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Behavioral Processes in Long-Lag Intervention Studies
Abstract
We argue that psychologists who conduct experiments with long lags between the manipulation and the outcome measure should pay more attention to behavioral processes that intervene between the manipulation and the outcome measure. Neglect of such processes, we contend, stems from psychology’s long tradition of short-lag lab experiments where there is little scope for intervening behavioral processes. Studying process in the lab invariably involves studying psychological processes, but in long-lag field experiments it is important to study causally relevant behavioral processes as well as psychological ones. To illustrate the roles that behavioral processes can play in long-lag experiments we examine field experiments motivated by three policy-relevant goals: prejudice reduction, health promotion, and educational achievement. In each of the experiments discussed we identify various behavioral pathways through which the manipulated psychological state could have produced the observed outcome. We argue that if psychologists conducting long-lag interventions posited a theory of change that linked manipulated psychological states to outcomes via behavioral pathways, the result would be richer theory and more practically useful research. Movement in this direction would also permit more opportunities for productive collaborations between psychologists and other social scientists interested in similar social problems.
... Empirical evaluations of gratitude interventions have typically been short to medium term in nature (e.g., 1-6 months; Seligman et al., 2005), and, importantly, no published study has evaluated the long-term effects of gratitude interventions (defined, in this article, as 1 year and beyond). What is also missing is a theory of change that explains the positive effects of a gratitude intervention over a long period of time (Miller et al., 2017). Theorizing and research on enhancing the magnitude and durability of treatment effects are essential if gratitude interventions are to be widely disseminated and to understand how benefits from an intervention unfold over time to change people's lives (Cohn & Fredrickson, 2010;Davis et al., 2016). ...
... To this end, I develop the Catalyst Model of Change (CMC), which posits (a) the pathways that mediate the longterm effects of gratitude interventions on psychological wellbeing as well as (b) how to augment gratitude experiences within an intervention to boost the magnitude and durablity of intervention effects as well as facilitate these behavioral pathways. The model synthesizes empirical and conceptual insights from the psychology of gratitude (e.g., Emmons & Mishra, 2011), positive psychology interventions (e.g., Carr et al., 2021), and the long-term effects of social psychological interventions (e.g., Miller et al., 2017;Walton & Wilson, 2018). ...
... Likewise, I argue that gratitude experiences in an intervention unleash the full potential of psychological and behavioral processes to improve well-being, although the long-term effects of a gratitude intervention are likely driven more by post-intervention variables than by the original gratitude experiences that occur during the intervention. This insight is congruent with scholarly observations on the nature of change in long-lag evaluations of social psychological interventions (Miller et al., 2017). That is, over the long run, activities in an intervention play a less crucial and direct role in propelling an intervention's effects. ...
How can gratitude interventions be designed to produce meaningful and enduring effects on people’s well-being? To address this question, the author proposes the Catalyst Model of Change—this novel, practical, and empirically testable model posits five socially oriented behavioral pathways that channel the long-term effects of gratitude interventions as well as how to augment gratitude experiences in interventions to boost treatment effects and catalyze these behavioral pathways. Specifically, interventions that enhance the frequency, skills, intensity, temporal span, and variety of gratitude experiences are likely to catalyze the following post-intervention socially oriented behaviors: (a) social support–seeking behaviors, (b) prosocial behaviors, (c) relationship initiation and enhancement behaviors, (d) participation in mastery-oriented social activities, and (e) reduced maladaptive interpersonal behaviors, which, in turn, produce long-term psychological well-being. A unique feature of the Catalyst Model of Change is that gratitude experiences are broadly conceptualized to include not just gratitude emotions, cognitions, and disclosures, but also expressing, receiving, witnessing, and responding to interpersonal gratitude. To this end, gratitude interventions that provide multiple opportunities for social experiences of gratitude (e.g., members expressing gratitude to each other in a group) might offer the greatest promise for fostering durable, positive effects on people’s psychological well-being.
... This has led to many harms to the natural environment, such as environmental pollution, natural resources being unconsciously consumed, and the decrease in biodiversity [1]. Therefore, the demand for green entrepreneurs, the enablers of green entrepreneurship, is expanding since they prioritize 2 aspects of business model: creating more acceptable quality employment with the utilization of environmentally friendly processes, while also moderating the total negative effect on the environment from people or companies using the final product or service [2]. Many higher education institutions have provided courses related to entrepreneurship, but they lack experience in introducing sustainability and environmentally-friendly business topics into the study programmes [3]. ...
... Many higher education institutions have provided courses related to entrepreneurship, but they lack experience in introducing sustainability and environmentally-friendly business topics into the study programmes [3]. Furthermore, despite the fact that most studies mention intention as a notable conterminous predictor of how a person does green activities [2], it does not always lead to actual behaviour to do entrepreneurship related activity [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]. Therefore, the demand for a group of factors that directly affect green entrepreneurial behaviour of students is often a pressing concern. ...
... Interventions seeking to change psychological well-being sufficiently to impact downstream biobehavioral processes related to physical health will need to produce sustained effects. However, durability of effects is less well-understood (Miller et al., 2017). In one of the largest meta-analyses of PPIs, most studies tracked outcomes for < 6 months and none for > 12 months (Carr et al., 2021). ...
... Several substantive issues are also relevant. First, investigators should evaluate whether interventions create a habit (e.g., teach skills that become habitual to repeatedly boost effects over time) or crystallize a new way of thinking (e.g., "wise interventions" that target psychological processes contributing to core underlying thought processes and recursive dynamics that compound over time; Cohen et al., 2017;Miller et al., 2017;Walton & Wilson, 2018). ...
Psychological well-being, characterized by feelings, cognitions, and strategies that are associated with positive functioning (including hedonic and eudaimonic well-being), has been linked with better physical health and greater longevity. Importantly, psychological well-being can be strengthened with interventions, providing a strategy for improving population health. But are the effects of well-being interventions meaningful, durable, and scalable enough to improve health at a population-level? To assess this possibility, a cross-disciplinary group of scholars convened to review current knowledge and develop a research agenda. Here we summarize and build on the key insights from this convening, which were: (1) existing interventions should continue to be adapted to achieve a large-enough effect to result in downstream improvements in psychological functioning and health, (2) research should determine the durability of interventions needed to drive population-level and lasting changes, (3) a shift from individual-level care and treatment to a public-health model of population-level prevention is needed and will require new infrastructure that can deliver interventions at scale, (4) interventions should be accessible and effective in racially, ethnically, and geographically diverse samples. A discussion examining the key future research questions follows.
... Likewise, open-ended responses may lead to recall bias (Bartlett 1932;Penrod, Loftus, and Winkler 1982). Therefore, future work should explore other means of investigating individuals' responses to setbacks such as behavioral assessments (Miller, Dannals, and Zlatev 2017). ...
Parenting can bring both joy and stress. Identifying factors that foster greater engagement and enjoyment while also helping parents cope with inevitable stressors is critical for healthy child development and parental wellbeing. In the current work, we build on growth mindset theory to explore individual differences in beliefs about the changeable nature of parenting ability. Specifically, across three correlational studies ( N = 1170), we investigated if growth mindsets about parenting related to coping in the wake of parenting setbacks and to parental engagement. Growth mindsets predicted more positive expectations and less avoidant coping after parenting challenges, and these processes, and growth mindsets, correlated with parental engagement. Across the three studies, average links between growth mindsets and the two primary outcomes of interest—avoidant coping and engagement—were r = −0.31 and r = 0.20, respectively.
... sustainable entrepreneurship inclination is seen as the most powerful predictor of green behavior (Miller et al., 2017). similarly, Bae et al. (2014) argue that intentions and actions are the most valid predictors of planned behavior. ...
Women have been identified as critical actors for sustainable entrepreneurship. This study aims to assess women’s ecopreneur intentions by employing the theory of planned behavior. Survey data was collected from 158 females in Indonesia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector. The results of partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that self-efficacy and environmental awareness positively impact sustainable entrepreneurial inclinations. Aside from this, these findings indicate that green entrepreneurial motivation plays a vital role in mediating the relationship between self-efficacy, ecological awareness, and the tendency to develop environmentally friendly enterprises. Surrounded by the COVID-19 outbreak, this study implied that the pandemic significantly influences green entrepreneurship self-efficacy and natural consciousness among businesswomen. The results of studies advance the academic debate on the contribution of women in inclusive and sustainable development. Further, it could assist planners and policymakers in strengthening women entrepreneurs’ sustainable business models that allow them to capture opportunities and shape their post-pandemic futures.
... Does the evidence from intervention studies support the mediating role of the proposed cognitive and behavioral processes? These questions are critical for mindset intervention development, as mediators offer additional potential points of intervention (Miller et al., 2017). Seventh, we suggest that the field needs to consider how to evaluate effect sizes from interventions targeting outcomes that are difficult to shift (e.g., grades; rates of depression). ...
As growth mindset interventions increase in scope and popularity, scientists and policymakers are asking: Are these interventions effective? To answer this question properly, the field needs to understand the meaningful heterogeneity in effects. In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, we focused on two key moderators with adequate data to test: Subsamples expected to benefit most and implementation fidelity. We also specified a process model that can be generative for theory. We included articles published between 2002 (first mindset intervention) through the end of 2020 that reported an effect for a growth mindset intervention, used a randomized design, and featured at least one of the qualifying outcomes. Our search yielded 53 independent samples testing distinct interventions. We reported cumulative effect sizes for multiple outcomes (i.e., mindsets, motivation, behavior, end results), with a focus on three primary end results (i.e., improved academic achievement, mental health, or social functioning). Multilevel metaregression analyses with targeted subsamples and high fidelity for academic achievement yielded, d = 0.14, 95% CI [.06, .22]; for mental health, d = 0.32, 95% CI [.10, .54]. Results highlighted the extensive variation in effects to be expected from future interventions. Namely, 95% prediction intervals for focal effects ranged from −0.08 to 0.35 for academic achievement and from 0.07 to 0.57 for mental health. The literature is too nascent for moderators for social functioning, but average effects are d = 0.36, 95% CI [.03, .68], 95% PI [−.50, 1.22]. We conclude with a discussion of heterogeneity and the limitations of meta-analyses.
