Released Time for Faculty Advising: The Impact upon Freshmen

During the academic years 1964-65 and 1965-66, six Macalester College faculty members were given released time to devote to academic advising. One hundred-twenty “experimental group” freshmen were randomly selected from the classes entering Macalester in the fall of 1964 and 1965 and were assigned (10 men and 10 women) to each adviser. The remaining freshmen in each class comprised the “control group” and were assigned to advisers with full teaching loads. Data collected in the spring of 1966 indicated that the students in the experimental group were more satisfied with their faculty advisers, but there were no significant differences between the two groups on: (a) rate of retention; (b) grade point average; (c) level of aspiration; (d) satisfaction with college; (e) perception of the campus.     

Undergraduates as campus mental health workers

This study evaluated, first, the effectiveness of group experiences in improving the interpersonal functioning of college freshmen and, second, the difference in effectiveness of group discussions led by undergraduate dormitory advisers (with consultation) and by psychology graduate students. A variety of measures of interpersonal behavior was used. Results show that freshmen in group discussions improved in their interpersonal relationships, especially as measured by a sociometric form. Members of groups led by graduate students showed slightly more improvement than those in groups led by dormitory advisers. Differences in group process were also found. Results suggest that indigenous subprofessionals can promote growth on the campus.     

A University Is a Many-Faceted Thing

The College and University Environment Scales were given to all freshmen entering the University of Minnesota in 1964 and to other groups of students and staff members in order to determine the homogeneity of college perception and expectation in a complex university. On each of the five CUES scales statistically significant differences were found among the colleges within the University, and on three of the scales significant sex differences were identified. The scores of upperclassmen and staff members differed from those of entering freshmen. In spite of these differences in mean scores, the shapes of the profiles were similar for all groups, and on 15 of the 150 CUES items 90 per cent or more of the freshmen concurred. CUES can be used to generalize about parts of the University but only to a lesser extent to generalize about the entire institution.     

Educating Children to Decategorize Racial Groups

Children categorize themselves and others along racial lines, leading them to perceive members of other racial groups as different from themselves. Teaching children to decategorize their perceptions of people could help them to see more self-other similarities than differences. Fourth-grade children (N = 65) were randomly assigned to be taught a short lesson on decategorizing people or to be read a story. As hypothesized, children in the experimental group scored significantly lower on the Racial Decategorization scale (Jones, 2001) than did children in the control group. The study demonstrates the benefits of teaching decategorization. Elementary school curricula including these lessons could reduce biased categorization and possibly promote the development of more nonpreju-diced children.     

Exploring sex differences in expectancy,attribution, and academic achievement

Two studies were carried out to explore if sex differences in expectancy and attribution of achievement are related to sex differences in academic performance. Study I investigated expectancy and attribution of achievement, operationalized as grade point index, among 176 male and 116 female college freshmen. Men were found to form higher expectations for future grades. Attributions measured through assigning percentage weights to ability, luck, effort, and difficulty as causal explanations of one's grade point index showed that men make more ability and women more effort attributions. Despite these differences in expectancy and attribution patterns, men and women were found not to differ in their performance. In Study II 120 college freshmen, half of them male, half female, filled out questionnaires before and after a midterm examination. A subsample of 49 also completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The results basically confirm the previous study's findings, except in Study II, men and women gave equally high weights to effort as a cause. The results also show that a feminine sex-role orientation is associated with a debilitating pattern of expectancy and attribution and lower performance, especially among women. Implications of the results for unraveling inconsistencies in the attribution literature and for a need to clarify connotations of femininity are discussed.The author wishes to express her gratitude to the members of the Psychology and Guidance Division of the College of Basic Studies, Boston University, for their assistance in preparing the questionnaire and collecting the data for Study I. Research for Study II was supported by grant MH 31181-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health. Mark Nachbar provided assistance in analyzing the data to both studies. Jan Mokros, Joseph Pleck, and Dan Jaquette provided valuable comments on an earlier version of this article.     

Faculty attitudes about student evaluations and their relations to self-image as teacher

With the worldwide implementation of students’ evaluation of teaching (SET), faculty attitudes and trust in students’ feedback as well as possible defensive (i.e., self-protective) motivations seem most relevant to the facilitation of the primary organizational goal of SET, namely, teaching improvement. A questionnaire—administered to 2241 faculty members of all ranks in two dozen varied institutions—measured positive attitudes and trust, on the one hand, and beliefs in salient negative faculty SET myths, on the other hand. The most widely-held negative attitudes concerned student fallibilities: vindictiveness; lack of maturity; and negative evaluations of low-achieving students. Despite believing in myths, more than half of the respondents reported trusting SET, thought that it accurately reflected their teaching performance, and considered SET-based feedback useful. A derived index comparing self-evaluations to reported students’ evaluations demonstrated that more than a third of the participants rated their own quality of teaching higher than the ratings they reported typically receiving from their students. This ‘underestimated’ group believed more intensely in SET myths and mistrusted it, which suggests a possible self-protective motivation underlying faculty attitudes. A subgroup of 9% felt strongly underestimated by their students, and a series of comparisons gave clear indications that, for this group of hard-core disgruntled faculty members, the administration of SET questionnaires and the provision of SET feedback are counter-productive. Insights from this research might encourage academic administrations to improve the implementation of SET measurement to increase faculty receptiveness and trust.     

