Economic disadvantage as a threat to adaptive adequacy : the role of self-affirmation in improving cognitive and academic performance of the poor
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In this dissertation I examine how the experience of economic disadvantage reduces mental bandwidth because it serves as a threat to adaptive adequacy. In chapter 1, I review the contextual factors of poverty in the home, educational, and work settings, and the associated cumulative threats to adaptive adequacy, followed by a summary of the cultural and psychological experiences of economic disadvantage. In chapter 2, I present four studies that correlationally and experimentally test the theory that economic disadvantage serves as a threat to adaptive adequacy and that affirming the self helps buffer low-income but not high-income individuals from the effects of these threats on cognitive functioning. Study 1 shows that lower income individuals in an online sample report having greater sources of threat to adaptive adequacy in their lives, and that these threats help explain why lower income individuals engage in less long-term financial planning. Study 2 experimentally manipulates the experience of self-affirmation in a field study and shows that affirmation moderates the relationship between income and cognitive performance after reflecting on threatening financial scenarios. Study 3 replicates this effect, and shows that affirmation boosts cognitive performance for low-income individuals in the face of threat, but not when participants are exposed to easier financial scenarios. Study 4 is a longitudinal study that examines the effects of affirmation over half a year, and also looks at the correlates of mental bandwidth on important life outcomes. Chapter 3 examines the practical implications of these self-affirmation processes in another cultural context of economic disadvantage with low-income further education college students in the UK. I present findings from over 120 interviews on the psychological barriers to success in this context in Study 5a. I then review correlational results from a survey in Study 5b, where I find that sources of affirmation strongly predict self-reported academic performance above other important psychological constructs. Finally, in Study 6, I present results on a one year registered randomized control trial of a values affirmation intervention on course pass rates and attendance for almost 4,500 students across 13 further education colleges and find that the intervention significantly boosted pass rates by 24% (4.2 percentage points), and especially improved performance for the most economically disadvantaged groups, namely Black Caribbean students and older adults.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Schwalbe, Michael Chaim |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Cohen, Geoffrey |
| Thesis advisor | Cohen, Geoffrey |
| Thesis advisor | Markus, Hazel Rose |
| Thesis advisor | Ross, Lee |
| Degree committee member | Markus, Hazel Rose |
| Degree committee member | Ross, Lee |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Michael Schwalbe. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Michael Chaim Schwalbe
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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