There are many reasons people decide to attend university. Some are following in the family footsteps. Others are hoping to gain the skills and knowledge to create a desirable life. Still others simply enjoy the process of learning. Regardless of your specific rationale for being a student now there is likely one long-term motivation that underscores all others: happiness.
Even for students who hope to make a pile of money as a result of their college career it is still happiness that they are aiming for. I think of happiness as the “line below the bottom line.” Although it isn’t the only desirable goal for life it is certainly a powerful universal motivator. For as important as happiness is to most people it is sometimes surprising how poorly we go about its pursuit.
You are certainly familiar with the list of common obstacles to real happiness for students: jumping through university hoops, balancing studying with a gratifying social life, maintaining your health, the boring instructor, commuting….. the list goes on. The good news is that happiness is a well-researched topic and there are a few, simple changes you can make to improve your well-being. Here are 4 suggestions:
1. START APPRECIATING THE HAPPINESS YOU ALREADY HAVE
As a happiness researcher, people often ask me about the “secret to happiness.” I am certain they expect me to say “a good marriage” or “meditate for one hour a day” as if there is a single trick or circumstance that will guarantee eternal bliss. I typically disappoint by saying “start appreciating the happiness you already have.” That’s right, in our research the vast majority of people report being mildly happy most of the time. Not perfectly happy, and not all the time. Chances are you are already experiencing many positive events—you get a great parking spot, you like the paper you wrote, you received a smile from an attractive person, you finally declared a major, you are reading an interesting book. Many studies of people who track daily gratitude, who count daily kindnesses, and who savor positive moments have all revealed that these mental habits promote well-being. So don’t wait, start noticing all the ways you are happy now and let yourself take more pleasure from them.
2. SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS OF HAPPINESS
Did you know that, where achievement is concerned, there is a magic number to happiness? It is 8. Students who report being an 8 out of 10 (rather than a 9 or 10 out of 10) on life satisfaction actually perform better at school. They have better class attendance, are more conscientious about homework and have higher GPAs! It turns out that you shouldn’t shoot for perfect, permanent happiness. Being pretty happy is good enough.
3. CONNECT
The late psychologist Chris Peterson, of the University of Michigan summed up research on happiness by saying “other people matter.” It’s true: humans are social creatures and we derive much of our happiness from social support, social interactions, and helping others. My colleagues and I discovered that it is a nearly universal phenomenon that spending money on other people pays back personal happiness dividends. Similarly, people report feeling better when they are in group situations. This is especially important to remember in the context of higher education. There can be pressure to always place study before sport or finals before friendship. Both are important.
4. BUSY ISN’T THE NEW COOL
You may have noticed that it has recently become en vogue to talk about how busy everyone is. People say “I am swamped” or “I only got 3 hours of sleep last night” as a badge of honor. A cluttered life isn’t cool; it’s a threat to health and well-being. Students who refuse to take a break, students who believe they perform better while multi-tasking, and students who over schedule are all missing easy opportunities to improve their own quality of life. Try it.
The reason all this discussion of happiness is important is because students can sometimes lose sight of this highly worthwhile pursuit. It can be very easy for students to defer happiness as an emotional finish line that happens at the end of life. The logic is this: tonight I will sacrifice sleep so I can stay up late studying. If I do that well maybe I will get into a good graduate school. If I slave away in grad school I can get an awesome career. If I get that career then, at long last, I will have fulfillment, income, and—hopefully—some time on the weekends to enjoy. That’s a lot of deferred gratification. That is, to be honest, a focus on the bottom line. Not the line below the bottom line.
[Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is the senior editor of the Noba Project and author of more than 50 publications on happiness and other positive topics. His latest book is The Upside of Your Dark Side.]
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine recently who lamented the “large classes” that she had to teach. When I asked her what she meant by large classes she said, “I have a class of 25 this semester!” Now, at many institutions, this does not seem to be “large” but, the reality is, large classes really are a matter of perspective and context and not a matter of size. Twenty-five students is really nothing at many institutions, but at others, 25 would seem positively overwhelming. No matter what the actual number is, the PERCEPTION of large classes has a tremendous impact on how a faculty member approaches any given course. In this post, I will assume that “large” is a matter of perspective and not a specific number. Rather, I will provide strategies that will minimize the potential negative impact of large classes on pedagogy and focus more on how to utilize the science of learning to maximize interactions in your class in ways that are empirically validated and effective.
PROBLEMS OF THE “LARGE CLASS”
Faculty tend to believe that there are several issues that inhibit effectiveness in large classes. These tend to involve workload issues that would prohibit the faculty member from doing things that he or she might normally do. Below, I’ll address two such issues and provide thoughts and ideas on how to mitigate against the problems that might be inherent in the large class.
GRADING
In order to manage the grading in a large class, you might consider the following tips:
1. Have a VERY structured syllabus with firm deadlines for assignments (always, of course, leave room for faculty discretion, but be pretty clear that the deadlines are the deadlines).
2. Have a variety of assessments, including both objective and subjective outcomes that can be assessed in ways that make sense (objective makes sense for content, subjective for critical thinking).
