Career Plans and Life Outlook Study

The study targeted 571 seniors in the College of Business and Economics (CBE), College of Education and Professional Studies (CEPS), and Psychology (in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)) at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UWRF) during the 2015-16 academic year. We designed a questionnaire to be completed in fifteen minutes, which elicited information on student background characteristics (including sex, age, and combined income of parents), college major, and labor market expectations. The questionnaire also included metrics to measure student attitudes towards masculine norms (Mahalik et al., 2003) and self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1979) (see questionnaire, questions 13 and 15). Additional information on student GPA and ACT scores was obtained from the UWRF Office of Institutional Research.Data collection involved eliciting cooperation of instructors in upper division courses to allow class time for targeted students to complete the questionnaire. Additional observations were obtained through the cooperation of faculty who agreed to have their senior advisees complete the questionnaire during the academic advising period. These data collection methods yielded a total response rate of 89 percent (178 observations out of 200) in the CBE. In the CEPS (including psychology) the total response rate was 66 percent (245 observations out of 371).Students were asked to voluntarily provide their campus ID numbers and signatures to obtain data from the UWRF Office of Institutional research on GPA and ACT scores students. Data points were lost as not all students provided this information. Regarding ACT scores a significant number of additional data points were lost because transfer students are not required to submit them to gain admission to the university. In all, we lost 119 ACT data points.ReferencesMahalik, James R., Benjamin D. Locke, Larry H. Ludlow, Matthew A. Diemer, Michael Gottfried, Gary Freitas, and Ryan P. J. Scott. 2003. “Development of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory,” Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 4(1): 3-25.Rosenberg, Morris. 1979. Conceiving of Self. New York: Basic Books.