/

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

/

Concept mapping of the sources of perceived impact on community college students' identity development: a students' perspective

(USC Thesis Other)

Concept mapping of the sources of perceived impact on community college students' identity development: a students' perspective

PDF

Transcript (if available)

Content

CONCEPT MAPPING OF THE SOURCES OF PERCEIVED IMPACT ON
COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS’ IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT:
A STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE

by

Surendra Mohan Verma

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

May 2007

Copyright 2007 Surendra Mohan Verma
ii

Dedication
I gratefully dedicate this work to my deceased father Shri Ram Rakha Mal
and my mother Shrimati Ram Pyari who instilled in me the love for learning, and to
my daughters Saroj Marie Verma and Jaya ReneVerma who always gave me their
love, support, and encouragement to persevere, and who are great daughters and
friends.

iii

Acknowledgments
In completing this work, I gratefully and humbly acknowledge the
tremendous support, help, and encouragement I have received from my professors at
USC, my mentors, guides, friends, and my family members, without whom I could
not have come this far.
Foremost among these are the members of my dissertation committee. I am
beholden to my Chair, Dr. Rodney Goodyear who guided me at every step of this
work, saved me from many pitfalls, and was always extremely patient and generous
with his advice, time, help, and encouragement. To this day I wonder how he does it.
Dr. Kezar continues to be a source of great inspiration from the very first day I sat in
her class. I have counted on Dr. Hocevar’s support at every important step, and have
received it in good measure.
I acknowledge the generous support of many professors, colleagues, and
friends, who helped me in gathering data for this study. I am particularly beholden to:
Dr. Trapp, Dr. Felton Williams, Dr. Iazzetta, and Professors McMullen and Vukov.
They were all extremely supportive and generous with their time, and went out of
their way in their help, which often exceeded all my expectations. I am very thankful
to the students who participated in this study. I also acknowledge the great assistance
of my team of raters, my fellow doctoral students, Ms. Michelle Stiles, and Ms. Jane
Robb, who worked tirelessly to help advance my work.
iv

However, I could not have come this far and have done this work without the
help of my family. Behind all my work lies the personal sacrifice of each one of
them. They gave up so much so that I could advance.
I acknowledge the great support of my old mother. She endured suffering for
three years, put up with being home, all alone, cooking and eating alone, and
sometimes not, while I attended classes, or as I sat by myself for hours late into the
night, day after day and night after night, doing my work. This frail and sick lady
never complained, but made it possible for me to fulfill my dream.
I acknowledge the great support of my two daughters, Saroj Marie Verma,
and Jaya Rene Verma, who made great personal sacrifices too. They missed company
of their father on many occasions because he was too preoccupied, both mentally and
physically, with his studies. They did not complain either, put their own needs
behind, and encouraged their dad to go on and accomplish his dream. They tell me
they have forgiven me for anything or everything I fell short of.
I acknowledge with the deepest sorrow that my father did not live to see
fulfillment of my dream for a doctoral degree. He would have been so proud and
happy. But I am consoled by my belief that his spirit guides me and watches over me.

v

Table of Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgements iii
List of Tables vi
List of Figures vii
Abstract viii
Chapter I Conceptual and Empirical Foundations for the Study 1
Chapter II Method 45
Chapter III Results 56
Chapter IV Discussion 83
References 101
Appendix A Student Handout to Recruit for the Study 111
Appendix B College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ) 114
Appendix C Critical Incidents Collected from the Community
College Students 116
Appendix D Student Handout for Categories of Impact and
Paired Comparison Questionnaire 142
Appendix E Similarity Matrix 149

vi

List of Tables
Table 1 Data on Categories of Impact from the Critical Incidents of
Phase One 57
Table 2 Stimulus Co-ordinates in Three Dimensional MDS Analysis 68
Table 3 Stimulus Co-ordinates in Two Dimensional MDS Analysis 69
Table 4 Cluster Analysis using Ward Linkage: Agglomeration
Schedule 72
Table 5 Seven Clusters Solution 75
Table 6 Two Dimensional Solutions for Subgroups A and B 80

vii

List of Figures
Figure 1 Two Dimensional MDS configuration of stimulus
categories of Table 2. 70

Figure 2 Dendrogram Analysis Using Ward’s Method 73

Figure 3 Concept Map with the Clusters Superimposed on
The MDS Configuration 78

Figure 4 MDS configuration of subgroup A similarity data 81

Figure 5 MDS configuration of subgroup B similarity data 82

viii

Abstract
This study examined the college related sources of impact community college
students perceived to have affected their identity development. One hundred twenty
nine community college students each described a critical incident that had affected
their sense of self, along with their ratings of the impact the incident had on them.
For this a variant of Flanagan’s (1954) Critical Incidents Analysis Technique was
used. Three raters used those incidents to develop 12 categories of impact. Then, 22
students rated the between-category similarity of every possible pair of categories on
a Likert type scale. Those ratings were used to develop a similarity matrix which was
used to conduct multidimensional scaling (MDS; with a two-dimensional solution)
and hierarchical cluster analysis. The graphical results were overlaid on each other to
construct a concept map. Those results suggest that students perceive college impact
to fall along the two dimensions of what inspires them (teacher vs. other sources) and
of factors that promote learning (teacher style vs. support). The cluster analysis
indicated that these categories may be grouped into seven distinct clusters, such as:
external motivators, feedback, socialization, self-awakening, helping choose life
path, persistence, and teacher attitude. Limitations of the study are discussed, as well
as implications for teachers and administrators in a community college, and
directions for future research.

1

CHAPTER 1
Conceptual and Empirical Foundations for the Study
A major developmental task for older adolescents and young adults is the
formation of a unique and stable identity (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1980). This makes
the time that students are in college, usually between the ages of 18 to 22 years, a
critical period for identity development (Muuss, 1996). According to Erikson (1950,
1968), an integrated and functional sense of identity helps to unify the various
aspects of an individual’s life and provides a sense of personal meaning and
direction. Forming a coherent sense of identity helps to maintain consistency in one’s
sense of self across developmental transitions and predicts successful resolution of
subsequent developmental challenges.
The research literature is replete with references to the critical role colleges
play in crystallizing students’ identities (Hamrick, Evans, & Schuh, 2002; Madison,
1969; Montgomery & Cote, 2003; Nakkula, 2003). Researchers have described the
first year or two in a college as perhaps being the most tolerant, facilitative, societal
context for developing self-definition and identity formation (Kroger, 1997). This
occurs because colleges provide unique and very appropriate settings in which
students have available to them a combination of skills, relationships, and extended
opportunities, in which they can explore personal and professional identity
alternatives.

2

Before 1990, few studies had examined the long term-effects of college on
ego or identity development (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Although student
development was studied extensively in the 1970s and the 1980s, the focus was
mainly on the institutional and programmatic factors that facilitated student growth
and development across a wide range of outcomes. Pascarella and Terenzini
reviewed nearly 2600 student development studies in their monumental 1991 work,
How College Affects Students, but found that only “a few dealt with the identity
development” (p. 255).
Perhaps this was because many in higher education doubted that colleges and
universities should be concerned about students’ personal values, ways of thinking,
modes of learning, or interpersonal and intercultural skills (Chickering & Reisser,
1993). In fact, Chickering and Reisser have alluded to the “vitriolic attacks, scathing
criticism, emotionally loaded defensive reactions and the like” (p. xiii) to the views
Chickering had expressed in his book Education and Identity (1969).
However, since the 1990s, there has been an increase in the number of studies
of university students’ identity development. This has coincided with the
accumulation of evidence that colleges have great influences on student learning and
development including “development of personal identities and more positive self-
concepts” (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, p. 563-564). There was recognition among
academics, administrators, and faculty alike, that higher education should not restrict
itself simply to information transfer and cultivating the intellect and that schools and

3

colleges should become learning centered organizations committed to the
development of the whole student (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
Torres, Howard-Hamilton, and Cooper (2003), and Pascarella and Terenzini
(2005) have reviewed some of the important identity development studies. These
studies include: first year university students (Baxter Magolda, 2001); ego identity
formation in late adolescence (Markstrom-Adams, Ascione, Braegger, & Adams,
1993); women students (Josselson, 1996); and, multiple dimensions of identity of
college students (Jones & McEwen, 2000; Moran, 2003).
Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) also have cited other notable studies, such as
Constantinople’s (1969) landmark work on stages of identity development, and its
later replications (Whitbourne, Jelsma, & Waterman, 1982; Zuschlag & Whitbourne,
1994); or the longitudinal study by Josselson (1987). Many of these studies were
quantitative using either cross-sectional or longitudinal designs and involved the
prediction of some measured outcome.
One fact that clearly stands out in these studies is that the students’ own
perspective on the impact of the college on their identity development has not been
much used. Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) have reported only a handful of studies
which have examined students’ reports of changes in their self-understanding (Bauer,
1992, 1995; Flowers, 2002b; and, Kuh, 1999). Many of these studies used the
College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ), which asks students about gains
they believe they have made in several areas since entering college. Some of the

4

more recent studies have used both qualitative and mixed methods approaches, and
have brought in students’ perspective by using student interview techniques (Jones,
1997; Jones & McEwen, 2000; Kroger & Green, 1996; Kuh 1995; Lewis, Forsythe,
Sweeney, Bartone, Bullis, & Snook, 2005; Schwartz, Kurtines, & Montgomery,
2005).
Distinguishing Features of This Study
One of the prominent features of this study was the use of students’
perspective. Students themselves identified the sources of impact on their identity
development in a community college setting. They did so by focusing on one or more
critical incidents personally experienced by them which had an important effect on
their identity. It utilized Critical Incident Technique pioneered by Flanagan (1954).
The incidents were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively and synthesized into a
number of relationships which were then represented by visual or concept maps.
Another important feature of this study was that it focused on community
college students. Most student development studies have been conducted on
traditional, 18-22 year old, students in universities or four- year colleges. Those
students generally study full time, live on campus, often do not work, and have
relatively few family responsibilities. This is a different profile from that of most
students who attend community colleges. These students have been significantly
underrepresented in the total body of evidence on college impacts (Pascarella &
Terenzini, 2005). This means that a great deal remains to be learned about what is a

5

very large segment of students: in 1999-2000, a full 42 percent of all undergraduates
in the United States were enrolled at community colleges (National Center of
Educational Statistics, 2003).
Uniqueness of Community College Students
In many respects community college students are unlike university or the four
year college students. They bring a unique set of needs, goals and challenges
(Hagedorn, Moon, Maxwell, & Pickett, undated). These students represent a diverse
range of developmental levels (Witte, Forbes, & Witte, undated). Many are non-
traditional, first generation college attendees who are at-risk, and under prepared
(Foner, 2003; Roueche & Baker, 1987; Roueche & Roueche, 1999). This at-risk
population consists of a wide range of ages, backgrounds, academic preparedness and
ethnicities, and consists disproportionately of minorities especially in urban areas
(Grubb, 1999).
About two-thirds of the community college students attend primarily on a
part time basis (National Center of Educational Statistics, 2003) and are commuters.
That they do not live on campus is important because living arrangements of
university students and their level of identity development have been found to be
associated (Jordyn & Byrd, 2003; Goldscheider & Goldscheider, 1999).
Another factor which has made the student population on community college
campuses different from the universities or the four year colleges is due to a shift that
has occurred in the role of the community colleges. These colleges were originally

6

set up to educate students who would transfer to four year colleges. Now, though,
their primary focus is on vocational courses. Levin (2001) has described this change
as a move from educating their traditional audience of working class individuals to
seeking to provide jobs for a new professional class of students who are preparing for
skilled positions. Thus, community college campuses have a large number of
students whose goal is to seek additional job skills, technical certifications, and
enrichment opportunities.
All these factors make community college students not only an important
segment of student population, but one that is different in many respects from that in
the universities and the four colleges. The literature on the identity development of
these students is very limited. Therefore, this research study was intended to fill a
gap in the literature in this area by addressing the sources of impact on the identity
development of community college students as seen from their own perspectives.
Purpose of the Study
This was a mixed method study that was carried out in two phases in order to
achieve two purposes: (a) to learn from their own perspective the various sources of
impact community college students perceived college to have had on them; and (b)
how they conceptually represent or map them.
These maps help to interpret and understand the concepts or themes the
students hold of what has affected their identity, the varying degree to which their
views are conceptually homogenous, the conceptual relationship between their

7

experience statements, and their importance (Bedi & Alexander, undated). In short,
such maps represent the participants’ “worlds” (Goodyear, Tracy, Claiborn,
Lichtenburg, & Wampold, 2005, p. 236).
The first purpose of the study was to elicit from the students specific
incidents which they had experienced personally in the community college and which
had an important effect on their identity development by following the approach of
Flanagan’s (1954) Critical Incident Technique (CIT) and then to develop categories
of concepts from the critical incidents.
The second purpose of the study was to develop a concept map of these
sources of impact. This was to be carried out in two steps: (a) have a smaller second
group of students rate the degree of similarity between each possible pair of
categories; and (b) use these similarity ratings to create dimensional maps using
multi-dimensional scaling (MDS), and clusters of categories using hierarchical
cluster analysis. When the results of the cluster analysis are superimposed on the
MDS analysis, the result would create a graphical representation of a concept map
(Goodyear, et al., 2005)
Literature Review
This section presents a literature review of: the theories of ego identity
development; the theoretical and empirical evidence of the college related sources of
impact; and of the methodologies employed in this study.

8

Based on the factors enumerated below, three particular theories have been
included in the review. The two methodologies included in the review are: the
Critical Incident Technique (CIT) described by Flanagan (1954) to ascertain the
sources of impact on identity development of the community college students; and
the use of multidimensional scaling (MDS) and hierarchical cluster analysis to map
how students mentally represent these sources of impact.
Theories of Ego-Identity Development
There are two primary schools of theories in student development: those with
the college impact perspective, and the other with the identity development
perspective.
The college impact theories posit that because of the unique experiences
related to college, students who attend college change in specific ways. Pascarella
and Terenzini (2005) have provided a review of these theories. These include :
Astin’s I-E-O Model and Theory of Involvement; Tinto’s Theory of Student
Departure; Pascarella’s Model for Assessing Change; Weidman’s Model of
Undergraduate Socialization. However, because these theories do not specifically
deal with identity development, therefore, they have not been considered in this
study.
On the other hand, the identity developmental theories, also called the
psychosocial theories, attempt to apply the various concepts of identity formation in
general to identity formation and growth in college students and are of direct

9

application to the present study. The three major foundational theories in this area
are: Erikson (1964), Marcia (1966), and Chickering and Resisser (1993), the latter
two being based on Erikson’s work.
Each of these theories is important for different reasons. Each one clarifies
some important aspect of the construct of identity and when all the theories are
considered collectively, they not only explain the construct, but also provide the
methodology to measure it, and the factors which affect its development, especially
among college students.
Erikson’s theory is important as it describes identity, how it forms, and the
psychosocial factors that affect its development. As Josselson (1987) has stated,
almost all discussions of identity development began with the pioneering work of
Erik Erikson.
Building upon Erikson’s work, Marcia (1966) presented an identity status
model which not only describes the extent of ego-identity achievement, but also
provides a method for measuring it. Even though the purpose of the present study
was not related to measuring the identity status achievement of students, the model
is important in that it provides the insight that the extent to which a college student
has achieved identity comes from the extent of his/her exploration and commitment.
The third model, that of Chickering and Reisser (1993) is very comprehensive
and specifically applies to the identity development of college students. Its special
feature is that it takes into account emotional, interpersonal, ethical, and intellectual

10

aspects of development (Evans, Forney, & De-Brito, 1998). Chickering and Reisser
have also provided a theoretical basis for the key factors that have an impact on
identity development of college students. Their model is highly regarded and has had
a very significant impact on the development of proactive and intentional
interventions in higher education (Evans et al., 1998).
There has been some criticism that these theories are creations of European
Americans and may no longer be appropriate within a more multicultural society and
that it may be time to create new theories based on the realities of the current diverse
population (McEwen, Roper, Bryant, & Langer, 1990). For example, Eriskon’s
model did not consider women and minorities, and Marcia’s model was based on
White males (Evans et al., 1998). Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) and Torres,
Howard-Hamilton, and Cooper (2003) have given a good summary of many of these
additional theories on: gender; race and ethnicity; and, sexual orientation, such as
gay, lesbian, and bisexual.
However, the strength of these three theories is that they are broad and
inclusive rather than narrow and group-specific (Evans et al., 1998). These theories
have in fact fostered the growth of additional theories for identity formation of
specific groups of students who were either less prominent in these foundational
theories, or excluded altogether.

11

What is Identity?
Erikson’s View of Identity
According to Erikson (1963, p. 42), identity is the “ability to experience one’s
self as something that has continuity and sameness, and to act accordingly”. An
optimal sense of identity is experienced as a sense of psychosocial well-being; “being
at home in one’s body, a sense of knowing where one is going, and an inner
assuredness of anticipated recognition from those who count” (Erikson, 1968, p 165);
gaining not only a sense of who we are, but also discovering who we are not
(Erikson, 1964).
Erikson’s intention was not to define identity but to describe it (Coles, 1970).
In his book Identity,Youth and Crisis (1968) he has commented on the difficulty of
describing the concept as being hard to grasp as it deals with a process “located in the
core of the individual and yet also in the core of his communal culture” (p. 22).
According to him, identity formation employs a process of simultaneous
reflection and observation, a process that takes place on all levels of mental
functioning, by which the individual judges himself in the light of what he perceives
to be the way in which others judge him in comparison to themselves and to a
typology significant to them; while he judges their way of judging him in the light of
how he perceives himself in comparison to them, and to types that have become
relevant to him. According to Erikson (1968), this process is for the most part

12

unconscious except where inner conditions and outer circumstances combine to
aggravate a painful, or elated “ identity consciousness” (p. 23).
Also, this process is always changing and developing. At its best it is a
process of increasing differentiation, and it becomes ever more inclusive as the
individual grows aware of a widening circle of others significant to him. The process
begins somewhere in the first meeting of mother and baby as two persons who can
touch and recognize each other and it does not end until a man’s power of mutual
affirmation wanes. “Identity is never ‘established “as an ‘achievement’ in the form of
a personality armor or of anything static and unchangeable” (Erikson, 1968, p. 24).
Marcia’s Conceptualization of Identity
Building on Erikson’s ideas, Marcia identified crisis /exploration and
commitment as two salient dimensions of the task of forming an identity. Marcia
defined crisis or exploration as a process of examination and sorting through who
one might be. This period of exploration is then assumed to culminate in
commitment to a sense of identity (Schwartz et al., 2005). According to Marcia,
identity is reflected in the ways individuals commit themselves in important areas in
their lives. Originally, these areas were philosophy of life (religion and politics) and
future occupation (Marcia, 1966). Later, Rogow, Marcia, and Slugoski (1983)
suggested that other personally relevant areas should be studied as well. Examples of
such areas are: standard of sexual behavior (Marcia & Friedman, 1970); family and

13

career priorities (Archer, 1989); and, friendship and dating (Grotevant & Adams,
1984).
Identity Conceptualization According to Chickering and Reisser
Checkering and Reisser (1993) asserted that when identity is established one
has a solid sense of self, and “it becomes more apparent that there is an I who
coordinates the facets or personality, who ‘owns’ the house of self and is comfortable
in all of its rooms” (Chickering & Resisser, 1993, p. 49). They include attributes
such as: comfort with body and appearance; comfort with gender and sexual
orientation; sense of self in a social, historical, and cultural context; clarification of
self-concept through roles and life styles; sense of self in response to feedback from
valued others; self-acceptance and self-esteem; personal stability and integration.
Multiple Dimensions of Identity
In recent years there has been a shift towards consideration of multiple
dimensions of identity. Deaux (1993), as cited by Jones and McEwen (2000), has
suggested that identity is defined internally by one’s self and externally by others,
and proposed that there are two layers of identity: personal and social. Personal
identity refers to those traits and behaviors (for example, being kind or responsible)
that the person finds self-descriptive. Jones and McEwen (2000) have termed this
layer of identity as the core identity and it includes personal attributes and
characteristics of the individual. Social identities may be roles (for example, being
parent) or membership categories (such as being Latino) that a person claims as

14

representative (Deaux, 1993). According to Jones and McEwen (2000), dimensions
of social identity include race, gender, religion, class, sexual orientation, and culture.
According to them, contextual influences, such as relationships, sociocultural
conditions, and childhood experiences may play a pivotal role in many dimensions of
identity development.
In summary, a sense of identity is a personality construct that pertains to a
person having a firm sense of who one is, a purpose in life, a clear set of personal
values, knowing what one wants out of life, where one is headed, and having
personal goals for the future (Lounsbury, Huffstetler, Leong, & Gibson, 2005).
Erikson’s Theory of Ego Identity Development
Erikson’s formulations of identity serve as a reference point for many models
of student development (Jones, 1997). He conceptualized identity in psychosocial
terms, as interplay between the psychological and the social, the developmental and
the historical, as a “kind of psychosocial relativity” (Erikson, 1968, p. 23). This
theory examines psychosocial development across life span rather than just during
the traditional college years.
The psychosocial point of view examines the content of development, that is,
the important issues that people face as their lives progress, such as: how to define
themselves, their relationships with others, and what to do with their lives (Evans et
al.). The central point of Erikson’s theory is the development of ego, that part of the
personality that brings order out of our experiences, and our identity is the outward

15

expression of our ego or who we really are (Torres et al., 2003). Erikson’s view is
that individuals develop a sense of ego identity through important factors such as
historical ethos and cultural and social milieu in conjunction with biological
capacities and idiosyncratic individual needs and defenses (Kroger & Green, 1996).
Ego identity thus pertains to oneself as a unique individual living in a larger society
(Miville, Darlington, Whitlock & Mulligan, 2005).
At the root of the theory is the principle of ego epigenesis. This principle
states that “anything that grows has a ground plan, and that out of this ground plan
the parts arise, each part having its time of special ascendancy, until all parts have
arisen to form a functioning whole” ( Erikson, 1968, p. 92). Accordingly, ego
emerges part by part, as if a part of a plan (Torres et al., 2003). Its development
begins early in life, and it is not certain if it ever ends. It is life long process. A basic
identity is solidified during adolescence and young adulthood, and as life progresses
it is continually refined (Alessandria & Nelson, 2005). Development takes place
across life span in a series of eight sequential psychosocial stages which are linked to
age. Each stage comes to its ascendance, meets its crisis, and finds its lasting solution
(Erikson, 1968). The movement from one stage to the next creates our identity
(Torres et al., 2003).
Each stage is characterized by its own three factors: polar attitudes,
developmental tasks, and developmental crisis. The polar attitudes create conflicts
that must be resolved to avoid extremes of personality development. For example, in

16

adolescence the polar attitudes are identity versus identity confusion. An individual
will emerge from a stage feeling positive about his or her personal or social
capacities or with a sense of self that may become debilitating later in life (Torres et
al., 2003). In each stage, particular issues, called developmental tasks, arise and
present compelling questions that an individual must resolve. Each new stage occurs
when internal biological and psychological changes interact with environmental
demands, such as social norms and roles expected of individuals at certain ages in
particular cultures (Evans et al., 1998). Each stage in a person’s life is associated
with a developmental crisis. A crisis does not mean a threat of catastrophe, but a
turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential
(Erikson, 1968). The crisis creates a dissonance, and anxiety within the individual
and a need to do something to resolve the issue. It thus means a time for decision
requiring significant choices among alternative courses of action (Pascarella &
Terenzini, 2005).
Development takes place through dissonance (Torres et al., 2003). How
people resolve each crisis influences how they view themselves and their place in
their environment. It also affects in a cumulative way how they resolve tasks at later
stages. Successful resolution of the dissonance and anxiety associated with each
developmental crisis leads to the development of new skills and attitudes. Inadequate
resolution, however, can lead to the stress and inappropriate behavior, contribute to a
negative self-image, and decrease the likelihood that future developmental crises will

17

be successfully addressed (Evans et al., 1998). The results may be developmental
progression, regression, or stasis (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).
A person’s society, culture, and gender are important and strongly influence
what issues arise, the order in which they are experienced, and their relative
importance in a person’s life. These factors also influence what attitudes individuals
have toward developmental issues, and how and when they choose to respond to
them (Evans et al., 1998). This is an important feature of Erikson’s theory in that it
includes the role of environment in creating a sense of identity, which is an important
factor in considering the ethnic identity theories and models.
Identity Confusion of Adolescence
Erikson considered the identity versus identity confusion crisis as the
dominant developmental task for people of traditional college age (Pascarella &
Terenzini, 2005). According to Erikson (1968), the process of identity formation has
its normative crisis in adolescence, and is in many ways determined by what went
before and determines much that follows. This is a time of growing occupational and
ideological commitment. The individual faces the imminent adult tasks such as
getting a job and becoming a citizen and has to synthesize childhood identification in
such a way that he can establish a reciprocal relationship with his society and
maintain a feeling of continuity within himself (Marcia, 1966). This identity
confusion can express itself in excessively prolonged moratoria or delays, or in
repeated impulsive attempts to end the moratorium with sudden choices. Because

18

stabilizing identity is the focal developmental task of young adults, it is natural that
this stage be the launching point of identity development among college students
(Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
Marcia’s Ego-Identity Status Model
Many researchers have tried to operationalize Erikson’s concept of identity.
The most popular of these, which has led to more than 500 publications, is Marcia’s
(1966) identity status paradigm (Waterman, 1999). This model is widely used to
assess ego identity development.
James Marcia (1966) elaborated and refined Erikson’s theoretical notions on
identity (Kroger & Green, 1996). He proposed four “modes of reacting to the late
adolescent identity crisis” (p. 551). In this model, the two polar alternatives are:
identity achievement and identity diffusion. The other two, roughly intermediate in
this distribution, are the moratorium and foreclosure statuses. The two criteria for
inclusion in the statuses are: (a) crisis/exploration, which Marcia has defined as
adolescents’ period of engagement in choosing among meaningful alternatives in
such personally relevant domains as occupation, political ideology, and interpersonal
relationships, and (b) commitment or the degree of personal investment the
individual exhibits. Whereas in exploration one is going through a process of
examination and sorting through of who one might be, this period is assumed to
culminate in commitment to a sense of identity (Schwartz et al., 2005).

