Séminaire du laboratoire de psychologie sociale
Abstract:
First-generation students (FGs) perceive their background as less compatible with the university than Continuing-Generation students (CGs), and this in turn negatively affects their achievements. Previous research in the US has investigated the role of cultural norms and demonstrated that this is due to a cultural mismatch: FGs have more interdependent motives while the university promotes independent cultural norms. In the present research, we take a step further in this line of work suggesting that the focus on the selective function of higher education (i.e., selecting the best students) is a cue for independent cultural norms, fueling the identity-compatibility gap. Selection stresses the importance of distinguishing oneself from others based on one’s own unique individual merit and therefore makes salient self-independence and uniqueness. As preliminary work, we tested the identity-compatibility gap (lower sense of identity compatibility in FGs compared to CGs) in the Italian context; at the same time, we examined the psychometric properties of the scales employed in previous research to tap identity-related processes in educational inequalities. Then, two experimental studies investigated a) whether university focus on student selection (vs. education) elicits independent (vs. interdependent) cultural norms and b) whether this affects students’ sense of compatibility with the university. This research project fills the gap in the literature by highlighting the interplay between a university’s functions and cultural norms and their impact on students’ sense of compatibility with higher education.