1) The document summarizes research on psychosocial change in college students across different domains such as identity development, self-concept, autonomy, interpersonal skills, and personal development. 2) Key findings are that students report modest gains in most areas, with larger decreases in authoritarianism and increases in leadership skills and self-confidence. However, effects are often small and findings inconclusive. 3) Within-college experiences like interactions, service learning, and extracurricular activities appear to have more influence on psychosocial changes than institutional characteristics. Student environments and cultures may be more important than structural features.

1. Chapter 5: Psychosocial
Change
Pascarella and Terenzini
presented by John LeMasney

2. Introduction (p. 213)
• tradition in University: intellectual and professional
(occupational) development
• Also, "a liberal education: promoting self-understanding;
expanding personal, intellectual, cultural and social
interests; confronting dogma and prejudice; and developing
personal moraland ethical standards while preparing
students fro participation in a democratic society"
• Earlier research focuses on Inkele's self-system (identity
status and ego development, academic self-concept, social
self-concept, and generalized self-esteem)
• Relational systems (autonomy, independence, locus of
control; authoritarianism, dogmatism and ethnocentrism;
intellectual orientation, interpersonal relations, personal
adjustment, psychological well-being, maturity and general
personal development)

3. Change During College: (p. 214)
Conclusions from How College Affects Students:
• Students change during their college years; become more
positive about academic/social competency, enhanced self-
worth
• Ego development showed less than half a stage of growth
• General lack of racial identity formation studies is seen as a
detriment to the research, and is seen as a great path for
further research
• small confidence increases (22%) in math, writing,
achievement motivation, leadership abilities, popularity,
social and intellectual development in 4 years
• larger decreases (26-32%) in authoritarian, dependent,
dogmatic, ethnocentric behavior and thinking in 4 years
• smallest: locus of control (incr. internality 10-12%), peer
independence (8%), interpersonal relation (6%)

4. Change During College: Evidence from
the 1990s (p. 215)
• Identity Development: Erikson's (1963,1968) Stage 5 Crisis:
Identity versus Identity Confusion
• Constantinople (1969) 1,000 student study using Erikson's
4/5/6 stages showing successful identity resolution
• Whitbourne, Jelsma, and Waterman (1982) replicated
findings from 1969
• Zuschlag and Whitbourne (1994) identity development is
relatively unaffected by sociohistoric times
• Many issues: small studies (100 or less), single institutions,
church-related, lack of controls re: acad. ability or status
• others include Bauer, Flowers, and Kuh using the CSEQ:
Self reporting on gains students feel that they've made

5. Change During College: Evidence from
the 1990s (p. 216)
• Kuh (1999) Personal Development in Juniors and Seniors
found 'quite a bit' or 'very much' progress in self-
understanding during college.
• Initial experience may cause fear and doubt, making
numbers decrease in the first 2 years
• Racial Identity: Cokley (1999) found no differences between
frosh and seniors in Cross' Model of Black Identity
Formation, also that senior men at HBC scored higher than
women on a racial identity formation.
• Gay and Lesbian identity: Lots of issues in gathering data,
political, sociological, monetary. Coming out often happens
in college, despite awareness as early as the age of 3
(freedom, experimentation).
• Religious identity: may lose importance, may be due to
increased locus of control in college. Others: no difference

6. Change During College: Self-Concept
and Self-Esteem (p. 219)
• Self-Concept and Self-Esteem are 'slippery terms rarely
defined in any consistent way'
• "Self-Concept is generally considered to be one's self-
perceptions, formed through experience with the
environment, particularly significant others" relational,
comparative to others.
• Self-Esteem "expresses an attitude of approval or
disapproval and indicates the extent to which the individual
considers to be capable, significant, successful, and worthy
(Coopersmith, 1967)"
• Academic Self-Concept (modest consistency) Students'
evaluations of their academic abilities become more positive
in college. Astin (1993) used CIRP to find positive growth,
but lots of findings of non-linear paths.