3. Have a variety of low stakes assessments (Cross & Angelo, 1988).
4. Spread assignments out across the semester as much as possible.
5. Develop peer mentoring/editing strategies if they are possible within your course.
There is a great deal of research on the effectiveness of these techniques (see Benassi, Overson & Hakala, 2014, for additional ideas with empirical support). Utilizing strategies to guard against “grading burnout” is smart, and faculty would do well to ensure that they are not assigning more than they can provide effective feedback for (see Brown, Roedigger & McDaniel, 2014). The reasons are manifold, but all seem to boil down to this: more contact with feedback enhances student learning. Sounds simple, but the right procedures need to be put in place for it to be effective.
ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES
None of the strategies I am talking about here are completely novel but all serve the purpose of engaging students in less than traditional ways. As described in much of the literature on cognition (Daniel & Poole, 2009), engagement and attention are the keys to learning. That said, the following strategies have been shown to increase engagement, attention, and learning.
1. Think-pair-share: This is a strategy where students spend a moment thinking about a topic of problem (about 2 minutes), turn to a partner and discuss it, and then report out to the rest of the group. This is a strategy that often allows students to feel more engaged in the course. And, the TPS strategy also helps engage students when followed by a report-out that requires each student to comment on something. The benefits are for the students talking and reporting out, not for the rest of the class. This also has the added benefit of allowing for misunderstandings to be described and for the instructor to correct them immediately.
2. Inter-teaching: Inter-teaching, which requires students to respond to questions prior to class and then discuss answers with fellow students in class, has been described as a way to encourage students to prepare for class. The reality is, and the evidence shows that by having students respond to questions as homework, discuss their answers and then report-out, students show increased engagement with the material and thus, seem to learn more effectively (Saville, Zinn, & Elliot, 2005).
SO, BACK TO BIG CLASSES . . .
So, how does a faculty member use these tips in their large classes? Judiciously. In fact, one of the most important things about teaching large classes is to recognize that each faculty member has a particular style that seems to work for them (or else they wouldn’t be teaching!). Use the tips that work with what you typically do and ignore the others.
Create an environment in which student learning is the goal. Create a classroom that lends itself to engagement. Create a climate that is open and conducive to student learning and work to ensure that students begin to feel involved in the classroom. As a discipline, the Science of Learning has come a long way and continues to develop empirically validated evidence for good pedagogy. Consult it often and you will reap the rewards!
REFERENCES
Benassi VA, Overson CE, Hakala CM. (2014). Applying science of learning in education: infusing psychological science into the curriculum. Retrieved from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology web site: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php.
Brown PC, Roediger HL, McDaniel MA. (2014). Make it stick: the science of successful learning. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
Daniel, D. & Pool, D. (2009). Learning for life: An Ecological Approach to Pedagogical Research. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Saville B.K, Zinn T.E, Elliott M.P. (2005). Interteaching vs. traditional methods of instruction: A preliminary analysis. Teaching of Psychology. 32:161–163.
[Christopher Hakala is Director of University Teaching and Learning at Quinnipiac University. He received his Ph.D. at the University of New Hampshire in 1995 and had previously taught at Western New England University in Massachusetts for thirteen years, and at Gettysburg College and Lycoming College, both in Pennsylvania. His areas of expertise are teaching and learning, reading comprehension and psycholinguistics. Chris has also served as Associate Editor of Teaching of Psychology and Associate Director of the Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology for the Society for Teaching of Psychology (Society for the Teaching of Psychology, APA Division 2) as well as a co-editor of the book, Applying Science of Learning to Education along with Victor Benassi and Catherine Overson.]
If you’re a student at a college or university (like me) you’ve clearly made the decision to develop new skills, expand your knowledge and put your cognitive abilities to the test. Each week your conscious mind takes on tough new challenges like group assignments, presentations and research. This is a lot of heavy mental lifting and like most students you no doubt want to be successful and do well at every task. But like it or not we’re all susceptible to cognitive biases that can trip us up by sapping our motivation and weakening our abilities. Our biases are not unique personal failings, they’re just one aspect of how all of our brains work. But all too often we’re not really aware of these biases so we don’t know that they’re hurting us and can’t take steps to change and improve. So I’d like to point out some of these biases and offer you ideas about how you can better manage them.
Psychologist Fritz Heider referred to people as Naïve scientists; we are naturally motivated to explain the cause of behavior. We can attribute the cause to internal (dispositional) or external (situational) factors. For example, if a student volunteers to be the first to give a speech in class, is it because he’s extroverted (a dispositional attribution) or is it because he was pressured to go first by the teacher (a situational attribution)? While we can make attributions about others, we can also make attributions about ourselves. These attributions can then later impact our motivation or ability to perform well on future assignments or pursue certain majors.
SELF-SERVING ATTRIBUTIONS
In self-serving attributions, students tend to attribute their successes to dispositional factors and blame failures on situational factors. For example, if you fail a test, you may tell yourself “that test was just hard.” In comparison, if you do well you might remark, “I knew I was smart.” Because both types of attributions are self-enhancing, they make us feel better and allow us to take responsibility for only the good and not the bad. Again, this is only going to help you feel better in the moment, not improve your performance later on.
