Careers Advisers’ Day

Engaging Generation Y

& Beyond

Presenter: John Boyle

1 May 2012

John Boyle & Associates

Psychological Solutions

The Future

When contemplating education, how good

are young people at futurespection?

The past may be a foreign country,

but the future has not yet

been discovered.

All education is an act of optimism,

it has a future oriented

perspective.

Quo Vadis

What would encourage a young person to consider

study at university?

What are the obstacles in a young person’s mind,

or the parent’s of a young person’s mind that would prevent them

thinking of going to university?

Going to University is about

developing the intellect, developing the potential of

the person to be

a healthier, happier,

more fulfilled, productive human being.

It gives the opportunity to lead a more meaningful life.

What Does a University Education Give You?

Choice

Glasgow UniversityFounded 1451

She’ll Be Right, Mate

Is the development of the intellect important?

Is it necessary for the community

or society

as a whole?

Fact #1: They Will Always Need Me To Do My Job

Do we have the monopoly on intellect

in the Global Village?

The 25% of the population of India with the highest IQ is greater than the population

of the United States.

The 5% of the population with the highest IQ in China is three times greater than the population of Australia.

Fact #2

China is now producing more scientists each year than the

US and Europe combined.

It takes 30 years to see the benefits of education

transmitted to a culture.

e.g.

What is the largest English speaking country?

How Secure Are Our Careers?

What is the competition in the market place?

China - 1,341 m

India - 1,210m

U.S. - 312m

U.K. - 62m

V’s

Australia - 22m

(133 to 1)

Is That a Lot Of Competition or Can I Feel Secure?

Counting non-stop, at one number a second,

it would take you

31 years, 251 days, 7 hours,

46 minutes, and 39 seconds

to count to 1 billion.

(A mere million is 278 hours

non stop-counting or 11.5 days)

Study / Work Enables…

The application of knowledge, ability, skill,

for personal satisfaction and self actualisation.

Doing something useful, meaningful,

of community value.

Helping people.

Being responsible, having discretion over

time utilisation.

Study Enables the Transmission of Knowledge

Guiding, influencing, mentoring others.

Problem solving.

Be creative and productive.

Have a variety of tasks.

and

Meet people, make friends,

be with others.

Experience new things and learn.

Offers opportunities for self improvement

and promotion.

Satisfy my other needs.

Good Times Promised

Given all those benefits listed,

are all people capable of

contemplating their future and putting in the hard work

so that there will be real benefits later in life?

NO!

Time Lord Zimbardo

I want to alert you to Time Perspective -the study of how we

divide our experience into different timeframes.

This is an automatic and unconscious process,

with more built in biases.

We all experience the world through filters.

Next Time

How a person categorises their life

in relation to their time frame

will influence the likelihood of seeking a

higher education.

There are Six Time Perspectives

1. Past Positive TP:The focus is on the positives.

2. Past Negative TP:The focus is on the negatives

3. Present Hedonistic TP:Hedonistic, impulsive,

4. Present Fatalistic TP:Fatalism, eloc.

5. Future TP:Life goal oriented.

6. Future Spiritual TP:Transcendental, supernaturallife begins after death of the mortal body.

Present Oriented Time Frame

It is only about what is in the immediate situation,

or immediate stimulation, or what others are doing,or what they are feeling.

They are stimulus bound, physiologically or hormonally.

They are moody, prone to jealously, indecisive,poor impulse control,

over react to frustration.

Future Oriented

These people anticipate consequences,

what outcomes there could be,

they do a cost benefit analysis.

They are co operative,self reliant, self efficatious,

confident,and will wear a watch.

A future orientation gives you energy to tackle new

challenges such as study.

Future Time Perspective

Very high:Conscientious .70Prefer consistency .6Ego control .

High:Energy Impulse control

Low levels:Sensation seeking Aggression Depression

Future Time Perspective

High in achievement

High in self efficacy(I can carry out the goals necessary to achieve the goal)

Have a health focus(if you run your body into the ground, they call it your grave)

They have a positive expectancy of self, life, others

Hope for change(It is a challenge, not a threat)

All Time Perspectives Have Negatives

Future oriented people sacrifice

Family timeFriend time

Fun timePersonal indulgences

HobbiesSleep

They often live for work, achievement and control.

They are highly motivated to study!

ADOLESCENTS:

Adolescence as a concept was created around the

same time that the steam engine came into

prominence.

Adolescents are still with us.

(Don’t you miss the steam engine?)

Erikson’s PsychosocialStages of Development

Infancy: 0 - 1 yr old –We learn Trust or Mistrust, leading to Hope.

Early childhood: 2 - 3 yo –We learn Autonomy or Dependency, leading to Will.

Play age: 4 - 5 yo –We learn Initiative or Guilt,leading to Purpose.

PsychosocialStages of Development

School age: 6 - 11 yo –We learn Industry orInferiority, leading to Competence.