7. Change During College: Autonomy,
Independence, Locus of Control, and
Self-Efficacy (p. 222)
• Susceptability to external influences over time, the extent to which students
believe themselves to be in control of their lives
• Autonomy; Independence: degree of freedom students feel from the influence
of others (peers, parents, institutions) in their choices of attitudes, values and
behaviors
• Locus of Control: the extent to which individuals are self directed; belief in the
control of one's fate. Also referred to as self-direction.
• Students who believe that they, rather than the invisible hand, affect their
outcomes, including academic outcomes, are more likely to succeed.
• Self-Efficacy: Banduras (1994;1997) individuals' "beliefs about capabilities to
produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events
that affect their lives." personal/comparative factors.
• recently related to student's sense that they can 'make a difference'
through sociopolitical actions
• increases in independence, self-direction, willingness to take responsibility for
academic performance

8. Change During College: Interpersonal
Relations and Leadership Skills (p. 225)
• Kuh found via CSEQ that students reported 'quite a bit' or
'very much progress' in interpersonal skills.
• MIR (Mature Interpersonal Relationship) studies show no
clear pattern
• other studies point to increases in social competence, but
don't reflect the magnitude of the change.
• leadership changes are clearer: improvement in college
• Astin had a 4,000 person sample and longitudinal study that
showed increases in leadership, popularity, and social self-
confidence
• Other studies support these findings very strongly

9. Change During College: General
Personal Development (p. 226)
CSEQ (Pace, 1984) shows self reported gains in:
• values and ethical standards
• self-understanding
• understanding others
• getting along
• developing healthy habits
Without exception, students reported positive progress, but the
studies often excluded StDev, which prevents assessing
generalizability.

10. Net Effects of College: (p. 227)
Conclusions from How College Affects Students:
• Developmental Psychologists: People develop according to
their time in life
• Sociological Theorists: People develop according to
environmental and sociohistorical influences
• No one indicates it is one source alone, but many indicate
that it is mostly one or the other.
• Earlier review was inconclusive about college's effects on
identity status due to lack of study and rigor
• small but positive effects of college and academic
attainment on self esteem, academic and social self-
concepts, sense of abilities, intellectual orientation,
psychosocial adjustment, psychological well-being
• reduction of authoritarianism, dogmatism, ethnocentrism
• absent: evidence of effects on autonomy, maturity, personal
development

11. Net Effects of College: Evidence from
the 1990s (p. 227)
• Identity Formation: no studies examined racial, sexual, or
religious identity development to the degree that any
development could be attributed to college experience.
• In general identity development however, Constantinople
(1969) found that Erikson's stage five was successfully
resolved by freshman-senior progression
• Zuschlag and Whitbourne studied whether college
experience affected identity development vs. normal
maturity, and found positive effects for class year and
gender, but not period. Findings remain confounded.

12. Net Effects of College: Self-Concept
and Self-Esteem (p. 228)
• Generally more extensive and persuasive than identity
development.
• Astin (1993) measured intensity (effort, interaction) and
extensity (time in college) and effects of increased changes
in scholarship.
• Monzon and Maramba (1998) class year positively related to
self-esteem (small sample, cross sectional, inconclusive)
• Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb (1993) more rigorous study found
educational attainment statistically unrelated to self-esteem
12 years after high school graduation, but small increases in
self-esteem with each successively higher level of education
achieved.

13. Net Effects of College: Autonomy and
Locus of Control (p. 229)
• Jones and Watt (2001) upper division students scored
higher than freshmen in Emotional Autonomy, but when age
and gender are controlled, the difference disappears.
(maturation vs. college)
• Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb (1993) net effects of college on
Locus of Control found 2+ year students had a slight
increase (3%) in self-direction over high school graduates,
and Bachelors holders had a 4% increase.
• Pascarella, et al. (1996) found extensity had a statistically
significant and positive effect over students' sense of control
over their academic performance.

14. Net Effects of College: Interpersonal
Relations and Leadership Skills (p. 230)
• College experiences appear to have a positive effect on
students' interpersonal skills, but inconclusive.
• Effects of college on leadership bears more evidence.
• Astin (1993) 25,000 student sample in 1985 (freshmen) and
1990 (seniors) found that leadership skills increased during
college. Extensivity significantly and positively relates to
leadership skills.
• Kuh and Hu (2001) showed that college positively affects
overall personal development. Class year positively and
significantly affected gains in social and personal
development. (54,000 sample size from 126 schools)

15. Between-College Effects: (p. 231)
Conclusions from How College Affects Students
• What happens to students after they enroll had more impact
than the type of institution where they enrolled.
• few direct effects of institution size, type, race, sex, or
selectivity on self-evaluations in academic or social
spheres.
• size and selectivity had negative indirect effects on social
self-concepts
• pre-1990 research was virtually silent on between-college
effects on changes in maturity or overall personal
development

16. Between-College Effects: Evidence
from the 1990s (p. 232)
• Identity Development: little can be said because so little
evidence exists about differences in identity development
between different institutions.
• Racial Identity Development: between HBCUs and PWIs
showed HBCU students scoring higher or no difference in
racial Identity between freshmen and seniors.