This bias is also present in behavior referred to as self-handicapping. Self-handicapping is when a person creates obstacles to successful performance. For example, a student might go out partying the night before a big test. In other words, they provide themselves with a ready-made excuse for failure. Of course, if a student gets a good grade after partying all night, it makes success seem even more impressive. In this way, self-handicapping protects self-esteem and self-image. People can’t really know why you failed (including yourself!).
THE FIX?
The whole reason students go to such lengths in using biases such as self-handicapping is from the fear of negative emotions and consequences that accompany poor performance. However, social psychology shows that people are fairly bad at predicting their future emotions. This is often because we focus too much on a central feature of an event while neglecting to consider the impact of other aspects. For example, when imagining the outcome of failing an exam, we are very focused on that single failure instead of remembering all else we have going on in our lives that will help us recover and be resilient. In essence, if you can overcome the desire to self-handicap you’ll likely find that the pain of doing poorly will not hurt as much as you think. (Bonus: less self-handicapping also means more time to improve performance!)
Another helpful strategy is to focus on continual improvement through effort. Carol Dweck calls this having an incremental or “unfixed” mindset. By believing your intelligence or ability can be improved you are less likely to see exams or projects as daunting judgments about your capability. Instead you see it as helpful feedback on how you might do better in the future. If students can remember this philosophy, they stand to advance greatly in their academic careers.
OVERJUSTIFICATION EFFECT
Another attribution students can make is over the source of their motivation. For instance, sometimes we read a book because we are told to by our professor, for a grade, and other times we do it for ourselves, for enjoyment. This type of attribution can transform into a bias called the Overjustification Effect, where people underestimate intrinsic motivation and overestimate extrinsic motivation. In other words, individuals place too much importance on extrinsic rewards like good grades or compliments from a teacher.
These extrinsic rewards can destroy intrinsic motivation. A student might come to believe that, “I only read the book to get a good grade, not because I actually enjoyed it.” In essence, students ask themselves, “Why am I doing this?” If their conclusion is, “because of the external reward,” they are vulnerable to losing interest in the material or the class and ultimately decreasing their effort or performance.
THE FIX?
Take a step back and reassess what might be influencing your behavior or enjoyment of a course or the material. You once again need to think about your thinking. Try to recognize the tangential or external motivations that might be biasing you and instead come up with reasons why you enjoy the material yourself. It’s okay if you truly are motivated by the career the class will help you obtain, still an external motivation. But don’t let other indirect course aspects, such as your dislike of the teacher or your desire to earn an A, impact your judgment about the information. If you can find a way to relate the material to yourself, this is one way that can help improve your performance and enjoyment of the material.
Do you see yourself when reading about either of these common biases? If so, welcome to the human race! But there is hope for all of us. Knowing more about biases can help us do something about them. Hopefully with some of the suggestions above (and others in Part 1 of my post) you can maintain higher motivation and the ability to achieve the academic goals you’ve set for yourself!
[Stephanie D. Freis is a Social Psychology PhD student at The Ohio State University. Her interests revolve around the self, social influence, and motivation. More specifically, she is interested in the psychological experience of entitlement at the intrapsychic and interpersonal levels, as well as individual differences among grandiose and vulnerable narcissists. After graduation she hopes to obtain a university faculty position so she may continue her passion in research and teaching.]
The word educate is derived from a Latin word meaning “to draw out or to bring forth.” This understanding of education conceives of students as a well from which to draw instead of as a bucket to be filled. Specifically it casts educators in the role of calling out and nurturing students’ untapped potential. This understanding of education’s fundamental purpose is resonant with what is called the “strengths perspective.” A strengths-based approach to education rests squarely on the assumption that each student has a unique configuration of capabilities that are worthy of being cultivated.
Although there are many effective tools in education, one of the most powerful we wield to draw forth the best from our students is to offer meaningful feedback on their work. The strengths perspective suggests a method of offering students feedback that is different from many traditional approaches. In educational and work settings, a common template for offering feedback is to organize it into two broad categories: strengths and growth opportunities. For many people, as cheerful as the term “growth opportunities” may sound, this phrase evokes anything but glee because it is frequently understood to be a euphemistic catch-all used to refer to anything that is being done poorly and that requires improvement. The practice of using a category called “growth opportunities” as a repository for describing performance deficits may prompt students to think of growth opportunities and weaknesses synonymously.
THE PROBLEM WITH “GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES”
From a strengths perspective, it is problematic for students to think about their areas of deficiency as the most fertile ground in their lives from which substantive growth is likely to spring forth. Why?
The simple answer is that a student’s greatest potential growth opportunities often exist precisely within their areas of strength—not apart from them. Referring to “strengths” and “growth opportunities” as two distinctly separate entities disregards the possibility that these categories overlap. Strengths are growth opportunities in that strengths need to be continually developed and refined in order to support optimal functioning, and doing so often generates significant growth and elevated performance.
Strengths-oriented feedback can help students understand their personal strengths and resources. However, if part of our goal in offering strengths-focused feedback is to prompt students to embrace their capacity for growth and change then we must be thoughtful about how we describe and characterize their strengths.
