December 1st, 2015

Graduate School in Clinical Psychology

 His experiences: (PhD in clinical psychology)
o High GPA
o 80% achievement on GRE
o Went to University of Rochester
 Cohort
o Didn’t seem like they were selected on being interpersonal or well-adjusted
o One guy  honors thesis
 Lived in a cave for a year
 Don’t think he ever recovered from the year in the cave
o To some extent, he questioned on how people were selected
 Evaluative climate
o Were going to be watched carefully
o Weed out the one’s who weren’t strong enough
o Clinical training
o Evaluated very carefully
o Experience  very harsh and controlling
 Were not nurturing intrinsic motivation or internalizing fully on how to be clinical
psychologist
o Second semester  took the MMPI
 Used in clinical settings as a quick way to diagnose whether there is any
psychopathology present
 All 8 scored at dangerously high levels on three scales
 High score was indicative to what a grueling program was doing to them
 More depressed, paranoid and anxious
o Have to comprehensive exams
 All day exam
 3 essays in the morning
 3 essays in the afternoon
 No structural guidelines
 A girl had a nervous breakdown
 He found the program took a lot out of him
o Clinical psychology graduate program didn’t really orient toward intrinsic motivation or
need satisfaction
o Mostly about competition and evaluation
o Not a good environment
Studies on Law School
 Done because national survesy where they look for incidences of mental health problems and
happen to ask people what their job is
o Of all the careers that a person might choose – especial high-prestige careers the one
that seems to be associated with high levels of anxiety, depression, suicide, divorce,
alcoholism, substance abuse – the one profession that stands out is law
 Lawyers tend to rate their profession as not-rewarding
 70% of the students in the Law Program at Yale seek out mental health services
 Opportunities after law school is decreasing
o Some concern that there are some people are spending a lot of money getting a law
degree, but won’t get jobs
 Looking at training environment and the type of career may be playing a role
 Many law professors have advocated to change the way that law students are being taught
o Have to change the curriculum
Krieger’s Hypotheses
 His hypothesis maps perfectly
  Suggesting that there is something about law school that pushes people to not consider intrinsic
motivation and need satisfaction and get caught up with extrinsic values (competition, money,
etc.)
 Academic environment is controlling, pressure-inducing, authorative, competitive and
comparative
o Force a curve on the grade
o Mean grade is a C
 You will know your rank in each course
 Whether you are top or bottom 5  can seriously impact your motivation
What is law school like?
 Harvard Law School – very anxiety provoking (dramatized video)
 In the law classes, have a picture with their name
o Socratic teaching method
o Call on anyone to answer questions
o Emphasize that it is a very hierarchal, authoritarian way of teaching
 Krieger  historically, law school has been about competition, rank and status
o Told that the results of this competition is very important
o Whether you’re allowed to take certain classes, getting internships, etc.
 It is very abstract and analytical the way that the professor’s teach
o Don’t highlight whether it’s relevant or meaningful
o Target an individual person and see whether you measure up and answer correctly
 Teaching practices are isolative and intimidating
 Highlight the ideal learning environment (Finland)
o If you want people to learn, relate well with one another, be intrinsically motivated
 Want to emphasize cooperation
 Provide rationale for what you are teaching
 Support autonomy
o None of these things seem to be present in the clip
o The worry is that none of the positive motivational factor are present in most law schools
 Persistent, demanding control rather than the support of autonomy
Research Design to Examine the Motivational Effects of Law School
 Law programs were selected:
o One was top 5, demanding, authoritative, etc. (FSU)
o Other was one that emphasized cooperation and caring about students (Missouri)
 Allow students to learn with IM
 Slytherin & Hufflepuff
 Prospective study over three years and followed up after three year
 Assessed academic, well being, and motivational outcomes
 Guided by Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory
Self Determination Theory Contracts
 Life goals  what do you want to achieve
o Intrinsic  law school and community
o Extrinsic  aspirations, fame, money, etc.
