Collegiate psychological sense of community in relation to size of college/university and extroversion

A scale to measure psychological sense of community (PSC) for colleges and universities was developed. Based on responses of 198 undergraduate students, factor-analysis was used to derive a 14-item scale (coefficient alpha = .88), which was given to another student sample of 98 undergraduates (alpha = .90). This collegiate PSC scale was administered to another nonrandom sample of 1127 undergraduates (coefficient alpha = .92) from 27 colleges varying in enrollment size. Using a subset of 774 students from psychology classes, a one-way analysis of variance revealed that students from colleges with enrollments of less than 2,000 and 2,000-9,999 had higher PSC scores than students from colleges with enrollments of 10,000-19,999 and greater than 20,000. Higher PSC scores were also observed for students living on-campus versus off-campus. For all colleges combined, higher PSC scores were observed for students who were members of a fraternity or sorority. Extroversion was found to be significantly related to PSC. Both extroversion and size of school accounted for unique variance in PSC. The issues of community homogeneity and diversity were raised. Results were discussed in terms of PSC as an environmental attribute versus personological and interactionist interpretations. Future research needs were noted. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.