19

According to Marcia (1966, 1980), adolescents experience these four statuses
in their quest for identity. The characteristics of the four identity statuses are as
follows:
Achievement
In this status a subject has experienced a crisis period and is committed to an
occupation and ideology following an active period of reflection, exploration, and
decision making. He has seriously considered several occupational choices and has
made a decision on his own terms. With respect to ideology, he seems to have
reevaluated past beliefs and achieved a resolution that leaves him free to act. He does
not appear as if he would be overwhelmed by sudden shifts in his environment or by
unexpected responsibilities (Marcia, 1966). In this status one has made a
commitment to an adult identity (Jordyn & Byrd, 2003).
Diffusion
In this status a subject may or may not have experienced a crisis period. There
is a lack of commitment. The individual has neither decided upon an occupation nor
is much concerned about it. He may mention a preferred occupation, but has little
conception of its daily routine and gives the impression that if there are opportunities
elsewhere the choice could be abandoned. He may be uninterested in ideological
matters or take a smorgasbord approach in which one outlook seems as good as
another and he may not be averse to sampling from all (Marcia, 1966). In this status,
one has not yet begun to develop an adult identity (Jordyn & Byrd, 2003).

20

Moratorium
In this status, the subject is in the crisis period. The individual is in the
process of exploration. His commitments are vague and there is an appearance of
active struggle to make commitments. Issues often described as adolescent preoccupy
him. Although he still regards his parents’ wishes as important to him, but he is
attempting a compromise among them, society’s demands, and his own capabilities
(Marcia, 1966). In this status, one is struggling to construct an identity (Jordyn &
Byrd, 2003). Hamrick, Evans, and Schuh, (2002) have described college as an
institution that permits students to function in a state of identity moratorium.
Foreclosure
A subject in this status has not experienced a crisis but is expressing
commitment. It is hard to tell where his own goals begin and his parents’ leave off.
He is becoming what others have prepared or intended him to become. College
experience serves only as a confirmation of childhood beliefs. There is certain
rigidity in his personality. One feels that he would feel very threatened if he were in a
situation in which parental values were not functional (Marcia, 1966). In this status,
an individual has assumed the identity given to him or her by an authority figure,
usually parents (Jordyn & Byrd, 2003).
Chickering and Reisser’s Theory
This theory specifically examines the development of college students.
According to Chickering (1969), the one core issue students grapple with during their

21

college years is the establishment and stabilization of identity. Originally he proposed
a theory in his book Education and Identity (1969) which he later revised with
Reisser (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
Chickering and Reisser build upon Erikson’s model. The important difference
in their model is that they do not portray development as one predominant challenge
or crisis to be resolved after another, each linked to specific ages. Their model is not
a movement, from one stage or position to the next. On the other hand they consider
development of college students, which may include persons of virtually all ages, as
a process of infinite complexity and, therefore, all students rarely fit into over
simplified paths or pigeonholes. The notable feature of this theory is that its focus is
on the affective rather than the cognitive domain of the student.
They proposed a flexible seven-vector model of development. They looked
at these vectors as more specific aspects of the central concept of identity and serve
as maps to help determine where students are and which way they are heading.
Movement along these vectors can occur at different rates and can interact with
movement along other vectors. Each step from lower to higher brings more
awareness, skill, confidence, complexity, stability, and integration, and individuals
grow in versatility, strength, and ability to adapt when unexpected barriers or pitfalls
appear (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
They considered that these vectors described “major highways for journeying
toward individuation” (Chickering & Reisser, 1993, p. 35) -the discovery and

22

refinement of one’s unique way of being-and also toward communion with other
individuals and groups. Students may have different ways of thinking, learning, and
deciding, and those differences will affect the way their journey unfolds, but college
students live out recurring themes: gaining competence and self-awareness, learning
control and flexibility, balancing intimacy with freedom, finding one’s voice or
vocation, refining beliefs, and making commitments (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
As described in their book Education and Identity (1993), these seven vectors of
development are as follows.
Developing Competence
Three kinds of competence develop in college: intellectual competence,
physical and manual skills, and interpersonal competence. Intellectual competence is
the skill in using one’s mind. It involves mastering content, gaining intellectual and
aesthetic sophistication, skills to comprehend, analyze, and synthesize, developing
new frames of reference to integrate more points of view and to make sense of
observations and experiences. Physical and manual competence includes athletic and
artistic achievement, designing and making tangible products, gaining strength,
fitness, and self discipline. Interpersonal competence entails skills of listening,
cooperating, and communicating, aligning personal agendas with the goal of the
group to help relationship flourish or a group function (Chickering & Reissser,
1993).

23

Managing Emotions
Few students escape negative emotions such as anger, fear, hurt, longing,
boredom, and tension. Excessive anxiety, anger, depression, desire, guilt, and shame
can derail educational process. Development proceeds when they learn how to
release irritation, deal with fears, heal emotional wounds, and exercise self-regulation
and achieve a balance between self-control and self-expression. They need to be
aware of the positive emotions such as rapture, relief, sympathy, wonder, and awe
and allow these to exist. Development includes balancing self-assertive tendencies
with participatory tendencies (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
Moving Through Autonomy toward Interdependence
A key developmental step for students is to learn to function with relative
self-sufficiency, to take responsibility for pursuing self-chosen goals, and to be less
bound by others’ opinions. This includes increased emotional independence,
“freedom from continual and pressing needs for reassurance, affection, or approval
from others” (Chickering & Reisser, 1993, p. 117). They also develop instrumental
independence which includes solving problems in self-directed way, translate ideas
into focused action, to get form one place to another without too much hand-holding
by others. Interdependence is the recognition that one cannot operate in vacuum but
needs healthier form of interdependence. There is awareness of forming new
relationships based on equality and reciprocity which respect autonomy of others

24

with “ways to give and take with ever-expanding circle of friends” (Chickering &
Reisser, 1993, p. 48).
Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationship
This vector involves (a) tolerance and appreciation of intercultural and
interpersonal differences; and (b) capacity for intimacy. Respecting differences
means eschewing stereotypes, openness, curiosity, objectivity, reduced bias and
ethnocentrism, increased empathy, and enjoying diversity. Capacity for healthy
relationships includes: reduced narcissism; healthy relationships and lasting
commitments based on honesty, responsiveness, unconditional regard; shift away
from too much dependence or too much dominance toward interdependence between
equals.
Establishing Identity
Chickering and Reisser (1993) described developing identity “like assembling
a jigsaw puzzle” (p. 48). According to them it depends in part on the previous vectors
of competence, emotional maturity, autonomy, and positive relationships. They have
mentioned seven components in this development: (a) comfort with body and
appearance; (b) comfort with gender and sexual orientation; (c) sense of self in a
social, historical, and cultural context; (d) clarification of self-concept through roles
and life-style; (e) sense of self in response to feedback from valued others; (f) self-
acceptance and self-esteem; and (g) personal stability and integration.

25

Developing Purpose
It entails an increasing ability to be intentional, assess interest and options,
clarify goals, and to persist despite obstacles. It means integrating vocational plans
and aspirations, personal interest, and interpersonal and family commitments. It
means discovering vocation by discovering what one loves to do, what energizes and
fulfills one, what uses one’s talents and challenges to develop new one, what
actualizes one’s potential for excellence and doing all this by including consideration
of life-style.
Developing Integrity
It involves three sequential but overlapping stages:
Humanizing one’s values. It involves shifting away form automatic
application of uncompromising beliefs and using principled thinking and balancing
one’s own self-interest with interests of one’s fellow human beings, where rigid
rules received, without questioning, from parents are reformulated in the light of
wider experience and made relevant to new conditions ( Chickering & Reisser,
1993).
Personalizing values. It involves consciously affirming one’s core values and
beliefs while respecting other points of view. Individuals select their own guidelines
to suit themselves and to suit conditions of their lives.
Developing congruence. It involves matching personal values with socially
responsible behavior. Behavior becomes consistent with personalized values, internal

26

debate is minimized, and response to a situation is made with conviction, without
debate or equivocation.
Insights from the Psychosocial Theories into Issues of Identity Formation of College
Students
The three psychosocial theories together provide very important insights into
understanding the identity formation issues that students face in the college.
According to Erikson, individuals face a watershed change during adolescence year.
Different students may be at different stages of development. They may be variously
dealing with determining vocational direction, or identifying a personal set of beliefs
and values. They may be facing different developmental crises from conditions and
pressures present in their environment such as family. Their attitudes toward
developmental issues may be influenced by their family, community, or church. They
may belong to a minority community and may be struggling to survive and find a
place in a predominantly White college. Some may not be able to resolve issues such
as finding acceptable career, and may give up the struggle to succeed in college and
drop out (Evans et al., 1998).
Some college students may be facing identity crisis stemming from struggle
to form identifications with both the college culture and the self. Some may not be
able to reconcile the identification of childhood with the expectations of adulthood.
They may not feel at ease in their environment and find it difficult to engage in
meaningful relationships with people or ideas. They may see incongruous demands

27

between the culture they were raised in and the culture into which one seeks entry as
an adult. Thus these students may lack the commitment necessary to integrate within
the college environment (Witte, Forbes, & Witte, undated).
Marcia (1966) assumes that adolescents would tend to move from one of the
low identity statuses (diffusion and foreclosure) to one of the high-identity statuses
(moratorium and achievement) because of the growing external and internal
pressures on them to enter the adult world.
An important feature of the psychosocial theories is that they recognize the
importance of the role of environment in creating a sense of identity of an individual.
Students come to educational institutions, are exposed to the environment of the
institution, respond to the challenges or stimulation provided by the college
environment, and this process helps development of identity (Alessandria, & Nelson,
2005). Chickering and Reisser (1993) suggest that if the right mix of the institutional
supports exists on the campus and the students are influenced by these services, they
will more likely develop along the seven vectors.
But these theories also recognize that “not every person will experience the
environment in the same way” (Evans et al., 1998, p. 25). These theories recognize
that characteristics of the students entering the institutions will be different, and
depending upon their reactions to the environment prevalent at the institution, there
will be varying degrees of impacts on their identity development. Students are unique
and are not a homogeneous population. In fact Chickering’s model has the central

28

thesis that individuals are at different developmental points, since the vectors are not
age specific but based on individual life experiences (Alessandria & Nelson, 2005).
College Related Sources of Impacts on Student’s Identity Development
A review of literature shows that in general many influences factor into
identity formation, such as: family, friends, communities, race, gender, sexual
orientation, political beliefs, socioeconomic status, personal beliefs, religion or
spiritual beliefs, regionality, and life experiences, (Erikson, 1968; Collier &Thomas,
1990 as cited by Alessandria &Nelson, 2005). Chickering and Reisser (1993) have
added community colleges and four year institutions to this list as they influence
several of these factors. In her qualitative research on college students, Moran (2003)
studied college related contextual influences that can nourish or thwart identity
development. In her study, she has placed these influences into four categories:
events (getting accepted into college, resigning from fraternity, breaking up with
boy/girlfriend); experiences (being enrolled in a particular class, study abroad
experience, living in residence halls, being involved in campus organizations,
reading certain type of literature, tutoring or other volunteer work ); relationships
(boy/ girlfriends, friends, college faculty and staff, roommates, college classmates);
emotional reactions evoked by college experience ( pride, challenged, happy,
unhappy, ashamed, capable, insecure ).
Chickering and Reisser (1993) have organized these college-related sources
of impact into the following major categories: student-faculty relationships;

29

teaching; friendships and student communities; diversity; curriculum; institutional
size; student development programs and services; and clear and consistent
institutional objectives.
Student-Faculty Relationships
Positive components include: accessibility, authenticity, knowledge about
students and their development, ability to communicate with students, respecting
students, recognizing each students’ worth and uniqueness, and active listening
(Chickering & Reisser, 1993). When student faculty interaction is frequent and
friendly and when it occurs in diverse situations in varied roles and relationships,
development along many vectors takes place such as: intellectual competence, sense
of competence, autonomy and interdependence, purpose and integrity. Faculty
members have an effect both on students’ competence and sense of competence, and
also on the clarification of purpose (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
A teacher may also serve as an antimodel and provoke a student’s reactions
such as: ‘whatever he is, I will not be; whatever, he is for I will be against’. However,
even teachers who are such a force for repulsion also provoke development
(Adelson, 1962 as cited by Chickering & Reisser, 1993). Faculty is particularly
important in influencing occupational decisions and educational aspirations, almost
as much as or even more so than their parents (Feldman, & Newcomb, 1969). In
their synthesis of various college impact studies, Pascarella and Terenzini (1991)

30

have stated that research findings indicate there is a significant interaction between
student faculty contact and changes in student’s occupational values.
Teaching
Teaching can be a significant source of identity development and can foster
intellectual and interpersonal competence, sense of competence, mature interpersonal
relationships, autonomy, identity and purpose. It happens when it calls for active
learning, encourages student-teacher contact, cooperation among students, gives
prompt feedback, emphasizes high expectations, and respects diverse talents and
ways of knowing (Chickering & Reisser, 1993) Teachers can help create learning
communities of which students can feel part of. A college gives opportunity to
explore ideas confidently with other people. The most influential, formal and
incidental interactions are those that focus on ideas or intellectual matters (Pascarella
& Terenzini, 2005).
Friendships and Student Communities
Development along all the seven identity vectors is fostered when students
form friendships and participate in communities with a diversity of backgrounds and
attitudes, and when there exist significant interchanges and shared interests. Personal
connections formed during college can have lifelong ramifications. Whether they
relate to each other as casual acquaintances, classmates in small group discussions,
team mates, roommates, club members, best friends, or committed partners, they
learn more from each other than from teachers. Communities on campus include

31

informal reference groups, student organizations, classes that emphasize student
connections to each other, and residence halls. Once they identify with a particular
group, it becomes their anchor and reference point. It influences their behavior and
thinking powerfully if their older ties to family and friends have loosened and if the
group supports the individual goals (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). Pascarella and
Terenzini (1991) emphasize the importance of socializing agents-the people with
whom students come into contact-as playing a critical role in identity and ego
development during college. Kaufman & Feldman (2004) studied randomly selected
sample of college students and using the data from 82 in –depth interviews, studied
college as an arena of social interaction in which individuals come in contact with a
multitude of people in various settings, and found that these social interactions in
turn affect formation of their identities. Individuals develop their identities by
comparing themselves with others on an individual level as well as on a group basis
(Alessandria & Nelson, 2005). By interacting with individuals different from and
similar to one, identity may be challenged, confirmed, or modified. Pascarella and
Terenzini (2005) have cited several studies (Mitchell &Dell, 1992; Parker, Moore, &
Neimeyer, 1998) to report that membership in racial-ethnic organizations appears to
promote racial identity development and comfort with that identity and that even
White students may also derive racial identity benefits through participation in
multicultural training activities.

32

Diversity
Erikson theorized that identity develops best when young people are given a
psychological moratorium-a time and a place in which in which they can experiment
with different social roles before they make permanent commitments to an
occupation, to intimate relationships, to social and political groups and ideas. Gurin,
Dey, Hurtado, and Gurin (2002) have argued that diversity and complexity on a
campus is a part of such a moratorium. When there are not only diverse groups
represented on a campus, but there are also informal interactions between racially
diverse peers in many campus contexts, and experience with diverse peers in the
classroom, it challenges students not to make commitments passively based on past
experiences, but to actively think and make decisions based on the new and more
complex perspectives and relationships. They empirically tested their hypothesis in a
longitudinal study known as Michigan Student Study at the University of Michigan.
They found that actual experiences students had with diversity on the campus
consistently and meaningfully affected important learning outcomes (such as active
thinking, intellectual engagement), and democracy outcomes (perspective taking,
racial/cultural engagement). These outcomes belong to the vectors of developing
competence and mature interpersonal relationships according to Chickering and
Reissser (1993).

33

Curriculum
When a college includes an educationally powerful curriculum, it becomes a
source of impact on development of such vectors of identity as: intellectual and
interpersonal competence, identity, purpose and integrity. Such a curriculum has
content which serves several purposes. It is relevant to students’ backgrounds and
prior experiences; recognizes individual differences among students; includes diverse
perspectives that challenge preexisting information, assumptions and values; and
provides opportunities to integrate diverse perspectives, assumptions and values.
This also includes how students learn; how professors call for critical examination of
diverse ideas for creating one’s own analyses and synthesis, for originality and
developing one’s own perspective (Chickering & Reisser, 1993).
Rhoads ( 1998) concluded from a qualitative study of more than 200 students
who participated in various university sponsored community service projects from
1991 to 1996, that such activities promoted change by bringing students in contacts
with people from diverse background and by forcing them to confront their own
stereotypes. Similarly, Musil (1992) indicates that majoring in women’s studies may
be a transformational experience for some students.
Other studies which have identified effects of curriculum on identity
development include: Bates (1997) on studying abroad; Keller-Woff, Eason, and
Hinda (2000) on taking courses taught by supportive faculty; Marin (2000) on
learning in supportive multi-racial-multiethnic classrooms; Palmer (2000) on taking

34

diversity courses. Batchelder and Root (1994) reported results of their empirical
study on service-learning on undergraduate students that support the hypothesis that
service-learning programs appear to influence student’s tendency to reflect on
occupational identity issues.
Institutional Size
Chickering and Reisser (1993) have hypothesized that the size of an
institution sharply affects institutional impact. As the number of persons exceeds the
opportunities that the institution can provide for significant participation and
satisfaction, the developmental potential of available settings is reduced for all and
“development of competence, mature interpersonal relationships, identity, and
integrity decreases” (p. 268). Kezar (2006) has reported results from an in-depth
multi-site case study of 20 institutions that indicate that the institutional size is
related to four benchmarks: faculty-student interaction, active and collaborative
learning, academic challenge, and supportive educational environment.
Student Development Program and Services
When the student affairs administrators or student services staff think of
themselves as educators working collaboratively with the faculty and apply student
development theory, they directly and indirectly help the movement of students along
all the seven vectors of identity development. These staff members play a major role
in establishing the cultures and climates of the college. They dispense services to
their consumers and they convey the impression whether the system is going to

35

support the students or frustrate them; whether it is a place of chaos or it is a lively,
inviting, user-friendly place, inspiring pride in the campus, conveying orderly
efficiency, stimulating, and friendly to foster student success (Chickering & Reisser,
1993).
Schlossberg, Waters, and Goodman (1995) have a counseling model for
college personnel to assist students’ identity development. It includes: build
relationships with students, assess students’ environments, their internal and external
resources, coping skills, refer students to support groups, generate problem solving
strategies, and intervene through reframing to change students’ interpretations of the
meanings of various experiences.
Clear and Consistent Institutional Objectives
There is impact on students when an institutional states its objectives clearly,
takes them seriously, and when its policies, programs and practices are internally
consistent. From their synthesis of research studies, Pascarella and Terenzini (1991)
have stated that the educational impact of a college increases when its policies and
programs are diverse, broadly conceived, consistent and integrated.
Means of Assessing Impacts on Identity
There are many ways to assess identity development and the factors which
have impact on it. These include qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method
approaches, such as: qualitative grounded theory approach using interviews (Jones,
1997); Marcia’s Ego Identity Status Interview approach (Kroger & Green, 1996);

36

interviews with pattern coding method (Moran, 2003); quantitative methods using
Likert type scales, multiple regression analysis, or multivariate analysis of variance
(Lounsbury et al., 2005; Alessandria & Nelson, 2005; Miville et al., 2005); mixed
method studies (Schwartz et al., 2005 ).
The approach in this study was to use a mixed method strategy and to
implement it in two phases: (a) qualitative phase to ascertain sources of impact; and
(b) quantitative phase to represent them in a configuration which depicts how the
students conceptually represent them.
Phase One: Qualitative Analysis
This phase was designed to ascertain factors which community college
students themselves have perceived to have made impacts on their identity
development. This step was student-centered, in which the primacy was assigned to
them, to understand them from inside out, through their perceptions, understandings
and beliefs (Rich & Ginsburg, 1999). The students looked at their college experience
retrospectively and identified what were the strong positive or negative influences on
their identity development. This was a narrative inquiry which dealt with descriptions
of events, happenings and actions (Polkinghorne, 1995), and the purpose of the
subjective descriptions was to seek are certain critical experiences of students. This
methodology was based on Flanagan’s (1954) Critical Incident Technique (CIT). A
team of raters then analyzed the critical incidents, to extract categories of perceived
impacts embedded in them.

37

Critical Incident Methodology
The critical incident technique (CIT) was developed by Flanagan (1954), and
has been in wide use in qualitative research for the last 50 years. It provides a rich
source of descriptive data in the form of critical incidents from the participants’
perspective and in their own words (Gremler, 2004). It facilitates the investigations
of significant occurrences (events, incidents, processes, or issues) identified by the
respondent, the way they are managed, and the outcomes in terms of perceived
effects. The objective is to understand the incident from the perspective of the
individual, taking into account cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements (Chell,
1998).
Critical incident technique has been widely used in many disciplines such as
education, health, information systems development, customer service (Anderson &
Wislon, 1997), and job behavior research (Stitt-Gohdes, Lambrecht & Redmann,
2000). Gremler (2004) has presented a synthesis of 141 CIT studies in the area of
service research in marketing and management field alone.
Flanagan (1954) has defined an incident as any observable human activity
that is sufficiently complete in itself so that inferences and predictions can be made
about the person performing the act. To be critical, the incident must be real and not
a vague opinion; it must occur in a situation where the purpose or intent of the act
seems fairly clear to the observer and where its consequences are sufficiently definite
to leave little doubt concerning its effects (Flanagan, 1954); and it must make a

38

significant contribution, either positively or negatively, to an activity or phenomenon
(Gremler, 2004). These incidents can only be recognized retrospectively.
Critical incident technique is an inductive method. It does not need any
hypotheses and patterns emerge from the responses. The verbatim stories provide
powerful and vivid insights into the phenomenon under study. Another advantage is
that it is a culturally neutral method, particularly well suited to assess perceptions of
college students from different cultures. They can share their own perceptions rather
than indicate their perceptions to researcher-initiated questions (Gremler, 2004).
There has been some criticism of the method on such issues as validity and
reliability of respondent stories, misinterpretation or misrepresentation of incidents,
or that the category labels drawn from the incidents may be ambiguous. However,
this method has been in use for the last 52 years, ever since Flanagan (1954)
presented it and has been found to be a sound method (Gremler, 2004).
Step Two: Quantitative Analysis for Concept Maps
This phase was designed to subject the sources of impact obtained from the
phase one to concept mapping methodologies of multi-dimensional scaling and
hierarchical cluster analysis.
Concept Mapping Methodology
The technique of concept mapping has been well described in literature such
as: Bedi (2006); Bedi and Alexander (undated); Daughtry and Kunkel (1993);
Goodyear et al. (2005); Jackson and Trochim (2002); Tracy et al. (2003).

