EVERFI: Beyond Freshman Year: Engaging Students in Ongoing Sexual Violence Prevention Education(1)
Engaging Generation Y & Beyond - Deakin University...Engaging Generation Y & Beyond Presenter: John...
Transcript of Engaging Generation Y & Beyond - Deakin University...Engaging Generation Y & Beyond Presenter: John...
Careers Advisers’ Day
Engaging Generation Y
& Beyond
Presenter: John Boyle
1 May 2012
John Boyle & Associates
Psychological Solutions
The Future
When contemplating education, how good
are young people at futurespection?
The past may be a foreign country,
but the future has not yet
been discovered.
All education is an act of optimism,
it has a future oriented
perspective.
Quo Vadis
What would encourage a young person to consider
study at university?
What are the obstacles in a young person’s mind,
or the parent’s of a young person’s mind that would prevent them
thinking of going to university?
Going to University is about
developing the intellect, developing the potential of
the person to be
a healthier, happier,
more fulfilled, productive human being.
It gives the opportunity to lead a more meaningful life.
What Does a University Education Give You?
Choice
Glasgow UniversityFounded 1451
She’ll Be Right, Mate
Is the development of the intellect important?
Is it necessary for the community
or society
as a whole?
Fact #1: They Will Always Need Me To Do My Job
Do we have the monopoly on intellect
in the Global Village?
The 25% of the population of India with the highest IQ is greater than the population
of the United States.
The 5% of the population with the highest IQ in China is three times greater than the population of Australia.
Fact #2
China is now producing more scientists each year than the
US and Europe combined.
It takes 30 years to see the benefits of education
transmitted to a culture.
e.g.
What is the largest English speaking country?
How Secure Are Our Careers?
What is the competition in the market place?
China - 1,341 m
India - 1,210m
U.S. - 312m
U.K. - 62m
V’s
Australia - 22m
(133 to 1)
Is That a Lot Of Competition or Can I Feel Secure?
Counting non-stop, at one number a second,
it would take you
31 years, 251 days, 7 hours,
46 minutes, and 39 seconds
to count to 1 billion.
(A mere million is 278 hours
non stop-counting or 11.5 days)
Study / Work Enables…
The application of knowledge, ability, skill,
for personal satisfaction and self actualisation.
Doing something useful, meaningful,
of community value.
Helping people.
Being responsible, having discretion over
time utilisation.
Study Enables the Transmission of Knowledge
Guiding, influencing, mentoring others.
Problem solving.
Be creative and productive.
Have a variety of tasks.
and
Meet people, make friends,
be with others.
Experience new things and learn.
Offers opportunities for self improvement
and promotion.
Satisfy my other needs.
Good Times Promised
Given all those benefits listed,
are all people capable of
contemplating their future and putting in the hard work
so that there will be real benefits later in life?
NO!
Time Lord Zimbardo
I want to alert you to Time Perspective -the study of how we
divide our experience into different timeframes.
This is an automatic and unconscious process,
with more built in biases.
We all experience the world through filters.
Next Time
How a person categorises their life
in relation to their time frame
will influence the likelihood of seeking a
higher education.
There are Six Time Perspectives
1. Past Positive TP:The focus is on the positives.
2. Past Negative TP:The focus is on the negatives
3. Present Hedonistic TP:Hedonistic, impulsive,
4. Present Fatalistic TP:Fatalism, eloc.
5. Future TP:Life goal oriented.
6. Future Spiritual TP:Transcendental, supernaturallife begins after death of the mortal body.
Present Oriented Time Frame
It is only about what is in the immediate situation,
or immediate stimulation, or what others are doing,or what they are feeling.
They are stimulus bound, physiologically or hormonally.
They are moody, prone to jealously, indecisive,poor impulse control,
over react to frustration.
Future Oriented
These people anticipate consequences,
what outcomes there could be,
they do a cost benefit analysis.
They are co operative,self reliant, self efficatious,
confident,and will wear a watch.
A future orientation gives you energy to tackle new
challenges such as study.
Future Time Perspective
Very high:Conscientious .70Prefer consistency .6Ego control .
High:Energy Impulse control
Low levels:Sensation seeking Aggression Depression
Future Time Perspective
High in achievement
High in self efficacy(I can carry out the goals necessary to achieve the goal)
Have a health focus(if you run your body into the ground, they call it your grave)
They have a positive expectancy of self, life, others
Hope for change(It is a challenge, not a threat)
All Time Perspectives Have Negatives
Future oriented people sacrifice
Family timeFriend time
Fun timePersonal indulgences
HobbiesSleep
They often live for work, achievement and control.
They are highly motivated to study!
ADOLESCENTS:
Adolescence as a concept was created around the
same time that the steam engine came into
prominence.
Adolescents are still with us.
(Don’t you miss the steam engine?)
Erikson’s PsychosocialStages of Development
Infancy: 0 - 1 yr old –We learn Trust or Mistrust, leading to Hope.
Early childhood: 2 - 3 yo –We learn Autonomy or Dependency, leading to Will.
