1. Development and Validation of Interpretation of Experienced Ease and Difficulty Scales Oliver Fisher and Daphna Oyserman University of Southern California 1.Can Interpretation of Experienced Ease and Difficulty be assessed in brief scales? 2.Are Interpretations of Experienced Ease and Difficulty distinct from related constructs? QUESTIONS PROCEDURE Participants Amazon Mechanical Turk workers (Pilot n=198, Study 1 n=204, Study 2 n=200). Procedure Participants responded on a 6-point Likert Scale (1=Strongly Disagree, 6=Strongly Agree) to a series of statements presented in randomized order. Analytic Method Varimax factor analysis. Items loaded only on one factor (cross loadings at <.3) Measures Interpretation of Experienced Ease and Difficulty Scales 24 (Pilot, Study 1) or 16 (Study 2) Interpretation of Experienced Ease and Difficulty items. Discriminant Validity Scales  “I can always substantially change how able I am” Fixed and Malleable Lay Theories, 8 items (Dweck, 2000)  “I finish whatever I begin” Short Form Grit, 8 items (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009)  “I am able to use my emotions to perform the way I want to” Mental Toughness, 9 items (Gucciardi et al. 2015)  “I am certain I can meet deadlines at work” Work Self-Efficacy, 8 items (based on Bandura, 2006)  “I put effort into meaningful goals” Effort Heuristic, 6 items (Oyserman et al., under review)  “I typically focus on the success I hope to achieve in the future” Prevention and Promotion Focus, 14 items (Lockwood, Jordan, & Kunda, 2002)  “What happens to me is my own doing” Locus of Control, 10 items (Lumpkin, 1985)  “Is ‘reading’ following lines of print, or gaining knowledge?” Behavioral Identification Form, 25 items (Vallacher & Wegner, 1989) BACKGROUND  Identity-based motivation theory predicts that when something feels identity congruent then experienced difficulty is likely to be interpreted as implying importance rather than impossibility. Similarly, when experienced difficulty is interpreted as importance rather than impossibility, the task is likely to feel identity congruent.  There is experimental evidence supporting these predictions. For example, guiding students to interpret experienced difficulty as importance rather than as impossibility leads students to perceive academics as more central to their identity and increase time investment in difficult fluid intelligence puzzles, thus leading to higher scores (Smith & Oyserman, 2015).  Yet interpretation of experienced ease and difficulty have not yet been directly compared.  Discriminant validity research with related constructs is also missing. For additional information/follow up studies, email ofisher@usc.edu Discriminant Validity of Interpretation of Experienced Ease and Difficulty Scales Bandura, A. (2006). Guide for constructing self-efficacy scales. Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Adolescents, 307-337. Duckworth, A.L., & Quinn, P.D. (2009). Development and Validation of the Short Grit Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 166-174. Dweck, C.S. (2000). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Edward Brothers: Lillington, NC. Gucciardi, D.F., Hanton, S., Gordon, S., Mallett, C.J., & Temby, P. (2015). The concept of mental toughness: Tests of dimensionality, nomological network and traitness. Journal of Personality, 83, 26-44. Lockwood, P., Jordan, C.H., & Kunda, Z. (2002). Motivation by positive or negative role models: Regulatory focus determines who will best inspire us. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 854-864. Lumpkin, J.R. (1985). Validity of a brief locus of control scale for survey research. Psychological Reports, 57, 655-659. Oyserman, D., Novin, S., Smith, G.C., Elmore, K., & Nurra, C. (under review). From difficulty to possibility or importance: Interpretation of experienced difficulty matters for identity, motivation and performance. Smith, G.C., & Oyserman, D. (2015). Just not worth my time? Experienced difficulty and time investment. Social Cognition, 33, 1-18. Interpretation of Experienced Ease and Difficulty Scale Items Difficulty as Impossibility -I know a goal is impossible for me when it feels difficult to work on. -If a task feels difficult, my gut says that it may be impossible for me. -When a task feels difficult, the experience of difficulty informs me that succeeding in the task is just not possible for me. -When a goal feels difficult to attain, then it is probably out of my reach. Difficulty as Importance -I know a goal is a key one for me when it feels difficult to work on. -If a task feels difficult, my gut says that it really matters for me. -When a task feels difficult, the experience of difficulty informs me that succeeding in task is important for me. -When a goal feels difficult to attain, then it is probably worth my effort. Ease as Possibility -I know a goal is possible for me when it feels easy to work on. -If a task feels easy, my gut says that it is really possible for me. -When a task feels easy, the experience of ease informs me that succeeding in the task is possible for me. -When a goal feels easy to attain, then it is probably within my reach. Ease as Triviality -I know a goal is inconsequential for me when it feels easy to work on. -If a task feels easy, my gut says that it doesn‘t really matter for me. -When a task feels easy, the experience of ease informs me that succeeding in the task is unimportant for me. -When a goal feels easy to attain, then it is probably not worth my effort. Scale Means (SD) and Reliability PilotStudy 1Study 2 Experienced difficulty implies…M (SDαM (SD)α α impossibility2.75 (1.18).9352.77 (1.17).9462.67 (1.11).933 importance4.09 (1.10).8994.01 (0.97).9093.96 (1.03).906 Experienced ease implies… possibility4.87 (0.81).8994.93 (0.76).9124.88 (0.88).906 triviality2.66 (1.07).9202.53 (0.94).9192.66 (1.03).892 REFERENCES