Avi Assor

Allowing Choice and Nurturing an Inner Compass: Educational Practices Supporting Students’ Need for Autonomy

This chapter focuses on seven practices of autonomy support which are likely to promote two major components of the need for autonomy: (a) lack of coercion and optional choice and (b) formation and realization of an inner compass: authentic, direction-giving values, goals, and interests. A special emphasis is put on research pertaining to three autonomy supportive practices which are assumed to support formation and realization of authentic, direction-giving values, goals, and interests, whose impact on perceived autonomy was not sufficiently examined so far: (a) IVD – intrinsic value demonstration, (b) SVE – support for value/goal/interest examination, and (c) FIV – fostering inner-directed valuing processes. The autonomy supportive practices that foster the development of stable authentic values and goals might be especially important in western countries, in which postmodern moral relativism and the abundance of information and options make it particularly difficult for youth to form stable and authentic values and goals.

Perceived Maternal Control and Responsiveness to Distress as Predictors of Young Adults’ Empathic Responses

Two studies examined the relations between young adults’ empathic responding and their perceptions of two maternal behaviors. As predicted from self-determination theory, perceived maternal control had unique negative associations with empathic support of one’s romantic partner (indicated by both self-reports and partner reports) and with empathic concern for others in general, and a unique positive association with personal distress in response to others in need. Perceived maternal responsiveness to distress was a unique positive predictor of empathic concern. The findings suggest that the experience of one’s mother as controlling is likely to interfere with one’s empathic responding and that high levels of perceived maternal responsiveness do not cancel the negative effects of the experience of controlling parenting. Furthermore, the findings suggest that high levels of perceived maternal responsiveness might exacerbate the negative relations between perceived maternal control and personal distress in response to others in need.

Do Social Institutions Necessarily Suppress Individuals’ Need for Autonomy? The Possibility of Schools as Autonomy-Promoting Contexts Across the Globe

Schools across the globe vary in how autonomy-promoting they are. Recognizing that some social institutions attain seemingly harmonious functioning by suppressing individuals’ autonomy, the first half of the chapter asks whether these hierarchical institutions necessarily need to be autonomy suppressive. The second half of the chapter illustrates how schools can function as autonomy-promoting cultural institutions, even when embedded within hierarchical societies that contrast social hierarchy against individual autonomy. To be truly autonomy-promoting, schools would be designed in ways that (a) allow students to shape important aspects of the school and support students attempts to form authentic, direction-giving values, goals, and interests and (b) offer frequently recurring opportunities for students to experience autonomy during learning activities. Numerous examples of these two key features of autonomy-promoting schools are offered. A final question asks how cross-culturally feasible autonomy-promoting schools are, and we conclude that they are quite feasible in egalitarian countries with autonomy-conductive social norms while they are unlikely cultural products in hierarchical countries with control-conducive social norms.

Towards a comprehensive conceptual framework for understanding principals’ personal‐professional growth

This paper presents a comprehensive conception of principals’ growth that is based on four psychological perspectives: humanistic fulfilment/actualisation, psycho‐dynamic, moral/identity development, and adaptive cognitive development. This conception views principals’ development as a journey in which principals attempt to master challenges in four distinct, yet related, domains: fulfilling basic needs and actualising potentialities, learning to cope with and moderate extreme, anxiety‐based strivings, forming reflection‐based individualised moral and educational vision, and constructing adaptation‐promoting knowledge and skills. For each perspective, we present its goal of growth, personal qualities reflecting principals’ growth and resulting from it, and ways of enhancing principals’ growth. It is proposed that a fully‐fledged growth process occurs when principals develop along the lines outlined according to all four perspectives. Discussion of the relations among the growth processes highlighted by the four perspectives suggests that it might be particularly difficult for principals to develop in the morality/identity domain. The last part of the paper focuses on determinants of principals’ growth that should receive more attention in research and in practice.

Parental Conditional Regard: Psychological Costs and Antecedents

Parents often try to promote internalization of valued behaviors by making their regard contingent on children’s enactment of those behaviors. We present findings suggesting that while parental conditional regard (PCR) might lead to enactment of expected behaviors, this practice has the following costs: (1) stressful internalization of parental expectations, (2) rigid and low-quality performance (3) self-esteem fluctuations and poor well-being, and (4) negative affect towards parents. Importantly, our research suggests that positive PCR (i.e., giving more regard when children comply) is quite harmful despite its seemingly benign nature. Several studies suggest that: (1) there is an inter-generational transmission of PCR (2) parents’ contingent self-esteem and a competitive world view enhance parents’ inclination to use PCR, and (3) parents use of PCR increases when they have infants who are easily frustrated. Overall, the findings suggest that PCR is a harmful practice originating, at least partly, from stressful parental experiences.

