9.3 Mindsets And Expectancy

(The Power Of Mindsets And Expectancies)

ESSENTIAL SRV: Mindsets And Expectancies

The power of expectancy is often under-rated. If we have a deep belief that something will happen, we may interpret the evidence in such a way that we perceive it as happening in reality.

Large collections of expectations form mindsets which cover wider areas of expectancies.

If we have no experience of particular groups of devalued people (learning disabled, mentally ill, prisoners) learning and changing, we will not expect these people to learn and change. If we do have such experience, we will expect such change to occur.

insert:

Why Higher Expectancies May Produce Greater Performance

1/ More teaching goes on

A/ Quantity

B/ More difficult material

C/ More feedback and encouragement

2/ When peers see expectancies placed, they increase theirs, and meet expectancies develop even higher expectancies

3/ Often, higher morale prevails around high-expecting persons.

4/ More learning goes on if expectancies are high

How Expectancies Of Devalued Persons Create Feedback Circularities

Known /Visible Identity Expectations (Possibly

e.g. Certain Age, Sex, Race, è Stereotyped Ones) About

Social Role, Deviant Characteristics What Such People Can Be Or Do

é ê

Growth And Performance May Observers Expect Low Or Deviant

Become Permanently Impaired; Behaviours And Make Few/Low/

Possibly Eventual Internalisation Atypical Demands

Of Negative/Low Expectations

ê

No/Few/Low/Abnormal Experiences

é And Opportunities For Growth Or

Performance Are Provided

ê

Person Responds With Low/Deviant

Growth, Performance, Competency Maintenance

êé

9.3.1 Introduction To The Theme of Mindsets And Expectancy

The Utility And Dangers Of Mindsets And Expectancies

There are disadvantages and advantages in having mind sets and expectancies. They can again be seen as ‘short-cuts’ to enable effective response to a complex world. However, they can impact strongly and negatively on people-at-risk.

Mindsets, A Definition

Mindsets are enduring models within people’s minds that allow them to interpret the world in a way that is acceptable to them. These mindsets are made up of a series of expectations about how the world should work. These expectations can be positive- the belief that something will happen, or negative- the belief that something will not happen.

Mind sets can be based on a variety or facts or roles. Age, gender, are perceived or presumed competence is, occupational status, or social status and attributed social value may be the basis for a mind set

Expectancies, A Definition

Expectancies refer to what a person expects will or not happen. They are often generated by mindsets.

Expectancies refer to smaller items of behaviour. Mindsets refer to global aspects of the way the world works.

Expectations are related to, but different from, intentions. Intentions referred to what was one wants one wants; expectations refer to what one thinks will happen.

One’s expectancies - especially that a certain event or outcome will occur - can strongly shape one’s expectations in a wide range of life domains: including: economics, politics, sociology, science, religion, and so on. However, expectancies deal not only with what other people can or will do but also with the likely heard of anything happening: that is the probability of a particular event or events .

9.3.2 The Psychology And Sociology Of Mindsets And Expectancy

Definitions

Dave Race has Abrams and Hogg as a reference for Mindsets.

He also suggests that Kuhnian Paradigms give a good example for Mindsets.

check Thomas Kuhn, the theory of scientific revolutions

The Effect Of Mindsets

Mindsets are very strong influences on people. Consider the mindsets of political liberalism or conservatism. Consider the mindsets of Pro-life and Pro-choice about abortions. Religious beliefs are also mindsets- consider how committed to their religion and its views people can be.

These mindsets dominate the thinking of the person about social, political and economic issues. It is very difficult to convince someone with a particular mindset that the world could possibly work well in a way different from their expectations.

The Effect Of Mindsets In Interpreting Devalued Groups

From Wolfensberger 1998: ‘…if one has a strong mindset that a person or class is really sub-human and cannot grow and learn, then the evidence that the person or group is actually growing or developing may not even be perceived or believed…’

Effects Of Mindsets On Perception And Learning

Mindsets and expectations can shape perception and learning. If you have a tendency to view the world in a particular way, you will seek out evidence to support that, and ignore evidence to the contrary. This is cumulative and is open to the effect of positive feedback.