... The focus on such procedural factors is an important first step, helping make clear that there is a need for more careful piloting, assessment of manipulation checks and specificity about the procedural details that produced an original finding 48,83 . Once we have clarity about procedural questions, we can turn our attention to more theoretically meaningful sources of heterogeneity, such as cultural or demographic characteristics of the participant population and features of the study context that might support or undermine an intervention's effect [89][90][91][92] (Table 1). ...
In the past decade, behavioural science has gained influence in policymaking but suffered a crisis of confidence in the replicability of its findings. Here, we describe a nascent heterogeneity revolution that we believe these twin historical trends have triggered. This revolution will be defined by the recognition that most treatment effects are heterogeneous, so the variation in effect estimates across studies that defines the replication crisis is to be expected as long as heterogeneous effects are studied without a systematic approach to sampling and moderation. When studied systematically, heterogeneity can be leveraged to build more complete theories of causal mechanism that could inform nuanced and dependable guidance to policymakers. We recommend investment in shared research infrastructure to make it feasible to study behavioural interventions in heterogeneous and generalizable samples, and suggest low-cost steps researchers can take immediately to avoid being misled by heterogeneity and begin to learn from it instead.
... In green entrepreneurship literature, green entrepreneurship intention is the most notable conterminous predictor of green behavior [34]. According to Bae et al. [35], the best predictors for planned behavior are intention and action. ...
This study investigated the relationship between green entrepreneurship intention (GEI) and green entrepreneurship behavior (GEB). The study explored how university education support and green consumption commitment (GCC) moderate the relationship between green entrepreneurship intention and the GEB of university students in Ghana. The researcher used a quantitative approach. A total of 420 responses from the university campuses in Ghana were acquired through a purposive sampling method. A structural equation model was established with the help of AMOS 18. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the goodness of fit of the hypothesized model, the construct validity was evaluated, and the model had an acceptable fit. The results indicated that GEI positively influenced GEB. High university education support yielded a more substantial effect. This finding supports the notion that UES and GCC moderate the relationship between GEI and GEB. The research was limited to a survey questionnaire. The researcher acknowledges that the research was carried out in Ghana, and for generalization purposes it is recommended that the pool of university students surveyed should be extended to cover more countries in Africa, or a comparative study should be conducted that includes Ghana and some European countries.
... Lastly, it seems unlikely that social connectedness, meaning, and self-continuity stemming from six instances of weekly nostalgic reflection would predict well-being out to a one-month follow-up, yet this is what our indirect-effects analyses revealed (for other examples of short-term effects promoting long-term outcomes, see: Cohen & Sherman, 2014;Walton & Wilson, 2018). Short-term social connectedness, meaning, and self-continuity may have prompted immediate behavioral changes that increased long-term well-being (Funder & Ozer, 2019;Miller et al., 2017). For example, if a participant felt more socially connected after a nostalgic reflection, she or he may have decided to call a friend to catch up, thus strengthening that relationship and precipitating social interaction. ...
Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for one’s past. We examined the effect of a 6-week, weekly nostalgia intervention on well-being (positive and negative affect, life satisfaction, subjective vitality, and eudaimonic well-being) over time. After three weeks, participants who engaged in nostalgic reflection had higher well-being than those who engaged in ordinary reflection. After six weeks, and at a one-month follow-up, the positive effect of nostalgic reflection was reserved for those who were high on dispositional nostalgia (i.e., well-suited to the nostalgia intervention). However, at these time points, nostalgic reflection was associated with lower well-being among those particularly low on dispositional nostalgia. Across time points, nostalgic reflection was beneficial to the degree that it fostered social connectedness, meaning in life, and self-continuity, pointing to mechanisms that drive nostalgia’s positive influence on well-being. In summary, weekly nostalgic reflection has temporary well-being benefits for most (out to three weeks) and, beyond that, is a matter of fit—beneficial or adverse to those especially high or low on dispositional nostalgia, respectively.
... Fourth, we were unable to assess longitudinal trends of the affirmation effect, as Borman et al. (2018) and Cohen et al. (2009) did in their studies. As a consequence, we could not determine whether the long-range effects of the intervention took one of three forms: 1) a single jump in performance after the intervention, 2) gradual changes at a constant rate over time, or 3) gradual changes at a different rate (Miller et al., 2017). ...
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.
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... To shape effective interventions and policies, the field requires an improved understanding of what conditions might produce the gender gap in negotiation performance (Miller et al., 2017). Yet, it has been difficult to disentangle the causal forces responsible for this gender gap. ...
A substantial body of prior research documents a gender gap in negotiation performance. Competing accounts suggest that the gap is due either to women's stereotype-congruent behavior in negotiations or to backlash enacted toward women for stereotype-incongruent behavior. In this article, we use a novel data set of over 2,500 individual negotiators to examine how negotiation performance varies as a function of gender and the strength of one's alternative to a negotiated agreement. We find that the gender gap in negotiation outcomes exists only when female negotiators have a strong outside option. Furthermore, our large data set allows us to examine an understudied performance outcome, rate of impasse. We find that negotiations in which at least one negotiator is a woman with a strong alternative disproportionately end in impasse, a performance outcome that leaves considerable potential value unallocated. In addition, we find that these gender differences in negotiation performance are not due to gender differences in aspirations, reservation values, or first offers. Overall, these findings are consistent with a backlash account, whereby counterparts are less likely to come to an agreement and therefore reach a potentially worse outcome when one party is a female negotiator empowered by a strong alternative. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... Existing research on creating sustained behavior change has devoted insufficient attention to better delineation of mechanisms (Miller, Dannals, & Zlatev, 2017) It is challenging to do this well, as studies that examine sustained behavior change are by necessity field experiments that occur over extended lengths of time. These studies need to be experiments for the usual reasons: to avoid self-selection and other threats to internal validity, and field experiments to enhance external validity. ...
In the literature on behavior change it has commonly been assumed that sustained changes in behavior means that habits have been formed and that sustained behavior change is achieved through the formation of habits. In this paper we argue that habit formation is often confused with a variety of alternative mechanisms through which sustained changes in behavior can be achieved. These include: learning, information acquisition, status quo bias, taste discovery, technology, commitment devices, social influences, and concomitant changes to choice environments. Understanding these mechanisms is important for determining why specific interventions work or don’t work and for aiding in the design of more effective mechanisms for inducing sustained behavior change.
... Therefore, in this study, we focused on perceptions of subordinates of being victimized by their leaders. Temporary segregation of responses by using the time lag method enabled reducing the common method biases and improved our confidence in causality predictions (Podsakoff et al., 2012;Miller et al., 2017). Scholars have demonstrated that a reliability test is vital when assessing the goodness of the collected data. ...
Generally, it is difficult to work efficiently in a toxic environment. Surprisingly, leaders are found to be liable for such toxic atmosphere because they possess certain traits that employees perceive as victimization. This research assesses the relationship between the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and perceived victimization with a focus on the mediating effect of abusive supervision and the moderating effect of mindfulness. For this purpose, we surveyed 274 employees in the healthcare sector of Pakistan by using random sampling technique in three waves. To analyze the data, the structural equation model with partial least squares and PROCESS were used. The findings suggest that abusive supervision plays a mediating role in the association between the dark triad and perceived victimization. The results did not support the mediating role of abusive supervision in the association between narcissism and perceived victimization, however, the mediated moderation model was supported. Further, the findings suggest that mindfulness weakens the effect of abusive supervision on perceived victimization. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of the results are also discussed.
... How could a short purpose intervention have effects that persist over time? This has been puzzling (see Miller, Dannals, & Zlatev, 2017), in part because participants presumably do not keep the theory-induction message vividly in working memory for hours or days, let alone weeks or months (Walton & Cohen, 2011). Recursive process models have been proposed as a solution to this puzzle (Cohen, Garcia, Apfel, & Master, 2006;Walton & Wilson, 2018;Yeager & Walton, 2011). ...
Lay theory interventions instill situation-general ways of thinking, often using short reading and writing exercises, and they have led to lasting changes in behavior and performance in a wide variety of policy domains. Do they work in all contexts? We suggest that lay theory intervention effects depend on psychological affordances, which are defined as cues that allow individuals to view a lay theory as legitimate and adaptive in that context. The present research directly and experimentally tested this hypothesis using the example of a "purpose for learning" lay theory intervention, which taught the lay theory that school is a place to develop skills that allow one to make progress toward self-transcendent aims. A double-blind 2 (student purpose intervention) × 2 (purpose-affording note) field experiment was conducted in a relatively low-performing public middle school in the United States. Students first received a web-based purpose for learning lay theory intervention (or a control activity), and 2 weeks later attended a class in which an assignment was accompanied by a purpose-affording note that was hand-written by a teacher (or a control note). Results showed that the purpose lay theory intervention increased performance on an English class writing assignment, but only when it was accompanied by a purpose-affording note. Exploratory analyses revealed that the effects of the manipulations were apparent among students who were at greater risk for poor performance in the class: nonnative English-speaking students. Thus short, online lay theory interventions may reduce performance gaps, provided that the contexts afford the opportunity for the proffered lay theory to seem legitimate and adaptive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
... This analysis found that, in this experiment, the treatment was effective when administered 1 to 2 d before an election but not when it was administered 3 d before.** This is a valuable discovery that provides guidance to practitioners seeking to apply this intervention and provides the basis for new theorizing about the psychological and behavioral mechanisms by which a temporary boost in motivation to vote is likely to translate into real, consequential behavior later on (76). The fact that this discovery was missed by the replicating authors underscores the costs of the unnecessarily adversarial climate around replication in the field today and the need for a culture in which original and replicating authors both seek to understand the complexities of human behavior in context. ...