39

A concept map is a visual representation of the relationship between one or
more concepts. This approach has been described as being particularly appropriate
when researchers seek to clarify a domain, its concept elements, and the underlying
structure of a phenomenon as experienced within a population of interest (Daughtry
& Kunkel, 1993). It can be used to identify knowledge structures of individuals
(ideographic approach) or small homogeneous groups of individuals (nomothetic
approach) by using spatial and discrete models (Goodyear et al., 2005).
Concept mapping has been used in many fields to understand people’s
knowledge structures, such as: in cognitive psychology (Nosofsky, 1992); counseling
psychology including psychopathology ( Treat et. al, 2002); perception of common
factors in therapy (Tracy et al., 2003); coping strategies (Gol & Cook, 2004);
emotions (Morgan & Heise, 1988) ; self-concept (DeSteno & Salovey, 1997); and
clients’ perceptions of the therapy process ( Paulson, Truscott, & Stuart, 1999).
There are many forms of concept mapping. One very widely used form is an
informal process in which an individual draws a picture of all the ideas which are
related to some general theme or question and shows how they are related. Each idea
is shown in a separate box or oval and lines connect related ideas (Jackson &
Trochim, 2002). This is spatial representation of information and can be achieved by
the statistical technique of MDS analysis.
However, there is also another more formal statistical group-oriented
approach to concept mapping called hierarchical cluster analysis which depicts an

40

aggregate representation of the ideas across the whole group in the form of thematic
clusters.
In this study concept mapping involved doing both the MDS and clustering
analysis and superimposing the results of one study on the other to yield more and
richer information. When both MDS and clustering analyses are used, the two
together provide better representation of the data.
Spatial dimensions and discrete categories are qualitatively different
descriptive systems for depicting knowledge structure. Whereas MDS represents
knowledge structure as spatial and variable with regard to placement of elements on
dimensions by the differences of the amount between the themes, clustering
represents the knowledge structure as sets of discrete categories by focusing on the
differences of type between the themes and how they are qualitatively different
(Goodyear et al., 2005). When the two analyses reveal similar patterns, it provides a
closer support for the models. When there are differences, then the researcher can
decide which model is a better description of the concept being examined (Goodyear
et al., 2005). Therefore, for a complete concept map, the clusters are superimposed
on the spatial configuration of the multidimensional scaling analysis.
As Kruskal (1964) has stated, MDS is the problem of representing n objects
geometrically by n points, so that the interpoint distances correspond in some sense
to the experimental dissimilarities between objects. MDS thus allows each theme to
be represented by a point in a two-dimensional space, with the whole structure

41

approximating the distances between the pairs of themes. The points will be arranged
in this space so that similar themes will be represented by points that are close
together (by way of frequency with which they are sorted together), and dissimilar
themes will be represented by points that are far apart (Bedi & Alexander, undated).
On the other hand, hierarchical cluster analysis structures or partitions the
data set of the categories into discrete subsets or clusters, so that each subset or
cluster of categories shares some common trait and thus represents a structured
conceptualization of the group’s ideas (Jackson & Trochim, 2002). It tests categories
for similarities between them by a measure of the distances between them. Such an
analysis produces a picture which can accomplish many purposes. It permits rapid
inspection of relationships between concepts, both from the perspective of the
context and the ideas linking adjacent concepts. It allows us to understand in what
discrete categories persons group various concepts, and then we can interpret those
groups (Goodyear et al., 2005); allows for clustering or contextual organizing
according to impact categories; permits estimation of similarity between concepts
and clusters of concept categories; and allows multiple ways of constructing
meaning; allows to combine respondent experience and statistical analysis (Jackson
& Trochim, 2002; Yentsen, undated).
Producing a concept map by superimposing clusters on the MDS
configuration is very important for various reasons. For one: naming dimensions in
an MDS analysis can become a challenging task and the dimensions may remain

42

uninterpretable (Bedi & Alexander, undated). Cluster analysis remedies this
interpretive problem. It gives a mathematical basis for further subdividing a complex
coordinate map into clusters of homogeneous parts and thus potentially increases
interpretability (Bedi & Alexander, undated). Secondly, accounting for observations
categorically can be more meaningful than on the basis of a few dimensions. For
example, it may be more meaningful to say that these are the categories which impact
students’ identity development, rather than saying that the categories that have
impact vary along these dimensions (Bedi & Alexander, undated).
Operationalization of the Concept Mapping Methodology
Operationalization of CIT
Critical incidents can be gathered in various ways. The general approach is to
ask respondents to tell about a critical experience they have had. To obtain this
information, the respondents are asked to report related critical incidents and
experiences, or as Flanagan (1954, p. 338) terms it, “extremes of behavior, either
outstandingly effective or ineffective” in affecting the participants. Once the critical
incidents are collected, their contents are analyzed to identify an overarching theme
or category of impact from each critical incident and thus develop a set of impact
categories from all the incidents that summarize and describe the incidents (Gremler,
2004). The main categories can be deduced either from theoretical models or formed
on the basis of inductive interpretation (Stauss, 1993, as cited by Gremler, 2004),
such as by a team of raters who reduce participants’ written responses from CIT to a

43

set of representative categories, which are then compiled into a rating form for
similarity between the categories.
Operationalization of MDS and Cluster analysis
The steps involved in operationalizing these methodologies are described in
Daughtry et al. (1993); Jackson, Mannix, Peterson, and Trochim (2002); Jackson and
Trochim (2002); and Goodyear et al. (2003) and are as follows:
Inter-relationship of categories: Participants are asked to rate categories for
similarity. This is done by pairing every category with every other and asking them to
rate every pair of category on a Likert type scale, with ratings “very dissimilar” at
one end, and “very similar” at the other end. This indicates the ways in which they
construe these categories to be interrelated in their individual experience.
Matrix of similarity ratings: From the inter-relationship of categories a
matrix of similarity ratings is generated (Goodyear et al., 2005). Each rating in this
matrix can be looked at as a distance between the two pairs of themes.
Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis: To produce concept maps,
the similarity ratings are then subjected to the Two-dimensional MDS and a
hierarchical cluster analysis of the MDS coordinates.

44

Research Questions
This study focused on the following two research questions:
Research Question 1:
What categories of college related impacts will the community college students
report as having been particularly important to the development of their
identities?
Research Question 2:
What conceptual map or mental representations do community college students
use to organize their experiences of the impacts their college makes on them by
using the using the concept mapping procedures described in the literature such
as Tracey et al. (2003), and Goodyear et al. (2005).

45

CHAPTER II
Method
This chapter describes the methods of the study. Specifically, it describes the
students who served as participants, the measures, and the study’s procedures. It
concludes with a description of the data analyses that were used.
Participants and Raters
Phase One Participants
Participants were 129 (55 male; 74 female) community college students.
Their mean age was 20.1 (SD = 1.8). With respect to ethnicity, 55( 43% ) were
Hispanic; 36 ( 28% ) White; 22 ( 17% ) Asian; 9 (7% ) Black; and, 7 ( 5% ) were of
other ethnicities or did not give their ethnicity. These percentages correspond well to
the composition of the student body at the community college.
Almost 94% had been at the community college between one to three years.
Nearly 70% had been there between one to two years.
Phase Two Participants
Participants were 22 (9 male; 13 female). Their mean age was 20.4 years
(SD=1.56). With respect to ethnicity, 9 (41 %) were Hispanic; 8 (36 %) were White;
3(14 %) were Asian; and 2 (9 %) were Black. Their mean stay in the community
college had been 2.14 years (SD=0.85).

46

Raters
Three raters developed categories of college impacts from the critical
incidents provided by the participants in Phase One of the study. Raters were myself,
an over 50 years old American who was born in India, and two White females, both
about 45 years old. All were doctoral students in Education at the University of
Southern California.
Measures
Two measures were used in this study; one for each phase of the study.
During the first, the qualitative phase, the measure was a variant of Flanagan’s
(1954) Critical Incident Technique (CIT). For the second, quantitative phase, the
measure was a Paired Comparison Questionnaire.
The College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ)
The purpose of this study was to obtain, “a relatively unconstrained
description” (Daughtry & Kunkel, 199, p. 317) of the ways in which college students
construe and experience impacts of the community college on their identity
development, and to understand the organization and salience of the various elements
of their experience.
The CIT was particularly suitable to achieve this objective as it allowed
students to determine which incidents were most relevant to them based on their
perceptions of their identity development, without any preconception or
predetermination of what would be important to them. It allowed them as free a

47

range of responses as possible within an overall research framework; they developed
the context entirely from their perspective; and provided the data in their own terms
and language and based on their own experiences without being forced into any
given framework (Gremler, 2004).
The College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ; Appendix B) was
developed for this study. Based on the CIT, it was an open-ended questionnaire in
which students were asked to describe a critical event which had happened to them in
the community college. Open ended questionnaires enable the researcher to
understand and capture the points of view of the participants without predetermining
those points of views through prior selection of questionnaire categories (Patton,
2002). Also, open-ended survey questions, in comparison to interviews, can offer
greater anonymity to respondents and often elicit more honest responses (Erickson &
Kaplan, 2000).
The CYEQ was developed and then refined through pilot testing by members
of the research team. In addition to the open-ended question, it had two questions.
One asked them to rate (on a seven point scale, 1= very negative, and 7= very
positive) the degree to which they experienced this incident as positive. The second
question, asked them to rate the eventual effect of this incident on their sense of self,
using the same 7-point scale.

48

Paired Comparisons Questionnaire
The paired –comparison questionnaire was based on the categories developed
by the raters. Each category was paired with every other category and the pairs were
listed in a questionnaire form. The number of items on such a questionnaire depends
on the number of themes or categories developed according to the formula N (N-1)/2,
where N is the number of categories. Because 12 categories were developed during
Phase One, the Paired Comparison Questionnaire Form included 66 items and is
presented in Appendix D.
The item pairs were presented in the questionnaire in a random order, the
sequence of which was determined according to the random numbers table.
Participants were asked to rate the similarity of each pair of elements on a five point
scale (1=very dissimilar, 2= dissimilar, 3= somewhat similar, 4=similar, and 5=very
similar). This provided information about students’ patterns of endorsement of the
different themes (Daughtry & Kunkel, 1993).
Procedures
Phase One- Critical Incident Data Collection
Participants were drawn from a large comprehensive public urban community
college in the Greater Los Angeles area. Of its approximately 32,000 students, 16%
are full time (12 or more units), 72% are part time, and 12% are taking noncredit
classes. The college has five schools: Business and Social Science, Creative Arts and

49

Applied Science; Language Arts and Physical Education, Health Science, and Trade
and Industrial Technologies. The college has no residential facilities for students.
The college has very diverse student population. Based on the most recently
available data, 45 % of the students were male, 51% female, and 4% unreported.
African Americans comprised 11 % of the students; Whites (Anglo), 32%; Asians,
16%; Hispanic /Latinos, 29%, and others or unreported were 12%. First time students
comprised 22 % of the student population, continuing students were 63%, and the
returning students were 14%. The mean age was 30.
In terms of career goals: Thirty-six percent indicated they intended to obtain a
bachelors degree eventually; 5%, an Associate degree; 22% were taking vocational
courses; 10% were taking courses for personal development reasons; 7% were taking
basic skill courses; and the rest were either undecided or did not report their goals.
The goal in the first phase of this study was to recruit at least 100 student
participants from this community college. Flanagan (1954) has observed that for
relatively simple activities, it may be satisfactory to collect 50 to 100 incidents.
The student participants for this study had to meet the age criterion of being
between 18 to 25 years, and to have been in the community college for at least one
year. The latter requirement is to ensure that the students participating in the study
have had some time to be in the college and, therefore, had the opportunity to
experience an impact of the college on their identity development.

50

Students for the first phase of the study were recruited from 11 classrooms in
various schools of the community college and were chosen to maximize diversity
with respect to age, race/ethnicity, gender, and educational goals. They were given a
handout to recruit them for the study (Appendix A) and they completed the College
Years experience Questionnaire (Appendix B) in class.
Completed forms were received from 223 students. But only 129 met the age
(18 to 25 years old) and experience (at least one year in the community college)
criteria.
Phase One-Developing Themes
The 129 critical incidents were typed into a Word file exactly as the students
had described them (Appendix C). These were provided to the raters who
independently reviewed the incidents and identified a single overarching theme That
would characterize each incident. These results were shared with other members of
the team who worked together to create categories through at least two rounds of
discussion, and consensus. These categories became the basis for the Similarity
Rating Form (Appendix D) used in Phase Two of the study to collect paired
comparison data.
Phase Two: Quantitative Data Analyses
Paired-Comparisons Data Collection
For phase two, the same classrooms that had been the source of Phase One
participants were visited. This phase of the study was described and volunteers were

51

requested. Thirty-four students participated, but 22 forms were usable on the basis of
the respondent meeting the age (18 to 25 years old) and experience (at least one-year-
at-the-community-college) criteria. As with the first phase, these data were collected
anonymously, voluntarily, and without compensation to participants.
Similarity Matrix
Data from the Paired Comparisons Questionnaire were entered into a 12 X 12
matrix in an Excel spreadsheet. Each of the 22 similarity scores for each of the 66
possible paired-comparisons were added together to get composite similarity ratings
of the group. These represent the aggregated participant understandings in the form
of similarity judgments of original responses (Jackson & Trochim, 2002).These
ratings were entered into a matrix which has as many rows and columns as there are
statements (Trochim, 1989a). In such a matrix, a high value in any particular cell
indicates that participants considered that pair of categories to be similar, whereas a
low value indicates that the respondents considered that pair of items to be less
similar (Trochim, 1989a). These data then were imported into an SPSS file for the
MDS and cluster analysis that served as the basis for the concept mapping (Goodyear
et al., 2005).
Concept Mapping
The similarity ratings of themes were then subjected to both non-metric
multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analyses, with the overall aim of

52

depicting the structures the student participants used in thinking of the impacts the
community college had on them.
Multidimensional Scaling (MDS)
Multidimensional scaling is a statistical technique that takes a similarity
matrix of categories, produces coordinate estimates, and represents them in terms of
their coordinates on two- or more dimensional graph. Each is represented as a point
on that graph. Thus, the distance between the points represents the estimates from
MDS of how similar the statements are judged to be by the phase two student
respondents. The exact position of each point on the map (for example top, bottom,
right, left ) is less important than the distance or spatial relationship between the
points (Bedi & Alexander, undated; Jackson & Trochim, 2002), for the graph can be
rotated without violating its meanings.
The relative fit of the MDS solution to the data serves as the primary criterion
for selecting the optimal number of dimensions. The common indicator of fit is
stress
1
, which is the square root of the normalized residual sum of squares. It is a
measure of the degree of correspondence between the distances among points
implied by the MDS map and matrix input and from mathematical standpoint, non-
zero stress values occur for only one reason: insufficient dimensionality (Borgatti,
1997). The stress value is an overall index of the stability of the MDS solution and
ranges from zero (perfectly stable) to one (perfectly unstable) (Bedi & Alexander,
undated). Values of 0 indicate perfect fit of the model to the data, and larger values

53

indicate less fit; Kruskal and Wish (1978) have recommended that a stress
1
<.15
suggests that this solution is the best representation. Failing this, solutions with more
dimensions should be examined.
The “elbow” in the stress
1
fit values is examined in a manner similar to the
scree test in factor analysis. Kruskal and Wish (1978) have recommended the cutoff
of stress
1
<.10 as a criterion of adequacy in deciding upon the elbow. However,
according to Trochim (1989a), a rule of thumb when working with psychological
phenomena is that a stress value of less than .30 represents a stable MDS solution
whereas a value over .40 indicates that the data were not consistently sorted in any
clear thematic way. After this fit criterion, Kruskal and Wish (1978) recommended
interpretability, ease of use and stability as other criteria to selecting number of
dimensions. Interpretability refers to the solution that makes the most sense
conceptually. Ease of use refers to parsimony. Fewer dimensions are preferable
because they depict the structure more simply. Stability refers to the reliability of the
structure, which can be affected by minor movement of items.
It is generally easier to work with two-dimensional configurations than with
those involving more dimensions (Kruskal & Wish, 1978). For that reason and
because Trochim (1989 a) recommends it for concept mapping as long as the two
dimensional solutions are coupled with cluster analysis, the results in this study were
constrained to two dimensions.

54

Clustering
Clustering focuses on the discrete categories that represent the person or
group’s implicit grouping of concepts (Goodyear et al.). Hierarchical cluster analysis
focuses on differences of “type,” in contrast to MDS’s differences of “amount,” and
thus allows us to examine how the themes generated will be qualitatively different or
conceptually similar. The interpretation of the results in this study was based on the
use of Euclidean distance and Ward’s method of linkage, with complete linking as an
added check. This analysis is done on the MDS map coordinates to determine how
the categories cluster together based on similarity (Jackson & Trochim, 2005).
The selection of the number of clusters is rarely clear (Borgen & Barnett,
1987) and selection procedures range from informal to statistical. The logic is similar
to that of the scree test in factor analysis. Hierarchical clustering presents the data in
the form of a dendrogram, which represents the distance of each category from each
other category. The fusion coefficient (which is the value of the distance parameter
listed in the clustering dendrogram for each number of clusters) is examined for an
“elbow,” as in MDS, using the criteria of interpretability and ease of use to yield the
final cluster representation.
Therefore, each proposed cluster solution has to be examined to determine
how appropriate the merging or splitting of statement groups is (Jackson & Trochim,
2002). Although the clustering tree structure is determined entirely by the analysis, to
choose the optimal cluster solution requires researcher judgment. “This is because

55

the ‘best’ number of clusters depends on the level of specificity desired and the
context at hand, factors that can only be judged subjectively” (Jackson & Trochim,
2002, p. 316).

56

CHAPTER III
Results
This chapter describes the results of the analyses conducted to explore the
study’s research questions. It begins with a description of the results of the first
phase of the study in which categories were developed from participants’ critical
incidents. It then describes the second, the concept mapping, phase of the analysis.
The chapter concludes with some post ad hoc analyses that speak to the reliability of
the method.
Phase One Results
Research Question
The research question that guided Phase One of this study is: What
categories of college related impacts will the community college students report
as having been particularly important to the development of their identities?
Participants generated 129 critical incidents, all of which are reported in
Appendix C. From them, the three raters generated 12 categories of impacts on
student’s identity development. These are summarized in Table 1. This Table also
includes the frequency of response of each category, and the mean (M) and the
standard deviation (SD) of the scores from the respondents’ answers to the two
questions on the CYEQ form about the impact of the incident on them. The students
gave their responses to the first question on the degree to which they viewed the
incident as positive, and to the second question on its long-term effect on their sense

57

of identity in terms of scores on a seven point scale (1= very negative, 7= very
positive). From this analysis, it appears that the four categories which were reported
the most were: experiencing self-awakening; a teacher’s style of teaching; impact of
a course/lecture/class discussion; and a teacher’s attitude, flexibility and support. The
highest eventual impact category was that of feedback, followed by developing new
friendships, teacher as role model, and course content.
Table 1
Data on Categories of Impact from Critical Incidents Study of Phase One

Category Number of Experience: Eventual
Incidents How Impact:
Positive How Positive
M SD M SD

1. Teacher’s style of teaching 19 4.32 2.58 5.10 1.97
2. Teacher as role model 5 6.00 1.22 5.80 1.30
3. Teacher’s attitude 15 4.00 2.75 5.14 2.21
4. Feedback 7 5.57 1.90 6.43 1.13
5. Course content 18 5.67 1.57 5.78 1.48
6. Counselor’s interest and
help 4 5.00 2.45 5.25 2.06
7. Participation in campus
activities 5 5.60 2.61 5.40 2.61
8. Close personal friendships 4 4.25 2.63 5.00 1.83
9. Developing new friendships 8 6.14 1.21 5.86 1.07
10. Handling emotions 9 4.88 1.96 5.63 1.51
11. Experiencing family
influences 6 4.83 2.29 5.67 1.03
12. Experiencing self-
awakening 29 4.69 1.81 5.31 1.56
.

58

Descriptive Analysis of Categories
Category 1: A Teacher’s Style of Teaching

This category arose from students’ reported incidents of a teacher’s style of
teaching a subject and its effect on the student. These effects included: interest in that
subject; choosing it for a major; or to stimulating the student to plan a career in that
field. Some, though, reported that these effects were negative. Some of the positive
descriptions of the teaching style were: “very clear,” “interesting”, “teacher allowed
me to see fun in the subject,” “with passion,” “made me see the greatness of the
subject.” An example was:
I had an incredible math teacher last semester. She was young and bright, a
very charming lady. Though I am good in math, she taught a certain way
everyone understood. I have my mind made up as to my major, but it was
such a joy to be in her class that I am considering being math major (w/the
intent to teach) if I don’t get my first choice of program.

Another student said:
Last semester I took a marine biology class and the professor made that class
so much fun that I decided I found what I was meant to do…The professor
really helped me to find what I want to do with my life.

Another remarked:
There was this one particular teacher that help me regain an interest in higher
learning. The way she taught made information just click in your head.

On the other hand a 20 year old Asian student gave this negative description:
My first year was pretty difficult. Especially my math class. The instructor
was a pain in the neck. Made everything so difficult and complicated. The
instructor could not explain problems clearly and answer students’ questions.
Ever since that semester of math, I told myself that I would never become a
teacher especially a math teacher.

59

Category 2: Experiencing a Teacher as a Role- Model

This category focuses on a teacher telling students his or her personal
struggles- in life or in college - and how he or she succeeded. In this that teacher
“inspired” and became a role model. An 18 year old Hispanic student reported this
incident:
When I started my first semester of college I was taking two courses in
History with the same teacher. She shared with us how she struggled in
college, before becoming a professor. She encouraged me to go and travel, to
see what other things are out in the world, and to interact with different
cultures. Now I really want to become a teacher and encourage my students.

A 20 years old male Hispanic student talked about his psychology teacher on the first
day of his college:
I remember that the teacher was talking about the school years of her time and
what she went through. She talked about her problems and situations that
made college difficult for her. As for myself, I soon came to realize that my
job as of that day. I had to become a responsible person. I started to change a
lot. I soon had to drop that class, however, because of lack of transportation.
The most important thing about this experience was that if she wouldn’t have
said anything about her life struggles in college and philosophy of it, I would
have taken longer in changing to what I am today, responsible and more
focused.

Category 3: A Teacher’s Attitude, Support and Flexibility

This category arose from students’ critical incident centering around
perceiving a teacher to be caring, encouraging, helping, helping to manage emotions
after success or failure, being interested in students’ success, planning teaching for
students’ success, encouraging student-teacher contacts, and open to different
viewpoints in the classroom.

60

An example was this incident:
I was failing English. My teacher saw that and instead of failing me she
pushed me harder to do my work, she e-mailed me to remind me and she
became someone to look up to at this school. I love college now and if it
wasn’t for her I would probably quit if I could not handle the stress.

Category 4: Receiving Feedback about Performance and Achievement
Seven incidents concerned the impact of receiving feedbacks such as test
grades, placement test results, written or oral comments and critiques from teachers
or coaches. An 18 years old Black female student reported:
An incident that happened to me that helped me realize who I am is my
placement test. At first when I started college I didn’t know what I was here
for, or if I belong. I took that test and assumed that I did horrible. I received
my results and that’s when I realized that I am somebody and I can make
something of myself.

Another example was this incident reported by a 25 years old Hispanic
female student:
A few semesters ago I was taking a poli sci class and at the end of the
semester we had a particularly challenging final. Later that evening I emailed
my professor to ask him what my grade was and he congratulated me and said
that I got the highest grade on the final out of his 2 poli sci classes. This was a
great moment for me because it gave me an extreme confidence in myself and
my abilities as a student. Since then I have decided to double major in
communications with emphasis in Public Relations and Business Admin with
emphasis in marketing.

Category 5: Impact of Lectures, Class Discussions, or Course Content

This category centers on lectures, class discussions, or a course content rather
than on the instructor. The effect was the student becoming very interested in a
subject for reasons such as: career opportunities; becoming aware about social or

61

political issues; or, issues of cultural or ethnic heritage. A 21 years old Hispanic
female student reported:
Last semester I took a women’s health class. That made a difference in my
life….thanks to this class, I now know what I want to be.

Another incident was:

My first semester I took an art history class and it awakened something in me.
From then on I have decided to make it my major and teach the subject.

Another 18 year old female Hispanic student related this experience:
Last semester I took a class on Magic, witchcraft and religion and that class
and that professor was an amazing experience. I think that class has
completely changed who I am and helped me become open minded. The
professor always talked about so many interesting things in such an
interesting way that it has encouraged me to learn more and open my mind.

Category 6: Counselors’ Interest and Help

Some incidents concerned talking to a counselor about his or her anxiety,
fears, academic problems, career path, or transfer to a University. The counselor’s
interest in the student, help, understanding, way of interacting, and facial expressions
may affect the student in a negative or a positive way.
A 19 years old female Hispanic student provided this example of a negative
impact:
The first time I meet with a counselor she was very discouraging. I expressed
that I wanted to go to UCLA after I graduated. She made a face and said that
if I was sure and told me that I should reconsider. I really felt bad after this
because I had done a lot of research about this.

62

In contrast was this 19 year old female student’s positive experience:
A counselor w[e]nt to talk to me on the class and she talked about how to get
the right things. She opened my eyes and I learned what to do. She showed
me a way to go to my career faster.
Category 7: Participating in one or more Campus Activities

Incidents in this category focuses on joining a campus club or organization,
going on field trips related to a course, orientation activities, events with other
colleges or schools, or sports activities. A 19 years old female student told of this
incident:
When I got to college, I wasn’t quite sure what may major was going to be. I
had enough to worry about without stressing over that. Last semester I took a
marine biology class…we went on numerous field trips where we got hands
on with the animals in their natural environment. I had never realized how
much diversity lay in the intertidal zone just of our coast…The long term
effect is I know what I want to be and where I want my life to go, giving me a
sense of who I am.

A 22 year old male Hispanic student reported:
For me one of the most important things in the first year was the sense of
friendship, so I decided to go to Campus Crusade (Christian Club on
Campus) so I can have friends that would support me through my walk with
God and College too. I think it was important because I got a solid foundation
for the following semester on how to deal with loneliness and motivation.

Category 8: Establishing a Particular Close Personal Relationship

Some students reported that meeting and finding a close friend, or a boyfriend
or a girlfriend in college had a positive or negative impact. This impact comes from
comments, personal example, behavior, support, or attitude of the close friend.

63

This is how a 20 year old White female student put it:
College has opened my eyes to a better world and helped me by giving me
strength to achieve what I need to for my son and I and leave a very abusive
relationship. I met my current boyfriend at (the college) and I’m really
enjoying the college life. My current boyfriend is perfect and without the
college I wouldn’t have met him …I’m finally doing something with my
life…

In contrast was the experience of a 19 year old White female student.
My first two semesters at (the college) I dropped all of my classes but two.
My boyfriend at the time was the main reason that I did this. He either needed
too much of my time or upset me so much that wouldn’t attend classes. This
forced me to drop because I had fallen too far behind.

Category 9: Developing New Friendships and Social Relationships

Incidents in this category involved general social relationship, such as: new
friends on the campus, peers, lab partners, class mates, study group members, fellow
members of a social club in college. Their personal examples, comments, sharing of
views, mutual help and dependence, broadening perspectives, “experiencing college
life”, and discussions can make positive or negative impact on a student. One such
example was from a 19 years old male Hispanic student:
I met new people and made new friends...the friends I made are like my best
friends. These people took me out to try new things that I like to do today and
will do in my long term life. They helped me to find myself more.

