tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6451967208270832502.post7309288994889205224..comments2024-03-27T03:22:41.073-07:00Comments on Psych Your Mind: In Just 1 Hour: Reducing the Achievement GapAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08931064542755278772noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6451967208270832502.post-52888163619485620082012-03-12T15:46:01.482-07:002012-03-12T15:46:01.482-07:00Thank you for your comment, MF. I appreciate your ...Thank you for your comment, MF. I appreciate your interest! <br /><br />The sample was drawn from two cohorts of incoming students at a selective university. Students were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups to minimize the influence of other student characteristics (which should be randomly distributed across conditions). There were two groups against which the treated students were compared: 1) students in the control group and 2) students from the same class year and ethnicity who did not participate in the study (but for whom anonymous GPA data was obtained). The use of random assignment and two comparison groups helps isolate the effect of the intervention.<br /><br />The intervention seemed to affect students in a few different ways (described below), which then yielded cumulative effects over time. In particular, African American students who received the treatment construed daily events differently than those who had not. In the week following the intervention, control participants' feelings of belonging were contingent on daily adversity, whereas treated students' feelings of belonging were more stable, even in the face of adversity. At the 3-year follow up, African American students in the treatment group reported more confidence in their belonging, less stereotype accessibility, and less self-doubt, compared to African Americans in the control group. These differences in event construal and information processing help explain how the treatment affected students and their college outcomes.<br /><br />I hope this helps clarify some of the psychological processes behind the group differences. I highly recommend the articles above. Thank you for reading!Michelle Rheinschmidtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6451967208270832502.post-5456315167833248062012-03-07T18:46:50.235-08:002012-03-07T18:46:50.235-08:00Very interesting. Can you tell us more about the 3...Very interesting. Can you tell us more about the 3 year observation period and the characteristics of the students in the study? It is surprising (and promising) the effect of the intervention in the minority student's performance. Although I wonder about their environment for the 3 year-period, and how the researchers did to control for external factors that could be causing an increase sense of belonging in the students in the treatment condition.MFnoreply@blogger.com