Report of the First Annual Psychology in Action Forum

Report of the First Annual Psychology in Action Forum Student Perspectives on Psychology and West High School 2014-2015

Table of Contents

Expected and Accepted: How Sexual Microaggression Has Become the Norm in Schools Mareda Smith, Angie Kalweis, Emmy Brady, and Rosa Loops

3

The Effects of Class Size on the Classroom David Kim and Spencer Roetlin

6

Alleviating Stress Produced in the West High School Environment Minsu Song, Mariah Weston, and Jesse Gray

9

Nudging Students to Healthier Food Options Max Fennel-Chametzky, Aaron Clickenbeard, and Ryan Ruckdaschel

12

Power School Problems: How being Constantly ‘In the Know’ Can Cause Students to be Constantly On the Edge Abby Walling and Hannah Twitchell

15

Attitudes Toward Intelligence and Class Participation Megan Jans and Lushia Anson

18

2|Psychology In Action

Expected and Accepted: How Sexual Microaggression Has Become the Norm in Schools Action Research by Emmy Brady, Mareda Smith Angie Kalwies & Rosa Loops Introduction to the Problem While sexual harassment is a topic that still carries a significant stigma, many workplaces and colleges have recognized that it is an issue and have begun implementing systems to address it. What has not been effectively recognized and addressed, is the presence of such offensive interactions in high school hallways and classrooms. It is important to realize that while this harassment may not be readily identified as a problem in schools, it is just as prevalent there as it is in the rest of society. Many times this harassment takes the more subtle form of microaggressions- derogatory slights, snubs, or insults that aren’t usually seen as a “big deal” by teenagers who encounter them every day. This, however, doesn’t mean that they aren’t harmful to both the victim and the perpetrator.

Here at West High, 38% of students have been catcalled at school (Robles & Dobre, 2014).Because students are inundated with sexual innuendos and so-called compliments in the media at an early age, they are already fairly desensitized to such behavior by the time they enter middle school. Inappropriate interactions in movies, TV shows, and magazines set a social script for how men should treat women. A behavioral or social script is a series of behaviors, actions, and consequences that are expected in a particular situation or environment. These scripts teach students that objectification of women and explicit comments about their bodies are acceptable and normal. Increased prevalence of derogatory remarks in social settings also contribute to observational learning of such behavior.

Increased desire to fit in with peers also contributes to sexual microaggressions in schools. Students use sexually disparaging humor to reaffirm their place among peers. In order to maintain their “in” status, they must model the group prototype, which often includes sexual humor and discrimination towards women. The more a member exemplifies the norm, the stronger they connect to their peers, leading to larger scale discrimination.

Due to deindividuation, each group member feels more comfortable participating in and continuing these acts when in larger groups or teams of peers.

Research Review Recent research reinforces that victims of sexual harassment experience significant psychological harm.

In one study, those who had experienced sexual harassment were significantly more likely to score positive for psychological impairment compared to participants who had not experienced sexual harassment (Mantel, 2014).

While sexual harassment affects both males and females, females are significantly more likely to be victims of this type of harassment (Mantel, 2014).

One of the reasons sexual harassment is such a problem in schools could be that many schools do not have a designated way of addressing sexual harassment. In a focus group study of staff members at four Midwestern public schools, staff members reported receiving much more guidance on how to combat bullying than on how to deal with sexual harassment (Cowen, 2014). Staff members also tended to define sexual harassment as something that occurs between adults and children (Cowen, 2014). Such research shows the lack of information staff members at public schools currently receive on how to address sexual harassment.

A now-famous experiment on the powers of conformity was done by Solomon Asch. The outcome of Asch’s experiment gave concrete evidence to the powers of conformity. If one person defects from the group norm, the chances of others defecting is 4%, where if at least three defect from the group, the likelihood of others following suit increases by 32%. While this contributes to increasing instances of sexual harassment because of students’ need to conform, it can also work against sexual harassment in the same way. In theory, if members of a group begin breaking the mold, others will likely follow.

Among those recognizing the need to address bystander conformity is the University of Kentucky’s Green Dot organization. This program focuses on reducing sexual harassment and violence by increasing and promoting bystander intervention. The Green Dot program focuses on developing programs, strategies, and 3|Psychology In Action

training courses designed to address personal-based violence across all cultural settings. Green Dot then provides training for individuals to apply their knowledge to their specific situation. This organization has been proven very affective by a five-year study conducted by the U.S CDC (Center for Disease Control). The study conducted by Ann Coker, from the University of Kentucky’s Center for Research on Violence Against Women, showed results that 50% of sexual violence had been reduced after experiencing the Green Dot program through their high schools. (Closest Green Dot program to Iowa City is in Council Bluffs, IA. provided by Catholic Charities) Solution While this is a complex issue, there are several basic steps that could be taken to discourage future sexual harassment at West High: • Establish and advertise a way to report incidents, increasing likelihood that incidents will be reported, and decreasing the stigma attached to reporting someone. This can assist in writing a new social script for how to respond to sexual harassment.

• Establish a voluntary student club or organization with students passionate about eliminating sexual harassment in the school, and train them on how to handle situations they encounter. This would include equipping students with the knowledge and courage to break the bystander effect and say something when they observe someone being harassed. These students would also provide an effective positive example for the rest of the student body, improving behavior through observational learning of appropriate and respectful behaviors.

