The rapid growth of the relatively new field of positive psychology is making its way onto college campuses across the country, including Paul Smith’s College. In particular, student success professionals are asking how the scientific study of well-being or flourishing can be implemented to promote engaged learning, social connectedness, and psychological growth resulting in increased academic performance and graduation rates. As Paul Smith’s College puts the finishing touches on formulating a new Strategic Plan, the Student Success Team at the college has begun work on implementing the research findings from the field of positive psychology, which we are calling The Thriving Project @ PSC.
Developing Non-Cognitive Factors to Help Students Thrive
Included in the request for proposals for the 2015-2020 grant cycle of the federally-funded TRiO Student Support Service (SSS) program was a new priority related to developing non-cognitive factors. Projects were required to implement strategies to improve students’ mastery of non-cognitive skills and behaviors (such as growth mindset, perseverance/grit, self-management, social and emotional skills, etc.) and enhance student motivation and engagement in learning.
In response to this new priority, the TRiO-SSS program at PSC piloted a new fellowship support group program for participants, revised its training program for peer mentors, developed a short course on Moodle, and determined that a researched-based course on positive psychology was warranted toward instilling a thriving culture on campus. Currently, many colleges are exploring different psychosocial models and campus-climate assessment tools, and early on it was decided that the research of Laurie Schreiner and colleagues at Azusa Pacific University would be most fitting for PSC. She coined the term thriving for flourishing in college, which was the driving force for the creation of The Positive Psychology of Thriving class offered this spring. It was also decided to administer her Thriving Quotient at the beginning of the semester to gauge how PSC students are flourishing on campus.
The Thriving Quotient
We were pleased to have over one-third of the PSC student body complete the Thriving Quotient before the end of February. This survey is designed to measure psychosocial aspects of a student’s college experience, and how they are related to academic success and degree completion. The instrument uses a factor analysis of 25 items clustered around five factors: 1) engaged learning, 2) academic determination, 3) positive perspective, 4) social connectedness, and 5) diverse citizenship. Schreiner finds that between 8 – 18 percent of the variation in grades, intent to graduate, institutional fit, and self-reported learning gains to be a function of these five elements of thriving and more predictive of overall student success then students’ backgrounds.
Optimal thriving in college is achieved when students are deeply engaged both within and outside of class, invest time and effort in reaching their academic goals, have a sense of optimism about their capabilities, are part of a strong social support network, and seek to make a contribution to campus life, while having an openness to differences in others. These students are demonstrating optimal functioning in three categories: academic engagement and performance, interpersonal relationships, and psychological well-being. All of these categories are malleable, meaning they can be manifested by any student at any time – they are not dependent on fixed personality traits or conditions.
In particular, Schreiner has determined that one’s psychological sense of community is the largest contributor to thriving. Sense of community is when we feel connected to others while also feeling like we are making a significant contribution to the healthy functioning of the larger community. It makes sense that students who feel like they are an integral part of the community (we call them Smitties) have a sense of belonging, have a higher degree of optimal satisfaction, enjoy their time on campus, and go on to graduate in higher numbers.
Suggestions for Future Flourishing
Whereas colleges typically assess students’ skills and abilities prior to enrollment so as to address any academic weaknesses, a thriving model encourages teaching students to develop and apply their character strengths when facing challenges.
Students in The Positive Psychology of Thriving course have completed many of these assessments while also engaging in daily and weekly practices such as mindfulness meditation, gratitude exercises, regular physical activity, and other practices that have been demonstrated to enhance psychological well-being. Many of these exercises can be easily implemented in other courses or be incorporated into peer leadership training programs, staff meetings, peer mentoring, and academic support programs. A strengths approach for career advising and career development is also gaining favor among career services professionals.
The Role of Optimism, Effort, and Character
Helping students envision success and reframe experiences of failure by attributing them to controllable causes not fixed reasons (such as “I can’t do math”), is increasingly being used in developmental math courses, college orientation, and first year experience programs. This ‘optimistic explanatory’ style is found to be particularly effective when successful peer mentors serve as models to first year students, and share how they overcame academic challenges by applying effort.
The research by Angela Lee Duckworth and others in the field demonstrates the role of effort, perseverance, and self-discipline (collectively known as grit) to be twice as important as IQ in predicting academic success. Helping students build character may be the most important thing educators can do for enhancing achievement in all walks of life. Closely related to this is dispelling the myth that intelligence and talent is fixed at birth. Carol Dweck and colleagues at Stanford have shown that individuals who learn to adopt a growth mindset – meaning they persist in the face of failure – continue to make gains in performance, whereas individuals with a fixed mindset, who don’t believe that increased effort can make a difference, do not.
This is perhaps the most consistent finding in the field of positive psychology. No matter how one defines success and achievement, the way to get there is through the old-time values of effort, work, discipline, and investing time. Extreme levels of peak performance are understood as the culmination of 10,000 hours of practice. Becoming a master at anything (student, expert craftsperson, profession of one’s choosing, Jedi Warrior) all comes down to an investment of serious amounts of time. This is just the simple encouragement we can all use to flourish in our lives….
Want to assess your character strengths? Follow this link: Authentic Happiness
Tom Huber is the director of TRiO Student Support Services and also teaches psychology, homesteading, and mycology courses at PSC.