College Student Development Theories
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The experiences of college students have been researched for decades. Many scholars have looked at a variety of issues, such as what benefits a college education brings, how and in what ways students develop and mature in college, which kinds of college experiences tend to be positive or negative, and what leads to a person dropping out or leaving college, to name a few. Many theories have emerged over the years that illuminate various aspects of the college experience. Each of them contributes to an overall understanding of a student’s experience in college. Five in particular are very useful in exploring the first-year experience: Chickering’s Seven Vectors of College Student Development, Perry’s Nine Positions of Cognitive Development, Tinto’s Model of Institutional Departure, Kohlberg’s Six Stages of Moral Development, and Schlossberg’s Transition Theory. These five theories, in combination, provide a well-rounded understanding of the general college experience.
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College Student Development Theories
- 1. COLLEGE STUDENT DEVELOPMENT THEORIES Danielle Quiñones Ortega, M.A. Student Programs Coordinator Office of Student Life, UCSB
- 3. CHICKERING’S SEVEN VECTORS Vector 1 Developing Competence Vector 5 Establishing Identity Vector 3 Moving Through Autonomy to Interdependence Vector 7 Developing Integrity Vector 6 Developing Purpose Vector 2 Managing Emotions Vector 4 Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships
- 4. VECTOR 1 | DEVELOPING COMPETENCE oIntellectual Skills oInterpersonal Skills oManual and Physical Skills
- 5. VECTOR 2 | MANAGING EMOTIONS & VECTOR 3 | MOVING THROUGH AUTONOMY TO INTERDEPENDENCE
- 6. VECTOR 4 | DEVELOPING MATURE INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS & VECTOR 5 | ESTABLISHING IDENTITY o Tolerance, acceptance, appreciation o Acceptance and comfort of personal of differences issues o Capacity for intimacy in relationships o body and appearance o gender identity and sexual orientation o sense of self (social, historical, and cultural)
- 7. VECTOR 6 | DEVELOPING PURPOSE & VECTOR 7 | DEVELOPING INTEGRITY
- 8. PERRY’S NINE POSITIONS OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
- 9. TINTO’S MODEL OF INSTITUTIONAL DEPARTURE
- 11. THEORY IS… o DESCRIPTIVE not PERSCRIPTIVE o Serve as a foundation o Helps us guide our practice o Makes Student Affairs nerds happy!
Editor's Notes
- The experiences of college students have been researched for decades. Many scholars have looked at a variety of issues, such as what benefits a college education brings, how and in what ways students develop and mature in college, which kinds of college experiences tend to be positive or negative, and what leads to a person dropping out or leaving college, to name a few. Many theories have emerged over the years that illuminate various aspects of the college experience. Each of them contributes to an overall understanding of a student’s experience in college. Five in particular are very useful in exploring the first-year experience: Chickering’s Seven Vectors of College Student Development, Perry’s Nine Positions of Cognitive Development, Tinto’s Model of Institutional Departure, Kohlberg’s Six Stages of Moral Development, and Schlossberg’s Transition Theory. These five theories, in combination, provide a well-rounded understanding of the general college experience.
- Arthur Chickering researched college students at a variety of schools in the Northeast. He was interested in mapping a holistic view of all the ways in which students develop over the course of their college years. On the basis of this research, he proposed a theory that outlines seven different areas, or vectors (Chickering and Reisser, 1993). Although the theory is not linear (i.e., Vector 3 does not necessarily come after Vector 2), Chickering found that students develop simultaneously in the first four vectors and that sufficient development is needed in the fifth vector to be able to fully develop in the last two.Vector 1: Developing Competence Focuses on developing skills or competence in three areas. Those are intellectual skills(such as critical thinking and writing and the repertoire of skills found in Bloom’s Hierarchy),interpersonal skills (which focus on a person’s ability to get along with others, and include listening, cooperating, and communicating), and manual and physical skills as a measure of basic health and fitness.Vector 2: Managing Emotions Once a student is able to acknowledge their feelings, the student can look for ways to express (without suppressing) those feelings in healthy ways. For example, if a student is angry, they should not suppress that emotion but should explore what the anger is about and then find healthy and appropriate ways to express it. Vector 3: Moving Through Autonomy to Interdependence While students focus a lot on the independence and freedom of college, this vector is really about moving through that to another stage of interdependence. That is, realizing that your words and actions have an impact on those around you just as their words and actions have an impact on you. There are both emotional independence, which is a freedom from the need for continual reassurance or approval, and instrumental independence, or the ability to solve problems in a self-directed way.Vector 4: Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships This is a more advanced level than the interpersonal skills achieved in the first vector. There are two aspects here: 1) the tolerance or acceptance of differences, and appreciation for those differences, which becomes relevant when one interacts with those who are different from you (for example racially); 2) the person’s capacity for intimacy in relationships, such as the extent to which the person trusts or opens up to others. Relationships become an interdependence between equals and therefore have more depth than previous relationships. Note: Chickering argues that a student cannot truly succeed at the next vector, (Vector 5 establishing identity) without significant development in Vectors 1 through 4. He also states that the last two vectors are dependent on success in Vector 5. I will provide a diagram shortly to display this.Vector 5: Establishing Identity This vector focuses on the person’s self-concept and self-esteem with regard to several