 Motivation for going to law school
o Distinguish between autonomous or controlled about studying to be a lawyer
 Intrinsic
 Identification
 Introjection  feel guilty if they didn’t give it their best
 Extrinsic
 Need satisfaction
o Assessed the three needs:
 Autonomy, competence and relatedness
 Perception of autonomy support
o Assessed support of instructor’s
Outcomes
  GPA
 Career Choices
o High money & prestige vs. High idealism
 Licensing exam
 Well being
o Positive and negative affect
o Life satisfaction
Questions
 There may be a perception that people who are drawn to law are peple interested in making a lot
of money and care about more narcisstic types of things
 Do students differ in values and level of adjustment to those going to medical school or those who
aren’t going to graduate school
 You can see how people are starting out before law school can have an impact
o Found that law students are especially idealistic
o Tended to rate intrinsic higher than others and extrinsic aspirations lower
 Law students – when they were starting seemed to be “noble and idealistic in their intentions”
 Those who had gotten in to law school:
o High on positive affect and life satisfaction
 How does well being, life values, motivation and need satisfaction change in law school?
o What happens when they are exposed to the values of the law school?
 Answer  there are significant changes on average in terms of their well-being
o Become more extrinsic (shift from intrinsic to extrinsic)
o Motivation  change to a focus on what they are getting out of their law degree
o Report more internal pressure
o Drop over the first year of law school
 Less competent, less connected to others and less volitional
o Seems to mostly destructive in regards to the self determination theory concepts
 Found that things don’t get worse  there is a plateau
o Change in values in first year, but it doesn’t continue to change
 Well-being drop and stays down
 Most research on well being says that we tend to be pretty stable and will bounce back
o Law school is not like this
 Is there any evidence that motivational elements are mediating drop in well-being and affect?
o For those students for when they begin law school and their aspirations become less
intrinsic, drop and need satisfaction  these are the students will drop in the well-being
o Changes in the well-being that are occurring in the first year of law school seem to be
directly related to changes in aspiration, motivation and need satisfaction
 Also looked at GPA and career choices at the end of law school
o They found that the students who did best in law school were the ones who started out as
most intrinsic in their aspirations and had most autonomous motivation
 Higher your GPA, the more likely you are to move towards corporate law
o Move towards to high money and high prestige law fields
o More likely to abandon a focus on idealistic kinds of careers
 There are certain students because they have positive motivational qualities who do fairly well in
the first year
o Start out highly idealistic, but somehow get the message that they should abandon their
idealistic goasl for what they should do in law
o Go for high-power high prestige things that they can hopefully pursue
o It is as if the ones that have the best motivational profile do well, are targeted, and they
shift the direction they are going to go in
 Sheldon and Castor  comes pretty close to suggesting that the aspirations of this group are
being corrupted
o By doing well and having positive motivational resources
 They distinguish themselves and are more likely to be channeled to high
prestige, high value careers rather than idealistic
  If you look at well-being from first year to second year in the two schools
o In Slytherin, you see a more dramatic drop in motivation, aspirations and well-being
 Students from middle of the pack did significantly better so that 77% passed exam  high
prestige school only 52% passed
 Prestige school not prepared for Bar exams  middle of the pack schools end up doing much
better than them
 Students who pursue corporate law end up having lower life satisfaction
 Future
o Average American lawyer has 44 billable hours + at least 20 unbillable hours
 Average lawyer working 65-70 hours
o All about who can accumulate a certain number of billable hours
 Only a certain amount become partners
o Working in a “nicely decorated sweatshop”
 High prestige schools may actually be Gryffindor because that’s where peope want to be
 What he is saying:
o There is something wrong with how we are thinking of what they “great schools” are and
what are the “not-so-great” schools
Model
 Need satisfaction is higher at Hufflepuff
o Will impact on achievement, well-being and career achievement
 Suggestion is that the type of program that we get it will influence need satisfaction, aspirations
and well-being
 It is very hard to not choose the high prestige option
 Even if we did have a choice  95% of us will go to the highest prestige
 Now the question is
o Now we’re in the program, we are more likely to find that it is a controlling environment
 Deci’s 3 points:
o If you are in a highly controlling and highly competitive environment  how can you
adapt?
 Causality orientations  distinguishing between people who are more
autonomous in their general oritentations and between people who are more
controlled
 The more we have developed our capacity to be autonomous, the more likely we
will function well – even in a controlling environment
o Promotion of your own development
 IF you are in a controlling program, you can find peers and adapt and cope
o He thinks that it is important to manage our own experiences
 Be mindful of need satisfaction, control, aware of our aspirations shifting
 Suggests that if we can become aware then we might be able to respond more
flexibly and not have to be pushed in a negative direction
 Uses the example of “if you feel more autonomous and are aware and are
looking for more opportunity to have an impact and change things, look for more
kinds of feedback”
NY Times 2015
 Lawyers with lowest pay had highest happiness
Another Direction
 Careers with highest satsifcation and lowest rates of stress  service careers
Clergy  highest rat