2019 APA PsycShorts Video Contest Entry
Transcript:
Voiceover: As students walk across the stage at their high school graduation, most will have long term goals of obtaining a college degree. However, approximately 40% of undergraduate students will drop out of college before their degree completion. Our team asked a student why this may be the case.
Current College Student: Growing up, I always knew that I was expected to go to college, but I never really put much thought into what I wanted to get out of the experience. I figured it would be like high school, I could get good grades without trying too much, but after I failed my first test reality sunk in. It was really hard because I felt like maybe I didn’t belong in college, and I couldn’t really find the motivation to sit down and study when I didn’t really have a clear goal that I was working for.
Voiceover: Many college students face setbacks and frustrations throughout their college experience. As a result, they may lose sight of the rewards that come with completing a college degree in the future. A key factor in a students’ success in college is their capacity to connect with their future self. The three major components of future self-connectedness are the perceived similarity between the current and future self, in terms of personality, values, ambitions, and goals, the degree of vividness when the future self is imagined, and the degree of positivity felt toward the future self. When students can conjure a positive and clear image of themselves in the future, they can feel connected and motivated to achieve their desired goals. Having difficulty envisioning a positive and meaningful future with a college degree makes sacrificing time and effort devoted to school work difficult. When students have higher future self-connectedness they have better self-control. This allows them to direct their energy and attention in the present time to achieve their future goals.
Citations:
Bixter, M. T., Adelman, R. A., Bunker, C. J., McMichael, S. L., Okun, M. A., Grimm, K. J., Graudejus, O., & Kwan, V. S. Y. (under review). A test of a triadic conceptualization of future self-connectedness.
Adelman, R. M., Herrmann, S. D., Bodford, J. E., Barbour, J. E., Graudejus, O., Okun, M. A., & Kwan, V. S. Y. (2017). Feeling closer to the future self and doing better: Temporal psychological mechanisms underlying academic performance. Journal of Personality, 85(3), 398-408.
Hershfield, H. E. (2011). Future self-continuity: How conceptions of the future self transform intertemporal choice. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1235(1), 30-43.
Music:
Precious Life by Savfk | [ Ссылка ]
Music promoted by [ Ссылка ]
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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