Slide 1

Researching the Virtues Project Derek Patton Child & Family Psychologist, reg. Australia PhD candidate, University of Melbourne Dedicated to the Piscataway and Conoy tribes of Maryland, the traditional Spiritual Companioners of this land, their and our ancestors and to all past stolen children from any race, any place

Slide 2

International Virtues Project Research Network Coordinator, Chris Kavelin, Ph.D. Associate Coordinator, Derek Patton, M.Ed Child & Family Psychologist Network = facilitators world-wide Virtues Companions Inc. reg. Victoria AU Offices, meeting, art, companioning rooms www.kimadele.net__Indigo_Bey

Slide 3

Resources development Android phone application Virtues pick and whole deck, with Lindas wish to swipe increase font Card holder = habitual engagement after you are Long Gone (like a turkey through the corn). Virtues Buttons Convincing ARGUMENTs & Evidence

Slide 4

Children drop food off the table to test that gravity works for peas AND potatoes. Everyone tests truthfulness in normal conversation, e.g. DATA Everyone tests Evidence for the claimed facts in normal conversation, e.g. the scientific mind. Everyone is a researcher

Slide 5

Master in School Leadership degree State of Victoria funds 60 schools/year for one person to start a part time Masters in school culture change using positive psychology. Virtues Project is day topic with offer to introduce VP for the students research project, with 2 research projects underway.

Slide 6

Black US college students answering 20 GRE? One answer sheet asked them to ID their race. Another group were not asked this question. Those who IDd their race, got HALF as many correct, as those who didnt It is thought they were reminded of all the negative stereotypes from American culture about their race. This was 1995! You might think Im black and Im proud (James Brown) would have taken root. Not. Implications for Mori and Aboriginal peoples and their education experience? We need to be very careful what we say & ask. Invisible thinking can be dangerous to peoples wellbeing because it is insidious, invisible and pervasive.

Slide 7

3 groups tested by Yale researchers (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996) used 3 word sets: Rude priming: aggressively, bold, rude, bother, disturb, intrude, annoyingly, interrupt, audaciously, brazen, impolitely, infringe, obnoxious, aggravating, and bluntly Polite priming: respect, honor, considerate, appreciate, patiently, cordially, yield, polite, cautiously, courteous, graciously, sensitively, discreetly, behaved, and unobtrusively Neutral priming: exercising, flawlessly, occasionally, rapidly, gleefully, practiced, optimistically, successfully, normally, send, watches, encourages, gives, clears, and prepares

Slide 8

After completing the sentence task, participants went to give the results to the researcher. A confederate posed as a student, apparently having difficulty understanding how to complete a task. The experimenter and confederate engaged in a conversation with the experimenter standing so that his body was open at about a 45 angle to the approaching participant. How long would the participant wait to be acknowledged, before interrupting? 10 min = ethically allowed time limit.

Slide 9

How long did they wait? Participants primed rude waited on average 326 seconds or 5.43 minutes Participants primed neutral waited on average 519 seconds or 8.65 minutes Participants primed polite waited on average 558 seconds or 9.3 minutes This does not show full story because 62 % did not interrupt at all, making a severe ceiling effect in the data. 82% in the polite condition never interrupted! Come on, this was New York!

Slide 10

Slide 11

Invisible Thinking is powerful A pervasive environment of virtuous words will have profound effects, even without adding the effect of virtuous behaviour or explicit curriculum. We can use this psychology/sociology reality to change school cultures. You can explicitly teach strategies that arise from this to others. BUT, invisible thinking is being used against us and our children.

Slide 12