Young dads: the effects of a parenting program on urban African-American adolescent fathers

Sixty urban African-American adolescent first-time fathers were randomly assigned to two groups to study intervention strategies that would help them develop better and more consistent relationships with their young children. The fathers were administered a pretest interview schedule to determine their present quality of life as well as their relationships with their children. In addition to biweekly parenting classes, each member of the experimental group was assigned a social worker with whom he met weekly to assist him with his life needs. The control group was offered weekly parenting classes that focused on learning how to meet the infants' needs. At the end of six months, both groups were interviewed again. Findings indicated that the experimental group made significant gains in employment, vocational planning, feeling positive about their current relationships with their children, using birth control, being able to plan for the future, and increasing the number of close friends.     

Who Should Do Faculty Development and What Should It Be?

In the face of widespread public dissatisfaction with higher education, faculty development programs—especially semester- and year-long leaves—have become more important than ever before as a means of helping faculty broaden their scholarship and enhance their teaching. Department chairs should play an important hand in decisions on faculty development assignments. Given that they also have other important responsibilities, however, ways must be found to entice department chairs to become as involved in faculty development as they are in promotion and tenure, curriculum review, and decisions on merit salary increments. The particular value of faculty development programs for women and members of minority groups must also be recognized. These two groups of faculty may experience special problems in adjusting to faculty life, which make faculty development opportunities even more valuable to them than to others.     

Sex-Based Salary Disparity and the Uses of Multiple Regression for Definition and Remediation

Although sex differences in salaries are widely condemned, some organizations tolerate these disparities. When organizations are found to discriminate against women in salaries for the same jobs as men, a number of remedies can be pursued. This study illustrates how a state university responded to demonstrated sex-based salary disparities identified in a class-action lawsuit. In particular, a regression analysis was conducted for male and female faculty members that also included seven other predictors. Statistical differences between male and female faculty members were found. As part of the remediation, the salaries of 39 women faculty members were increased. Subsequent regression analysis indicated that the effect for faculty member sex no longer reached traditional levels of statistical significance. The court-order remediation was deemed to have removed the sex-based salary disparity. Yet, it is not clear that the post-remediation salaries of the women faculty were perceived as fair. This case demonstrates how concepts from regression can be (mis)used in legal cases of salary fairness and disparity.     

Résumé Construction for a Counseling Position

Faculty members of the Counselor Education Department at Auburn University were asked to complete the Job Résumé Questionnaire (Feild & Holley, 1976). Comparisons of responses were made between faculty and a control and experimental group. The experimental group was given data on faculty opinion and asked to construct a résumé. The control group was given no data but completed the questionnaire. Correlation coefficients yielded low positive relationships between faculty and student responses to the questionnaire. A higher positive relationship existed, however, between faculty responses to the questionnaire and actual items appearing on the résumés constructed by the experimental group.     

Bootstrapping microcomputers at Drexel University: The role of a faculty newsletter

Drexel University requires entering freshmen to have access to a personal microcomputer. Part of the faculty development effort was a faculty newsletter,boot. The newsletter published information about microcomputers and their applications and about microcomputer-related events on campus. Unlike newsletters produced by academic computing centers,boot was edited by faculty, most of its pieces were written by faculty, and it was addressed to all members of the university community, not just that subgroup with a prior interest in, or prior record of, computer use. This article describes the publication and presents data indicating that the faculty found it to be clearly worthwhile.     

Faculty Mentoring and the Spiritual Well-being of College Freshmen

This study identifies the impact of faculty mentoring on the spiritual well-being (SWB) of freshman students. This inquiry examined two groups of freshman students, their spiritual well-being, and their interaction with faculty mentors. Two groups were randomly chosen from the 1993–94 freshman class of a Christian liberal arts college in New England. Students in the experimental group participated in one of ten sections of the freshman seminar with a faculty-mentor throughout the academic year. The control group proceeded through the academic year as usual without the freshman-seminar experience. Students in both groups were given a self-assessment survey in September of their freshman year and again in May of their freshman year to determine any significant change in their SWB and to explore their perceptions of student-faculty interaction. Data were analyzed through a variety of statistical tests using the Statistical Program for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

The findings of this study revealed significant differences between the two groups, as well as significantly positive correlations among three aspects of mentoring and the components of spiritual well-being.     