In recent years, the field of psychology has begun to conduct replication tests on a large scale. Here, we show that “replicator degrees of freedom” make it far too easy to obtain and publish false-negative replication results, even while appearing to adhere to strict methodological standards. Specifically, using data from an ongoing debate, we show that commonly exercised flexibility at the experimental design and data analysis stages of replication testing can make it appear that a finding was not replicated when, in fact, it was. The debate that we focus on is representative, on key dimensions, of a large number of other replication tests in psychology that have been published in recent years, suggesting that the lessons of this analysis may be far reaching. The problems with current practice in replication science that we uncover here are particularly worrisome because they are not adequately addressed by the field’s standard remedies, including preregistration. Implications for how the field could develop more effective methodological standards for replication are discussed.
... Moieni et al. Brain Behavior and Immunity xxx (xxxx) xxx-xxx sponsible for the observed outcomes (Miller et al., 2017). Thus, the increases we observed in momentary feelings of generativity might have led participants to engage in certain behaviors (e.g., increases in social activities) and led to our observed outcomes. ...
Generativity, or concern for and contribution to the well-being of younger generations, plays an important role in successful aging. The purpose of this study was to develop a novel, writing-based intervention to increase feelings of generativity and test the effect of this intervention on well-being and inflammation in a sample of older women. Participants in this study (n=73; mean age = 70.9 years, range 60-86 years) were randomly assigned to a 6-week generativity writing condition (writing about life experiences and sharing advice with others) or a control writing condition (neutral, descriptive writing). Self-reported measures of social well-being, mental health, and physical health, as well as objective measures of systemic and cellular levels of inflammation (plasma pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α; genome-wide RNA transcriptional profiling), were assessed pre- and post-intervention. The generativity intervention led to significant improvements across multiple domains, including increases in participation in social activities, decreases in psychological distress, more positive expectations regarding aging in the physical health domain, and decreases in pro-inflammatory gene expression. Thus, this study provides preliminary evidence for the ability of a novel, low-cost, low-effort intervention to favorably impact inflammation and well-being in older women.
... Next, we examined our hypothesis involving serial mediation and also report on the total effect of the intervention on task persistence and task performance. As outlined by Miller, Dannals, and Zlatev (2017) in their call for more long-lagged interventions examining the process of both psychological and behavioral change in improving academic performance, we expected the shift in entrepreneurial self-efficacy due to the intervention to predict task persistence, which in turn, would predict better task performance (i.e., grade on the class assignment). First, as noted above, condition predicted entrepreneurial self-efficacy, B = .25, ...
Despite mounting interest in growth mindset interventions, this approach has yet to be applied to the domain of entrepreneurship. In the present research, we developed and tested if a growth mindset intervention could be leveraged to promote students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and if this, in turn, predicted career development (i.e., academic interest, career interest, task persistence, and academic performance). We report on our findings, from an Open Science Framework (OSF) preregistered study, that is a randomized controlled trial implementing a growth mindset intervention. We randomly assigned undergraduate students ( N = 238) in an introduction to entrepreneurship class to either the growth mindset intervention or to a knowledge-based attention-matched control. Students in the growth mindset intervention, relative to the control, reported greater entrepreneurial self-efficacy and task persistence on their main class project. The intervention also indirectly improved academic and career interest via entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, the intervention failed to directly or indirectly impact performance on a classroom assignment. Additionally, and somewhat surprisingly, gender and past experience in the field failed to moderate any effects of the intervention on outcomes. Theoretical implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.
... These affirmations may in turn broaden participants' attention beyond whatever current threat they are experiencing (e.g., being a person of color in an academic environment with white peers), see the threat as less relevant to who they are as a person (e.g., not attributing a bad grade to a deficient, less deserving academic self), and cultivating an approach orientation toward threat rather than avoidance (e.g., starting to look over the problems missed on the assignment so they have a better chance of performing better on the next assignment). These more adaptive behaviors may compound over time and improve outcomes long after the original intervention is completed (Miller et al. 2017). ...
Despite progress in research on evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for youth psychopathology, many youths with mental health needs do not receive services, and EBTs are not always effective for those who access them. Wise interventions (WIs) may help address needs for more disseminable, potent youth mental health interventions. WIs are single-component, social-psychological interventions designed to foster adaptive meaning making. They have improved health-related and interpersonal youth outcomes, yet their potential to reduce youth psychopathology has not been systematically explored. Accordingly, we conducted a systematic, descriptive review characterizing WIs’ potential to reduce youth mental health problems. Across 25 RCTs (N=9,219 youths, ages 11-19) testing 13 intervention types, 7 WIs qualified as “Well-Established,” “Probably Efficacious,” or “Possibly Efficacious” for reducing one or more types of youth psychopathology, relative to controls. Among these, 5 WIs significantly reduced youth depressive symptoms; 3, general psychological distress; and 1 each, eating problems, anxiety, and substance use. Three of these 7 WIs were self-administered by youths, and four by trained interventionists; collectively, they were 30-168 minutes in length and targeted clinic-referred and nonreferred samples in clinical, school, and laboratory settings. Overall, certain WIs show promise in reducing mild to severe youth psychopathology. Given their brevity and low cost relative to traditional (i.e. therapist-delivered, 12-to-16 week, clinic-based) EBTs, WIs may represent beneficial additions to the youth mental healthcare ecosystem. Priorities for future research are proposed, including testing WIs for parents, younger children, and externalizing problems; as EBT adjuncts; and in schools and primary care clinics to increase access to brief, effective supports.
... The present analysis provides evidence that the treatment is effective when delivered 1 to 2 days before an election and not effective when delivered 3 days before an election. This is a valuable discovery that provides guidance to practitioners seeking to apply this intervention and it provides the basis for new theorizing about the psychological and behavioral mechanisms by which a temporary boost in motivation to vote is likely to translate into real, consequential behavior later on (81). The fact that this discovery was missed by the replicating authors underscores the need to move away from the unnecessarily adversarial approach to replication that is common in the field today, and toward an approach in which original authors and replicators both seek to understand the complexities of human behavior in context. ...
In recent years, the field of psychology has begun to conduct replication tests on a large scale. Here, we show that “replicator degrees of freedom” make it far too easy to obtain and publish false-negative replication results, even while appearing to adhere to strict methodological standards. Specifically, using data from an ongoing debate, we show that commonly-exercised flexibility at the experimental design and data analysis stages of replication testing can make it appear that a finding was not replicated when, in fact, it was. The debate we focus on is representative, on key dimensions, of a large number of other replication tests in psychology that have been published in recent years, suggesting that the lessons of this analysis may be far-reaching. The problems with current practice in replication science that we uncover here are particularly worrisome because they are not adequately addressed by the field’s standard remedies, including pre-registration. Implications for how the field could develop more effective methodological standards for replications are discussed.
... Self-affirmation interventions encourage individuals to reflect on values that are personally relevant to them, and reaffirm core values that will help to buffer individuals from stressors that might lead to unhealthy behaviors (Cohen and Sherman 2014). Selfaffirmation interventions may also have surprisingly longlag effects (Miller et al. 2017). ...
As adolescents cross the threshold to young adulthood, they encounter more opportunities to engage in or accelerate previously discouraged or prohibited behaviors. Young adults, therefore, are more apt to initiate cigarette smoking and, more importantly, to accelerate their use if they tried and experimented as an adolescent. Preventing the escalation and entrenchment of smoking in the young adult years is critically important to reducing tobacco’s long-term health toll. However, traditional interventions for youth have focused on preventing smoking initiation, and interventions for adults have focused on smoking cessation; both have failed to address the needs of young adults. We introduce the concept of “prevescalation” to capture the need and opportunity to prevent the escalation of risk behaviors that typically occur during young adulthood, with a focus on the example of cigarette smoking. Prevescalation negates the notion that prevention has failed if tobacco experimentation occurs during adolescence and focuses on understanding and interrupting transitions between experimentation with tobacco products and established tobacco use that largely occur during young adulthood. However, since risk behaviors often co-occur in young people, the core concept of prevescalation may apply to other behaviors that co-occur and become harder to change in later adulthood. We present a new framework for conceptualizing, developing, and evaluating interventions that better fit the unique behavioral, psychosocial, and socio-environmental characteristics of the young adult years. We discuss the need to target this transitional phase, what we know about behavioral pathways and predictors of cigarette smoking, potential intervention considerations, and research challenges.
... The psychological mechanisms for mindset effects are clearly defined and strongly illustrated in laboratory experiments: growth mindset interventions change students' effort beliefs, their attributions, and their goals (Burnette et al., 2013). Yet as argued by Wilson and Buttrick (2016) and Miller et al. (2017), the behavioral mechanisms that explain how a change in beliefs can translate into a change in grades months or years later, are not fully documented. This makes "long lag" intervention effects seem "magical" (Yeager and Walton, 2011). ...
Research by psychologists and economists demonstrates that many non-cognitive skills are malleable in both children and adolescents, but we have limited knowledge on what schools can do to foster these skills. In a field experiment requiring real effort, we investigate how schools can increase students’ perseverance in math by shaping students’ beliefs in their abilities to learn, a concept referred to by psychologists as “mindset.” Using protocols adapted from psychology, we experimentally manipulate students’ beliefs in their ability to learn. Three weeks after our treatment, we find persistent treatment effects on students’ perseverance and academic performance in math. When investigating subsamples, we find that students, who prior to the experiment had less of a belief in their ability to learn, generate the treatment effect. The findings suggest that a low-cost intervention focused on students’ mindset can improve students’ engagement and performance.
... Future work should continue to elaborate on how mindset interventions work. Recent work by Miller, Dannals, and Zlatev (2017) noted the importance of focusing on and assessing not only psychological processes (i.e., attitude change) but also behavioural changes using long-lag interventions. For example, in growth mindset intervention work, a shift towards stronger growth mindsets may lead to more interest and efficacy regarding learning which then fosters more effective learning strategies such as time spent studying and/or seeking help from others (Yeager, Walton, et al., 2016). ...
