Alexander Maki, PhD                  Social Psychologist
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Why Do Immigrants Get Involved In Their Communities?

1/25/2015

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Picture courtesy of MajaH20 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/maja-h/)
Song of the post: K’Naan with Mos Def and Chali 2na – America

The United States has long prided itself on being a nation of immigrants. With 12% of current residents being individuals who were born in another country, and an additional 11% of residents who were born in the United States but have at least one parent born in another country (link), many of us Americans have recent close ties to another country.

In the United States, we have a complex narrative regarding immigration. The Statue of Liberty’s words “Give me your tired…” suggests that we want to help immigrants create a better life for themselves and their families. But, we also have a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” attitude, as we expect immigrants to work hard in order to build a new life. The message to immigrants in the United States seems to be that they can have a better life here as long as they work hard for it (this is sometimes called belief in meritocracy – believing that you can improve your life through hard work).

Now, we should want all members of our society, including immigrants, to feel not only welcome, but also that they are valued members who can have a positive influence on their communities. As a nation, we greatly value volunteerism, community involvement, and civic engagement. However, we know little about when immigrants choose to become involved in their communities.

Why might they get involved in their communities? On the one hand, immigrants could become involved for similar motivations that drive them to better their own lives -- they might believe that through hard work they can not only improve their own lives, but that they can also improve the quality of their own communities. However, it is also true that immigrants often feel discriminated against and marginalized. To the extent that immigrants come to feel that they don't have an equal opportunity in the United States, they might choose to get involved in their communities for other reasons, primarily because they feel the need to offset the discrimination experienced by their community.

Research in the past five years by Shaun Wiley and his colleagues have explored whether immigrants get involved in the political process in the United States, and their reasons for doing so (here). These researchers surveyed 184 Latino immigrants (Dominicans and Mexicans) in the New York City area, 125 of those immigrants being born in another country but who immigrated to the United States in late adolescence or early adulthood (considered first-generation immigrants), and 59 of those immigrants who were either born in the United States or who immigrated at the age of 10 or younger (considered second-generation immigrants).

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Picture courtesy of Auntie P (https://www.flickr.com/photos/auntiep/)
Wiley and his colleagues wanted to understand the various social beliefs that influence whether first- and second-generation immigrants get involved in efforts to strengthen their communities, including when they vote to elect members of their community into political positions, and when they support members of their community in efforts to earn positions of influence in United States companies.

The researchers found evidence that first- and second-generation immigrants have somewhat different reasons for engaging in these community support efforts. First-generation immigrants were more likely to believe that the public regarded members of their ethnic group as being valuable members of society, and were also more likely to believe that one can improve their life in the United States through hard work. Alternatively, second-generation immigrants were less likely to feel like their ethnic group was respected and valued, and less likely to buy into the idea that all one has to do to improve their life in the United States was to work hard.

Thus, first-generation immigrants were more likely to feel respected in the United States and believe that they could improve their lives through hard work, and this belief in improvement through hard work tended to motivate them to want to support their communities. Second-generation immigrants, on the other hand, tended to not feel respected in the United States, and did not agree with the idea that one just has to work hard to improve their life in the United States. Instead, second-generation immigrants tended to support their community because they identified with members of their ethnicity, and felt the need to offset experienced discrimination towards members of their ethnic group.

So, how does immigration status affect why immigrants get involved in their communities?

The present research provides some evidence that first-generation immigrants tend to get involved because they feel respected in society and that they can personally improve their lives through hard work. Alternately, second-generation immigrants tend to not believe that their ethnic group is respected, they tend not to buy into the idea that all one needs is hard work to advance in the United States, and instead they tend to get involved because they strongly identify with their ethnic group and want to oppose the discrimination that they feel their ethnic group experiences.

However, the social sciences are complex, and additional questions always remain. Would these findings hold for other immigrant groups in the United States, and would they hold for immigrants living in other countries? Did the first- and second-generation immigrants feel different types of emotions about their place in the United States and why they should get involved? One could imagine first-generation immigrants being more optimistic, and second-generation immigrants instead feeling more frustrated. And, do these disparate beliefs that tend to be held by
first- and second-generation immigrants create tension within families and communities?

