What does James Spader like?

• Financial payments - positive results, most rigorous evaluation. Payments are tied to participation, attendance, and performance
• Vocational education and training - developments behind persuasive training is too recent for analysis of long-term impacts
• Remedial classes - poorly evaluated, measuring outcomes is also difficult as the programs cater to students with multiple social, behavioral, and physiological problems
• Career guidance and counseling - weak and short-lived impacts, significant problems even with interventions
• Recovery training programs - positive findings, improved education achievement and qualifications which resulted in higher earnings. However, these programs are also very expensive
• Community programs - Few have been evaluated, although the intervention is innovative and engaging with its holistic approach. They try multiple initiatives to address the multi-dimensional causes of social problems.

• Alternatives to the standard academic route as people with lower grades are not highly regarded by employers. Apprenticeships with on-the-job training and exposure to the world of work is fundamental
• Financial incentives seem to be the most effective way of engaging at-risk individuals
• Attachment to the labor market as work experience is key
• Neets often lack basic numeracy and literacy skills

1. Inactive with no participation in education or training
2. Unemployed with no participation in education or training
3. Training/Part Time education with no employment
4. Employed with no training
5. Employed with training/Part time education
6. Full Time education

• Unambiguous Neets - 8.31% of 16 year olds, 9.99% of 17 year olds, and 14.56% of 18 year olds
• Full time education - 77.18% of 16 year olds, 67.17% of 17 year olds, and 44.25% of 18 year olds

• Unambiguous Neets have poorer socio-economic backgrounds and worse GCSE attainment than other groups
• A proportion of Neets have good family background and qualifications, indicating a gap year between educational phases
• GCSE attainment is a strong predictor of economic activity

One-year-on destinations for unambiguous Neets are consistently poor. ~50% of the unemployed or inactive remain so one year on, and relatively few return to education

• 16 year olds: 36.44% of unemployed are still so one year on, 30.97 of inactive
• 17 year olds: 36.44% of unemployed are still so one year on, 40.97 of inactive
• 18 year olds: 34.79% of unemployed are still so one year on, 41.89 of inactive

• Of 18 year olds, 15.66% of those in decile 1 were Neet last year, and 48.08% where from decile 6+. One year later, 26.62% of Neets from decile 1 were still Neet, and 35.97% were still from decile 6+. However, from decile 1, only 3.83% moved from Neet to education, and 75.23% of those from decile 6+ moved to education.
• Of those with 0 GCSES, 55.22% of Neets in decile 1 (47.95) were still so one year on. Whereas those with 5 GCSES, only 16.21% of them (35.81%) were still Neets one year on.

1. Key Stage 2 (KS2) scores
2. Whether English is first language of the child
3. Whether the child has private tuition
4. Whether the child lives in social housing
5. Whether occupation class of either parent is "routine or semi-routine"
6. Whether occupation class of either parent is "unemployed or never employed"
7. Whether child has access to a computer with Internet in the home
8. Whether a car is owned by the household
9. In response to the question, "Will you stay in school after GCSEs" and the answer is no
10. In response to the question, "Will you stay in school after GCSEs" and the answer is do not know
11. Whether smokes cigarettes
12. Whether has had any paid work of any form
13. Whether has played truant in the last 12 months
14. Whether has ever been excluded

• Must have control group
• Must have randomization

• Use monies to motivate better attainment, attendance, and course progression among students. Usually conditional on some combination of maintaining a minimum grade point average or regular attendance
• Education has by nature, deferred benefits, so immediate money will help students stay in school

• Internships, traineeships, and apprenticeships

• "Individualized learning plans" allow students flexible study patterns
• Developing personal and social skills such as self-esteem, confidence, teamwork, and organizational skills

• Increase knowledge of options available upon leaving school and "soft skills" required to access those options
• Training of transferable skills such as study skills, time management, and teamwork
• One-on-one sessions in which students would talk about course choices, career development, financial issues, and social and personal issues

• Work with local businesses to provide employment and work experience
• Mix of classroom and on-the-job learning

• Sports and leisure facilities allow young people constructive ways of spending time
• Extra tuition and after school classes and clubs
• Community workshops to address gang violence
• Social enterprise for work experience for the unemployed

