Changing environments by changing individuals: The emergent effects of psychological intervention
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The two studies reported here tested whether a classroom-based psychological intervention that benefited a few African American 7th graders could trigger emergent ecological effects that benefited their entire classrooms. Multilevel analyses were conducted on data that previously documented the benefits of values affirmations on African American students’ grades. The density of African American students who received the intervention in each classroom (i.e., treatment density) was used as an independent predictor of grades. Within a classroom, the greater the density of African American students who participated in the intervention exercise, the higher the grades of all classmates on average, regardless of their race or whether they participated in the intervention exercise. Benefits of treatment density were most pronounced among students with a history of poor performance. Results suggest that the benefits of psychological intervention do not end with the individual. Changed individuals can improve their social environments, and such improvements can benefit others regardless of whether they participated in the intervention. These findings have implications for understanding the emergence of ecological consequences from psychological processes.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | December 15, 2015 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Powers, Joseph T. |
|---|---|
| Author | Cook, Jonathan E. |
| Author | Purdie-Vaughns, Valerie |
| Author | Garcia, Julio |
| Author | Apfel, Nancy |
| Author | Cohen, Geoffrey L. |
Subjects
| Subject | treatment density |
|---|---|
| Subject | affirmation |
| Subject | stereotype threat |
| Subject | ecological effects |
| Subject | emergence |
| Subject | intervention |
| Genre | Article |
Bibliographic information
| Related Publication |
Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 261–302). Berkeley, CA: Academic Press. Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. (2006). Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention. Science, 313, 1307–1310. doi:10.1126/science.1128317 Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Apfel, N., & Brzustoski, P. (2009). Recursive processes in self-affirmation: Intervening to close the minority achievement gap. Science, 324, 400–403. doi:10.1126/science.1170769 Cook, J. E., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., & Cohen, G. L. (2012). Chronic threat and contingent belonging: Protective benefits of values affirmation on identity development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 479–496. doi:10.1037/a0026312 |
|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/kj139yr8851 |
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- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Powers, J. T., Cook, J. E., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Cohen, G. L. (2015). Changing environments by changing individuals: The emergent effects of psychological intervention. Psychological Science. doi: 10.1177/0956797615614591
Collection
Graduate School of Education Open Archive
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- jpowers1@stanford.edu
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