aspects of his or her identity. Development here reflects acceptance of and comfort with a variety of personal issues, including body and appearance; gender identity and sexual orientation; sense of self in social, historical, and cultural contexts; sense of self in light of feedback from valued others; overall self-esteem and ability to accept aspects of one’s self; and overall personal stability. All of these require some amount of self-exploration and reflection and depend on the competencies that are developed in the first four vectors. This process takes time and some students have done more self reflection prior to college than others. Some research actually indicates that establishing identity occurs in the mid-twenties. Vector 6: Developing Purpose Ironically, this vector actually comes later in a person’s development and can be achieved only after the identity has been appropriately established. However, this is often the first priority for most students and their parents: the idea of choosing a major and a future career. Chickering states that developing purpose focuses on three areas: vocational or career plans (which stem from finding a passion), personal interests in terms of lifestyle, and future commitments for family and other significant relationships. Balancing these three might require compromises.Vector 7: Developing Integrity This last vector reflects the person’s overall alignment with his or her values and subsequent behaviors. There are three stages, which occur in the following order: (1) humanizing values, or a shift from rigid beliefs to balancing one’s own self-interest with the interests of others, (2) personalizing values, or being able to affirm personal values and beliefs while respecting others’, and (3) developing congruence, which means that values and behaviors match (i.e., “walking your talk”).
- Vector 1: Developing Competence Focuses on developing skills or competence in three areas. Those are intellectual skills(such as critical thinking and writing and the repertoire of skills found in Bloom’s Hierarchy),interpersonal skills (which focus on a person’s ability to get along with others, and include listening, cooperating, and communicating), and manual and physical skills as a measure of basic health and fitness.
- Vector 2: Managing Emotions Once a student is able to acknowledge their feelings, the student can look for ways to express (without suppressing) those feelings in healthy ways. For example, if a student is angry, they should not suppress that emotion but should explore what the anger is about and then find healthy and appropriate ways to express it. Vector 3: Moving Through Autonomy to Interdependence While students focus a lot on the independence and freedom of college, this vector is really about moving through that to another stage of interdependence. That is, realizing that your words and actions have an impact on those around you just as their words and actions have an impact on you. There are both emotional independence, which is a freedom from the need for continual reassurance or approval, and instrumental independence, or the ability to solve problems in a self-directed way.
- Vector 4: Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships This is a more advanced level than the interpersonal skills achieved in the first vector. There are two aspects here: 1) the tolerance or acceptance of differences, and appreciation for those differences, which becomes relevant when a student interacts with those who are different from them(for example racially); 2) the person’s capacity for intimacy in relationships, such as the extent to which the person trusts or opens up to others. Relationships become an interdependence between equals and therefore have more depth than previous relationships.Note: Chickering argues that a student cannot truly succeed at the next vector, (Vector 5 establishing identity) without significant development in Vectors 1 through 4. He also states that the last two vectors are dependent on success in Vector 5. I will provide a diagram shortly to display this.Vector 5: Establishing Identity This vector focuses on the person’s self-concept and self-esteem with regard to several aspects of his or her identity. Development here reflects acceptance of and comfort with a variety of personal issues, including body and appearance; gender identity and sexual orientation; sense of self in social, historical, and cultural contexts; overall self-esteem and ability to accept aspects of one’s self; and overall personal stability. All of these require some amount of self-exploration and reflection and depend on the competencies that are developed in the first four vectors. This process takes time and some students have done more self reflection prior to college than others. Some research actually indicates that establishing identity occurs in the mid-twenties.
- Vector 6: Developing Purpose Ironically, this vector actually comes later in a person’s development and, according to Chickering, can only be achieved after the identity has been appropriately established. However, this is often the first priority for most students and their parents: the idea of choosing a major and a future career. Chickering states that developing purpose focuses on three areas: vocational or career plans (which stem from finding a passion), personal interests in terms of lifestyle, and future commitments for family and other significant relationships. Balancing these three might require compromise.Vector 7: Developing Integrity This last vector reflects the person’s overall alignment with his or her values and subsequent behaviors. There are three stages, which occur in the following order: (1) humanizing values, or a shift from rigid beliefs to balancing one’s own self-interest with the interests of others, (2) personalizing values, or being able to affirm personal values and beliefs while respecting others’, and (3) developing congruence, which means that values and behaviors match.It is important to realize that development in these vectors occurs over several years and not only in the first year. Although allstudents are different, the general time frame shown in the figure displayed is applicable to most students. First-years would be working on the first four vectors during their first and second years at a research university; transfer students would most likely be addressing issues of identity during their first year.
