American Undergraduate Students Research Articles

The value confrontation approach to enduring behavior modification.

Abstract The conditions under which durable behavior changes can be induced by an approach that confronts subjects with preexisting inconsistencies between their salient, chronically held values and their logically related overt behaviors were tested. Sixty-two treatment subjects and 71 control subjects (American undergraduate students) completed a premeasurement questionnaire measuring their exercise hours, health value-salience, behavior-inconsistency, and satisfaction-level with their exercise hours. The treatment subjects were confronted with a persuasive message, and all subjects were postmeasured twice. The results indicated that the value-confrontation of subjects' preexisting value-behavior inconsistencies induced significant initial and enduring behavior changes to the extent that (a) the value confronted was salient in the subjects' value systems, (b) their current behavior was inconsistent with their ideal behavior, and (c) they were experiencing dissatisfaction with their behavior.

Staging the Revolution (in Politics 101)

One of the most frustrating tasks in teaching “Introduction to Politics” is to convey a tangible, realistic sense of what revolution means to American undergraduate students. Insulated as most Americans are from the turbulence of political upheaval (which is actually the norm for many of the world's nation-states), ongoing revolutions around the world are very far away from their own concerns.As a result, I decided to take a chance and engage in some of my own revolutionary teaching and stage a revolution in the classroom. I conspired in advance with several graduate students who were strategically positioned throughout the large lecture hall. For the experiment to succeed, authenticity had to be the key.I seized upon one of the students' main concerns and frustrations with the course: the protracted and inconvenient scheduling of their weekly sections with the teaching assistants. Half-way through one lecture I announced a change in the T.A. assignments. One student “rebel” (one of the plants) vehemently vocalized the class' sense of outrage. My altercation with him (as I autocratically asserted my role as authority) resulted in my telling him to leave the class. When he refused, I called on my teaching assistant (“lackey running dog”) to go to the dean's office (calling on higher authority and perhaps force) to quash this rebellion. When the teaching assistant attempted to exit, the rebel physically prevented him from leaving the room (true insurrection). As I went to break up the confrontation, I was expelled, along with the teaching assistant, from the lecture hall (overthrow).

Social Identity: A Multidimensional Approach

Abstract In this study salience, importance, and multidimensional aspects of spontaneous social identities were examined. A Social Identity Survey was developed and administered to an ethnically diverse sample of American undergraduate students. Freely generated, social identities were rank ordered for importance and rated along four conceptually-derived dimensions: emotion, evaluation, importance, and stability. Results showed pattern differences among three groups of highly salient social identities: (a) gender, religion, and ethnicity; (b) academic major and student; and (c) hobbies and athletics. Ethnic differences suggest that mainstream Americans attributed less importance to the gender and ethnic identities in comparison with Asians and Hispanics.

Credentialism among graduate students

Writers on higher education frequently assume that American undergraduate and graduate students enroll mainly to obtain credentials, and care little about acquiring competence. An exploratory study of students entering four elite fields found that most soughtboth credentials and competence. “Empty” credentials appealed to some, but stiff competition within their chosen occupations evidently led the great majority of students to seek every advantage that graduate education could provide.

Correlates of Attitudes toward American Women as Managers

Abstract The present study investigated the influence of birth order, sex, and work values on attitudes toward women as managers among American business undergraduate (n = 105) students and MBA (n = 90) students. A Birth order x Sex interaction was found for undergraduate students, indicating that firstborn men had the least favorable attitudes. Also, among firstborn men the sex of the next sibling was related to differences in attitudes toward women in managerial roles. Work values of MBA students were related to attitudes toward women as managers.

Effect of Confederate's Sex and Status on Competitive Behavior of Male and Female college students

Summary American undergraduate students (N = 120) played 30 trials of the Prisoner's Dilemma game and were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions of 10 males and 10 females each. In conditions 1–6 the confederate was portrayed as low-status male, same-status male, high-status male, low-status female, same-status female, and high-status female, respectively. The confederate played a randomized predetermined strategy with equal numbers of cooperative and competitive responses. The results indicated a significant sex-of-subject by confederate-status interaction. Males were more cooperative in the high- than low-status conditions. Females were more cooperative in the low- than same- or high-status conditions.

Locus of Control as a Function of Family Type and Age at Onset of Father Absence

Summary In the present study 644 American undergraduate students completed the Rotter Internality-Externality Scale and provided information on their family background. They were then grouped according to whether or not they had experienced father absence, cause of this absence, and their age at the time this event occurred. Results indicated that locus of control varied markedly as a function of these variables.

The Actor-Observer Relationship: The Effect Of Actors' and Observers' Responsibility and Emotion Attributions

Summary American male undergraduate students served as Ss (N = 80) in an experiment which tested the effect of the actor-observer relationship (natural friendship versus stranger) on actors' and observers' emotional reactions and responsibility attributions following the actors' success or failure in a prisoner's dilemma game. Results indicated that observers felt better about a friend's success, and worse about a friend's failure, than they felt about a stranger's success or failure. Also, observers assigned more personal responsibility for a friend's success, and less personal responsibility for a friend's failure, than they assigned for a stranger's success or failure, the actor-observer relationship did not influence the actors' responsibility attributions or emotional responses to their outcomes.

Filipino and American student perceptions of teacher effectiveness

Filipino and American undergraduate students rated college instructor characteristics according to their perceived importance for effective teaching. Items were selected to reflect relevant value orientations in Filipino and American cultures. Factor analysis of the ratings revealed six underlying dimensions. MANOVA results showed that the group ratings on the six corresponding subscales were significantly different. Discriminant function analysis revealed that Filipino students rated items pertaining to authoritarianism and personal appearance of the instructor as significantly more important for effective teaching than did American students. This suggests that cross-cultural differences in perceptions of effective teaching may be predictable from a knowledge of both similar and conflicting value orientations in the specific cultures. Implications for the academic adjustment of students from different cultures were discussed.

American Students in India: Ambassadors or Cultural Polluters?

A good thing-this has been accepted rationale for educational exchange in last quarter-century, in which historical phenomenon of the wandering scholar has become a multi-institutional fact of life. Legislation, funding, and programming-from early Fulbright program and other educational and cultural programs sanctioned by governments, to university-sponsored academic studies abroad-have been legitimized by this rarely examined assumption. Foreign students in United States still outnumber American students overseas, but proportion is shifting, reflecting trends toward programs in developing countries and for undergraduate students. The world has indeed become American campus; adventure unlimited is accorded generous academic credit. It is time to be professionally objective about these programs, for many are at least questionable. This discussion focuses on specific question of sending American undergraduate students to India. No program is typical, and no generalizations should be glibly made from any particular situation, but in some aspects Callison-inBangalore program demonstrates common problems. These problems have been a current refrain in most discussions held by India program directors, and have directly led to India government regulations on foreign academic programs that will