Play age: 4 - 5 yo –We learn Initiative or Guilt,leading to Purpose.
PsychosocialStages of Development
School age: 6 - 11 yo –We learn Industry orInferiority, leading to Competence.
Adolescence: 12 - 18 yo –We learn Identity or Roleconfusion, leading to Honesty.
Some models state that adolescence continues till about twenty five.
PsychosocialStages of Development
Early adulthood: 19 - 36 yo –We learn Intimacy or Isolation, leading to Love.
Adulthood: 37 - 63 yo We learn Generativity or Selfabsorption, leading to Care.
Mature age: 63+
We learn Integrity or Despair,
leading to Wisdom.
Evolution
Adolescence is a critical, essential,
unavoidable stage ofdevelopment.
It got you to be you, and to where you are today.
Not all survive it.There is high morbidity and
mortality rate.(especially amongst parents)
Taking on the Demon Form
Adolescence is a time foryoung people to define their
NEW place in their family,
their peer groups, and in the community and to
establish a career path.
It is the transition time between “carefree” childhood
and the “burden” of adulthood.
“You’re Not the Boss of Me”
Many adolescents want the rights and privileges of
childhood, but are less keen to accept the responsibilities of adulthood.
They often feel that they don’t belong in either the child’s world or in the adult world,
only with other adolescents.
Hairy Handed Gent…
This World Is Not My Home
Given that they often feel rejected, separate, and apart,
with undevelopedsocial, emotional,
work, financial skills,
it is at this time they are expected to make decisions
that will in all probability affect them for the rest of their
lives.e.g. to go to University,
or do what the others are doing.
Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto You
Don’t think that they don’t feel the pressure,
they do.
They often feel under attack,
and the best form of defence is…
Attack!!
“Its Alive!”
During this period, they must contend with
physical changes,the onslought of sexuality,
pressure to conform to contemporary trends,
fashions,peer pressure and behaviour,
and meet the increased expectations
of family and society.
Adolescence Is Marked By Feelings Of Insecurity
And Inadequacy.
Do You Think That Life Is Getting Easier For People?
Given the changes in our society,
young people need greater guidance,
support, direction,
confidence and poise than ever before to
successfully move from adolescence
to independent adulthood.
Experiment or Risk?Adolescents take risks and
experiment. They do so because they are
moving from a family-centred world
(which provides social, economic, emotional,
physical, psychological support, comfort and
security), to the world within which they will begin to define their own
identity, (and get the real stuff. )
Yo, Bro. Got it?
What is guaranteed is that they will choose friends you
will disapprove of,(who will practically live at
your house),eat your food,
listen to “music” that is way too loud,
refuse to tidy their room, drink your alcohol,
always need money,slavishly follow the
absurdities of fashion,
speak in the argot of the American ghettoes, in an accent of the
aforementioned and as far as possible clothe their loins
in anything Yankee, be lazy,
undisciplined,argue about anything
andeverything,and need
a good boot up the arse.
They All Look the Same to Me
This is called being an individual.
It is also called working out your identity.
Every One a Unique Individual,
Just Like All The Rest
An Adolescent Working Out His (Her?) Identity
What Has He Done Now?
They are creating themselves in a way that
they believe will allow them to survive and function without the day-to-day
guidance of their parents or other authority figures.
It is useful if they have a role model that is
pro-education.
Do Not Concern Yourself.Adolescents are invincible.
That’s how they see it.
Adolescent egocentrism suggests that they are more
likely to engage in riskybehaviour because they think
that the negative consequences
will not affect them.
This is illustrated in the concept of optimistic bias:
“a tendency to systematically underestimate personal risk”
(Ellen et al., 1996)
What? Me Worry?
Adolescents tend to think that they are more likely to
experience positive outcomes from
experimentation / risk taking than negative outcomes.
Hence they will make decisions that boggle the
brain.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
With What The Hell
Are They Thinking?
Nothing sacred about a brain,
it is just another organ
in the body.
Amydgala
Brains Continue To Develop Well Into Early Adulthood
The amygdala is responsible for
instinctual reactions including
fear and aggressive behaviour.
It is an organ of survival.
This region develops early.
The frontal cortex, the area of the brain
that controls reasoning
and helps us thinkbefore we act, develops later.
Given the stage of their brain development, adolescents are
more likely to:
• Be impulsive
• Misread or misinterpret social cues and emotions.
• Be Involved in accidents
• Be involved in fights
• Be involved in dangerous or risky behaviour, (Hence the accidents).
Adolescents Are Less Likely To:
• Stop, think and then act in their long term best interests.
• Focus on the potential consequences or catastrophes of their behaviour rather than on the perceived immediate benefits.
• Modify their risky, reckless, dangerous or inappropriate behaviour.
Psychological Science For The Public Interest“The findings demonstrate that if anything teenagers overestimate the risks of
such things as drunk driving and unprotected sex. They just do them anyway. Why? Because they have weighed the risks and weighed the benefits and made a cold
calculation that the benefits outweigh the risks. That
benefit may be immediate pleasure, as with drugs and
sugary foods, or the emotional connectedness
that comes with fitting in.”