17. Between-College Effects: Self Concept
and Self Esteem (p. 232)
• institution size, control, mission, selectivity are not good predictors of
psychosocial change among students, and environment may be more
influential than structural or organizational characteristics
• Academic Self-Concept: Women's college students showed greater increases
in academic self-concept than co-ed respondents, HBCU students showed
increases vs. PWI students. Kim argues that the peer environment of the
institution was the real reason for senior self-confidence.
• Post 1990 research says that institutional culture and environment is far more
influential than structure or organization in shaping student self-concepts.
• Social Self-Concept: Chang (1999) structural diversity positively affected
White students' disposition to socialize with peers of different backgrounds
and discuss racial issues. HBCUs and WCs may have a stronger positive
effect on self-concepts than heterogenous campuses
• Self-Esteem: research mostly about differential institutional differences
between WCs and coeds for women, 'clear' patterns of greater gains in self
esteem at WCs than coed institutions, found less significant with controls

18. Between-College Effects: Locus of
Control (p. 235)
• No difference in a study of 1st year students at a CC vs. a
4yr commuter university in locus of control after a year
(Pascarella, et al., 1994).
• No difference between residents and commuters in their
self-direction (Knox, et al., 1993)
• (Pascarella et al., 1996; Pierson, et al., 2003) larger studies
found significant differences in locus of attribution for
academic success between 2- and 4-yr colleges. CC
students had a positive advantage at the end of the first
year. Suggests that students gain more confidence and self-
direction in a CC structure.
• Riordan (1990;1992) WCs appeared to have a positive
effect on student locus of control, but controls for economic
status and academic ability dismissed it.

19. Between-College Effects: Interpersonal
Relations and Leadership Skills (p. 236)
• Few effects on leadership skills of 1st to 4th year students
linked to institutional type, control, or size; selectivity is not
yet clear.
• Various aspects of a campus climate or student experience
while enrolled are more powerful predictors of leadership
development than institutional structure or organization.
• Dimensions of a campus environment and the kinds of
experiences students have there are more powerful
determinants of student leadership development than
expenditures.

20. Between-College Effects: General
Personal Development (p. 237)
• Effects of HBCU on African American students increases
personal development vs. attending PWIs.
• Institutional environments and cultures are more powerful
shapers of students' personal development than standard
institutional descriptors
• No gains in personal development related to institutional
type or control
• conventional institutional descriptors are largely unrelated to
educational effects
• Student experience and personal and institutional
environments and cultures are more salient factors in how
students change than are structural features.

21. Within-College Effects: (p. 238)
Conclusions from How College Affects Students
• Living on campus rather than commuting seemed to predict
gains in academic and social self-concept
• more about the living environment and social interactions
than the place itself
• levels of social interaction and integration were positively
associated with enhanced academic and social self-
concepts and positive outcomes.
• Residing in a living-learning center was consistently linked
to increases in autonomy and independence.

22. Within-College Effects: Evidence from
the 1990s (p. 238)
• Identity Development: participation in Service Learning
courses or community service promotes change by allowing
students to encounter diversity
• Majoring in Women's Studies may be transformational for
some students (Musil, 1992) such as the positive
development of a feminist identity
• Other studies are problematic and not generalizable due to
cross sectional, small sample, tight focus
• Racial Identity: Participation in diversity programs led to
opportunities for racial identity development and more
positive racial-ethnic attitudes
• Membership in racial-ethnic organizations appears to
promote racial identity development

23. Within-College Effects: Self-Concept
and Self-Esteem (p. 240)
• Ample evidence shows that college positively affects self-
concept
• Academic Self-Concept: little doubt that student-peer
interaction (tutoring, discussions, participation) positively
affects self-concept (Coop. Inst. Research Program, large
samples, longitudinal) increases in self-confidence, academic
self-concept. Esp. powerful when diversity is present.
• Extracurricular faculty interaction also has a positive effect on
Academic self-concept.
• Investigative students gained more than non-investigative.
• Social Self-Concept: both academic and non-academic
experiences are (small) factors in shaping self-concept.
• Self-Esteem: no significant effects of major, residence, or
performance. Service learning and active/collaborative
learning enhances self esteem.

