Abstract
What do people infer from task difficulty? Does it suggest that the task is not for them or does it suggest that they should try harder? What determines which interpretation is chosen and what are the behavioral consequences? The speaker will review a program of research that highlights the role of the identity relevance of the task in this context. When success at a task is identity-congruent, the task seems important and worth the effort. When success at a task is identity-incongruent, the task seems essentially impossible for people like oneself and hence not worth the effort. Contextual cues influence which interpretation of experienced difficulty is accessible at the moment, and this contextual sensitivity renders the interpretation of difficulty highly malleable. Because people differ in the likelihood of being in contexts that cue one or the other interpretation, contextual influences can result in apparently stable between-group differences. The speaker will present experiments from this ongoing line of research that highlight both the malleability of interpretation and the possibility that effects are in part culture- and social identity-bound, in that some cultures and social identities may reinforce one interpretation over the other. Interpretation of difficulty affects students' possible selves and academic performance, as shown in experiments with college students and children in high poverty contexts. Correlations with related constructs are considered and implications for intervention described.
About the speaker
Prof Daphna Oyserman received her PhD in Social Psychology and Social Work from University of Michigan in 1987. She served on the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before returning to University of Michigan, where she last held appointments as the Edwin J. Thomas Collegiate Professor of Social Work, Professor of Psychology, and Research Professor in the Institute for Social Research. She moved to University of Southern California in 2013 and is currently the Dean’s Professor of Psychology, Professor of Education and Communication and Co-Director of Dornsife Center for Mind and Society. She is also an affiliated Research Professor in the Institute for Social Research at University of Michigan.
Prof Oyserman’s research focuses on the situated and contextualized nature of identity and self‐concept and the role of identity‐based motivation in cognitive processes and action, including effects on self‐regulation and effective pursuit of important life goals. She also investigates these theoretically related issues in a number of domains usually treated as independent areas of research.
Prof Osyerman is the recipient of the W. T. Grant Faculty Scholar Award and the Humboldt Scientific Contribution Prize of the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and Society for Experimental Social Psychology.
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