Theories and Models of Student Change in College

Pascarella and TerenziniPresented by John LeMasney

Pupose and Introduction    

Distinctions between development and changeDevelopment: "systematic [organized and] successive" or growth, positive, striving towardsChange: "alterations over time in students' cognitive skills, affective characteristics, attitudes, values or behaviors"

Categories of Theories of College Student ChangeDevelopmental Theories or Modelsintraindividual changes  NatureStructureProcessesDominated by stage theories, such as Erikson's

Also contains some environmental factors, but less so than ->

College Impact Models Environmental interindividual changesidentify and evaluate sets of variables:may be student related (gender, achievement, status, race)organizational (inst size, controls, selectivity, mission)or environmental (academic, cultural, social, political climate created by members) 

Developmental Theories of Student ChangeDevelopment: "A general movement towards greater differentiation, integration, and complexity in the ways that individuals think and behave. "

Four categories or clusters: 1. Psychological

development (e.g. Identity)– Cognitive-structural

theories– Typological models (looks

at differences in people or settings)

– Person-environment interaction theories and models

Psychosocial Theories

• The accomplishment of a series of "developmental tasks"

• developmental challenges• variables of age and

developmental status• presented serially but may

be encountered out of sequence

•  Erikson: "the progenitor of the psychosocial models"

• Epigenetic Principle states  "anything that grows has a ground plan and that out of this ground plan the parts arise, each part having its time of special ascendancy, until all the parts have risen to form a functioning whole"

• Crises: A time for decision requiring significant choices among alternative courses of action resulting in developmental progression, regression, or stasis.

• (Stage 5) Identity versus Identity Crisis = key developmental task for college age.

Chickering's Seven Vectors of Student Development• Arthur Chickering: key theorist in College Student

Development and specifically Identity• Vectors: "(each vector) seems to have direction and

magnitude--even though the direction may be expressed more appropriately by a spiral or by steps rather than a straight line"

• Development: "differentiation and integartion as students encounter increasing complexity in ideas, values, and other people and struggle to reconcile these new positions with their own ideas, values and beliefs"

• With Linda Reissner revised and reordered vectors to have them be applicable more universally to all ages, genders and backgrounds. 

The seven vectors: 1. Achieving competence (knowledge, intellectual aesthetic, and cultural sophistication,

and higher order thinking)

2. Managing emotions (controlling impulses, developing appropriate responses)

3. Moving toward autonomy toward interdependence (freedom from the need for reassurance, organization, problem solving, decision making)

4. Developing mature interpersonal relationships5. Establishing identity (knowing who you are sexually, in self image, in gender, in society

)

6. Developing purpose (Who am I going to be? Where am I going?)

7. Developing integrity ("clarification and rebalancing of personal values and beliefs")

 Institutional support: clear institutional objectives, opportunity for participation, developing student faculty relationships, societal integration, flexible teaching, student community, student development

Identity Development: General

James Marcia: resolution of 2 psychological tasks • exploration, or the search for and choice among many

competing alternatives, leading to differentiation and individualization

• commitment, or the level of individual investment in 4 areas (occupational, religious, political, sexual values) promoting stability, continuity, and comfort.

4 responses: • Identity-diffused () • Foreclosed (C) • Moratorium (E) • Identity Achieved (EC)

Identity Development: Gender

• Ruthellen Josselson's Theory of identity development among women

• Longitudinal study with 60 college age women, then 30 when they were older

• Used Marcia's four groups to classify based on their pathway of decision making

• Commitments of social, sexual, and religious issues are less identity forming than a woman's sense of effect upon the world. 

Identity Development: Racial and Ethnic

Helms' 3 components of racial identity: a personal identity, a reference group identity, an ascribed identity, resulting in "resolutions"Cross's Model of Nigrescence• preencounter: eurocentric worldview• encounter: awareness of difference through events• immersion-emersion: the search for self as black, and

emergence from the simplified either-or awareness of immersion

• internalization: dissonance is resolved• internalization-commitment: a course of action

Helms's people of color racial identity modelstatus 1: Conformity (identity internalized from whites)status 2: Dissonance (realization that cannot live fully as part of white society)status 3: Immersion (struggle for a new identity, rejection of white)status 4: Emersion (a fuller embrace of one's socioracial values)status 5: Internalization (commital to own racial group)status 6: Integrated Awareness (expression of a positive racial identity)

