Life Goals of American College Freshmen

Transcription

1 Journal of Counselng Psychology Vol., No. 1, 66 Lfe Goals of Amercan College Freshmen I James M. Rchards, Jr. 1 Amercan College Testng Program In samples of 6,9 male and 6,3 female college freshmen, 35 tems pertanng to lfe goals were ntercorrelated. Wth unty n the dagonal, a prncpal components analyss was earned out, extractng all factors wth an egenvalue greater than 1.. Fnal solutons were derved through the varmax procedure, and the smlarty of the two rotated matrces assessed. Seven factors common to the two sexes were ttled: Prestge, Personal Happness, Humanstc-Cultural, Relgous, Scentfc, Artstc, and Hedonstc. An Altrustc factor was obtaned for females only, and an Athletc Success factor for males only. Implcatons for predctng vocatonal success and for counselng are consdered. Recently, ncreasng attenton has been pad to dfferences n lfe goals and aspratons as a factor n vocatonal choce (Astn & Nchols, 64) and n hgh-level achevement n culturally sgnfcant areas of behavor (Holland, 63; Holland & Nchols, 64). Indeed t s possble to conceve of both choosng a vocaton and performng at a hgh level n any area of endeavor as the means by whch an ndvdual tres to attan the goals whch are mportant to hm. Therefore, nformaton about goals whch are most relevant for varous occupatons and for varous types of achevement may be of practcal value n vocatonal counselng, n the dentfcaton and conservaton of talent, and n the specfcaton of crtera of occupatonal success. Before studes of the relatonshp between goals and vocatonal choce and achevement can be carred out successfully, t s frst necessary to specfy the ways n whch people dffer n ther lfe goals. Whle some nformaton s avalable, most earler studes of ths problem have been lmted by use of samples hghly selected on apttude, of students at a The author would lke to thank John Holland, Sandra Lutz and Clfford Abe for ther many contrbutons to ths project. small number of colleges (often only one) or of a small number of lfe goals. The purpose of ths study, therefore, s to organze some common lfe goals nto a relatvely small number of categores by usng a broad cross-secton of Amercan college freshmen n dverse colleges. The technque was to factor analyze 35 tems pertanng to student goals and aspra tons. A prmary goal n usng ths tech nque was to develop a clear and sound bass for organzng these goals nto a bref profle of the ambtons of college freshmen. Ths bref profle can then be used n subsequent research to study stu dent goals more effcently. Method The present study grew out of the Amercan College Survey (Abe, Holland Lutz, & Rchards, ) a project conducted by the Amercan College Testng Program n an attempt to obtan a more complete account of the typcal Amercan col lege student and the varaton among stu dents from college to college. To acconr plsh ths task, a comprehensve assessment was admnstered n the months of Aprl or May, 64, to,4 college freshmen n nsttutons of hgher educaton n' eludng selectve lberal arts colleges, state unverstes, and two-year communty col'

