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1. Contextualizing Social Psychology Interventions

   Luna, Raylene; Duong, Nicole; Seyranian, Viviane (February 2020, Society for Personality and Social Psychology Intervention Science Preconference)

   Interventions are often deployed in different populations and varying contexts with a “one-size fits all approach.” In this poster, we underline the importance of mindfully adapting social psychological interventions for specific contexts and populations (Yeager & Walton, 2011). Without careful tweaks to contextualize some interventions, uncontextualized interventions may not be as successful. For instance, we report a study testing (uncontextualized) a social psychological intervention (values affirmation) at Cal Poly Pomona, which did not replicate significant findings for closing achievement gaps among underrepresented minorities and first-generation students. The intervention may not have resonated within the Cal Poly Pomona’s context and population of predominately Hispanic and Latinx students. We will discuss lessons learned and delineate an iterative intervention design and contextualizing methodology that may augment intervention success and exemplify our approach through our work contextualizing the Social Belonging intervention (Walton, Murphy, Logel, & Yeager, 2017) to more adequately address the needs of Cal Poly Pomona’s Hispanic and Latinx population. 

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2. Chapter Five - Beliefs, affordances, and adolescent development: Lessons from a decade of growth mindset interventions

   Cameron Hecht; David Yeager; Carol Dweck; Mary Murphy (June 2021, Advances in child development and behavior)

   Beliefs play a central role in human development. For instance, a growth mindset—a belief about the malleability of intelligence—can shape how adolescents interpret and respond to academic difficulties and how they subsequently navigate the educational system. But do usually-adaptive beliefs have the same effects for adolescents regardless of the contexts they are in? Answering this question can reveal new insights into classic developmental questions about continuity and change. Here we present the Mindset × Context framework and we apply this model to the instructive case of growth mindset interventions. We show that teaching students a growth mindset is most effective in educational contexts that provide affordances for a growth mindset; that is, contexts that permit and encourage students to view ability as developable and to act on that belief. This evidence contradicts the “beliefs alone” hypothesis, which holds that teaching adolescents a growth mindset is enough and that students can profit from these beliefs in almost any context, even unsupportive ones. The Mindset × Context framework leads to the realization that in order to produce more widespread and lasting change, we must complement the belief-changing interventions that have been aimed at students with new interventions that guide teachers toward classroom policies and practices that allow students' growth mindset beliefs to take root and yield benefits. 

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3. Beliefs, affordances, and adolescent development: Lessons from a decade of growth mindset interventions

   https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acdb.2021.04.004  

   Hecht, Cameron A.; Yeager, David S.; Dweck, Carol C.; Murphy, Mary C. (July 2021, Advances in child development and behavior)

   Lockman, Jeffrey J. (Ed.)

   Beliefs play a central role in human development. For instance, a growth mindset—a belief about the malleability of intelligence—can shape how adolescents interpret and respond to academic difficulties and how they subsequently navigate the educational system. But do usually-adaptive beliefs have the same effects for adolescents regardless of the contexts they are in? Answering this question can reveal new insights into classic developmental questions about continuity and change. Here we present the Mindset×Context framework and we apply this model to the instructive case of growth mindset interventions. We show that teaching students a growth mindset is most effective in educational contexts that provide affordances for a growth mindset; that is, contexts that permit and encourage students to view ability as developable and to act on that belief. This evidence contradicts the “beliefs alone” hypothesis, which holds that teaching adolescents a growth mindset is enough and that students can profit from these beliefs in almost any context, even unsupportive ones. The Mindset×Context framework leads to the realization that in order to produce more widespread and lasting change, we must complement the belief-changing interventions that have been aimed at students with new interventions that guide teachers toward classroom policies and practices that allow students' growth mindset beliefs to take root and yield benefits. 

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4. Efficiently exploring the causal role of contextual moderators in behavioral science

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216315120  

   Hecht, Cameron A.; Dweck, Carol S.; Murphy, Mary C.; Kroeper, Kathryn M.; Yeager, David S. (January 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Behavioral science interventions have the potential to address longstanding policy problems, but their effects are typically heterogeneous across contexts (e.g., teachers, schools, and geographic regions). This contextual heterogeneity is poorly understood, however, which reduces the field’s impact and its understanding of mechanisms. Here, we present an efficient way to interrogate heterogeneity and address these gaps in knowledge. This method a) presents scenarios that vividly represent different moderating contexts, b) measures a short-term behavioral outcome (e.g., an academic choice) that is known to relate to typical intervention outcomes (e.g., academic achievement), and c) assesses the causal effect of the moderating context on the link between the psychological variable typically targeted by interventions and this short-term outcome. We illustrated the utility of this approach across four experiments (total n = 3,235) that directly tested contextual moderators of the links between growth mindset, which is the belief that ability can be developed, and students’ academic choices. The present results showed that teachers’ growth mindset-supportive messages and the structural opportunities they provide moderated the link between students’ mindsets and their choices (studies 1 to 3). This pattern was replicated in a nationally representative sample of adolescents and did not vary across demographic subgroups (study 2), nor was this pattern the result of several possible confounds (studies 3 to 4). Discussion centers on how this method of interrogating contextual heterogeneity can be applied to other behavioral science interventions and broaden their impact in other policy domains. 

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5. Creating Inclusive Environments: Enabling Children to Reject Prejudice and Discrimination

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-devpsych-120920-041454  

   Rutland, Adam; Cameron, Lindsey; Killen, Melanie (December 2024, Annual Review of Developmental Psychology)

   Developmental psychology researchers who investigate the multifaceted nature of prejudice, shown within everyday peer interactions, emphasize the importance of creating inclusive environments for children where equity and justice are promoted. This article uses the Social Reasoning Developmental (SRD) model to explore how children and adolescents reason about social inclusion and exclusion, drawing on moral, social group, and psychological considerations. The role of bystanders in challenging social exclusion is highlighted, with a focus on promoting proactive bystander intervention to create inclusive environments. This review identifies age, group identity, group norms, intergroup contact, empathy, and theory of mind as key influences on children's and adolescents’ bystander reactions. It emphasizes that interventions promoting inclusive peer and school norms, confidence in intergroup contact, empathy, and social perspective-taking can foster inclusive environments and empower bystander action that challenges intergroup social exclusion. 

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