- William Perry explored a completely different side of college students: that of cognitive development. Perry researched theintellectual competence that Chickering identifies in Vector 1. Through research, Perry looked at how people learn and make sense out of the information that is presented to them. Unlike Chickering’s vectors, Perry’s nine positions of cognitive development are linear, and you must complete one to move on to the next. Dualism This cluster contains the first three positions, which Perry named Duality, MultiplicityPre-Legitimate, and Multiplicity Subordinate. At the beginning of this cluster, students see the world dualistically, meaning that everything can be sorted into dichotomous categories such as good/bad, right/wrong, and better/worse. As students move through the first three positions, they start to realize that the “right” answer is not always easy to determine because all authorities do not always agree with one another. Relativism Discovered This cluster contains the next three positions, called Multiplicity Correlate or Relativism Subordinate, Relativism Correlate (Competing or Diffuse), and Commitment Foreseen. In these three stages, a student is making sense out of increased complexity of information and responds by moving away from dualism to the other extreme of total relativism, that is, thinking that everything is relative. The student is now reluctant to evaluate concepts as right/wrong or correct/incorrect, and are now cautious of authority figures, because that does not allow for relativism. Commitment to Relativism The final three positions of Perry’s model are called Initial Commitment, Orientation in Implications of Commitment, and Developing Commitment. These stages see the student moving back from relativism to a middle ground that allows for commitment to certain views or beliefs as correct or true within a specific context. The student sees that people have to make choices based on what they know or find new information that is relevant to the current situation. Evaluation of concepts as right/wrong or correct/incorrect becomes appropriate as long as it occurs with a certain context and is not illogically applied as was done in the dichotomous phases. Here, a student might think, “I know what my values are, and I think this is what is right for me. However, it is OK if someone else has different values and makes different choices.”Some research indicates that the majority of college students do not move out of the second cluster by graduation. And we certainly all know older adults who have not achieved the stages in the third cluster, so there is still a lot of individual variance with regards to these positions. It’s also important to note that Perry did his research on male college students attending Ivy league universities so his sample has been criticized for not being representative of women or people of color.
- In the 1970s, Vincent Tinto began to research this issue and explored the things that affect a student’s decision to stay in or leave college (i.e., drop out). His research led to the development of a model that describes the factors that affect and influence a student’s ultimate decision to depart. Tinto has revised this model over the years, and his current model (1993) is a longitudinal look at the influences of the student’s background characteristics, intentions and commitments, external commitments, the external community, and institutional experiences involving persistence. This model is especially important to our students because of the way we’ve designed this course. If you look directly to the “Institutional Experiences” section of this diagram, you will noticed the influence of the “Academic System” and the “Social System”. This course is designed to challenge both of these systems by exploring academics through something of a social lens. Many courses are beginning to use social system type activities in order to challenge their students.
- If you have ever played the board game LIFE, Schlossberg’s Transition Theory won’t come as a big surprise. Like LIFE, transition theory helps adults process and grow from unexpected (real) life turns.The three transitions types are anticipated (such as expecting to graduate for college), unanticipated (divorce, sudden death, not being accepted to graduate school, etc.) or a nonevent. Transitions have context and are determined by the individuals relationship to the environmental setting in which the transition is occurring. The impact of the transition varies depending on the alterations it causes in an individual’s daily life. Transitions usually occur as a series of phases, which are called “moving in,” “moving through,” and “moving out.” Transitions are a process and occur over time.The 4 S’sThe four factors that affect one’s ability to cope with transition are: situation, self, support and strategies.SituationTrigger, Timing, Control, Role change, Duration, Previous experience with a similar transition, Concurrent stress, Assessment. What caused the transition? When did the transition occur? Good or Bad timing? How much control does the individual have over the transition? Has the student experienced this type of transition before?SelfTwo kinds: personal & demographic characteristics (SES, gender, age, health, ethnicity, culture etc.) and psychological resources (ego development, outlook, commitment, resilience, spirituality, self-efficacy, values etc.). Personal and demographic characteristics: How the individual views life, also factors in socioeconomic status, gender, age, health, and ethnicity/culture. Psychological resources: personal aids for coping, outlook on life, self-efficacy, commitment to self, and values.SupportThis model really refers to social support specifically 4 types: intimate relationships, family units, network of friends, and institutions and community. They serve as sources of affirmation, aid, and honest feedback for the individual during the period of transition. StrategiesThree categories: Modify the situation, control the meaning of the problem, or aid in the managing of stress afterwards. Coping responses/mechanisms that help the individual manage stress, make meaning, and take control of the situation. Four coping models: information seeking, direct action, inhibition of action, intrapsychic behavior