Specifically, some of my research on strengths-based educational strategies suggests that it is critical to:
◘ Frame strengths as personal tendencies that are malleable as opposed to describing strengths as static characteristics that are either present or absent. Students who are inclined to see strengths as immutable tend not to consider the role of their own effort in producing positive outcomes.
◘ Emphasize that strengths require ongoing development. As empowering as it might seem to give students language to identify their strengths, we actually do them a disservice if we do not also help them think about ways to develop those strengths.
GIVING STRENGTHS-ORIENTED FEEDBACK
Therefore, when giving feedback it is important to attribute students’ success to strategies that student used in applying a strength to meet the requirements of the assignment. For example, this shift in emphasis can simply mean that we might help a student consider how her strong organizational skills can be further developed to enhance her writing skills or other elements of her academic work.
Students can also generate personal, self-reflective feedback that helps them contemplate how they might use their strengths more effectively. An example of how I have implemented this concept in my own teaching is that I have asked students to submit paper topic proposals that also include a brief paragraph about how the students intend to approach the research process in a way that reflects and augments their strengths.
On occasion, following the completion of an assignment I have asked students to write a brief reflective essay that addresses questions such as:
◘ "How did you leverage your strengths in the process of completing this assignment and what did you discover about yourself as you did?"
◘ or, "What did you learn about how to modulate your strengths as you worked on this project?"
◘ or even, "How did your strengths play out in the context of working with your study group?"
Students have reported to me that these brief reflections have helped them gain insight about how to use their strengths with increased understanding and proficiency.
WHAT ABOUT WEAKNESSES?
Educators who are learning about a strengths approach often wonder whether this framework requires a permanent “glass half-full” mentality that crowds out a consideration of students’ struggles and deficiencies. Although commonly misunderstood, a strengths approach does not involve ignoring problems, nor does it consist of putting a positive spin on poor performance and undesirable outcomes so as to consider them irrelevant. The contrary is true: Pioneering social work educator Dennis Saleebey once noted that “in the lexicon of strengths, it is as wrong to deny the possible as it is to deny the problem.”
What differentiates a strength approach from other feedback processes is not whether problems are addressed; what is distinctive about a strengths-based approach is how these issues are handled. Strengths-oriented feedback places a student’s capabilities, talents, values, and resources at the center of a consideration of how to address a concern or deficiency and invites the student to view these positive qualities as resources that can be used to address a challenge in novel ways. The goal is to help students understand that when trying to overcome difficulties, their strengths are their best resource.
If education truly is the process of drawing out and bringing forth the best in our students, then it only makes sense to offer them feedback that recognizes and cultivates these inherent qualities. Adopting a strengths perspective enables students to consider their problems and their possibilities in light of their strengths, ascribes dignity and value to who they are, and empowers them to take tangible action steps toward their goals.
[Dr. Michelle Louis is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Positive Psychology and an adjunct Assistant Professor at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her scholarly interests integrate psychology and higher education.]
If you are thinking about grad school you may be curious about the difference between a PsyD and PhD degree. Although I can’t tell you which program is right for you I can share a bit about what you might be able to expect from a PsyD program.
It was less than 3 years ago that I spent a ton of time researching different clinical psychology graduate programs. I made spreadsheets to visualize all of the variables at play in my decision (i.e., degree type, program focus, accreditation, curriculum, tuition rate, location, etc.). I had coffee with professors and mentors to discuss options. Ultimately, I landed in a program to attain my Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology, also known as a PsyD. I am currently in my third year and I am happy to report that I am still very satisfied with my decision.
Getting a PsyD in Clinical Psychology is somewhat similar to getting your PhD in Clinical Psychology. However, the difference lies in the focus of each type of program. PhD programs are traditionally known to help graduates become researchers first and then practitioners. This is known as the scientist-practitioner model. PhD programs typically have an acceptance rate of 1-1.5 out of 10 applicants. If you think you might be interested in working in academia (research and teaching) then you might want to consider applying only to PhD programs.
On the other hand, PsyD programs are traditionally known to help graduates become a practitioner first and then a scholar of research. This is known as the practitioner-scholar model. The PsyD degree has been around since the early 1970s, and it is supported through its accreditation from the American Psychological Association (APA) as a program that prepares graduates for careers as practicing psychologists. And, PsyD programs typically accept 4 out of 10 applicants. Sounds great, right? Well, it is important to note that, in general, most PsyD programs have higher tuition fees and fewer opportunities for funding and tuition stipends.
The design of the PsyD program (practitioner-scholar) allows more time to focus on all things clinical because there is less research work. For example, in my program we are offered a large array of training in different therapeutic techniques and many extra supervised experiences. For those of us who are fairly confident that we would like to spend a majority of our time working with clients after we graduate this is an exciting feature!
In regards to research, many PsyD programs only require a dissertation. However, some PsyD programs do require both a thesis (for the Master’s) and dissertation (for the Doctorate). Either way, if you know that your interests are in working with clients then a PsyD program should provide you with sufficient research knowledge in order to guide your clinical decisions when working with clients and to do some collaborative research work on the side, should your heart desire. Students are known to take 1-1.5 years longer to graduate in PhD programs versus PsyD program, which may be related to the time needed for the rigorous research training that PhD programs provide.
