The Mentor’s Dilemma. Urie Bronfenbrenner, a founder of the Head Start program and developmental psychologist, who urged that “Every child needs at least one adult who its irrationally crazy about him or her.”  That may well be necessary, but it is not sufficient, for it is in the intangibles of the mentor-menteee relationship that can mean the difference between success and failure.   Trust must be earned, and that can take months. Confidence must be established, and that must be authentic.  Expectations must be delivered with sensitivity and compassion.  The mentee  sees right through when a mentor offers bland praise.  This is what some call the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”  Feedback must be delivered in a way that is constructive. 
 
These dynamics are best captured in what Geoff Cohen, a social psychologist at Stanford, calls “the mentor’s dilemma”—the need to hold the mentee to high standards yet at the same time communicating that the mentee is capable of rising to the occasion.  Mentoring, whatever form it takes, can be more art than science.

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LEVERAGE UNDERSTOOD AFTER THE FACT --  WHAT CHANGE REVEALS


What is revealed through interventions about trapped energy.  Walton and Cohen, and their colleagues from a previous generation, Ross and Nisbett, have identified some basic patterns that have emerged through their research about why tension systems are such an “x factor.”


“Sometimes small things matter.” “Very dramatic and widespread changes in the system can sometimes result from the introduction or alteration of seemingly small and inconsequential forces.” (pp. 14, 15).  Apparently big situational manipulations sometimes have small effects and why apparently small manipulations sometimes have big effects.” (p.15).


The Guesswork in Finding the Right Level of Force


“Look before you intervene and above all don’t oversimplify.” This speaks directly to complexity, both with regard to“the complex nature of student performance itself (p.30) and the very nature of the “psychological environment.”  Although structural factors obviously affect behavior, the mental and psychological processes of individuals are also critical elements in a social tension system and this must be considered in predicting the effects of such systems of behavior. (Ross and Nisbett)


Picking the right initial channel is the easy part.  Go to what’s important for students—their values, their social status, their academic insecurities and triumphs—create a “triggering mechanism” and grease the skids within the channel.  In other words, clear away the constraining channel factors.


Determining the right timing is also relatively easy. Go to important transitional moments in a student’s life  for the greatest potential.   That’s when students might be most developmentally ready for new insights.


Determining the right level of force behind the catalyst might be more difficult, but no less critical. Cognitive dissonance theory—“perhaps social psychology’s most important contribution to the study of motivation” (p. 16)—reveals to us how important it is to motivate through what is credible to the individual.  Too overt and overbearing a catalyst and the student will disregard the stimulus.  The most influential catalysis are often subtle and “unobvious.”  (See Carlsmith and Festinger 1959)


Internal Rewards — Lightly Doled Out. An example of internal rewards is from Mark Lepper’s famous “magic marker” experiments from the 1970’s – “calling into question a very popular, and apparently quite successful, behavior modification tool—the use of tangible (outer) rewards and the establishment of token economies…” (p.231).  That is “points earned.”


“Detrimental effects of extrinsic constraints are most likely to occur when initial interest is high, when extrinsic constraints are superfluous and salient, and when they provide a psychologically plausible explanation for one’s engagement in the activity—when the reward, in short, can be easily viewed as a “bribe.”  Such effects are less likely to occur, by contrast, when any tangible rewards are based on quality of task performance, that is, when the rewards serve primarily to offer feedback and recognition of the competence in a task that is intrinsically motivated already” (pp. 231-232)


Part of a Larger Ecosystem


“No intervention is an island.” In other words, the intervention connects with other elements and channels within various social ecosystems, somewhere, somehow.   


Design is Important.


“One size does not fit all.”  Given the sensitivity and complexity of tension systems, each intervention needs to take into effect the unique features and dynamics of a particular set of situations.


“Timing is almost always important—especially transitions.” In the case of Walton and Cohen (2007, 2011) it is in the transition from high school into college life.  Their intervention took place during the freshman year.


They involve reflection and advocacy (teaching back).




Respectful of the Subjects


Non stigmatizing . They are short and non-stigmatizing. They trigger new insights and awareness.  They bring to light what was once located in the unconscious mind (99%).  They are unlike academic learning.  They don’t feel controlling or remedial.  And they are carried out in the appropriate setting (e.g., classrooms)hey employ “self-persuasion” techniques.  They help students with “counter-attitudinal” idea generation.


The intervention enlists the power of student voice and student agency. Students have a stake in the college as a just community and to play the role of changemakers.  This speaks to the directly to the notion of “behavioral primacy,” which in brief says that “its more powerful to act your ways into new ways of thinking than it is to think your ways into new ways of acting.”   


But you can’t really tell until you try… .  Finally, some of the channels that best connect intentions with results — “many of the forces in a system go unobserved or under-appreciated until efforts to change it are made,” reinforcing Kurt Lewin’s enduring and most practical insight, “If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.”




Are such, interventions too good to be true?  Some would call them “magical.” Within these nesting systems there actually is a meaningful rationale behind their effectiveness.


What makes these kinds of interventions so successful?  The subject matter of Walton and Cohen’s intervention is personal—especially relating to one’s self confidence,  ability to fit in and be “normal”—is  emotionally important  to students.   In this way, this intervention can clear away emotional resistance.  Perhaps most important is that this intervention gives students the opportunity to act upon their beliefs.