A Growth Theory of Interest Enhances Integrative Thinking That Bridges the Arts and Sciences

• In Event: Exploring Processes That Underlie College Students' Motivational Challenges

Abstract

Objectives
Interdisciplinary learning occurs when students bridge seemingly disparate areas of knowledge, like the arts and sciences. What leads some students to make these connections that others might miss? We investigated people’s beliefs about the nature of interest.

Theoretical Framework
Believing that interests are dispositional and relatively unchanging (fixed theory) can inhibit people from exploring fields outside of their existing interests (O’Keefe, Dweck, & Walton, 2018). By contrast, if interests are believed to be developed (growth theory), one’s interests could presumably become more diverse, thereby heightening their attention to a broader array of information and seeing how that information effectively connects to their existing interests.

Methods, Materials, and Results
In Study 1, undergraduates completed a prescreen that assessed their fixed and growth theories of interest (2018), and their established interests in the arts or the sciences. Only those with interests in one area and not the other were recruited. In the lab, those with interests in arts were instructed to imagine they were a curator of an arts museum and to draw from the sciences to generate ideas for new museum exhibits. Those with interests in sciences were given the opposite instructions. Those with a stronger growth theory tended to generate ideas that were judged by independent coders to be of higher quality.

Study 2 (pre-registered) examined undergraduates’ spontaneous attention to information from outside of their established interests and their tendency to bridge the arts and sciences. Participants were prescreened as before. To assess attention, undergraduates were asked to recall items from a cubicle they waited in before the study began. The cubicle had, in fact, been staged to include equal numbers of arts and sciences stimuli (e.g., Picasso painting, Graph Theory textbook). To assess arts-sciences integration—rather than integration within only one area—participants were given an alphabetical list of majors at their university, which comprised equal numbers of arts and sciences programs. They were tasked to generate ideas that integrated the programs. Responses were coded for their overall arts-sciences integration and quality. A stronger growth theory predicted greater recall of stimuli from outside their interest area, a greater tendency to bridge the arts and sciences, and ideas that were judged to be of higher quality.

Study 3 (pre-registered) replicated Study 2, but induced rather than measured theories of interest. To this end, undergraduates were randomly assigned to read a research article, written for a general audience, that espoused either a fixed or growth theory of interest. Results demonstrated the causal role of theories of interest.

Significance
Because those with a growth theory are more inclined to see how outside areas connect to their primary interests, they may be more likely to take advantage of learning across disciplines, and perhaps major in interdisciplinary fields or complete minors in areas outside of their primary interests. Study 3 demonstrated that it is possible to influence students’ theories, but it remains an open question whether interventions that promote a growth theory would increase long-term integrative thinking in everyday learning contexts.

Authors

• Paul A. O'Keefe, Yale-NUS College

• E. Horberg, Yale-NUS College

• Anandita Sabherwal, Yale-NUS College

• Gabrielle Ibasco, Yale-NUS College

• Adlin Zainal, Yale-NUS College