For me, it helped to know that I wanted to spend more of my time in graduate school preparing to work with clients rather than preparing to work in an academic/research setting. Additionally, it helped me to know that because I have secondary interests to do both teaching (as an adjunct professor) and research work (collaboratively with others) that I can still attain both of these goals with my PsyD. Finding the right graduate program can be very challenging, so having a having a general idea of your long-term goals in mind as you explore different programs is beneficial. And, understanding a bit about the PsyD program might be helpful as you begin your search.
Best of luck in finding the right graduate program to support your future interests!
[Cindy Marino is a PsyD student of Clinical Psychology at the Pacific University School of Professional Psychology. Her early graduate research work focused on attitudes toward sexual minorities, while her current focus is on how diversity variables relate to mindfulness. Her clinical and assessment experience has included working in various settings, including community mental health, college counseling, and private practice.]
I am a student. And like most students, I engage in a range of biases that impact my motivation and ability, interfering with my academic performance. However, I am also a social psychologist and believe that sharing knowledge about our biases can help fellow students improve and more efficiently reach their desired goals. Do any of these things sound familiar to you?
SOCIAL COMPARISONS
The root of many biases arises from the motivation to feel good about ourselves. While self-enhancing can have positive outcomes, such as a boost in confidence, it can also lead to problems including how we socially compare. Social comparisons can be functional. Let’s use an example: a student receives an 80% on her psychology exam. However, she doesn’t really know if 80% is good or bad until she finds out the class average. If 80% is the top grade in the class then she did quite well. So, social comparison helps this student understand her own performance.
Here’s the problem: who students compare to differs based on goals, and that’s where bias can come into play. What if that 80% turns out to be a middle-of-the-road score? In this case the student might look at all of her peers who earned higher grades and feel badly about herself. If her goal becomes feeling better about herself then she might be inclined to compare downward with an “at least I didn’t get a D” mentality. With this mindset you can miss the opportunity to learn from your experience and improve over the long-term.
THE FIX?
The fix-- which is easier said than done-- is to resist the urge to console yourself in the moment and instead compare to those who are similar or better-off. These better-off comparisons have the potential to be motivational and educational if you believe you can improve. Of course, those negative feelings of poor performance may still linger but they don’t need to overpower you.
You can protect yourself ahead of time through self-affirmation, by remembering the other things in life you value. In this way, you won’t feel as bad when you stumble and will be more likely to compare yourself to those who could inspire you to do better rather than those who simply make you feel better in the moment.
BETTER-THAN-AVERAGE EFFECT
At the end of the year Josie had to evaluate her peers with whom she completed a group project. Josie’s evaluation shows her performance was superior compared to the rest of the group. The problem? Each group member feels that their efforts were better than the efforts of their peers. This tendency to believe you are above average in intelligence and effort of a typical student is known as the better-than-average effect. Students often take more credit for the work they have done and the skill they possess than is actually true. While this self-serving bias can be beneficial and give you the motivation to attempt more challenging problems, it can also lead to disagreement and tension between the student and peers or the student and teacher.
THE FIX?
Stepping back and developing greater perspective can improve students’ judgments. Next time you’re studying for an exam or grading your group members, take a step back and think about your thinking. Use these questions, developed by Dr. Stephen Chew (http://www.samford.edu/how-to-study/), to help you:
1) Elaboration: How does this concept relate to other concepts?
2) Distinctiveness: How is this concept different from other concepts?
3) Personal: How can I relate this information to my personal experience?
4) Appropriate to Retrieval and Application: How am I expected to use or apply this concept?
Aside from these study strategies you can also ask yourself if you’ve overlooked your peers’ efforts. To improve group evaluations, try to see things from your group member’s perspective and think about what your group members are thinking. Engaging in metacognition will become more natural with time and can vastly help mitigate the biases we have which interfere with performance or judgments.
OK. These are just 2 of the most common biases that can give you problems. But awareness and the simple strategies above can help you manage them. Look for a follow up post in the coming weeks when I’ll discuss a couple more biases that students should be on guard against.
[Stephanie D. Freis is a Social Psychology PhD student at The Ohio State University. Her interests revolve around the self, social influence, and motivation. More specifically, she is interested in the psychological experience of entitlement at the intrapsychic and interpersonal levels, as well as individual differences among grandiose and vulnerable narcissists. After graduation she hopes to obtain a university faculty position so she may continue her passion in research and teaching.]
This year is the 10th anniversary of my Laboratory for the Study of Social Anxiety, Character Strengths, and Related Phenomena. I chose to be a scientist because of a hunger to understand the complexity of human behavior – what people do and why. I chose psychology, specifically, because of the hope that these questions and the answers gained can help reduce the amount of suffering in the world. It is wonderful to be able to ask questions that I can then test in my laboratory that might improve people’s lives. Over this past decade I’ve had some successes and failures that I thought I would share by way of offering advice on how to run a successful research lab:
My research accomplishments are a direct result of being surrounded by amazing collaborators and students. There are two moments in the scientific process that capture the essence of these unique relationships.
