Intro to Student Development Theory Resources

Later this week, the Wisconsin College Personnel Association (WCPA) is hosting the Student Affairs 101 conference for undergraduate students interested in pursuing a career in student affairs.  I have been honored to be a part of this effort for many years and have been excited to present some information about student development theory.

The information below is part of a packet I usually hand out at the presentation.  I don't present on all of this information, but wanted to give participants some information to take with them.  In an effort to be more "green", I decided to post the info here so students can access it.  Please feel free to use/comment as you wish!  I made up the Battle of the Vectors game and the Case study in grad school 12 years ago, so keep that in mind if you read them/use them!!

-Paul

An Introduction to Student Development Theory

The purpose of this presentation is to provide a base line understanding of the major categories of student development theory.  We will also focus on how utilizing the principles of these theories will provide insight to the student experience in a variety of contexts.

Paul Shepherd

Director of Student Life

University of Wisconsin - River Falls

Student Development Theories

Between 1960 and the present, an explosion of developmental theory related to college students found its way into student affairs literature.  While a truly comprehensive model of student development does not exist, existing models were grouped into several categories (Evans, Forney, Guido-DiBrito, 1998).

I. Cognitive Theories                                                                 

These theories look at the way students think.

          Examples:  William Perry’s Intellectual and Moral Development

                                    Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

                                    Carol Gilligan’s Theory of Women’s Moral Development

                                    Marcia Baxter-Magolda’s Epistemological Refflection Model

                       

           

II. Psychosocial and Identity Development Theories

These theories examine student’s identity.                                                         

         

            Examples:  Arthur Chickering’s Seven Vectors of Student Development

                                    Ruthellen Josselson’s Identity Development in Women

                                    Vivienne Cass’ model of GLBT Identity Development

                                    Nancy Schlossberg’s Transition Theory

IV. Environment Interaction Theories

These theories examine how students interact with their environment.

            Examples:  Alexander Astin’s Involvement Theory                              

                                    Kurt Lewin’s Interactionist Perspective

                                    Nevitt Sanford’s Challenge and Support

                                    Nancy Schlossberg’s Marginality and Mattering

Cognitive Development Theory

William Perry’s Theory of Intellectual and Moral Development

Perry developed his theory while working as the director of Harvard’s Bureau of Study Counsel.  The counsel engaged in research examining how students interpret and make meaning of the teaching and learning process.

Perry Developed Nine Positions which describes “the typical course of development of students’ patterns of thought”.

1.      Basic Duality

2.      Multiplicity Prelegitimate

3.      multiplicity legitimate but subordinate

4.      Multiplicity Coordinate

5.      Relativism Subordinate

6.      Relativism

7.      Commitment Foreseen

8-9 Evolving Commitments

To make Perry’s theory more useful, it can be broken down into three major concepts:

1.      Dualism – “represents a mode of meaning making that tends to view the world dichotomously (good-bad, right-wrong, black-white)”.  Knowledge is obtained from authorities.

2.      Multiplicity – “honoring diverse views when the right answers are not yet known”.

3.      Relativism – “Recognition of the need to support opinions and the realization that rationale people can legitimately disagree on some matters”.

As students progress through these positions, their reasoning become more complex as they begin to realize their experiences may directly contradict what they have been taught or previously experienced.

In what contexts do we see students moving through these positions?

  

Psychosocial and Identity Development Theory

Arthur Chickering’s Vectors of Student Development

Chickering first outlined his theory in his landmark book, Education and Identity (1969).  While employed at Goddard College, Chickering was responsible for evaluating the impact of innovative curricular practices on student development.  He administered sixteen hours worth of achievements tests, personality inventories, and other instruments to students at the end of their sophomore and senior years.

Chickering identified seven “vectors” students move through on their “journey toward individuation”. 

1. Developing Competence – students gain intellectual, physical, and interpersonal competence

2. Managing Emotions – ability to recognize and control emotions in a variety of contexts

3. Moving through Autonomy toward Interdependence – ability to become emotionally and instrumentally independent, primarily from parents and peer groups.

4. Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships – ability to develop an increased tolerance for others, a capacity for intimacy, and healthy intimate relationships based on trust, independence, and individuality.

5. Establishing Identity – ability to develop a sense of self by clarification of physical needs, characteristics, and personal appearance.  Identity also includes, “comfort with gender and sexual orientation, a sense of one’s social and cultural heritage, a clear self-concept with ones roles and lifestyle, a secure sense of self in light of feedback from significant others, self acceptance and self esteem, and personal stability and integration (Evans et.al., 1998).

6. Developing Purpose – ability to develop a sense of purpose in one’s life, leading to plans and priorities for careers, avocations, and life styles.

7. Developing Integrity – ability to develop a personally valid set of beliefs that has internal consistency and provides a guide for behavior.  Development of a personal responsibility.