Helms's White Racial Identity Model

Phase 1: the abandonment of racism    status 1: Contact (obliviousness to racism)    status 2: Disintegration (struggle with notions of equality)    status 3: Reintegration (questioning of meaning of race) Phase 2: development of a nonracist white identity    status 4: Pseudo independence (acceptance of other races)    status 5: Immersion-emersion (white individual confronts idea that racial issues are white based issues)    status 6: Autonmy (diversity awareness, seek out knowledge, reject benefits of race)

Phinney's Model of ethnic identity developmentSelf-identification as a member of and a sense of belonging to an ethnic group are necessary conditions for an ethnic identity. identity development stages: 1. Diffusion-Foreclosure (neither a search for, nor a

commitment to, an ethnic identity has taken place)  – Moratorium (growing awareness, stress, emotion of Ethnic

issues, can negatively reflect on own ethnic group)– Identity Achievement (resolution to stage 2, and a solid

acceptance of one's own group)

Identity Development: Gay Lesbian, BisexualOriginally seen as pathology, search for cures, causes, biological origin, genetic mutation, etc. recent identity formation study is compicated by sexual nature of concepts, political views, ideological agenda. Broido: Gay and Lesbian refer to identity which homosexual descibes behavior, and Bisexual and Heterosexual define both identity and behavior. The following models apply to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals

Cass's Psychosocial model of Sexual Identity FormationStage 1: Identity Confusion (unexamined awareness of possible gay or lesbian feelings, possibly leading to conflict)Stage 2: Identity Comparison (begins to consider the possibility of being gay or lesbian, and the realization of the challenges that may bring)Stage 3: Identity Tolerance (a separation from heterosexual culture and a move toward identity with a homosexual culture begin, though this lifestyle is hidden)Stage 4: Identity Acceptance (increasing relationship and acceptance from the gay society)Stage 5: Identity Pride (Coming out, Gay pride, rejection of hetero culture non-acceptance)Stage 6: Identity Synthesis (private and public lives come together with considerable support)

D'Augelli's model of lesbian, gay, and bisexual development• Does not see sexuality as stable, but as an ongoing social

construction over time, malleable and variable, affected by internal and external conditions. 

• Identity requires rejection of hetero lifestyle and creation of a new identity

• 3 factors influence identity formation:o personal subjectivities and actions (feelings and beliefs)o interactive intimacies (with everyone)o sociohistorical connections (society, law and culture)

• leads to six identity processes:

D'Augelli's model: Six Identity Processes: 1. Exiting heterosexual identity (recognizance)2. Developing a personal lesbian-gay-bisexual identity status

(challenging beliefs)3. Developing a lesbian-gay-bisexual social identity (support)4. Becoming a lesbian-gay-bisexual offspring (disclosure to

family)5. Developing a lesbian-gay-bisexual intimacy status

(developing cultural guidelines)6. Entering a gay-lesbian-bisexual community (sociopolitical

action)

Cognitive-Structural Theories

Jean Piaget is the Erikson of these theories "cognitive-structural theorists seek to describe the nature and processes of changes, concentrating on the episemological structures individuals construct to give meaning to their worlds"

Differences between psychosocial and cognitive-structural theory: "One descibes what students will be concerned about and what decisions will be primary; the other suggests how students will think about those issues and what shifts in reasoning will occur"

Involves stimulus and response

Perry's Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development (King's 4 clusters)• Dualism (pos 1 & 2) expert based dichotomy and

black/white worldviews and the uncertainty that emerges• Multiplicity (pos 3 & 4) multiple perspectives are possible,

other views are tolerated• Relativism (pos 5 & 6) "knowledge is contextual and

relative" and analytical thinking skill emerges -- choosing truth can be difficult amongst seemingly equal choices

• Commitments in Relativism (pos 7, 8 & 9) "active affirmations about themselves and their responsibilities in a pluralistic world" commitments such as career and marriage occur.

