First College Paper

First off, I transferred from Texas A&M to Southwestern because I wanted an academic program that wasn't an easy diploma and would prepare me for graduate school. I only wrote one paper last year at A&M, and I realized I needed to be doing much more to be prepared for graduate work.

Anyway, I received my first paper back last Friday and was very disappointed with my grade. Almost to the point of disbelief. I thought that I had been working very hard these past several weeks to keep on top of all of my classes, give myself enough time to complete homework thoroughly, and especially write my first paper with extra care and dedication. However none of my effort was reflected in my first grade. Very upset, I of course did not blame myself and partook in self-serving cognitions. A self-serving cognition is a self-enhancement technique, or mechanism that we used to not only elevate our normal self-esteem but save our self-esteem in the face of negative information (Taylor, 1989). These cognitions, such as self-serving bias (see last blog), allow us to disprove and therefore cope with negative feedback while thinking we are objective instead of biased (Pronin et al., 2004). I thought I was graded too harshly; the teacher put the wrong grade on my paper; the teacher, a business professor, favored business majors. All of which are false, but seemed very likely at the time.

The grade on my paper also rattled my cage because it violated self-verification or the desire for others to see us as we see ourselves (Swann, 1987). I thought of myself as a good student which I thought was reflected in my paper, but the grade I receive reflected that I was not as good of a student that I thought. This made me particularly upset when my boyfriend, without reading my paper, said that I probably deserved what I got. That's two people contradicting my self-perception.

As time went on however, I came to realize that though I spent extra time on my paper, I still took my usual shortcuts and only spent extra time making it look pristine. Now I accepted that I truly earned that grade, and therefore, accepted my boyfriend's comments that I deserved it. Now his view is the same as mine and consistent with self-verification, so it doesn't bother me.

Surprisingly to me this all happened in the span of about three days. If asked if how I would feel about this same situation earlier, I would have predicted that my melancholy would have persisted at least a week and probably until I received a better grade from that class. However, due to affective forecasting I would have been wrong. Affective forecasting is the uncanny ability for people to wrongly predict how they will feel about future events. People can usually predict whether they will feel good or bad about an event, but now how intense the feeling will be or how long it will last (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003, 2005). This happens not only because people underestimate their ability to cope with bad situations, but because they do not take into account other aspects of their life into their predictions about a specific event (Gilbert et al., 1998). For example, I got over my bad grade so quickly because I have gotten good grades in my other classes.

What also helped was that I remember this is exactly why I came here. To hone my writing, critical thinking, and other academic skills. Without high expectations, I would not be pushed to find my potential.

Taylor, S. E., & Lobel, M. (1989). Social comparison activity under threat: Downward evaluation and upward contacts. Psychological Review, 96, 569-575.

Pronin, E., Gilovich, T., & Ross, L. (2004). Objectivity in the eye of the beholder: Divergent perceptions of bias in self versus others. Psychological Review, 111, 781-799.

Swann, W. B., Jr. (1987). Identity negotiation: Where two roads meet. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1038-1051.

Wilson, T. D., Gilbert, D. T. (2005). Affective forecasting: Knowing what to want. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 131-134.

Gilbert, D. T., Pinel, E. C., Wilson, T. D., Blumberg, S. J., & Wheatley, T. (1998). Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 617-638.