Category 10: Handling Emotional Events

Many events happen in a college which can give emotional experience of joy,
fear, anxiety, anger, pressure, excitement and so on. Students reported some of these
as critical incidents. Examples included: performance in a course (grades, teacher’s

64

comments); an activity (such as: selection in athletic team and performance or
election to a social club or student body, or participation in college events and
performance); or receiving comments from peers or counselors, and so on. Handling
these became a source of impact on identity. A 19 year old female Hispanic student
reported:
It was on my first mid-term, I didn’t really put effort into studying. My
instructor put a comment on my exam that made me feel bad. From then on it
created an impact on my studying life. Now I make sure I prepare every time
I’ll have an exam.

Another 18 years old, male, African American student reported:
With my reading teacher on my test, there was a comment written on my
paper, it said: I wish you would study for at least an hour a day. At the time I
took it as offense to my self. But in a way it modavoted[motivated] me to get
help from tutors on campus. Even though the comment bring[s] me anger.

Or another incident by a 19 years old Hispanic male student:
I was working long hours I tried making it to my Spanish class as much as I
could but the[re] were some absences. Instead of the teacher talking to me
like an adult she disrespected me by commenting [on] my problem loudly
with the class. It got me upset and resulted in me dropping the class and
wondering about other reactions professors may have to such a problem. I did
not want to deal with it again.

A 20 year old Asian female reported:
…I worked so hard to finalize the essay but still I got a C on it. I felt sad and
devastated because after all my hard work trying to make best out of the
essay-I still failed. I was sad @ first but I eventually realized that the
professor keeps on teaching us write grammar but never even mention that
when you’re writing rejection is possible and we shouldn’t be hurt by that,
however we should learn that on making a great essay, rejection is on the
process as well.

65

Category 11: Experiencing Family Influences
Incidents in this category include: encouragement (or discouragement), praise
(or criticism) of a family member, such as a parent, sibling, or other relative; looking
upon a family member as a role model; desire to make the family proud; desire to
honor the memory of an inspiring and deceased family member; motivation to
become a role model oneself; or having to assume family responsibilities due to
events such as death or illness of a family member. An 18 year old Hispanic female
student reported:
One incident that change my life is definitely the death of my uncle. He was
a very important person in my life and it was one of this people that was
always there. His death made me realize that we shouldn’t take everything for
granted. This helped me to get more motivated to study and go to college.

A 22 years old White male student reported:
The experience I had was taking classes with my older sister here at the…
(college name). The important part of this experience was the help and
support I got from my sister. Her good habits rubbed off on me. I like her
study habits.

Category 12: Experiencing Self-Awakening

Incidents in this category centered on an event or incident that happened in
the college, in class or outside college, and which has self-awakening impact on a
student. These impacts might include : taking responsibility; learning from mistakes;
doing something with one’s life; relying on one’s own opinions and be less bound by
others’ opinions; forming a belief that it is possible to succeed in a choice or

66

career; beginning to see his/her heritage; beginning to see other points of views;
realizing one’s potential, discovering interest or enjoyment of a subject.
A 19 year old Latina student reported:
this is my 3
rd
semester . But my first semester actually getting good grades. I
didn’t like most of my teachers before, but came to realize it doesn’t matter
which teacher I do or don’t like. All that matters is my goal as a student and
value of my education. So since then I put school first.

Or this realization of a 21 year old male Asian student:
My experience of having failed a class and how it stopped my momentum of
being in the nursing program. I learned that its an obstacle not the end of what
I want to do. No real effect because failure is a part of life.

Or this realization of a 23 year old Asian male student:

Growing old and seeing younger and younger students in college with you or
passing me up. When I was senior in High School, there were kids I knew
that were freshmen and now they are in college with me or pass me. The
feeling of growing old and not wanting to get left / stuck behind.

A 20 year old female Hispanic student shared this experience:
…The one thing I can think of is that personally I have not done good in my
classes. I have dropped many and haven’t passed a couple. I decided this yr.
that it’s time for me to pass my classes because it’s important to me, and I
can’t stay at the (college name) All my life.

Phase Two
Research Question
The research question that guided Phase Two of this study is: What
conceptual map or mental representations do community college students use
to organize their experiences of the impacts their college makes on them?

67

Data from ratings of between-category similarities generated from the Phase
One studies were analyzed to determine how student participants conceptually
organized their experiences. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling and cluster
analyses both were performed on those data to represent the structures the student
participants used in thinking of the sources of impact that the community college had
on their identity development.
Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) Analysis
Multidimensional scaling analysis was done using Young’s S-stress
formula 1. Both three and two dimensional solutions were tried.
Three dimensional analysis. The three-dimensional MDS solution yielded a
stress value (based on Kruskal’s stress formula 1) of .17 and the RSQ of .68. RSQ
values represent the proportion of variance of the scaled data (disparities) in the
partition (row, matrix, or entire data) which is accounted for. The iteration history
was as shown below. Further iterations after the fourth iteration were stopped as the
S-stress improvement was less than .001.
Iteration S-Stress Improvement
1 .31286
2 .27523 .03763
3 .27019 .00505
4 .26951 .00068
Table 2 shows the dimensional coordinates for the three dimensions.

68

Table 2
Stimulus Coordinates in Three Dimensional MDS Analysis
Stimulus Dimension Dimension Dimension
1 2 3

Teacher’s style of Teaching .22 2.04 .45
Teacher as a role model 1.74 .60 .08
Teacher’s attitude - .23 -1.46 1.74
Feedback .01 - .60 -1.72
Course content 1.54 .11 -1.18
Counselor’s interest and help - .10 .77 .42
Campus activities - .07 - .89 - .65
Forming close friendships 2.07 .19 .19
New friends/social relationships -1.45 .92 - .25
Handling emotions -1.07 .90 - .26
Experiencing family influences .04 -1.44 - .01
Experiencing self-awakening .79 .05 1.35

Two dimensional analysis. The two dimensional solution, on the other hand,
yielded a stress value of .28 and an RSQ value of .49. The three dimensional solution
had better stress and RSQ values. However, because the three-dimensional solutions
are more difficult to interpret and because they do not lend themselves to the type of
concept mapping, Trochim’s (1989 a) recommendation to constrain the results to two
dimensions was followed.
The iteration history in the two dimensional analysis is shown below. It
shows four iterations. Further iteration was stopped because S-stress improvement
was less than .001.

69

Iteration S-Stress Improvement
1 .45872
2 .40381 .05491
3 .39897 .00483
4 .39819 .00078
The Two Dimensional analysis yielded stimulus coordinates as presented in
Table 3.
Table 3
Stimulus Coordinates in Two Dimensional MDS Analysis

Stimulus Dimension Dimension Abbreviated Name
1 2

Teacher’s style of Teaching .06 1.85 TCHRSTYL
Teacher as a role model -1.60 -.03 TCHRROLE
Teacher’s attitude -.61 -1.78 TCHRATTI
Feedback .49 -1.24 FEEDBACK
Course content 1.61 .31 COURSECO
Counselor’s interest and help -.25 .78 COUNSELO
Campus activities -.21 -.65 ACTIVITI
Forming close friendships 1.76 .19 FRIENDSHIPS
New friends/social
relationships -1.23 .73 NEWFRIENDS
Handling emotions -.94 .67 EMOTIONS
Experiencing family influences -.11 -1.09 FAMILY
Experiencing self-awakening 1.04 .26 SLFAWAKE

Using the coordinates of Table 3, Figure 1 graphically depicts the Two
Dimensional MDS configuration. On this map, each category is represented by a
point and the distance between the points represents how similar the categories were

70

judged to be by the students; the farther apart, the less similar. The position of each
point on the map is not important; only the distance or spatial relationship between
the points (Jackson & Trochim, 2002).
Figure 1. Two dimensional MDS configuration of stimulus categories of Table 3.
(Dimension 1 is the X-axis and Dimension 2 is the Y- axis.)

Interpretation of Dimensions
Goodyear et al. (2005) have indicated that the interpretation of dimensions is
a constructive task. In this case, it meant ascribing meaning to the two dimensions
by analyzing what particular categories students had placed at the extremes of the
two dimensions.
Dimension 1. This is the horizontal dimension or the X-axis. This dimension
is anchored by teacher as a role model on one end (weight -1.60) and by self
awakening (weight 1.04), course contents (weight 1.61) and close friendships
TWO DIMENSIONAL MDS CONFIGURATION
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
DIMENSION 2
DIMENSION 1

71

(weight 1.76 ) on the other end. The raters’ consensus was that the central point here
was inspiration: inspiration which a teacher gives versus inspiration which comes
from other sources such as: one’s own internal awakening, inspiration from the
contents of a course or from a lecture, or from close personal friendships such as a
boyfriend or a girlfriend. This dimension, therefore, was labeled as Inspiration:
teacher versus other sources.
Dimension 2. This is the vertical dimension or the Y-axis. This dimension
had teacher’s style of teaching (weight 1.85), and counselors attitude/help (weight
0.78) at one end. On the other end, it had family events (weight -1.09), feedback
(weight -1.24), and teacher attitude (weight -1.78). The raters were of the opinion
that the central point here was learning and what promotes it. Therefore, this
dimension was labeled as: Learning- teaching style versus support.
Clustering Analysis
The agglomeration schedule using Ward’s linkage method is presented in
Table 4.

72

Table 4
Cluster Analysis using Ward Linkage: Agglomeration Schedule

Stage Cluster
Cluster Combined First Appears
Stage Cluster: Cluster: Next
No. 1 2 Coefficients 1 2 Stage

1 7 11 2561 0 0 5
2 1 6 6137 0 0 6
3 9 10 9786 0 0 6
4 5 8 14290 0 0 10
5 2 7 19635 0 1 8
6 1 9 24993 2 3 11
7 3 12 30593 0 0 9
8 2 4 36367 5 0 9
9 2 3 43792 8 7 10
10 2 5 52125 9 4 11
11 1 2 61661 6 10 0

The resulting dendrogram based on rescaled distance cluster combine is
shown in Figure 2.

73

Figure 2. Dendrogram Analysis Using Ward’s Method (Rescaled Distance Cluster
Combine).
C A S E 0 5 10 15 20 25
Label Num +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
ACTIVITI 7

FAMILY 11

TCHRROLE 2

FEEDBACK 4

TCHTATTI 3

SLFAWAKE 12

COURSECO 5

FRIENDSHIPS 8

TCHRSTYL 1

COUNSELO 6

NEWFRIENDS 9

EMOTIONS 10

The dendrogram begins with each category as its own cluster and then
progressively the categories begin to merge into clusters and finally all the categories
merge into one cluster. Vertical Lines have been drawn on the dendrogram showing:
four clusters at rescaled distances 13.5; five clusters at rescaled distance 12; and
seven clusters at rescaled distance 10.5. The notation used for the categories in
Figure 2 is based on the abbreviated names from Table 3.

74

Deciding number of clusters
An important step in clustering analysis is to decide the number of clusters.
This involves researcher discretion and judgment (Jackson& Trochim, 2002). The
important criteria are that the final solution represents (1) ease of use, and
(2) interpretability. Based on these criteria, there seemed three possibilities: a four
cluster solution (at rescaled distance 13.5 on the dendrogram of Figure 2), a five
cluster solution (at rescaled distance of 12 on the dendrogram), and a seven cluster
solution at rescaled distance of 10.5 on the dendrogram).
However, in the four or five clusters solution, the merging of some categories
did not lend itself to easy or useful interpretation. For example, both the four-cluster
and the five-cluster solutions merged teacher attitude and self-awakening into one
cluster, which was difficult to interpret. It is important to note that in the two
dimensional MDS spatial representation, these two categories are not even in close
proximity to each other as is evident from Figure 1. “A cluster solution that does not
yield substantive interpretation of clusters is not very functional” ( Bedi &
Alexander, undated, p. 17).
Therefore, the seven cluster solution seemed as the best representation for
ease of use, interpretability, and appropriateness, though not for parsimony of
clusters. The seven- cluster solution is shown in Table 4. In this solution, (a) three
clusters are each comprised of a single item, creating a feedback cluster, a self-
awakening cluster, and a teacher attitude cluster; (b) course contents and close

75

friendships together comprised one cluster; (c) teacher’s style of teaching and
counselor’s attitude and help together comprised one cluster; (d) and, the three
categories of campus activities, family events, and teachers as role model comprised
one cluster. This is summarized in Table 5.
Table 5
Seven-Cluster Solution

Number of
Cluster categories
Number included Categories included Cluster Label

1 1 Feedback Feedback
2 1 Teacher attitude Teacher attitude
3 1 Self-awakening Self-awakening
4 2 Course content Helping choose
Close friendships life path
5 2 Teacher’s style of Persistence
teaching
Counselor’s attitude and
help
6 2 Forming new friendships Socialization
Handling emotions
7 3 Campus activities External
Family Events motivating
Teacher as Role Model influences

Labeling Clusters
To label the clusters, the team of raters examined the student’s statements for
the categories included in each cluster and by consensus decided upon a description
that best captured the overall theme of all the categories in the cluster. The seven
clusters were labeled as follows:

76

Cluster 1: Feedback. It is a single category cluster. This implies that in
students’ perception, it represents a specific and narrow conceptual area (Jackson &
Trochim, 2002) which the students did not often rate for similarity with other
categories.
Cluster 2: Teacher Attitude. It is also a single category cluster and a specific
area in student’s conceptualization.
Cluster 3: Self-awakening. It is also a single category cluster.
Cluster 4: Helping to choose life path. It combines the categories of the
impacts from the contents of a course, lecture, class discussions and forming close
friendships. The raters assigned to it the overall theme of affecting decisions on what
to pursue in studies and in deciding life path.
Cluster 5: Persistence. It combines teacher’s style of teaching and
counselor’s interest and help. The raters were of the opinion it represented a theme
of what has an impact on students to stay interested in their studies and keep going.
Cluster 6: Socialization. It combines the two categories of making new
friends and handling emotions. Raters’ interpretation of this cluster was that the
students perceived forming social relationships and friendships in college and
handling various emotions generated by the college experience to go together,
possibly peers and classmates helping the emotional ups and downs.
Cluster 7: External motivating influences. It combines three categories:
experiencing teacher as role model, experiencing family influences, and participation

77

in campus activities. The raters were of the opinion that this represented a central
theme of external factors which are motivating.
Concept Map of the Perceived Sources of Impact
When the discrete clusters results are superimposed on the MDS spatial
representation, it results in a concept map as shown in Figure 3.

78
Figure 3. Concept map with the clusters superimposed on the MDS configuration.
(Abbreviated category names are from Table 3. Dimension 1 is the X-axis and Dimension 2 is the Y- axis. )
Concept Mapping
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
-2 -1 0 1 2
Y-axis: Learning-Teacher style vs. support
X-axis: Inspiration-Teacher vs. other
sources

79

Post Ad hoc Analyses
A reasonable question with a method such as this is whether the use of
different subsets of participants would result in different results. To test this, the
similarity ratings from the 22 Phase Two participants were randomly sorted into two
groups of 11. Data from the groups, labeled A and B, were subjected to MDS
analysis.
The MDS two dimensional solutions for the two groups are summarized in
Table 6 and depicted graphically in Figures 4 and 5. In interpreting the two figures, it
is not the position of each category on the map (top, bottom, right, and left) that is
important, but the distance or the spatial relationship between the points representing
different categories (Jackson & Trochim, 2002). The maps of Figure 4 and 5 show
that these relationships do differ somewhat in the two sub-groups, and both
subgroups also differ somewhat from the MDS map of the original 22 participants.

80

Table 6
Two Dimensional Solution for Subgroups A and B

Categories Subgroup A Subgroup B
(Stress= .26; RSQ= .53) (Stress = .26; RSQ= .55)
Dimension Dimension Dimension Dimension
1 2 1 2

Teacher’s style of teaching .43 1.56 .95 -1.41
Teacher as role model -1.34 -.73 .55 1.59
Teacher’s attitude -1.59 .62 -1.93 .83
Feedback .88 -1.11 -.37 1.20
Course content 1.68 -.64 .53 -1.22
Counselor’s interest and help -.34 .27 .67 - .67
Campus activities -.29 1.06 -.15 .11
Forming close friendships 1.73 .60 -1.59 -.88
Mew friendships/social
relationships -.89 -1.35 1.04 .86
Handling emotions -.71 .10 1.33 .64
Experiencing family influences -.05 .98 .21 -.84
Experiencing self-awakening .49 -1.36 -1.23 -.21

81

Figure 4. MDS configuration of subgroup A similarity data.
(Abbreviated category names are from Table 3. Dimension 1 is the X- axis and dimension 2 is the Y-axis).

MDS CONFIGURATION -GROUP A
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
-2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
DIMENSION 2 ( Y-AXIS)
DIMENSION 1 ( X-AXIS)

82

Figure 5. MDS configuration of subgroup B similarity data.
(Abbreviated category names are from Table 3. Dimension 1 is the X- axis and dimension 2 is the Y- axis).
MDS CONFIGURATION -GROUP B
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
DIMENSION 2 ( Y-AXIS)
DIMENSION 1 ( X-AXIS )
83

CHAPTER IV
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to employ student’s perspectives to describe
community college related sources of impact on their identity development and the
students’ mental representations of these sources. This chapter discusses the findings
of this study, what they mean, how they map to the literature, the limitations of the
study, and their implications for future research and practice.
Phase One
Phase One of the study constituted the collection of critical incidents
experienced by community college students. The 12 categories developed from those
incidents seem to cover almost the whole range of what the students experience in a
community college: their teachers, the courses they study, their families, social
friendships they develop in the college, the very close relationships they form (such
as a boyfriend, a girlfriend, or a special close friend), their handling of the emotional
experiences generated by the college, their participation in in-class or out-of class
activities, and their own awakening sense of doing something with their lives.
Of these 12, four categories were more commonly mentioned than others. The
most mentioned of all (29 times) was their own experience of self- awakening. Their
incidents revealed that these young adult students (mean age, 20.1 years) were
engaged in developmentally appropriate learning, including those related to : taking
responsibility, learning from their mistakes, doing something with their own lives,
84

relying on their own opinions, discovering their own interest in a subject, and
forming their own beliefs whether they can succeed. The point is made very
poignantly by a 23 year old who sees himself “growing old” and then sees “…the
younger students in college with you or passing me up...the feeling of growing old
and not wanting to get left/stuck behind.”
Teachers figure very prominently in these categories and form categories with
the two most frequently provided incidents. The students were affected by two
particular qualities in their teachers: how they taught or their style of teaching (19
incidents) and the support they provided (15 incidents). The important concerns for
the students were: can the teacher make teaching fun and be exciting? , and, can I
count on the teacher for help?
The students’ descriptions of these categories indicate that they want their
teachers to excite their young minds, grab their attention, and make teaching and
learning fun. To borrow a description from Chickering and Reisser (1993), they do
not want their learning to be “passive and joyless” (p. 372). Students reported effects
of good style of teaching in terms such as: “ my continued motivation”; “ opened my
eyes and gave me a great experience”; “ sparked my interest and helped me decide
what I wanted to do in my life; “ made me love something and be able to look
forward to the future and working in that field”; “ the professor always talked about
so many interesting things in such and interesting way that it has encouraged me to
learn more and open my mind”.
85

They also want their teachers to be supportive, to give them help, encourage
them, help them in their anxiety, be flexible in their opinions, and not be a “pain in
the neck” as one student put it. A teacher’s attitude and support can make a
difference as they reported in comments such as: “I love college now”; “my dance
teacher helped me out a lot and made me who I am”; “he motivated me”. On the
other hand, when a teacher was not supportive it elicited reactions such as: “this
incident just proved that teachers are no smarter than I am and I respect them less”; “I
shouldn’t depend on no teacher to help me. I have to go and look for help by myself”;
“the long term effect is that I view most instructors in a negative way”; “the whole
experience made me not want to finish school”. In such cases, a teacher runs the risk
of becoming the antimodel teacher described by Adelson (1962) and cited by
Chickering and Reisser (1993, p. 270), about whom a student commented: “whatever
he is, I will not be; whatever he is for I will be against.” In such situations, a teacher
can become a source of repulsion and affect development negatively.
They see their teachers as role models. Students reported that positive role
models have profound effects in getting their lives together, giving them a sense of
direction, and helping them in choice of careers. Instances of these were in such very
telling words of students: “if she wouldn’t have said anything about her life struggles
in college and philosophy of it, I would have taken much longer in changing to what
I am today, responsible and more focused”; or “now I really want to be a teacher and
encourage my students”; or, “now I feel a sense of direction for my life.”
86

Another source of impact (with 18 incidents) was the course content, the
lectures, or the discussions. Their incidents suggest that the class discussion or the
course content may sometimes answer questions with which the students are
wrestling, or make a difference in what they will pursue. This is exemplified in the
experience of a young student who wonders why people are poor and thinks his
economics class has answers and is excited about it; or as another student put it:
“ my decision on what I want to do in my life was [stimulated by ] a psychology class
I took.”
Impact ratings. Students also rated the impact of the incidents they provided.
Those concerning feedback were rated on average as exercising the most positive
eventual impact on them. To be provided information that they have done well gives
them a sense of validation, and self-assurance, “a sense of my future”, “I am
somebody and I can make something of myself”, “the confidence I gained…has
propelled me to succeed and strive harder”. As one student put it:
I did well, very well, in class that wasn’t any part of my major yet very
influential. Long term effect has been my continued motivation and a sense
that I can do anything if I put my mind to it.

Also rated high in the long term impact category are accounts of a teacher’s
personal struggles and these stories turn a teacher into a role model. Other long term
impact categories with high ratings are: developing new friendships, and the course
content.

