conform

Further studies by Baumeister and colleagues have linked a diminished belief in free will to stress, unhappiness, and a lesser commitment to relationships.

correlates

“all human actions follow from prior events and ultimately can be understood in terms of the movement of molecules,

diminished

weaker belief in free will were less likely to volunteer their time to help a classmate than were those whose belief in free will was stronger

deterministic

hose who believed more strongly that they were in control of their own actions showed up on time for work more frequently and were rated by supervisors as more capable

Those who believed more strongly that they were in control of their own actions showed up on time for work more frequently and were rated by supervisors as more capable

they act less responsibly and give in to their baser instincts

contrived

Yes, indeed. When asked to take a math test, with cheating made easy, the group primed to see free will as illusory proved more likely to take an illicit peek at the answers. When given an opportunity to steal—to take more money than they were due from an envelope of $1 coins—those whose belief in free will had been undermined pilfered more. On a range of measures, Vohs told me, she and Schooler found that “people who are induced to believe less in free will are more likely to behave immorally.”

baser instincts

It seems that when people stop believing they are free agents, they stop seeing themselves as blameworthy for their actions.

free agents

immorally.

Audacity

permeates

Free Will

Is college for everyone? Surely not. Some students are even less well prepared than Mr. Escanilla and won’t thrive as he did. Others would rather not spend four more years in school and can find rewarding, well-paying work as a medical technician, dental hygienist, police officer, plumber or other jobs that require a two-year degree or vocational training.

Its graduates have managed to complete adulthood’s first major obstacle course. Doing so helps them learn how to finish other obstacle courses and gives them the confidence that they can, so long as they stay focused. Learning to navigate college fosters a quality that social scientists have taken to calling grit.

A question that has always hung over these findings is whether college itself deserves any credit for the patterns. You can imagine a scenario in which college graduates would thrive regardless of whether they went to college, because of their own skills and drives. By this same logic, helping more people become college graduates might not necessarily benefit them. But the new findings are the latest, and maybe strongest, reason to believe that college matters. Much as staying in high school is generally a better life strategy than dropping out, continuing on to college seems like the better plan for a great majority of students.

The skills and knowledge that they gain from more time in school are certainly part of the explanation. Mr. Escanilla thinks that, at 15, he was not mature enough to take school seriously. A few years later, he understood that dreaming of rock stardom wasn’t a career plan. “I fell in love with learning,” he recalls. With his parents suffering financial problems, he worked almost full time while in college (mostly as a barista at Starbucks, which gave him health insurance and a free pound of coffee every week). Finishing college took him almost six years, but he graduated with a degree in liberal arts studies. He chose it over more utilitarian majors because he enjoyed studying subjects like literature and psychology. After a few years of working as a salesman for Bell South, persuading small businesses to buy high-end telecommunications equipment, he realized he wasn’t thrilled with his work. He had thought about going to graduate school after college but felt intimidated by it, as a first-generation college graduate. By the time he was a married 28-year-old father of two, he was no longer intimidated, and enrolled in a psychology program while working. Today, he is a psychotherapist at a local high school and also counsels adults as a professional coach.

Yet the new research is a reminder that the country also underinvests in enrolling students in four-year colleges — and making sure they graduate. Millions of people with the ability to earn a bachelor’s degree are not doing so, and many would benefit greatly from it.

Many policy makers, for their part, prefer to emphasize an expansion of community college rather than four-year college.

On both the political left and right, experts have taken to arguing that higher education is overrated

More broadly, a long line of research has found that education usually pays off — for individuals and societies — in today’s technologically complex, globalized economy.

Perhaps most important, the data show that the students just above the admissions cutoff earned substantially more by their late 20s than students just below it

The benefits were concentrated among lower-income students, both studies found, and among men, one of them found.

