maintain a phenomenal experience of the self-self-conceptions and images as adaptively and morally adequate—that is, as competent, good, coherent, unitary, stable, capable of free choice, capable of controlling important outcomes, and so on. The research reported in this chapter focuses on the way people cope with the implications of threat to their self-regard rather than on the way they cope with the threat itself. This chapter analyzes the way coping processes restore self-regard rather than the way they address the provoking threat itself.
Simple slopes, regions of significance, and confidence bands are commonly used to evaluate interactions in multiple linear regression (MLR) models, and the use of these techniques has recently been extended to multilevel or hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and latent curve analysis (LCA). However, conducting these tests and plotting the conditional relations is often a tedious and error-prone task. This article provides an overview of methods used to probe interaction effects and describes a unified collection of freely available online resources that researchers can use to obtain significance tests for simple slopes, compute regions of significance, and obtain confidence bands for simple slopes across the range of the moderator in the MLR, HLM, and LCA contexts. Plotting capabilities are also provided.
What if being lonely were a bigger problem than we ever suspected? Based on John T. Cacioppo's pioneering research,
Loneliness explores the effects of this all-too-human experience, providing a fundamentally new view of the importance of social connection and how it can rescue us from painful isolation. His sophisticated studies relying on brain imaging, analysis of blood pressure, immune response, stress hormones, behavior, and even gene expression show that human beings are simply far more intertwined and interdependent—physiologically as well as psychologically—than our cultural assumptions have ever allowed us to acknowledge. Bringing urgency to the message, Cacioppo's findings also show that prolonged loneliness can be as harmful to your health as smoking or obesity. On the flip side, they demonstrate the therapeutic power of social connection and point the way toward making that healing balm available to everyone. Cacioppo has worked with science writer William Patrick to trace the evolution of these tandem forces, showing how, for our primitive ancestors, survival depended not on greater brawn but on greater commitments to and from one another. Serving as a prompt to repair frayed social bonds, the pain of loneliness engendered a fear response so powerfully disruptive that even now, millions of years later, a persistent sense of rejection or isolation can impair DNA transcription in our immune cells. This disruption also impairs thinking, will power, and perseverance, as well as our ability to read social signals and exercise social skills. It also limits our ability to internally regulate our emotions—all of which can combine to trap us in self-defeating behaviors that reinforce the very isolation and rejection that we dread.
Loneliness shows each of us how to overcome this feedback loop of defensive behaviors to achieve better health and greater happiness. For society, the potential payoff is the greater prosperity and social cohesion that follows from increased social trust. Ultimately,
Loneliness demonstrates the irrationality of our culture's intense focus on competition and individualism at the expense of family and community. It makes the case that the unit of one is actually an inadequate measure, even when it comes to the health and well-being of the individual. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Previous research has repeatedly shown that writing about an important value, compared with writing about an unimportant value, reduces defensiveness in response to self-threatening information, but has not identified why. Study 1 showed that participants who wrote about an important value reported more positive other-directed feelings, such as love and connection, than participants who wrote about an unimportant value. Study 2 replicated this effect, and showed that loving and connected feelings, but not positive or negative self-directed feelings, completely accounted for the effect of a values-affirmation manipulation on smokers' acceptance of information indicating that smoking harms health. These studies, in concert with previous research, suggest that values affirmation reduces defensiveness via self-transcendence, rather than self-integrity (i.e., self-worth or self-images).
First in my family: A profile of first-generation college students at four-year institutions since 1971
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