Controlled by Love: The Harmful Relational Consequences of Perceived Conditional Positive Regard

Research on conditional positive regard (CPR) has shown that this seemingly benign practice has maladaptive correlates when used by parents. However, there is no research on the correlates of this practice in romantic relationships or on the processes mediating its effects. Building on self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, ), three studies tested the hypothesis that perceived CPR impairs relationship quality, partly because it undermines the fulfillment of the basic psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness. Study 1 (N = 125) examined perceived CPR and relationship quality across four relationship targets: mother, father, romantic partner, and best friend. Study 2, involving romantic partners (N = 142), examined whether needs fulfillment mediated the association between perceived CPR and relationship quality. Study 3, involving romantic dyads (N = 85), also included partner reports on CPR. Across the three studies, CPR was linked with poor relationship quality between relationships, between people, and between dyadic partners. Moreover, results of Study 2 and Study 3 revealed that the inverse association between perceived CPR and relationship quality was mediated by dissatisfaction of autonomy but not relatedness. Despite its seemingly benign nature, CPR is detrimental to relationship quality, partly because it thwarts the basic need for autonomy.

An Examination of the Dynamics Involved in Parental Child-Invested Contingent Self-Esteem

SYNOPSIS Objective. The present study examined dynamics involved in parents’ tendency to hinge their self-esteem on their children’s achievements (i.e., child-invested contingent self-esteem). In two studies, a model was tested in which perceived social pressure to be an achievement-promoting parent, and parents’ own controlled causality orientation, served as antecedents of parental child-invested contingent self-esteem which, in turn, was related to achievement-oriented psychologically controlling parenting. Design. Study 1 was a cross-sectional study in which 254 mothers, 248 fathers, and their 12-year-old children completed a self-report survey. Study 2 was a short-term longitudinal study of 186 parents of 10-year-old children. Results. Both studies provided support for the hypothesized model. Study 1 showed that the model held even when controlling for parents’ level of self-esteem. Study 2 showed that increases in parental child-invested contingent self-esteem were related to increases in achievement-oriented psychologically controlling parenting even when controlling for child performance. Conclusions. Parents’ tendency to invest their self-worth in their child’s performance is related to a psychologically controlling parenting style and is influenced by parents’ personality as well as their perception of the social environment.

Using Maternal Conditional Positive Regard to Promote Anxiety Suppression in Adolescents: A Benign Strategy?

SYNOPSIS Objective. The focus of the current article was on the parenting strategy of using maternal conditional positive regard to promote adolescents’ suppression of anxiety to assess whether this strategy is benign or maladaptive. Method. Two studies (N = 230) examined mothers’ and adolescents’ reports of maternal conditional regard, adolescents’ motivation, and mothers’ contingent self-esteem, general warmth, and neuroticism. Results. Study 1 showed that mothers’ self-reported maternal conditional positive regard predicted adolescents’ perceptions of mothers’ use of maternal conditional positive regard, which then predicted adolescents’ introjected (stressful and internally controlling) motivation to suppress anxiety. These effects obtained when controlling for Maternal Conditional Negative Regard. Study 2 showed that mothers’ contingent self-esteem predicted mother-reported maternal conditional positive regard and maternal conditional negative regard which, respectively, predicted adolescents’ experience of mothers’ using maternal conditional positive regard and maternal conditional negative regard. These effects were obtained when controlling for mothers’ general warmth and neuroticism. Conclusions. The association of maternal conditional positive regard with mothers’ contingent self-esteem and adolescents’ introjected motivation suggests that this seemingly benign practice might be a product and a cause of psychological difficulties, and therefore, should be minimized.

Conditional regard in close relationships.

People in relationships with others often try to influence them by making their regard contingent on others enactment of specific behaviors. We present findings suggesting that while conditional regard might lead to enactment of expected behaviors, this practice has several psychological costs. We refer to four types of costs: (1) Stressful and conflicted internalization of socializing agent expectations, (2) rigid and low-quality performance, (3) poor well-being, and (4) poor relationship quality with the other. Moreover, our research suggests that in the long run providing more warmth and acceptance contingent on the others compliance with the agents expectations (i.e. conditional positive regard), is as harmful as withdrawing regard when others do not comply with the agents expectations (i.e. conditional negative regard).

Religious Exploration in a Modern World: The Case of Modern-Orthodox Jews in Israel

In moderate religious communities, adolescents and young adults are increasingly exposed to modern ideas and lifestyles and thus may face a potential tension between religion and modernity. The current study investigated the exploration processes of one hundred and four Jewish Modern Orthodox higher education students in Israel. The participants responded to semi-open-ended questionnaires regarding their way of coping with religious issues. A thematic analysis identified three different religious exploration styles and one non-exploration style. The findings concerning the character of the different exploration styles raise questions concerning long-held assumptions about the nature of exploration. The findings further point to the need for new conceptualizations in the domains of exploration and identity formation, particularly, but not only, in the domain of religion.