Background:
Students living in rural areas of the United States exhibit lower levels of educational attainment than their suburban counterparts. Innovative interventions are needed to close this educational achievement gap.
Aims:
We investigated whether an online growth mindset intervention could be leveraged to promote academic outcomes.
Sample:
We tested the mindset intervention in a sample of 222 10th-grade adolescent girls (M age = 15.2; 38% White, 25% Black, 29% Hispanic) from four rural, low-income high schools in the Southeastern United States.
Methods:
We conducted a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of the growth mindset intervention, relative to a sexual health programme. We used random sampling and allocation procedures to assign girls to either the mindset intervention (n = 115) or an attention-matched control programme (n = 107). We assessed participants at pre-test, immediate post-test, and 4-month follow-up.
Results:
Relative to the control condition, students assigned to the mindset intervention reported stronger growth mindsets at immediate post-test and 4-month follow-up. Although the intervention did not have a total effect on academic attitudes or grades, it indirectly increased motivation to learn, learning efficacy and grades via the shifts in growth mindsets.
Conclusions:
Results indicate that this intervention is a promising method to encourage growth mindsets in rural adolescent girls.
... The model presented here has not yet established the feedback loops through which an intervention that honors the adolescent desire for status and respect might translate into sustained, internalized changes in behavior (though see Fig. 1 in both Yeager, 2017 andYeager, Purdie-Vaughns, et al., 2017). The question of how time-limited interventions can sustain impact is an emerging topic of investigation in the social and behavioral sciences more generally (Bailey, Duncan, Odgers, & Yu, 2017;Fiske, Frey, & Rogers, 2014;Miller, Dannals, & Zlatev, 2017) The present analysis can contribute to this discussion in two ways. First, we speculate that feelings of respect and status could serve as a gateway to the self-a view that "I am now the kind of person who does this behavior because it makes me feel the way I want to feel"-and Bailey et al., 2017;Cohen et al., 2017). ...
This paper provides a developmental science-based perspective on two related issues: (1) why
traditional preventative school-based interventions work reasonably well for children, but less so
for middle adolescents, and (2) why some alternative intervention approaches show promise for
middle adolescents. The authors propose the hypothesis that traditional interventions fail when
they do not align with adolescents’ enhanced desire to feel respected and be accorded status;
however, interventions that do align with this desire can motivate internalized, positive behavior
change. The paper reviews examples of promising interventions that (1) directly harness the
desire for status and respect, (2) provide adolescents with more respectful treatment from adults,
or (3) lessen the negative influence of threats to status and respect. These examples are in the
domains of unhealthy snacking, middle school discipline, and high school aggression. Discussion
centers on implications for basic developmental science and for improvements to youth policy
and practice.
... Only 38 (6.6%) samples in the meta-analysis collected longitudinal outcomes and therefore had the opportunity to examine whether the procedures they investigated produce long-term changes. Short-term changes in implicit bias do not necessarily generalize to longer-term changes (Devine, Forscher, Austin, & Cox, 2012;Forscher et al., 2017;Forscher & Devine, 2014;Lai et al., 2016;Lai, Hoffman, & Nosek, 2013;Miller, Dannals & Zlatev, 2017). As such, the present meta-analysis speaks more to the processes that change implicit bias in the short-term rather than to processes that change implicit bias in the long-term. ...
Using a novel technique known as network meta-analysis, we synthesized evidence from 492 studies (87,418 participants) to investigate the effectiveness of procedures in changing implicit measures, which we define as response biases on implicit tasks. We also evaluated these procedures’ effects on explicit and behavioral measures. We found that implicit measures can be changed, but effects are often relatively weak (|ds| < .30). Most studies focused on producing short-term changes with brief, single-session manipulations. Procedures that associate sets of concepts, invoke goals or motivations, or tax mental resources changed implicit measures the most, whereas procedures that induced threat, affirmation, or specific moods/emotions changed implicit measures the least. Bias tests suggested that implicit effects could be inflated relative to their true population values. Procedures changed explicit measures less consistently and to a smaller degree than implicit measures and generally produced trivial changes in behavior. Finally, changes in implicit measures did not mediate changes in explicit measures or behavior. Our findings suggest that changes in implicit measures are possible, but those changes do not necessarily translate into changes in explicit measures or behavior.
Background
The purpose of this article is to describe the development and implementation of a program to improve well-being in undergraduate students and promote positive transitions into the workplace. College students experience anxiety, depression, and impaired coping, which were exacerbated during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. As students transition into their career, it is imperative they develop positive coping strategies and resiliency to manage workplace stress.
Method
The Personal Leadership Collective (PLC) is designed as a four-semester series for third- and fourth-year nursing and business students. Four themes guided the activities: awareness, connection, agility, and growth. Students participated in asynchronous online learning modules and in-person activities. Fourth-year students who completed the series served as peer mentors to third-year students.
Results
The program is undergoing formal evaluation. Anecdotal feedback from participants is positive.
Conclusion
The PLC is a program that could enhance professional development in undergraduate students. [ J Nurs Educ . 2024;63(X):XXX–XXX.]
The chapter introduces the overall sustainability of businesses, the nature of the family business, models, and it will introduce an overview of the family business sustainability using a triple-bottom approach. The chapter ends with the summary and the case study in the end that will introduce readers to the sustainability of family business. The chapter is followed by a case study.
We explored the potential benefits and costs of believing one can change their weight (i.e. growth mindset) in the context of a digital weight management program. We investigated mechanisms by which growth mindsets relate to weight loss achievement and body shame. Among participants seeking to lose weight ( N = 1626; 74.7% female; 77.9% White; M age = 45.7), stronger growth mindsets indirectly predicted greater weight loss achievement through positive offset expectations and subsequent increased program engagement. Additionally, stronger growth mindsets predicted less body shame through positive offset expectations but predicted more body shame through increased onset responsibility, replicating the double-edged sword model of growth mindsets. We conclude with applications that leverage growth mindsets for optimal behavior change while mitigating costs such as body shame.
COVID‐19 poses a considerable threat to adolescent mental health. We investigated depression rates in teens from pre to post‐COVID. We also explored if leveraging a growth mindset intervention (“Healthy Minds”) could improve adolescent mental health outcomes during the pandemic, especially for adolescents experiencing the most distress. In Study 1, we recruited youth from schools in a rural southern community ( N = 239) and used a pre‐post design. In Study 2, we recruited an online sample ( N = 833) and used a longitudinal randomized control trial design to test the effectiveness of Healthy Minds. Across both studies, there is evidence of higher rates of depression in youth during COVID‐19, relative to pre‐pandemic numbers. In Study 1, the intervention effectively changed psychological and behavioral processes related to mental health, especially for adolescents experiencing greater COVID‐19 stress. However, in Study 2, the intervention failed to impact depression rates or symptoms at follow‐up.
Across two studies (N = 803), we explored how meaning‐making systems (i.e., mindsets and narrative identity) are related to each other as well as to coping in the wake of challenges faced during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In Study 1, we find that struggle‐is‐enhancing, relative to struggle‐is‐debilitating, mindsets predicted stories defined by elements of personal control with opportunities for growth (agency) and an emphasis on the positive, rather than on the suffering (redemptive). Stronger enhancing mindsets and agentic as well as redemptive narratives predicted more adaptive coping, including less negative affect, less avoidance, and positive expectations for future success. In Study 2, we replicated these fundamental findings and explored relations with wellbeing. Struggle‐is‐enhancing, relative to debilitating, mindsets related to greater wellbeing as did agency and redemptive stories. Overall, creating meaning from struggle, crafting tales with more positive themes, and using active coping show promise for future work focused on enhancing social, emotional, and psychological wellbeing.
Psychedelic science has generated hundreds of compelling published studies yet with relatively little impact on mainstream psychology. I propose that social psychologists have much to gain by incorporating psychoactive substances into their research programs. Here I use (±)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) as an example because of its documented ability in experiments and clinical trials to promote bonding, love, and warmth. Social connection is a fundamental human need, yet researchers still possess few tools to effectively and durably boost it. MDMA allows investigators to isolate the psychological mechanisms—as well as brain pathways—underlying felt social connection and thus reveal what should be targeted in future (nondrug) studies. Accordingly, I introduce a conceptual model that presents the proximal psychological mechanisms stimulated by MDMA (lowered fear, increased sociability, more chemistry), as well as its potential long-term impacts (improved relationships, reduced loneliness, stronger therapeutic alliances). Finally, I discuss further questions (e.g., whether using MDMA for enhancing connection can backfire) and promising research areas for building a new science of psychedelic social psychology. In sum, psychopharmacological methods can be a useful approach to illuminate commonly studied social-psychological processes, such as connectedness, prejudice, or self, as well as inform interventions to directly improve people’s lives.
Psychologists are uniquely positioned to help with our collective obligation to advance scientific knowledge in ways that help individuals to flourish. Growth mindsets may offer one such tool for improving lives, yet some research questions the potential to replicate key findings. The aims in the current work are to help explain mixed results and outline ways to improve intervention impact. To reach these goals, we first offer a brief overview of the links between growth mindsets and psychological flourishing. Second, we outline key theories of causal mechanisms and summarize sources of meaningful heterogeneity in growth mindset interventions, with a focus on those designed to improve mental health. Third, we provide cautionary notes that highlight nuances of growth mindset messaging in contexts with stigmatized social identities. Fourth, to conclude, we suggest areas for future research aimed at understanding how to most powerfully harness growth mindsets to help individuals reach optimal psychological functioning.
