Miu & Yeager, 2015: Emphasizing how people can change reduced depressive symptoms among high schoolers over nine months
Reference:
Miu, A. S., & Yeager, D. S. (2015). Preventing symptoms of depression by teaching adolescents that people can change: Effects of a brief incremental theory of personality intervention at 9-month follow-up. Clinical Psychological Science, 3(5), 726-743.
Download PDFSummary:
High school students who completed a 25-minute in-class paper-and-pencil or online reading-and-writing exercise at the beginning of the school year that emphasized how people can change and, thus, that bullies need not always be bullies and victims need not always be victims (Yeager, Johnson, et al., 2014) showed a 40% reduction in clinically significant depressive symptoms at 9 months later, primarily by preventing an otherwise normative increase in depression over the school year.
Psychological Process:
Need
Need to BelongWhat Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
To Feel Connected, Included, Respected, and Valued by OthersHow?
Psychological Question Addressed
Can negative relational qualities of people change?Can negative relational qualities of people change?Faciliating beliefs that sustain belonging in the face of challengesPsychological Question Addressed
Can negative relational qualities of people change?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Education; Health; Interpersonal relationships and behavior
Intervention Technique:
Increasing commitment through action, saying-is-believing