87

Phase Two Study
This phase of the study, involving MDS and cluster analysis, sharpened our
understanding of the same 12 categories in two very important ways. Each is
summarized below.
Multidimensional scaling analysis. By spatially placing these categories along
two dimensions, the MDS analysis map showed how the students differentiated
between the 12 categories and perceived which ones were more similar and hence in
closer proximity in the two dimensional configuration.
Dimension 1, the horizontal axis, had teacher as a role model at one end, and
the three categories of self –awakening, course content, and forming close
friendships at the other end. The raters’ interpretation was that this dimension had an
inspirational aspect. The students perceived inspirational role of a teacher as being
the polar opposite of the inspiration derived from self-awakening, course content,
and close friendships. The message from the students is that they need both. They
need teacher’s own story of struggles to serve as a role model. It inspires them that
someone else, who they now look up to, struggled and succeeded and so can they.
The other message is that they also need other sources of inspiration, such as: need
for internal awakening, or influence of one’s very close friends (a boy friend, a
girlfriend, other especially close friends), or the content of a course.
Dimension 2, the vertical axis, had teacher’s style of teaching at one end and
teacher’s attitude, support and flexibility at the other end. The raters interpreted this
88

as a dimension characterizing sources of learning. The teachers make their impacts in
two ways: one, by how they teach; and the other by their attitude of help and
support. And in the student’s perception, both the style and support, are qualitatively
different, and they need both. On this dimension of learning they also placed
categories, such as: involvement in campus activities, family influences, feedback,
and counselor’s interest and help; all of which promote learning behavior.
Cluster analysis or the ‘global map.’ The cluster analysis was extremely
significant because it took a complex co-ordinate map and subdivided it into clusters
of homogeneous parts of increasing interpretability (Bedi & Alexander, undated).
This map tells us how the students conceptually looked at these 12 individual
categories, and combined them into more homogeneous meaningful groups. This
final cluster analysis result might then be considered as students’ conceptualization at
“more of a global level” (Jackson & Trochim, 2002, p. 322).
Whereas, the MDS solution could say, “categories of impact vary on these
two dimensions”, the cluster solution allows us to say, here are the seven clusters of
impact (Bedi & Alexander, undated). These clusters or discrete categories form the
‘global map’ of the college related sources of impacts as perceived by these
community college students. These seven clusters were:
1. External motivating influences from: teachers who act as role
models, one’s family, participating in campus sponsored
activities;
89

2. Various forms of feedbacks students receive in the college
3. Teacher attitude, flexibility, openness, and support;
4. Experiencing self-awakening;
5. Influences to help them choose life path, such as: close friends, the
contents of a course, or class discussions;
6. Influences which encourage them to persist, such as: when a teacher
makes the class interesting and fun, and counselors who take interest and
offer help;
7. Socialization: when the students develop new friendships with peers and
classmates, which help them through the emotions generated during their
studies in the college.
How the Results of this Study map to the Literature.
This study breaks new ground in developing concept maps of the sources of
impact and particularly as these relate to the community college students. These
results also correspond very well with the findings obtained in previous research. In
fact, many of the categories obtained here were foreshadowed in the literature. For
example, Moran (2003) has suggested four broad categories of the college related
impact: (a) events (getting accepted into college, resigning from fraternity, breaking
up with boy/girlfriend); (b) experiences (being enrolled in a particular class, study
abroad experience, living in residence halls, being involved in campus organizations,
reading certain type of literature, tutoring or other volunteer work ); (c) relationships
90

( boyfriend/ girlfriends, friends, college faculty and staff, roommates, college
classmates); and (d) emotional reactions evoked by college experience ( pride,
challenged, happy, unhappy, ashamed, capable, insecure). Chickering and Reisser
(1993) have organized these college-related sources of impact into eight broad
categories: student-faculty relationships; teaching; friendships and student
communities; diversity; curriculum; institutional size; student development programs
and services; and clear and consistent institutional objectives.
Most of the 12 categories or the seven clusters of this study can be seen to be
embedded in Moran’s (2003) four categories or Chickering and Reisser’s (1993)
eight categories. However, the definition of the categories of this study is much
sharper and focused. For example, whereas both Moran and Chickering and Reisser
mention teachers, and student faculty relationships, participants in this study
provided an elaborated understanding of teachers as role models, style of teaching,
teacher attitude, and the feedback they and others provide.
The community college students in this study, however, also provided
instances of self-awakening, suggesting it to be a very significant category which had
not been highlighted as a distinct category in the literature. Perhaps that is because
self-awakening would be described in that literature as an outcome rather than an
impact, as it was in this study.
There are also several categories which have a significant mention in the
literature but which were not evident in the reports of these community college
91

students. These include: diversity, institutional size, and institutional objectives.
Actually it is not surprising that these impact categories did not show up in this
study. This was a psychological study, and given the methodology used, it is not
likely to draw out institutional characteristics. Also, because the community college
does not have residential facilities, or sororities and fraternities, these categories did
not appear in this study.
Important Caveats in Interpreting the Results of the Study
In interpreting the results of the MDS analysis in this study, it is important to
recognize several important caveats. One of these is that the two-dimensional MDS
solution was not very robust. The value for stress was .28, and the RSQ value
(indicating variance accounted for), was .49, both suggesting the problem of
goodness of fit of the model to the data. There are several possibilities of why this
might have occurred. As the process of concept mapping is largely grounded in
participant comprehension (Bedi & Alexander, undated), therefore, two possibilities
are: (a) the categories developed from the data did not make sense to the students; or
(b) they did not really understand the rating task. For some students there could also
have been issues of fatigue in rating the 66 pairs of categories in the Paired
Comparison Questionnaire and consequently not spending adequate time or thought
on deciding the ratings. The problem of participant fatigue has been recognized in the
literature (Bedi & Alexander, undated; Trochim 1989a). Another factor would be the
motivation, or the lack of it, of the students completing the similarity rating
92

questionnaire. In the absence of motivation, some of them could have rushed through
the similarity rating form without fully reflecting on the categories being compared.
A fourth possibility is that because the MDS map is an average representation of a
group, it is possible that the participants were such a highly heterogeneous group that
getting a common view of impacts is not possible.
Post ad hoc analysis. Another caveat comes from the post ad hoc analysis. In
this, the similarity ratings of the participants were randomly divided into two equal
groups, A and B, and group similarity matrices were constructed for each group as
basis for obtaining separate MDS maps. This was a variation of the technique
referred to as the split-half reliability to investigate the extent of reliability and
validity of concept maps (Trochim, Cook, & Setze, 1994) in which a group is
randomly split into two halves, and the two halves are then tested for correlation.
However, Bedi and Alexander (undated) have alluded to problems in applying this
procedure and there have been relatively few systematic attempts to investigate
reliability and validity in concept mapping (Bedi & Alexander, undated; Jackson &
Trochim, 2002).
The maps for the two groups as depicted in Figures 4 and 5 were somewhat
different. Several explanations are possible. For one, this result may again have been
due to the problem of the goodness of fit of the model to the data, and the other
causes mentioned above.
93

Results of the post ad hoc analysis raise the issue of both reliability and
validity of the concept maps. Whereas, reliability would refer to the degree to which
the various parts of the process (such as category generation, similarity ratings,
concept maps, clusters, and cluster labeling) are repeatable, validity would refer to
the degree to which parts of the process accurately reflect some underlying “reality”
(Bedi & Alexander, undated; Trochim,1989a).
In concept mapping, each step of the process has reliability and validity
implications and decisions made at each stage increase or decrease how
representative the obtained results are (Trochim, 2002). Recognizing this, the study
was designed to enhance reliability and validity by making it highly participant-
inclusive to get their collective conceptual structure at every stage of the process and
using statistical analysis in concert with it (Bedi & Alexander, undated). The role of
the non-participant raters was limited to selecting and naming the categories. To
minimize the rater bias in that process, the study design required a team of raters to
agree by mutual discussions and consensus
A concept map of a group represents an averaged, aggregate understanding of
a group (Riger, 1999). The existence of different maps for different groups of
students may not mean that the maps are unreliable. It may just be that there may not
be a single “reality” of a concept map for all students; there may indeed be a multiple
of such realities, and subdividing a larger group into smaller subgroups may bring
out somewhat different structures of the “reality” in each subgroup.
94

Limitations of the Study
As with any study, there were several limitations in this one that warrant
attention. Perhaps the most important of these is that the results should be treated as
specific to this particular sample of students; generalizations should be made
cautiously. Also as this was a pioneering study in its area, its conclusions should be
regarded as preliminary and tentative and remain to be confirmed by future studies.
One limitation is that, as Bedi and Alexander (undated) have noted, this type
of concept mapping obscures highly notable individual differences or subgroup
differences since the ultimate aim is to develop an averaged, aggregate
understanding. Therefore, we do not learn about how gender and ethnicity might
affect results.
Another limitation is that the method relied on students’ retrospective self
reports. This gives rise to several concerns, including whether respondents were
remembering the events accurately and reporting them truthfully. For example, an
incident may have taken place some time before the data is collected and the
respondent may subsequently have reinterpreted the incident. Also respondents may
not be accustomed to or willing to take time to tell the complete story when
describing a critical incident (Gremler, 2004). Retrospective recall may sometimes
result in important aspects or nuances of experience being forgotten or
misremembered (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) because people recreate the past on basis
95

of other memories, their general knowledge, and social demands of the retrieval
situation ( Hyman & Loftus, 1998).
Henry, Moffit, Caspi, Langley and Silva (1994) have summarized prior
research in this area which highlights three types of problems with retrospective
reports: (a) people forget particular events, especially those in the distant past;
(b) people tend to remember events as having occurred earlier than they did; and
(c) people often invent the past to suit their current needs and circumstances. In
another recent study, Conway and Wood (2006) found that when recalling memories
of negative or positive events that helped to shape identity, people tend to downplay
the fear, anger or other negative emotions experienced at the time and remember
more of the positive emotions.
However, Hyman and Loftus (1998) have observed that although memory
errors are the result of normal memory construction, this does not mean that
everything a person remembers is erroneous: “Most memories will be generally
accurate” (Hyman & Loftus, 1998, p. 945). Gremler (2004) has observed that “CIT
has been demonstrated to be a sound method since Flanagan (1954) presented it” and
in the last 52 years relatively few modifications and “minimal changes have been
made to Flanagan’s approach” (p.67). In a recent study reported by Cohen, Kasen,
Bifulco, Andrews, and Gordon (2005) on the accuracy of adult (between the ages of
17 and mid-20s) narrative reports of developmental trajectories in post-high school
96

years, the authors found that retrospective narratives can produce reliable and valid
scaled measures covering a substantial period of time.
Another limitation comes from the very nature of the study. Because concept
mapping is mental representation of a concept, it is possible that a common mental
map may not exist, at least for a particular group. In fact, the results of the post ad-
hoc analysis indicated that might be the case: when the original composite group was
randomly split into two equal smaller groups the MDS spatial representations for the
two groups were somewhat different.
There are additional limitations as well. These included uncertainties about:
· Category labels drawn from the incidents by the raters
· How clear were the categories to respondents when they scored them
for similarity
· The possibility that there are other interpretations of the two
dimensions in the MDS configuration and of the seven clusters.
Implications
There are several implications of this study both for future research and for
practice.
Future research. This study developed concept maps from categories of
impact by using incidents from a diverse group of students coming from many
different ethnicities. This produced results which were the aggregate and average for
this group of students. One area of future research is to study concept mapping of
97

student populations that are ethnically or culturally more homogenous. It would be
useful to know if students of different ethnicities and cultures have different concept
maps of college impacts. For example, it may be that Hispanic students’ experience
college differently than Asian students or Black students, and perceive different
impacts from courses or teachers.
Similarly, future research should be replicated with groups separated by
gender to see if there are differences in concept maps used by male and female
students. In fact, Chickering and Reisser (1993) have made references to these
differences based on research by Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule which
shows that women often set much greater store in the lessons learned in relationships
with friends and teachers, life crises, and community involvements.
Information from concept maps from students by gender, ethnicity, or culture
would have implications for the college administrators and teachers to serve these
students better by understanding their perspectives.
Another area of future research is to use the critical incident format to learn
not only what the critical incident was that had an impact on identity development
but also: how did it have an impact; what was the old way of thinking or being, vs.
the new way; what did the student move from and what did he or she move to; or
how did he or she know that a significant impact had occurred (Chickering &
Reisser, 1993).
98

Another area of future research is to replicate whether the impact categories
included in a cluster do have similarities as indicated in this study. For example,
future research can explore whether the two categories in the socialization cluster
consisting of handling emotions and developing new friendships indeed have
similarity in students’ conceptualization and work together. Similarly, research can
explore whether there is there similarity in the three categories of teachers as role
models, participation in campus activities, and family influences in the cluster
labeled external motivating influences as indicated in this analysis.
For Practice. This study has several implications for teachers and
administrators. For example, teachers and administrators sometimes concentrate on
college as a place to transfer information and focus mainly on students’ intellectual
development (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). But one implication of this study is that
college is much more than that for students. It is also a place where there is a
multiplicity of sources that shapes their identity development, a place which has
“impact on a wide range of cognitive and affective components” (Chickering &
Reisser, 1993, p. xii).
Therefore, teachers and administrators need to take a broader view of what a
community college can do for its students so that it can make more positive impacts
on the identity development of its students. That may mean training and developing
teachers, counselors and all the staff who come into contact with students. It may
imply allocating more resources for campus activities in which students can
99

participate, such as field trips, student organizations and student clubs on the college,
so that they can socialize, make new friends, and have emotional support. Making
new friends and coping with emotional pressures of the college may go together as
implied by the socialization cluster in the conceptual map of this study. The
implication is that when students develop new friendships it helps them to handle the
emotional ups and downs generated by the college.
Some of the most significant implications are for teachers and teaching. The
teachers need to know and practice what Chickering and Reisser (1993) have
described as the “the craft of good teaching” (p. 382). In this study, the students told
us that their teachers play a role in their lives much more than just being transmitters
of information and it is important for teachers “not to overlook what is going on with
the students” (Astin, 1999, p. 526). Chickering and Reisser (1993, p. 370) have
observed that “most teaching falls short.” Many teachers think of themselves as
professionals in their disciplinary or occupational specialty but not in their teaching
role. But it is in the teaching roles that the community college students seem to
perceive major impacts from their teachers.
Some teachers’ make their impact as role models. When a teacher shares with
the students stories of his or her own struggles, these can inspire them. The bane of
teaching is that the teachers mainly focus on intellectual content and shy away from
sharing of personal experiences, thinking they may be taking the class time.
100

Impact on students also comes when teachers capture their attention, make
learning fun, offer support, are flexible and open to different views, help students
through the emotional ups and downs of the college experience, and provide
feedback to validate the potential of their students and build their self-assurance.
Students are affected by how a teacher or a counselor communicates and they take
note of different forms of communications, verbal and non-verbal such as facial
expressions. This is how one student very effectively made this point:
The first time I meet with a counselor she was very discouraging. I expressed
that I wanted to go to UCLA After I graduated. She made a face and said that
if I was sure and told me that I should reconsider I really felt bad after this…

The implication for teachers and administrators is to make sure that the
teachers and everyone else who comes into contact with students not only has the
knowledge of the subject he or she is supposed to handle, but also knows the “craft”
of the job. Moreover, that they engage the students in personal and supportive ways.
101

References
Adams, G.R., Bennion, L., & Huh, K. (1989). Objective measure of ego identity
status: A reference manual ( Available from Gerald R. Adams, Department
of Family Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G2W1,
Canada).

Alessandria, K.P., & Nelson, E.S. (2005). Identity development and self-esteem of
first-generation American college students: An Exploratory study. Journal of
College Student Development, 46(1), 3-12.

Anderson, L. & Wilson, S. ( 1997). Critical incident technique. In D. Whetzel & G.
Wheaton (Eds.), Applied measurement methods in industrial psychology
(pp.90-91). Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black Publishing.

Archer, S.L. (1989). Gender differences in identity development: Issues of process,
domain, and timing. Journal of Adolescence, 12(2), 117-138.

Astin, A.W. (1999). Student Involvement: A developmental theory for higher
education. Journal of College Student Development, 40(5), 518-529.

Batchelder, T.H. & Root. S.(1994).Effects of an undergraduate program to integrate
academic learning and service: cognitive, prosocial cognitive, and identity
outcomes. Journal of Adolescence, 17, 341-355.

Bates, J. (1997). The effects of study abroad on undergraduates in an honors
international program. Dissertation Abstracts International, 58, 4162A.

Bauer, K. (1992). Self-reported gains in academic and social skills. Journal of
College Student Development, 33,492-498.

Bauer, K. (1995). Freshman to senior year gains reported on the college student
experience questionnaire. NASPA Journal, 32,130-137.

Baxter Magolda, M.B. (2001).Making their own way:narratives for transforming
higher education to promote self-development. Sterling, VA: Stylus

Bedi, R.P. ( 2006). Concept mapping the client’s perspective on counseling alliance
formation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 26-35.

Bedi, R.P., & Alexander, D.A. ( undated). Using multivariate concept-mapping for
assessing client understanding of counseling and psychotherapy.
102

Borgatti, S.P. ( 1997). Multidimensional scaling. Retrieved on 5/10/2006 from
http://www.analytictech.com/borgatti/mds.htm.

Borgen, F.H., & Barnett, D.C. (1987). Applying cluster analysis in counseling
psychology research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 4, 456-468.

Chell, E. (1998). “Critical Incident Technique” in Qualitative Methods and Analysis
In Organizational Research: A Practical Guide, Gillian Symon and
Catherine Cassell ( Eds.).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp.51-72.

Chickering, A.W. (1969). Education and Identity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Chickering, A.W., & Reisser, L. (1993). Education and Identity. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.

Cohen, P., Kasen, S., Bifulco, A., Andrews, H., Gordon, K. (2005). The Accuracy of
adult narrative reports of developmental trajectories. International Journal of
Behavioral Development, 29(5), 345-355.

Collier, M.J., & Thomas, M. (1990). Cultural identity: An interpretative
perspective. In Y.Y. Kim & Gudykunst, W.B. (Eds.), International and
intercultural communication annual: Vol. XII. Theories in intercultural
communication (pp.99-120). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Constantinople, A. (1969). An Eriksonian measure of personality development in
College students. Developmental Psychology, 1, 357-372.

Cote, J.E., & Levine, C. G. (2002). Identity formation, agency, and culture: A social
psychological synthesis. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Daughtry, D., & Kunkel, M.A.( 1993).Experience of depression in college students:
A concept map. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 40(3), 316-323.
Deaux, K. (1993). Reconstructing social identity. Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin, 19, 4-12.

Deaux, K. (1993). Reconstructing social identity. Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 19, 4-12.

DeSteno, D.A., & Salovey, P.( 1997). The effects of mood on the structure of the
self-concept. Cognition & Emotion, 11, 351-372.

103

Erickson, P.I., & Kaplan, C.P.( 2000). Maximizing qualitative responses about
smoking in structured interviews. Qualitative Health Research, 25, 589-603

Erikson, E.H. (1950). Childhood and Society. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E.H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle: Selected papers. Psychological
Issues, 1(1), monograph.

Erikson, E.H. (1963). Childhood and Society. New York: W.M. Norton.
Erikson, E.H. (1964). Insight and Responsibility. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E.H. (1968). Identity, Youth, and Crisis. New York: Norton.
Evans, N.J., Forney, D.S., & Guido-DiBrito, F. (1998). Student Development in
College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Feldman, K., & Newcomb, T. (1969). The Impact of College on Students. San
Francisco: Jossy-Bass.

Flanagan, J.C. ( 1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 5 (4),
327-358.
Flowers, L. (2002b). Developing purpose in college: Differences between freshman
And seniors. College Student Journal, 36,478-484.
Foner, E. (July 14, 2003). “Diversity over Justice”, Nation, 227(2).
Gol, A.R. & Cook, S.W.( 2004).Exploring the underlying dimensions of coping: A
concept mapping approach. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23,
155-171.

Goldscheider, R., & Goldscheider, C. (1999).The changing transition to adulthood:
Leaving and returning home. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Goodyear, R.K., Tracey, T.J.G., Claiborn, C.D., Lichtenberg, J.W., & Wampold, B.E
(2005). Ideographic concept mapping in counseling psychology research:
Conceptual overview, methodology, and an illustration. Journal of
Counseling Psychology, 52 (2), 236-242.

104

Gremler, D.D. (2004). The critical incident technique in service research. Journal of
Service Research, 7(1), 65-89.
Grotevant, H.D., & Adams, G.R. (1984). Development of an objective measure to
Assess ego identity in adolescence: Validation and replication. Journal of
Youth and Adolescence, 13(5), 419-438.

Grubb, N. (1999). Honored but invisible. New York: Routledge
Gurin, P., Dey, E.L., Hurtado, S., & Gurin, G. ( 2002). Diversity and high
education:Theory and impact on educational outcomes. Harvard Educational
Review, 72(3), 330-366.

Hagedorn, L.S, Moon. H.S., Maxwell, W., & Pickett, M.C. ( n.d.). Community
College model of student life and retention.

Hamrick, F.A, Evans, N.J., & Schuh, J.H. (2002). Foundations of student affairs
practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Henry, B., Moffitt, T.E., Caspi, A., Langley, J., & Silva, P.A. (1994). On the
“remembrance of things past”: A longitudinal evaluation of the retrospective
method. Psychological Assessment, 6(2), 92-101.

Hyman, I.E.,Jr., & Loftus, E.F.( 1998). Errors in autobiographical memories. Clinical
Psychology Review, 18, 933-947.

Jackson, K.M., Trochim, W.M.K. (2002). Concept mapping as an alternative
approach for the analysis of open-ended survey responses. Organizational
Research Methods, 5(4), 307-336.

Jackson, K.M., Mannix, E., Peterson, R., & Trochim, W. (2002). A multi-faceted
approach to process conflict. Paper presented at the International
Association for Conflict Management, Salt Lake City, UT.

Jones, S.R. (1997). Voices of identity and difference: A qualitative exploration of the
multiple dimensions of identity development in women college students.
Journal of College Student Development, 38(4), 376-386.

Jones, S.R., & McEwen, M.K. (2000). A conceptual model of multiple dimensions
of identity. Journal of College Student Development, 41(4), 405-414.

105

Jordyn, M.,& Byrd, M. (2003).The relationship between the living arrangements of
university students and their identity development. Adolescence, 38,
267-278.

Josselson, R. (1987). Finding herself: Pathways to identity development in women.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Josselson, R. (1996). Revising herself: The story of women’s identity from college to
midlife. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kaufman, P., & Feldman, A. (2004). Forming identities in college: A sociological
approach. Research in Higher Education, 45(5), 463-496.

Keller-Woff, C., Eason, B., & Hinda, M. (2000, April). From the student’s
perspective: The effect of college courses. Paper presented at the meeting of
the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans.

Kezar, A.J. (2006). The impact of institutional size on student engagement. NASPA
Journal, 43(1), 87-114.

Kroger, J. (1997). Identity in adolescence. London: Routledge.

Kroger, J., & Green, K.E. (1996). Events associated with identity status change.
Journal of Adoloscence,19, 477-490.

Kruskal, J.B. (1964). Multidimensional scaling by optimizing goodness of fit to
nonmetric hypothesis. Psychometrika, 29(1), 1-27.

Kuh, G. ( 1995). The other curriculum: Out of class experiences associated with
students learning and personal development. Journal of Higher Education,
66, 123-155

Kuh, G. (1999). How are we doing? Tracking the quality of the undergraduate
experiences, 1960s to the present. Review of Higher Education, 22, 99-119.
Levin, J.S. (2001). Globalizing the community college: strategies for change in the
twenty-first century: New York: Palgrave.

Lewis, P., Forsythe, G.B., Sweeney, P., Bartone, P., Bullis, C, & Snook, S.
( 2005). Identity development during the college years: Findings
from the West Point longitudinal study. Journal of College Student
Development. 46(4), 357-373.
106

Lounsbury, J.W., Huffstetler, B.C., Leong, F.T. & Gibson, L.W. (2005). Sense of
identity and collegiate academic achievement. Journal of College Student
Development, 46 (5), 501-514.

Madison, P. (1969). Personality development during college. New York: Addison-
Wesley.

Marcia, J.E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 551-558.

Marcia, J.E., & Friedman, M.L. (1970). Ego identity status in college women.
Journal of Personality, 38(2), 249-263

Marcia, J.E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson (Ed.), Handbook of
Adolescent psychology ( pp.159-187 ). New York: Wiley.

Marin, P. (2000). The educational possibility of multi-racial/multi-ethnic college
classrooms. In American Council on Education & American Association o
University Profesors (Eds.), Does diversity make a difference? Three
research studies on diversity in college classrooms (pp. 61-83). Washington,
DC: Editors.

Markstrom-Adams, C.,Ascione, F.R., Braegger, D., & Adams, G.R.( 1993). The
effects of two forms of perspective taking on ego identity formation in late
adolescence. Journal of Adoloescence, 16, 217-224.

McEwen, M.K., Roper, L.D., Bryant, D.R., & Langa, M. J. (1990). Incorporating the
development of African American students into psychosocial theories of
student development. Journal of College Student Development, 31(5),
429-436.

Mitchell, S., & Dell, D. (1992).Teh relationship between Black students’ racial
identity attitude and participation in campus organizations. Journal of
College Students’ Development, 33, 39-43.

Miville, M. L., Darlington, P., Whitlock, B., & Mulligan, T. (2005). Integrating
identities: The relationships of racial, gender, and ego identities among white
college students. Journal of College Student Development, 46(2), 157-175.

107

Montgomery, M. J.& Cote, J.E. ( 2003). The transition to college: adjustment,
development, and outcomes. In G.R. Adams & M. D. Berzonsky( Eds.), The
Blackwell handbook of adolescence ( pp. 179-194) Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Moran, C.D. (2003). Nourishing and thwarting effects of contextual influences upon
multiple dimensions of identity: Does gender matter? NASPA Journal, 40(3),
113-131.

Morgan, R., & Heise, D.R. (1988). Structure of emotions. Social Psychology
Quarterly, 51, 19-31.

Musil, C. (Ed.). (1992). The courage to question: Women’s studies and student
learning. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges.

Muuss, R.E. (1996). Theories of adolescence. New York: McGraw- Hill.

Nakkula, M. (2003). Identity and possibility. In M. Sadowski (Ed.). Adolescents at
school: Perspectives on youth, identity, and education ( 7-18). Cambridge,
MA: Harvard.

Nisbett, R.E., & Wilson, T.D. (1977). Telling more than we know: Verbal reports on
mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.

Nosofsky, R.M.( 1992). Similarity scaling and cognitive process models. Annual
Review of Psychology, 43, 25-53.

Palmer, B. (2000, Winter). The impact of diversity courses: research from
Pennsylvania State University. Diversity Digest, pp.4-5.

Parker, W., Moore, M., & Neimeyer, G. (1998). Altering White racial identity and
inter-racial comfort through multicultural training. Journal of Counseling &
Development, 76, 302-310.

Pascarella, E.T., & Terenzini, P.T. (1991). How College Affects students: Findings
and Insights from Twenty Years of Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Pascarella, E.T., & Terenzini, P.T. (2005). How College Affects Students. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Patton, M.Q. (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

108

Paulson, B.L., Truscott, D., & Stuart, J. ( 1999). Clients’ perceptions of helpful
experiences in counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 46, 317-324.

Polkinghorne, D.E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis.
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 8 (1), 12-28.
Rhoads, R. ( 1998). In the service of citizenship: A study of study involvement in
community service. Journal of Higher Education, 69, 278-297.

Rich, M., & Ginsburg, K.R. (1999). The reason and rhyme of qualitative research:
Why, when, and how to use qualitative methods in the study of adolescent
health. Journal of Adolescent Health, 25,371-378.

Riger, S. (1999). Measuring subjectivities: Concept mapping as a feminist research
method: Examination of the community response to rape. Psychology of
Women Quarterly, 23, 91-94.

Rogow, A.M., Marcia, J.E.,& Slugoski, B.R.( 1983). The relative importance of
Identity status interview components. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 12,
387-400.

Roueche, J.E., & Baker, G.A. (1987 ). Access and excellence: The open door college.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Roueche, J.E., & Roueche, SD (1993). Between a rock and a hard place: the at-risk
student in the open door college. Washington, DC: Community College
Press.

Roueche, J.E, & Roueche, SD (1999). High stakes, high performance: Making
Remedial education work. Washington, D.C: Community College Press.

Schlossberg, N.K., Waters, E.Bl, & Goodman, J. (1995). Counseling adults in
transition ( 2
nd
edition). New York: Springer.

Schwartz, S.J., Kurtines, W.M., & Montgomery, M.J. (2005). A comparison of two
approaches for facilitating identity exploration processes in emerging adults.
Journal of Adolescent Research, 20 (3), 309-345.

Stauss, B. (1993). “Using the Critical Incident Technique in Measuring and
Managing Service Quality,” in The Service Quality Handbook, Eberhard, E.
Scheuing and William F. Christopher, (Eds.). New York: American
Management Association, 408-27.
109

Stitt-Ghodes, W.L., Lambrecht, J.J. & Redmann, D.H.( 2000). The critical-incident
technique in job-behavior research. Journal of Vocational Education
Research, 25(1). Retrieved March 6, 2006 from
http:/scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVER/v25nl/stitt.html

Torres, V., Howard-Hamilton, M., & Cooper, D. (2003). Identity development of
diverse populations: Implications for teaching and administration in Higher
Education. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, 29(6).