• Once a positive example has been established, administrators should work to eliminate the delay between when incidents are reported and when they are addressed. This step should not be executed as a sole approach to reform, as sexual harassment is a complex behavior and may not be fully extinguished through this method. Research shows that behavior conditioning is most effective when punishment is presented immediately following the behavior, allowing the subject to properly correlate the punishment with the behavior. Punishment should be used with discretion in order to avoid behavior discrimination.

• Coordinate with directors of The Green Dot program to have the program implemented at West High School. This organization would help and teach students how to respond on witnessed or experienced harassment.

Conclusions and Considerations In summary, increasing bystander intervention would be helpful in reducing sexual harassment at West High. By establishing a student-led organization that focuses on confronting sexual harassment, the current bystander effect would be diminished because students would know how to intervene more effectively if they see an incident occur. Coordinating with The Green Dot program could help West High to lessen this bystander effect even further, as it has been successful in other schools. An important first step to decreasing sexual harassment at West High would be to initiate and perpetuate an ongoing conversation within the community in order to change the school’s cultural norms. West High has been successful with eliminating bullying by educating staff and students about the adverse effects and creating a culture of zero-tolerance. If we open the conversation about sexual harassment in the same way we have with bullying, we could create an environment in which all students feel empowered and safe.

4|Psychology In Action

Works Cited Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority.Psychological monographs: General and applied, 70(9), 1-70.

CHARMARAMAN L, JONES A, STEIN N, ESPELAGE D. Is It Bullying or Sexual Harassment? Knowledge, Attitudes, and Professional Development Experiences of Middle School Staff. Journal Of School Health [serial online]. June 2013;83(6):438-444.

COWAN, J. (2014). WHAT WE GET WRONG ABOUT SEXUAL HARASSMENT. Canadian Business, 87(14), 4.

Forsyth, D. R. (2004). Inferences about Actions Performed in Constraining Contexts: Correspondence Bias or Correspondent Inference?. Current Psychology, 23(1), 41.

Hautala, K. (2014, September 10). 'Green Dot' Effective at Reducing Sexual Violence | UKNow..

Mantel, B. (2014, October 31). Campus sexual assault. CQ Researcher, 24, 913-936.

Martin, J. L. (2009). Reclaiming feminism: a qualitative investigation of language usage by girls in a high school women's studies course. Girlhood Studies, 2(1), 54+.

Steinberg, L., & Monahan, K. C. (2007). Age Differences in Resistance to Peer Influence. Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1531–1543. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1531 Teen Health and Wellness. (2015). Sexual Harassment. The Rosen Publishing Group.

Thomae, M., & Pina, A. (2015). Sexist humor and social identity: the role of sexist humor in men's in-group cohesion, sexual harassment, rape proclivity, and victim blame. Humor: International Journal Of Humor Research, 28(2), 187-204. doi:10.1515/humor-2015-0023

5|Psychology In Action

The Effects of Class Size on the Classroom Action Research by David Kim and Spencer Roetlin Introduction West High is a wonderful school with a diverse range of opportunities available to all students who attend. West offers many college courses with money saving credits and caring instructors at the fingertips of over twenty-five hundred pupils. However, new research in various subfields of psychology has elucidated our understanding of how large class sizes can decrease the efficacy of student engagement and learning. As a preface to the substance of our paper, we would like to say that we understand the existence of budgetary constraints outside the bounds of our control, however, we hope this presentation can help stress to you the importance of maintaining small class sizes in any way possible, as you have the greatest likelihood of being able to make a change.

Research Review The Tennessee STAR experiment, conducted in 1989, is one of the first well designed experiments to ever be done on the issue of class size and learning. It’s results will form the basis for our argument. The researchers found that a class size of around 17 pupils in English and Mathematics classes obtained statistically significant higher levels of achievement over individuals in class sizes of around 23 pupils, individuals from ethnic minority groups benefited the most from small class sizes (Finn and Achilles, 1999, Nye et al, 2000).

Three years after the experiment ended and the students returned to regular classes, a follow up study found that the increased level in achievement in students who had the smaller class size had remained, thus proving that class size provides not only a high magnitude impact on student learning, but one that is lasting (Word et al, 1990).

The amount of attention that each student receives seems to play a critical role in the amount of information that is learned and retained. One explanation for this is that when the student is interacting with the teacher in a discussion of the subject or concept being learned, they are actively applying it rather than just trying to remember definitions. This helps with retention and recall of knowledge. However, with larger class sizes the teacher is forced to divide his or her attention to a greater number of students, leading to a decreased amount of attention per student in a given class period. The decreased amount of attention then also leads to a decreased relationship between the student and the teacher, making it harder for the teacher to address specific needs that a student may have. This is directly related to an concept in the subfield of cognitivist psychology referred to as selective attention, the fact that it is neurologically impossible for any given individual to focus on more than one thing at a time.

Although class size does not necessarily inhibit or prevent knowledge acquisition or memorization of facts, it does decrease the ability of students to gain valuable critical thinking skills. Fischer and Grant found that class size has a significant impact on the way students think about a question posed (Fischer et al, 1983).

They found that in a small classroom (15 or less students) the displayed an average level (using Bloom’s taxonomy) of thinking of analysis. Students in medium sized classes of about 16-45 students showed a lower level of thinking and comprehension, and in large classes, the students displayed the lowest level of thinking, factual recall. Levels of processing, or the depth of thinking about the information, is also important as it correlates directly to retention of the information by the levels-of-processing effect. The levels-of-processing effect simply stated is just that the more complex the manner in which you interact with a concept the stronger memory you will have of it.