• Before I start any project, I meet with my research team of fellow professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students. We have provocative conversations about what we learned from prior studies in our lab, other people’s work, and observing what is happening in our daily lives. From this, we find unanswered questions, anomalies, and the unusual ideas that arise from improvisational conversations where each person builds on what was said last. These conversations spawn new research directions and concrete plans for the next study to embark on.
• When a study is complete (every research participant has been tested, every question has been entered into a database, and every bit of data has been cleaned), the denizens of my laboratory take a deep breath before pressing the enter key – to test our initial question. The results churn out, graphs are created, and we digest what has unfolded. Together, my collaborators and I interpret what we learned. In this moment we possess knowledge that nobody else knows. In this instant of discovery it is invaluable to be surrounded by other curious, passionate, hard-working characters. We consider the results from as many vantage points as possible. There is excitement. There is profanity. There is deep thinking. There is love.
So how did we create an environment where these moments are frequent and bountiful? Let me offer the following five lessons about running a successful laboratory:
1. Create a clear culture. Every member of my lab receives a 30-page handbook about what they will gain, what is expected of them, and what they can do to maximize their experience. There is a section on how the lab is first and foremost a community where each member is viewed as an integrated person with a life outside of scientific pursuits and career aspirations. Each person has a unique perspective based on their life history, personality, baseline talents and responsivity to training. These individual differences are honored but more than that, they are to be harnessed to get the best possible outcomes in all that we do. Science occurs in a social system and I constantly remind everyone to attend to relationships. Those students that are the most successful are those that form strong relationships with myself and other lab members. The only way to form these relationships is to be generous, be vulnerable, and be intentional in trying to form them. These relationships require effort and constant renewal. I am of the strong belief that your mentor should be somebody that you would want to spend time with at an Irish pub.
2. Hire well. One of the lab rules is that we will never accept jerks, even if their experience, knowledge, and strengths would be of great benefit to the projects being pursued. The interpersonal culture is too precious to afford the introduction of toxicity. No matter how much I might like an applicant, if the existing students don’t want them, they do not receive an invitation.
3. Empower people. One of the first things newbies are told is that a lack of knowledge about psychology offers an advantage in that they can recognize gaps that those of us who have read too much miss. From day one, students are encouraged to take risks, say what they think, and be willing to make mistakes. Unheard ideas/criticisms are too valuable to lose. I encourage people to be skeptical – challenging what I say, what they read, and what is the status quo in the field. Confidence and humility are both nurtured.
4. Hold people accountable. The other side of empowerment is responsibility. When somebody tries to cover up a mistake, problems multiply. In a research environment, mistakes are learning opportunities. This is not lip service, this is the reality of how scientific knowledge progresses. There is no value to pretending to know more than you actually know or to hide errors/mistakes that arise. It is essential that everyone is open about the mistakes they make to ensure a culture of candor.
5. Err on the side of generosity. Because the lab is a community, there is a responsibility to support every person and project, even if the rewards that arise are often unclear. To do this, people are expected to be visible and accessible. This means speaking up in lab, responding to emails in a timely manner, and helping in the development of ideas, projects, and analyses. This means helping in running projects, collecting data, writing, photocopying, recruiting participants, running to the library, making snack food runs, whatever gets the work done. When it does come time to offer opportunities for authorship or to lead projects, sweat equity is given heavy consideration.
It is necessary to provide a caveat that I am not the ideal mentor to everyone. I have high expectations. I expect people to produce their best possible work, regardless of whether somebody is watching them. I expect a blue collar ethic - where there is a willingness to do whatever it takes for however long it takes for a project to move forward. I expect people to have a stronger mastery orientation, where the goal is to continually learn and improve, than achievement orientation, where the goal is to collect as many gold stars and badges as possible. I expect people to be fully engaged in the lab’s endeavors. I expect people to attend to both things that matter in this career: the work itself and the relationships. I expect people to respond to feedback in a healthy manner, and offer it in a constructive manner.
I do my best to be a role model, holding myself to the same standards of excellence. And for those students who can be counted on, I open every door possible for them.
It is my hope that others create similar nurturing, cohesive, challenging environments for their students. As for students, I hope they take advantage of these opportunities as what you learn in the classroom pales in comparison to what you gain from hands-on mentoring.
[Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is a public speaker, psychologist, and professor of psychology and senior scientist at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University. His new book, The upside of your dark side: Why being your whole self - not just your “good” self - drives success and fulfillment is available from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Booksamillion , Powell's or Indie Bound. If you crunch the numbers on his history of mentoring students, in the past 3 years alone, students have been co-authors on 32 journal articles (15 with students as first author), 5 book chapters (3 with students as first author), 10 conference talks (5 with students as first author), and 31 poster presentations (30 with students as first author). He will be conducting research and communicating this work to the public until his vital organs collapse.]
The best question I was ever asked in a class came from a student who would never earn a grade higher than a B+. We were in my advanced child development course and spending the entire class period discussing a single empirical article. His question entirely derailed class discussion in such a profound way that I no longer teach that course—or any other upper-level course—in the same way.
Here is the question: How could we test whether or not the connection between social cognition and prosocial behavior is explained by language development?
