Psychological affordances help explain where a self-transcendent purpose intervention improves performance.

ABSTRACT: Lay theory interventions instill situation-general ways of thinking, often using short reading and writing exercises, and they have led to lasting changes in behavior and performance in a wide variety of policy domains. Do they work in all contexts? We suggest that lay theory intervention effects depend on psychological affordances, which are defined as cues that allow individuals to view a lay theory as legitimate and adaptive in that context. The present research directly and experimentally tested this hypothesis using the example of a "purpose for learning" lay theory intervention, which taught the lay theory that school is a place to develop skills that allow one to make progress toward self-transcendent aims. A double-blind 2 (student purpose intervention) × 2 (purpose-affordin

SUBMITTER: Reeves SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7790870 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature