Why College Students Drift Left: The Stability of Political Identity and Relative Malleability of Issue Positions among College Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-664
Author(s):  
Matthew Woessner ◽  
April Kelly-Woessner
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Regression To The Mean ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Using Data

ABSTRACTIn considering the liberalizing effect of college on students’ political values, we argue that political identities—in the form of self-identified ideology or partisanship—are components of social identity and are resistant to change. Using data from the Higher Education Research Institute’s student surveys, we show that what movement in identity does occur is mostly a regression to the mean effect. On several issue positions, however, students move in a more uniform leftward direction. We find that liberal drift on issues is most common among students majoring in the arts and humanities. Self-reported ideology does drift left at liberal arts colleges, but this is explained by a peer effect: students at liberal arts colleges drift more to the left because they have more liberal peers. The results have implications for future research on college student political development, suggesting that attitudinal change can be more easily identified by examining shifts in policy preferences rather than changes in political identity.

2008 APSA Teaching and Learning Track Summaries—Track Three: Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Inequality

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (03) ◽  
pp. 615-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus D. Allen ◽  
Kea Gordon ◽  
Lanethea Mathews-Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Classroom Environments ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
Inequality In Education

The participants in the Diversity, Inclusiveness, and Inequality track represented a great deal of diversity themselves and included faculty and students from a rich variety of research institutions, private liberal arts colleges, and community colleges. While participants engaged issues and strategies in each of the three substantive areas—diversity, inclusiveness, and inequality in education (DIIE)—the bulk of our conversations focused on diversity and inequality. Topics included curriculum and course content issues, negotiating institutional support for DIIE, challenges of student recruitment and retention, and negotiating power relationships and identities among different kinds of student populations both within and outside of the classroom. This summary reviews four sets of questions that the group addressed and that point to critical areas rich for future research and reflection. In brief these are: (1) How can we simultaneously promote learning about difference and learning about ourselves? (2) How can faculty develop a range of strategic pedagogies and classroom environments in order to avoid some of the challenges inherent in teaching about DIIE? (3) How can we move beyond narrow understandings of diversity that limit the concept solely to a category of identity, neglecting the ways in which diversity and inequality are categories of analysis, processes, and indicative of power relations? (4) What steps are necessary to more fully integrate DIIE across the political science curriculum?

scholarly journals Alternative Realities: Faculty and Student Perceptions of Instructional Practices in Laboratory Courses

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. ar52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Beck ◽  
Lawrence S. Blumer
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Faculty Perceptions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Laboratory Courses ◽  
Undergraduate Laboratory ◽  
Upper Level

Curricular reform efforts depend on our ability to determine how courses are taught and how instructional practices affect student outcomes. In this study, we developed a 30-question survey on inquiry-based learning and assessment in undergraduate laboratory courses that was administered to 878 students in 54 courses (41 introductory level and 13 upper level) from 20 institutions (four community colleges, 11 liberal arts colleges, and five universities, of which four were minority-serving institutions). On the basis of an exploratory factor analysis, we defined five constructs: metacognition, feedback and assessment, scientific synthesis, science process skills, and instructor-directed teaching. Using our refined survey of 24 items, we compared student and faculty perceptions of instructional practices both across courses and across instructors. In general, faculty and student perceptions were not significantly related. Although mean perceptions were often similar, faculty perceptions were more variable than those of students, suggesting that faculty may have more nuanced views than students. In addition, student perceptions of some instructional practices were influenced by their previous experience in laboratory courses and their self-efficacy. As student outcomes, such as learning gains, are ultimately most important, future research should examine the degree to which faculty and student perceptions of instructional practices predict student outcomes in different contexts.

scholarly journals Moderation of Classic Social Psychological Effects by Demographics in the U.S. Adult Population: New Opportunities for Theoretical Advancement

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Scott Yeager ◽  
Jon Krosnick
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Laboratory Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Judgments ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The One

For decades, social psychologists have collected data primarily from college undergraduates and, recently, from haphazard samples of adults. Yet researchers have routinely presumed that thusly observed treatment effects characterize “people” in general. Tests of seven highly-cited social psychological phenomena (two involving opinion change resulting from social influence and five involving the use of heuristics in social judgments) using data collected from randomly sampled, representative groups of American adults documented generalizability of the six phenomena that have been replicated previously with undergraduate samples. The one phenomenon (a cross-over interaction revealing an ease of retrieval effect) that has not been replicated successfully previously in undergraduate samples was also not observed here. However, the observed effect sizes were notably smaller on average than the meta-analytic effect sizes documented by past studies of college students. Furthermore, the phenomena were strongest among participants with the demographic characteristics of the college students who typically provided data for past published studies, even after correcting for publication bias in past studies using a new method, called the behaviorally-informed file-drawer adjustment (BIFDA). The six successful replications suggest that phenomena identified in traditional laboratory research also appear as expected in representative samples but more weakly, so observed effect sizes should be generalized with caution. The evidence of demographic moderators suggests interesting opportunities for future research to better understand the mechanisms of the effects and their limiting conditions.

scholarly journals Undergraduates Have Difficulty Distinguishing Formats Based on Discovery Tool Search Results

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Diana K. Wakimoto
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
Thesis Statement ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Small Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Local Results

A Review of: Gewirtz, S. R., Novak, M., & Parsons, J. (2014). Evaluating the intersection between WorldCat Local and student research. Journal of Web Librarianship, 8(2), 113-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2014.877312 Abstract Objective – To evaluate the usability of WorldCat Local for undergraduate students conducting research. Design – Usability study. Setting – Two small, liberal arts colleges in central Minnesota. Subjects – 13 undergraduates (7 females and 6 males). Methods – To simulate an authentic research process, researchers created a thesis statement and a list of materials students needed to find using WorldCat Local. The students were video recorded and instructed to use the “think aloud” protocol as they worked through the list of materials to find. Researchers analyzed the recordings and evaluated the efficiency of the students’ searching processes using a rubric with scores from 1 to 5. Main Results – Students were able to find books relevant to their topic, but had difficulty in identifying a book that their college library did not own. Students had more difficulty finding current scholarly journal articles and encyclopedias. Additionally, students had trouble distinguishing different formats in the results list. Conclusion – The WorldCat Local results interface confused students, especially when they tried to determine the types of materials found (e.g., article, book, etc.). The students showed little understanding of relevance sorting and facets, although they did attempt to use them while searching. Despite the difficulties, the colleges will keep WorldCat Local as their discovery tool while exploring alternative options. The researchers suggest the need for future research to confirm their findings and determine what changes to the discovery tool interface would be most beneficial for the users.

Finding a Balance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Lindsay Levine ◽  
Emily Kohut
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Cultural Climate ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
Curricular Models ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Music Faculty

Liberal arts colleges focus on undergraduate education, emphasizing the development of critical thought, the whole person, and values consistent with ethical participation in a civil society. Liberal arts music faculty now recognize the need to remap the music major and transform how music is taught and learned in order to remain relevant in the current economic and cultural climate, but the process is challenging. This chapter explores how liberal arts music faculty are striving to meet the challenge, using data from the Internet, a survey questionnaire, and interviews to compare the music major at thirteen colleges. We conclude that finding a balance between the conservatory-style curriculum and new curricular models does not imply replacing the Western concert tradition. Rather, it involves responding proactively to broader changes in musical life and recognizing the role of music in liberal education.

Workplace Ostracism and Its Negative Outcomes

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 143-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoming Zheng ◽  
Jun Yang ◽  
Hang-Yue Ngo ◽  
Xiao-Yu Liu ◽  
Wengjuan Jiao
Keyword(s):  
Affective Commitment ◽  
Psychological Capital ◽  
Intention To Leave ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Conservation Of Resources ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Workplace Ostracism ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. Workplace ostracism, conceived as to being ignored or excluded by others, has attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. One essential topic in this area is how to reduce or even eliminate the negative consequences of workplace ostracism. Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the current study assesses the relationship between workplace ostracism and its negative outcomes, as well as the moderating role played by psychological capital, using data collected from 256 employees in three companies in the northern part of China. The study yields two important findings: (1) workplace ostracism is positively related to intention to leave and (2) psychological capital moderates the effect of workplace ostracism on affective commitment and intention to leave. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for organizations and employees, along with recommendations for future research.

Generation Y Versus Ethnicity: Manipulating Political Identity Among College Students

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda S. Jackson ◽  
Michael Vallerga ◽  
Clifton M. Oyamot
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Generation Y ◽  
Political Identity

Siblings and Illness

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Sawyer Vanderwerp
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Mother And Child ◽  
Using Data

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Mother and Child samples, I investigated the relationships among child and adolescent depressive symptoms, having a chronically ill sibling, and other child and familial demographic variables. From research on social support and social role transitions, with the Stress Process as a theoretical model, I hypothesized that children with chronically ill siblings experience more depressive symptoms. Specifically, I looked at age, gender, birth order and family size as potentially reducing the effect size of having a chronically ill sibling. Findings showed that having a chronically ill sibling is associated with demonstrating more depressive symptoms both in the bivariate and multivariate analyses. Although age, gender, birth order and family size do not interact significantly with having a chronically ill sibling in predicting depressive symptoms, they do present interesting findings about childhood depressive symptoms in general. Thus, the results of this study suggest specific and meaningful paths for future research.

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