The reduced responsibility and accountability that stems from deindividuation also seems to play a role in the behavior of students in a larger classroom. As classes increase it also increases the amount of unruly behavior, such as poorer attendance, louder packing up of books a few minutes before the end of class, more cheating on exams, and more off-task behavior during discussions and group activities. This is explained through a diffusion of responsibility as students in large classes feel like there is more anonymity and that their actions are less notable leading to incivility.

6|Psychology In Action

From past research the optimal class size seems to be a class size of 15 students. Although further research is needed to confidently determine the class threshold, some research that supports the number of 15 was conducted by Fischer and Grant (1983) stating that a class size of 15 significantly affects thinking in class.

Light also found in his research that there is a strong positive correlation between small classes (15 and fewer) and overall college satisfaction and retention of information (Light et al, 2001). Lastly, the National Educational Association also endorses a class size of 15 as optimal for students at the pre-college level (NEA et al, 2003).

In 2010 a wide reaching survey was taken, polling students, teachers, and parents of students on the various impacts they perceived when the class sizes of the students in question were reduced to 15-17 pupils.

The results are overwhelmingly positive. Teachers, students, and parents from eight school districts, 24 schools, and 84 classrooms all made claims that lower class sizes resulted in a student population that was more actively engaged in learning, and that the quality of the relationship between the students and teachers significantly increased (Bascia, 2010).

Besides the fact that a good student teacher relationship is an intrinsically good thing to strive for, it does also have tangible benefits to the classroom environment and student learning. When students care what their teachers opinions of them are, and when they inundate these relationships with value, it makes it less likely that they will disrupt class and more likely that they will attempt to legitimately succeed and engage in academically productive and topical discussions during class time, rather than misbehaving.

Solution The research supports that reducing class sizes will improve many aspects of student’s ability to learn and the amount they accomplish in a class. However, a decrease in class sizes would entail that more teachers would need to be hired, and that more classrooms would need to be made available, which is not very practical as there have been recent budget cuts in the district.

In light of the previous statement we posit a method of coping with large class sizes. More group work.

One reason students don’t learn as well in large classes is because the classes usually become lecture format (Boyle and Nicol, 2003). This has pros and cons, but one major detriment is that lecture style teaching doesn’t allow students the ability to discuss or apply concepts that they are learning about. In a study conducted in 2003 it was found that students who were given large amounts of time in focus groups comprised of peers, not only developed an enhanced understanding of the concept in question, but were also more engaged in the class and motivated to learn (Boyle and Nicol, 2003). Students and teachers alike maintained that student focus groups allowed them to discuss problems in more detail, look at alternative viewpoints, and critique each other (Boyle and Nicol, 2003).

Conclusion As stated, a small classroom is vital in helping facilitate an ideal learning environment. Through smaller classrooms, a higher level of thinking is used by students to better retain info and improve critical thinking skills, students are better able to get the help they need through increased individual attention from teachers, and there is a lessening in disruptive behavior as students become more responsible for their actions in class.

Students classroom experiences in high school can impact their achievement many years down the road (Finn and Achilles, 1999).

7|Psychology In Action

Works Cited Bascia, N. (2012, November 05). Reducing Class Size: What do we Know? Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://www.classsizematters.org/research-and-links/ Boyle, J. T., & Nicol, D. J. (2003). Using classroom communication systems to support interaction and discussion in large class settings. Research in Learning Technology, 11(3). doi:10.3402/rlt.v11i3.11284 Finn, J. D., & Achilles, C. M. (1999). Tennessee’s class size study: Findings, implications, misconceptions.

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 21 (2), 97–109.

Nye B., Hedges, L.V. & Konstantopoulos, S. (2000). The effects of small classes on academic achievement: the results of the Tennessee class size experiment, American Educational Research Journal, 37, 1, 123-151.

Word, E.R., Johnston, J., Bain, H.P., & Fulton, B.D. (1990). The State of Tennessee’s Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) Project: Technical Report 1985-90. Nashville, Tennessee State University.

Fischer, C. G., & Grant, G. E. (1983). Intellectual levels in college classrooms. In C. L. Ellner, & C. P. Barnes (Eds.), Studies of college teaching: Experimental results. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath.

Light, R. J. (2001). Making the most of college: Students speak their minds. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

NEA (2003). Class size. Retrieved July 12, 2004 from http://www.nea.org/classsize/ Carbone, E. (1999). Students Behaving Badly in Large Classes. In University of Wisconsin STOUT. Retrieved from http://www.uwstout.edu/ Zakrajsek, T. (2007, May 7). Effective Teaching When Class Size Grows. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2007/may-07/effective-teaching-whenclass-size-grows.html

8|Psychology In Action

Alleviating Stress Produced in the West High School Environment Action Research by Minsu Song, Mariah Weston, and Jesse Gray Introduction to the Problem When asked in a survey why they were stressed, 46 out of 56 West High students gave answers including references to school and homework. This is an overwhelming majority that contradicts adults’ claim that the teen years are the “best years of life.” According to the American Psychological Association, young adults are often more stressed than adults. The stress is typically due to the balancing act of schoolwork, extracurricular activities and jobs, and can lead to negative consequences. While stress is a normal part of life, and even one of the best motivators, the amount of stress seen lately has reached a dangerously high level.

Research in the psychoneuroimmunology field indicates that stress may lead to many health risks, both physical and mental, such as weight gain and depression.

West High is an extremely highly achieving school, but the competitive environment can cause stress which can decrease academic performance. Stress is a large problem in the high school population, but what can we as a community do to help alleviate stress in teenagers? It is important to try and help those with higher amounts of stress in order to help them regain mental and physical strength so that they will perform at their highest level.

