Sociology

This dissertation examines the strategies that students use for navigating their way through college and the steps they take in preparation for college graduation. I wrote this dissertation because I wanted to understand how students go from being freshmen not long out of high school to young adults prepared (or not prepared) to enter the workforce or attend graduate or professional school. Past research has found that as high school students, many young people are generally directionless when it comes to learning about different career paths (Schneider and Stevenson 2006). Moreover, in the U.S., there is very little structural support for helping students navigate the transition from student to worker. While universities may offer programs that can aid students in finding jobs or applying to graduate schools, it is largely up to students to seek these programs out. This dissertation therefore investigates the question, "How much do college students plan for their post-college lives?" To accomplish my research goals, I focus on two areas in which students may demonstrate planfulness: choosing a college major and planning for post-graduation careers or schooling. I seek to answer three general questions. First, what reasons do students give for attending college? Second, how planful are students when selecting their college majors? Third, how planful are students in preparing for their future educational and occupational goals? To answer these questions, I collected my own data using a mixed methodology research design that included in-depth interviews with 31 students and a survey of nearly 500 college seniors at a large, northeastern university. This study adds to the literature on the transition to adulthood by studying the school-to-work transition. It also contributes to the sociology of education literature by shedding light on how college students make decisions about college majors. The survey shows that many students simultaneously hold both utilitarian and liberal arts philosophies toward higher education. The majority of survey respondents reported that they were motivated to attend college because of both the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards that a college education offers. Meanwhile, the in-depth interviews suggest that parental expectations, which were also commonly cited by survey respondents as reasons for attending college, are very powerful influences in students' decisions to attend college. Regarding college major choices, the survey results suggest that students find school experience more influential than the prospects of a potential career. In total, about two-thirds of respondents gave "present-oriented" rather than "future-oriented" reasons for choosing their majors. When looking at individual reasons for selecting a major, I found that passion for or interest in a subject was by far the reason cited most often as most important. The in-depth interview data provide further insight into the relationship between college majors and post-graduation plans. These interviews show that it…

Advisors/Committee Members: Ericksen, Eugene, Grasmuck, Sherri, Goyette, Kimberly A., Joslyn, Richard.

This study explored the proposition that persons high in ‘cognitive dysorganization,’ as assessed by the Sense of Personal Disorganization Scale (SPDS), would show both poorer prospective memory and planning performance, especially in the absence of external memory cues. Cognitive dysorganization also was expected to affect planning performance above and beyond the effects of executive functioning, anxiety, and attentional deficits. As understood here, cognitive dysorganization refers to the extent that one’s overall cognitive functioning is deficient in the coherence, structure, and guidance essential to the achievement of intended aims and aspirations. Recruited from introductory psychology students in the upper and lower thirds of SPDS score distribution, 144 high and 158 low cognitive dysorganization participants, seen individually, were given rules for performing the Six Elements Task. Participants in the instruction only condition were asked to formulate a plan for task completion. Participants in the instruction plus cue condition were asked to formulate a plan and to use an outline of the plan during task completion. Participants in the no instruction condition were not told to formulate a plan. All participants then completed several behavioral measures of executive functioning, self-report questionnaires about anxiety and attentional deficits, and a personal information questionnaire. Participants were to initiate the Six Elements Task at a certain cue and execute their plan, if they had formulated one. Results largely failed to support the proposition that cognitive dysorganization is associated with difficulties in prospective memory and planning, even in the absence of external prompting cues; however, cognitive dysorganization was found to be positively correlated with committing rule violations during plan execution. Results also failed to support the proposition that cognitive dysorganization contributed to planning performance above and beyond the effects of executive functioning, anxiety, and attentional deficits. Advisors/Committee Members: Mirels, Herbert (Advisor).