Core Commitments: Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility

Personal and Social Responsibility Institutional Inventory (PSRII)

Initial Findings

Over 20,000 students and over 8,800 faculty, academic administrators, and student affairs staff participated in the PSRII in the fall of 2007. Initial findings are published in the report titled "Should College Focus More on Personal and Social Responsibility?"

Background

The original research for the Personal and Social Responsibility Institutional Inventory (PSRII) occurred in the first half of 2006 under the direction of Lee Knefelkamp, Core Commitments director of dialogue and assessment, and Richard Hersh with funding from the John Templeton Foundation. The original draft of the PSRII was developed by Lee Knefelkamp in collaboration with Lauren Ruff, research assistant. Designed to measure campus climate related to the dimensions of personal and social responsibility, the development of the PSRII began with a thorough review of the psychology and developmental literatures to create definitions, identify character traits, and point to relevant behavioral manifestations.

Using a matrix defined by the five dimensions and ten markers of campus culture, a pool of sample items was generated to develop an initial draft of an instrument. To provide more comprehensive data on how well institutions are embedding education for personal and social responsibility, the PSRI Inventory surveys four different constituents: students, faculty, academic administrators, and student affairs staff. The initial instrument went through multiple internal revisions before being sent to several external reviewers, survey research firms, and experts in the fields of development and climate measurement.

The initial version of the PSRII was piloted at three institutions in the spring and summer of 2007. Data from the pilot institutions were processed and analyzed through basic factor analytic techniques and reliability testing to screen for items needing revision. Using this information, the literature on survey research methods, as well as feedback and suggestions provided by Core Commitments team members, a final revision was prepared for a fall 2007 administration at the 23 Core Commitments Leadership Consortium institutions.

Timeline for PSRI Inventory Development

Draft survey developed by AAC&U
(Winter/Spring 2006)

Draft survey reviewed by external experts and survey research firms
(Summer 2006)

Pilot survey developed by AAC&U and University of Michigan research team
(Fall 2006)

Pilot survey data collection
(Spring/Summer 2007)

Pilot survey data analysis
(Spring/ Summer 2007)

PSRII revisions
(Summer 2007)

PSRII ready for data collection
(Fall 2007)

Data collection from Leadership Consortium institutions
(Fall 2007)Data analysis
(Spring 2008)

Report on Initial Findings and Press Release
(April 2008)
- Should College Focus More on Personal and Social Responsibility?
- PSRII Press Release, April 17

Final PSRII revisions
(Summer 2008)

Official report on findings
(December 2008)

PSRII made available to AAC&U members
(Spring 2009)

For more information, please contact Michèle Leaman at leaman@aacu.org.