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SUMMARY:Failures Are Information: The Challenge is Discerning What They Me
 an - Professor Xiaodong Lin Siegler\, Columbia University
DTSTART:20220429T150000Z
DTEND:20220429T163000Z
UID:TALK173690@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Irum Maqbool
DESCRIPTION:Leo Tolstoy wrote\, “All happy families are alike\; every un
 happy family is unhappy in its own way” (Tolstoy\, 1973-1977/2018\, Kind
 le Locations 296-297). A similar analogy can be made to success and failur
 e. All successes imply that things have gone as planned and that one can p
 roceed as one has intended. A failure\, however\, implies that things have
  not gone as planned and can have a variety of implications. For example\,
  failure can be a sign to change direction\, a teacher\, or even a signal 
 that one is on the path to success (Losse\, 2016\; Nazar & Bailis\, 2013\;
  Turner\, 2003). A failure can also be perceived to have a variety of impl
 ications for both one’s own future and for the future of others. This su
 ggests that failure offers us valuable information and opportunities. Much
  of the past research regarding the meanings that people ascribe to failur
 e comes from attribution theory and implicit theories of intelligence lite
 ratures. We know a great deal about how failure influences perceptions of 
 one’s own abilities. Without considering individual differences\, failur
 e is less likely than success to be attributed to effort (Nicholls\, 1975)
 . When working on a difficult task\, helpless children are more likely tha
 n mastery-oriented children to make attributions to loss of ability (Diene
 r & Dweck\, 1978).\n\nMy work takes somewhat different route. I first demo
 nstrate that learning about failure motivates students to do well in schoo
 ls. I then take a bottom-up approach to examine how various individuals (e
 .g. high vs. low performing high school students\, exceptional athletes an
 d Nobel Laureates\, etc) describe\, label\, and explain their own events o
 f failure experiences (rather than perceived pre-defined causes and conseq
 uences of failure). Using personal story-telling approach to understand in
 dividual people’s failure experiences\, esp. their conceptualization of 
 such experiences\, we can begin to understand how failures impact human’
 s emotions\, cognition and behaviors\, how various internal and external v
 ariables impact such emotional and behavioral reactions\, and implications
  to design future psychology experiments and educational applications it o
 ffers. Although we are at infancy of this body of work\, they may have app
 lications and could lead to specific ways to intervene to help struggling 
 students\, business people\, or the recently unemployed\, and those experi
 encing divorce and separation. This work is an important first step in a g
 reater understanding of the common human experience of failure. 
LOCATION:Zoom
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