Difference-education interventions teach people a contextual theory of difference: that social group difference comes from participating in and adapting to diverse sociocultural contexts. At two universities, we delivered difference-education interventions during the college transition and examined long-term academic and intergroup outcomes. Nearly 4 years later, first-generation students who received a difference-education intervention earned higher grades and were more likely to attain honors standing than those in the control condition. Based on an end-of-college survey with students at one of the two universities, both first-generation and continuing-generation students showed greater comfort with social group difference compared with students in the control condition. Our results demonstrate for the first time that teaching first-generation students a contextual theory of difference can lead to long-term academic benefits that persist until graduation. This work also provides new evidence that difference-education can improve comfort with social group difference.
Today’s increasingly diverse and divided world requires the ability to understand and navigate across social-group differences. We propose that interventions that teach students about these differences can not only improve all students’ intergroup skills but also help disadvantaged students succeed in school. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, this article theorizes that teaching students a contextual understanding of difference can accomplish both of these important goals. Understanding difference as contextual means recognizing that social-group differences come from participating in and adapting to diverse sociocultural contexts. This article begins by reviewing research that highlights two distinct understandings of social-group differences—as contextual or essential—and demonstrates their consequences for intergroup outcomes. We then review research on multicultural and social justice education that highlights the potential benefits of educating students about social-group differences. We propose that these educational approaches are associated with intergroup and academic benefits for one key reason: They teach students a contextual theory of difference. Finally, to illustrate and provide causal evidence for our theory of how a contextual understanding of difference affords these benefits, this article provides an overview of the first social psychological intervention to teach students a contextual understanding of difference: difference-education.
Long-standing social problems such as poor achievement, personal and intergroup conflict, bad health, and unhappiness can seem like permanent features of the social landscape. We describe an approach to such problems rooted in basic theory and research in social psychology. This approach emphasizes subjective meaning-making—working hypotheses people draw about themselves, other people, and social situations; how deleterious meanings can arise from social and cultural contexts; how interventions to change meanings can help people flourish; and how initial change can become embedded to alter the course of people’s lives. We further describe how this approach relates to and complements other prominent approaches to social reform, which emphasize not subjective meaning-making but objective change in situations or in the habits and skills of individuals. In so doing, we provide a comprehensive theoretical review and organization of a psychologically informed approach to social problems, one that encompasses a wide-range of interventions and applies to diverse problem areas.
The prejudice habit-breaking intervention (Devine et al., 2012) and its offshoots (e.g., Carnes et al., 2012) have shown promise in effecting long-term change in key outcomes related to intergroup bias, including increases in awareness, concern about discrimination, and, in one study, long-term decreases in implicit bias. This intervention is based on the premise that unintentional bias is like a habit that can be broken with sufficient motivation, awareness, and effort. We conducted replication of the original habit-breaking intervention experiment in a sample more than three times the size of the original (N = 292). We also measured all outcomes every other day for 14 days and measured potential mechanisms for the intervention’s effects. Consistent with previous results, the habit-breaking intervention produced a change in concern that endured two weeks post-intervention. These effects were associated with increased sensitivity to the biases of others and an increased tendency to label biases as wrong. Contrasting with the original work, both control and intervention participants decreased in implicit bias, and the effects of the habit-breaking intervention on awareness declined in the second week of the study. In a subsample recruited two years later, intervention participants were more likely than control participants to object on a public online forum to an essay endorsing racial stereotyping. Our results suggest that the habit-breaking intervention produces enduring changes in peoples’ knowledge of and beliefs about race-related issues, and we argue that these changes are even more important for promoting long-term behavioral change than are changes in implicit bias.
The prejudice habit-breaking intervention (Devine, Forscher, Austin, & Cox, 2012) and its offshoots (e.g., Carnes et al., 2015) have shown promise in effecting long-term change in key outcomes related to intergroup bias, including increases in awareness, concern about discrimination, and, in one study, long-term decreases in implicit bias. This intervention is based on the premise that unintentional bias is like a habit that can be broken with sufficient motivation, awareness, and effort. We conducted replication of the original habit-breaking intervention experiment in a sample more than three times the size of the original (N = 292). We also measured all outcomes every other day for 14 days and measured potential mechanisms for the intervention's effects. Consistent with previous results, the habit-breaking intervention produced a change in concern that endured two weeks post-intervention. These effects were associated with increased sensitivity to the biases of others and an increased tendency to label biases as wrong. Contrasting with the original work, both control and intervention participants decreased in implicit bias, and the effects of the habit-breaking intervention on awareness declined in the second week of the study. In a subsample recruited two years later, intervention participants were more likely than control participants to object on a public online forum to an essay endorsing racial stereotyping. Our results suggest that the habit-breaking intervention produces enduring changes in peoples' knowledge of and beliefs about race-related issues, and we argue that these changes are even more important for promoting long-term behavioral change than are changes in implicit bias.
Significance
In the United States, large, persistent gaps exist in the rates at which racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups complete postsecondary education, even when groups are equated on prior preparation. We test a method for preventing some of those gaps by providing individuals with a lay theory about the meaning of commonplace difficulties before college matriculation. Across three experiments, lay theory interventions delivered to over 90% of students increased full-time enrollment rates, improved grade point averages, and reduced the overrepresentation of socially disadvantaged students among the bottom 20% of class rank. The interventions helped disadvantaged students become more socially and academically integrated in college. Broader tests can now be conducted to understand in which settings lay theories can help remedy postsecondary inequality at scale.
One of the largest Middle East coexistence programs annually brings together Israeli and Palestinian teenagers for a 3-week camp in the United States. For 3 years, we longitudinally tracked how this intervention affected Israelis’ and Palestinians’ relationships with, and attitudes toward, each other. Specifically, we measured participants’ outgroup attitudes immediately before and after camp, and, for 2 years, 9 months following “reentry” to their home countries. In all 3 years, participants’ attitudes toward the outgroup improved from precamp to postcamp. Participants who formed an outgroup friendship during camp developed more positive feelings toward outgroup campers, which generalized to an increase in positivity toward all outgroup members. Although the positivity faded upon campers’ reentry, there was significant residual positivity after reentry compared to precamp. Finally, positivity toward the outgroup after reentry was also predicted by outgroup friendships. Future contact interventions may profit from encouraging individuals to make and maintain outgroup friendships.
Despite bipartisan support in Washington, DC, which dates back to the mid-1990s, the “what works” approach has yet to gain broad support among policymakers and practitioners. One way to build such support is to increase the usefulness of program impact evaluations for these groups. We describe three ways to make impact evaluations more useful to policy and practice: emphasize learning from all studies over sorting out winners and losers; collect better information on the conditions that shape an intervention's success or failure; and learn about the features of programs and policies that influence their effectiveness. We argue that measurement of the treatment contrast that exists between the intervention and comparison condition(s) is important for each of these changes. Measurement and analysis of the treatment contrast will increase cost and policymakers and practitioners already see evaluations as expensive. Therefore we offer suggestions for reducing costs in other areas of data collection.
The efficacy of academic-mind-set interventions has been demonstrated by small-scale, proof-of-concept interventions, generally delivered in person in one school at a time. Whether this approach could be a practical way to raise school achievement on a large scale remains unknown. We therefore delivered brief growth-mind-set and sense-of-purpose interventions through online modules to 1,594 students in 13 geographically diverse high schools. Both interventions were intended to help students persist when they experienced academic difficulty; thus, both were predicted to be most beneficial for poorly performing students. This was the case. Among students at risk of dropping out of high school (one third of the sample), each intervention raised students' semester grade point averages in core academic courses and increased the rate at which students performed satisfactorily in core courses by 6.4 percentage points. We discuss implications for the pipeline from theory to practice and for education reform.
© The Author(s) 2015.
In a randomized-controlled trial, we tested 2 brief interventions designed to mitigate the effects of a "chilly climate" women may experience in engineering, especially in male-dominated fields. Participants were students entering a selective university engineering program. The social-belonging intervention aimed to protect students' sense of belonging in engineering by providing a nonthreatening narrative with which to interpret instances of adversity. The affirmation-training intervention aimed to help students manage stress that can arise from social marginalization by incorporating diverse aspects of their self-identity in their daily academic lives. As expected, gender differences and intervention effects were concentrated in male-dominated majors (<20% women). In these majors, compared with control conditions, both interventions raised women's school-reported engineering grade-point-average (GPA) over the full academic year, eliminating gender differences. Both also led women to view daily adversities as more manageable and improved women's academic attitudes. However, the 2 interventions had divergent effects on women's social experiences. The social-belonging intervention helped women integrate into engineering, for instance, increasing friendships with male engineers. Affirmation-training helped women develop external resources, deepening their identification with their gender group. The results highlight how social marginalization contributes to gender inequality in quantitative fields and 2 potential remedies.
Background
Achievement gaps continue to garner a great deal of attention both in academic and in popular circles. Many students continue to struggle despite broad educational reforms aimed at narrowing these gaps in learning and performance.AimsIn this article, we review a number of social psychological interventions that show promise in reducing gaps in achievement, not by addressing structural barriers to achievement, but by helping students cope with threats to their identity that impair intellectual functioning and motivation. For example, interventions involving meditation, role models, emotional reappraisal, growth mindsets, imagining possible selves, self-affirmations, belongingness and cooperative learning have been shown to ameliorate threats to identity and raise achievement. We describe and evaluate these social psychological interventions.ArgumentsMany achievement gaps involve a psychological predicament: a threat to one's social identity or to one's sense of belonging. Students' implicit theories – how they mind the gap – can act as barriers to their success. By helping students cope with these threats, these theory-based interventions represent a genuine advance in the way schools may reduce gaps in achievement.Conclusion
These interventions show how students' educational success depends partly on fluid aspects of context – how tasks are framed, who else is in the room, or what they believe about intelligence. Because of this fluidity, these interventions may not work in all settings. Achievement gaps are ultimately caused by a variety of factors, both objective and subjective that produce inequality. The research reviewed here suggests that even without changes in objective barriers to success, brief psychological interventions can narrow what many see as intractable gaps in academic achievement.
