During this April 2013 presentation with psychology instructors Dana Dunn and Elizabeth Hammer as they explore ways that teaching about adjustment can promote psychological literacy among students. Hammer and Dunn will be covering: • Predictive factors for happiness • Defining Psychological Literacy and its importance to education in psychology. • Defining Adjustment, its scope and relevance for contemporary psychology education. • Identifying connections between these topics and the characteristics of today's students. • Presenting ways to teach adjustment topics that promote psychological literacy.

1. Psychology of Adjustment: Teaching Our
Students to Become More Psychologically
Literate
Elizabeth Yost Hammer
Xavier University of Louisiana
Dana S. Dunn
Moravian College

2. Starting points
. . . psychology is second only to basic English
composition as the most frequently taken course by
college graduates, and our potential to affect our
future citizenry is enormous.
-- Cynthia Belar
Happiness comes from . . . Some curious adjustment
to life.
-- Hugh Walpole

3. Example: Which Factors Predict
Happiness?

4. Which Factors Predict
Happiness?
 Income Physical Attractiveness
 Education Race
 Social class Ethnicity
 Intelligence Having Children
 Age Climate
 Gender
 Teaching poll

5. Which Factors Predict
Happiness?
 Zero or low (< +.30)
 Income Physical Attractiveness
 Education Race
 Social class Ethnicity
 Intelligence Having Children
 Age Climate
 Gender

6. Which Factors Really Predict
Happiness?
 Moderate  (+ .30 - + .50)
 Marriage  Recreational
 Number of close activities
friends  Physical health
 Religiosity

7. Positive Predictors
 Individual Circumstance  Individual differences
 Being employed  Ability to express
 Frequency of gratitude
sexual intercourse  Being optimistic
 Frequency of  Self-esteem
positive affect

8. Negative Predictors
 Individual
Circumstance
 Divorced  Unemployed
 Widowed  Disabled

9. Goals for this Talk
 Defining Psychological Literacy and its importance
to education in psychology
 Defining Adjustment, its scope and relevance for
contemporary psychology education.
 Identifying connections between these topics and
the characteristics of today’s students.
 Presenting ways to teach adjustment topics that
promote psychological literacy.

10. Psychological Literacy

11. Defining Psychological
Literacy
 Coined by Thomas McGovern and
colleagues (2010)
 A way to synthesize scholarship on
teaching and learning in psychology
 Focus on discipline-based learning
outcomes in US, Australia, and
Europe

12. Defining Psychological
Literacy
 Linked to liberal education, a key skill
similar to writing, ethics, math,
information literacy, technological
literacy, scientific literacy, and critical
thinking
 Defining quality for the over 90,000
psychology majors graduating every
year

13. Defining Psychological
Literacy
 Psychological vocabulary
 Value intellectual challenges requiring
psychological reasoning
 Amiable skepticism
 Application of psychological principles
to improve personal, social,
community connections

14. Defining Psychological
Literacy
 Ethical behavior
 Recognize and respect diversity
 Use and evaluate information
technology
 Engage different audiences using
different modes
 Reflect on self and others’ thinking
and behavior using psychological
theory

15. Implications
 A psychologically literate person should do (or be
able to do) these things as a result of his or her
education in the discipline.
 Even brief exposure should be beneficial
(Introductory psychology in high school or college)
 Prolonged exposure (as a psychology major) is
better still
 Of course, assessment studies of both will be
helpful.

16. Psychologically Literate
Citizens
 Goal: For students to use their
knowledge of psychological science
for problem-solving where:
 Self
 Others
◦ Family
◦ Workplace
◦ Community
◦ Chat Question

17. Psychologically Literate
Citizens
 Keeping in mind very important points:
(1) Despite the popularity of the psychology in high
school, most college bound students do not major
in psychology.
(2) Despite the popularity of psychology as a
college major, most majors do not pursue graduate
study in psychology.
(3) Students choose the major out of interest and a
belief that it will teach them skills for entering and
succeeding in work and daily life.

18. Principles for Quality Undergraduate
Education in Psychology (APA 2011)
 Students are responsible for
monitoring and enhancing their own
learning.

19. Quality Principle 1
 1. Students should know how to learn.
 2. Students should assume increasing
responsibility for their own learning.

20. Quality Principle 1
 3. Students should take advantage of the
rich diversity that exists in educational
institutions and learn from individuals who
are different from them.
 4. Students are responsible for seeking
academic advice (e.g., courses, major,
general education) and for career planning
(realistic and tailored to talents, aspirations,
and life situations).

21. Quality Principles
 For more detail, go to:
http://www.apa.org/education/undergr
ad/principles.aspx

22. Whither Psychological
Literacy?
 To some extent, psychological literacy
is like calculus—great to learn, but of
little use unless opportunities to apply
it exist.
 Where and how can students learn to
apply psychological knowledge?