24. Within-College Effects: Autonomy and
Locus of Control (p. 244)
• Volunteer and service learning activity had little to no
significant effect on internal locus of control (Pierson and
Pascarella, 2002), but community service does (Astin, et al.,
2000)
• Effective teaching may enhance student learning, sense of
capability, sense of control of performance
• peer relations and extracurricular activities have a positive
effect on students' sense of autonomy
• Greeks seem to have no significant effect on peer
independence
• On/off campus status effects are uncertain

25. Within-College Effects: Interpersonal
Relations and Leadership Skills (p. 246)
• Astin (1998) Community Service enhances life skills
• Gray et al. (1999, 2000) positive net effects of service
learning courses on life skills
• Others find no greater impact vs. regular forms of service.
• Frequency of student interaction associated with gains in
interpersonal skills
• Service impacts leadership skills
• Leadership courses and programs specifically succeed in
enhancing those skills.
• Strongest effects on leadership skill associated with student-
peer interactions

26. Within-College Effects: General
Personal Development (p. 248)
Student gains in personal development mostly based on Pace
(1984) College Student Experience Questionnaire:
• values and ethical standards
• self-understanding
• getting along
• group functioning
• good health habits
Effort invested in academic and social activities is positively
related to gains in personal development
Student peer interaction is the major force involved

27. Conditional Effects of College: (p. 249)
Conclusions from How College Affects Students:
• Pre-1990 studies focus almost solely on gender differences
• Some state males make greater gains than females, while
others show no differential effects
• Consistently showed that colleges' effects on academic and
social self-concepts were general, about the same for all.
• Limited evidence shows no gender related difference in self-
esteem related to educational attainment.
• Nothing to support conditional college effects on such
dimensions of student relational systems such as autonomy,
independence, locus of control, authoritarianism,
dogmatism, ethnocentrism, interpersonal relations,
psychological adjustment and well-being, or general
personal development

28. Conditional Effects of College:
Evidence from the 1990s (p. 250)
Identity Development:
• Constantinople (1969) found men displayed greater gains
than women in identity development over 4 years, but likely
due to gender based cohort
• subsequent studies suggest that the effects of the overall
college experience are general rather than gender based
• Whether colleges' effects on students' identity development
vary with Gender or race-ethnicity remains largely an
unanswered question

29. Conditional Effects of College:Self-
Concept and Self-Esteem (p. 251)
• 4 studies explored impacts of different college experiences
• Replication can help to assure findings
• Antonio (1999) found that race diversity of a friendship
group impacted intellectual self-confidence of whites and
African Americans differently, whites declining scores as
diversity increased.
• Sax (1994): Confident math majors maintain math skills
confidence, other majors lose their self-confidence in math
skills.
• Smart et al., (2000) academic env. such as Social Academic
environments exhibit patterns of values, abilities and
behaviors, students seek out congruence - Men gain self
confidence in these skills, women have weaker gains in
these areas

30. Conditional Effects of College: Locus of
Control (p. 253)
• Knox, et al. (1993) found no difference in the rates at which
men and women moved towards an internal locus of control
over a 12 year period following high school. Blacks and
whites also gain at a similar rate.
• Pascarella, et al. (1994) 2yr/4yr students showed about the
same degree of movement toward internality
• Pierson, et al. (2003) found no differences in effects of
attending 2yr vs. 4 yr re: internal attribution regardless of
other factors
• Replication indicates that 2yr and 4yr have similar impacts
on internal locus of attribution for academic success during
the first 2 years of school.

31. Long-Term College Effects: (p. 255)
Conclusions from How College Affects Students
• Net effects of college on academic and social self-concept
were still apparent 10 years after graduating
• Colleges' long term impact on academic self-concept are
indirect and apply more to white than non white.
• small but statistically significant net beneficial college effects
upon self-esteem
• positive long term effects of college were apparent 7 and 14
years after graduation
• 3, 5 and 10 years after graduating, graduates had lower
levels of stress and anxiety comparative to measurements
from their senior year.

32. Long-Term College Effects: Evidence
from the 1990s (p. 256)
• The literature on long term effects of college attendance is
mostly about Adult Development, rather than college age
development and so this lit review will focus on long term
college effects.
• Identity Development:
• Baxter Magolda (1986) three questions defining 4 phases of
self authorship (the ability to internally define one's own
beliefs identity and relationships): following external
formulas, the crossroads, becoming the author of one's life,
internal foundation (generally by age 30)
• Josselson (1972) used Erikson's stage 5 and Marcia's
exploration and commitment to develop 4 paths of identity
formation: Guardians, Pathmakers, Searchers, Drifter, but
saw later identity as malleable.