Between good intentions and great results lies a program theory—not just a list of tasks but a vision of what needs to happen, and how. Now widely used in government and not-for-profit organizations, program theory provides a coherent picture of how change occurs and how to improve performance. Purposeful Program Theory shows how to develop, represent, and use program theory thoughtfully and strategically to suit your particular situation, drawing on the fifty-year history of program theory and the authors' experiences over more than twenty-five years.
"From needs assessment to intervention design, from implementation to outcomes evaluation, from policy formulation to policy execution and evaluation, program theory is paramount. But until now no book has examined these multiple uses of program theory in a comprehensive, understandable, and integrated way. This promises to be a breakthrough book, valuable to practitioners, program designers, evaluators, policy analysts, funders, and scholars who care about understanding why an intervention works or doesn't work." —Michael Quinn Patton, author, Utilization-Focused Evaluation
"Finally, the definitive guide to evaluation using program theory! Far from the narrow 'one true way' approaches to program theory, this book provides numerous practical options for applying program theory to fulfill different purposes and constraints, and guides the reader through the sound critical thinking required to select from among the options. The tour de force of the history and use of program theory is a truly global view, with examples from around the world and across the full range of content domains. A must-have for any serious evaluator." —E. Jane Davidson, PhD, Real Evaluation Ltd.
Preview of 61 pages available here https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Purposeful_Program_Theory.html?id=zBoGbWnVsFsC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
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.
Recent randomized experiments have found that seemingly “small” social-psychological interventions in education—that is, brief exercises that target students’ thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in and about school—can lead to large gains in student achievement and sharply reduce achievement gaps even months and years later. These interventions do not teach students academic content but instead target students’ psychology, such as their beliefs that they have the potential to improve their intelligence or that they belong and are valued in school. When social-psychological interventions have lasting effects, it can seem surprising and even “magical,” leading people either to think of them as quick fixes to complicated problems or to consider them unworthy of serious consideration. The present article discourages both responses. It reviews the theoretical basis of several prominent social-psychological interventions and emphasizes that they have lasting effects because they target students’ subjective experiences in school, because they use persuasive yet stealthy methods for conveying psychological ideas, and because they tap into recursive processes present in educational environments. By understanding psychological interventions as powerful but context-dependent tools, educational researchers will be better equipped to take them to scale. This review concludes by discussing challenges to scaling psychological interventions and how these challenges may be overcome.
Data for this longitudinal study were collected from over 2000 White, Asian, Latino, and African American college students. Results indicated that students who exhibited more ingroup bias and intergroup anxiety at the end of their first year of college had fewer outgroup friends and more ingroup friends during their second and third years of college, controlling for pre-college friendships and other background variables. In addition, beyond these effects of prior ethnic attitudes and orientations on friendship choices, those with more outgroup friendships and fewer ingroup friendships during their second and third years of college showed less ingroup bias and intergroup anxiety at the end of college, controlling for the prior attitudes, pre-college friendships, and background variables. Results are discussed in terms of the contact hypothesis.
As an example of how the effectiveness of well-designed laboratory interventions is often diffused in the field, we examined the effects of a motivation intervention on students' perceptions and learning. The intervention proved to be more effective in the laboratory (g = 0.45) than the field (g = 0.05) in enhancing subsequent motivation. We explored this reduction in treatment effectiveness through a fidelity analysis that examined the extent to which participants responded to the treatment. We calculated fidelity as three indices of achieved relative treatment strength (Cordray & Pion, 20064.
Cordray , D. S. . The cause … or the ‘what’ of what works?. Paper presented at the Institute for Education Sciences 2006 Research Conference. Washington, DC. June, View all references), and found that, regardless of how fidelity was calculated, achieved relative strength was about 1 standard deviation less in the classroom than the laboratory. In addition, greater levels of achieved relative strength were associated with greater differences in the motivational outcome—indicating that intervention was more effective for participants who actually received the treatment than those who did not. Multilevel analyses indicated that the drop in classroom treatment fidelity was partially because of teacher, rather than student, factors. Implications for theoretical models of change and research are discussed.
We developed a multi-faceted prejudice habit-breaking intervention to produce long-term reductions in implicit race bias. The intervention is based on the premise that implicit bias is like a habit that can be reduced through a combination of awareness of implicit bias, concern about the effects of that bias, and the application of strategies to reduce bias. In a 12-week longitudinal study, people who received the intervention showed dramatic reductions in implicit race bias. People who were concerned about discrimination or who reported using the strategies showed the greatest reductions. The intervention also led to increases in concern about discrimination and personal awareness of bias over the duration of the study. People in the control group showed none of the above effects. Our results raise the hope of reducing persistent and unintentional forms of discrimination that arise from implicit bias.
Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself. Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful "choice architecture" can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take-from neither the left nor the right-on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years. © 2008 by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. All rights reserved.
Attempted to determine the effects of induced feelings of self-dissatisfaction on long-range changes in values, attitudes, and behavior. By feedback of information about one's own and others' values, attitudes, and behavior, 197 experimental ss were made aware that they held incompatible values concerning equality and freedom, or held values concerning equality and freedom that were incompatible with certain of their attitudes or behavior. Measures were obtained for experimental ss before they were dismissed concerning their satisfaction with what they had learned about themselves as a result of the experiment. Posttest measures of values, attitudes, and behavior were obtained 3 wk., and 3-5, 15-17, and 21 mo. After the experimental session. The main behavioral measures included joining the national association for the advancement of colored people (naacp) and majoring in an "ethnic core" curriculum. Pretest measures of values and attitudes showed no significant differences between experimental groups given feedback and controls (n = 169) not given feedback. Posttest measures showed significant changes in the values of experimental groups, but not of controls, that were evident 15-17 mo. After the experimental session. Moreover, experimental ss subsequently joined naacp and enrolled in the ethnic core curriculum significantly more often than controls. Finally, experimental ss who were dissatisfied with themselves at the end of the experimental session showed significantly greater changes in their values 3 wk., and 3-5 and 15-17 mo. Afterwards than did experimental ss who were satisfied with themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes the current dissatisfactions with the paradigm that has recently guided experimental social psychology-testing of theory-derived hypotheses by means of laboratory manipulational experiments. The emerging variant of doing field experiments does not meet the criticisms. It is argued that an adequate new paradigm will be a more radical departure involving, on the creative side, deriving hypotheses from a systems theory of social and cognitive structures that takes into account multiple and bidirectional causality among social variables. On the critical side, its hypotheses testing will be done in multivariate correlational designs with naturally fluctuating variables. Some steps toward this new paradigm are described in the form of 7 koan. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This review builds on self-control theory (Carver & Scheier, 1998) to develop a theoretical framework for investigating associations of implicit theories with self-regulation. This framework conceptualizes self-regulation in terms of 3 crucial processes: goal setting, goal operating, and goal monitoring. In this meta-analysis, we included articles that reported a quantifiable assessment of implicit theories and at least 1 self-regulatory process or outcome. With a random effects approach used, meta-analytic results (total unique N = 28,217; k = 113) across diverse achievement domains (68% academic) and populations (age range = 5-42; 10 different nationalities; 58% from United States; 44% female) demonstrated that implicit theories predict distinct self-regulatory processes, which, in turn, predict goal achievement. Incremental theories, which, in contrast to entity theories, are characterized by the belief that human attributes are malleable rather than fixed, significantly predicted goal setting (performance goals, r = -.151; learning goals, r = .187), goal operating (helpless-oriented strategies, r = -.238; mastery-oriented strategies, r = .227), and goal monitoring (negative emotions, r = -.233; expectations, r = .157). The effects for goal setting and goal operating were stronger in the presence (vs. absence) of ego threats such as failure feedback. Discussion emphasizes how the present theoretical analysis merges an implicit theory perspective with self-control theory to advance scholarship and unlock major new directions for basic and applied research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
The question of how causal effects are transmitted is fascinating and inevitably arises whenever experiments are presented. Social scientists cannot be faulted for taking a lively interest in "mediation," the process by which causal influences are transmitted. However, social scientists frequently underestimate the difficulty of establishing causal pathways in a rigorous empirical manner. We argue that the statistical methods currently used to study mediation are flawed and that even sophisticated experimental designs cannot speak to questions of mediation without the aid of strong assumptions. The study of mediation is more demanding than most social scientists suppose and requires not one experimental study but rather an extensive program of experimental research.
This study examined whether the effects of student–faculty interaction on a range of student outcomes—i.e., college GPA, degree
aspiration, integration, critical thinking and communication, cultural appreciation and social awareness, and satisfaction
with college experience—vary by student gender, race, social class, and first-generation status. The study utilized data on
58,281 students who participated in the 2006 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES). The findings
reveal differences in the frequency of student–faculty interaction across student gender, race, social class and first-generation
status, and differences in the effects of student–faculty interaction (i.e., conditional effects) that depended on each of these factors except first-generation
status. The findings provide implications for educational practice on how to maximize the educational efficacy of student–faculty
interaction by minimizing the gender, race, social class, and first-generation differences associated with it.
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.
Four experiments examined the effect on achievement motivation of mere belonging, a minimal social connection to another person or group in a performance domain. Mere belonging was expected to increase motivation by creating socially shared goals around a performance task. Participants were led to believe that an endeavor provided opportunities for positive social interactions (Experiment 1), that they shared a birthday with a student majoring in an academic field (Experiment 2), that they belonged to a minimal group arbitrarily identified with a performance domain (Experiment 3), or that they had task-irrelevant preferences similar to a peer who pursued a series of goals (Experiment 4). Relative to control conditions that held constant other sources of motivation, each social-link manipulation raised motivation, including persistence on domain-relevant tasks (Experiments 1-3) and the accessibility of relevant goals (Experiment 4). The results suggest that even minimal cues of social connectedness affect important aspects of self.
