Does instrumental motivation help students with low intrinsic motivation? Comparison between Western and Confucian students

The research examines possible differences in the mutual reinforcement (i.e. multiplicative) effect between intrinsic and instrumental motivation on academic performance across different cultures. Eight representative countries and economies from two large-scale databases—the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012—were used, respectively. Results showed that among the Confucian economies, instrumental motivation was more helpful in improving the mathematics performance of students with low intrinsic motivation than for those with high intrinsic motivation. This was shown by the multiplicative effect between intrinsic and instrumental motivation. Despite the difference, students in both Confucian and Western cultures with high intrinsic motivation had better mathematics performance than students with low intrinsic motivation.     

Neighborhood Violent Crime and Academic Performance: A Geospatial Analysis

Decades of empirical work have confirmed that experiences with violence are associated with a variety of adverse behavioral and mental health as well as academic outcomes for children and adolescents. Yet this research largely has relied on indirect measures of exposure. In this study, we apply geospatial analysis to examine the relation between neighborhood violent crime (via police reports) and academic performance (via school-level standardized test proficiency rates). Findings suggest that greater numbers of crimes proximal to school buildings relate to lower levels of academic performance. These results persisted even when controlling economic disadvantage in the student body. Implications for research and policy are discussed.     

An Analysis of the Status and Stability of the Behaviors of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties

Students with emotional and behavioral problems are placed in a variety of classroom settings, presumably where their needs can be best served. Little attention, however, has been dedicated to monitoring their behavioral progress in these settings. This study analyzed data on student engagement, disruption, and destruction during 10 types of instructional activities. Data were collected at two times across one academic year in Pennsylvania and California in 90 classrooms, ranging from grades 1 to 12. Tests of mean comparisons (i.e., independent samples and paired t-tests) and the association between variables (i.e., bivariate correlation analysis) were conducted to address a number of concerns regarding the status and stability of classrooms for students with EBD. Independent paired sample t-tests showed a lack of significant improvement in behaviors across time, and the correlational data reflect a significant relationship between student engagement and classroom activity. Findings are discussed in light of limitations and directions for future research. In addition, practical implications are noted.     

Competencies for Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (AHCs)

This paper begins by providing the landscape that undergirds the competency-based movement within professional psychology education, training, credentialing, and performance appraisal. Attention is then paid to the relevance of this culture shift for psychologists working as practitioners, educators, researchers, and administrators in AHCs. In this regard, there is an articulation of the essential subcomponents of each of the core foundational and functional competency domains that are salient for AHC psychologists. Implications of the competency-based movement for professional psychologists in AHCs are offered. This paper is based in part on the first author’s plenary address at the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers Midwinter Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 2007.     

Psychologists in Academic Health Centers: Reflections on Traditions and Innovations in Education,Science, and Practice

In 2007, the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC), formerly known as Association of Medical School Psychologists (AMSP), held its first national conference since 1997. At the latter conference, the author of this article [Sheridan (1999) Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 6, 211–218] was asked to present some of the issues that would be important to health care psychologists in the next decade. These issues included the role of psychology in academic health centers, interventions psychologists offer, reimbursements for such treatments, education and training models, and research. This article examines those observations, offers new data, and explores the current challenges and opportunities for psychologists in academic health centers. The presentation also addresses aspirations of psychologists as well as resistances within the profession. Parts of this paper were delivered at the 3rd Conference of the Association of Academic Health Center Psychologists in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2007.     

Familism as a Predictor of Parent–Adolescent Relationships and Developmental Outcomes for Adolescents in Armenian American Immigrant Families

We investigated associations between familism, parent-adolescent relationships, and developmental outcomes for a sample of 97 Armenian adolescents in immigrant families. Our results suggested that adolescents emphasizing family needs over their own were more likely to report conformity to parents’ wishes, respect for parental authority, and disclosure to parents about activities. Familism was also related to self-esteem in a positive manner, and a negative association was found between familism and self-derogation. Additionally, our results suggested that familism may have indirect associations with self-derogation via more collectivistic parent–adolescent relations. An unexpected finding emerged as conformity to parental expectations was positively associated with self-derogation. This finding undermines the argument that familism benefits adolescents and may point to potential feelings of ambivalence for adolescents from immigrant families trying to balance cultural values of parents with those of mainstream American society.     

Predicting achievement, distress, and retention among lower-income Latino youth

This study used structural equation modeling to evaluate whether a combination of social cognitive and self-determination theories [Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1987). The support of autonomy and the control of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1024–1037] would effectively predict high school students’ distress, achievement, and retention. Participants were 427 predominately Latino youth from an inner-city low-income high school. Results indicated that students who reported feeling connected to teachers and their school reported higher levels of autonomous motivation for attending school. Students reporting higher levels of autonomous motivation for attending school reported more confidence (i.e., self-efficacy) in their academic ability, and performed better academically. In addition, students who reported higher self-efficacy beliefs reported less physical and psychological distress and reported higher levels of achievement. Retention in school was predicted by a combination of achievement and the absence of physical/psychological distress. Implications for practice and further research on urban high school students’ academic development are described.     

Does mentoring matter? A multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals

The study of mentoring has generally been conducted within disciplinary silos with a specific type of mentoring relationship as a focus. The purpose of this article is to quantitatively review the three major areas of mentoring research (youth, academic, workplace) to determine the overall effect size associated with mentoring outcomes for protégés. We also explored whether the relationship between mentoring and protégé outcomes varied by the type of mentoring relationship (youth, academic, workplace). Results demonstrate that mentoring is associated with a wide range of favorable behavioral, attitudinal, health-related, relational, motivational, and career outcomes, although the effect size is generally small. Some differences were also found across type of mentoring. Generally, larger effect sizes were detected for academic and workplace mentoring compared to youth mentoring. Implications for future research, theory, and applied practice are provided.     

Perceived fit with an academic environment: Attitudinal and behavioral outcomes

Because person–organization fit relates to important outcomes, and because fit is a time-dependent process, there exists a need to model longitudinal data related to fit. In a multi-university sample (N = 1174), we tested hypotheses concerning person–organization fit and various behavioral and attitudinal outcomes; correlations between changes in these variables over time, and the correlates of these changes. Using autoregressive modeling and latent growth curve modeling, results indicated that academic fit leads to academic satisfaction, which in turn leads to turnover intent, and to a lesser extent GPA and class absenteeism. Changes in academic fit correlated highly with similar changes in satisfaction and GPA and with opposite changes in turnover intent. Academic satisfaction did not correlate with subsequent organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as predicted; changes across these domains were significantly related, but were small. Consistent with our hypotheses, Realistic interests correlated negatively with changes in academic fit and satisfaction. Investigative interests were correlated positively with changes in fit and initial satisfaction levels. We conclude by discussing implications, limitations, and future research concerning the longitudinal analysis of person–organization fit.     

Can fixed views of ability boost performance in the context of favorable stereotypes?

Prior research has demonstrated that stereotypes affect negatively stereotyped groups in part through the implied immutability of group members’ abilities. Accordingly, a belief that ability is malleable through effort and hard work has been shown to boost the performance of negatively stereotyped groups. We predicted, however, that among favorably stereotyped groups, a belief that ability is fixed would reinforce the immutability of the group differences upon which stereotype-induced social comparisons are made [Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2003). Stereotype lift. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 456–467] and result in enhanced performance. We found experimental support for these predictions in two favorably stereotyped groups in math: Asians (Study 1) and men (Study 2). Perceived difficulty of the math test helped explain the performance effects in Study 2. Implications of schooling emphasizing innate ability for exacerbating achievement gaps are discussed.