Battle of the Vectors

1. David has starting attending multicultural events on campus and encouraging others on this floor to come with him.  David is from a small town in central Wisconsin and has not attended events like these before.  

2. Joy is a senior in college.  She has worked in an internship this past summer in her field and now is starting to make plans for job searching and looking at companies that she would like to work for.  She is really excited and feels good about the career she is about to enter.

3. Manuel is a first year student in college and is enrolled in a philosophy class.  He really enjoys the class and is interested in pursuing philosophy as a major.  Manuel often stays after class to talk to his professor to learn more about philosophy.

4. Von was raised in a deeply religious family that taught him that everything bad that happened to anyone was a test or punishment by God.  When Von moved away from home and entered college, he went to a      speaker on campus that shared a personal story of how her parents were killed in a car accident caused by the drunk driver.  Von left the speaker thinking that perhaps God doesn’t punish us, but that we do horrible things to ourselves as people.

5. Kiesha just finished her first year of college and has decided to move back to her parent’s house and work at the same job she had as a high school student.  Kiesha was excited at first, but after a while, she becomes increasingly annoyed with home life.  Kiesha feels that her job is not challenging anymore and does not like having to let her parents know where she is all the time.

6. Jason is a junior in college and is a highly involved student leader on campus.  Jason has maintained many friendships with a wide variety of people, but has only told his closest friend that he is Gay.  Jason decides that he is going too open up to people and become active in the gay community. 

7. Carla is a senior in college and is engaged to her boyfriend of two years.  Carla discovers that Ben has been sleeping with Carla’s roommate and calls off the engagement and moves in with other friends.  Carla seems to be dealing with the heartbreak well, until finally she sobbingly vents her feelings to her new roommate.

8. Jamal is a sophomore in college and is friends with Shelly who is in his History class.  Shelly is helping to build a house for habitat for humanity and invited Jamal to help.  Jamal is hesitant at first because he does not have any construction experience, but decides to join Shelly.  Jamal becomes more interested in habitat for humanity and decides to research woodworking and construction.  Now Jamal is President of his campus habitat for humanity organization.

9. Glenda is a freshman in college and has decided before she arrived on campus that she would create a moral code to help guide her through the “temptations” of college life.  Her code includes her abstaining from alcohol, sex, tobacco, and drugs.  Glenda had no problems talking with her friends about why she decided to live her life by this code.  Toward the end of her first year, some friends on her cube invited Glenda to a “going away” party.  Glenda decided to go and after some encouragement from her friends decided to drink a beer.  Glenda enjoyed her beer and then proceeded to enjoy more and more.  Glenda became extremely intoxicated and needed to have her friends help her home.  The next day Glenda is tremendously disappointed in herself.

10. Tina is a senior in college and feels that one of her most important goals for her college life is to find a person to spend the rest of her life with.  Tina is a strong student and has lots of talent, but she does not believe that she has anything to offer.  She frequently throws herself into unhealthy relationships in her attempt to find her life partner.  Tina finally meets Faye who convinces Tina that she does not need a partner to fulfill her.  Faye gives Tina the self-confidence to be herself and use her talents.

11. Tyler decides to enroll in his campus ROTC program.  Tyler is interested in military life for a career and like the structure and feelings of “brotherhood” he gets from his ROTC classmates.  Tyler believes he is learning valuable lessons in how to be a leader and how to work in a team environment.

12. Carl is a junior in college and has gotten himself into credit card debt.  Carl is having a hard time managing his money, so he decides to invest in a budget software program for his computer.  Carl is now learning how to budget his money, so he can pay off his debt and have some money left over to do things with friends.  Carl is now well on his way to debt free life!

13. Heather is a graduate student and is about to take her comprehensive exams before she graduates.  Heather is extremely nervous and finds it difficult to study.  She has a very negative attitude about the tests and swears that she will fail every part and will not graduate with her peers.

14. Kevin is a freshman in college and an African American man.  Kevin has not really ever thought about his culture.  He knew the history and heard stories of discrimination and civil rights battles from his parents and grandparents, but didn’t really think that had anything to do with him.  As Kevin began to move through his first year he was invited to join the African American student group on campus.  After attending one meeting Kevin’s eyes were opened to all the rich culture that he never really paid attention      to.  Kevin now has a new understanding and appreciation of his culture.

Environment Interaction Theory

Alexander Astin’s Involvement Theory

Rather than examining development itself, Astin’s approach focuses on factors that facilitate development.  He argued that for student learning to occur, students need to become active and involved with their surroundings.  Astin’s work serves as the rationale for student development practitioners’ efforts to create opportunities for students to become involved in and out of the classroom.

Astin defined involved as, “the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience”.  Involvement is measured by behavior (what the student actually does) as opposed to a students feeling or thoughts.

Astin’s five basic assumptions

1. “Involvement refers to the investment of physical and psychological energy in various objects”.  An object can be anything from the student experience as a whole to a specific activity.