23. Psychology of Adjustment

24. Adjustment
 Refers to the psychological processes
through which human beings cope
with the demands, challenges, and
frustrations of everyday life (Dunn, Hammer, &
Weiten, 2011)

25. Adjustment
 Psychology of Adjustment covers
some topics associated with
Introductory Psychology (e.g.,
personality, social psychology, gender,
abnormal psychology)

26. Adjustment—navigating modern
life effectively—focuses on
 Stress and coping  Interpersonal
communication
 Friendship and love
 Sexuality
 Marriage and intimacy
 Careers and work
 Physical health
 Mental health
 Study skills
 Time management

27. Adjustment
 Similar to Psychological Literacy, the
psychology of adjustment applies empirical
knowledge towards making sense of
experience and taking beneficial action.
 Where Psychological Literacy is often
other-focused, Adjustment is primarily
self-focused.

28. Adjustment
 Peaked as a course in the 70s (Lux &
Daniel, 1978)
 Still among the 30 most popular
courses in the psychology curriculum
(Perlman & McCann, 1999)
 Decline is ironic given psychology’s
desire to emphasize discipline’s
practical relevance (Klatzky, 2009; Zimbardo, 2004)

29. Why Teach Adjustment
issues?
 (1) Can be very useful  (3) Great venue for
in demonstrating the stimulating self-
nature and value of reflection and self-
the scientific method understanding.
to students (i.e., a
―hook‖).  (4) Well-suited for
fostering self-
 (2) Provides excellent improvement
opportunities for (motivation as well as
debunking myths behavior change).
related to psychology
while enhancing
critical thinking.
Teaching poll

30. Why Adjustment Now
(Again)?
On the One Hand:  On the Other:
 Economic hardship  Students are seeking
continues direction
 Concerns about an  Research clearly
uncertain future are shows that
salient happiness/well-being
 Concerns about is not based in money
career, jobs, or material goods (all
employment post- else being equal)
college  Work/career must be
 Emerging adulthood more than monetary

31. Adjustment & Psychological Literacy:
Connection and Comparison
 Learning to apply  Learning to apply
psychological psychological
theory and theory and
research to one’s research to
own life improve self, other,
 Acquisition and and community
refinement of  Acquisition and
various life skills refinement of
 Requires critical various of
thinking psychological skills
 Requires critical
thinking

32. Adjustment & Psychological Literacy:
Connection and Comparison
 Personal  Educational
 Self-help focused  Self as well as
other focused
 Course-based
 Curriculum-based

33.  Adjustment can be construed to be a
form of psychological literacy, one
linked to adapting to daily life.

34. Adjustment and Psychological
Literacy
OUR STUDENTS:
CHARACTERISTICS AND
NEEDS

35.  What are we—and they—up against
where adjustment is concerned?

36. Consider:
 Arum & Roska’s (2011) Academically
Adrift
 Assessed critical thinking, complex
reasoning, and writing at start of freshmen
year and end of sophomore year
(instrument: Collegiate Learning
Assessment).
 3 semesters of college do not improve
these skills much (on average, .18 SD,

37. Consider (Arum & Roska, 2011):
Related key factors
 Selectivity of institution
 Socioeconomic background of family
 On average, 12 hours per week out of
class studying (35% of sample
reported less than 5 hours per week)

38. Consider (Arum & Roska, 2011):
 A break point for Arum & Roska
involves reading and writing (i.e., more
is better):
 Students scored higher on the CLA when they had a course
where they (a) read more than 40 pages per week and (b)
wrote more than 20 pages over the semester.
 At time 2 on the CLA, only 42% reported a class the previous
semester meeting both criteria.
 Some good news: Both are more likely to be found in
humanities/social sciences classes than others (e.g.,
business, engineering/computer science)

39. Consider (Arum & Roska, 2011):
 Many students lack purpose or
direction (Damon, 2008)
 Sociologists describe them as
―motivated but directionless‖
 65% in Arum & Roska’s sample have
on or off-campus jobs

40. Consider (Arum & Roska,
2011):
 Time use in 7-day week (168 hrs)
 Attending class/lab 9%
 Studying 7%
 Work/volunteer/clubs 9%
 Sleep (estimated) 24%
 Socializing/recreation 51%
 Teaching Poll

41. Other Data
 Higher Education Research Institute
(HERI) and the Cooperative
Institutional Research Program (CIRP)
at UCLA
 The American National Freshman: National Norms
Fall 2010
 Normed data based upon 201,818 first-time, full-
time students at 279 four-year colleges

42. First Year Students Fall 2010
 Self-rated emotional health is at the lowest point
since HERI began asking the question in 1985
 Those who indicated ―Highest 10%‖ or ―Above
Average‖ accounted for only 51.9% of respondents
- 48.1% were average or below.
 Lower ratings on emotional health linked with
frequent reports of depression in high school, less
likely they think they will be satisfied in college.

