Professor Dr Daphna Oyserman

Research Priorities: Identity, motivation, relationship between environment and human behavior, influence of social differences on educational careers
Daphna Oyserman is a US-American-Israeli psychologist, who is concerned chiefly with the relation between identity and behavior. She wants to understand how humans see themselves, what influences this, and which consequences this has for their decisions, their motivations, and their success in achieving their goals.
She became known primarily for her “identity based theory of motivation”, which she developed on the basis of experiments and field research. It explains when and in which situations their self-image motivates people to undertake steps towards a goal. This could be, for example, a graduation, but also a desired body weight, a smoke-free future, or a certain sum on the savings account.
According to this theory, it is decisive, whether one can link one’s current self-image with a successful future self. Research that Dana Oyserman and her team conducted at schools in Detroit and Chicago shows a significant correlation between social class, self-image, and work behavior: if students from socially difficult circumstances see for themselves a realistic chance of a college education, which can be reached with appropriate effort.
The situation is different if children believe that the path to higher education is closed to them in any case – be it because of a lack of money, or because “people like them” have no chance anyway. To exert oneself appears to be entirely meaningless in that regard, and every occurring hurdle seems to underscore this impression. Motivation is at a low point, which in turn reduces the prospects of success.
Daphna Oyserman and her team further researched what can be done against such self-fulfilling prophecies. Her results show, for example, that children and parents with a tighter budget should be informed early about the possibilities of financing a course of study. Already in eleven-year-olds this increases motivation. Likewise, it can help to continuously save small sums for this time.
Daphna Oyserman can derive from her research suggestions for more motivation and determination for adults as well. Her studies have shown that goals, which are far into the future, are often difficult to attain. Because humans tend to repeatedly defer first steps towards them. Here, it can help to change the time scale and to think in terms of days, rather than years. Accordingly, subject groups planed on starting on saving for retirement four times sooner, if they awaited the start of their retirement in 10.950 days instead of 30 years. Instead of imagining a comparatively far away future, one should, in the assessment of the researchers, rather think about how to be a little bit happierreich, healthier, or more wealthy today or this week.