Research Review Numerous studies have shown stress to be the cause of many mental and physical health issues. Partially as a result of stress, the majority of high school students get well below the National Sleep Foundation’s recommended amount of sleep for their age group, which is between 8.5 and 9.25 hours per night (Czeisler 2015). Although this may seem like an overestimate, sleep is extremely important for brain development and the formation of new memories, both of which allow students to be successful in school (Myers 2014). Mental health issues are on the rise among teenagers, including those leading to self-harm and suicide. Stress can also cause many physical symptoms (Myers 2014). For example, stress causes the release of the hormone cortisol, which increases hunger and can therefore cause weight gain, an epidemic problem in our society. Other physical symptoms include weakened immune system, which can cause missing school for illness, and over time heart disease and diabetes.

School-related stress is clearly an issue. Seventy two percent of students in a study of several collegepreparatory schools reported being often or always stressed by their schoolwork (Galloway, Conner, Pope 2013). Furthermore, 82% reported experiencing at least one symptom of stress in the month prior to the study.

Homework is a major cause of this stress, with 68% of students reporting that schoolwork kept them from sleeping most or every night, 63% reporting that homework kept them from spending time with family and friends, and 61% felt they had to stop participating in an activity they enjoyed; this makes sense given that students said they had an average of 3.11 hours of homework each night. The result of their homework therefore not only causes stress directly but also decreases their social support and stress-relieving activities, both of which can help prevent complications of stress. Many would argue that homework’s benefits to education mostly outweigh the potential harmful effects, but the advantages are actually not solidly proven. In the Galloway study, students only rated their vast amount of homework as somewhat helpful for their understanding of the material. Even more, there is an inconsistent connection between homework and achievement, with its benefits appearing to plateau when students have more than two hours per night, probably because its negative effects start to become more prevalent (Cooper 2001). One reason that homework may not be all that helpful is that students are not as engaged in their homework as they are in other activities outside of school.

Although these statistics originate from a study of private schools, we believe the environment and therefore stress levels are likely similar to those at West High because of the high levels of academic achievement and competition. In a survey of West High students, the majority of students rated their stress during the school year at an eight out of ten or above. Conversely, they rated their stress around a three out of 9|Psychology In Action

ten during the summer. This evidence shows that stress reduction is a very important and relevant topic that West High should consider for the health and success of its students.

Despite the great prevalence of stress in high school, it is equally or more common in college settings.

According to the Monitor On Psychology, September 2014 issue, over half of all college students report having felt overwhelming anxiety as a result of schoolwork; this contributes to the 8% increase in mental health help seeking in the past three school years (Novotney 2014). However, according to Louise Douce, PhD, “[students] need to be physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually well” to “learn at their peak capacity” (Novotney 2014). For this reason, it is extremely important that students are taught coping methods early in life.

They will need to apply these skills to reach their full potential in high school and beyond.

Solutions Based on the above research, four possible interventions, which could be implemented in conjunction with each other or independently, are: 1) Teachers could provide an approximate amount of time that would be spent on homework for their class in class registration information. Although guidance counselors already advise students on the weight of their schedule, this will help students to be able to plan how much time they will need to set aside for their separate classes and will help them understand how demanding each class will be. As a result, students can sign up for a class load that they can handle and will not bring them a great amount of stress.

2) Instead of the current schedule, school could start an hour later on Thursdays rather than being released an hour sooner. This will enable students to catch up on REM sleep which will be greatly appreciated at that point in the week. Due to stress and a large homework load, students sacrifice sleep and health for grades (Galloway 2013). This deprivation affects their ability to retain information and perform cognitively. REM sleep is necessary to encode memories from the previous day into long-term memory, to rebuild tissue and heal the body, and the amount of REM sleep increases during the average night of sleep. When someone has been deprived of REM sleep, he or she will experience a greater proportion of REM sleep at a later time, which is called REM rebound (Myers 2014). However, this important sleep is only gained if a person sleeps more fairly soon after he or she is deprived of it. Having a day during the week to sleep in would then be extremely helpful towards students getting enough REM sleep, which would decrease their stress levels and help them perform better in school, thus further reducing stress.

3) PE teachers should teach meditation as a unit in class in order to educate students on proper techniques.

Once taught, the first ten minutes or so of class should be dedicated to meditating as to relax the students.

This would help students clear their minds and relieve the stress produced during the school day. According to the Harvard Health Letter, meditation helps calm the sympathetic nervous system response and therefore decrease levels of epinephrine and cortisol, both which have harmful side effects (Magic 2013).

4) During the required health class at West High, a unit covering how to cope with stress and the importance of sleep should be incorporated into the curriculum. In addition, West High could adapt a miniature version of the Mindfulness training that is offered at the University of Iowa. These topics could easily be added onto the nutrition or wellness unit. This would inform students of the numerous negative effects of stress on the body and mind, so they learn not to overexert themselves. It is important that students learn not only how to eat healthfully and obtain active habits, but it is crucial that students learn how to control stress levels in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Conclusions and Considerations School-related stress has influenced many students in the past and will continue to influence incoming students. Learning to cope with stress will also benefit students in the future as they deal with higher education, workplace, and personal stress. To maintain and even increase the health of students, it is important that West High continues to keep an open mind on the consequences of being overstressed. Through minor reforms, West High can be a safe, positive environment to all its students.

10 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

Works Cited American Psychological Association Survey Shows Teen Stress Rivals That of Adults. (2014, February 11).

