Changes in Self-Ratings and Life Goals Among Students at Colleges with Different Characteristics
CHANGES IN SELF-RATINGS AND LIFE GOALS AMONG STUDENTS AT COLLEGES WITH DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICSRodney Skager John L. Holland Larry A. BraskampPublished by Research and Development Division * American College Testing Program • P168, Iowa City, Iowa 52240 SummaryEleven self-ratings on personal characteristics and life goals were re-administered, after a one-year period, to freshmen and sophomore students at a sample of ten diverse colleges and universities. Comparisons across institutions were made of students giving the same initial response to determine (a) whether students at different colleges showed differential changes on the self-ratings and goals, and (b) whether or not these changes were correlated with such objective m easures of college characteristics as enrollment, selectivity, or the proportion of students in various curricula. Differential changes were observed on self-ratings of popularity and scholarship as well as for goals involving religious values, participation in public affairs, and making a contribution to science. In each case, change appeared to be related to several college characteristics. While some of the change m easures were correlated with the initial means at the institutions studied, the findings did not appear to be accounted for solely by r e gression phenomena. Consequently, we concluded that hypotheses relating institutional characteristics to personality change in college students had been prematurely rejected. Changes in Self-Ratings and Life Goals Among Students at Colleges with Different Characteristics^Rodney Skager, John L . Holland, and L arry A . BraskampIn their review of the literature, M cC ullers and Plant (1964) suggested that recent research in higher education had eliminated "... college experience as an independent v aria b le " in personality change (p. 605).This conclusion appears to have been based prim arily on the work of Plant (1962) and Telford and Plant (1963), whose data revealed that changes in scores on several personality scales were not the result of "college impact, " but rather occurred in brighter than average young adults whether or not they attended college. Recent research by Lehmann, Sinha, and Hartnett (1966) is in large part consistent with these findings. Until other explanations can be found, changes on traits such as open-mindedness or flexibility presumably must be attributed to maturation within the broader cultural-tem poral context rather than to experience associated with attending college.In spite of the above negative evidence, researchers in higher education have given no sign of abandoning theory and research on college effects. Recently, Sanford (1966) provided a number of interesting hypotheses as to how colleges may influence personality development.^ The authors wish to express their appreciation to P ro fe sso rs W illiam J. McGuire and Julian C. Stanley for their critical reading of the initial manuscript. Any e rrors in this paper, however, are solely the responsibility of the authors. Available during the period covered by the McCullers and Plant (1964) review was Astin's (1963a) study which reported many relationships between college characteristics and self-estimates of growth in a variety of skills, interests, and values. Nichols (1965) observed a significant correlation between eighteen college measures and change on a variety of personality scales. Using a method similar to Nichols', Thistlethwaite and Wheeler (1966) reported significant relationships of environmental press and college experiences with changes in level of aspiration for graduate training, controlled for initial aspiration and other variables.The present research differs from much previous work on the effects of college experience in that we have studied changes in self-ratings and the relative importance given various goals rather than changes on standardized personality scales. The purposes of this research are (1) to determine whether or not there are consistent' differences among colleges in the extent of change on the goals and self-ratings, and (2) to relate observed changes to institutional characteristics such as size, expenditure, and type of environment.MethodThis research is based on responses to a longitudinal study of college students at 48 colleges and universities described in Abe, Holland, Lutz, and Richards (1965). The original questionnaire was administered to freshmen in the spring of 1964 at 31 of the instit