2 Lfe Goals of Amercan College Freshmen leges. Ths group of freshmen, of whom 6,9 were men and 6,3 were women, provded the sample for ths study. In ths student sample, 7 per cent were enrolled n junor colleges, per cent n four year undergraduate colleges, and 81 per cent n unverstes offerng graduate work. Approxmately per cent were students n prvate colleges, whle 85 per cent were students n publc colleges. About 95 per cent attended coeducatonal colleges. Fnally, per cent were enrolled n colleges n the Northeast, per cent n colleges n the South, per cent n colleges n the Mdwest, per cent n colleges n the Mountans and Plans states, but only 3 per cent n colleges on the West Coast. From these fgures t would appear that students n coeducatonal colleges are somewhat over-represented and students n West Coast colleges are consderably under-represented n the sample. Nevertheless, the over-all mpresson gven by ths nformaton s that t represents a reasonable cross-secton of Amercan college freshmen n 64. Scores on a natonally admnstered test of academc potental (the ACT test battery) were avalable for 7,2 of these freshmen. A comparson was made between the dstrbuton of test scores n ths subsample and the correspondng dstrbuton n a natonal norm group (Holland & Rchards, ). The results revealed that on all ACT subtests the sample ncludes fewer persons wth low scores than does the natonal norm group. Tn's dfference probably occurred because the norm group conssted of potentally college-bound hgh school senors whle the sample conssted of college freshmen who had already survved more than one half of the academc year. However, a full range of talent s represented n the sample, and t does not depart markedly from the natonal score dstrbuton. Agan the sample appears to be reasonably representatve of Amercan college freshmen. The assessment devce used to collect data was the Amercan College Survey (Abe et al., ), a booklet whch contans a letter explanng the purpose of the survey and a seres of sectons planned to elct nformaton about each student's achevement, aspratons, atttudes, nterests, potentals, values and background. The Amercan College Survey was admnstered at each college by approprate personnel at that college. The survey was flled out by students, who recorded ther 1,0 responses on two specal answer sheets, n Englsh classes, chapels, and convocatons or n dormtores and ther homes. College offcals were polled to learn f the admnstraton of the survey produced any dffcultes. Generally they reported that no specal problems resulted from the admnstraton of the survey. For the present study, 35 tems pertanng to the student's goals and aspratons were used. A complete lst of these goals, together wth the means and standard devatons for each sex s presented n Table 1. These specfc lfe goals fall nto three broad areas: Vocatonalsuch goals nclude: makng a theoretcal contrbuton to scence, becomng an expert n fnance and commerce, wrtng good fcton, etc. Socalhelpng others who are n dffcult), beng a good parent, becomng a communty leader, etc. Personalbecomng happy and content, beng well lked, followng a formal relgous code, etc. Each of the 35 specfc lfe goal tems was rated by the subject on a four-pont scale ("Of lttle or no mportance," "Somewhat mportant," "Very mportant," and "Essental for you"). Scores from 1 to 4 were assgned to these responses so that a hgh score ndcated a hgh degree of mportance. Product-moment correlatons among the 35 lfe-goal tems were computed separately for each sex. 2 The two resultng 35 X 35 matrces were factor analyzed usng the prncpal components method based on egenvalues and egenvectors. Unty was placed n the dagonal and all factors wth ^Calculatons were carred out at the Measurement Research Center, Unversty of Iowa and at the Unversty of Utah Computer Center.

3 James M. Rchards, Jr. Table 1 Means and Standard Devatons of Goals for Each Sex Goal Males Females Mean SD. Mean S.D Becomng happy and content 2. Becomng well-off fnancally 3. Inventng or developng a useful product or devce 4. Helpng others who are n dffculty 5. Becomng accomplshed n one of the performng arts (actng, dancng, etc.) Developng a meanngful phlosophy of lfe Becomng an authorty on a specal subject n my feld Dong somethng whch wll make my parents proud of me Becomng an outstandng athlete. Makng sacrfces for the sake of the happness of others. Becomng a communty leader. Becomng nfluental n publc affars. Followng a formal relgous code. Havng the tme and means to relax and enjoy lfe. Makng a theoretcal contrbuton to scence,. Makng a techncal contrbuton to scence. Wrtng good fcton (poems, novels, short stores, etc.) Beng well read. Becomng a mature and well-adjusted person Obtanng awards or recognton Never beng oblgated to people. Keepng n good physcal condton. Producng good artstc work (pantng, sculpture, decoratng, etc ) Becomng an accomplshed muscan (performer or composer). Becomng an export n fnance and commerce. Keepng up to date wth poltcal affars. Beng well-lked. Beng a good husband or wfe. Beng a good parent. Fndng a real purpose n lfe. Beng actve n relgous affars. Havng executve responsblty for the work of others. Avodng hard work. Engagng n exctng and stmulatng actvtes 35 Beng successful n a busness of my own an egenvalue greater than 1. were extracted. Both factor matrces were rotated to a fnal soluton by the varmax procedure. The ratonale for ths method of factorng and rotatng s presented n detal by Kaser (60). An oblque soluton was also obtaned through use of the Promax procedure (Hendrckson & Whte, 64) wth k = 4. Some further dscusson s warranted, however, of the use of unty n the dagonal. In the case of lfe goals, t seems clear that one s nterested n specfc varance, snce t s clearly possble for a goal to be of consderable sgnfcance whle havng lttle or nothng n common wth other goals. It follows, therefore, that dagonal values whch are estmates of

