At 4:46 PM -0600 2/16/01, jim clark wrote:
>Hi
>
>The survey on the values of university students was indeed over
>decades and properly called cross-sectional (not longitudinal, as
>I had stated). A lengthy report from late 1980s appears at:
>
>http://www.stcloudstate.edu/~irp/reports/scan/amfreshman.html
>
>Here is a short excerpt:
>
>-----------start of quote-------------
> Each year the freshman survey includes a list of fifteen to
>twenty items describing various personal values or "life goals."
>Although many of the value statements have waxed and waned in
>popularity since the 1960s, two of the items have shown
>especially consistent and contrasting trends. The item showing
>the strongest upward trend is "being very well-off financially."
>Between 1970 and 1987, student endorsement of this value
>increased from a low of 39.1 percent to an all-time high of 75.6
>percent of the entering freshmen. Over the same period, the value
>showing the most precipitous decline in student endorsement is
>"developing a meaningful philosophy of life." (See Figure 17.)
>Although the latter was the most popular value in 1967, endorsed
>by 82.9 percent of the entering freshmen, it has been regularly
>decreasing throughout most of the history of the CIRP. It
>continued a steady decline until 1987, when it reached its low
>point of 39.4 percent. Since 1987, however, the trends have
>reversed: Interest in developing a meaningful philosophy of life
>has been increasing gradually while wanting to be very well-off
>financially has become slightly less popular. It may be that this
>recent reversal, coupled with the sharply declining interest in
>business careers and majors, are early signals of a shift away
>from a materialistic philosophy.
>---------------end of quote-------------
>
>I don't know to what extent changes in the composition of the
>student body has been examined as a cause for the changes in
>values. The recent reversal of the long-term trend is also
>interesting.
Again, there has been a lot of talk in academia in the last decade about
the increasingly mercenary behavior of students.
This could result in _our_ reinforcing _them_ for making more idealistic
statements about their motives.
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
