Successful students have their own goals and expectations related to assignments, areas of study and future careers (Lunneborg &Lunnegorg, 1976).

Success in school is also generated by one's own demand to seek and discover new and challenging experiences. This seeking is combined with setting one's own discovery course, instead of merely "taking in" what is offered by instructors. Lack of flexibility was found to be characteristic of drop-outs (Jones, 1955; Lavin, 1965). One needs to be partially conformist and partially experimental in thinking. For example, college seniors tend to integrate more diversity and relativism into their lives and accept more ambiguity than freshman (Perry, 1970). Researchers working with the Omnibus Personality Inventory included a scale of complexity as a part of an experimental and flexible orientation. This is an important part of "intellectual disposition" (Heist, 1964). Attaining goals and expectations and a relative posture towards knowledge development appears a necessary characteristic to success (Schmidt, 1985, Jones 1955; Lavin, 1965).

• ALMQUIST, E., & Angrist, S. (1970). Career salience and atypicality of occupational choice among college women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 32, 242-249.
• BOLLES, R.N. (1971- ). What color is your parachute? Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press
• BROWN, R.C. Jr. (1967). The factor structure of variables used in the prediction of performance of college students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Paper presented at the meeting of Educational Research Association of New York State (November 24, 2967). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED024717).
• BYNUM, J.E. (1983). Dropouts. Stopouts and Persisters: The Effects of Race and Sex Composition of College Classes. College and University, 59, 1, 39-48.
• CARNEY, M. (1981). Female college persisters: nontraditional versus traditional career fields. Journal of College Student Personnel, 22, 5, 418-23.
• COHEN, A.M. (1969). The relationships among student characteristics, changed instructional practices and student attrition in junior college. Final Report. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED032074).
• COLES, H.W., III (1981). College student perceptions four year follow-up: 1973-77, characteristics of freshmen associated with retention. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED200125).
• DARLRY, J.G. (1962). Promise and performance: A study of ability and achievement in higher education. Berkeley, California: University of California, Center for the study of Higher Education.
• DWINELI, P.L., & Higbee, J.L. (1990). The relationship of affective variables to studetn performance: Research findings. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the National Association for Developmental Education, Cincinnati, OH. (ERIC Document production Service No. ED304614).
• HALL, L.H. (1969). Selective variables in the academic achievement of junior college students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Journal of Educational Research, 63, 2, 60-62.
• HELLER, B.R. (1982). Persisters and nonpersisters: critical characteristics affecting retention among city University of New York community college career program students. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED217949).
• LUNNEBORG, A.E., & Lunneborg, P.W. (1976). Characteristics of university graduates who were community college transfers. Journal of College Student Personnel, 17, 61-65.
• TIEDEMAN, D., & O'Hara, R. (1963). Career development: Choice and adjustment, Princeton, N.J. College Entrance Examination Board.
• ZALESKI, Zbigniew (1988). Attributions and Emotions Related to Future Goal Attainment, Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 4, 563-68.
  
  

Return to the 8 Factors page