The Role of Public Commitment in an Academic Context Nathalie Roland & Mariane Frenay nathalie.roland@uclouvain.be Introduction How can we explain that some students persevere in their study even if they meet difficulties whereas others give up? A possible explanation could reside in the importance they attach to what others think about them. In this context, the publicness of studies could play an important role and push some students to keep engage in it. Salancik (1977) defined publicness as the extent to which significant others are aware of one’s goal. Our first research has been based on this concept. However, an extensive literature review shows others similar variables that could also explain persistance, from which we will propose an alternative model. First Study: Importance of the Publicness New Exploration: Public Commitment Introduction We led a preliminary study in which we tested the impact of publicness on academic goal commitment through Hollenbeck and Klein’s (1987) model of antecedents of commitment. This model suggests that the relationship between publicness and commitment is mediated by expectancy of success and goal value. Method Sample: 299 last year general upper secondary students (12th Grade) 45,5% Girls / 51.2% Boys Mean age : 18,4 years Method: A self-report questionnaire assessing antecedents and commitment to academic goal. Results Exploratory correlational analyses and regression analyses showed that when an academic goal is known of the student’s significant others, academic goal commitment increases through the increase of expectancy and value. Conclusion Results of this first study brought us to explore concepts linked to publicness, such as public commitment which is better defined and more studied in the literature than publicness. Introduction We decided to focus on public commitment because it’s a concept clearly defined contrary to publicness. A lot of studies showed that making a public commitment to a behaviour/ a goal reinforces the person’s commitment to this behaviour/ goal (e.g. Debar et al., 2011; Nyer & Dellande, 2010). Hypothesis Based on literature, we suppose that a student who engaged publicly to continue his studies (to persevere), will persevere more than a student who didn’t make such commitment. Limitations of this approach Most studies about public commitment were experimental studies. Participants were asked to commit publicly and all contextual variables could be controlled. In an academic context, commitment is made spontaneously, can’t be observed by the experimenter and is hardly controllable. Moreover, it’s difficult to know from when we can consider a person as committed. Contrary to what studies showed, we think that to commit publicly is not necessary associated with high perseverance. We suggest that this relation depends on a series of moderating variables (e.g. normative beliefs). Academic Public commitment Academic perseverence Public Commitment within the Planned Behaviour Theory applied in Higher Education Introduction One way to overcome these limitations is to situate the concept of public commitment or publicness in a valid theoretical framework. In this context, we propose to focus on planned behaviour theory (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010). This model aims to explain how a behavior is produced. Publicness could be similar to normative beliefs and subjectives norms. Avantages of this approach This model considers background factors and psychological process to explain a behaviour. It is an empirically valid model. Future perspectives This model was tested in a lot of domains but few in academic perseverence. This model will be tested in a higher education context (first year university students). Distal factors Individual Personnality Moods and emotions Intelligence Values Experience Social Education Age, gender Incomes Religion Culture Informational Knowledge Interventions Media access Attitude toward the behavior Behavioral beliefs Normative beliefs Subjective norm Intention Behavior Perceived behavioral control Control beliefs Figure 1: The Planned Behaviour Theory References DeBar, L.L., Schneider, M., Drews, K.L., Ford, E.G., Stadler, D.D., Moe, E.L., White, M., Hernandez, A., Solomon, S., Jessup, A., & Venditti, E.M. (2011). Student public commitment in a school-based diabetes prevention project: impact on physical health and health behaviour. Public Health, 11, 1-11. Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (2010). Predicting and changing behavior: the reasoned action approach. New York: Psychology Press (Taylor & Francis). Hollenbeck, J. R., & Klein, H. J. (1987). Goal commitment and the goal-Setting process: problems, prospects, and proposals for future research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(2), 212-220. Nyer, U., & Dellande, S. (2010). Public commitment as a motivator for weight loss. Psychology & Marketing, 27(1), 1-12. Salancik, G. (1977). Commitment and the control of organizational behavior and belief. In B. M. Staw & G. R. Salancik (Eds.), New directions in organizational behavior (pp. 1-54). Chicago: St. Clave Press.