Retrieved May 11, 2015, from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/02/teen-stress.aspx Battis, L. (2014, April). Calm The Hell Down! Men’s Health. Retrieved May 12, 2015.

Cooper, Harris. "Homework for All--in Moderation." Educational Leadership (2001): 34-39. Web. 12 May 2015.

Czeisler, C. A., PhD, MD. (2015). Duration,timing and quality of sleep are each vital for health, performance and safety. Sleep Health, 5-8. Retrieved May 13, 2015.

Galloway, M., Conner, J., & Pope, D. (2013). Nonacademic Effects of Homework in Privileged, HighPerforming High Schools. Journal of Experimental Education, 490-511. Retrieved May 6, 2015.

The magic of mindfulness. (2013). Harvard Health Letter, 6-7. Retrieved May 14, 2015.

Myers, D. G. (2014). Module 38: Stress and Health. In Psychology: Tenth edition in modules. New York, NY: Worth Pub. Novotney, A. (2014, September). Students Under Pressure. Retrieved May 11, 2015, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/09/cover-pressure.aspx

11 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

Nudging Students to Healthier Food Options Action Research by Max Fennel-Chametzky, Aaron Clickenbeard, and Ryan Ruckdaschel Introduction The Iowa City Community School District is already one of the leading school districts in terms of healthy food choices and consumption. They provide ample healthy options for students to choose from. The only thing left to do is make sure students choose those options over their less healthy counterparts. New research into the psychology of choice architectures on changes in healthy behavior may be yielding the results needed to ensure that West High students choose the right option most of the time.

Choice architecture is the idea that behavior can be changed in a predictable way by changing the environment within which people make choices. By implementing this technique in the lunchrooms at West High, attempts can be made to nudge students to the “right�, or healthy, decisions. To correctly nudge, choices must not be limited. Instead, factors are used, in this case relating to nutritional value of food, to make people believe that they are causing themselves to make the write choice, which they are. They just must not think there is intervention.

This paper will outline the current research on choice architecture and its link to food choice, and then see how this could be used at West High.

Research Multiple studies have been performed exploring the topic of healthy eating choices amongst individuals, with many using the concept of choice architecture and its effect in healthy eating.

Research has been practiced to seek out possible change in healthy behavior by simply making minor adjustments to the environment of those who are purchasing and consuming food. For example, placing less healthy food options further away from consumers in a cafeteria may find quick results in the influence of what is being purchased and subsequently eaten (Hollands et al, 2013). When making these changes, it’s proposed that little conscious engagement is required by the individual to notice the effects due to automatic and unconscious psychological processes (Hollands et al, 2013). By moving unhealthy food options away from the students of the West High cafeteria, students will unconsciously alter their food intake on a basis of level of proper nutrition and health as they avoid seeking out desserts and other unhealthy options that are outside desirable distance.

Further research has explored shelf placement and categorization of foods as factors in healthier choices.

Nudging people towards certain choices can be strongly impacted by categorization cues, causing a change in mindset (Yanping, 2014). Similarly, by manipulating the assortment of food at check-out counters, researchers may determine how consumers selectively choose a snack to eat (van Kleef et al). In one study done by van Kleef and colleagues, researchers manipulated the accessibility of snacks on a shelf. Healthier snacks were place on high shelves (eye-level) rather than lower levels. Availability of snacks was manipulated by the assortment structure- offering either a 25% or 75% assortment of healthy snacks. Results found that people were more likely to choose healthier snacks from assortments that contained 75% healthy foods. In short, students at West High are more likely to choose healthy snacks when they were more prevalent and appealing.

Additional studies have added to the argument that visibility is key when choosing healthy food. A study performed by Thorndike was split into two phases. In Phase 1, foods were color labeled (red=unhealthy, yellow= less healthy, and green=healthy) and Phase 2 consisted of making healthier items more visible and convenient for consumers to see and buy. Results found that green items sold rose to nearly 50% during phase 1 and 2 (Thorndike et al, 2012). If foods are labeled accordingly and made more visible to students, one should see a general rise in the level of healthy food intake amongst those attending West High.

Research has shown solid evidence as to when it is best to present a stimulus in order to change a behavior. While trying to get students to use stairs instead of an elevator, signs promoting the use of stairs were placed at different points along the route. Signs that were placed such that they were seen at the key point of choice between stairs and elevator showed the most change made in actual choice (Lewis et al, 2012). This can 12 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

be extrapolated to the school environment and promote the use of posters placed at the point of decision making that will nudge students in the direction of a healthy choice.

Solution Based on the above research, there are several clear improvements that could be made.

When receiving the main school meal, a fruit or vegetable should be directly placed onto the plate or tray. This would make more people eat the fruit instead of throw it away because it would be considered as part of the main meal. (Thorndike et al, 2012) At the a la carte food locations, we could influence more healthy food choices in students by placing the healthier choices in easier to notice locations. Having the salads in view instead of the cookies would lead to more salad consumption (van Kleef et al, 2012). “A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.

To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates.

Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.�

-Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein If we let students know they have time to eat their fruit and still eat everything else only in the lunch duration, they would not put it off as something they can just do later and would eat their healthy fruit during lunch. If they did not eat the fruit during lunch it could be eaten later but may easily just be thrown out. This would guarantee more eaten fruits. (Tu, Soman, 2014) If the school put in place a system that labeled foods as healthy or unhealthy, there should be an increase in healthy options selected, and a decrease in the less healthy options. (Thorndike et al, 2012) Having these symbols shown at the same time the choice of what food students would like is being made would have the biggest impact.

