Trends in College Students' Values Between 1952 and 1979: A Return of the Fifties?

Four identical surveys carried out in 1952, 1968-69, 1974, and 1979 among men at Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan depict value shifts in several areas. Privatism decreased from 1952 to 1968-69, then increased again in the late 1970s. Traditional religious beliefs were relatively weak in the 1960s but gained in the late 1970s although church attendance did not increase. Other-direction droppedfrom 1952 to the 1960s and changed little thereafter. Anxieties about deviant social groups dropped sharply during the late 1950s and remained low. Belief in free enterprise ideology was strong in 1952, weak in the 1960s, and slightly stronger again in 1979. Faith in the government and the military similarly fell during the 1960s but rose again in 1979. The changes in survey findings are not traceable to changes in student selection at the two colleges; they represent broader value shifts among college-going youth. In some respects there is the beginning of a return of the fifties, but not in areas involving personalfreedoms, such as sexual behavior and life-style. The demandfor increased personal freedoms, begun in the 1960s, continues to rise.