scholarly journals Theoretical, Ethical, and Policy Considerations for Conducting Social-Psychological Interventions to Close Educational Achievement Gaps

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin R Binning ◽  
Alexander S. Browman
Keyword(s):  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Achievement Gaps ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Psychological Interventions ◽  
Zone Model ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Underperforming Students ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Threat Levels

Social–psychological interventions in education have shown remarkable promise as brief, inexpensive, and powerful methods for improving educational equity and inclusion by helping underperforming students realize their potential. These findings have led to intensive study and replication attempts to understand and close achievement gaps at scale. In the present review, we identify several significant issues this work has raised that bear on the theoretical, ethical, and policy implications of using these interventions to close achievement gaps. Using both classic and contemporary models of threat and performance, we propose a Zone Model of Threat to predict when social–psychological interventions in education may yield positive, null, and negative effects for specific students. From this analysis, we argue from an ethical standpoint that to reduce backfire effects, interventions should be focused on optimizing the salience of psychological threat across students rather than on uniformly reducing it. As a long-term policy goal, intervention studies should follow a two-step process, in which students’ individual levels of threat are first diagnosed and then interventions are tailored to the students based on their threat levels. Practical and theoretical implications of the proposed framework are discussed.

Undesirable Effects of Goal Setting on Perceived Fairness, Commitment, and Unethical Behavior

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Keith
Keyword(s):  
Goal Setting ◽  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
The United States ◽  
Goal Commitment ◽  
Management Technique ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Perceived Fairness ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
And Performance

Abstract. The positive effects of goal setting on motivation and performance are among the most established findings of industrial–organizational psychology. Accordingly, goal setting is a common management technique. Lately, however, potential negative effects of goal-setting, for example, on unethical behavior, are increasingly being discussed. This research replicates and extends a laboratory experiment conducted in the United States. In one of three goal conditions (do-your-best goals, consistently high goals, increasingly high goals), 101 participants worked on a search task in five rounds. Half of them (transparency yes/no) were informed at the outset about goal development. We did not find the expected effects on unethical behavior but medium-to-large effects on subjective variables: Perceived fairness of goals and goal commitment were least favorable in the increasing-goal condition, particularly in later goal rounds. Results indicate that when designing goal-setting interventions, organizations may consider potential undesirable long-term effects.

Changing Students’ Beliefs About Learning Can Unveil Their Potential

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-91
Author(s):  
Paul A. O’Keefe ◽  
Hae Yeon Lee ◽  
Patricia Chen
Keyword(s):  
Student Motivation ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Psychological Interventions ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Maladaptive Beliefs ◽  
Beliefs About Learning

Too often, students fall short of their potential. Although structural and cognitive factors can contribute to this underperformance, how students subjectively construe themselves and their educational contexts can also play significant roles. Social-psychological interventions can increase student motivation, resilience, and achievement by altering these construals. To provide general recommendations for their implementation, we focus on interventions that address common student concerns, which stem from maladaptive beliefs that (a) intelligence cannot be improved; (b) some academic topics are uninteresting and personally irrelevant; (c) learning is an unplanned, passive activity; and (d) others think that “people like me” do not have the potential for success. These interventions tend to be relatively brief, easily implemented, highly scalable, and low in cost, time, and labor. Through a partnership of psychological scientists and practitioners, these carefully contextualized, theory-driven interventions can help students achieve their potential.

scholarly journals Bacillus subtilis-Based Probiotic Improves Skeletal Health and Immunity in Broiler Chickens Exposed to Heat Stress

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1494
Author(s):  
Sha Jiang ◽  
Fei-Fei Yan ◽  
Jia-Ying Hu ◽  
Ahmed Mohammed ◽  
Heng-Wei Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Bacillus Subtilis ◽  
Heat Stress ◽  
Broiler Chickens ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Stress Sensitivity ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Skeletal Health ◽  
Welfare Issue ◽  
And Performance

The elevation of ambient temperature beyond the thermoneutral zone leads to heat stress, which is a growing health and welfare issue for homeothermic animals aiming to maintain relatively constant reproducibility and survivability. Particularly, global warming over the past decades has resulted in more hot days with more intense, frequent, and long-lasting heat waves, resulting in a global surge in animals suffering from heat stress. Heat stress causes pathophysiological changes in animals, increasing stress sensitivity and immunosuppression, consequently leading to increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and related neuroinflammation. Probiotics, as well as prebiotics and synbiotics, have been used to prevent or reduce stress-induced negative effects on physiological and behavioral homeostasis in humans and various animals. The current data indicate dietary supplementation with a Bacillus subtilis-based probiotic has similar functions in poultry. This review highlights the recent findings on the effects of the probiotic Bacillus subtilis on skeletal health of broiler chickens exposed to heat stress. It provides insights to aid in the development of practical strategies for improving health and performance in poultry.

“If you want to understand something, try to change it”: Social-psychological interventions to cultivate resilience

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eddie Brummelman ◽  
Gregory M. Walton
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Positive Change ◽  
Psychological Interventions ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Resilience Mechanisms ◽  
Exciting Development ◽  
Unique Potential

AbstractWe argue that social psychology has unique potential for advancing understanding of resilience. An exciting development that illustrates this is the emergence of social-psychological interventions – brief, stealthy, and psychologically precise interventions – that can yield broad and lasting benefits by targeting key resilience mechanisms. Such interventions provide a causal test of resilience mechanisms and bring about positive change in people's lives.