What do you think?
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The Science of New Year's Resolutions: Do Activity Monitors Actually Help You Increase Your Physical Activity?

1/4/2015

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Picture courtesy of Nwardez (https://www.flickr.com/photos/nwardez/)
Song of the post: The Police – Every Breath You Take

We humans love to make New Year’s resolutions; there is just something about the New Year that fuels our optimism and our belief that we will be able to improve upon our previous year. Two of the most popular resolutions every year are to lose weight, and to generally become more active and fit. However, recent survey results suggest that only 49% of resolution-makers even have infrequent success, and only 8% of resolution-makers report actually achieving their resolution on a consistent basis.

Since many of us want to lose weight and/or become more fit, in recent years consumers (myself included) have been purchasing activity monitors (such as FitBit, Jawbone, Gear Fit, Mistfit, and Smartband) to help them keep track of their fitness progress. Essentially, these activity monitors count steps and measure the amount of one's vigorous activity during the day, allowing for the more accurate estimation of the number of calories individuals burn. There are also other aspects to many of the devices, such as the ability to compare your physical activity to friends, track food and drink consumer throughout the day, set explicit weight or activity goals, and receive real-time feedback relative to those goals.

Now, there is some evidence from individual studies that monitoring one’s physical activity is linked to increased physical activity over time such as here and here. But, in recent years work by Susan Michie and her colleagues (here) have more systematically explored how best to increase physical activity and improve dietary choices.
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Picture courtesy of Michele Ficara Manganelli (https://www.flickr.com/photos/michele_ficara_manganelli/)
Michie and her colleagues set out to conduct what is called a meta-analysis, which sounds technical but really just means that they collected all of the studies examining a specific question, and then combined the data into one really big study. Meta-analyses supply scientists with greater confidence in the findings in a given research literature, as meta-analyses collect lots of studies in one place and tend to counterbalance any of the weaknesses associated with a single scientific study. The question the researchers wanted to examine was: What behavior change techniques are most effective at increasing healthy eating and physical activity?

The researchers were able to collect data from 101 previous experimental studies where participants (44,747 people across the 101 studies!) experienced a behavior change technique, also called an intervention, that aimed to increase their eating behavior, physical activity, or both. Michie and colleagues filtered through each study and coded each type of behavior change intervention used, categorizing studies into use of interventions such as getting people to form intentions to change their behavior, providing information about how dieting or physical activity leads to positive health outcomes, supplying general encouragement, asking people to set explicit goals, or teaching people how to deal with relapses during goal pursuit. In total, across the 101 studies they coded for 26 different types of behavior change interventions (take a look at the full list in this article).

Then, with this mountain of data and these types of interventions coded, they were able to analyze the data all at once to determine what leads to the greatest increases in healthy eating and physical activity.  What did they find? The interventions that focus on what are called “self-regulation techniques” led to the largest increases in health eating and physical activity. In particular, what they called “self-monitoring” was the most effective technique, which is when researchers ask people to keep track of their actual behavior. This self-monitoring strategy was even more effective when combined with these other self-regulation techniques: (1) encouraging a person to decide to act or set a general goal (e.g., "I will become healthier"), (2) getting a person to form specific goals (e.g. "I will walk 10,000 steps a day" or "I want to lose five pounds"), (3) let people know how well they are progressing toward their goals, and (4) allow for the perpetual reviewing and adjusting of goals and/or behaviors over time.

So, do activity monitors actually help you become increase your physically activity?

The present research provides strong evidence that not only do activity monitors help people engage in more physical activity, but they do so through use of some of the most effective behavior change intervention techniques known to scientists. Most importantly, they focus on the measurement of one’s actual physical activity (self-monitoring). In addition, they also potentially get people to form behavior intentions, they ask people to form physical activity and weight goals, they provide feedback on how you physical activity relates to your weight goals, and they give you the opportunity to constantly evaluate your progress, allowing you to make adjustments to your levels of physical activity and your weight goals.

However, the social sciences are complex, and additional questions always remain. Who has the most success using these devices? How do we help those who are resistant to the positive effects of these devices capitalize on this technology? And how might other components of these devices, such as social comparison opportunities, influence behavior and health outcomes?

What do you think?
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    I'm a scientist and educator, exploring why people take care of the natural environment, one another, and their own health.

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