Tracey, T.J.G., Lichtenberg, J. W., Goodyear, R.K, Claiborn, C., & Wampold, B.E.
(2003). Concept mapping of therapeutic common factors. Psychotherapy
Research, 13(4)401-413.

Treat, T.A, McFaoo, R.M., Viken, R.J. ,Nosofsky, R.M., Mackay, D.B., &
Kruschke,J.K.( 2002). Assessing clinically relevant perceptual organization
with multidimensional scaling techniques. Psychological Assessment,14,
239-252.

Trochim, W.M. (1989a). An introduction to concept mapping for planning and
evaluation. Evaluation and Program Planning, 12, 1-16.

Trochim, W.M., Cook, J.A., & Setze, R.J. (1994). Using concept mapping to develop
a conceptual framework of staff’s views of a supported employment program
for individuals with severe mental illness. Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, 62, 766-775.

Waterman, A.S. (1999). Identity, the identity statuses, and identity status
development: Acontemporary statement. Developmental Review, 19,
591-621.

Whitbourne, S., Jelsma, B., & Wateman, A. (1982). An Eriksonian measure of
personality development in college students: A reexamination of
Constantinople’s data and a partial replication. Developmental Psychology,
18, 369-371.

Whitbourne, S.K., Zuschlag, M.K., Elliot, L.B., & Waterman, A.S. (1992).
Psychological development in adulthood: A 22 year sequential study.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 260-271.

110

Witte, J.E., Forbes, S.A., & Witte, M. M. (n.d.) Identity theory and persistence: A
tentative synthesis of Tinto, Erikson, and Houle ( Electronic version).
Journal of Integrative Psychology, 2. Retrieved from
http :// integrativepsychology.org/articles/vol2_article2.html.

Wood, W.J., & Conway, M. (2006).Subjective impact, meaning making, and current
and recalled emotions for self-defining memories. Journal of Personality,
74(3), 811-845.

Yentsen, J. (undated).Strategies for Learning-from concept maps to learning objects
and books to wooks. Retrieved on 3/3/06 from http://www.eaa-
knowledge.com/ojni/ni/602/strategies.htm

Zuschlag, M., & Whitbourne, S. (1994). Psychosocial development in three
generations of college students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 23,
567-577.
111

Appendix A
Student Handout to Recruit for the Research Study
University of Southern California
Rossier School of Education
Ed. D. Program
Waite Phillips Hall, Room 802, Mailcode 4038
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-4038
(USC UPIRB # UP-06-00355)

INFORMATION SHEET FOR NON-MEDICAL RESEARCH

Sources of Impact on College Students’ Development:
Describing and Mapping Their Experiences.

You are asked to participate in a research study conducted by Rod Goodyear, Ph.D.,
and a research team, from the Rossier School of Education, Ed.D. Program, at the
University of Southern California. The results of this research study will contribute
to a dissertation.

You were selected as a possible participant in this study because you are in one of the
targeted college student subgroups who are the focus of this study. This is a two
phase study and 100 responses are necessary from each subgroup of Phase One. In
each case, 15 participants from Phase One, who indicate interest in continuing, will
participate in the second phase of the study.

Your participation is voluntary and you must be at least 18 years old to participate.
You should read the information below, and ask questions about anything you do not
understand, before deciding whether or not to participate

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
We are asking you to take part in a research study because we are trying to learn the
sources of impact (either positive or negative) that the students in the targeted
subgroups perceive to have affected their sense of who they are (i.e., their personal
identity). We are also interested to learn the manner in which the students organize
these categories of experiences in their thinking. That is, the “cognitive map” they
impose on them.

Completion and return of the questionnaires will constitute consent to
participate in this research project.
112

PROCEDURES
In the first phase of the study, you will be asked to reflect on your experience as a
college student and identify one incident or experience that has affected your sense of
who you are. The College Years Experience Questionnaire (CYEQ) asks you to
describe what the incident was, if another person or persons was/were involved, why
the incident was important to you, and what you believe the long-term effect has
been.The questionnaires also asks for basic demographic information. The
questionnaires should take you approximately one-half hour to complete.

If you would like to participate in Phase Two of this study, you can complete an
Intent to Continue postcard. Phase Two participants will be randomly selected from
the people who completed the Intent to Continue postcard.

If selected to continue to Phase Two and you wish to participate, you will be asked to
rate the similarities of the categories of sources of impacts from the CYEQ on a scale
of one to six (1=not at all alike; 6=very much alike).This paired comparison
questionnaire is called the College Years Experience Concept Similarity Rating Scale
(CSRS). The CSRS will be posted on a web-based survey service or mailed ot you,
depending on your preference. If you participate in this phase of the study, the web
address will be emailed to you along with the instructions for completing the CSRS.
The CSRS should also take about one-half hour to complete

POTENTIAL RISKS AND DISCOMFORTS
There are no anticipated risks to your participation. You may be inconvenienced
from taking time out of your day to complete the questionnaires. It is also possible
that in recounting an incident that was especially important to you, you may find
yourself experiencing uncomfortable memories..

POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO SUBJECTS AND/OR TO SOCIETY
You may not directly benefit from your participation in this research study.
However, there are potential benefits to higher education community. Specifically, it
could be important to higher educational professionals who work to ensure that the
college environment maximizes the opportunities to foster optimal student
development. ent.

PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION
You will not receive any payment for your participation in this research study.

CONFIDENTIALITY
No information that is obtained in connection with this study can be identified with
you. Contact information that is supplied by Phase One participants on the Intent to
Continue postcard will be stored in the investigator’s office in a locked file cabinet.
113

The data from this study will also be stored in the investigator’s office in a locked
file cabinet and in a password protected computer. Only members of the research
team will have access to the data associated with this study. The data will be stored
for three years after the study has been completed. After the three year period, the
data will be destroyed.

PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL
You can choose whether to be in this study or not. If you volunteer to be in this
study, you may withdraw at any time without consequences of any kind. You may
also refuse to answer any questions you don’t want to answer and still remain in the
study. The investigator may withdraw you from this research if circumstances arise
which warrant doing so.

RIGHTS OF RESEARCH SUBJECTS
You may withdraw your consent at any time and discontinue participation without
penalty. You are not waiving any legal claims, rights or remedies because of your
participation in this research study. If you have questions regarding your rights as a
research subject, contact the University Park IRB, Office of the Vice Provost for
Research, Grace Ford Salvatori Hall, Room 306, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1695,
(213) 821-5272 or upirb@usc.edu.

IDENTIFICATION OF INVESTIGATORS
If you have any questions or concerns about the research, please feel free to contact
The highlighted member of the research team
Tony Arguelles – arguelle@email.usc.edu
Christopher Eaton – davideat@ email.usc.edu
Roza Ekimyan- ekimyan@email.usc.edu
Paul Harrington – wharring@email.usc.edu
Merrill Irving – mirving@email.usc.edu
Jane Robb – jrobb@email.usc.edu
Virginia Sarkissian – vergenes@email.usc.edu
Michelle Stiles – mstiles@email.usc.edu
Surendra Verma – surendrv@email.usc.edu
Vincent Vigil – vincenev @email.usc.edu

Rod Goodyear, Ph. D. – goodyea@usc.edu ( 213) 740-3267
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California, WPH 1100A, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0031
114

Appendix B
College Years Experience Questionnaire
(USC UPIRB # UP-06-00355)

Developing a sense of who we are occurs across time and in many situations. But
college often is unique in the ways it can affect that sense of self. Moreover, there
often are particular incidents or experiences that stand out as having been particularly
influential.

1. Think back over your experience as a college student and identify one incident or
experience that had particular influence on your sense of who you are. This could
have been either positive or negative.

Please describe that incident or experience in a few sentences. Be sure to indicate

(a) What that incident or experience was,

(b) If another person or persons were involved in this incident or experience, describe

them and their relationship to you, and

(c) What do you think was important about this experience or incident, and why?

(d) What you believe the long-term effect to have been on your sense of who you
are?

(Please continue on the other side if necessary)
115

Years at College ________Gender M / F

Age ( must be at least 18 years old) ____________

3. At what point in your college experience did this incident or experience occur-
which semester?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Ethnicity: Asian/Pacific Islander;
Black/African American;
Hispanic/Latino/Latina;
White/Caucasian
Other
5. Please respond to the questions below by circling the number that best represents
your answer.

Very Negative

Very Positive
Degree to which you experienced this
incident or experience as positive

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The eventual effect this incident or
experience had on your sense of yourself

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

116

Appendix C

Critical Incidents Collected from the Community College Students

General Guidelines to Critical Incidents and Impact Categories

During the Phase One of the study, the students had reported 129 critical
incidents on the college Experience Questionnaire Form. Each form was randomly
coded with a tracking number from 1 to 129. The team of raters by consensus, sorted
these into 12 themes. All the incidents have been reproduced in the paragraphs
below, and retain the original language, the spellings, grammar, and punctuation of
the students and no deliberate changes have been made to their way of writing or
expression.
Each incident includes the demographic information of the students in
parentheses, as well as the original Questionnaire Form number to which the incident
can be traced. This information has been presented in the following system of
notation:
( years been in the college, M (male) or F(Female), Age in years, Ethnicity,
Ratings on the seven-point scale to questions 1 and 2 on the College Experience
Questionnaire, serial number coding of the original questionnaire form to which the
incident can be traced.). For example, the parenthetical information at the end of an
incident in the form: (2 + years, F 21 W/Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7, Incident coding
11) means:
The student has been in the community college for over two years, is female,
21 years old, White /Caucasian; the student had marked ratings 7 to both questions 1
and 2 on the College Year Experience Questionnaire Form, and the original has been
saved and the serial number coding on the form is 11).

Category 1: A Teacher’s Style of Teaching

I had an incredible math teacher last semester. She was young and bright, a
very charming lady. Though I am good in math, she taught a certain way everyone
understood. I have my mind made up as to my major, but it was such a joy to be in
her class that I am considering being math major (w/the intent to teach) if I don’t get
into my first choice of program. (2 + years, F 21, White /Caucasian Ratings 7 and
7, Incident coding 11)

I’d probably say that the most influential moment was when I realized that I
would have to spend a 4
th
year at his darn school because of my physics class! It
involves the fact that this school only offered one section with one teacher, who was
terrible! I realized that success does not occur until the university level. I will never
allow my children to attend a community college. They will go straight to a
117

university. (4 years, M 21, Ethnicity not indicated, Ratings 1 and 6; incident coding
21).
When I got to college, I wasn’t quite sure what my major was going to be. I
had enough to worry about without stressing over that. Then last semester I took a
marine biology class, and the professor made that class so much fun that I decided I
found what I was meant to do. We went on numerous field trips where we got hands
on with the animals in their natural environment. I had never realized how much
diversity lay in the intertidal zone just of our coast. The professor really helped me to
find what I want to do with my life. The long term effect is I know what I want to be
and where I want my life to go, giving me a strong sense of who I am. (2 Years, 2 F
19, Ethnicity: other, Ratings 7 and 7, incident coding 36)

I have taken Math 110(2) times and failed. F. I am currently enrolled for the
3
rd
time and doing well. The first (two) times taking the class (no scholarship $ ) I
had a hard time understanding the teacher. The English was so poor and accent didn’t
help. The 1 semester I have now is not from an English speaking country yet he
speaks well and pronounces his words. He also talks to the class Not the board. He
also cares about the class as a whole, by making everyone sit close and checks on
students grades and helps those who are falling behind. H. Feiner is a worthy math
teacher. (3 ½ years, M 21, White /Caucasian, Ratings 1 and 2; incident coding 40).

My first semester at( college name) was at the beginning very frustrating. I
had just come out of high school and I didn’t know what I really wanted to do. I was
disoriented and confused. There was a this one particular teacher that help me regain
an interest in higher learning. The way she taught made information just click in your
head. It wasn’t a particularly easy class, it was one of those 5 unit classes. It was
important in the sense that if I did well in that one class I knew I could do well in all.
That’s what has kept me motivated. I did well, very well, in class that wasn’t any part
of my major yet very influential. Long term effect has been my continued motivation
and a sense that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. (1 Year, F 18, Latina,
Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 41)

Entering college my first semester I have to admit I was a little confused
about what I wanted out of life. What influenced my decision on what I want to do in
life was a psychology class I took. I thought the teacher was really good at explaining
a lot of the different concepts which aloud me to understand myself more and what it
was I wanted out of life. Since then I been really focused toward achieving my goals.
( 2 ½ years, M 21, Black/African American, Ratings 5 and 7; incident coding 46)

My first year of college when I took my Macroeconomic class, The Professor
was great he made me see the greatness of the subject. He put in in a different
perspective and you can see he loves teaching economics. His class has made me
118

change My future career to Economics and Math. He opened my eyes and gave me a
great experience. (1 Year, M 19, Latino, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 48).

The experience that influenced my life was taking first an accountant teacher
and take on taking his class. The teacher allowed me to see the fun in accounting and
it really sparked my interest in it. It is now my major I have decided to do, however I
knew I wanted to do something along the lines of business. This accountant teacher
sparked my interest and helped me decide what I wanted to do in my life.
(2 Years, M 21, W/Caucasian, Ratings 5 and 6; incident coding 53).

My first day of school I was really nervous. I went into my second class
which was elements of public speaking, and was even more nervous at the fact that I
would to get up and speak in front of a bunch of strangers. Over the next few weeks
the teacher taught us as different ways of getting rid of our fear of public speaking.
This made me a more confident person. It makes me want to pursue something in life
that deals with public speaking. This experience had a positive effect on my life.
(I year, F 18, Hispanic/Latina; Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 59).

My first year at (the college name) was pretty difficult. Especially my math
class. The instructor was a pain in the neck. Made everything so difficult and
complicated. The instructor could not explain problems clearly and answer students’
questions. Ever since that semester of math, I told my self that I would never become
a teacher especially a math teacher. The long term effect that this has on me is that I
view most instructors in a negative way. The have to prove to me that they are able to
teach clearly and understand students’ problems and try to help them solve it.
(2 years, M 20, Asian; Ratings 1and 1; incident coding 67)

In my 1
st
semester here at ( college name) I took a math class and I really
wanted to drop it because the teacher I took went through the lessons and talked way
too fast & didn’t explain things that well so I was getting really frustrated because
mostly every math teacher I’ve had in my life except 2 has been that way so the
whole experience made me not want to finish school because of that but it also made
me get help elsewhere then I passed. I feel we need better teachers and to have them
take more time with us. (1.5 years, F 23, White/Caucasian, Ratings 1 and 3; incident
coding 78)

Since my junior year in high school I always liked computers and loved to
create programs and just manipulate them in many ways. So when I started college I
was sure I wanted to major in computer science. I took 3 of the classes for the major
and loved it every day more. Bu when I took Java I have very boring professor that
me realize that it wasn’t for me. Ever since that class I have switched my major to
119

business and this seems to be right for me. (2.5 years, M 21, Hispanic, Ratings 1 and
6; incident coding 91).

I’ve never had one particular experience that can point out, but quite a few. I
took an introduction to social work class and the instructor was great. The material
he introduced us to was so interesting to me that I always anticipated what was going
to taught. I left enthuse after each class. If I were to be feeling sad/bored this class
made me whole again. The teacher introduced me to things that I’ve never thought.
I’ve been interested in. It made me love something and be able to look forward to the
future and working in that field. (3 Years, F 20, Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 7 and 7;
incident coding 93).

I think my 1
st
semester @ ( college name) I was taking a political science
course & I happened to get lucky with a great professor. The project he assign, which
was to read daily newspaper & write journals of what’s going on from a political
standpoint. I guess this was a good experience because if he never would have
assigned that project, I would have never got interested in voting, politicals, or to
read about what’s happening around me, I think taking that class influenced more to
learn more and take school more seriously. (2nd Year, F 19, Ethnicity not indicated,
Ratings 4 and 4, incident coding 94).

When I graduated from high school, I enrolled myself in the culinary arts
program. I was very disappointed with what I learned (washing dishes and baking
cakes and thus my dream of becoming a chef was ruined. My teacher wasn’t “hands
on”, had a temper , and a fickle teaching agenda. His unguided approach made
learning uneventfull and depressing. I felt it was a scam and I didn’t get much from it
and I was in the program for 2 years. (3 Years, F 24, W/Caucasian, Ratings 2 and 4,
incident coding 102).

Last semester I took a class on Magic, witchcraft and religion and that class
and that professor was an amazing experience. I think that class has completely
changed who I am and helped me become more open minded. The professor always
talked about so many interesting things in such an interesting way that it has
encouraged me to learn more and open my mind. (1.5 years, F 18, Hispanic, Ratings
4 and 4; incident coding 114).

The experience I have in mind is when I took macroeconomics for the second
time. The person involved was my econ teacher. I’ve always been somewhat
interested in business and money but the first time I took the class the instructor was
very boring and didn’t make things very clear. This teacher however made the class
very interesting and really changed my perspective on the economy as well as other
things . This experience definitely will have a long term effect of who I am because it
120

really opened my eyes. (I year, M 19, W/Caucasian, Ratings 6 and 6, incident coding
118).

When I started at (college name) I had no clue what I wanted to do or take. I
decided to take the easy A classes first to see what I liked and didn’t like. I knew
speech and history were going to be easy for me so decided to take them right off the
bat. I was surprised how much I fell in love with them. The teachers inspired me to
think more and open my mind to things I would ignore. Their passion for their craft
was powerful and I hope to someday have the same passion. /these two teachers
inspired me to major in history and minor in communications. I hope someday to
teach high school history, and use my communication skills to motivate and inspire
the students I am teaching. (2 Years, F 20, Ethnicity Other, Ratings 7 and 6; incident
coding 120).

I took Art & Civilization . And the class was boring & uninteresting. I failed
it and it made me not want to attend lbcc or any other college . I got real discouraged.
And the teacher didn’t even seem like she new what she was talking about. It had a
long term effect that I hate Art history. (I year, M 18, Hispanic/Latino, Ratings 2
and 2; incident coding 123).

Category 2: Experiencing a Teacher As A Role Model

In my night classes at (college name) I have a teacher that impact me to try to
do everything to the best of my ability. He told us about his lives experience when he
was young about our age. He told us the he didn’t want to come to school and really
care about anything about school. But he choise to get his life together because he
know that life is hard without a good education. He just told us to do this as best to
your ability. (1.5 years, M 19, Asian, Ratings 4 and 4; incident coding 54).

One particular experience I had as a college student that made me realize who
I was, was the very first day of school, which was actually a psychology class. I
remember that the teacher was talking about the school years of her time and what
she went through. She talked about her problems and situations that made college
difficult for her. As for myself, I soon came to realize that my job as of that day. I had
to become a responsible person. I started to change a lot. I soon had to drop that
class, however, because of lack of transportation. The most important thing about
this experience was that if she wouldn’t have said anything about her life struggles in
college and philosophy of it, I would have taken much longer in changing to what I
am today, responsible and more focused. (2 years, M 20, Hispanic, Ratings 6 and 6;
incident coding 70).

121

I want to major in Accounting . My teacher for my accounting class has really
taught me the importance of responsibility. He has many responsibilities as an
instructor and always meets them. As a student I feel that as I am taking this course
not only has my class improved their grades but have also learned responsibility.
Responsibility is a characteristic that helps us throughout our lives not only in school.
He has taught us that it is our responsibility to care for ourselves in order to be
successful. (2 years, F 19, Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 101).

Before I started college I decided to major in History and become a teacher.
When I started my first semester of college I was taking two courses in History with
the same teacher. She shared with us how she struggled in college, before becoming
a professor. She encouraged me to go and travel, to see what other things are out in
the world, and to interact with different cultures. Now I really want to become a
teacher and encourage my students. (1 year, F 18, Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 7 and7;
incident coding 117).

I went to my first business law class. There I met my teacher and was
completely taken with her more or less life story of her career. Her story as well as
my own interest in law and business got me thinking that may be I could do
something in that field. At first I thought paralegal and was encouraged when sharing
my thoughts. But another person asked me why I didn’t want to go on and become a
lawyer. I didn’t know. So after thinking it over and continuing my law class I decided
that I really did want to be a lawyer, and that’s what I plan to do. Its important b/c
now I feel a sense of direction for my life. (1 year, F 18, Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 6
and 5; incident coding 122).

Category 3: A Teacher’s Attitude, Support and Flexibility

Well I can think back on my first semester in college where I met my English
teacher. Since she was my first college teacher, I didn’t know what to expect. I
always heard that college was hard and that I would have to be studying in the middle
of the night. Although I did had some hard classes, I was failing English. My teacher
saw that and Instead of failing me she pushed me harder to do my work, she e-mailed
me to remind me and she became someone to look up to at this school. I love college
now and If I wasn’t for her I would probably quit If I could not handle the stress. (3
years, F 20, Hispanic, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 3).

I am currently in A class in which we were required to purchase a $ 90.00
Book in which is Never Directly assigned use of –or even needed to get a good
passing grade-but only used in extra credit. Students should Not Be told to spend
money like that if its going to no or little use.(2 years, M 21 W/Caucasian, Ratings
1 and 1; incident coding 14).
122

An incident that occurred in a CBIS 14 class when my teacher explained to
the class that programmer can work from 60-80hours a week that changed my career
plans from programmer to teacher. I think that the incident helped me to realize what
I want for and out of a career. I am sure this decision is permanent. (1 year, M 25,
W/ Caucasian, Ratings 4 and 4; incident coding 19).

I felt scared when I go to college because I didn’t know what I am gonna to
do for my life. But after a long time studying in college, met a lot of good and bad
professors, I felt a little better because I spent a lot of my free time to go and see
them and talk to them about my problem in study. (3 years, F 21, Asian ; Ratings 2
and 4; incident coding 62).

I was taking a class that was a requirement for my major but I hated the
teacher so much that he made the class a terrible experience so I dropped the class
and changed my major. I’m much happier now with my new major, and am happy
that I got such an awful teacher. (1 year, F 19, White/ Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7;
incident coding 65).

Last semester I had a math teacher . She was good but I was careless of the
class and failed. This semester I’m taking math 110 again with a different teacher,
even though his mean/tough he still helps a lot. He motivates you to keep trying and
to be someone in life. If you don’t try you won’t get anywhere. I think we should
have more motivating teachers to push you when you just want to drop and quit.
What I think was/is important is that my current math teacher pushes you to learn the
subject. He motivated me because what he says is true. If you don’t go to school and
try your going to be flipping burgers for a while, and when you decide to come back
up its to late. (1 year, F 19, Latina, ratings 6 and 7; incident coding 71).

This semester in my class there was a student who was having problems in
that class, he was earning D’s when he said he deserved a better grade. He was in my
group for the semester and my group and I were brought into the whole situation
when the student confronted the professor. It was very negative for me because the
student was eager to learn even though his attitude could have been better. He
deserved to stay in the class. The teacher dropped him and she knew he needed the
class and it was halfway through the semester. It really disappointed me that she
would do that even though they weren’t getting along she should have kept him in
class. It was so discouraging for me, because if my teacher doesn’t like me she might
drop me? Very sad. But true when it came to this teacher. (2 .5 years, F20,
Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 4 and 5; incident coding 72).

My speech teacher lectured me for being aggressive toward her. Even though
I wasn’t. I was asking questions that she had no answer to. She became defensive
123

and turned it around on me. I’ve seen her do this to other students. This incident is
important because it made me participate less in all my class and afraid to ask
questions. This incident just proved that teachers are no smarter than I am and I
respect them less. (1 year, F20, Latina; Ratings 1 and 7; incident coding 79).

In my first year or college (1
st
. semester) I had math 110 and failed. The
teacher was no help at all never told us our grades or helped w/homework. It was
important that I understood that I have to go look for help because help wasn’t going
to come to me. The long term effect was that I shouldn’t depend on no teacher to
help me. I have to go and look for help by my self. This semester I have a better
teacher and extra help and now I have a B+ in math 110. (1 year, F 19 Latina,
Ratings 1 and 1; incident coding 81).

Last summer, the (college name) wind ensemble were having their yearly
tour. I am of course in this band and along with that offered to drive the equipment
using my vehicle, and oversized Ford Econolite. From the beginning I was told that
their was not set schedule and all I had to do was show up. From him all I wanted
was where and when. The entire trip, I was jerked around with poor communication
from the band director, and was unsupported. This lead to me be misdirected, due to
lack of communication, and cost me hundreds out of my pocket. The
miscommunication was due to lack of interest to pick up his own phone. I was forced
to miss key parts of the tour for having to take care of the van and due to lack of
funding. In the end, I was reimbursed 50% of what I put in. It was a costly, unfun,
horrible trip. From this point I have pushed to get out of ( college name) and move on
with schooling to get away from this school. (3 years, F 20, White/Caucasian,
Ratings 1 and 6; incident coding 86).

