Florence Dumas

Students’ perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement: Consequences on achievement goals

The present study examined whether students’ perceptions of two major facets of parental and teacher academic involvement (i.e., academic support and academic monitoring), contribute to the process of students’ achievement goals adoption. French junior high-school students completed two questionnaires assessing first their perceptions of parental and teacher academic involvement, and then their achievement goals three months later. Factorial analyses showed that students differentiated parental academic monitoring from parental academic support, while predominantly perceiving their teacher academic involvement as reflecting monitoring. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that, as expected, students’ perceptions of parental academic support were positively related to mastery goals while unrelated to performance goals. Also as expected, perceived academic monitoring was associated with performance goals, although the findings revealed an equal contribution of perceived parental and teacher involvement. This new insight about the antecedents of students’ achievement goals emphasizes how important is the role of parental and teacher academic socialization.RésuméL’objectif de cette étude était d’examiner si l’implication que les élèves perçoivent de la part de leurs parents et de leurs enseignants dans leur scolarité (implication perçue étudiée à travers ses deux principales dimensions: soutien et contrôle) influence le type de buts d’accomplissement qu’ils adoptent. Des collégiens français ont rempli deux questionnaires. Le premier mesurait leurs perceptions du soutien et du contrôle scolaires émanant de leurs parents et de leurs enseignants. Le second, trois mois plus tard, évaluait leurs buts d’accomplissement. Les analyses factorielles ont tout d’abord montré que les élèves font une nette distinction entre les deux composantes de l’implication parentale (soutien vs contrôle). A l’inverse, ils perçoivent l’implication de leurs enseignants comme relevant essentiellement du contrôle. Les analyses multi-niveaux ont indiqué que la perception qu’ont les élèves du soutien parental est positivement associée aux buts de maîtrise, mais n’est pas reliée aux buts de performance. Finalement, la perception qu’ils ont du contrôle scolaire (exercé aussi bien par leurs parents que par leurs enseignants) est associée aux buts de performance. Cette nouvelle contribution sur les antécédents des buts d’accomplissement en contexte académique confirme l’importance du rôle des parents et des enseignants dans la socialisation scolaire.

In search of the big fish: Investigating the coexistence of the big-fish-little-pond effect with the positive effects of upward comparisons

Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, and Kuyper (1999) and Huguet, Dumas, Monteil, and Genestoux (2001) found that children nominated a social comparison target who slightly outperformed them in class with a beneficial effect on course grades - an assimilation effect, but with no effects on self-evaluation. However, big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) research has shown that attending a high-ability school has a negative effect on academic self-concept--a contrast effect. To resolve this apparent conflict, the present investigation (1) tested the BFLPE in the Netherlands and France, using nationally representative samples (Study 1) and (2) further analysed (using more sophisticated analyses) the Dutch (Blanton et al.) study (Study 2) and the French (Huguet et al.) study including new French data (Study 3), to examine whether the BFLPE coexisted with, or was moderated by, the beneficial impact of upward comparisons. In support of the BFLPE, all studies found the negative effects of school- or class-average ability on self-evaluation, demonstrating that these assimilation and contrast effects can coexist.

Choking under monitoring pressure: being watched by the experimenter reduces executive attention.

Performing more poorly given one’s skill level (“choking”) is likely in situations that offer an incentive if a certain outcome is achieved (outcome pressure) or when one is being watched by others—especially when one’s performance is being evaluated (monitoring pressure). According to the choking literature, outcome pressure is associated with reduced executive control of attention, whereas monitoring pressure is associated with increased, yet counterproductive, attention to skill processes. Here, we show the first evidence that monitoring pressure—being watched by the experimenter—may lead individuals with higher working memory to choke on a classic measure of executive control—just the task effect thought to result from outcome pressure. Not only does this finding help refine our understanding of the processes underlying choking under monitoring pressure, but it also leads to a new look at classic audience effects, with an important implication for experimental psychology.

Phantom Behavioral Assimilation Effects: Systematic Biases in Social Comparison Choice Studies

Consistent with social comparison theory (SCT), Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, and Kuyper (1999) and Huguet, Dumas, Monteil, and Genestoux (2001) found that students tended to choose comparison targets who slightly outperformed them (i.e., upward comparison choices), and this had a beneficial effect on subsequent performance--a behavioral assimilation effect (BAE). We show (Studies 1 and 2) that this apparent BAE is due, in part, to uncontrolled measurement error in pretest achievement. However, using simulated data (Study 3), these phantom BAEs were eliminated with latent-variable models with multiple indicators. In Studies 4 and 5, latent-variable models were applied to the Blanton et al. and Huguet et al. data, resulting in substantially smaller but still significantly positive BAEs. More generally in personality research based on correlational data, failure to control measurement error in pretest/background variables will positively bias the apparent effects of personality variables of interest, but widely applicable approaches demonstrated here can correct for these biases.

The Context of Available Options Affects Health Care Decisions: A Generalization Study

Background. When a given option is presented along with 2 alternatives, similar to each other, health care professionals choose it more often than when it is presented with just one of the alternatives. This inconsistent decision pattern may depend on the conflict generated from choosing between 2 highly similar options. Objective. To generalize the effect by using realistic scenarios that involve 2 alternatives displaying various degrees of similarity. Methods. One hundred fifty-five psychiatrists, 149 gynecologists, and 89 nurse managers had to indicate the treatment they would recommend in clinical scenarios containing either 3 options or just 2 of them. The similarity between the 2 alternatives varied across scenarios, ranging from a very high (psychiatric scenario) to an only moderately high (nursing management scenario) to a limited level (gynecological scenario). Results. Professionals chose the focal option more often when both alternatives were available. The paradoxical effect occurred for all scenarios—namely, when the alternatives were medication variants (psychiatric scenario), when most of the features they shared produced their effect at a different extent in the 2 cases (nursing management scenario), and some of their consequences were at variance (gynecological problem). Conclusions. The context of available options affects professionals’ choices when the alternatives are similar but also when they present diverging features. Professionals need to be aware of such a source of practice variability and are encouraged to consider each option per se before they compare the available options.

The Social Regulation of Cognition

The present chapter offers further evidence that the social context in which cognitive functioning takes place is an integral part of that functioning, not just the surrounding context for it. Three categories of social-psychological studies are reported. The first category shows that relatively simple social presence and social comparison situations can have dramatic effects on some basic responses that have been well established in cognitive psychology. The second category illustrates the effects that specific social comparison choices can have on classroom performances. Finally, also related to the classroom setting, the third category of studies suggests that autobiographical memory is a fundamental component of social regulation phenomena. Overall, these findings support a “social psychology of cognition”, which is discussed in the last section of this chapter.