If it is not immediately clear why this is such a powerful question, let’s try this modified question that he could have asked instead: Is the connection between social cognition and prosocial behavior explained by language development?
The difference, of course, is that the question my student asked was about how he could generate the information for himself, not whether or not I could give him the information. After he asked his question, we spent the rest of that class period collaboratively designing a study to address it. That class period was so challenging and rewarding for all of us that I have since begun incorporating this strategy into all of my classes.
His question gets at the very heart of what higher education should be. My goal as a professor is to foster my students’ ability to think for themselves. I want them to be able to analyze a problem and devise tests to solve the problem. Whether or not developments in prosocial behavior can be explained by language is beside the point, because my student asked a question that was designed to help him analyze and solve problems on his own. After graduation, both he and you (the reader) will have a much more difficult time getting answers to difficult and probing questions, so the wisest approach to classes should be to learn how to flourish in a world without professors.
This strategy makes the most sense for students in classes outside of their disciplines of interest. Although this student was a psychology major, he never intended to be a psychologist. Many of you are in the same boat, and likely field questions from parents and friends regarding why you’re majoring in the discipline you are. Part of your answer should be this: you are learning how to think for yourself. The analytical skills you develop in your classes will help you in any career that requires you to evaluate and solve problems. As Rachel Maddow said when addressing Stanford students, “we need people who can create things, who can come up with new content.” Your goal in your classes should not be to score a certain percentage on exams by regurgitating bits of information. It should be to develop your ability to be a creator, to come up with new content. The question, of course, is how to do this?
My advice is to begin by asking the kinds of questions my student asked. Instead of asking questions designed to give you facts that you can repeat for good grades on exams, you should opt instead to ask questions that will help you hone your critical thinking skills. Ask questions that will help you learn how to analyze problems, develop hypothetical solutions, test those solutions, evaluate the quality of the information gleaned from those tests, and communicate that information clearly in written and oral communication. And if you don’t have the opportunity to joyfully derail a class like my student did, then take the initiative to do so out of class. Visit your professor during office hours and ask your questions then. If you study in groups, ditch the flashcards and instead take turns generating questions that will force your classmates to use the course content to address a novel problem. If your study group gets stumped on a particularly good question, contact your professor (again, office hours are best!) and ask for guidance or, better yet, if you can work through the question in class. Each of these strategies will help you refine your ability to create content rather than simply regurgitate it.
You are in college to learn how to fish, not to accumulate fish. So ask questions that will help you be a better angler.
Bio
Dr. Eric Olofson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. His research investigates the development of social cognition and metaphor understanding in children with autism spectrum disorder.
Professors who are considering adopting more student-focused teaching methods often start by adding a group project to their list of course requirements. A group project can transform even the largest classes into more intimate educational undertakings. When students work and learn together in groups they can pool their knowledge and abilities, give each other feedback, and tackle learning tasks too overwhelming to face alone. Group assignments, even if they are not the most efficient way to teach content, help students develop a rare interpersonal skill—that of working effectively with others in groups.
But the professor who decides to take the “no one of us is a smart as all of us” approach may soon wonder if group activities are more trouble than they are worth. Group projects require a modicum of organizational skill, and students are often unwilling and unable to achieve the level of coordination needed for success. Too often one or more of the members does not take the work seriously, and so becomes the free rider who coasts along to the semester’s end. Interpersonal conflicts and discord often overtake groups, particularly those working on extended projects that require frequent meetings. These kinds of problems are so common that many students dread group projects as much as term papers. They worry that a group project will not only waste their time and energy, but possibly even lower their GPA. The most often heard complaint about groups: “I ended up doing all the work myself, and we still got a B- on the final project.”
Fortunately, a little tweaking of the group project assignment will do much to ensure that the limitations of group learning are minimized and the gains enhanced.
• CREATE SMALL, DIVERSE GROUPS. If groups will be working for only a short time then almost any method can be used to divide students into groups. But when groups are working on a challenging, graded task that will require extensive time investment, then care must be taken when composing the groups. If groups are formed too haphazardly some may be comprised of the most talented, hardworking students in the class, producing imbalances in group potentialities and undoing the benefits of peer-to-peer teaching. Some of these limitations are less likely in larger groups, but large learning groups face problems of their own—reduced cohesion, free riding, and too few times when all members can meet. Small (3 or 4 members) but diverse groups have a better chance of becoming cohesive and coordinated.
• CLARIFY THE ASSIGNMENT. Inserting a line in the course syllabus that states “Students will work in learning teams on a semester-long project” provides students with too little information about the assignment’s purposes and processes. A nicely detailed assignment guide, in contrast, will help students better understand the dual purposes of the assignment (to examine a course topic in depth and to develop collaborative skills), the type of projects groups will be completing (a group paper, presentation, research project, interviews, etc.), deadlines, and so on.
• SEGMENT THE ASSIGNMENT. Many professors, when they ask their students to complete a term paper, often break the task down into subtasks with specific deadlines; for example, they require students identify a topic, develop a thesis statement, annotate at least five resources, and so on. This method, applied to long-term group projects, argues for identifying graduated subgoals that must be completed at specific points in the process. Frequent, specific tasks will help the groups move forward at a more auspicious rate, but they also provide the groups with an opportunity to practice working together. Sports teams do not play a single championship game at the end of the season; instead, they practice regularly to improve their coordination and effectiveness. Similarly, project groups should perform smaller, more specific problems early on in the semester as they develop into an effectively functioning team.
