ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Social identification and normative conflict: When student and
educator learning norms collide
Lillian Smyth
1
|
Vritika Chandra
2
|
Kenneth I. Mavor
1,3
1
Medical Education Unit, Australian National
University
2
Research School of Psychology, Australian
National University
3
School of Psychology and Neuroscience,
University of St Andrews
Correspondence
Lillian Smyth, Medical Education Unit, ANU
Medical School, The Australian National
University, Florey Building, 54 Mills Road,
Acton, ACT 2601, Australia.
Email: Lillian.Smyth@anu.edu.au
Abstract
The current paper explores perceived norm conflict, social identification, and learning approaches
in the applied context of higher education. Research has established the influence of identification
with fellow students, and their perceived norms, on student approaches to learning. However, in
the current paper, we argue that this model is not entirely ecologically valid and that students are
not the only source of normative influence in the study context. In this first step to unpack these
complex normative influences, we examine the next most-proximal source of normative informa-
tion—the educator. In essence, we explore the ways that the normative communications of a
within-field educator can also influence student learning approaches and the ways these two sets
of normative effects may interact. Testing a sample of undergraduate students at Australian uni-
versities, we explore how students resolve conflicting intragroup norm sources. Findings suggest
that, in line with previous literature, stronger identification with the field of study is associated
with deep learning approaches, and this effect is moderated by perceived student norms such that
the valence of the study norms can undermine or accentuate this effect. Novel results unpacking
the effects of normative conflict suggest that this moderation effect is only present when educator
norms are ambiguous and that, in instances of clearly conflicting normative messages, the identifi-
cation main effect prevails. The implications and applications are discussed.
1
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INTRODUCTION
The current paper is an exploration of the consequences that social
identification and perceived normative conflict have for learning
approaches among tertiary students. Specifically, it aims to unpack the
potential influences of multiple ingroup norm communications, in cases
of both congruence and inconsistency. Social psychological literature
(e.g., Turner, 1991) has established that the combination of the extent
to which an individual identifies with a particular group membership
(i.e., perceives it as self-defining) and the nature of the norms they per-
ceive to belong to that group have a demonstrable effect on specific,
norm-related behavior (e.g., healthy eating, Baker, Little, & Brownell,
2003; exercise, Hagger & Chatzisarantis, 2005). The current paper
examines an under-studied aspect of this process (McDonald, Fielding,
& Louis, 2013, 2014), in that these norms may not be monolithic, nor
derived from a single intragroup source. Building on previous work on
the social psychological processes of education, the immediate, task-
bound context of the current investigation is higher education.
The utility of considering field of study related identification and
perceived learning norms in predicting student learning behavior and
academic success has already been demonstrated (Bliuc, Ellis, Good-
year, & Hendres, 2011a, 2011b; Platow, Mavor, & Grace, 2013;
Smyth, Mavor, & Platow, 2017; Smyth, Mavor, Platow, Grace, &
Reynolds, 2015). In this literature, and the current paper, learning
behavior is couched chiefly in terms of learning approaches; a
descriptive typology drawn from the education literature (Biggs,
1999; Biggs & Tang, 2007a). In this model, learning behaviors and
strategies are divided into those that seek to integrate information
for the sake of understanding (deep learning) and those that seek to
memorize information for the sake of task completion (surface
learning). These approaches have already been demonstrated to be
subject to influence from strength of identification with a relevant
social identity and from perceived study-related norms associated
with these identities (Bliuc et al., 2011a, 2011b; Platow et al., 2013;
Smyth et al., 2015). The current paper takes this body of research a
step further, in line with the direction suggested more recently by
Smyth and colleagues (Smyth, Mavor, & Platow, 2017), by examin-
ing learning approach intentions in a situation where multiple,
potentially conflicting, intragroup normative influences are consid-
ered, particularly those drawn from the educator.
J Appl Soc Psychol. 2018;48:293–303. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jasp
V
C
2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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293
Received: 13 June 2017
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Revised: 25 October 2017
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Accepted: 24 January 2018
DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12505
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