43. First Year Students Fall 2010
 At the same time emotional health is declining, self-
rated academic ability and the drive to achieve are
rising.
 These data are expectation based—the students
complete the HERI survey prior to college
matriculation.
 The pressure to succeed, a cloudy economy, and
declining emotional health point to the adjustment
challenges students currently face.

44. First Year Students Fall 2010
 As high school seniors, 29.1%
reported being frequently
―overwhelmed by all I had to do‖
 Men – 17.6%
 Women – 38.8%

45. First Year Students Fall 2010
 6.6% felt depressed ―frequently‖ in the
past year.
 9.7% expect to seek personal
counseling during college, an all time
high since the question was first asked
in 1971.

46. First Year Students Fall 2010
 53.9% ―frequently‖ or ―occasionally‖ failed
to complete homework on time.
 Yet 66.4% predict there is a ―very good
chance‖ they will ―make at least a B
average.‖
 48.4% predict there is a ―very good chance‖
they will ―get a job to help pay for college
expenses.‖

47. Other Factors
 Helicopter parents
 Technology of entertainment
 The freedom college represents
 Financial aid pressures
 Less resiliency for coping with daily
life (e.g., roommate issues, time
management)
 Struggles with college-level work
 Chat Question

48. Issue
 How can an understanding of
psychological literacy be brought to
bear on students’ psychological
adjustment?

49. Teaching Activities

50. Psychological Literacy and Adjustment
 Faculty should craft activities and
exercises in introductory, intermediate,
and advanced courses that promote
use of psychological literacy toward
matters of adjustment.
 Capitalize on students’ self-interest
and self-focus.

51. Where?
 AP Psychology or HS Psychology
 Introductory Psychology
 Psychology of Adjustment (surprise!)
 Service Learning Oriented psychology
courses
 Applied courses
 Capstone courses (where skills
learned earlier can be integrated
toward some topic or project)

52. How?
 As writing/reflection exercises
 As critical thinking exercises (e.g.,
debunking popular psychological
myths; Lillienfeld et al.)
 As a self-improvement or self-
modification project

53. Activities and Exercises
 Stress Diary – at same time, record
day’s emotional tone and track time,
place, and nature of stressors.
Patterns across time may identify flash
points and suggest coping responses.

54. Activities and Exercises
 In Class Coping Strategies –
Pennebaker’s work on the benefits of
writing about stressful events.
Instructors can adapt instructions from
studies and have students take time
during class to write, perhaps linking
practice to emotion-focused coping
(e.g., Pennebaker, Colder, & Sharpe, 1990).

55. Activities and Exercises
 Time Management
◦ Controlling one’s Internet trolling and TV
watching by documenting time on these
versus other activities.
◦ Keeping track of lost time during normal
week and identifying ways to combat the
problem.

56. Activities and Exercises
 Book Critique/Review – Have
students review key assertions from a
self-help or popular psychology book
in light of theory and data from the
discipline.

57. Activities and Exercises
 Self-Modification Project – a staple
of the adjustment course; students
create a behavior modification project
from start to finish.
 Topics – studying, smoking, dieting,
exercise, nervous habits, alcohol,
assertive behavior

58. Activities and Exercises
 Explore Vocational Interests and
Career Planning – how can
psychological literacy be put to work to
identify employment options?

59. Activities and Exercises
 Campus Problem Solving – Have
entire class identify common problem
on campus (HS or college) and
formulate ways to address it using
psychological theory and data;
perhaps create an intervention or draft
a report to administration;
alternatively, work with community
group to address problem.

60. Activities and Exercises
 Other Examples?
Chat question

61. Student Learning Outcomes
 Students should be able to define and describe the
concept of psychological literacy (and not in a fuzzy
way, as they are likely to define ―liberal education‖).
 Adjustment should be recognized as an ongoing
concern across one’s life (although it may seem
most relevant in the 18 to 30 age range).

62. The Future?
 Promoting a psychologically literate
citizenry
 A curriculum designed to promote
psychological literacy should equip students
with the intellectual tools necessary to
becoming ―socially responsible problem
solvers‖ (McGovern et al., 2010, p. 20).

63. Coda
Undergraduate psychology is as a pipeline to a
psychologically literate public as well as to graduate study in
psychology. Indeed, the skills in critical thinking,
communication, information and technological literacy, and
scientific reasoning promoted in psychology are essential to
an educated citizenry and useful in many careers other than
psychology. So is an understanding of psychology’s topics
that are fundamental to everyday life, such as conflict
resolution, parenting, learning, decision-making,
discrimination, emotions and behavior change in areas as
diverse as health habits, safety and environmental protection.
-- Cynthia Belar

64. Questions?

65. Contact: eyhammer@xula.edu
dunn@moravian.edu
THANK YOU