4 Lfe Goals of Amercan College Freshmen common varance, such as the squared Results multple correlaton between one goal and The correlatons among the 35 lfe goals I all other goals combned, are not ap- were computed separately for each sex. proprate. Under these crcumstances, two These correlatons are shown n Table 2 alternatves are avalable: to use the total wth correlatons for males appearng above! varance or to use estmates of the true the dagonal and correlatons for females s score varance. Snce no relabltes were below the dagonal. 3 avalable for use as estmates of true score In evaluatng the results, the frst ssue varance n the present study no choce to be consdered s whether the orthogonal ; remaned but to use the total varance, or rotated solutons or the oblque rotated ' n other words, unty n the dagonal. solutons are more adequate. The most Correlatons among Table 2 Goals for Both Sexes Goal 3 1. h \ " I ll h 5.! ". " le.. "l8 9 ' '. "......, ) )

5 James M. Rchards, Jr. Table 2 (Contnued) Goal 35 _ IS Note: Correlatons for males are shown above the dagonal and for females below the dagonal pertnent data are the respectve. hyper- tons of the results. The orthogonal rotated plane counts. For males, an dentcal count factors, 3 together wth the communalty of 1 was obtaned for the two solutons, for each varable are shown n Table 3. but for females the counts for the orthogonal and oblque solutons were 2 and STables showng for each sex the unrotated 0 respectvely. These results mply that factor matrx, the egenvalue for each unrotated the oblque soluton s somewhat "cleaner" %^?^ % rlltzv<; SZ&l than the orthogonal soluton for females. maton matrx for computng the Promax soluton from However, the mprovement s mnor, and ^e Varmax soluton have been deposted.,... wth the Amercan Documentaton Insttute. Oran orthogonal treatment has many con- <j er Document No from ADI Auxlary Pubceptual and computatonal advantages. It lcatons Project, Photoduplcaton Servce, Lbrary was decded, then, to use only the ortho- ^Congress, Washmgton^D.^ jgtgg n^gonal solutons n the further nterpreta- copes IS

6 Lfe Goals of Amercan College Freshmen The next queston was the extent to whch the structure of goals s smlar for men and women. To provde objectve nformaton relevant to ths queston, the Coeffcent of Congruence (Tucker, 51) was computed between each rotated factor for males and each rotated factor for females. Results are shown n Table 4, wth male factors rearranged to place hghest Coeffcents of Congruence n the dagonal. It wll be seen that a good match s obtaned for seven out of eght factors for each sex, wth Male G and Female H not matchng. Snce the factor analyses Table 3 Varmax Orthogonal Rotated Factor Matrx for Each Sex 4 \ Goal A B C* D* Males E F* G H* h2 5 \ a 1 >. 'j 2 2 * s % e

7 James M. Rchards, Jr. Table 3 (Contnued) Goal Females A B C D E F G* H* h * Reflected factor. Table 4 Smlarty between Male and Female Rotated Orthogonal Factors Males Females ~ c* A F* E D* B H* G A Reflected factor. B C 89 D 94 E - 95 F - 95 G* H*