1. We identify two groups of Neets: a narrow group of long-term, core Neets, and a wider group of the core Neets and recent Neet with poor grades
2. We predict the Neet groups using the key 14 characteristics
3. Simple sign-posting and information flows is not enough
• Financial incentives are the most effective way of incentivizing individuals
• Any attachment to labor market, as work experience or part-time work, is strongly associated with employment upon completion of formal education
• Basic numeracy and literacy skills help Neets improve their education
• Alternatives to the academic route are also important: apprenticeships are a popular option

Emerging adulthood is a uniquely 21st century phenomenon, characterized by young people, age 18-29, who experience delays and in committing to adult roles such as marriage and parenthood. They also have a many more choices for career/work and education. The scope and degree of identity exploration is greater than in most people due to the lack of social role constraints and few normative expectations. These people are common in industrialized countries such as America, Australia, the European countries, China, and Japan.

The three main areas of exploration are:

• Love - seek a partner that suits them while adapting to how others evaluate them, leading to disappointment, disillusionment, and rejection
• Work - emphasis on finding work interests while realizing their own capabilities lead to frequent changes in college majors and work occupations
• Worldviews - highly instable identity explorations

Self-focused - Emerging adults are mostly free of obligations from long-term job, marriage, and parenthood. Most decisions are focused on self-development. They do not have the "other" as part of consideration.

In-between - They do not think of themselves as adults, yet as only relatively recently free from parental supervision, they have only started to define their own criteria of what constitutes adulthood.

Age of possibilities - Young people at this age have unusually high expectations in life, and believe they can make dramatic changes in and transform their lives, and that they will ultimately prevail. They consider less about the potential negative consequences of their actions.

Challenges - The process of identify construction in their roles, careers, and employment exacerbate anxiety and self-doubt, particularly if their peers question their endeavors. This struggle may resonate with them and cause poor psychological wellbeing such as depression, low self-esteem, and anger. In fact, emerging adulthood is a period of relatively high risk behaviors and mental health problems. Anxiety, substance abuse, depression, and similar affective disorders are commonly reported.

Positive psychology promises to help young people develop complex skills and dispositions necessary to take charge of their lives, become socially competent, compassionate, and psychologically vigorous adults. Everyone possesses 6 virtues which are subsetted into character strengths, however we differ by the mastery we have over them. The top 5 strengths are called "signature strengths."

Regular use of ones signature strength promotes wellbeing. Intervention programs that improve and enhance specific character strengths enhance emerging adulthood, however, there has yet not been a mobile application that develops character strengths of an individual.

• Wisdom and knowledge
• Creativity - originality, ingenuity, practical intelligence
• Curiosity - interests, novelty-seeking, openness to experience
• Open mindedness - judgment, critical thinking
• Love of learning
• Perspective - wisdom
• Courage
• Bravery - valor
• Persistence - perseverance, industriousness
• Integrity - authenticity, honesty
• Vitality - zest, enthusiasm, vigor, energy
• Humanity
• Love
• Kindness - generosity, nurturance, care, compassion, altruistic love, "niceness"
• Social intelligence - emotional intelligence, personal intelligence
• Justice
• Citizenship - social responsibility, loyalty, teamwork
• Fairness
• Leadership
• Temperance
• Forgiveness and mercy
• Humility and modesty
• Prudence
• Self-regulation - self-control
• Transcendence
• Appreciation of beauty and excellence - awe, wonder, elevation
• Gratitude
• Hope - optimism, future-mindedness, future orientation
• Humor - playfulness
• Spirituality - religiousness, faith, purpose

• Relevance cycle - identify the problem, translate to research requirements and acceptance criteria, field-testing
• Rigor cycle - use theories from a knowledge base of appropriate theories, learn from existing artefacts and experts, each iteration updates knowledge base
• Design cycle - go through iterative cycles of DSR through building and evaluating artefacts from input of previous cycles

• a sensor network
• an algorithm to process data
• software to integrate the above two, usually this is used in a smartphone

