2. 1 Psychology 1230: Psychology of Adolescence Don Hartmann Autumn 2005 Lecture #22: © Achievement

3. 2 Administrative Announcements Autobiographical term paper due today, Monday, November 28th. Please do NOT email your papers to me. The class dumped on me over the weekend. I must have had 20-25 abstracts/references. In order to edit them and return them to you, I had to be brief and not as gentle as I would like to have been. My apologies. Note: More WEB discussion groups disbanded due to overdue summary/evaluations. Office hours tomorrow (Tuesday) are iffy; I have a 9-12 service call arrangement that may not be complete before 11. Sorry

4. 3 Final WEB Discussion Topic (#30) #30: Guardian’s Role in Education. 4♀ + 1♂ V. (Summary-Evaluation due on Monday, December 12th): John’s parents are stationed in a faraway country during his early high school years, and so John lives with his grandparents. (They have the opportunity to do IT better than they did with John’s parent.) What should the school counselor (or some similar individual) tell John’s grandparents about their role in John’s education?

5. 4 WEB Discussion Process Group#3 due#4 due#5 due Whippets10/27 (10/26)11/14**Disbanded 4♀+1♂10/28 (10/28)11/18 (11/18)12/12 JusticeLeague11/15**Disbanded PithHelmets11/09 (11/09)11/28 MAJACS10/25 (10/25)11/11 (11/11)12/07 Psyched12/12 ---------- Note: Anyone can contribute to any WEB discussion; group members are responsible to summarizing the discussion. The last day to contribute to any discussion is 3 days before the due date. Dates in parenthesis indicate the date handed in. Bolded dates indicate that material handed in was incomplete; more is required. **Where is the summary??

6. 5 Handout Summary Handout WEB Date Date 39. Quiz 2 from Spring ’0510/31 ----- 40. Lect. #17: Autonomy11/07 41. Handout: Supplemental Project #211/04 42. Handout: Supplemental Project #311/07 43. Lect. #17b: Family Conflict11/08 44. Study Guide #1011/08 45. Lect. #18: Peers11/10 46. Lect. #19: Peers II: Pop. & Friendship11/11 47. Lect. #20: Bullying11/17 48. Study Guide #11(corrected)11/21 49. Lect. #21: Schools11/21 50. Study Guide #1211/21 51. Lect. #22a: Achievement11/28 52. Study Guide #1311/28

7. 6 Everyone Needs Something!

8. 7 Supplementary Reading Brophy, J. (1998). Motivating students to learn. New York: McGraw-Hill. Covington, M. V. Making the grade: A self- worth perspective on motivation and school reform. New York: Cambridge University Press. Weiner, B. (1986). An attribution theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer.

9. 8 Achievement: Overview Weiner’s attribution theory of achievement Working with students with achievement “problems” Coordinates with text, pp. 430-434, 438-442 Next: Lecture #22b: Culture

10. 9 Weiner’s Attribution Theory of Achievement A cognitively ‑ based theory that argues that individuals are cognitive beings who want to know why they and others are behaving the way they are When we classify the behaviors of ourselves or of other, that are certain dimensions that we regularly use for the classification of causes: locus, stability, and controllability. What kinds of self-attributions do you make about achievement situations?

11. 10 Three Dimensions of Causal Attributions Locus: Internal ‑ external – Internal factors are those internal to us ‑‑ traits, abilities, motives, and such. – External are factors out there: Environmental and situation factors, such as a reward or external inducement such as access to the family car. 3 $ Stability: ─ Stable factors are those that remain largely the same, such as ability or education. ─ Unstable factors are such things as luck and effort

12. 11 Three Dimensions of Causal Attributions (continued) Controllability: The extent to which the individual can control a cause.

13. 12 Combinations of Causal Attributions & Explanations for Failure Int-St-UncontLow aptitude Int-St-ContNever study Int-Unst-UncontSick the day of the test Int-Unst-ContDid not study for this particular test Ext-St-UncontSchool has tough requirements Ext-St-ContThe instructor is biased Ext-Unst-UncontBad luck Ext-Unst-ContFriends failed to help Causal AttributionReason Given for Failure ----- Int=Internal; Ext=External; St=Stable; Unst=Unstable; Cont=Controllable; Uncont=Uncontrollable

14. 13 Attributions and Achievement If we attribute success to internal causes, our success is more likely to produce in- creases in self-esteem If we attribute our success to stable factors, we are more likely to anticipate success again under similar circumstances Controllability relates to felt emotions

15. 14 Study by Wilson & Linville Used college freshman who were not performing well in school and who were anxious about grades Two-group (experimental and control group) design. The independent variable (IV): – Half of participants told how grades invariably improved after the first year, and saw videotapes of seniors talking about how their grades improved after the first year. – The other half had no such information. The results: The group made to believe their failure was temporary (unstable) did better on achievement tests— dependent variable (DV)—administered immediately after the instructional manipulation, as well as on grades one year later

16. 15 Careful of your standards!

17. 16 Working with Low Achieving Kids Brophy’s strategies for improving the motivation of hard-to-reach, low-achieving kids. Three cases: Low achievers with low ability who have developed low achievement expectations (e.g., Hartmann’s dancing) Kids with failure syndrome Kids obsessed with protecting their self-worth by avoiding failure.

18. 17 Low achievers with low ability who have developed low achievement expectations Provide support: – Individualize instructions and related materials E.g., might require a careful task analysis – instructional goals consistent with kid’s capacity. Emphasize the importance of effort (attributional portion of program)

19. 18 Kids with failure syndrome Failure syndrome involves having low expectations for success and giving up at the first sign of difficulty. Kids who don’t put forth enough effort: Often have low self-efficacy or attribution problems Use cognitive retraining methods (continued)

20. 19 Cognitive retraining methods: I Method GoalsProcedures Efficacy retraining Improve self-efficacyTeach specific, proximal, expectationschallenging, goals—goals that can be achieved. Monitor progress & support with confidence-building talk. Minimize social comparisons. Demonstrate with coping models. Attribution retraining Strategy retraining

21. 20 Cognitive retraining methods: II Method GoalsProcedures Efficacy retraining Attribution retrainingChange Teach attributing failure to factors attributionsthat can be changed. Attribute success to competency & hard work Work to develop mastery (process) orientation. Strategy retraining

22. 21 Cognitive retraining methods: III Method GoalsProcedures Efficacy retraining Attribution retraining Strategy retrainingImprove strategyTeach what to do, how to do it, when to do it. Also teach self- monitoring, self-evaluation and self-reinforcement

23. 22

24. 23 Adolescents Motivated to Protect their Self-worth by Avoiding Failure These are kids who use self- handicapping strategies… Strategies for dealing with self-handicappers: – Give them challenging tasks that are within their area of competence; gradually increase – Strengthen association between effort & self- worth – Set up situations so everyone can be a winner

25. 24

26. 25 Summary Achievement Weiner’s analysis of attributions Dealing with low-achieving kids Next: Lect. #22b: Culture Go in Peace