The teacher I had for my Economics class was very open about his point of
view on the subject. He often relate his knowledge to real world. I emphasized the
importance a a good education. I made me realize that attending a prestigious school
can make a difference in the position you receive after graduation. (2 years, M 20,
Hispanic, Ratings 7 and 6; incident coding 87).

a) I realized I failed a test I thought I aced. The teacher was very
discouraging and was personally degrading me when I asked a question bout the test.
She told the entire class how poorly we are doing and that she would fail us.
b) its confusing and depressing because she won’t answer ANY questions
during her lectures. She wants us to work around her schedule after class if we want
to ask her anything.
c)This affects the way I ( and the others) am learning because no one wants to ask
questions or raise points. I believe we need an open discussion class at time cuz it
gets involved. (3 years, 21, White/ Caucasian, Ratings 1 and 3; incident coding 98).
124

In my accounting class this semester, I felt the class would be difficult and
overwhelming in time spent doing homework. I am sure that other students of my
class share the same view. The teacher had a plan for student success rather than
failure. He/She provided what was necessary and giving students options in the
learning process, I have never experienced a teacher with such concern for student
success. (2 years, M 22, White/Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 99).

I auditioned for the Dance concert and I didn’t make it. I tried out again and
still didn’t make it; this fall I made it. My dance teacher helped me out a lot and
made me who I am. I took her classes for the past year. This experience gave me
determination and made me a better dancer because I hadn’t made it and now I am in
the concert. I guess the long term effect would be to never give up and I can achieve
anything. (2 years, F 20 White/Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 119).

Category 4: Receiving Feedback about Performance and Achievement

I had no idea what majors I wanted to take when I first came here, so I took
general classes. When I took the assessment test I was placed high in mathematics,
but low in English. When I enrolled in the classes my classes were just like the
assessment grad4es. Math was easy for me, so I excelled greatly, but English was a
little hard, but I managed. After that semester I changed my major form undecided to
business. Now I have a sense of my future. (1.5 years, M 20, White/ Caucasian,
Ratings 5 and 6; incident coding 35).

An incident that happened to me that helped me realize who I am is my
placement test. At first when I started college I didn’t know what I was here for, or if
I belong. I took that test and assumed that I did horrible. I received my results and
that’s when I realized that I am somebody and I can make something of myself. (1
year, F 18, Black/African American, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 44).

A few semesters ago I was taking a poli sci class and at the end of the
semester we had a particularly challenging Final. Later that evening I emailed my
professor to ask him what my grade was and he congratulated me and said that I got
the highest grade on the final out of his 2 poli sci classes. This was a great moment
for me because it gave me an extreme confidence in myself and my abilities as a
student. Since then I have decided to double major in communications with emphasis
in Public Relations and Business Admin with emphasis in marketing. The confidence
I gained from that particular incident has propelled me to succeed and strive harder
towards my goal. I have also decided to pursue another goal of my own and pursue a
degree in make-up artistry as well. (2 years, F 25, Hispanic/ Latina, Ratings 7 and 7;
incident coding 55).

125

OK this a positive experience . At college I felt like all I was doing was going
to school then home to study then back to school. I wasn’t being social. The I got my
first ( A) on an exam I realized that I m only here to learn, not socialize not party. So
it was my wake up call. (1 year, F 18, W/ Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7; incident
coding 84).

This was the time when I first took my accessment test for my English
section. I did not believe my results for weeks. I was concerned because everyone
else had their results. Finally, I’ve decided to call and asked about it. They told me I
was placed in English 80A and 80B. I was disappointed because that was the lowest
English. So I’ve decided to relate the accessment[assessment] test over spring 2005.
From taking the it the second time I was placed in English 105. I was happy that I’ve
made it to English 105, thinking I’ll be stuck with Eng 80 A & 80 B. This made me
realize that I had a potential in me to succeed if I try. (3 years, F 21, Asian, Ratings 7
and 7; incident coding 92).

My great experience was to get an A on my1st psychology test. Because
after high school I worked full time for almost 2 years and my girlfriend is in college
& she’s in a sorority & clubs , and I thought to myself , kids my age are in school &
going to functions I need to get back into school. But, I thought after not being in
school for 2 years I would be dumb as dumb. But getting that grade made me feel
proud. (1 year, M 20, Hispanic, Ratings 3 and 7; incident coding 121).

I was always received high grades in English. I find it to be my favorite
subject. But this year seems to be the most complicated year for me. Writing is my
passion and I feel as if I’m good at it. Yet this semester it seems as if I just can’t get
it right. My teacher seemed to be very easy going but her grading is very unfair in my
opinion. She would look over our papers before we turn them in and would say what
a great job I’ve done but the final grade would be very low. I just don’t understand.
She has put my confidence way down w/my writing. (1.5 years, F 19, Black/African
American, Ratings 3 and 4; incident coding 129).

Category 5: Impact of Lectures/Class Discussions or a Course Content

Last semester, I took a women’s health class. That made a difference in my
life. The teacher was just great and the information that was provided to us was
beyond interesting. I learned so many things about human, specially female body that
it made me want to become a nurse. I was undecided about my career, but thanks to
this class, I now know what I want to be. (3 years, F 21, Hispanic /Latina, Ratings 7
and 7; incident coding 1).

126

Before coming to college I was unsure which way to direct my studies and the
rest of my life Ist 2 -3 semesters I would take classes and wouldn’t be interested then
drop them one semester I took Psyc 1 and really really enjoyed it so I started taking
more psyc class and other social science class which directed my into majoring in
psychology- I also enjoyed human development process so I am planning on major in
child Development psychology. The hardest part in college was determining which
way to go and once I knew w/the help of a counsler I felt more comfortable having a
plan to get to my goal. (6 years, F 25, White/Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7; incident
coding 12).

It was an eye opening class. I took economics. The teacher explain everything
so well. I had question about why people are poor and how I could help. This course
answer all those questions. It showed me how I was able to help and where I stand. I
made map from then on were I want to do and be in the future. I only had one
semester but it help plan the rest of life. (3 Years, M 23, Hispanic, Ratings 7 and 6,
incident coding 31).

Out of all of my classes at( college name) there has only been one that has
really captured my interest. My first semester I took an art history class and it
awakened something in me. From then on I have decided to make it my major and
teach the subject. So this helped me decide what I want to do after graduating and has
caused me to be the person I am today and has led me all around the world looking at
art and exploring other countries. (4 years, F 23, Hispanic, Ratings 7 and 6; incident
coding 38).

Over my college years I have knowtest that my career path is towards
business major. In the beginning of college I had no idea what I wanted to do.
Therefore I took many different classes. When I took them, I knowest that I did
better on business courses. The reason why is because I have been very influence by
my parents carrears. (3.5 years, M 21, Hispanic /Latino, Ratings 6 and 6; incident
coding 45).

The experience was when I took English 1 in my 3
rd
year. I learned that in
every story and movie there is so much more than words but expressions and feelings
that we look over: never realize. At that point I realized how important education
was. I now need to be more successful than ever and going to school is the best way
to do it. (4 years, M 21, White/Caucasian, Ratings 5 and 5; incident coding 63).

Perhaps the most influential experience in college was when I was taking
sociology class of Latinas. At that time, several protests and marches were occurring
in response to the proposed bill that would make illegal immigrants criminals and
that supported the creation of a 700 mile wall along the US-Mexico border. That
127

same day the teacher showed us a documentary that displayed the experiences of
immigrants and the opinions of the minute men. After leaving the class, I felt that the
bill was unjust and racist. I knew that something had to be done, and that particular
idea encouraged me to major in sociology. (1 year, F 18, Latina, Ratings 6 and 7;
incident coding 66).

I was sitting in my philosophy class and we were in a discussion in morality
and what is moral and what is not moral and we got into situations and what people
thought you should do in certain situation like stealing, killing, and etc. and everyone
had pretty much the same opinion, but some people brought up certain situations and
the professor gave us things to consider and everyone went silent. We went silent
because se all were in tunnel vision with our opinions that we forgot to look at the
brighter picture. (1 year, M 20, White/Caucasian, Ratings 4 and 5; incident coding
77).

An incident that has occurred t o me sometime during my attendance at lbcc
was the psychology class. The people in the class weren’t involved in the experience
I had. I think the experience was important because the teacher explained different
fields of psychology and some took my interest. The long term effect on who I am, I
think, would be that I might find something enjoyable to peruse as a career. I would
know if psychology is right for me or not. (1 year, F 18, Hispanic / Latina, Ratings 4
and 4; incident coding 82).

I’ve taken Biology for non-science majors, which had almost no affect on me,
but when I decided to become a science major and took Biology again (a much
harder Biology) something changed. I had a really good professor and great partners
in lab. Mostly though it was the subject matter that I found incredibly interesting-
something that I could have great passion for. The professor also played a big part .
He didn’t just want us to memorize data, but apply it and relate it socially as well. I
found that Biology was something I could identify myself with. I was discovering an
entire world I never knew existed. I almost wish it was required for everyone to take-
it’s that important. (4 years, F 23, Hispanic/ Latina, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding
85).

It is when we were doing our in class. I have the talent and knowledge of
what I could do. I am a visual person with creativity. So when I was in class the
teacher was giving us assignment . I easily followed her directions. And finish it like
nothing. I really enjoyed the project or assignment that she gave and help the other
student as well. (2.5 years, M 25, Pacific Islander , Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding
88).

128

My first semester I took speech 20. This class used a lot of communication
and group activities that helped make the college experience easy for me. It helped
me realize how easy it is to spark up a conversation and be more active in other
classes. (1 year, M 19, Latino, Ratings 5 and 6; incident coding 96).

There hasn’t really been a huge life impacting indicent that made me
examine my choice of pathway. I grew up in a entrepreneur’s household and grew up
knowing I am a business woman. However, some courses did help me realize my
weakness and strengths. For example, while taking accounting however, I realized
that they weren’t really my thing. (3 years, F 20, Asian, Ratings 5 and 6; incident
coding 100).

The experience that had a particular influence of who I am was going for
observations at the day care for my child development class. We had to observe
young children interacting with each other and with their surrounding. I think this
was very important in helping me identify myself. Since I was to be an elementary
school teacher, I was able to know that I have the personality to get along with the
students. I noticed that I am a nice, kind, friendly person. After that realization I am
happy about myself because I know my personality traits as an individual. (3 years, F
21, Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 103).

Taking this psychology course has had an impact on me going into college I
had no idea what I wanted to study but w/taking psychology I now know that I would
like to take more psy. courses and study psy more in depth. This has indeed been a
great experience. (1 year, M 18, Latino, Ratings 6 and 6; incident coding 107).
I took wildlife biology my first semester of college, and it was the hardest
class ever. It started off with over 40 and by the end, there were less than 12. I really
liked the subject though, and I learned so much. There was way too much to
memorize-so I don’t remember as much as I’d like to. I am going into a related field-
zoology (but I knew that before). (1.5 years, F 18, ethnicity not indicated Ratings 5
and 2; incident coding 108).

Someone had come to my history class and talked about being in the
holocaust. She told us stories and what it was like-things that I didn’t know about. I
think by this person coming to my class was very important because so many people
say that that it isn’t true and never happened. It’s most important to know the history
of what happened. It made me want to be a better person overall and respect people a
lot more. (1 year, F 19, White /Caucasian, Ratings 1 and 3; incident coding 110).

Coming into (college name) I knew I wanted to aim my career towards the
lines of psychology. Not particularly wanting to sit in a room all day and listem to
others problems (psychologist), but something in the psych category. I took a class
129

here, speech (interpersonal communications) thinking it would be just another class
to take and the teacher really opened my mind to a communication degree. Maybe I
can mix the two? So my experience so far as (college name) has opened my eyes to
other areas of psych as well as communications. (1 year, F18, White/Caucasian,
Ratings 6 and 7; incident coding 126).

Category 6: Counselor’s interest and help

The first time I meet with a counselor she was very discouraging. I expressed
that I wanted to go to UCLA After I graduated. She made a face and said that If I was
sure and told me that I should reconsider I really felt bad after this because I had done
a lot of research about this. (2 years, F 19 years, Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 2 and 3;
incident coding 10).

A counselor went to talk to me on the class and she talked about how to get
the right things. She opened my eyes and I learned what to do. She showed me a way
to go to my career faster. (1.5 years, F 19, ethnicity not indicated, Ratings 7 and 7;
incident coding 26).

An incident or experience that I had at ( college name) that I can recall would
have to be when I got to meet the counselors. They were kind and were willing to do
anything to help me out. I think it was important because it shows me that there are
people who are willing to help. (2 years, M 20, Black /African American, Ratings 4
and 4; incident coding 52).

In my third semester in college, it hit me that here I was in school and I didn’t
have a clue what I was doing. I didn’t know what classes to take or what I really
wanted to major in. I would go to school to just “go” to school. I was going nowhere.
I felt that I didn’t have a sense of direction and so I blamed it on the school, thinking
that they did not care about my education. I go really depresses but I finally got the
nerve to set up an appointment w/a counselor and the counselor was amazing. She
and I are close and I feel like she really understands me. She not only helped me
w/my problems w/school, but also w/my personal problems, and I’m very thankful
for that. (3 years, F21, Pacific Islander Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 116).

Category 7: Participating in One or More Campus Activities

Attending the LB police Academy. Through the AJ system here at ( college
name) and going to the state finals and participating. I was referred by one of my
(AJ) Administration of justice teacher. A great teacher by the way. This experience
was important because it made me realize that the carrier goal that I want is actually
the right one for me. (2 years, F 21, Hispanic, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 2).
130

I came to (college name) with a picture in my head how college would be.
The college I pictured was the ones you see in the movies . I learned very quickly the
difference between (college name) and state/UC. There is no campus life at ( college
name). (2 years, M 19 White /Caucasian, Ratings 4 and 4; incident coding 13).

My experience occurred at San Diego City college. It was in my business
project class called S.I.F.E ( Students in Free Enterprise). In this class we had a lot
of hands on participation where we conducted an event or went to an event for
learning purposes. One particular event had an influence on me giving me insight on
what I want/can do., As college students we went to an event consisting of only high
school students ,teamed up representing their schools. There were students who
aspired to be in the business world one day. Their project was to come up with a
small business that they believed would flourish. Each team stood at their booths &
tried to” sell” their services or products to us as “consumers’. It was an amazing
experience to see how these young students were so knowledgeable. It made me
realize how much is out there. (1 year, F 21 Hispanic, Ratings 7 and 7; incident
coding 39).

Over the summer I joined the girls track team . I started out just being there to
lose weight and to get into shape, But the coach was really nice and suggested I go
out for the team. I used to be very athletic and played soccer everyday. Then senior
year in high school the varsity coach told me I wasn’t good enough so I stopped
playing. I haven’t done everything involved w/sports since then up until now. It feels
good to be a part of a team again. The girls[are] a great plus I m staying in shape. It’s
given me confidence again. And its been an overall positive experience. (2 years, F
19, White/ /Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 42).

I knew that going to college was a chalange because I was going to start
fresh. No friends and all of that. For me one of the most important things in the first
year was the sense of friendship, so I decided to go to Campus Crusade ( Christian
Club on Campus) so I can have friends that would support me through my walk with
God and College too. I think it was important because I got a solid foundation for the
following semester on how to deal with loneliness and motivation. I believe that
change my thinking about college and people. (2 years, M 22 Hispanic /Latino,
Ratings 6 and 5; incident coding 60).

131

Category 8: Establishing a Particular Close Relationship

a) My first two semesters at (college name) I dropped all of my classes but
two.
b) My boyfriend at the time was the main reason that I did this. He either
needed too much of my time or upset me so much that I wouldn’t attend classes. This
forced me to drop because I had fallen too far behind.
c) This incident may have had both a negative and positive effect on me.
Negative because now I will need to spend more time at LBCC before I can transfer
to university, but positive, because now I have more time to figure out what to do
with my life.
d) Because I will continue to live with my parents until I transfer to a
university, spending another year at home will have a significant effect on my sense
of self. Instead of living studying, and partying with my friends, I have much less of a
college experience at home. This may cause me to either grow up too fast or rely on
my parents too much. (2 years, F 19, White/Caucasian, Ratings 2 and 3; incident
coding 7).

In the 1
st
semester I meet my boy friend who had a massive impact in my life.
I feel in love and still in love w/him. He helped me focus my energy into my studies
and began improving my grades. Also I realized I wanted to go to UCLA’s medical
school trough a phlebotomy course w/ Patty Gaucho. She truly inspired me too try
my hardest to become a doctor. (1.5 years, F 19, White/ /Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7;
incident coding 9).

My ex-boyfriend and me came to (college name). Fall ’05 was the semester
that I found out that he had another girlfriend I have been with him for 5 yrs and he
has been with his other girl friend for 6 yrs. I had a lot of trouble at school. I decided
to get back with him and the result of that was terrible. For a whole year I was
insecure, unloved, depress, very jealous and so on. It affected me in school and I
dropped many classes. But thanks to that experience I learn more about relationships,
love, trust, companionship, and so much more. But most important I learn to grow up
more and see the world in a better view. I was not naïve anymore. (3 years, F 21,
Latina, Ratings 2 and 4; incident coding 73).

One of the best experiences of my college years was when I met my best
friend Traci. I was in my second semester at ( college name) and was in an english
105 class . I didn’t know anyone and our instructor put us in groups to work and we
were placed together. We have continued to be friends and im happy with the whole
experience. (3 years, F 20 Black/African American, Ratings 6 and 6; incident coding
105).

132

Category 9: Developing New Friendships and Social Relationships

A) When I started my speech class we had to learn names for the test so we
went around the class introducing ourself to one another I met new people and made
new friends. B). Yes I met new people and made new friends that I have today. C) It
was important because of the friends I made are like my Best friends. D) These
people took me out to try new things that I like do today and will do in my long term
life. They helped me to find myself more. (1 year, M 19, Hispanic, Ratings 5 and 4;
incident coding 5).

I guess one experience that had an impact on me was in the first semester of
college (fall 05). In my Italian class (which was really awesome fun) I had met a guy
by the age of 26. He was in the class. He was very attractive!!! I bit later in the class I
found myself distracted by his looks and presence. Usually… since it was a late class
I didn’t care about my appearance or if I fixed my hair and now I began to care!
Occasionally we had talked. (keep in mind I barely graduated high school). I noticed
that when I talked to him I was even more shy & conscious of what I was saying or
doing. I was very insecure and I wouldn’t look straight at him or anything. I don’t
exactly know why I thought I could get to this guy. (Being that he was 26). I tried to
get closer to him at some point I even avoided him because I was painfully shy. Later
in the semester there was a trip to an Italian opera. I thought (Fuck it!) “I should just
ask if I could go w/him.” And find some excuse to get closer. During the trip he
made a few references to high school girls being stupid, and women being easy…
etc. On the way back home I talked to him. I said something weird and he fired back
by saying things like that doesn’t make sense and automatically I said, “Damn! You
make me feel stupid” (Jokingly) and he plainly said “I don’t make you feel stupid,
you do”. “You should stop letting people influence the way you are” He could tell I
was insecure. After that I guess I became more confident & not afraid of what to say.
(1 year, F 19, Hispanic, Ratings 4 and 6; incident coding 18).

A).I was indecisive on what major I wanted to undertake. B). my friend
helped me with this problem. I had so many interest I couldn’t decide. My friend told
me to major in many as I wanted, but for now pick one. So I did. C) I was an
important experience because I didn’t really see all my interest in different subjects
could materialize as many majors. I thought I should just pick one and then the hell
with the rest. D).Affected the way I am because I was a one way person but now I’m
in all possibilities are possible. ( 1 year, F 18, Pacific Islander, Ratings 7 and 5;
incident coding 24).

One big influence that I had were the new friends that I have made over the
last couple semesters. Before that I had no real idea about what I wanted to do or
what field I wanted to be in. Many of the new friends that I have made mainly go to
133

CSULB. Everybody pretty much knew what they wanted to do and what they needed
to accomplish their goals. I also was able to ask them for help when I needed it. So I
feel that being luck enough to make friends who had a positive influence on me
helped get me on the right track was a good thing to happen to me in college. (3
years, M 20, White/ Caucasian, no ratings, incident coding 25).

One incident that had an influence on who I am is when I met one of my
friends here in college. A lot of her goals sounded interesting to me and as a result I
chose what I wanted to major in. Since a career sometimes defines who you are, I
noticed that I had a personality that goes with the career I chose. (2 years, M 20
Hispanic /Latino, Ratings 6 and 6; incident coding 43).

I was brand new to (college name) and in my first business class ever. I felt
very nervous because I knew no one. I remember the first day we did an exercise to
meet new people and from then on I had found friend for the whole semester. To this
day, 4 years later, I still talk to my friends from my first English class. Long term
effect was being blessed with great friends. (4 years, M21, White /Caucasian, Ratings
7 and 7; incident coding 64).

Its not a single but various incidents that are influencing me. Still as of today
I get influenced and mostly by friends that I met at the college. Walking around and
meeting new people and teaching a little of what I know has led me wanting to be a
teacher. (2 years, M 19, Hispanic/Latino, Ratings 7 and 6; incident coding 104).

My influential experience was just two weeks ago when I went up to Santa
Barba for the weekend with some friends. Before I went up there I wanted to stay
here at the 9 colelge name) and be a police officer but now since I had such a good
time up there Im thinking about transferring up there for another major. (1 year, M
19, White /Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7, incident coding 112).

Category 10: Handling Emotions

This situation happened about a day ago. With my reading teacher on my test,
there was a comment written on my paper, it said “ I wish you would study for a least
an hour a day”. At the time I took it as offense to my self. But in a way it modavoted
me to get help from tutors that are on campus. Even though the comment bring me
anger. (1 year, M 18, Black/African American, Ratings 2 and 6; incident coding 47).

The first year in the college was the best experience to me .Because I got to
know different of people and know about my goal. I enjoy studying. I got a good
grade. However, as time go by fast, I almost finish my general education and my
134

class getting harder I’m getting stress. (2 years, F 22, Asian, No ratings; incident
coding 49).

Their was an experience that occurred to me on my first semester at the
college. It was on my first mid-term, I didn’t really put effort into studying. My
instructor put a comment on my exam that made me feel bad. From then on it created
an impact on my studying life. Now I make sure I prepare every time I’ll have an
exam. (1.5 years, F 19, Hispanic / Latina, Ratings 7 and 6, incident coding 51).

I have noticed that attending a college that I live 20 to 30 minutes away, how
hard it is not knowing anyone. It’s my second year and I still sit in the class rooms
quiet, not talking to anyone, watching all other students interacting with each other.
This has made me realize how shy I really am, around new people. It helps me to try
and meet new people, and Be Brave to say Hello. (1 year, F 22, White /Caucasian,
Ratings 4 and 4; incident coding 57).

I was working long hours I tried making it to my Spanish class as much as I
could but their were some absences. Instead of the teacher talking to me like an adult
she disrespected me by commenting all my problem loudly with the class. It got me
upset and resulted in me dropping the class and wondering about other reactions
professors may have to such a problem. I did not want to deal with it again. (2 years,
M 19, Hispanic, Ratings 4 and 3; incident coding 58).

It was on my English class, we were asked to write an essay about an
impressive person we’ve heard and why? I worked so hard to finalize the essay abut
still I got a C on it. I felt sad and devastated because after all my hard work trying to
make the best out of the essay-I still failed. I was sad @ first but I eventually realized
that the professor keeps on teaching us write grammar but never even mention that
when you’re writing rejection is possible and we shouldn’t be hurt by that, however
we should learn that on making a great essay, rejection is on the process as well.
(1 year, F 20, Asian, Ratings 5 and 7; incident coding 69).

I don’t really hang out at school after class I go home to my daughter. But in
one of my classes an instructor made a very “MEAN” comment about the story I was
telling the class about my Dad. About how and why he wasn’t able to come here and
live w/us in America. To me personal life being shared in class should still be
respected and not use to put down or even emotionally wreck people’s feelings.
Since then I stopped telling stories in class. I just answer the question. If he ask “ any
comments about this topic? ” No way! I don’t want to get embarrassed again. I feel
like he pointed out something real that made me look at my father at a different way.
But see I love my dad. So screw him! (1 year, F 20, Ethnicity not indicated, Ratings
7 and 7; incident coding 83).
135

It was positive experience when I had to prepare a speech and talk in front of
the audience. I felt content and confident by explaining them my topic. I think that I
won’t never forget that incident and that every time I stand up in front of a public I’ll
feel free to talk. I am not afraid. (1 year, M 19, Hispanic/Latino, Ratings 7 and 7;
incident coding 109).

I am coming to ( college name) because I heard that it is a good school for
nursing and because my best friend was coming too, so I thought great I have good
classes and my best friend. But the first day of school my best friend told me she was
moving to Georgia Atlanta I got really sad, but she told me to not give up that she
will always be there for me and to try my best to be successful in my career. But I
still miss her. (1 year, F 18, Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 3 and 5; incident coding 115).

Category 11: Experiencing Family Events

One incident that change[d] my life is definitely the death of my uncle. He
was a very important person in my life and it was one of this people that was always
there. His death made realize that we shouldn’t take everything for granted. This
helped me to get more motivated to study and go to college. (1 year, F 18, Hispanic
/Latina, Ratings 1 and 4; incident coding 6).

My dad influence me which lead me to taking computer. My friend who is
now a computer major in technician told me some few trick to be successful in
computer. (3 years, M 22, Asian, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 22).

In my life I have only learned that having an experience is usually negative. I
sense, we are talking about my direction in life, it was probably my wife. I dropped
out of college sophomore year because I fell in love with her. My parents didn’t like
her or my attitude , I disappeared for 4 years. When I finally couldn’t survive on my
own with her, and all the problems I faced, I went back to my family accepted me. I
took a job at the company my dad has and learned accounting. I am very good in
math and I should stay in family business, which is my major now. I am still a
sophomore. (1 year, M 24, Asian, Ratings 4 and 6; incident coding 27).