King and Kitchener's Reflective Judgement Model (critical thinking)• Prereflective thinking (stages 1-3)

o stage 1 knowledge is assumed to be concreteo stage 2 knowledge is not available to everyoneo stage 3 knowledge may not always be known

• Quasi reflective thinking (stages 4-5)o stage 4 knowledge is uncertain and abstracto stage 5 knowledge is contextually shaped

• Reflective thinking (stages 6-7)o stage 6 knowledge requires action and constructiono stage 7 knowledge is an outcome of active inquiry

Baxter Magolda's Epistemological Reflection ModelFours ways in which (study's) students make meaning:1. Absolute knowing: taking in what is projected, and accepting

it as concretely correct. Recieving pattern (listening) vs mastery pattern (inquiry and interaction)

– Transitional knowing: knowledge may or may not be certain. Reliance on experts recedes. Understanding > acquiring. Interpersonal pattern (gathering) vs. Impersonal pattern (prodding). 

– Independent knowing: Knowledge is uncertain. Open mindedness. Authorities may argue. Interindividual pattern (interactive and collective) vs. individual pattern (internal)

– Contextual knowing: independent thought within the context of others. Judgement of claims and evidence. No gender specificity was determined due to low numbers.

Baxter Magolda longitudinal work

Homogeneity of study participants makes the study potentially non-generalizable. 3 story-lines that are generalizable:• development of voice1. shifting relationships with authority2. evolving relationships with peers

longitudinal work led to 4 phases on the way to 'self-authorship' which focused on 3 dimensions of development:1. epistemological (how do I know?)– intrapersonal (Who am I?)– interpersonal (What relationships do I want with others?)

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development• Level 1: Preconventional

o stage 1: obedience and punishment orientation (concern for law is based on consequence)

o stage 2: naively egoistic orientation (others are considered secondarily)

• Level II: Conventionalo stage 3: good boy orientation (need for approval)o stage 4: authority and social order orientation (social

obligation, aversion to social chaos)• Level III: Postconventional 

o stage 5: contractual legalistic orientation (duty as part of a social contract, such as the Constitution) 

o stage 6: conscience or principle orientation (value of life, equality and dignity) dropped due to lack of evidence

Gilligan's Model of Women's Moral Development (revelation of gender bias in Kohlberg theory)

• Sees Kohlberg's theory as socially oriented rather than individully oriented, which potentially reflects male view.

• Female identity is highly defined via interpersonal interactions with others. 

• Justice is a male voice, whereas care is a female voice.• Rights versus responsibility • Three stages of female moral development from individual to

societal to universal morality:o orientation to individual survival (self-preservation)o goodness as self-sacrifice ("good is equated with caring for

others")o morality of nonviolence ("nonviolence as a moral principle

and a basis for decision making")

Other Models

• Kegan's constructive-developmental model: 5 orders of consciousness relating to "cognition, self-concept and interpersonal relations"

• Fowler focused on spiritual development, sees making meaning as a spiritual as well as cognitive process, and is more interested in the path to belief than the belief itself. 

• Daloz Parks examines the development of a sense of purpose in life as the development of an inderstanding of faith. Four stages are shaped by cognitive processes, relationships, and community are:o Adolescento Young Adult o Tested Adulto Mature Adult

Typological Models• Focuses on the ways in which individuals perceive the world

and respond to it. • MBTI and Multiple Intelligences are well known examples.• Features include

o differential characteristics appear early and change infrequently

o people may act outside of their type, but tend to act and react according to type

o explain commonalities, but do not explain differences (e.g. zip code)

• Change is of marginal importance to type theorists• Theorists include David Kolb, John Holland, Katherine

Briggs, Isabel Briggs Myers, Witkins, Gardner, Evans, Forney, and Guido-DiBrito

Person-Environment Interaction Theories and Models• Like type theories, do little to interpret change or

development• Can help assess or explain cases or situations, and how

they may be affected by or interact with developmental stage 

• Clusters of models (Strange and Banning):o Physical Modelso Human Aggregate Modelso Organizational Development Modelso Constructed Environments

Physical Models

• Focus on external environment• determines affect on behavior by setting controls • may be walled or open, such as a tent, a dormitory, or an

urban setting. • may focus on architecture, social psychology, cultural

anthropology• environments encourage or constrain behaviors depending

on physical and symbolic characteristics of the setting, as well as co-users of the space

Human Aggregate Models

• Environmental influence in regards to aggregate human characteristics such as:o sociodemographic traitso goalso valueso attitudes

• Strange suggests two groups of models:o subcultures, typologies and styleso person environment interactions

• Often an aspect of other models and theories described here.