The use of posters has been found to influence decision making, especially at the point of the decision.

Posters can therefore be placed near or in the direct sightline of the a la carte stands and in the lunch lines to promote the choice of a healthy item over an unhealthy one (Lewis et al, 2012).

Conclusions and Considerations Healthy eating is an important feature of a long and healthy life. Unfortunately, many teenagers believe that healthy eating is not necessary, a product of their recency bias regarding their active metabolisms. To promote healthy eating at West High without the students necessarily knowing what is going on, we proposed an intervention in the lunch room using choice architecture supported by ample research in the field of behavior psychology. The results of our research can be measured by how much fruit and vegetables are now either eaten or taken compared to before the intervention.

13 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

Works Cited Hollands, G. J., Shemilt, I., Marteau, T. M., Jebb, S. A., Kelly, M. P., Nakamura, R., & ... Ogilvie, D. (2013).

Altering micro-environments to change population health behaviour: towards an evidence base for choice architecture interventions. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 1-13. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-1218 Lewis, A., & Eves, F. (2012). Prompt before the choice is made: Effects of a stair-climbing intervention in university buildings. British Journal Of Health Psychology, 17(3), 631-643. doi:10.1111/j.20448287.2011.02060.x Thorndike, A. N., Sonnenberg, L., Riis, J., Barraclough, S., & Levy, D. E. (2012). A 2-Phase Labeling and Choice Architecture Intervention to Improve Healthy Food and Beverage Choices. American Journal Of Public Health, 102(3), 527-533. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300391 van Kleef, E., Otten, K., & van Trijp, H. M. (2012). Healthy snacks at the checkout counter: A lab and field study on the impact of shelf arrangement and assortment structure on consumer choices. BMC Public Health, 12(1), 1-10. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12-1072 YANPING, T., & SOMAN, D. (2014). The Categorization of Time and Its Impact on Task Initiation. Journal Of Consumer Research, 41(3), 810-822.

14 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

Power School Problems: How being Constantly ‘In the Know’ Can Cause Students to be Constantly On the Edge Action Research by Abby Walling and Hannah Twitchell Introduction to the Problem Coming into the world, humans have an innate desire to learn, improve, and prosper. Once children start going to school this intrinsic, or internal, motivation to learn is rewarded; however, reward in this instance is not as good as it sounds. Students receive arbitrary letter grades to reward their obtained knowledge or punish their misunderstanding. This in an example of operant conditioning, where positive behaviors are rewarded while negative behaviors are punished with the intent being rewarded behaviors will continue and punished behaviors will cease (Myers, 2014). Due to this operant conditioning paradigm, motivation to learn is changed from intrinsic motivation for competence and skill to extrinsic motivation to receive feedback in the form of a letter.

Reinforcing something that should be internally rewarding in itself is known as the overjustification effect.

Unfortunately, this often causes people to stop doing the action, for example learning, once they are not being reinforced (Weaver and Watson, 2004).

It would be very difficult to remove the presence of grades in society today, because they provide important indicators for a person’s intelligence and are usually predictively valid for future educational success.

However, there are ways to minimize the overjustification effect. In West High School, students always know exactly what their grade percentage is in each class, thanks to PowerSchool. Therefore, if a student is on the border of an A, they may stress out for the next month until they get their grade back up. On the other hand, if a student has a solid A, they may not try as hard to learn the material, thus removing a great opportunity to learn.

This means that students know exactly how much effort they must put forth in order to reach their goal grade point average. Always being in the ‘know’ causes students to obsess over their grade and stop caring about actual learning that should be done in school. Therefore, our research question is: How can we limit focus on grades and encourage intrinsic motivation?

Research Review Research on the effect of grades on student’s motivation, self-esteem, and self-efficacy illuminates how a student who is obsessed with grades may make choices solely based on their grade point average without considering their underlying understanding of the material. This research also shows the unfortunate development of learned helplessness and self-fulfilling prophecies in tandem with constantly plummeting grades.

In one research scenario, Shim Sungok and Allison Ryan studied the “Changes in Self-Efficacy, Challenge Avoidance, and Intrinsic Value in Response to Grades” (Sungok, Shim, and Allison Ryan, 2005).

They conducted a longitudinal study of 361 college students before and after their mid-term assessment. They found most students have achievement goals striving either for mastery that comes with knowledge, or demonstration of their knowledge in the form of grades. They found that students who have performance goals based on their grades are so fixed on their fear for failure that they avoid challenges for the ‘easy A’. This shows the aversive effects constant feedback can have on naturally nervous and self-defeating students.

However, people with a mastery goal have motivation regardless of a grade and possess an intrinsic value for knowledge. Schools should focus on increasing the number of students with a mastery attitude by removing the constant stress of grades.

In another correlational study, Pei-Hsuan Hsieh researched how student’s self-beliefs and academic performance changed based on their grades (Hsieh, 2012). The study found a correlation of -.33 of test anxiety for midterm exams meaning that the more anxious a person is for a test, the worse they will do. There is also a -.80 correlation between midterm grade and personal control. A correlation close to one means that there is a high chance that one factor predicts the presence of the other. Therefore, a correlation of -.80 means that if a person feels little control over their school performance, there is a high chance that their overall grade is lower.

15 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

This phenomenon leads to a development of learned helplessness, exemplified by a student who receives a bad grade then feels they have no way to fix their grade and so give up on learning the material completely.