8 Lfe Goals of Amercan College Freshmen and rotatons were completely ndependent, the results are good evdence for the consstency of the factor pattern from sample to sample, an mportant consderaton n determnng the adequacy of representaton of the doman by the rotated factor soluton (Harman, 60). Dscusson The rotated factors are brefly descrbed j and nterpreted below: Female A-Male C. For both sexes there are hgh loadngs on the goals: becomng a communty leader, becomng nfluental n the communty, obtanng award.s or recognton, beng expert n fnance and commerce, keepng up to date wth poltcal affars, beng responsble for others, work, and beng successful n busness of own. The best ttle mght be Prestge Goals. Female B-Male A has hgh loadngs for both sexes on the goals: beng happy and content, becomng mature and well-adjusted, beng a good husband or wfe, beng a good parent, and fndng a real purpose m lfe. The best ttle for ths factor mght be Personal Happness Goals. Female C-Male F has hgh loadngs on the goals: developng a meanngful phlosophy, wrt- ^ ng good fcton, beng well read, and keep- ng up to date wth poltcal affars. An apj proprate ttle would be Humanstc-Cultural 5 Goals. Female D-Male E has hgh loadngs for both ]? sexes on the goals: makng sacrfces for others, followng a formal relgous code, and beng actve» m relgous lfe. An obvous tde would be Re- I Hgous Goals. f jj Female E-Male D has hgh loadngs on the ~ goals: nventng a useful product, makng a ' theoretcal contrbuton to scence, and makng a 3 techncal contrbuton to scence. A good ttle 3 for ths factor would be Scentfc Goals.. Female F-Male B has hgh loadngs on the s goals- becomng accomplshed n the performng ;, arts, wrtng good fcton, producng good artstc. work, and becomng an accomplshed muscan. The best ttle mght be Artstc Goals. Female G-Male H has hgh loadngs on the goals: beng well-off fnancally, havng the tme ^ and means to enjoy lfe, and avodng hard j work. A sutable tde mght be Hedonstc Goals. Female H has hgh loadngs on de goals: helpng others n dffculty, makng sacrfces for _ others, and keepng n good physcal condton. A good tde mght be Altrustc Goals although ; "keepng n good physcal condton" does not seem to belong n ths rubrc. The explanaton of ds seemng dscrepancy may be that an ndvdual cannot help others very much when she herself s sck. Male G has hgh loadngs on de goals: becomng an outstandng athlete, makng sacrfces for others, and keepng n good physcal condton. A useful label would be Athletc Success Goah. Agan, "makng sacrfces for oders" seems ncongruent wth tbs categorzaton, unless perhaps "others" refers to an adletc team. Snce a prmary am n ths study was to provde a bref profle whch would adequately descrbe some common ambtons of Amercan college freshmen, the study appears successful, snce the number of varables was reduced from 35 to 8 for each sex. The obtaned factors are easly nterpreted, and the use of large, dverse samples lends strong support to our confdence n the factor pattern. The reducton of lfe goals to eght representatve factors provdes a smple set of tems for assessng goals and values n questonnare and other research studes where more expensve and tme consumng devces would be dffcult to use. The present factors appear to assess many of the same dmensons assessed by the Allport-Vernon-Lndzey Study of Values. The goals factors should also make t possble to desgn better controlled studes of vocatonal choce, vocatonal counselng and the predcton of vocatonal success. The goals are partcularly pertnent to studes of predctng vocatonal success, snce f goals were not consdered, the varables dentfed as predctng success mght nstead be varables whch were merely correlates of orgnal ntentons. In such nstances, clearer results could be obtaned by measurng student ntentons, or goals drectly rather than assessng other varables whch may ndrectly reflect such ambtons. Smlarly, n counselng the consderaton of the mplcatons of ambtons mght be more helpful than focusng on many other varables. A most mportant observaton s the smlarty between the results of ths study and the results obtaned by Astn and Nchols (64) n a sample hghly restrcted on apttude. These congruences strongly mply that students havng hgh academc

9 James M. Rchards, Jr. potental, such as scholarshp wnners, are not dfferent from students n general on all characterstcs, nor perhaps on very many characterstcs, and that conclusons drawn from samples hghly selected on apttude may often also be vald for populatons unselected on apttude. Fnally, the smlarty of results s further evdence for the accuracy of the obtaned factoral descrpton of lfe goals. Receved Aprl 5,. References Abe, C, Holland, J. L., Lutz, Sandra W., & Rchards, J M., Jr. A descrpton of Amercan college freshmen. Iowa Cty: Amercan College Testng Program,. Astn, A. W., & Nchols, R. C. Lfe goals and vocatonal choce. /. appl. Psychol., 64, 48, -58. Harman, H. H. Modern factor analyss. Chcago: Unver. of Chcago Press, 60. Ilendrckson, A. E., & Whte, P. O. Promax: a quck method for rotaton to oblque smple structure. Brtsh J. Stat. Psychol., 64,, -70. Holland, J. L. The predcton of achevement n dfferent college envronments. Paper read at Amercan Psychologcal Assoc, Phladelpha, 63. Holland, J. L, & Nchols, R. C. Predcton of academc and extracurrcular achevement n college. J. educ. Psychol, 64, 55, 55-. Holland, J. L., & Rchards, J. M., Jr. Academc and non-academc accomplshment- correlated or uncorrelated? Iowa Cty: Amercan College Testng Program,. Kaser, H. F. The applcaton of electronc computers to factor analyss. Educ. psychol. Measmt, 60,, 1-1. Tucker, L. R. A method of synthess of factor analyss studes. Personnel Research Secton Report, No Washngton, D.C.: Department of the Army, 51.