33. Long-Term College Effects: Self-
Concept and Self-Esteem (p. 258)
• Gurin (1999) College's long term impact may be due to
students' interactions with diverse peers, and predicted
future interactions with diverse peers, which was linked to
intellectual self-confidence five years after graduation
• Many studies of self-concept and self-confidence may have
been mediated by students' academic, social, and
occupational experiences.
• Knox. et al., (1993) found no relation between reported level
of self esteem and levels of attainment.
• Miller-Bernal (2000) found high self-esteem 6 yrs after
graduation for 4 colleges, suggesting no postcollege
declines
• It appears that college has some durable impact on
students' self-concept, but the evidence is not compelling.

34. Long-Term College Effects: Locus of
Control (p. 259)
• College may have duarable effects on students' sense of
control over their lives
• Knox, et al. (1993) found that educational attainment
significantly and positively related to internal locus of control.
At each progressive degree achievement, self-direction
increased.
• Some findings suggest that college effects are cumulative
and not attributable to differences in collegiate experience or
institution, e.g a positive net effect by college experience on
self perception
• Studies show that participation in community service and
service based learning during college leads to higher levels
of a sense that one can make a difference (even 9 years
later)

35. Long-Term College Effects: Leadership
Skills (p. 260)
• Influence of college on leadership skills is measurable 5 and
15 years out
• 15 yrs after earning a Bachelor's degree, having an
advanced degree was more highly related to civic leadership
than family circumstance or institutional selectivity.
• Shulman and Bowen (2001) found little difference between
college athletes and non-athletes becoming leaders,
indicating a counter to the common belief that there is a link.
• Langdon (1997) found no significant long term advantage to
women's leadership skills from attending a WC rather than a
co-ed.

36. Summary: Change During College (p.
261)
• 5 general areas: identity formation, self-concept & self-
esteem, autonomy & locus of control, interpersonal relations
& leadership skills, and general personal development.
• Generally, there is a movement towards higher levels of
identity development during college
• In general, identity development research has declined, but
specific research regarding racial identity, sexual identity,
and religious identity has expanded
• Generally, students gain intellectual and academic self-
confidence during college, as well as locus of control and
interpersonal skills, though there is plenty of evidence that
there are other directions.

37. Summary: Net Effects of College (p.
263)
• Lack of research regarding net effects of college on identity
development before or after 1990, key issue is that
maturation may be the cause rather than college.
• College has a positive effect on student self-concepts.
• It is not determined if college has a clear effect on self-
esteem
• Many studies: First year increases in student belief that
good academic performance is a function of their abilities
• Solid evidence: students make significant freshman to
senior gains in leadership abilities, popularity, and social
self-confidence

38. Summary: Between-College Effects (p.
263)
• Little to be said before or after 1990 about changes in
identity formation that can be attributed to characteristics of
the institutions attended.
• Variables commonly used to differentiate between or
amongst institution such as size, type, control, or selectivity
are poor predictors of student change or development.
• However, structural diversity has an indirect, positive impact
on self concepts by increasing frequency of diverse
interactions or diverse subject matter.
• Institutional characteristics appear to be unrelated to the
development of locus of control

39. Summary: Within-College Effects (p.
265)
• Qualitative studies of volunteer service and service learning
courses point to positive identity and locus of control effects,
but quantitative studies are mixed, and it's impossible to say
whether there is a positive effect on identity formation
• other academic activities, such as taking a diversity course,
may have a positive effect on identity formation
• The importance of student/peer/faculty interaction is very
clear in helping to develop self concept. Dominant force in
developing interpersonal and leadership skills
• Investigative environments allow for students' intellectual
self confidence, academic self concepts, expectations about
contributions.

40. Summary: Conditional Effects of
College (p. 267)
• Diversity of friendship groups has a highly positive net
impact on African American self confidence, but a small
negative impact on White self confidence
• College appears to have a marginally greater impact on the
self-esteem of women than men
• Locus of academic attribution can be positively affected by
variables such as honors programs, Greek participation,
employment, teacher skills when in Community College vs.
a 4 yr.

41. Summary: Long Term College Effects
(p. 268)
• Remains largely unexplored because of focus on adult
development in studies rather than effects of college.
• College's influence on academic self-concept though is
apparent a decade later.
• durable positive effects from college's long term impact on
locus of control
• College makes a positive if small difference in leadership
development.