Automatically activated racial attitudes as predictors of the success of interracial roommate relationships

Study 1 indicated that roommate relationships involving randomly paired interracial freshmen were characterized by less extensive joint activity and were more likely to dissolve than those involving randomly paired White freshmen. Study 2 explored whether the automatically activated racial attitudes of White freshmen who had been randomly assigned to share rooms with Black freshmen would predict the stability and duration of the roommate relationships. The racial attitudes of the White freshmen were measured unobtrusively via a priming procedure at the beginning of the fall semester. White students’ automatically activated racial attitudes, but not their motivation to control prejudiced reactions, predicted the longevity of the relationships. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.     

Consistent occupational preferences and satisfaction,self concept,self acceptance and vocational maturity

This study explored the differences on variables of satisfaction, self-concept, self-acceptance, and vocational maturity between freshmen students who made congruent and incongruent occupational choices. The variables were operationally defined by the College Student Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, the Berger scales, and the Vocational Development Inventory. Congruent and incongruent current occupational choice groups were defined operationally using the Self Directed Search. The analysis of variance of the scale scores did not reveal the main effect of congruence to be significant. However, a second analysis using a more rigorous definition of congruence revealed the main effect of congruence to be significant for four satisfaction variables. Findings suggest that subjects in the congruent male group tend to report better maintenance of personal stability and greater satisfaction than subjects in the incongruent female group.     

Perceived social support and life satisfaction among freshmen: Mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and academic adjustment

This study investigated the mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and academic adjustment in the relationship between perceived social support and life satisfaction among Nigerian university freshmen. A total of 621 beginning university students (females = 50.4%, mean age = 19.67years, SD = 4.56) completed surveys of their academic self-efficacy, academic adjustment, perceived social support, and life satisfaction. Results, following regression analysis with partial mediation, revealed only academic adjustment to significantly mediate the relationship between perceived social support and life satisfaction. Social support networks from family and faculty members might enhance freshmen’s academic adjustment related life satisfaction.     

Temporal distance and discrimination: an audit study in academia

Through a field experiment set in academia (with a sample of 6,548 professors), we found that decisions about distant-future events were more likely to generate discrimination against women and minorities (relative to Caucasian males) than were decisions about near-future events. In our study, faculty members received e-mails from fictional prospective doctoral students seeking to schedule a meeting either that day or in 1 week; students' names signaled their race (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Indian, or Chinese) and gender. When the requests were to meet in 1 week, Caucasian males were granted access to faculty members 26% more often than were women and minorities; also, compared with women and minorities, Caucasian males received more and faster responses. However, these patterns were essentially eliminated when prospective students requested a meeting that same day. Our identification of a temporal discrimination effect is consistent with the predictions of construal-level theory and implies that subtle contextual shifts can alter patterns of race- and gender-based discrimination.     

Is tenure justified? An experimental study of faculty beliefs about tenure, promotion, and academic freedom

The behavioral sciences have come under attack for writings and speech that affront sensitivities. At such times, academic freedom and tenure are invoked to forestall efforts to censure and terminate jobs. We review the history and controversy surrounding academic freedom and tenure, and explore their meaning across different fields, at different institutions, and at different ranks. In a multifactoral experimental survey, 1,004 randomly selected faculty members from top-ranked institutions were asked how colleagues would typically respond when confronted with dilemmas concerning teaching, research, and wrong-doing. Full professors were perceived as being more likely to insist on having the academic freedom to teach unpopular courses, research controversial topics, and whistle-blow wrong-doing than were lower-ranked professors (even associate professors with tenure). Everyone thought that others were more likely to exercise academic freedom than they themselves were, and that promotion to full professor was a better predictor of who would exercise academic freedom than was the awarding of tenure. Few differences emerged related either to gender or type of institution, and behavioral scientists' beliefs were similar to scholars from other fields. In addition, no support was found for glib celebrations of tenure's sanctification of broadly defined academic freedoms. These findings challenge the assumption that tenure can be justified on the basis of fostering academic freedom, suggesting the need for a re-examination of the philosophical foundation and practical implications of tenure in today's academy.     

Faculty Members’ Perceptions of How Academic Work is Evaluated: Similarities and Differences by Gender

A questionnaire about how academic performance is evaluated and the importance of teaching and research was completed by 265 faculty at a UK research university. Factor analysis followed by t-tests showed that male faculty had a more realistic understanding of how their research is evaluated, rate the importance of research to their careers more highly, and are more likely than women to work over hours through choice. Women faculty are more likely than men to work over hours because of teaching workload and rate the importance of a teaching qualification more highly, despite giving similar ratings as men to the importance of teaching to their career. The implications for differential rates of promotion are discussed.     

Comparing traditional and integrative learning methods in organizational training programs.

Previous research and anecdotal reports have suggested that when certain teaching approaches are used, students not only learn more but also experience greater satisfaction with the training process. This study examined the effects of integrative-learning-based (IL) training in relation to lecture-based training. Employees enrolled in a 3-day manufacturing resource planning training course were randomly assigned to either IL or traditional training. Subjects reacted more favorably to IL-based training. Trained subjects performed significantly better than those in a no-treatment control group, but no differences were noted between training interventions.