Adolescence: 12 - 18 yo –We learn Identity or Roleconfusion, leading to Honesty.

Some models state that adolescence continues till about twenty five.

PsychosocialStages of Development

Early adulthood: 19 - 36 yo –We learn Intimacy or Isolation, leading to Love.

Adulthood: 37 - 63 yo We learn Generativity or Selfabsorption, leading to Care.

Mature age: 63+

We learn Integrity or Despair,

leading to Wisdom.

Evolution

Adolescence is a critical, essential,

unavoidable stage ofdevelopment.

It got you to be you, and to where you are today.

Not all survive it.There is high morbidity and

mortality rate.(especially amongst parents)

Taking on the Demon Form

Adolescence is a time foryoung people to define their

NEW place in their family,

their peer groups, and in the community and to

establish a career path.

It is the transition time between “carefree” childhood

and the “burden” of adulthood.

“You’re Not the Boss of Me”

Many adolescents want the rights and privileges of

childhood, but are less keen to accept the responsibilities of adulthood.

They often feel that they don’t belong in either the child’s world or in the adult world,

only with other adolescents.

Hairy Handed Gent…

This World Is Not My Home

Given that they often feel rejected, separate, and apart,

with undevelopedsocial, emotional,

work, financial skills,

it is at this time they are expected to make decisions

that will in all probability affect them for the rest of their

lives.e.g. to go to University,

or do what the others are doing.

Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto You

Don’t think that they don’t feel the pressure,

they do.

They often feel under attack,

and the best form of defence is…

Attack!!

“Its Alive!”

During this period, they must contend with

physical changes,the onslought of sexuality,

pressure to conform to contemporary trends,

fashions,peer pressure and behaviour,

and meet the increased expectations

of family and society.

Adolescence Is Marked By Feelings Of Insecurity

And Inadequacy.

Do You Think That Life Is Getting Easier For People?

Given the changes in our society,

young people need greater guidance,

support, direction,

confidence and poise than ever before to

successfully move from adolescence

to independent adulthood.

Experiment or Risk?Adolescents take risks and

experiment. They do so because they are

moving from a family-centred world

(which provides social, economic, emotional,

physical, psychological support, comfort and

security), to the world within which they will begin to define their own

identity, (and get the real stuff. )

Yo, Bro. Got it?

What is guaranteed is that they will choose friends you

will disapprove of,(who will practically live at

your house),eat your food,

listen to “music” that is way too loud,

refuse to tidy their room, drink your alcohol,

always need money,slavishly follow the

absurdities of fashion,

speak in the argot of the American ghettoes, in an accent of the

aforementioned and as far as possible clothe their loins

in anything Yankee, be lazy,

undisciplined,argue about anything

andeverything,and need

a good boot up the arse.

They All Look the Same to Me

This is called being an individual.

It is also called working out your identity.

Every One a Unique Individual,

Just Like All The Rest

An Adolescent Working Out His (Her?) Identity

What Has He Done Now?

They are creating themselves in a way that

they believe will allow them to survive and function without the day-to-day

guidance of their parents or other authority figures.

It is useful if they have a role model that is

pro-education.

Do Not Concern Yourself.Adolescents are invincible.

That’s how they see it.

Adolescent egocentrism suggests that they are more

likely to engage in riskybehaviour because they think

that the negative consequences

will not affect them.

This is illustrated in the concept of optimistic bias:

“a tendency to systematically underestimate personal risk”

(Ellen et al., 1996)

What? Me Worry?

Adolescents tend to think that they are more likely to

experience positive outcomes from

experimentation / risk taking than negative outcomes.

Hence they will make decisions that boggle the

brain.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

With What The Hell

Are They Thinking?

Nothing sacred about a brain,

it is just another organ

in the body.

Amydgala

Brains Continue To Develop Well Into Early Adulthood

The amygdala is responsible for

instinctual reactions including

fear and aggressive behaviour.

It is an organ of survival.

This region develops early.

The frontal cortex, the area of the brain

that controls reasoning

and helps us thinkbefore we act, develops later.

Given the stage of their brain development, adolescents are

more likely to:

• Be impulsive

• Misread or misinterpret social cues and emotions.

• Be Involved in accidents

• Be involved in fights

• Be involved in dangerous or risky behaviour, (Hence the accidents).

Adolescents Are Less Likely To:

• Stop, think and then act in their long term best interests.

• Focus on the potential consequences or catastrophes of their behaviour rather than on the perceived immediate benefits.

• Modify their risky, reckless, dangerous or inappropriate behaviour.

Psychological Science For The Public Interest“The findings demonstrate that if anything teenagers overestimate the risks of

such things as drunk driving and unprotected sex. They just do them anyway. Why? Because they have weighed the risks and weighed the benefits and made a cold

calculation that the benefits outweigh the risks. That

benefit may be immediate pleasure, as with drugs and

sugary foods, or the emotional connectedness

that comes with fitting in.”