In the current study, we explored how a person's physiological arousal relates to their performance in a challenging math situation as a function of individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity and math-anxiety. Participants completed demanding math problems before and after which salivary cortisol, an index of arousal, was measured. The performance of lower WM individuals did not depend on cortisol concentration or math-anxiety. For higher WM individuals high in math-anxiety, the higher their concentration of salivary cortisol following the math task, the worse their performance. In contrast, for higher WM individuals lower in math-anxiety, the higher their salivary cortisol concentrations, the better their performance. For individuals who have the capacity to perform at a high-level (higher WMs), whether physiological arousal will lead an individual to choke or thrive depends on math-anxiety.
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.
There is increasing research on the exogenous impact of descriptive social norms on economic behavior. The research to date has a number of limitations: 1) it has not de-coupled the impact of the norm and the knowledge required to understand how to change behavior based upon it; 2) it has exclusively used offline but not online (i.e. emails) methods; and 3) it has not understood the impact of financial incentives in conjunction with norms. We address these three limitations using two natural field experiments. We find, firstly, that norms change energy behavior over a 15 month treatment period irrespective of whether information is provided or not. We find that social norms reduce consumption by around 6% (0.2 standard deviations). Norms have has their largest impact on the day that information on the social norm is received, and then decreases over time. Secondly, we do not find that social norms work online (even with experienced consumers who are used to online billing) - social norms de- livered online may have very little beneficial effects on reducing energy use. Thirdly, we find that large financial rewards work very well online in reducing consumption, with a 0.35 change in energy consumption over a four month period. Perhaps most interestingly, we find that the large effect of financial incentives is completely removed when information on social norms is added online.
Not just turnout, but turnaround matters
In the last several U.S. presidential elections, the campaign mantra has focused on making sure that voters already aligned with one's candidate do get out to vote. There is a long history of unsuccessful efforts to change people's attitudes. Nevertheless, Broockman and Kalla conducted a field experiment showing that Miami voters shifted their attitudes toward transgender individuals and maintained those changed positions for 3 months (see the Perspective by Paluck).
Science , this issue p. 220 ; see also p. 147
What do social scientists know about reducing prejudice in the world? In short, very little. Of the hundreds of studies on prejudice reduction conducted in recent decades, only ~11% test the causal effect of interventions conducted in the real world ( 1 ). Far fewer address prejudice among adults or measure the long-term effects of those interventions (see the figure). The results reported by Broockman and Kalla on page 220 of this issue are therefore particularly important ( 2 ). The authors show that a 10-min conversation with voters in South Florida reduced prejudice against transgender people and increased support for transgender rights for at least 3 months.
In recent years, several studies have shown that brief, theory-based social-psychological interventions can cause large, enduring effects on important outcomes, such as school achievement and marital relationships. How are such effects possible? We propose a field-theory model: this model distinguishes “nudge” interventions—interventions designed to change a “snapshot” in time such as a particular decision or behavior—from interventions designed to change a “movie”—core beliefs or other aspects of the self and thus people's behavior as it unfolds over time in diverse settings. Movie interventions target underlying social-psychological processes—such as students' confidence that they belong in school or individuals' felt security in close relationships. These psychological processes can interact with naturalistic variables—such as how people interact with one another and the relationships they build—to propel intervention effects forward in time. In this model, real-world factors can serve as proximal outcomes that catalyze long-term effects. An important implication is that such interventions can sometimes amplify their effects over time, if the targeted recursive process “snowballs.” A second implication is that the long-term effects of movie interventions are dependent on the context—specifically, on whether the context affords naturalistic variables that can catalyze changes in the self forward in time. To illustrate this field-theory model, we compare it to Mortensen and Cialdini's (2010) full-cycle model. Although both models share important features, including an emphasis on laboratory research, the latter treats forces in the world as “noise” and predicts that the effects of psychological interventions will dissipate, not strengthen with time. In addition to their applied potential, movie interventions raise profound new theoretical questions, such as how psychological processes unfold over time and do so in interaction with social contexts. Exploring these questions represents an exciting direction for future research.
"Use of evaluation" used to mean the use of results for making program decisions. Now we are aware of its larger dimensions. Many aspects of evaluation can be used-ideas and insights, signals that are sent by the very fact of evaluating, the processes of learning through cooperation with evaluation, the choice of outcome indicators that herald success, even the study design. "Use" encompasses a broad array of effects by multiple classes of users. The paper highlights the importance of considering further potential collective users-the program organization, client groups, and civil society.
Research and theory on intergroup contact have become one of the fastest advancing and most exciting fields in social psychology in recent years. The work is exciting because it combines basic social psychological concerns - human interaction, situational influences on behavior - with an effective means of improving intergroup relations at a time when the world is witnessing widespread intergroup hatred and strife.
The contact hypothesis predicts that racial prejudice diminishes when whites and nonwhites interact in a setting that fosters cooperation among people of equal status. This hypothesis has seldom, if ever, been tested using randomized experimentation outside the laboratory. This chapter reports the results of a randomized field experiment in which white students were randomly assigned to Outward Bound two- and three-week wilderness courses. In the control group, all the students in each course were non- Hispanic whites. In the treatment group, most of the students were non-Hispanic whites, but at least three of the participants were African-Americans. One month after completing the course, the white participants were interviewed by telephone. As expected, the group that experienced a racially heterogeneous environment expressed greater levels of tolerance than the control group. Although these findings require replication, the research design provides a template for future field-experiments examining the validity of the contact hypothesis.
This chapter explores the relationship between children's body mass index (BMI) as well as the probability of obesity and the influence of different aspects of the neighborhood. It reports that overall maternal perceptions of neighborhood quality are not a particularly strong determinant of children's body weight outcomes. However, one specific neighborhood characteristic—the perceived lack of police protection—is a significant determinant of such body weight outcomes. Moreover, there are significant differences in perceived lack of police protection between white and minority women. If perceptions of police protection are driven by the actual number of police personnel available to the neighborhood, then, providing resources to increase police protection in low-income and minority neighborhoods and housing subsidies that allow a low-income individual to move into a higher socioeconomic neighborhood will improve these perceptions, and may eventually improve child obesity outcomes.
A growing social psychological literature reveals that brief interventions can benefit disadvantaged students. We tested a key component of the theoretical assumption that interventions exert long-term effects because they initiate recursive processes. Focusing on how interventions alter students' responses to specific situations over time, we conducted a follow-up lab study with students who had participated in a difference-education intervention 2 years earlier. In the intervention, students learned how their social-class backgrounds mattered in college. The follow-up study assessed participants' behavioral and hormonal responses to stressful college situations. We found that difference-education participants discussed their backgrounds in a speech more frequently than control participants did, an indication that they retained the understanding of how their backgrounds mattered. Moreover, among first-generation students (i.e., students whose parents did not have 4-year degrees), those in the difference-education condition showed greater physiological thriving (i.e., anabolic-balance reactivity) than those in the control condition, which suggests that they experienced their working-class backgrounds as a strength.
© The Author(s) 2015.
Providing people with information about the behavior and attitudes of their peers is a strategy commonly employed by those seeking to reduce behavior deemed harmful either to individuals (e.g., high alcohol consumption) or the collective (e.g., high energy consumption). We review norm-based interventions, detailing the logic behind them and the various forms they can take. We give special attention to interventions designed to decrease college students' drinking and increase environment-friendly behaviors. We identify the conditions under which norm information has the highest likelihood of changing the targeted behavior and discuss why this is the case. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 67 is January 03, 2016. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
The power of psychologically based interventions has garnered much interest in the general public and in the social sciences, especially in social psychology. Among the lessons that such social-psychological interventions provide are two of special importance for educational practice and social policy. The first is that different students can perceive the same classroom differently and that these perceptions can lead to substantial differences in outcomes. The second is that timely and well-placed interventions, almost irrespective of their duration, can change students’ perceptions of school and the classroom for the better. Randomized double-blind experiments show that such change is possible and can trigger lasting improvements in students’ academic trajectories. In the context of closing achievement gaps, these insights offer practical solutions and a better understanding of motivation. This article focuses on how wise interventions and insights from social psychology can further apply to improve human affairs, both inside and outside the classroom.
Interventions intended to change people’s behavior are ubiquitous in modern society. Some interventions produce changes in behavior that persist even after the interventions are discontinued, while other interventions generate only short-term behavior changes that disappear once the interventions stop. The framework presented here guides understanding of why and how behavior changes (treatment effects) persist after interventions (treatments) are discontinued. Four persistence pathways explain how persistent treatment effects may arise: building psychological habits, changing what and how people think, changing future costs, and harnessing external reinforcement. Each pathway is illustrated by describing how the pathway may have contributed to the persistent treatment effects produced by a widely used energy-efficiency intervention conducted by the energy-efficiency company OPOWER. Different conditions may make each pathway more or less likely to generate persistent treatment effects in the world. Finally, policymakers might develop more persistent interventions by leveraging each pathway.
Citizens complete a survey the day before a major election; a change in the survey items' grammatical structure increases turnout by 11 percentage points. People answer a single question; their romantic relationships improve over several weeks. At-risk students complete a 1-hour reading-and-writing exercise; their grades rise and their health improves for the next 3 years. Each statement may sound outlandishmore science fiction than science. Yet each represents the results of a recent study in psychological science (respectively, Bryan, Walton, Rogers, & Dweck, 2011; Marigold, Holmes, & Ross, 2007, 2010; Walton & Cohen, 2011). These studies have shown, more than one might have thought, that specific psychological processes contribute to major social problems. These processes act as levers in complex systems that give rise to social problems. Precise interventions that alter themwhat I call wise interventionscan produce significant benefits and do so over time. What are wise interventions? How do they work? And how can they help solve social problems?
Behavioral science is increasingly being used to develop interventions to influence important behaviors throughout society. We explore three ways that time interacts with psychological processes to affect the impact of behavioral interventions. The first is how and when there would be a lag between the moment in which an intervention is administered and the moment in which the target behavior is to be performed. The second is when and why there would be marginal benefits to continued administration of treatment over time. The third is how behavioral interventions might generate persistent treatment effects even after the intervention is discontinued. Our hope is that scholars find these frameworks productive for advancing and organizing future research, and that they help those who develop behavioral interventions to make them more effective.
