Critical Learning Exercises - The Key Self-Motives: Consistency, Esteem, Presentation, and Growth

Instructions

Now that you have read the chapter, let's consider the theories and findings more closely. Read each of the questions below and type your response into the corresponding text box. After you submit your response you will be shown model feedback. You will receive full credit on submission, but your grade may change once your instructor reviews your response. Be sure to check the grade book for your final grade.

Question 1.

Say that you are interviewing teenagers to join a summer camp, and you want them to have a strong commitment to the camp when they join. Based on your knowledge of dissonance research, what strategies might you use in telling them about the pros and cons of the camp before they decide whether to join? What strategies might you use after they have joined the camp?

Students’ responses may vary, but the strategies proposed for telling teenagers about the pros and cons of the camp before they decide to join in order to reduce dissonance may include the following: stating that camp is a summer activity that has few alternatives, reducing choice; providing realistic and commonly held beliefs about the camp; stating how happy they will be with their choice to go to camp; describing how the decision to go to camp will mean they are able to avoid boredom, household chores, summer jobs, or other aversive consequences; and so on. In order to decrease dissonance after they have joined the camp, the following may be suggested: tell them about their ability to pick what they can do (self-determination theory); describe how the effort or suffering they are experiencing during camp activities is valuable (effort justification); emphasize the choice they made to come to camp as a commitment; and so on.

Question 2.

Imagine that you are giving advice to a friend who finds herself continually finding ways to avoid studying for her law school entrance exam. Drawing on what you have learned about self-esteem defenses, why is she behaving this way, and how could you help her overcome her problem?

Possible explanations for why she may be acting this way may include self-serving attributions for her avoidance of studying for the exam (her life is too hectic, studying is inconvenient, she doesn’t have the necessary resources to prepare adequately, etc.); self-handicapping (she doesn’t get into law school because she doesn’t prepare for or take the exam); better-than-average effect (she might tell herself that most people can’t pass the classes required to get this far, let alone study for the exam); projection (she might see other students as being lazier or procrastinating more than herself); symbolic self-completion (she may have amassed symbols of competence such as her undergraduate degree, boast about being a pre-law student or studying for the exam on social media, etc.); and so on. Solutions for how to help her may include focusing on how her actions are self-determined, avoiding boasts about her exam preparations or future identity as a lawyer; reminding her of her positive qualities relating to the test subject, test taking, and her future as a lawyer; creating solutions to exercise control over her studying; and so on.

Question 3.

Question 4.

Imagine that some time in the future, you are in a management position in which you have to supervise a team of people. Based on self-determination theory, what policies or procedures would you implement to help maximize their creativity and job satisfaction?

Suggestions for how students may supervise a team of people using self-determination theory may vary but should be based on the principle that people function best when they feel that their actions stem from their own desires rather than from external forces. They may relate their recommendations to people’s basic needs for relatedness (being meaningfully connected with others), autonomy (feeling a sense of authentic choice in what one does), and competence (feeling effective in what one does). Students' suggestions may utilize the following types of experiences and goals to help promote creativity and job satisfaction: pursuing goals that support core needs; getting in the zone and experiencing flow; viewing experiences as challenges instead of threats; fostering a positive mood; acting mindfully; expanding one’s mind with challenging tasks; and thinking deeply about death.