2. “Regardless of the object, involvement occurs along a continuum”.  Some students will spend more time than others in any given activity.  Some students will be more involved in certain activities over others.

3. “Involvement has both quantitative and qualitative features”.  A quantitative feature would be physical time spent.  A qualitative feature would be the seriousness with which the object is approached.

4. “The amount of student learning and personal development associated with any educational program is directly proportional to the quality and quantity of student involvement in the program”.  The more students are able to put into any given program, the more benefit they will enjoy because of that involvement.

5. “The effectiveness of any educational policy or practice is directly related to the capacity of that policy or practice to increase student involvement”.  Student development practitioners should make intentional efforts to increase the opportunities for students to become involved in their community.

In what ways do we or could we actively involve students?

Other Useful Theories

  

The Interactionist Perspective:  B=f(PXE)

          B=

          P=

          E=

Marginality and Mattering (Nancy Schlossberg)

5 Aspects of Mattering:

1.    Attention

2.    Importance

3.    Ego extension

4.    Dependence

5.    Appreciation

Challenge and Support (Nevitt Sanford)

·       “Defining a range of optimal dissonance”

·        How much challenge a person can tolerate is dependent upon the amount of support available

Case Study

A student organization you advise is beginning to discuss how to proceed with an upcoming variety show fundraiser that has done for the last ten years.  There was controversy on how it should be handled at the meeting.  Terry, the president, decided the exec board should discuss the event further and then bring it back to the group.  The turnout for auditions was not as high as last year, and the group is brainstorming how they want to run this event.

Before we “listen” to the discussion…let’s meet the executives:

Terry (President): This is Terry’s second year as president.  A very outgoing and enthusiastic person, Terry has no problems working with others.  Terry runs effective meetings and loves being involved.  Terry tends to take on a lot.  Terry has a high level of commitment and struggles with people whose commitment is not at Terry’s level.

Pat (VP):  Pat is new to this position, but has a lot of prior leadership experience.  Pat is very enthusiastic and excited to work on programming.  Pat is very creative and does a great job with advertising.  Pat tends to get caught up in details.

Sam (Treasurer):  Sam was treasurer for the Art club last year.  Sam brings a lot of experience with budgeting, writing proposals, and researching costs.  Sam is very detail oriented and strict.  Sam refers to the constitution quite a bit.  Sam likes to play devil’s advocate and in sure student’s needs are met.

Chris (Secretary):  Chris is new to the secretary role.  Chris was the treasurer last year.  Chris is very organized and wants to start a newsletter as a way to keep the organization connected.  Chris meets the position expectations very well.  Chris does not volunteer to take on more tasks unless absolutely necessary.

Bobbie (Program Chair):  Bobbie is new to the Program Chair position.  She is a new student who came to the first hall council meeting and was elected to the position.  Bobbie is a little overwhelmed by the committee expectations and meeting requirements.  Bobbie is very determined to make a difference and has a great attitude.

Onto the conversation…

Terry: Let’s start this discussion with our advisor explaining how things were done in the past to get some perspective.

Advisor: Historically, the group has held auditions for students on day during the afternoon and the Programming Committee then evaluates the performances and selects who will be in the show.

Sam:  Our advisor just explained how this event was handled last year, and we have nothing in the constitution dictating how this event should be fun, so, I think that is how we should do the event like we have done it in the past.

Bobbie:  Well, I heard some of the other reps saying that it would be great if we had more locations and times for the auditions, but I’m just not sure if that will work.  Maybe we should do it like our advisor described.

Pat:  I know that the number who auditioned last year was low.  It stands to reason that if we expanded the number of times and locations we held auditions that we might get more acts, since the location has always been central and not as easily accessible for some of the students on the far ends of campus with their class schedules.  I like your idea Bobbie.

Chris:  Pat, I cannot believe that you would think that would be a better way to do things.  That would go against the past history our advisor just explained, and it has always worked for us in the past.

Pat:  Why Chris, just because you don’t want some extra work, we should do it the same?

Chris:  Well if it’s not broken, I say don’t fix it.

Sam:  Perhaps the finances were not as in order last year as they will be this year.

Chris:  Hey, I did a great job with the finances!

Advisor:  Ok, I think we need to refocus.  I think you are having good discussion about this topic.  We have not yet heard from Terry, however.

Terry:  We’re working with a tradition and we ought to keep that in mind, but we could look at some alternative ways of doing this.  Whatever we decide the program will be this year, I’m really concerned about developing some procedures and guidelines that we can pass on to the next group of officers so they will not have the same problems we are having and so that they can learn from out experiences.

Your Task:

1.      Explain the theory you were given to the group.

2.      Within the constructs of the theory:

a.      How would you work with the individual members of the group?

b.      How would you work with this group?

3.      What are the challenges to overcome?

4.      What other theories or aspects of other theories come to mind when reading this scenario?

Reference

Evans, N.J., Forney, D.S., & Guido-DiBrito, F. (1998).  Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice.  New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.