Extrinsic Aspirations In College Students

Most college students spend their four years of college finding their career paths in their lives. Many factors play an important role for the student such as money, image, or fame. Some students take a much different approach such as personal growth, close relationships, and physical health. These two factors are called extrinsic and intrinsic respectively. Studies done by Kasser and Ryan showed that people who strongly aspired for extrinsic needs tend to report poor psychological health. Those who pursued intrinsic aspirations reported a positive well-being, including positive affect, vitality, and self-actualization. Basic psychological needs a person should have is autonomy, competence, and relatedness these are the cornerstone of psychological …show more content…
However many arguments have proposed that people who attain these goals through intrinsic aspirations have better satisfaction of psychological needs. In a current study that was conducted the goal was to focus on psychological health over a one year period that spanned one to two years after college. This would focus on how extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations benefit psychological health. The most critical developmental period is the two years after post-college, this is when the goals students have adopted and internalized put them into use. The hypothesis in the study is the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations would relate to attainment of the corresponding aspirations. The second component of the study is the aspiration attainment of psychological health assessed both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Time 2 relates to the well-being and negatively contemporary attainment through extrinsic aspirations. The experiments separate extrinsic and intrinsic aspirations, with one emphasis on psychologically positive to one’s health. The third component is whether it benefits to our psychological needs. That change in attainment would benefit our psychological needs. In the end the scientists leading the study predict that change in attainment of intrinsic aspirations would relate positively to psychological health rather extrinsic aspirations lead to a negatively …show more content…
This gave researchers to contact them after a year or two after graduation. Out of the 246, after one year 164 responded. After another year 147 responded. The majority of the participants were Caucasian, the next was Asian, and African Americans and Hispanics followed. A basic twenty one psychological needs scale was made to assess satisfaction. To measure satisfaction of autonomy the responses were made into a seven point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (not at all true) to 7 (very true). Aspiration was measured in a thirty five item aspiration index. The four intrinsic and the three extrinsic aspirations, with each being represented by five items. There is a five item satisfaction scale used to measure life satisfaction. Using six items from the MSEI General Self-esteem Scale measured self-esteem. The Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale assessed positive and negative emotions. The twelve item Pennebaker Symptom Checklist assessed physical symptoms experienced over the past month. Six items from the State Trait Anxiety Inventory assessed anxiety. All of these were measured using the same Likert-type scale. There are also many variables in this experiment. The races of the participant can affect the intrinsic or extrinsic aspirations one pursues. For example different culture emphasizes different beliefs this in hand makes