Movin’ On Up

Carolina Ordoñez and

Casandra Treviño

Two Theorists

Erik Erikson

James E. Marcia

Erik Erikson

Born in Frankfurt, Germany on June 15, 1902Grew up in Baden, GermanyParents separated before his birth, mother remarriedAs a child his interests were art, language, and history

Moved to Vienna, Austria to run a schoolParticipated in the Viennese Psychoanalytic Society 1930s moved to Copenhagen for a brief time then to Boston Worked at Yale University’s Institute of Human Relations then University of California at Berkley 1950 Childhood and SocietyMoved back Massachusetts worked at the Austen Riggs Center

Erikson’s 5th developmental stage

Identity vs. identity confusion Encountered during adolescence Adolescents are encountered with many new adult rolesIdentity- emerges from (1) the selective affirmation and repudiation of an individual’s childhood identifications (2) the way in which the social process of the times identifies young individuals

Crisis- necessary turning point when development must move one way or anotherIdentity Confusion or Identity Crisis – a normative and necessary experience that can form a core disturbances aggravating and aggravated by pathological regression

James E. Marcia

Psychology professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada Focused his study on adolescent psychosocial development Elaborated on Erikson’s proposal “Theory of Identity achievement”

Theory of identity achievement

Time of choosing or crisis and commitment A crisis is a time of upheaval where old values or choices are being reexamined

Identity Status Interview

Semi – structured interview method Proposed four stages aka Identity Statuses

1. Identity Diffusion – no experience of a crisis no commitments

2. Identity Foreclosure – make a commitment but still no crisis

3. Identity Moratorium – in the midst of a crisis

4. Identity Achievement – undergone a crisis and made a commitment

How we tied it together

We took Erikson's’ fifth developmental stage and made a modified version of Marcia’s Identity Status Interview: Late Adolescent College Form Our study was quantitative rather than qualitative in order to produce statistics to demonstrate our results

Movin’ On Up StudyPlease specifiy your age

181920Over 20

What is your classification? a. Freshman b. Sophomore c. Junior d. SeniorGender

MaleFemale

What is your father’s highest level of educationNo high schoolSome high schoolHigh school diploma or GEDSome collegeAssociated degree (completed a program at a junior college)Bachelor’s degree (completed a program at a 4-year college/university)Some graduate schoolMaster’s degreeDoctoral Degree

What is your mother’s highest level of educationNo high schoolSome high schoolHigh school diploma or GEDSome collegeAssociated degree (completed a program at a junior college)Bachelor’s degree (completed a program at a 4-year college/university)Some graduate schoolMaster’s degreeDoctoral Degree

What level of education do you aspire to achieve?No high schoolSome high schoolHigh school diploma or GEDSome collegeAssociated degree (completed a program at a junior college)Bachelor’s degree (completed a program at a 4-year college/university)Some graduate schoolMaster’s degreeDoctoral Degree

What is your ethnicity?a. Caucasian/white b. Black / African American c. American Indian or Alaska natived. Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander e. Asian; f. Hispanic or LatinoHave you experienced any of the following “crises” since coming to UD? Check all that apply.

Poor performance or failure in a course related to my major/potential majorNegative Professor influenceDiscovered that I just did not like the material related to my major/potential majorNegative Peer influenceFamily Financial problemsLoss of my scholarship/financial aidDo not really “fit in” with others in my major/potential majorDrugs or AlcoholSevere intimidation by students who seem so much smarter than I amOther personal crisisNo crisis

My mother is a role model to me. 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Agree Somewhat Agree Strongly AgreeMy father is a role model to me. 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Agree Somewhat Agree Strongly AgreeI want to do better than my parents (career-wise). 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Agree Somewhat Agree Strongly AgreeI worry that I will not do better than my parents (career-wise). 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Agree Somewhat Agree Strongly AgreeI think education is important. 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Disagree Somewhat Disagree Agree Somewhat Agree Strongly Agree

Critical Questions

How do the identity statuses of college students differ from across the board? Does identity status predict / influence vocation (more inclined to follow parents’ advice)? Is there a correlation between the level of education the persons parents’ acquired and the level of education that the person aspires to?

We hypothesize that…..

There is a correlation between the level of education the persons’ parents’ acquired and the level of education that the person aspires to. We are also testing to see if ethnicity, amount of “crises” experienced, their opinion on their mother as a role model & father as a role model, desire to be better than parents (career-wise), concern over being better than parents (career-wise), and importance of education affect the level of education the person aspiresThe number of “crises” a student experiences increases through the years.

Setting

UD Campus; classroom, tables on the mall, rooms, etc.

We distributed the questionnaire Roughly 5-10 minutes to answer

Method

A convenience sample of University of Dallas students 77 Females 56 Males

Likert-type survey consisting of 13 questions

Demographic questions, education related questions, family oriented questions

Method (continued)

a bivariate correlation between the level of education aspired to by the individual and the level education achieved by both parentsa multiple regression with the level of education aspired to by the individual as the dependent variable and the following as predictor variables: ethnicity, amount of “crises” experienced, mother as a role model, father as a role model, desire to be better than parents (career-wise), concern over being better than parents (career-wise), and importance of education.

Results: Multiple Regression

Aspired Education: r²= .184

F(131)=2.478, p < .01

Father Edu- β= .306, p < .01

Education is Important- β= .286, p < .001

Results: Bivariate Correlation

r (N=133) .575, p < .001

Father’s Education v. Aspired Education

Mother’s Education v. Aspired Education

“Crises”

Our number of participants per classification and the total number of “crises” was:Freshmen(44): 58 “crises” Sophomores(21): 44 “crises”Juniors(46): 94 “crises”Seniors(27): 76 “crises”

“Crises” Revealed

0.00

1.002.003.004.00

5.006.007.008.00

FreshmenCrises

SophomoreCrises

Junior Crises Senior Crises

"Crises" Revealed

Limitations

Lack of Time A convenient sample of UD students (meaning we can’t generalize our data)Fatigue level of individual students

Was our hypothesis correct?

After viewing the results it can be said that it was not possible to reject the null hypothesis.The correlation between the level of education the persons parents’ acquired and the level of education that the person aspires to was not significant.An interesting find among the tests was that overall females tend to look up to either parent as a role model more than males.In looking up to parents as role models, both sexes were more likely to look up to their father rather than their mother. Number of “crises” does seem to increase overall but there was a disruption in flow which could’ve been caused not having equal numbers in each classification.

What we would have done differently

Students from other colleges take the surveyStudents from a more diverse ethnic / cultural background

New Questions

Would our results differ if we had used high school students as was first intended??Does socio economic background have an influence on a person’s vocational aspirations?If not parents, then who/what influences aspired education in a person?

Nature vs. Nurture

Nature Nurture

Rousseau Piaget Locke

|-----------------------------------|-------------------|---------|--------|-----| Kant Skinner\Bandura

Erikson/Marcia