Brain Map

Brain Regions and Functions

Frontal Lobe: Self-control, judgment, emotional regulation; restructured in teen years.

Corpus callosum:Intelligence, consciousness and self-awareness; reaches full maturity in twenties.

Parietal lobes:Integrate auditory, visual, and tactile signals; immature until age sixteen.

Temporal lob:Emotional maturity; still developing after age sixteen.

No Brainer Really

The Neo cortex corresponds with rational analytic thought

and language.

The Limbic system is responsible for feelings,

it has no capacity for language.

Decisions are emotional.

Motivation is an emotional experience.

Kicking Goals

Given that a person is contemplating University,

its role in their life and its direction,

what are their goals?

Goals give you motivation, direction,

clarity of purpose, focus, intent.

Goal Centred

You are motivated when you

have feelings about something,

that you want to

achieve a goal.

The achievement of a goal is inherently self rewarding.

Internal Model Of The World

We all have pre-existing beliefs,

a world view that has usually been formed

early in life.

What beliefs do people have about going to University?

Fact #3Things can only get better

The quality of education has been steadily increasing

for decades with children

scoring higher in

reading and in mathematics and that is

a worldwide phenomenon

Graduation rates are also increasing,

i.e. there is more competition.

Acquired Information Deficit Stupidity

Beliefs are formed byfamily,

early learning, experience,

social contact, education,

media, anecdote,

friend of a friend,clairvoyants horoscopes,

fortune cookies,etc.

Cosmic Filtre

Our beliefs, our world view is the schemathrough which

we experience the world, interpret it,

make sense of experience.

Our beliefsare both

formed by experience and

modified by experience.

All Made In The Past

We rely on unconscious

out of awareness biases

and rules of thumb

to navigate the world, for better or worse.

In Two Minds About It

We are “dual process”

thinkers. There are two interrelated

systems running in the brain. One is slow, deliberate and

arduous (our conscious reasoning).

The other is fast, associative, automatic and supple

(unconscious pattern recognition).

In Order To Motivate This Is What We Have To Overcome

The current debate

is over the relative strengths

and weaknesses

of these two systems and

how they interact and

under what circumstances one or the other will dominate.

Pattern Recognition

What Do People Recognise When The Topic of University

Comes Up?

Completely out of your awareness,

once your brain THINKS that it

recognises something it

stops paying attention.

Now Here Is A Radical Thought

The past is the sum total

of the information you have in your head,

your history.

In order to make decisions about the future,

you have to access the past.

Fact #4 By The Time You Reach 18, Psychologically,

You Have Lived Half Your Life.

Adolescents have a shorter past to which they can refer.

What are their beliefs

about education?

Fact #5Many People Will Not Go To University As They Do Not Want To Acquire A Debt.

A HECS debt, as a percentage of a greater

income earned due to a University education over a

45 year careeris simply not that much.

Motivated Reasoning

A cognitive theory known as

“motivated reasoning”, suggests that

rather than search rationally for unbiased information that

either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief,

people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe.

(Unconscious Pattern Recognition)

I Believe Therefore I Am

We form emotional attachments

to our beliefs that

get wrapped up in our personal identity,

world view, and sense of morality, etc

irrespective of

facts of the matter.

I Didn’t Know That

It is for this reason that for the most part

people completely ignore

information contrary

to current beliefs.

It does not match their

current template pattern.

Their

That tells us that motivating someone to consider study is

simply not just about the transmission of data.

Who then is listening to what you have to say,

or pays attention to it?

Consequences

Help provide the prospective student with an understanding of the impact of their

decisions on their life.

Assist them in coping with

the results of these choices.

Contibution

Purpose,Meaning,

WHYwe do things are the

motivators,followed by

HOW

we do it through education

then to the WHATyou do

shaped by your educational choices.

Fact #6

The ten most “in demand” jobs in 2010

did not exist in 2004.

This is one of the reasons we all

must prepare for positions that do not yet exist

with technological solutions

not yet created for problems

not yet identified.

Homo Habilis begat

Homo Sapien

Work is an essential activity

for our physical,emotional,

mental, social,

and for most of us, financial health.

University Education Will Give Choices

It is through the universal activity of work that we achieve our potential,

we grow as human beings.

We interact with the world, with the environment,

with other human beings, it is the feedback loop

that says “I am here and matter.”

My Work Is Informed By My Education

It is through work

that we achieve a sense

of worth in our own eyes

and in the eyes of the community in which we are embedded,

it gives us a sense of identity,

of belonging, of dignity.

To survive and thrive

in the modern world an education

is not an optional extra.

For a rewarding, meaningful,

satisfying life,it is essential.

Education is the Acquisition of Knowledge

Let us remind ourselves, a wise person once said that

“The opposite of knowledge

is not ignorance,

it ishelplessness”.

The End

Cue:

Rapturous Applause