The experience I had was taking classes with my older sister here at LBCC.
The important part of this experience was the help and support I got from my sister.
Her good habits rubbed off on me. I like her study habits. (3 years, M 22, White
/Caucasian, Ratings 5 and 5; incident coding 50).

Well, an incident would have to be first year , I really didn’t know if I wanted
to go to college, but my older sister who goes to college talked to me and explained
why it’s very important to stay at lbcc. That what I want and what I want to be will
136

be determined all in four years. The most important effects on me would have to be
is that I’m starting to know what I want and who I’m as a person, and in the long
term I can see the that’s out there for me, but I ‘m not that close. (2 years, M 19,
Hispanic, Ratings 5 and 6, incident coding 76).

During my second semester of my first year in college my mother had gotten
sick. My dad had been sent to prison that fall and I didn’t know what to do. She was
in the hospital for weeks suffering from kidney failure due to a disease she had called
Lupus I was expected to attend school maintain the house and pay the rent and bills
but since my grades had fallen the previous semester due stress related to my father’s
imprisonment financial aid had suspended me. As I was regularly attending my
mother’s bedside I lost my job. I think it was important and necessary for me to
experience this because it made me who I am. I always expected my parents to be
there for me and that I will always have everything handed to me. But this experience
made me strong and independent. Two thins I thought I would never be. (3 years, F
20, Black/African American, Ratings 7 and 6; incident coding 80).

Category 12: Experiencing Self-Awakening

Before coming to LBCC all I did was work and take care of my son. The only
person I talked to was my son’s father (my ex), once I started lbcc I saw a New Big
world w/many choices I meet many people. I came to realize people really cared & I
was in a very abusive relationship. So as it may sound college has opened my eyes to
a Better world and helped me by giving me the strength to achieve what I need to for
my son & I . & leave a very abusive relationship. I met my current boyfriend here at
LBCC and I’m really enjoying the college life. My current boyfriend is perfect and
without LBCC I wouldn’t of met him. College has Also made my feel like I’m finally
doing something with my life. College gave me that sense of security I need to know
I’m doing the best for my son and I. (1 year, F 20, White/Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 7;
incident coding 4).

I really have no bad or good experiences at this college. The one thing that I
can think of is that personally, I have not done so well in my classes. I have dropped
many and haven’t passed a couple. I decided this yr. that it’s time for me to pass my
classes because it’s important to me, and I can’t stay at the ( college name) All my
life. (3 years, F 20, Hispanic/ Latina, Ratings 4 and 7; incident coding 8).

My experience was the very first year I attended (college name). After
graduating from high school, it seemed like great relief that I was finally going to
college there I could finally become more independent and have a say in my
education. Unfortunately I took my freedom a bit to[too] leisurely. In my first year I
barely passed any of my classes. But now in my second year, I know my mistakes
137

and learned from them. Now I am doing much better and actually passing all my
classes. (2 years, F 19, Latina, Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 15).

When I first came to (college name) I applied with boyfriend. He hadn’t been
to school for 2 years but I was his motivation to come back. A moth ago he got
sentenced to 6 years in prison and he is serving 3 years. At first devastated and I
wanted to drop out and quit my job. When I finally came to my senses I realized how
his life was going to be when he got out and his life is not the type of life I would
want to live. So in a way him going to Prison makes me that much more determined
to keep my life on track. That and education and making the right decisions are very
important. ( 1 year, F 18, White /Caucasian, Ratings 4 and 6; incident coding 16).

One experience that I would like to talk about is when on my first semester
here in college I happen to come on a flex day. I had no idea that wasn’t suppose to
come that day and I did, so I felt very stupid. I was with my sister and now is just
continue touching the whole time. This was important because I learned that I should
be more responsible and read the calendar, in order to know what days I am supposed
to come or not. (1 year, F 18, Latina Ratings 4 and 4, incident coding 17).

The incident or experience I had going to college was to achieve my goal
what of becoming what I want to be. No person were involved. I think is important
if you think college is the right choice of going. I guess if you want a higher paid is to
go to college. But college is not for all student. Long term effect is sometime I see
my life isn’t going anywhere. Hopefully I gain something out of college and have a
career. (3 years, M 24, Asian/Pacific Islander, Ratings 4 and 3; incident coding 20).

Usually in the summer I stay home and play game. I got tired of it and
wondered what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t want to be like those 20-30 year
olds doing nothing with their lives. I wanted something for myself. So I decided to go
to college. Since I love playing games I decided to take courses that would benefit
me in video game designing. I think going to college is a great thing because I am
doing something positive for myself and making myself better. (1 year, F 18, Asian,
Ratings 7 and 7; incident coding 23).

At my college orientation I learned many new things in life, it was when I
received my classes when I realized how I ‘m going to be more responsible , polite,
outgoing, adventurous, a follower, & a leader in society. I understood these things
and applied them to my life. (1 year, M 18, White/ Caucasian, Ratings 7 and 6;
incident coding 28).

I recall serving 4 years in the military and needed help form a high ranking
officer. That officer did not help me in any way and made my life a living hell. That’s
138

why I decided to become an Air Force Officer myself so that I can help my enlisted ,
unlike the way a certain officer did to me. Now that I have decided to become a
military officer, I have look into the field. I found out that it’s more than academic, I
needed the strength and heart to get through the obstacles. (1 year, F 24, Asian
/Pacific Islander, Ratings 2 and 7; incident coding 29).

The incident that help me discover what I’m doing with my life was my
current job. Because they promote me to manage and since then I enjoy ever minute
that I worked. (3 years, M 21, White /Caucasian, Ratings 6 and 6; incident coding
30).

1) Realizing attendance was very important in college, no matter if the teacher
care
2) My boyfriend and I would go out on school days and I would be too lazy to
get up the next day.
3) Always be good about attending school, it can help improve your grade and
performance.
4) I will help me be responsible and on time for everything
( 2 years, F 20, Hispanic/Latina, Ratings 5 and 6; incident coding 32).

I actually am looking for my favorite career because I ‘ve been changing
majors since I started my first semester in college. My friend Javier which I’ve
known for almost 4 years now is into business and getting a business major here at
lbcc, he was the one who introduced me to this major, but in the beginning I wanted
to study law. The problem now is that I have no idea what to take, I just lost a year
and I’m pretty disappointed with the decisions I’ve made. (1.5 years, M 19, Hispanic;
Ratings 2 and 2; incident coding 33).

At the beginning of my second semester in college I had to serve 40 hours of
community service where I met a lot of people . Most of them were guys from 25-35
years old. They still lived at home and had no job with kids. This made me realized
having fun night in and night out wasn’t going to take me anywhere. From their on I
try my best to succeed in all aspects. This is a long term affect because I’m 20 and
got a lot of life ahead me in which I want to become successful. (2 years, M 20,
Hispanic, Ratings 7 and 5; incident coding 37).

I experience how to manage time consuming. For example, how to get to
class on time and use it wisely. During my first semester here in LBCC I was scared
of whom I am going to be friends with and what kind of classes am I going to take.
Before I started here in college I already have planned to major in Business, and that
what I am working on right now. I am thankful for the help of my instructors and few
students I met on campus. It is really important to manage your time of studying to
139

get to know more about what really is important for you to learn for whatever class
your taking. I believe that the more I will use this time management it will help me
become a better person in the future. (1 year, F 19, Pacific Islander, Ratings 7 and 6;
incident coding 56).

When I first started college I was coming with my cousin and some friends
from high school, everything started well but over time we started going to parties
and not coming to class. If you don’t have controlled over influence the can hurt over
time. We started using drugs and dropping from school over a period of years. What
change mind ways was one of my friend overdosed on drugs on that me realized that
I was not doing any good. It took me time but change is not as easy as people think.
(4 years, M 23, Hispanic, Ratings 1and 6; incident coding 61).

In college I’ve discovered that I like women a lot, May be too much but I
doubt it. I don’t have any situations to support this. I’ve noticed it more and more as
time passes and it leads me to believe that I ‘m in need for a intimate relationship.
I’m not sure if intimate is physical or emotional either. I guess this say much about
me though… oh well. (1 year, M 19, Black/African American, Ratings 4 and 4;
incident coding 68).

A negative experience I had was when my reading teacher got sick and she
had to be replaced. The new teacher made us do more homework and write essays .
The old teacher never has us do that. The experience is that each teacher has a
different way of teaching and you have to adapt to it the pass you have t change your
attitude and way of thinking to get the job done. (1 year, M 18, Asian, Ratings 3 and
3; incident coding 74).

An incident that affected me was my first few weeks of college. I have a few
class one Monday and three Tuesday. On my second day of class I had park at the
parking lot at school, when I came back around 3:45 I found a ticket it sees the
parking permit was void. This being first year in college really freak me out I had
never had a ticket. But thanks to this it had made me more aware of what I do and I
got better acquainted with the school, which I bought parking permit from school.
Though it help me I wish the school had a bigger parking lot. (1 year, M 18, Asian,
Ratings 3 and 6; incident coding 75).

Prior to attending lbcc and right before my term of service was over for the
army, I was arrested for public intoxication. A friend made a “smart” comment to the
police office, being the person I am I walked over to apologize for my friend. As I
began talking he grabbed me and handcuffed me; he also arrested my friend. The
cops were right outside of the car, where we waited for our ride to come, the police
report was filled with lies. This incident provided me with the motivation to become
140

a defense attorney. This has led me to maintain a consistent 4.0 GPA. I can’t wait to
help people who get screwed over by dishonest police. (1.5 years, M 23, White
/Caucasian, Ratings 1 and 7; incident coding 89).

This incident has to do with one of my projects for my design class. My
teacher disagree with my decision and tried to change my mind to her way. Because
of her disagreement ( I thought I did a good job with my choices considering I had no
idea what I was doing in the start ) I was doubting myself. My friends in class said
that should do things my way and not my teachers. Basically I stood up for my
choice and not what my teacher want and still got a “A”. (2.5 years, F 20, Asian,
Ratings 6 and 6; incident coding 90).

This is my 3
rd
semester @ ( college name) . But my first semester actually
getting good grades. I didn’t like most of my teachers before, but came to realize it’s
doesn’t matter which teacher I do or don’t like. All that matters is my goal as a
student and value of my education. So since then I put school first. (2nd year, F 19,
Latina, Ratings 5 and 5; incident coding 95).

My experience of having failed a class and how it stopped my momentum of
being in the nursing program. I learned that its an obstacle not the end of what want
to do. No real effect because failure is a part of life. (2 years, M 21, Asian/pacific
Islander, Ratings 5 and 3; incident coding 97).

The incident was taking too many classes one semester. I failed half because I
wasn’t paying attention equally to all classes. I think it was important because I
figured out that if I take too many classes at the same time its just a waste of time.
The long term effect is that now I try to only take the amount of classes I m pretty
sure I can pass. (3 years, M 21, Hispanic/Latino, Ratings 4 and 6; incident coding
106).

In my first semester here at the ( college name), an experience that had
particular influence on a sense of who I am came to me in the very beginning of my
college career. I started right out of high school and I took on a full load-a full time
student. It was such a change in workload and general environment from high school
and I realized it was going to be a lot different so at that point I realized I couldn’t
breeze through college like I did high school and expect excellent grades. This
influenced me who I am because I changed as a student by knowing I have to work
hard in college to succeed and I changed my study and classroom habits to become a
better student. (1 year, F 19, White /Caucasian, Ratings 6 and 6; incident coding
111).
One particular incident was my first semester in college . I didn’t know where
were my classes and what I had to do. First I got lost and then I got dropped from a
141

class and then I couldn’t find a certain class and because I couldn’t find the class I
realized that it was moved to another class. Therefore I only attended 2 class for the
semester when I should of had 4. I learned to ask and to bring the campus map when
needed and to prepare on time. It made me a better observer. (3 years, F 21, Hispanic
Ratings 6 and 5; incident coding 113).

I attended my friends college graduation. My friend and I are the same age ,
went to the same high school and even took a few classes at Cal State Northridge.
Seeing her graduate before me (I took a few semesters off) was a bitter sweet
experience, I was very happy and proud of her but I was also disappointed that I
could not walk the stage with her. This motivated me and further influenced my
desire to finish my courses and graduate from college. (2 years, F 24, Hispanic,
Ratings 4 and 4; incident coding 124).

Growing old and seeing younger & younger students in college with you or
passing me up. When I was senior in High School there were kids I knew that were
freshmen, and now they are in college with me or pass me. The feeling of growing
old and not wanting to get left/ stuck behind. (5 years, M 23, Asian/pacific Islander,
Ratings 4 and 2; incident coding 125).

The experience with my first year in college was somewhat difficult for me. I
was having a hard time in class concentrating and staying in class. I realized college
teachers throw directions to you very quickly, they get straight to the point, if your
not understanding what the teacher puts out, you better ask questions or it can result
in a low grade. I came to realize that college is all up to you, to be concentrated on 1
thing and that is your career in life. (3 years, M 21, Asian/pacific Islander, Ratings 5
and 5; incident coding 127).

During my first experience in college, I didn’t know who I really wanted to be
or what I want to do , but during my first enterance [sic ]in to college in 2005 Fall, I
went into class not sure of who I really was and during that time semester I became a
very different person going through the experience was tough for me, and I messed
up during those months, but as time goes on it’s starting to get better because right
now I know what I want to be an am starting to put more effort on them.( 1 year, F
21, Black/ African American, Ratings 4 and 7; incident coding 128).
142

Appendix D

Student Handout for Categories of Impact and
Paired Comparison Questionnaire

Thank you for participating in the first phase of our study in which we asked
you to describe an experience that had an impact on your sense of self. A research
team of raters from the USC (all doctoral students) examined your responses, along
with many others, and classified them into twelve (12) categories described below.
We would like your help for the next phase of the study. Our next step is a
rating task. For the second phase to be completed, it will require you to have some
understanding of what the categories are. Please review the following descriptions
and then go to page 3 to complete the rating.

Category # 1: A teacher’s style of teaching

Examples: A teacher’s style of teaching a subject (“very clear”,
“interesting”, “fun way”, “ passion”, “making it personally relevant”) makes impact
on a student-creates his/her interest in that subject to study it, choose it for a major,
or even to plan a career in that field. OR: negatively a way of teaching which does
just the opposite.

Category # 2: Experiencing a teacher as role- model

Examples: a teacher tells students his/her personal story of his/her own
struggles in life or struggles in college, and how he/she succeeded and in this way
“inspires” and becomes a role model to someone.

Category # 3: A teacher’s attitude, support and flexibility

Examples: a student perceives a teacher to be caring, encouraging, helping,
helping to manage emotions after success or failure, interested in his/her success,
planning teaching for students’ success, encouraging student-teacher contacts, and
open to different viewpoints in the classroom.

Category # 4: Receiving feedback about performance and achievement

Examples: Receiving feedbacks such as test grades, placement test results,
written or oral comments and critiques from teachers/ coaches.

143

Category # 5: Impact of lectures/class discussions/ or a course content

Examples: From lectures/class discussions, or a course content, a student
may become very interested in a subject or love it for various reasons: for career
opportunities, to becoming aware about social or political issues, or issues of
cultural or ethnic heritage and so on.

Category # 6: Counselors’ interest and help

Examples: A student may talk to a counselor about his/her anxiety, fears,
academic problems, career path, or transfer to a University. The counselor’s interest
in the student, help, understanding, and the way of interaction has a great positive or
negative impact on a student.

Category # 7: Participating in one or more campus activities

Examples: joining a campus club or organization; going on field trips related
to a course, orientation activities, and events with other colleges or schools, sports
activities.

Category # 8: Establishing a particular close personal relationship

Examples: meeting and finding a boyfriend or a girlfriend in college who
makes an impact, positive or negative, by comments, personal example, behavior,
support, or attitude.

Category # 9: Developing new friendships and social relationships

Examples: new friends, peers, lab partners, class mates, study group
members, fellow members of a social club in college. Their personal examples,
comments, sharing of views, mutual help and dependence, broadening perspectives,
discussions can make positive or negative impact on a student. Not developing these
relationships also has impact.

Category # 10: Handling emotional events

Examples: Many events happen in a college which can give emotional
experience of joy, fear, anxiety, anger, pressure, excitement etc. Examples:
Performance in a course (grades, teacher’s comments), or in an activity (such as:
selection in athletic team and performance or election to a social club or student
body, or participation in college events and performance), comments from peers or
counselors, and so on. Handling these becomes a source of impact on identity.
144

Category # 11: Experiencing family influences
Examples: influence of a family member or relative, parents, siblings, etc. It
could be: encouragement, discouragement, praise or criticism, being held up as role
model. Or family events such as death, illness, having to assume responsibilities.

Category # 12: Experiencing self-awakening
Examples: An event or incident may happen in the college, in class or
outside, which has self-awakening impact on a student, such as: taking responsibility;
learning from one’s mistakes; sense of doing something with one’s life; relying on
his /her own opinions and be less bound by others’ opinions; forming a belief
whether he /she can succeed in a choice or career; beginning to see his/her
heritage; beginning to see other points of views; realizing his/her potential,
discovering interest or enjoyment of a subject or what he/she loves to do or be.

Paired Comparison Questionnaire
Now that you have read the 12 categories, we are interested in assessing how similar
you see these to one another. Please look at each numbered line (1 to 66) below, and
at the paired items in it. Each line has 2 of the 12 categories. Please rate the extent to
which you view these categories as alike using the scale below:
1=very dissimilar
2=not similar
3=somewhat similar
4=similar
5=very similar

For example if we ask you about “Teacher’s style of teaching” and “teacher as
role model”: If you think that they are “very similar” you would circle a 5.
If you think that they are only “somewhat similar”, you would circle 3.

145
Paired Comparison Questionnaire

Group 1 Group 2 Very Very
Dissimilar Similar

1 Developing new friendships Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5
2 Participation in campus activities Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
3 Experience teacher as a role model Impact of lectures/discussions/class 1 2 3 4 5
4 Teacher’s style of teaching Experience teacher as a role model 1 2 3 4 5
5 Establishing a close relationship Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
6 Teacher’s style of teaching Counselor’s interest and help 1 2 3 4 5

7 Teacher’s style of teaching Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
8 Counselor’s interest and help Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5
9 Experience teacher as a role model Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5
10 Teacher’s style of teaching Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility 1 2 3 4 5
11 Experience teacher as a role model Receiving feedback 1 2 3 4 5
12 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Counselor’s interest and help 1 2 3 4 5

13 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
14 Participation in campus activities Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
15 Receiving feedback Counselor’s interest and help 1 2 3 4 5
16 Experience teacher as a role model Participation in campus activities 1 2 3 4 5
17 Teacher’s style of teaching Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
18 Impact of lectures/discussions/class Developing new friendships 1 2 3 4 5

146

Paired Comparison Questionnaire (Continued)

Group 1 Group 2 Very Very
Dissimilar Similar

19 Experience teacher as a role model Establishing a close relationship 1 2 3 4 5
20 Establishing a close relationship Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
21 Teacher’s style of teaching Receiving feedback 1 2 3 4 5
22 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Receiving feedback 1 2 3 4 5
23 Teacher’s style of teaching Participation in campus activities 1 2 3 4 5
24 Counselor’s interest and help Establishing a close relationship 1 2 3 4 5

25 Receiving feedback Developing new friendships 1 2 3 4 5
26 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Developing new friendships 1 2 3 4 5
27 Experience teacher as a role model Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility 1 2 3 4 5
28 Developing new friendships Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
29 Teacher’s style of teaching Impact of lectures/discussions/class 1 2 3 4 5
30 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Impact of lectures/discussions/class 1 2 3 4 5

31 Developing new friendships Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
32 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
33 Impact of lectures/discussions/class Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5
34 Handling of emotional events Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
35 Receiving feedback Establishing a close relationship 1 2 3 4 5
36 Establishing a close relationship Developing new friendships 1 2 3 4 5

147
Paired Comparison Questionnaire (Continued)

Group 1 Group 2 Very Very
Dissimilar Similar

37 Experience teacher as a role model Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
38 Handling of emotional events Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
39 Receiving feedback Impact of lectures/discussions/class 1 2 3 4 5
40 Receiving feedback Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
41 Participation in campus activities Establishing a close relationship 1 2 3 4 5
42 Receiving feedback Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
43 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Establishing a close relationship 1 2 3 4 5
44 Impact of lectures/discussions/class Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
45 Receiving feedback Participation in campus activities 1 2 3 4 5

46 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5
47 Experiencing family influences Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
48 Counselor’s interest and help Developing new friendships 1 2 3 4 5
49 Teacher’s style of teaching Establishing a close relationship 1 2 3 4 5
50 Impact of lectures/discussions/class Participation in campus activities 1 2 3 4 5
51 Experience teacher as a role model Developing new friendships 1 2 3 4 5

52 Counselor’s interest and help Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
53 Counselor’s interest and help Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
54 Teacher’s style of teaching Developing new friendships 1 2 3 4 5
55 Experience teacher as a role model Counselor’s interest and help 1 2 3 4 5

148

Paired Comparison Questionnaire (Continued)

Group 1 Group 2 Very Very
Dissimilar Similar
56 Impact of lectures/discussions/class Establishing a close relationship 1 2 3 4 5
57 Impact of lectures/discussions/class Experiencing family influences 1 2 3 4 5
58 Impact of lectures/discussions/class Counselor’s interest and help 1 2 3 4 5
59 Counselor’s interest and help Participation in campus activities 1 2 3 4 5
60 Teacher’s style of teaching Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5

61 Participation in campus activities Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5
62 Establishing a close relationship Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5
63 Teacher’s attitude/support/flexibility Participation in campus activities 1 2 3 4 5
64 Participation in campus activities Developing new friendships 1 2 3 4 5
65 Experience teacher as a role model Experiencing self-awakening 1 2 3 4 5
66 Receiving feedback Handling of emotional events 1 2 3 4 5

Thank you for your time!

Years at college_______________ Gender M / F Age ( Must be at least 18 years old)______________

Ethnicity: Asian / Pacific Islander Hispanic/Latino/Latina Other

Black/ African American White /Caucasian
149

Appendix E
Similarity Matrix

STYL
ROLE
ATTITU
FDBK
COURS
COUNSL
ACTIV
FREND
NEWFRN
EMOTN
FAMLY
SLFAW
STYL 0 88 91 83 88 52 61 56 59 49 65 69
ROLE 88 0 87 78 88 60 56 76 61 60 61 69
ATTITU
91 87 0 84 93 71 62 65 65 63 54 69
FDBK 83 78 84 0 77 78 55 65 59 61 61 70
COURS 88 88 93 77 0 63 63 54 62 63 55 65
COUNSL 52 60 71 78 63 0 61 66 60 64 60 70
ACTIV 61 56 62 55 63 61 0 70 82 55 47 74
FREND 56 76 65 65 54 66 70 0 92 84 80 76
NEWFRN 59 61 65 59 62 60 82 92 0 58 76 79
EMOTN 49 60 63 61 63 64 55 84 58 0 82 78
FAMLY 65 61 54 61 55 60 47 80 76 82 0 76
SLFAW 69 69 69 70 65 70 74 76 79 78 76 0

150
Abbreviated category names have been shown in the similarity matrix. The
expanded names for the abbreviations are shown below.
STYL : Teacher’s style of teaching ACTIV : Campus Activities
ROLE : Teacher as a role model FREND : Close Friendships
ATTITU: Teacher’s attitude NEWFRN: Developing new friends
FDBK : Feedback EMOTN: Handling Emotions
COURS: Course Content FAMLY : Family events
COUNSL: Counselor’s interest SLFAW : Self-Awakening

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This study examined the college related sources of impact community college students perceived to have affected their identity development. One hundred twenty nine community college students each described a critical incident that had affected their sense of self, along with their ratings of the impact the incident had on them. For this a variant of Flanagan's (1954) Critical Incident Analysis Technique was used. Three raters used those incidents to develop 12 categories of impact. Then, 22 students rated the between-category similarity of every possible pair of categories on a Likert type scale. Those ratings were used to develop a similarity matrix which was used to conduct multidimensional scaling (MDS

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

From their perspective: discovering the sources of impact on older women undergraduates' identity development and mapping those experiences

PDF

The sources of impact in college on gay male student identity: the current student perspective

PDF

Describing and mapping the sources of college impact on the identity development of African American college students attending a predominantly white institution

PDF

Discovering the sources of impact of college on LGBTQ students' identity development and mapping those experiences

PDF

Student perspectives on identity development: describing the experiences sorority members perceive influenced their identity

PDF

Concept mapping and describing the sources of impact on Black gay college student identity development at 4-year institutions

PDF

Undergraduate single mothers' perception of the impacts of college on their cognitive and psychosocial development

PDF

More than one barrier to break: mapping the impact of college on identity in Latina undergraduates

PDF

First-generation Armenian American community college students' perception of events affecting their identity development

PDF

The sources of impact on first-generation Latino college students' identity development: from the students' perspective

PDF

Community college transfer student involvement experiences at a selective, private four-year university

PDF

Perceptions of inequality: racism, ethnic identity and student development for a master of education degree

PDF

Student engagement experiences of African American males at a California community college

PDF

The impact of learning communities on the retention and academic integration of Latino students at a highly selective private four-year institution

PDF

A phenomenological study of the impact of English language learner support services on students’ identity development

PDF

Self-perceptions of student identity in community college students with disabilities

PDF

Whiteness: a narrative analysis on student affairs professionals, race, identity, and multicultural competency

PDF

The impact of campus climate on community college student motivation

PDF

Support service representatives impact on first-generation low-income community college students

PDF

Assessing the impact of the Puente Project on Latino males in California community colleges