Learned helplessness also leads into a self-fulfilling prophecy in which a student receives a bad grade, starts to feel helpless to fix their grade, gives up, and continues to receive bad grades, making their overall grade worse.

In college and beyond, there is more to life and success than only obtaining a good grade. For example, in a Gail Horowitz’s interviewing study, she found that 32 percent of male pre-med students were mastery oriented and strove to increase their knowledge on the subject(Horowitz, 2009). On the other hand, 13 percent of the students were only extrinsically motivated, meaning that they would take easy classes to get an A or would avoid a challenging (albeit interesting) class if they did not think they would receive a good grade. This is very unfortunate because instead of learning for the joy of knowledge, many students only care about the token economy of grades and the overvalued “A” label.

Intervention The main solution is to remove the extrinsic motivation of grades. However, completely removing grades would be very hard to do as many universities and employers base their decision on grades. Therefore, two less extreme options are possible.

Only allow students to see their grades at midterm and the end of the trimester. This will ensure that students do not base their effort level on their transient grade. Students should have a general idea how they are doing in the class, but not have their percentage grade available all the time.

In West High, the all students who have a GPA of 4.0 are valedictorians. However, this honor should be based on more than grades. The students should not only base their achievement on the grade, but on how well their know the material and if they challenge themselves. Therefore, the valedictorian should be a student or students who accept challenges (as opposed to getting the easy A) and have achievements outside of school and grades. This will put less pressure on students to achieve all A’s and allow them to study, learn, and grow their intrinsic motivation.

Discussion In West High and many other high schools today, too much emphasis is placed on grades. This produces an overjustification effect and facilitates changes from intrinsic motivation to learn to extrinsic motivation to receive a good grade. Overjustification paves the way for learned helplessness and self-fulfilling prophecy development, leading to lowered motivation to learn in high achieving students once the reinforcing grade is removed. This issue can be mediated by only showing students their grades at the middle and end of the trimester to see their performance but remove the focus from percentage grades as a major motivational factor.

Valedictorian selection should also be based on achievements rather than grade point average alone in order to encourage students to challenge themselves throughout high school.

16 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

Works Cited Horowitz, G. (2009). It's Not Always Just About the Grade: Exploring the Achievement Goal Orientations of Pre-Med Students. Journal Of Experimental Education, 78(2), 215. doi:10.1080/00220970903352746 Hsieh, P. (., Sullivan, J. R., Sass, D. A., & Guerra, N. S. (2012). Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Beliefs, Coping Strategies, and Academic Performance: An Evaluation of Theoretical Models. Journal Of Experimental Education, 80(2), 196. doi:10.1080/00220973.2011.596853 Myers, David G. Psychology: Tenth Edition in Modules. New York, NY: Worth Pub., 2014. Print.

Sungok, S., & Ryan, A. (2005). Changes in Self-Efficacy, Challenge Avoidance, and Intrinsic Value in Response to Grades: The Role of Achievement Goals. Journal Of Experimental Education, 73(4), 333.

Weaver, A. D., & Watson, T. S. (2004). An Idiographic Investigation of the Effects of Ability and Effort-Based Praise On Math Performance and Persistence.

Behavior Analyst Today, 5(4), 3

17 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

Attitudes Toward Intelligence and Class Participation Action Research by Megan Jans and Lushia Anson Introduction Participation in the classroom is vital for a student’s school experience to be as productive and enriching as possible. For instance, group projects teach collaboration and personal responsibility. One-on-one interactions with teachers and peers facilitate scaffolding, a type of social learning in which one learns to do a task by interfacing with somebody more knowledgeable (Jacobs, 2012). Asking questions trains one to think scientifically and individualistically, and sharing one’s work helps foster the sense that one is not only growing as an individual but making real, tangible contributions to society as a whole (Jacobs, 2012).

Unfortunately, Western schools and teachers frequently fail to create environments in which all students feel comfortable participating. When teachers are too authoritarian and rigid, or when students do not have the opportunity to make mistakes during the learning process without being penalized, students keep their hands and heads down for fear of failing or looking stupid. While West High and its teachers work hard to create open, safe classroom environments, they certainly are not perfect. In this paper, we outline environmental factors at West that discourage student participation and propose solutions for these problems.

The Importance of Attitudes Toward Intelligence Carol Dweck posits that there are two basic belief systems regarding attitudes toward one’s intelligence.

Some believe that intelligence is static, a trait one is born with. Others believe that with effort, one’s intelligence can grow. Students who believe that intelligence is fixed are primarily preoccupied with maintaining the appearance of “being smart” in class and receiving affirmation from peers and teachers. Therefore, when entering a class, the fixed believer’s focus is not on the actual learning itself, but on his or her performance, whether through always knowing the “right answer” or getting a good grade. These students are prone to becoming anxious that any mistakes, wrong answers, or imperfections in general will embarrass or humiliate them, causing them to withdraw from class participation as to avoid the risk of “looking stupid.” They will not ask questions, raise their hands, or offer their opinions for fear of being judged. If a fixed believer repeatedly encounters struggles, she will give up and fall into a pattern of learned helplessness, convinced that any efforts to improve would be futile since her level of intelligence is purely innate. In contrast, students who believe that intelligence can grow strive to truly “get smarter,” or acquire more knowledge, and they are unafraid to ask questions, make mistakes, or get advice on difficult assignments. Because they know that, through hard work, one's intelligence can grow, and that a single mistake does not determine whether or not one is smart, they are much less afraid of erring in front of others (Dweck, 2006).