The present meta-analysis tested the effectiveness of contact-based interventions for the reduction of ethnic prejudice. Up to now, a meta-analysis summarizing the results of real-world interventions that rest on the intergroup contact theory has been missing. We included evaluations of programs realizing direct (i.e., face-to-face) and/or indirect (i.e., extended or virtual) contact in real-world settings outside the lab. The interventions' effectiveness was tested shortly after their end (k = 123 comparisons, N = 11 371 participants) and with a delay of at least 1 month (k = 25, N = 1650). Our data show that contact interventions improve ethnic attitudes. Importantly, changes persist over time. Furthermore, not only direct but also indirect contact interventions are successful. In addition, contact programs are effective even in the context of a serious societal conflict (e.g., in the Middle East). Although changes are typically larger for ethnic majorities, there is an impact on minorities, too. Finally, contact interventions not only improve attitudes toward individuals involved in the program, their effects also generalize to outgroups as a whole. In sum, social psychology provides an intervention for prejudice reduction that can be successfully implemented in the practical field. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This study tested moderators of treatment outcome of the ‘ A rt and S cience of L ove ( ASL ) Workshop’, a couples' group psycho‐educational intervention with 80 distressed married couples. Couples were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) friendship enhancement alone, (2) conflict management alone, (3) combined friendship enhancement + conflict management or (4) bibliotherapy. Three outcomes were assessed: (1) relationship satisfaction, (2) friendship quality and (3) destructive conflict at pre‐, post‐ and one year following the intervention. All conditions led to increased marital satisfaction and decreased problems with friendship and destructive conflict at one‐year follow‐up. Examining exposure to the components of the ASL workshop in a 2×2 design – friendship enhancement (yes/no) vs. conflict management (yes/no) – revealed differential impact for men's and women's relationship outcomes over time. Results suggest that the combined condition produced the greatest changes in marital satisfaction and the greatest decreases in problems in friendship and conflict, particularly for men.
Practitioner points
A combination of friendship enhancement and conflict management is recommended to maximize outcomes.
Bibliotherapy alone may be effective for significantly distressed couples without co‐morbid problems.
Psycho‐education is recommended before a course of more intensive couple therapy.
Men and women have different needs and respond to particular aspects of the programme.
Women particularly value the component concerning how to deal with conflict constructively and require more than the friendship enhancement component of the programme.
College students who do not have parents with 4-year degrees (first-generation students) earn lower grades and encounter more obstacles to success than do students who have at least one parent with a 4-year degree (continuing-generation students). In the study reported here, we tested a novel intervention designed to reduce this social-class achievement gap with a randomized controlled trial (N = 168). Using senior college students' real-life stories, we conducted a difference-education intervention with incoming students about how their diverse backgrounds can shape what they experience in college. Compared with a standard intervention that provided similar stories of college adjustment without highlighting students' different backgrounds, the difference-education intervention eliminated the social-class achievement gap by increasing first-generation students' tendency to seek out college resources (e.g., meeting with professors) and, in turn, improving their end-of-year grade point averages. The difference-education intervention also improved the college transition for all students on numerous psychosocial outcomes (e.g., mental health and engagement).
Interventions to affect repeated behaviors, such as smoking, exercise, or workplace effort, can often have large short-run impacts but uncertain or disappointing long-run effects. We study one part of a large program designed to induce energy conservation, in which home energy reports containing personalized feedback, social comparisons, and energy conservation information are being repeatedly mailed to more than five million households across the United States. We show that treatment group households reduce electricity use within days of receiving each of their initial few reports, but these immediate responses decay rapidly in the months between reports. As more reports are delivered, the average treatment effect grows but the high-frequency pattern of action and backsliding attenuates. When a randomly-selected group of households has reports discontinued after two years, the effects are much more persistent than they had been between the initial reports, implying that households have formed a new "capital stock" of physical capital or consumption habits. We show how assumptions about long-run persistence can be important enough to change program adoption decisions, and we illustrate how program design that accounts for the capital stock formation process can significantly improve cost effectiveness.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
If one wishes to use the facts concerning development, personality, social relations, cognition, and motivation which are discussed in the various chapters of this book for the purpose of understanding, guiding, or predicting the behavior of the child, these data will have to be linked in such a way that they become applicable to a particular child at a particular time. This chapter discusses procedures and concepts which have been found to be instrumental for this purpose. Some of the relevant methodological questions are considered and certain problems of cognition, motivation, and development are treated as examples. The following topics are addressed: analysis, concepts, and theory in child psychology; the behavior in a given psychological field; and factors determining the field and its change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter provides an overview of self-affirmation theory. Self-affirmation theory asserts that the overall goal of the self-system is to protect an image of its self-integrity, of its moral and adaptive adequacy. When this image of self-integrity is threatened, people respond in such a way as to restore self-worth. The chapter illustrates how self-affirmation affects not only people's cognitive responses to threatening information and events, but also their physiological adaptations and actual behavior. It examines the ways in which self-affirmations reduce threats to the self at the collective level, such as when people confront threatening information about their groups. It reviews factors that qualify or limit the effectiveness of self-affirmations, including situations where affirmations backfire, and lead to greater defensiveness and discrimination. The chapter discusses the connection of self-affirmations theory to other motivational theories of self-defense and reviews relevant theoretical and empirical advances. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of self-affirmations theory for interpersonal relationships and coping.
This article describes a series of school-based field experiments in over 200 urban schools across three cities designed to
better understand the impact of financial incentives on student achievement. In Dallas, students were paid to read books.
In New York, students were rewarded for performance on interim assessments. In Chicago, students were paid for classroom grades.
I estimate that the impact of financial incentives on student achievement is statistically 0, in each city. Due to a lack
of power, however, I cannot rule out the possibility of effect sizes that would have positive returns on investment. The only
statistically significant effect is on English-speaking students in Dallas. The article concludes with a speculative discussion
of what might account for intercity differences in estimated treatment effects.
The role of effort justification in psychotherapy was examined. It was hypothesized that the effort involved in therapy, plus the conscious decision to undergo that effort, leads to positive therapeutic changes through the reduction of cognitive dissonance. An experiment was conducted in which overweight subjects attempted to lose weight through one of two forms of “effort therapy”. These therapies were bogus in that they were based solely on the expenditure of effort on a series of cognitive tasks that were unrelated to any existing techniques or theory addressing weight loss. One of the therapies called for a high degree of effort while the degree of effort in the second therapy was low. A no-treatment control group was also included. It was predicted that greater weight loss would occur for high-effort than low-effort or control subjects, and that this weight loss would be maintained or increased over time. Results supported these predictions. Over an initial 3-week period, high-effort subjects lost slightly more weight than low-effort subjects or controls. A 6-month follow-up revealed that the effects of effort on weight loss had increased and were highly significant. Reliable differences remained even 1 year after the initial experimental sessions. Possible mechanisms mediating the dissonance effect were discussed, as were several alternative explanations.
Standardized tests continue to generate gender and race gaps in achievement despite decades of national attention. Research on “stereotype threat” (Steele & Aronson, 1995) suggests that these gaps may be partly due to stereotypes that impugn the math abilities of females and the intellectual abilities of Black, Hispanic, and low-income students. A field experiment was performed to test methods of helping female, minority, and low-income adolescents overcome the anxiety-inducing effects of stereotype threat and, consequently, improve their standardized test scores. Specifically, seventh-grade students in the experimental conditions were mentored by college students who encouraged them either to view intelligence as malleable or to attribute academic difficulties in the seventh grade to the novelty of the educational setting. Results showed that females in both experimental conditions earned significantly higher math standardized test scores than females in the control condition. Similarly, the students—who were largely minority and low-income adolescents—in the experimental conditions earned significantly higher reading standardized test scores than students in the control condition.
Potentially effective environmental strategies have been recommended to reduce heavy alcohol use among college students. However, studies to date on environmental prevention strategies are few in number and have been limited by their nonexperimental designs, inadequate sample sizes, and lack of attention to settings where the majority of heavy drinking events occur.
To determine whether environmental prevention strategies targeting off-campus settings would reduce the likelihood and incidence of student intoxication at those settings.
The Safer California Universities study involved 14 large public universities, half of which were assigned randomly to the Safer intervention condition after baseline data collection in 2003. Environmental interventions took place in 2005 and 2006 after 1 year of planning with seven Safer intervention universities. Random cross-sectional samples of undergraduates completed online surveys in four consecutive fall semesters (2003-2006).
Campuses and communities surrounding eight campuses of the University of California and six in the California State University system were utilized. The study used random samples of undergraduates (∼500-1000 per campus per year) attending the 14 public California universities.
Safer environmental interventions included nuisance party enforcement operations, minor decoy operations, driving-under-the-influence checkpoints, social host ordinances, and use of campus and local media to increase the visibility of environmental strategies.
Proportion of drinking occasions in which students drank to intoxication at six different settings during the fall semester (residence hall party, campus event, fraternity or sorority party, party at off-campus apartment or house, bar/restaurant, outdoor setting), any intoxication at each setting during the semester, and whether students drank to intoxication the last time they went to each setting.
Significant reductions in the incidence and likelihood of intoxication at off-campus parties and bars/restaurants were observed for Safer intervention universities compared to controls. A lower likelihood of intoxication was observed also for Safer intervention universities the last time students drank at an off-campus party (OR=0.81, 95% CI=0.68, 0.97); a bar or restaurant (OR=0.76, 95% CI=0.62, 0.94); or any setting (OR=0.80, 95% CI=0.65, 0.97). No increase in intoxication (e.g., displacement) appeared in other settings. Further, stronger intervention effects were achieved at Safer universities with the highest level of implementation.
Environmental prevention strategies targeting settings where the majority of heavy drinking events occur appear to be effective in reducing the incidence and likelihood of intoxication among college students.