CULTIVATING POSITIVE ATTITUDES
In life, every person will have to make decisions. As we grow older we are expected to become better at making the right ones. Our decisions determine the path we take and mold who we are as people. Each one varies in importance but they all have an impact on our future. In college this is especially true. A student’s habitual decision to hang out with friends rather than study can have an effect on their grades. As a Resident Mentor (RM), I can observe student’s decisions and behaviors closely. My responsibilities as a RM are to enhance the college experience for students by monitoring behaviors, encouraging development, providing resources, and creating a community environment. My assigned community as a Resident Mentor was the Gateway Community. The Gateway program is a bridge program for the University of South Carolina in which students take their first year classes at Midlands Technical College. If the students finish their freshman year with a 2.5 GPA, no disciplinary record, and no outstanding payments they transfer to the University as sophomores.
Although, I am an authoritative figure to my residents we are both still students. As a fellow student I can sympathize with their academic struggles. After a few weeks into the first semester I recognized that most of my residents were having trouble with some of their classes, especially their math class. In the artifacts section, I have documented my interaction form where I discovered my residents were having issues. Knowing that they were all worried about these specific classes affecting their chance of transferring, I wanted to do something to help them push through their academic hardships.
My plan was to reinforce their current belief that they are smart and able to improve their grades. I also wanted them to learn that being naturally smart meant nothing without continuous hard work. In high school most students were able to make good grades without studying and putting in a lot of effort. When transferring to college that type of work ethic is not effective anymore. With this mission at hand, I had to create a positive attitude towards continuous hard work.
Attitude= (Belief) not studying is putting in low effort; (Evaluation) low effort leads to low GPA; (Tendency) to continuously work hard to improve grades and avoid low GPA
To boost this idea, I told them about my academic struggles to show how it is a phase that every college student goes through. I also suggested tutoring and coined the phrase, “It’s bounce back season” to help promote the idea that their setbacks are temporary. By the end of the semester I improved the hall morale and their confidence in themselves. I had multiple of my residents tell me that they passed their classes with a C or better.
While I am happy about the progress that my residents made and the impact that I had on them, I cannot take full credit for this approach. In my Marketing (MKTG 350) class, we studied a chapter dealing with consumer behavior. Consumer Behavior by definition is the study of the activities and factors that influence product purchase, use, & disposal. There are four factors that influence consumer behaviors; Psychological Factors, Interpersonal Factors, Social Factors, and Cultural Factors. Attitude is classified as a Psychological Factor. Attitude is a combination of belief, evaluation, and behavioral tendency. Belief is a pattern of knowledge one holds to be true. Your evaluation is assigning a negative or positive value, which affects your behavior tendency. According to marketers the only way to change an attitude is through learning. Learning is any change in behavior or cognition resulting from experience or its interpretation.
In my artifacts section, I have included a conceptual map that I created to study for the exam on the chapter about consumer behavior; it will give a better visual to how attitude effects consumer behavior. Using this model helped me better organize my approach to helping my residents. I hope to use this to cultivate positive attitudes for other group projects or personal goals. I realized when making decisions for my future, I have to have a positive attitude towards beneficial actions that help me reach my goals. By having a positve attitude, I can work towards repeating these behaviors to make it a tednacy. If I do not have a postive attitude, I must learn to open my mind and do what is necessary to reach my goal.