3 Ways to Track - and Boost - Psychological Growth

“Back to School” season draws to a close as another school year begins.  Eager parents have posted front-door and bus-stop photos of their children on social media, documenting the steady march of physical growth (and perhaps fluctuating fashion sense) from one “first day of school” to the next.  Put those pics together with the dossier of report cards and test results collected over time as well, and a developmental scrapbook emerges, highlighting frame-by-frame the dynamic biological and cognitive progress that occurs between pre-K and college.

Unfortunately, we’re less likely to tout, let alone document, psychological and emotional growth.  We know by now that so-called “soft skills” like resilience, curiosity, conscientiousness, and teamwork are at least as important to master, if not more so, as “hard skills” like the 3 Rs.  Yet, socioemotional learning in our modern education system remains an elusive objective. 

Part of the challenge is finding solid evidence of these traits.  Academic achievement yields neat, if imperfect, scores like grade point average; physical growth is readily measured in your standard unit of choice.  Mental make-up doesn’t photograph well, alas. 

Case in point:  my very first college assignment earned an ominous “F,” but only my final grade – a hard-earned “A-“ – is memorialized.  What isn’t shown on my transcript is how I learned to swallow my pride, shake off failure, fend off negative thoughts, accept criticism, and work harder to get from point “F” to point “A-.”  That’s the kind of growth we should showcase, however phantasmal that may seem.

We can find clues to such growth, however, if we know where to look.  In the first-year undergraduate course I co-teach at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, students learn to identify and develop many of the socioemotional skills that are most valued in today’s workforce.  We ask them to discover and track these skills in various ways:

Reflection – early, honest, and often.  Taking a moment to pause and reflect is a powerful habit.  Introspection allows us to make conspicuous what our brains otherwise wouldn’t have the bandwidth to process.  And if we can raise a thought, behavior, or emotion to consciousness, we can act on it.  Reflection works only if you’re brutally honest with yourself and acknowledge the value of setbacks.  We can promote reflection with open-ended questions:  “What strengths of yours help you get through challenging situations?”  “What was your approach in preparing for that last exam?”  In our course, we cultivate reflection through essay prompts and pair-share activities.  With my clients in cognitive-behavioral therapy, I encourage targeted journaling around specific goals: “Jot down what you’re thinking and feeling when you find yourself withdrawing from others,” for example.

Experimentation – the “Mythbusters” approach.  We learn by poking at the sleeping world and seeing what happens next.  Experimentation allows us to test the notions we have about ourselves and ultimately derive more nuanced and accurate understanding.  With a nod to the television show Mythbusters, I encourage students to try new things with exuberance.  Narrow in on detailed interventions like a desired leadership behavior; “I’ll offer support of my peers’ ideas before interjecting mine” is specific and measurable.  Reflect on how it worked, or why it didn’t.  Embrace failure and adjust your next efforts accordingly.  As on the show, be skeptical, methodical, and analytical with the results.  (But you won’t need crash dummies.)

Feedback – personalized, timely, actionable.  Colleges should foster a culture of feedback just as much as the business world does.  In our course, students receive one-on-one feedback at multiple points to review their reflections and behaviors (experiments).  Structured self-assessments like Clifton Strengths and Hogan Career Report give them insights about personal qualities that they can leverage day by day.  We also model a feedback culture by conducting a mid-semester survey to capture ideas for improving course content and delivery.  Outside the classroom, office hours with professors and appointments with academic advisors and career counselors are fertile grounds for an empowered student to initiate feedback.  Asking for feedback is, in and of itself, a sign of psychological strength – assuming that it’s followed by gratitude and good-faith efforts to act on the comments provided.

So, before packing away those “first day” clapboard props, pick a few soft skills to track this school year – not just with your students but you too.  For myself, I plan to engage more deeply with my professional network to seek inputs on developing projects and collaborations.  Can I take more deliberate action by meeting more colleagues for coffee and pitching ideas?  How can I stay curious and humble as I ask for their critiques?  Might I be persistent enough to weather self-doubts and put myself out there nonetheless? 

That will be my journey.  How will you help yourself and others grow psychologically taller and smarter this school year?