Research Proposal

Working Title: What Does Your Major Say About You?

Topic:

The topic that I am proposing research on is the effect that a college student’s background and personality have on their choice of major. I hope to find specific patterns, based on both external and internal factors, of students in certain majors that create major molds. The paper will mainly focus on more recent generations of college students.

Research Question:

How is a college student’s decision in choosing a major influenced by external forces and how is it influenced by internal forces? Do most students in a particular major fit the mold?

Theoretical Frame:

There have been a number of theories over the years that seek to explain the choices that college students make. In particular,  Holland’s Theory of Careers has been applied to a college student’s choice of major in several recent studies. The article, COLLEGE MAJOR CHOICE: An Analysis of Person–Environment Fit, explains that “The basic premise of Holland’s theory is that human behavior is a result of the interaction between individuals and their environments. Applying Holland’s theory, Smart, Feldman, and Ethington suggest that students choose academic environments compatible with their personality types’’(Porter and Umbach  432) Holland’s Theory establishes six environments that “can be translated into a typology for academic disciplines”. (Porter and Umbach 432) Using the environments created by Holland as a foundation my paper will establish major molds that can be applied to students from recent generations to explain why they choose a particular major.  

While tuition costs continue to skyrocket due to the privatization of higher education, one would imagine that class background and economic status would contribute more to a student’s choice of study. Students can no longer afford to sacrifice practicality for passion. On the other hand, it may be more likely that the Me Generation follows their own interest in choosing a major, regardless of the economic consequences.  

Research and Plan:

The article, Generation Me: Influences of Students’ choice of major, written by Casey George-Jackson, documents a study done in 2010 in nine large public universities. In this study George-Jackson asked several students who was their biggest influence in choosing a major. The students were given a list of choices which included: guidance counselor, parents, peers, high school teacher, minister, family/friends, or other. Out of 1,867 different responses, by far the top two responses were “myself” (around 25%) and “my parents”(around 20%). The study goes on to break these two categories down by race and gender, giving great insight into how different cultures result in different major decisions.

A student’s choice of major is strongly influenced by family characteristics. The article, The Direct and Indirect Effect of Family Factors on the Choice of a College Major,  discusses research done on Russian college students that shows how much of a student’s choice of major is determined by their family’s economic resources and how much is a result of cultural factors. Research shows that in most cases parents have one of the heaviest impacts on a student decision making. In a more broad sense, certain cultures place a higher value on specific career choices creating a sense of major stereotypes.

Internally, each individual has a unique set of interests that will have some impact on their choice of major. In her book, Generation Me, Jeane M. Twenge explores the personality traits of the younger generation. Twenge argues that this generation is not only confident, tolerant, and open-minded, but also narcissistic and anxious. The “Entitlement Generation” that Twenge is referring to consists of people born in the 1980’s and 1990’s. These self-centered individuals make up typical current college students and recent graduates. My thought is that self-absorbed students are more likely to follow their own internal interests in choosing a major, rather than external forces.