Expectancies about people can be low, devaluing and unconscious.

Experts on epistemology and the philosophy of science have noted that schemes such as theories and expectancies can affect perceptions in two ways. First they can enable one to perceive things one would otherwise not have seen. Secondly they can prevent one from perceiving things that seem obvious. Therefore, one cannot only say that " if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it ", but also as scientists have often said, "I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it" So not only is "seeing is believing" but also "believing it is seeing"

The history of science has documented endless instances where scientists observed the phenomenon, but reported something entirely different from what was occurring. Why? Because they could not help perceiving what they expected.

Examples Of The Effects Of Mindsets In Science

For example, in 130CE Galen the Physician laid out an Anatomy that would endure for centuries. Even when further dissection and investigation showed that some of his work was incorrect, teachers of Anatomy would still point to non-existent organs that were meant to be there. Even Leonardo da Vinci drew a five lobed liver rather than the actual three lobes, and he was famed as one of the new ‘scientific’ artists of the Renaissance.

One of the world’s leading astronomers kept insisting for 20 years, right into the mid- 1930s, that he observed very sizeable movements and rotation in cosmic bodies even though no such movements were taking place There was no reason to believe that his work was in any way fraudulent.

Similarly, once ‘canals’ had been seen on Mars by ????, other observers continually reported such occurrences.

The celebrated experiment in the 1950s showed that ordinary people who were very familiar with playing cards and know that the ace spades suit is black will actually see a red ace of spades as black if it is shuffled into an otherwise normal card deck.

Another series of experiments showed how subjects’ reactions to drugs or alcohol was mediated by what they were led to expect.

Solomon Asch’s experiments on Cognitive Dissonance also indicate how expectancies can affect belief.

Miscellaneous Examples Of Mindsets

Race notes that David Scwartz noted that:

‘….an immigrant to a particular area of America who wanted to grow grapes of a certain variety.. The mindset of the local farmers was that this was impossible, and they cited all sorts of ‘factual’ or ‘scientific’ reasons why this was so. With a different mindset the immigrant persevered, and eventually achieved the ‘impossible’ by growing grapes successfully’

Race also notes that Riddell shows that gender expectations can not only affect teacher expectations, but can also affect pupil expectations of themselves, especially in the choice of subject.

The Effect Of Mindsets On Social Evaluation Of People

The mind sets that we are particularly concerned with are about evaluations of, and expectations about people. Both expectations upon, and evaluations of, people are apt to be strongly tied to one’s world views and religion. For instance, someone may view humans as basically good, and therefore have little basis for explaining what is going on when they do wrong.

Remember that only a little information is needed to confirm a stereotype, a great deal is required to overcome it: this can be seen as one of the effects of mind-sets.

For instance, if a teacher is told within a group of children, there are two groups, one group ‘bloomers’ and another group dull, teachers would then rate the ‘bloomers’ as more curious, more interested, and happier than the others. This despite the fact that the groups were chosen randomly. Additionally, the teachers would give higher grades to the bloomers. Most surprising and worrying of all, at the end of the second year of the experiment, the bloomers showed a greater gain in objective IQ measures than the group labelled as dull.(Pygmalion in the Classroom). This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because of mindsets about people-at-risk, expectancies are often low and this leads to poor outcomes for those people-at-risk. This again is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

QUERY TO NEXT THEME.

People who intend that someone should succeed can nonetheless induce failure by the expectations that that person will not succeed

A further dramatic indication of the expectancies by teachers is that mentally retarded pupils historically have had academic achievement scores far below their mental ages. That is to say that they perform well below what we would predict from their actual capacities.

In one particular study of the quantity and quality of instruction for elementary student classified as educable mentally retarded, learning disabled, emotionally/behaviourally disabled and non- handicapped found that the students classified as retarded received the least amount of academic activities, the lowest quality there of, and more free time during school hours than the others.

The Effect Of Mindsets On People-At-Risk

Now a special concern to Social Role Valorisation our expectations that are unrealistically low, and evaluations that are negative or devaluing.

A striking example of negative expectancy propaganda are of all the awful things that parents of impaired babies are so often told by their physicians - sometimes even while the child still in the womb. The parents who believe any false information along these lines often do things that are very harmful the child, or failed to do all sorts of beneficial things.

