| Abstract |
- The purpose of this study was to explore possible differences
in value patterns of students residing in four types of university living
environments--residence halls, Greek houses, cooperatives, and off campus
dwellings. The Rokeach Value Survey was utilized as the
major measurement tool for identification of the value patterns of
students. Within each living group type, 125 males and 125 females
were asked to respond to the questionnaire, creating a total random
sample of 1, 000. The data were collected during Fall Term 1976,
on the Oregon State University campus.
The hypotheses considered seven major factors: immediate
versus delayed gratification, competence versus religious morality,
self-constriction versus self-expansion, social versus personal
orientation, societal versus family security, respect versus love,
and inner- versus other-directed.
The analysis of variance technique with the F-ratio was used
to identify significant differences between the value rankings of
students in the four living groups. The level of significance was set at . 01 for all of the tests. Additional analyses of data included comparisons
of value rankings of students grouped according to sex,
academic major, level of participation in campus activities, political
philosophy, hometown size, and geographic region.
The major findings were as follows:
1) As a whole, students rated delayed gratification, self-expansion,
personal orientation, family security, love, and inner-directed
values higher than the opposite factor poles, respectively.
2) Students from Greek houses tended to place significantly less
importance on the delayed gratification values when compared
to the other groups.
3) Students who reside in off-campus environments tended to give
higher priority to competence values, while members of the
university sponsored living groups considered religious
morality values more important.
4) When comparisons were made on self-expansion and self-constriction
values, it was found that students from cooperatives,
ranked expansion values significantly lower than did
students from the other three living groups.
5) Students residing in Greek houses ranked family security values
significantly higher than did students in the other groups when
compared with societal values.
6) Students residing in cooperative and off-campus units tended to rate love values significantly higher than did Greek or
residence hall students, when compared with respect values.
7) Students in residence halls tended to rate inner-directed values
significantly lower than did members of the other groups, when
compared with other-directed values, while off-campus
residents ranked the inner-directed values significantly higher.
8) Comparisons between factors when students were grouped
according to sex revealed that females tended to rate delayed
gratification, religious morality, societal, and inner-directed
values significantly higher than did males.
9) Students who classify themselves as liberals tended to rate
societal, competence, and self-expansion values higher than
did "middle-of-the-road" or conservative students when contrasted
with family security, religious morality, or selfconstriction
values, respectively.
10) Immediate gratification values were rated higher by students
who identified themselves as active in campus events when
compared with students who were classified as non-participants.
The results of this study offer a basis for further research on
student values, as well as providing those associated with institutions
of higher learning information on the value patterns of students who
reside in different types of environments.
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