Problems at West In a survey compiled by West Side Story, West High’s school newspaper, students from a variety of grade levels and backgrounds anonymously submitted answers to the prompt “I Wish My Teacher Knew…”

Although the survey was unscientific and was not large enough to accurately represent the West High population, a recurring theme among the students who submitted responses was feelings of anxiety during class, as well as being afraid to raise their hand or give wrong answers for fear of looking stupid. “I wish my teacher knew that when you call on me, I’m not raising my hand because I don’t know, not because I’m lazy. [I'm afraid] I will guess and embarrass myself,” wrote one student. “I wish my teacher knew that I don’t mean to purposefully sound stupid in class,” wrote another. “I don’t mean to sound like I’m not listening. I just don’t get it” (Anson, 2015). This unwillingness to take risks or ask questions is indicative of a fixed-intelligence attitude among students at West High. The tendency of students to categorize themselves as “stupid” or incapable after offering a wrong answer is an example of the reinforced beliefs that lead to learned helplessness that can manifest itself when fixed attitudes toward knowledge are accepted.

We were not able to conduct any controlled experiments regarding these problems, so we cannot claim to know the precise causes. However, we can speculate based on our own experience and conversations with other students. Jacobson, Jones, and Pickens (2013, 2004, 2009) suggest in their writing that teacher behavior is 18 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

key in either discouraging or encouraging student participation, and the most effective teaching style is one of empathy, enthusiasm, acceptance, and openness to new ideas. In many classrooms, the teacher occupies a position of dominance or indifference; when they ask questions, they look for the right answer rather than a unique, insightful, or creative one, and they make limited efforts to engage with students who seem difficult (e.g. quiet students who do not raise their hands, or high-energy students who create disruptions). This brings us to what we believe might be another cause: the type of participation expected from teachers is too narrow to be effective for all adolescents.

Students who are shy or anxious in temperament may be uncomfortable speaking to the whole class.

Students who struggle to process information quickly may not always be ready to raise their hands. In essence, the current paradigm for facilitating participation works well for students who believe intelligence can grow and do not worry over erring, but fails to change the perspectives of students with fixed attitudes by providing too few opportunities for students to feel safe making a mistake. The challenges of teaching, especially in a school with growing class sizes, understandably facilitate this dilemma, but we propose some solutions that may be easier for teachers to consider as they interact with their students.

Solutions First, we propose that teachers take the time to reflect on their own attitudes toward intelligence, as well as that of their students, perhaps even incorporating a class discussion at the beginning of the year. Teachers could ask students to define their meanings of effort, resilience, intelligence, and perseverance to get a general idea of their students' attitudes toward intelligence and learning. Knowing this information, teachers could then try to guide their students toward definitions that establish more of a growth-minded view of intelligence rather than a fixed view.

Additionally, during class discussions and activities in which student participation is required, teachers should take care to foster an open-minded environment, asking open-ended questions to take the focus off of giving the “correct” answer and instead gaining insight from students’ opinions and thought processes. Using open-ended wording draws out not a specific right or wrong answer but opens the door for original and truly scientific reasoning. “Wrong” answers should be seen as a learning opportunity and a chance for the teacher to shed light on possible areas of confusion, or even think about the question posed in a new way. Jones stresses the importance of not limiting the students’ thought processes with preconceived ideas of right and wrong.

“Adopt a non-authoritarian, non-judgemental, non-censorious stance; avoid imposing any particular order or limitation on discussion content; avoid imposing any particular view, doctrine or solution” (Jones, 2004).

Additionally, teachers should be sure to affirm students not only for giving an answer they perceive as good but for participating at all. What we suggest is not blind praise but acknowledgement of when a student is applying herself, which can eliminate the cycle of learned helplessness and foster feelings of self-efficacy.

We also present a number of ideas that are more concrete and easier to implement. To facilitate participation, teachers could offer ways for students to participate besides in the traditional raise-your-hand-andspeak fashion. For example, teachers could use clickers to make students’ answers anonymous and thus reduce the pressure to have the right response. Essentially, clickers cause deindividuation, the process in which a person feels decreased responsibility for their actions and is thus more willing to act. Another form of alternative participation teachers at West could use is graffiti walls, in which each student works alone or in a small group to develop their response for a question, and puts that work on display on a poster or chalkboard.

The class then proceeds to analyze the responses and look for similarities and differences between them. This method allows students more time to think through answers, and it also takes the focus off identifying a single correct response and puts it on the process of getting to the answer. In fact, graffitti walls can demonstrate that there is not always a single way to think about a problem but many other valid ways, too.

19 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n

Works Cited Anson, L. M. (2015, May 4). #IWishMyTeacherKnew: West High Edition. Retrieved May 12, 2015, from wsspaper.com Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.

Jacobs, G. E. (2012). Models of power and the deletion of participation in a classroom literacy event. Journal of Research in Reading, 35(4), 353-371. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01470.x Jacobson, M. D. (2013). Afraid of Looking Dumb. Educational Leadership, 40-43. Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://ebscohost.com Jones, S. A. (2004). Attitudes, inclusion and widening participation: A model of interactive teaching and leadership. Westminster Studies in Education,27(2), 157-173. doi:10.1080/0140672042000277107 O'Connor, K. J. (2013). Class Participation: Promoting In-Class Student Engagement. Education, 133(3), 340344.

Pickens, M., & Eick, C. J. (2009). Studying Motivational Strategies Used by Two Teachers in Differently Tracked Science Courses. The Journal of Educational Research, 102(5), 349-362. Retrieved May 8, 2015.

20 | P s y c h o l o g y I n A c t i o n