An example of how the negative mind sets can develop was brought out in a study of mothers of infants aged three to four months. Those whose infants had been premature touched their babies less often, interpreted them as more than they were, selected simpler toys for them, and rated them as both less attractive and less likeable than did mothers of full term babies. So we can see the negative expectancies cycles begin even at birth.

As with other mind processes and content, expectations can be held at a very unconscious level. This is illustrated by what one artist did he was asked to portray a child once as handicapped, and the second time as non- handicapped, but otherwise the same. The non- handicapped child is shown smiling, waving, and neatly dressed whilst the same child is interpreted when handicapped as sad and shabbily dressed, probably reflecting the expectancies that devalued people are poor, and look bad, and are unhappy

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9.3.3 Mindsets And Expectancy And SRV

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Particular Mindsets And Low Expectancies

Two particular mind sets account for a very large proportion or unfairly low expectancies.

One is the belief that the party is less capable than it is. The other is that (consciously or unconsciously) someone does not want a person-at-risk to possess virtues, or to have the experience good things.

Belief That A Person-At-Risk Is Less Capable Than They Really Are

The problem is that either out of ignorance or because of devaluation, people are surrounded with a consensus view that this or that devalued person or class cannot or should not be able to do this or that which valued people are expected to be the or do .

Belief That A Person-At-Risk Should Not Have The Good Things Of Life

Second, consciously or unconsciously, some party A does not want a party B to have a positive image, to possess virtues, are to have the experience good things. Therefore, Party A holds, and communicates, low expectancies about Party B.

For instance, "everybody knows that you can’t have a handicapped children in regular classes ", "everybody knows that this class of people need to live in large remote institutions" .

What Can Be Done To Counteract This

Obviously, ignorance about what can expect from a party is easier to overcome than devaluation of the party, or ill will toward it. Therefore, where expectancies are significantly lower than would be realistic, one should try to determine whether these are grounded in ignorance or in ill-will, and address them in different ways.

Regardless of whether negative information is grounded in ignorance or devaluation, if it "works" so to speak, then second parties will not expect much from first part is, in the following kind of vicious circle.

How Negative Expectancies Of Devalued Persons Create Negative Feedback Circularities

Functional impairment or devalued identity, leads to

Stereotyped prejudices about what such people can do or be, leads to

Observers expecting low or poor performance and making few or low demands, leads to

No or few or low opportunities for growth and development provided, leads to

Person does not get experiences necessary for growth or development, leads to

Further low or poor performance, as well as developmental delay, and impaired growth or performance,

Which in turn leads back into item two, stereotyped prejudices, thus forming a vicious circle.

IMPAIRMENT V STEREOTYPED PREJUDICE

X Y

EXPECTATION OF

FURTHER LOW OR POOR LOW PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE

X Y

FEWER EXPERIENCES W FEWER OPPORTUNITIES

Of course, the first party in an expectancies loop, that is to say the impaired or devalued person or group, can also end up believing what the second and third parties believe about it. We have seen the overwhelming evidence of this in the history that of repressed racial and ethnic minorities, as well as with the handicapped people .

Overcoming the negative power of mindsets and expectancies is extremely difficult.

Mind-sets lead to strong expectations that things will or will not happen, or will happen one way rather than another.

The power of expectancy is often under-rated. If we have a deep belief that something will happen, we may interpret the evidence in such a way that we perceive it as happening in reality.

Large collections of expectations form mindsets which cover wider areas of expectancies.

If we have no experience of particular groups of devalued people (learning disabled, mentally ill, prisoners) learning and changing, we will not expect these people to learn and change. If we do have such experience, we will expect such change to occur.

Shaping Mindsets And Expectancies

Wolfensberger says that:

‘… a major theme…is how to shape the mindsets and expectancies that people hold about various devalued persons and classes so that these mindsets

a/ are as positive as realistically possible

b/ presume the presence of potential for growth and development

c/ expect such to take place

d/ expect people to fill valued rather than devalued roles in society.’

9.3.4 Summary Of The Theme Of Mindsets And Expectancy

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