When people talk about four-year colleges not being for everyone, the teenage Carlos Escanilla is the sort of student they have in mind. He seemed to be a much better fit for a job, a vocational program or a community college.

lamentation

elicit

albeit

Growing up in Miami in the 1990s, Carlos Escanilla was a lot more interested in hanging out with friends and playing music than in school. The son of immigrants from Chile, he slogged through high school with a C+ average and scored about 900 out of 1,600 on the SAT. “I was convinced I was going to be a famous rock star,” Mr. Escanilla, now 36, said. When people talk about four-year colleges not being for everyone, the teenage Carlos Escanilla is the sort of student they have in mind. He seemed to be a much better fit for a job, a vocational program or a community college. Yet on a summer night in 1997, a friend persuaded Mr. Escanilla to try to enroll at nearby Florida International University. The college was growing and might be willing to take a chance on a marginal student. And, Mr. Escanilla began to realize, he didn’t have anything better to do. “I didn’t have a band, I didn’t have a way to tour,” he says. “I didn’t have any prospects.” Two months later, he was sitting in classes at Florida International.

slogged

discernment

But liberal education can do more. Significantly, it affects not only our skills as producers, but also our discernment as consumers. When it works, it changes for the better the satisfactions we seek.

confers

I see it’s becoming harder as an already overly commercialized culture becomes even more so.

intriguing

the key to happier lives is spending more of our resources on inconspicuous goods, those marked by our lesser capacity to adapt. Because increased spending on such goods is more likely to foster our subjective well-being, we are here better able to get our money’s worth.

Under this process, as people generally buy bigger houses, the social norm for house size increases. Adapting to this rising standard, we need to spend more to get a house we can regard as acceptable.

liberal education

liberal education offered me increased possibilities not only of money, but significantly, of happiness.

When, as a lawyer-turned-professor, I consider my own liberal education, I can see how it did much more than enhance my career prospects. In fundamental ways, it helped me connect my career aspirations to a meaningful, satisfying life. Looking back over 25 years now, I see how at its best my liberal education offered me increased possibilities not only of money, but significantly, of happiness.

Nowadays, many liberal arts colleges promote the economic value of a liberal education. They boast that the impressive careers of liberal arts graduates offer an excellent return on students’ tuition investment.

Every university needs to do its homework, identifying and eliminating the major roadblocks to graduation, including everything from droning-lecture remedial math classes to short-term financial woes. And when students reach out for help or mentoring, it must be readily available.

A follow-up investigation, still in the works, finds that in the initial stage of their careers these students are faring better professionally and personally.

In a large-scale experiment at an unnamed school I’ll call Flagship State, incoming freshmen read upperclassmen’s accounts of how they navigated the shoals of university life. The accounts explained that, while the upperclassmen initially felt snubbed by their classmates and intimidated by their professors, their lives started turning around when they reached out to their instructors and began to make friends.

many freshmen doubt that they have the necessary brainpower or social adeptness to succeed in college. This fear of failing hits poor, minority and first-generation college students especially hard.

It is not surprising, then, that when we have followed students over challenging school transitions or courses, we find that those with growth mind-sets outperform their classmates with fixed mind-sets—even when they entered with equal skills and knowledge

Our research shows that educators cannot hand students confidence on a silver platter by praising their intelligence. Instead, we can help them gain the tools they need to maintain their confidence in learning by keeping them focused on the process of achievement.

discovering that the brain has more plasticity over time than we ever imagined (Doidge, 2007); that fundamental aspects of intelligence can be enhanced through learning (Sternberg, 2005); and that dedication and persistence in the face of obstacles are key ingredients in outstanding achievement

discovering that the brain has more plasticity over time than we ever imagined (Doidge, 2007)

When students believe that they can develop their intelligence, they focus on doing just that. Not worrying about how smart they will appear, they take on challenges and stick to them

Praise is intricately connected to how students view their intelligence. Some students believe that their intellectual ability is a fixed trait.

Praise is intricately connected to how students view their intelligence.

Share this: