In this chapter I describe the school-to-jobs intervention, a brief inter¬vention that translates... more In this chapter I describe the school-to-jobs intervention, a brief inter¬vention that translates the components of identity-based motivation (IBM) into a testable, usable, feasible, and scalable intervention for use in schools and other settings to improve academic outcomes. To develop the intervention, I took the core IBM principles and translated them into a framework and set of activities that have coherence and meaning. These core principles, as detailed in Chapter 1, are that identities, strategies, and interpretations of difficulty matter when they come to mind and seem relevant to the situation at hand. Because thinking is for doing, context matters, and identities, strategies, and interpretations of difficulty can be dynamically constructed given situational constraints and affordances. Therefore the framework and set of activities I developed were sensitive to the context in which education and educational success or failure occurs, the processes by which children succeed or fail to attain their school-success goals, and the action children need to take if they are to succeed. The intervention was fully tested twice (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006; Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee, 2002), using random assignment to control (school as usual) and intervention conditions so that it would be possible to know whether the effects were due to the intervention and not to other differences in the children themselves. Importantly, the tested intervention was manualized and fidelity to both manual and underlying theorized process was also tested. In these ways, the intervention stands as a model for development. STJ is currently being used in England and in Singapore. Each country gives the intervention its own name to fit the context. This chapter is divided into three parts. In the first part, I outline the choices I made in developing the intervention. In the second part, I outline the sequenced activities that constitute the intervention (they are detailed in the manual that forms Chapter 4). In the third part, I describe the evidence that the intervention succeeded in changing academic outcomes and that changes occurred through the process predicted by IBM.
Abstract We build on identity-based motivation theory to integrate research on in-person and virt... more Abstract We build on identity-based motivation theory to integrate research on in-person and virtual learning environments so that we can articulate which features of virtual learning environments are likely to support or impede learning and identity exploration. Although students experience their identities as stable anchors for meaning-making and action, they construct what their identities mean in contexts. How students respond to the difficulties they encounter in their learning environment depends on whether they see engaging with schoolwork as an identity-congruent “us” or “me” thing to do. When engagement feels identity-congruent, students interpret the difficulties they encounter as signs of task importance. This interpretation fosters further engagement. When engagement does not feel identity-congruent, students interpret their difficulties as meaning that the task is not for them and disengage. Accessible norms about how learning works further influence these interpretations. Learning takes time and requires opportunities for active retrieval and use in novel settings. Hence, learning often feels difficult. Unfortunately, learning environments often convey that learning should feel easy and happen quickly. Learning environments conveying learn-through-difficulty norms support difficulty-as-importance interpretations. In contrast, learn-with-ease norms foster difficulty-as-impossibility interpretations. We discuss implications for learning, identity exploration, and the design of learning environments of taking an identity-based motivation perspective.
Over the past 20 years, community mental health services have enabled individuals with severe men... more Over the past 20 years, community mental health services have enabled individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) to spend more time in the community and to have greater opportunities to face normal developmental life tasks. Currently, women with SMI appear to be as likely to have children as women in the general population. Although these mothers tend to be single parents, often live in inadequate housing, have small social networks, and lack social and emotional supports, they have received little treatment attention. This article presents a systematic review of literature published in the past decade that describes interventions for mothers with SMI. These interventions are critiqued, and implications for future interventions are drawn using a psychiatric rehabilitation framework.
In this chapter I describe the school-to-jobs intervention, a brief inter¬vention that translates... more In this chapter I describe the school-to-jobs intervention, a brief inter¬vention that translates the components of identity-based motivation (IBM) into a testable, usable, feasible, and scalable intervention for use in schools and other settings to improve academic outcomes. To develop the intervention, I took the core IBM principles and translated them into a framework and set of activities that have coherence and meaning. These core principles, as detailed in Chapter 1, are that identities, strategies, and interpretations of difficulty matter when they come to mind and seem relevant to the situation at hand. Because thinking is for doing, context matters, and identities, strategies, and interpretations of difficulty can be dynamically constructed given situational constraints and affordances. Therefore the framework and set of activities I developed were sensitive to the context in which education and educational success or failure occurs, the processes by which children succeed or fail to attain their school-success goals, and the action children need to take if they are to succeed. The intervention was fully tested twice (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006; Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee, 2002), using random assignment to control (school as usual) and intervention conditions so that it would be possible to know whether the effects were due to the intervention and not to other differences in the children themselves. Importantly, the tested intervention was manualized and fidelity to both manual and underlying theorized process was also tested. In these ways, the intervention stands as a model for development. STJ is currently being used in England and in Singapore. Each country gives the intervention its own name to fit the context. This chapter is divided into three parts. In the first part, I outline the choices I made in developing the intervention. In the second part, I outline the sequenced activities that constitute the intervention (they are detailed in the manual that forms Chapter 4). In the third part, I describe the evidence that the intervention succeeded in changing academic outcomes and that changes occurred through the process predicted by IBM.
Abstract We build on identity-based motivation theory to integrate research on in-person and virt... more Abstract We build on identity-based motivation theory to integrate research on in-person and virtual learning environments so that we can articulate which features of virtual learning environments are likely to support or impede learning and identity exploration. Although students experience their identities as stable anchors for meaning-making and action, they construct what their identities mean in contexts. How students respond to the difficulties they encounter in their learning environment depends on whether they see engaging with schoolwork as an identity-congruent “us” or “me” thing to do. When engagement feels identity-congruent, students interpret the difficulties they encounter as signs of task importance. This interpretation fosters further engagement. When engagement does not feel identity-congruent, students interpret their difficulties as meaning that the task is not for them and disengage. Accessible norms about how learning works further influence these interpretations. Learning takes time and requires opportunities for active retrieval and use in novel settings. Hence, learning often feels difficult. Unfortunately, learning environments often convey that learning should feel easy and happen quickly. Learning environments conveying learn-through-difficulty norms support difficulty-as-importance interpretations. In contrast, learn-with-ease norms foster difficulty-as-impossibility interpretations. We discuss implications for learning, identity exploration, and the design of learning environments of taking an identity-based motivation perspective.
Over the past 20 years, community mental health services have enabled individuals with severe men... more Over the past 20 years, community mental health services have enabled individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) to spend more time in the community and to have greater opportunities to face normal developmental life tasks. Currently, women with SMI appear to be as likely to have children as women in the general population. Although these mothers tend to be single parents, often live in inadequate housing, have small social networks, and lack social and emotional supports, they have received little treatment attention. This article presents a systematic review of literature published in the past decade that describes interventions for mothers with SMI. These interventions are critiqued, and implications for future interventions are drawn using a psychiatric rehabilitation framework.
Abstract. Insufficient attention to political ideology as an organizing axis reduces predictive p... more Abstract. Insufficient attention to political ideology as an organizing axis reduces predictive power. Jost (2017) makes a significant contribution by outlining and documenting a set of relationships among personality factors, attitudes, values, and conservatism. The value of this approach is highlighting the possibility that ideology sticks when it fits features of the individual and hence has an enduring quality. This approach needs to be balanced by consideration of the power of the immediate situation to define what an identity means and the potential universality of many features associated with conservatism. We discuss both using identity-based motivation theory as our organizing framework.
American culture highlights the power of individuals to steer their own course and be masters of ... more American culture highlights the power of individuals to steer their own course and be masters of their own destiny. In this cultural context, lack of prestige, power, status, or success is negatively marked (stigmatized); low place in social hierarchy is taken to imply some deficiency in the persons who occupy this place. At the same time, low place in social hierarchies (low socioeconomic status, being a member of a negatively valued social group such as a racial-ethnic or sexual orientation minority) can limit chances to make choices and have control. In this chapter, we examine the health consequences of the interplay between these factors using identity-based motivation theory (IBM), which is a social psychological theory of human motivation and goal
Life’s course is uncertain and the full extent of one’s strengths and capacities cannot be known ... more Life’s course is uncertain and the full extent of one’s strengths and capacities cannot be known in advance. Failures along the way provide chances for learning and refocusing and choices are not cost free –taking one course means not taking another. Moreover, some choices are costlier or riskier than others, making it all the more important that to the extent possible, people are given the right to make their own choices and experience their own failures. These ideas are at the core of Corrigan’s edited book, Person-Centered Care for Mental Illness. Medications come at the cost of side effects for physical health, libido, and cognitive capacity; treatments are either not evidence-based or have failed to show consistent results or have not been tested for consequences for quality of life. Yet for patients, investing time and energy in treatment has opportunity costs – other treatments cannot be pursued at the same time, investing time and resources in one set of goals, means not investing in another set of goals. Of course, trying does not mean succeeding, but failing to try because one is working on someone else’s goals seems tragic. The alternative, as Corrigan’s important book describes cogently, is person-centered treatment --providing treatment focused on the patient’s possible selves, and accepting that medication adherence may or may not be something the patient wants at any particular time.
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