• GIVE THE GROUPS A GROUP TASK. The best kinds of group projects are ones that are so challenging that students must combine their individual talents and energy to achieve the identified goal. If students are assigned divisible problems, they usually spend their first meeting splitting up the problem and assigning each part to a specific member. Nondivisible problems, such as community-learning projects, program evaluations, research studies, and so on, are harder to solve piecemeal so students must work together to complete them. The greater the interdependence required by the group project, the more likely the project will stimulate higher level learning processes, including peer-to-peer instruction, strategy formulation, improved coordination of action, conflict management, and enhanced willingness to exert effort in the pursuit of learning goals.
• CONSULT REGULARLY. Working in groups may help students develop teamwork skills, but in many cases they will need guidance as these skills develop. Some of the class’s time can be used for group meetings, but also for more general sessions that examine teamwork basics: leadership, group roles and responsibilities, process planning, communication, information technologies, and so on. Some groups, too, may require more direct coaching and supervision. A well-timed intervention (feedback, encouragement, adjustments to composition, etc.) will help the group stay on course and reach its learning outcomes more easily.
• INCLUDE PEER EVALUATIONS. One of the primary complaints about student learning groups stems from the uneven contribution of members. Some members work diligently on the group’s tasks, but others exert little effort. This tendency to engage in social loafing or free riding can be reduced if the members evaluate each other and if those evaluations influence students’ grades.
A group project, then, requires considerable care in design and implementation—but these precautions are worth the effort. In too many cases students learn just one lesson when they work on projects in groups: avoid working in groups. Would it not be better if students instead learned that groups need not be inefficient in their use of time and mediocre in their level of achievement, but when properly conceived and organized offer members an ideal means of achieving the most challenging of educational outcomes?
[Donelson R. Forsyth, a social and personality psychologist, holds the Colonel Leo K. and Gaylee Thorsness Endowed Chair in Ethical Leadership at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. A fellow of the American Psychological Association, he researches and writes about ethics, groups, and related topics. Dr. Forsyth is the author of the Noba module "The Psychology of Groups" http://noba.to/trfxbkhm]
You may be familiar with the study by Megan Oaten and Ken Cheng regarding the effects of exam stress on undergraduates. Simply put, students’ personal health and hygiene plummet during the stretch of intense testing at the middle and end of most academic terms. Specifically, Oaten and Cheng found that students drank more coffee, exercised less and decreased the frequency with which they washed their hair, brushed their teeth, and did their dishes. Gross. Even if you aren’t familiar with the study you probably have noticed some end-of-term changes in your classroom. There are more empty seats than usual. Students are more likely to pull you aside with tales of personal hardship or to ask for extensions on work deadlines. As a result, many instructors provide helpful hints for getting through exam stress. The real question is: Do instructors, themselves, follow these guidelines?
We are more like our students than we would sometimes care to admit. The end of the term represents special hardships for instructors as well: reviewing papers, tests, and group projects. Turning in grades and meeting with worried students. Plus all that holiday shopping and travel planning. Instructors are just as susceptible to feeling down, increased alcohol consumption and decreases in exercise as are students. Therefore, it might be helpful to hear a few of those tips that you sometimes tell others:
Work It Out
Moderate physical exercise is as close to a panacea as humans have. Not only is it linked to strength, immune functioning, and longevity, it is also linked to stress. It can be helpful to remember just how powerful the effects of exercise are. In “The biology of business performance” Drs. Jack Groppel and Ben Wiegand remind us that lower performing individuals tend to push harder when in stressful situations while their higher performing counterparts are more likely to take breaks and vary activities when the going gets tough. Hit the gym, take your dog on a walk, walk up and down the stairs in your psychology department—doing something is better than nothing.
Counter the Negative with Compassion
Health psychologist Sarah Pressman offers this difficult-to-hear but very helpful advice: “remember that psychological stress and its effect on your body are predominantly in your head.” It may be that your students asking for deadline extensions or their sub-standard writing skills are not actually part of a plot to drive you crazy. People have a tendency—when in “complaint mode”—to exaggerate their own stress. Try swapping out a focus on your woes with attention to the temporary nature of the problem, with compassion for your students, and with a reminder of how wonderful and privileged it is to be a university instructor.
Don’t Give in to the Dark Side
You know the phrase "misery loves company." It turns out that people who complain seek out the validation of others. They are less interested in solving their problems than they are in hearing that they are correct. You can ease your own stress by gravitating toward more upbeat colleagues and minimizing contact with the curmudgeons.
What Works for You?
Whether you’re new to the teaching game or a seasoned veteran, we’d love to hear the kinds of things that you do to stay psychologically and physically strong during the most hectic periods of the academic calendar. Please leave us comments/ideas on our Facebook page.
[Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is the senior editor of the Noba Project and author of more than 50 publications on happiness and other positive topics. His latest book is The Upside of Your Dark Side.]
