Effects of Framing Messages of Globalization and Global Citizenship on Psychological Processes

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

Department

Psychology and Special Education

Date of Award

Fall 2012

Abstract

As the world has become more interconnected through increasing globalization, academic organizations have been challenged to produce graduates who are prepared, in both practice and knowledge, to embrace and embody global citizenship. However, instructors have expressed a lack of knowledge and skills needed to engender global citizen identity via a global education pedagogy. Instructors have also expressed discomfort and disinterest in infusing concepts such as global citizenship and globalization in their courses. Research has shown that instructors can profoundly impact students, and through framing of concepts, instructors may be unintentionally priming students' worldviews. The purpose of the present set of studies was to examine the influence of instructors' framing of the topics of globalization and global citizenship on students' global citizen identification and pro-social values. Study 1 (N = 467) investigated the effects of framing the message of globalization on students' global citizenship identification and related values. The study tested the hypotheses that framed messages of globalization (social, economic, negative) would significantly differ from the control (how a thermometer works) and would bring about greater degrees of positive emotion, global citizenship identity and related pro-social values, academic motivation, interdependent self-construal, and personal and interpersonal behaviors in the socially framed condition. Study 2 (N = 543) investigated the effects of framing the message of global citizenship on students' global citizenship identification and related values. The study tested the hypotheses that framed messages of global citizenship (awareness, responsibility, negative) would significantly differ from the control (how a thermometer works) and would bring about greater degrees of positive emotion, global citizenship identity and related pro-social values, academic motivation, interdependent self-construal, and personal and interpersonal behaviors in the awareness framed message of global citizenship. The findings of the present studies support the notion that instructors can have a profound influence on students' perception of information, attitudes, behaviors, and values through the manner in which they choose to frame the information. Overall, the results supported the notion that framing of lecture content (whether globalization or global citizenship) influenced perception of students' normative environment, which then predicted greater global citizenship identification and subsequent endorsement of pro-social values.

Advisor

Stephen Reysen

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Psychology

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