Brain Map
Brain Regions and Functions
Frontal Lobe: Self-control, judgment, emotional regulation; restructured in teen years.
Corpus callosum:Intelligence, consciousness and self-awareness; reaches full maturity in twenties.
Parietal lobes:Integrate auditory, visual, and tactile signals; immature until age sixteen.
Temporal lob:Emotional maturity; still developing after age sixteen.
No Brainer Really
The Neo cortex corresponds with rational analytic thought
and language.
The Limbic system is responsible for feelings,
it has no capacity for language.
Decisions are emotional.
Motivation is an emotional experience.
Kicking Goals
Given that a person is contemplating University,
its role in their life and its direction,
what are their goals?
Goals give you motivation, direction,
clarity of purpose, focus, intent.
Goal Centred
You are motivated when you
have feelings about something,
that you want to
achieve a goal.
The achievement of a goal is inherently self rewarding.
Internal Model Of The World
We all have pre-existing beliefs,
a world view that has usually been formed
early in life.
What beliefs do people have about going to University?
Fact #3Things can only get better
The quality of education has been steadily increasing
for decades with children
scoring higher in
reading and in mathematics and that is
a worldwide phenomenon
Graduation rates are also increasing,
i.e. there is more competition.
Acquired Information Deficit Stupidity
Beliefs are formed byfamily,
early learning, experience,
social contact, education,
media, anecdote,
friend of a friend,clairvoyants horoscopes,
fortune cookies,etc.
Cosmic Filtre
Our beliefs, our world view is the schemathrough which
we experience the world, interpret it,
make sense of experience.
Our beliefsare both
formed by experience and
modified by experience.
All Made In The Past
We rely on unconscious
out of awareness biases
and rules of thumb
to navigate the world, for better or worse.
In Two Minds About It
We are “dual process”
thinkers. There are two interrelated
systems running in the brain. One is slow, deliberate and
arduous (our conscious reasoning).
The other is fast, associative, automatic and supple
(unconscious pattern recognition).
In Order To Motivate This Is What We Have To Overcome
The current debate
is over the relative strengths
and weaknesses
of these two systems and
how they interact and
under what circumstances one or the other will dominate.
Pattern Recognition
What Do People Recognise When The Topic of University
Comes Up?
Completely out of your awareness,
once your brain THINKS that it
recognises something it
stops paying attention.
Now Here Is A Radical Thought
The past is the sum total
of the information you have in your head,
your history.
In order to make decisions about the future,
you have to access the past.
Fact #4 By The Time You Reach 18, Psychologically,
You Have Lived Half Your Life.
Adolescents have a shorter past to which they can refer.
What are their beliefs
about education?
Fact #5Many People Will Not Go To University As They Do Not Want To Acquire A Debt.
A HECS debt, as a percentage of a greater
income earned due to a University education over a
45 year careeris simply not that much.
Motivated Reasoning
A cognitive theory known as
“motivated reasoning”, suggests that
rather than search rationally for unbiased information that
either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief,
people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe.
(Unconscious Pattern Recognition)
I Believe Therefore I Am
We form emotional attachments
to our beliefs that
get wrapped up in our personal identity,
world view, and sense of morality, etc
irrespective of
facts of the matter.
I Didn’t Know That
It is for this reason that for the most part
people completely ignore
information contrary
to current beliefs.
It does not match their
current template pattern.
Their
That tells us that motivating someone to consider study is
simply not just about the transmission of data.
Who then is listening to what you have to say,
or pays attention to it?
Consequences
Help provide the prospective student with an understanding of the impact of their
decisions on their life.
Assist them in coping with
the results of these choices.
Contibution
Purpose,Meaning,
WHYwe do things are the
motivators,followed by
HOW
we do it through education
then to the WHATyou do
shaped by your educational choices.
Fact #6
The ten most “in demand” jobs in 2010
did not exist in 2004.
This is one of the reasons we all
must prepare for positions that do not yet exist
with technological solutions
not yet created for problems
not yet identified.
Homo Habilis begat
Homo Sapien
Work is an essential activity
for our physical,emotional,
mental, social,
and for most of us, financial health.
University Education Will Give Choices
It is through the universal activity of work that we achieve our potential,
we grow as human beings.
We interact with the world, with the environment,
with other human beings, it is the feedback loop
that says “I am here and matter.”
My Work Is Informed By My Education
It is through work
that we achieve a sense
of worth in our own eyes
and in the eyes of the community in which we are embedded,
it gives us a sense of identity,
of belonging, of dignity.
To survive and thrive
in the modern world an education
is not an optional extra.
For a rewarding, meaningful,
satisfying life,it is essential.
Education is the Acquisition of Knowledge
Let us remind ourselves, a wise person once said that
“The opposite of knowledge
is not ignorance,
it ishelplessness”.
The End
Cue:
Rapturous Applause