Organizational Environment Models

• Environments can be systems influenced by organizational goals, values, activities which shape organizational structures and design (Strange)

• environments may be static or dynamic, depending on the organizations change tolerance and culture

• nature of the environment depends on an organization's complexity, centralization, stratification, production, efficiency (Hage & Aiken)

Constructed Environments

• Deep roots in social psychology and cultural anthropology• Occupant perception defines and characterizes environment• Pascarella and Terenzini called these perceptual models• Strange has 3 categories:

o Environmental Presso Social Climateo Campus Cultures

Commonalities in Developmental Theories• These theories differ in important ways:

o Structure of developmental processo end pointso number of developmental stageso origins of developmental growtho characterizations and labeling of stages

• But there are many similarities

Similarities in Substance

• emergence of self-understanding and awareness of self as a learner

• with experience, external controls give way to internal controls

• regardless of primary diversity• growth in self awareness• appreciation of roles of, and obligation to others• Stage theories lead 

o to self definition and self directiono to greater differentiation and greater integrationo to responsibility and interdependenceo to self control and maturity

Similarities in Process

• psychosocial development is continuous• psychosocial development is cumulative• development progresses from simple to complex• developmental progress is orderly• developmental progress depends on the completion of tasks• Cognitive readiness is a necessary but not sufficient

condition for development• Recognition of complexity precedes higher-level

developmental change• Developmental movement originates in a challenge to the

current state of development (a structure at rest will remain at rest unless challenged)

• The capacity for detachment from self and for empathy controls access to higher developmental levels.

Sociological Perspectives• Feldman: Developmental models psychologize student

change and ignore a variety of other changes that students experience, such as social experiences. 

• Dannefer says the entire developmental approach is flawed, in that the sequentiality, unidirectionality, permanence, etc, all disregard or diminish social and environmental influences. 

• Dannefer says that environment affects development:o macro/societallyo local/organizationallyo micro/social

• College as gatekeeper determines who is fit for development, affecting it directly (Clark; Feldman)

• environmental effects, social effects, cultural effects are largely ignored by developmental theory as influencers.

Sociological Perspectives• Academic tribes exert a net influence on students' abilities,

skills, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (Smart, Feldman, Ethington). 

• Pascarella and Terenzini find that the net effects are small compared to other factors. 

• Smart argues that this is because sociological social psychologists focus on processes rather than psychological social psychologists who emphasize effects.

• Resultant point: please consider that developmental theory must be applied in context of other factors, such as society, environment, academic setting, and others.

College Impact Models of Student Change• Origins and processes of change is the focus• Less specific and detailed than individual development

theories• less related to other theorist work

Astin's I-E-O Model and "Theory" of Involvement

• Input-Environment-Outcomeo Conceptual, methodological guide to the study of college

effectso Inputs: demographics, family background, academic historyo Environments: The people, programs, policies, cultures, and

experiences encounteredo Outcomes: characteristics, skills, knowledge, attitudes,

values, beliefs, and behaviors after college• Theory of Involvement: students learn by becoming involved• investment of energy in objects (tasks, people, activities)• involvement is continuous• involvement is quantitative and qualitative• higher involvement = higher learning• capacity to induce involvement predetermines success

Tinto's Theory of Student Departure

Seeks to explain the withdrawal process

Pascarella's General Model for Assessing Change

Weidman's Model of Undergraduate Socialization

Commonalities in College Impact Models• Each looks at the context in which a student acts and thinks• Institutional structures, policies, programs, services• Attitudes, values, behaviors of others• Environment as active force in development• Change is influenced by how the student responds as well

as the environmental approach as designed by the institution

• tend to generalize the individual traits so deeply focused upon in developmental theories.

Conclusions

• College can be a psychosocial moratorium, an opportunity to experiment

• College can be a culture shocking experience, one which provides Eriksonian crises with which students can develop the identity

• College is a socializing and desocializing experience• Exposure to diversity is a key capability of the college

experience• developmental and social views, while sometimes

conflicting, both have much to offer in assessment, and should not be viewed exclusively