Students’ Perceptions of Moral Change and Influence in College

Research describing students’ perceived moral growth, instead of research based on a scholar’s predetermined vision of moral growth is sorely lacking. What do students themselves perceive as the nature and extent of their moral development or regression during their college years? What do they identify as the major positive or negative influences on their moral growth or decline? These two research questions guided this qualitative case study at Baylor University. Through interviews with a 69-person representative sample of undergraduates in their senior year, we asked students to describe what factors stimulated the moral growth they experienced during their years at Baylor. Interestingly, students pointed to their peers and the cocurriculum as the primary sources of moral influence. Through a variety of college contexts, they learned to practice various virtues and acquired new moral mentors and models from whom they gained “moral expertise.” Campus student organizations and other student groups helped students engage in service, acquire leadership virtues, and find older moral mentors. By contrast, the curricular domain was seen as less influential, providing mainly limited cognitive moral knowledge relevant to their professional lives.