1. Early advantage - protagonist is singled out for positive distinction
2. Sensitivity to suffering - protagonist is moved by the suffering of other people, or by other social ills such as oppression or inequality
3. Moral steadfastness - a strong moral framework guides the actions of the protagonist
4. Redemption sequences - negative events have a later positive effect
5. Prosocial goals - protagonist aims to improve the lives of other people or society in general

1. brief plot summary of the main chapters in the life story
2. high point or happiest episode in life
3. low point
4. turning point
5. positive early memory
6. negative early memory
7. vivid adult memory
8. experience of wisdom
9. religious or spiritual scene
10. next chapter in life (future)
11. dreams and hopes for the future
12. anticipated project or avocation for the future

• Highly generative or varing and productive midlife adults are more likely than their less generative counterparts to use the 5-theme narrative strucutre
• All 5 themes composing the redemptive-self prototype were positively associated with self-reported generativity
• However, it does not make you happier: the 5 themes were not correlated with depression.
• Generativity, public service motivation, and psychological well-being are intercorrelated
• African-American adults scored higher than white adults on generativity, psychological well-being, and public service motivation
• High association between sensitivity to suffering and prosocial goals

• 1950s: Erikson viewed humans as motivted agents who want to achieve developmentally appropriate goals
• 1970s: People more into changing life circumstances instead of normative developmental timetables
• 1980s: Bertram Cohler liked the stages, but thouthgt that human lives were also pretty complex, what with personal circumstances and social change and stuff. However, no matter what, people maintain a drive toward making meaning out of their lives. They perceive consistency and coherence through a narrative. But no one listed to him for 30 years.
• 2000s: Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi and Goldberg show that individual differences in dispositional traits are highly heritable and stable over the life course, and are connected to valued life outcomes such as mental health, well-being, delinquency and crime, occupational success, divorce, and longevity. Michaels said that life may not unfold as a neat developmental sequence, but motivated agents manage to cope and gain control over unpredictable challenges anyway.

"A major consequence of the attainment of the midlife is the recognition that more than half of one's life may already have been lived." - Bertram Cohler

• Infancy: interpersonal trust v. mistrust
• Adolescene: intimacy v. isolation
• Middle age: generativity v. stagnation

• Protagonist experiences an early blessing or advanage, like a special status in childhood, loving relationship with relative or teacher, skill or talent, or character trait that distinguishes him from others
• Early experience of witnessing the suffering of others
• protagonist repeatedly encounters setback, failures, losses, and disappointments
• However, negative events are followed by positive outcomes, adversity overcome, sins washed away
• In gratitude for the blessings and in response to the sufferings witnessed, the progonist resolves to leave a positive mark on the world, consolidating a commitment to future generations

• Atonement: sin to salvation, Protestant heritage and Massachusetts Bay Puritans
• Upward social mobiity: the American dream
• Liberation: social movements such as civil rights, womens rights, and gays and lesbian rights
• Recovery: looking backwards to a golden age that beckons to be refound, recovery from illness, addiction, abuse. Examples: Oprah Winfrey

1. Hypothesis 1: Persuasive reminders help uses in task completion
2. Hypothesis 2: Users would perceive persuasive reminders as a desirable feature
3. Hypothesis 3: Virtual rehearsal helps users achieve improved self-confidence
4. Hypothesis 4: Users with improved self-confidence continue to rehearse newly learned skills
5. Hypothesis 5: The overall effect of the BCSS would lead to significant decrease in depression

1. Hypothesis 1: No, did not help in task completion
2. Hypothesis 2: Yes, people liked it
3. Hypothesis 3: Yes, people said virtual rehearsal helped
4. Hypothesis 4: Yes, people said they would practice in the future
5. Hypothesis 5: BDI score dropped by 8 and 6 points for group 1 and 2

• Group 1: 19 participants got measurements, weekly rehearsal exercise, and weekly reminders via email
• Group 2: 20 participants got the same thing as week 1, except no weekly reminders

• PSD advocates providing positive criticism/feedback, so it increases interactivity and user-system dialogue. Users expressed a desire for meaningful and positive feedback.
• Use SMS reminders to supplement email reminders -- I would suggest to switch to SMS-only
• Add supportive content in reminders. The content should be designed to make the user feel important.
• Remind people of the value of the exercise, and how it can achieve their goals