Lecture 23: Choosing Career Paths Flashcards
Koestner’s experience in psychology graduate school
- It wasn’t as competitive when Koestner applied, but it was still competitive
- You needed approx 3.7 GPA and some research experience
- Around ½ of the students were weeded out after their first year in Koestner’s program
- In their second semester, the 8 students in Koestner’s class took the MMPI and were above 70 (clinical levels) on paranoia, depression, and anxiety (called the neurotic triad)
- Their instructor suggested that this was due to how competitive the program was
prestige of the life of a lawyer
- Among the highest prestige
- The average U.S. salary is $200,000
lawyers have high rates of
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Substance abuse
- Career dissatisfaction
- Suicide
- Divorce
do lawyers encourage their kids to be lawyers?
Most parents encourage their kids to follow in their career footsteps, but most lawyers discourage their kids from becoming lawyers
pressure on lawyers
There is a lot of pressure on lawyers to become a partner
Krieger’s hypotheses
- The training environment in law school is responsible for setting in motion the psychological troubles that lawyers have
- Law education is different from other types of education
- “Intense pressure and competitive success norms reorient students away from positive personal interests and values and towards rewards and more image-based values, leading to a loss of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and well-being”
what is law school like?
- The opposite of Finnish schools, which are cooperative, personally relevant, and autonomy-supportive
- Competition, rank, and status for academic superiority and placements
- Excessively abstract, analytical teaching
- Teaching practices are isolative and intimidating
the paper chase video
- Filmed at Harvard Law School and aimed to capture the life of Harvard Law students
- The professor was very formal and condescending toward students
a research design to examine the motivational effects of law school
- Followed over 600 students at two large law schools from early in their first year through graduation
- One school is top-rated and reputed to be intensely competitive and the other is moderately rated and reputed to be more student-centred
- Assessed a host of motivational, academic, and well-being outcomes over 3 years
- Guided by Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory
what self-determination theory constructs did the study measure?
- life goals
- motivation for law school goals
- need satisfaction
- perception of autonomy support
life goals
measured as intrinsic vs. extrinsic aspirations
intrinsic vs. extrinsic aspirations
- Intrinsic aspirations are an end in themselves but extrinsic aspirations are not
- Intrinsic aspirations meet our needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence
- Extrinsic motivations are money, fame, popularity, and beauty
motivation for law school goals
intrinsic, identified, introjected, extrinsic
need satisfaction
autonomy, relatedness, and competence
perception of autonomy support
how they view their instructors, classmates, and evaluations
what outcomes did the study measure?
- GPA during undergraduate and the first two years of law school
- Career choices: high prestige (corporate, tort, medical malpractice) vs. high idealism (legal services to the poor, public defender)
- Licensing exam
- Well-being: positive and negative affect and life satisfaction
Are law students different from other students to begin with?
- Law students are higher on well-being to start with than people who went to other graduate programs
- Law students have more intrinsic vs. extrinsic aspirations
How do well-being, life values, motivation, and need satisfaction change in law school (from before the first year to the end of the first year)?
- There is a significant drop in well-being
- Life values become more extrinsic
- Motivation becomes more extrinsic
- Need satisfaction decreases
Do the changes in motivational variables mediate the drop in well-being?
- Found that well-being dropped because of the change in values, motivation, and need satisfaction
- Well-being is a function of these motivational processes
How do these variables relate to GPA?
More autonomous students did better
Does GPA relate to career choices?
- Students who began with autonomous motivations did very well but by the end of their first year, their career goals became more prestige-oriented
- The authors suggest that this is because if you are shown to be successful in law school, professors will notice and try to lure you into a prestigious career
Does the motivational climate of the law school affect well-being?
- Well-being drops more drastically at high-prestige law schools
- School differences were mediated by perceived autonomy support and need satisfaction
- They controlled for LSATs and college GPA
Is it possible that the students at the higher-prestige schools do better?
Students at the lower-prestige schools have a greater pass rate on the multi-state bar exam
Are high-prestige lawyers happier in the future?
- No, they have lower levels of job satisfaction
- It’s harder for high-prestige lawyers to take time off because they begin to monetize their time
