WISE INTERVENTIONS

<go to database

Haynes et al., 2006: Attributing academic failure as unstable and controllable improved grades among highly optimistic undergraduate

Reference:

Haynes, T. L., Ruthig, J. C., Perry, R. P., Stupnisky, R. H., & Hall, N. C. (2006). Reducing the academic risks of over-optimism: The longitudinal effects of attributional retraining on cognition and achievement. Research in Higher Education, 47(7), 755.
Download PDF

Summary:

Undergraduate introductory psychology students who reported being relatively less successful in their psychology course so far and either at the top or bottom third of a dispositional optimism scale took part. In the treatment condition, students received a handout containing two lists of possible attributions for poor academic performance, one external/uncontrollable attributions (e.g., “I failed the test because it was too difficult”) or controllable attributions (e.g., “I failed the test because I did not study enough”). The experimenter then described changing the former attributions to the latter. Next, participants summarized the main points of the handouts and described how it applied to their own academic experiences. As compared to a randomized control condition, this treatment increased final grades in psychology and first-year grade-point average for over-optimistic students.

Psychological Process:

What Desired Meaning is At Stake?

What is the Person Trying to Understand?

Selves (My Own and Others')

Approach to Desired Meaning

What about it?

Changing beliefs about ability or potential

Psychological Question Addressed

Does struggling mean I can’t do it?

Psychological Process 2:

Need

What is the Person Trying to Understand?

What Desired Meaning is At Stake?

What Desired Meaning is At Stake?

What About it?

Approach to Desired Meaning

Approach to Desired Meaning

How?

Psychological Question Addressed

Psychological Question Addressed

Psychological Question Addressed

Psychological Process 3:

Heading

What Desired Meaning is At Stake?

Approach to Desired Meaning

Heading

How?

Heading

Heading

Social Area:

Intervention Technique:

Share This Post:

Posted By:

Greg Walton & Timothy Wilson