Gender Differences in the Psychology of Competition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin J. Hanek
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Role Theory ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Gender Composition ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Social Role Theory ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Competitive Environments ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Gender

Drawing primarily on the literature in experimental economics and social psychology, this article reviews key findings on gender differences for two aspects of competitiveness and competition: entry preferences and performance. Although women, relative to men, have been shown to shy away from competition and underperform in competitive environments, this article also discusses boundary conditions for these effects, such as the nature of the task or gender composition of the group, and highlights manifestations of these effects in applied domains, including in negotiations, the labor market, educational settings, and sports. Adopting social psychological frameworks of prescriptive norms and stereotypes, particularly social role theory, this article examines ways in which gender-incongruencies may underpin gender gaps in competition and gender-congruencies may alleviate them. Finally, this article considers implications for individuals and institutions as well as future directions in the field to continue finding ways to close gaps.

Dealing with organizational silos with communities of practice and human resource management

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 473-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riitta Forsten-Astikainen ◽  
Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen ◽  
Tuija Lämsä ◽  
Pia Heilmann ◽  
Elina Hyrkäs
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Competence Management ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Hr Managers ◽  
Hr Function

Purpose Organizational silos that build on the existing organizational structures are often considered to have negative effects in the form of focus on private narrow objectives and organizational fragmentation. To avoid such harmful outcomes, competence management is called for, and in this, the human resources (HR) function takes a key role. Among other things, it can provide basis for emergence and utilization of communities of practice (CoPs) that build on common interests and effectively cross organizational boundaries. These features of CoPs allow them to carry competences and ease knowledge transfer and to break down the harmful isolation. Quite paradoxically, the challenge is that CoPs can also form within silos, thereby strengthening isolation, and HR as a utility department can itself be particularly prone to the silo effects. Examination of boundaries and silos through an original study conducted in a Finnish energy sector company suggests that HR managers need competences outside their own expertise area and courage to augment their CoPs across the functional boundaries to break out of the HR silo and to assist other functions to do the same. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on qualitative research data gathered in four focus group interviews with HR personnel from an energy sector company in November 2012. Totally, 19 professionals were interviewed (five HR partners, five talent development and performance managers, five vice presidents of HR and four HR managers) in the four focus groups. The company’s HR personnel represented units from Finland, Sweden, Poland and Estonia. Findings Examination of boundaries and silos in the Finnish energy sector suggests that HR managers need competences outside their own field (e.g. knowledge of the business and offerings of the firm) and courage to augment their CoPs across the functional boundaries to break out of the HR silo and to assist other functions to do the same. Originality/value Research provided that CoPs can have different effects on silos. As they are capable of crossing organizational and functional boundaries, they may effectively mitigate adverse silo effects; however, if CoPs are formed within silos, they may strengthen isolation and fragmentation. In addition, utility departments and supporting functions are particularly prone to the risk of CoPs forming within silos. The HR function is one manifestation of this. Paradoxically, it also has the potential to enhance the other type of effects that CoPs can exert, as competence management can be used to foster intentional and self-organizing CoPs that counter silo effects.

scholarly journals Data Control Wars: Collaborative Fiction, Transition Design and Technological Sovereignty

2020 ◽  
pp. 208-239
Author(s):  
Andreu Belsunces Gonçalves ◽  
Grace Polifroni Turtle ◽  
Antonio Calleja ◽  
Raul Nieves Pardo ◽  
Bani Brusadin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Negative Effects ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
Sociology Of Expectations ◽  
Data Control ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transition Strategies ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Research Action ◽  
Political Economic

Data Control Wars seeks to explore the development of different futures regarding the extraction, management and exploitation of data and its political, economic and cultural consequences. It has been designed as a research-action device through play, generative conflict, collaborative fiction and performance with three specific objectives: to observe social expectations regarding the relationship between industry, democracy, citizenship and data; to stimulate social imagination through the simulation of sociotechnical scenarios, thus decolonising imaginaries captured by techno-capitalist logic; and to rehearsal transition strategies towards technological sovereignty. This article presents the Data Control Wars case study and explains its functioning. Moreover, it sets out the theoretical scaffolding – which goes from post-human philosophy to critical design passing through the sociology of expectations – that supports it and presents some of the results. After three activations in three different contexts, Data Control Wars has proven useful as an educational tool to address the potential positive and negative effects of using data, as a space for testing strategies on transition design, as a method to identify some of the myths articulated by the social perception of the technological industry and the power of agency that we hold over it and, finally, as a device to question techno-capitalist cultural hegemony through the construction of other stories about what the technosocial body can be.

Applying Social Psychological Perspectives to the Sport Psychology Consulting Process

1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Brustad ◽  
Michelle Ritter-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Sport Psychology ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Clinical And Counseling Psychology ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Disordered Eating Patterns ◽  
Applied Sport Psychology

Psychological processes in sport are inextricably linked to the social contexts within which they occur. However, research and practice in applied sport psychology have shown only marginal concern for the social dimensions of participation. As a consequence of stronger ties to clinical and counseling psychology than to social psychology, the prevailing model of intervention in applied sport psychology has been individually centered. Focus at the individual level has been further bolstered by cognitive emphases in modem psychology. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for a balanced consideration of social and personal influences. Four social psychological dimensions of interest will be explored, including athletic subculture membership; athletic identity concerns; social networks of influence; and leadership processes. The relevance of these forms of influence will be examined in relation to applied concerns in the areas of athlete academic performance, overtraining and burnout, and disordered eating patterns. At minimum, consultants need to address contextual and relational correlates of psychological and performance issues.

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