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A Social Psychological Perspective on Student Consumerism

Sinicki, Justin M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1493396227402883

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Arts, University of Toledo, Sociology.
With colleges and universities functioning more as businesses, students have been conceptualized as consumers and customers of the “products” and services “sold” by higher education institutions. Anecdotally, a considerable amount of college students have consumer-orientations. This rise in student consumerism has not only transformed student ideologies regarding the purpose of higher education, but its negatively impacting student behavior and learning processes inside the classroom. However, empirical studies have yet to support the suggested prevalence of student consumerism. Additionally, no study has attempted to understand student consumerism at the social psychological level. Using an electronic survey administered to undergraduate students at a public university, this pilot study shows that student-consumer orientations are moderate at best, and many students do not agree with certain beliefs or behaviors that are attributed to consumer-orientations. At the social psychological level, multiple regression results indicated student consumer attitudes are significantly associated with social exchanges or activities involving academic costs. Furthermore, the results suggested that males find academic activities or exchanges more costly than females, and males also find putting off academic work for non-academic social exchanges or activities more rewarding than females. In using a social psychological perspective on student consumerism, this pilot study will contribute to future research that explores students educational decision-making processes.
Patricia Case, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Karie Peralta, Dr. (Committee Member)
Barbara Coventry, Dr. (Committee Member)
103 p.
Education; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Higher Education; Social Psychology; Sociology
Student consumerism; student customer-orientation; student consumer-orientation; Social Exchange Theory; the commodification of higher education; social psychology; decision-making processes; rewards; costs; neoliberalism; gender inequality

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sinicki, J. M. (2017). A Social Psychological Perspective on Student Consumerism [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1493396227402883

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sinicki, Justin. A Social Psychological Perspective on Student Consumerism. 2017. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1493396227402883.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sinicki, Justin. "A Social Psychological Perspective on Student Consumerism." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1493396227402883

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1493396227402883
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© 2017, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License A Social Psychological Perspective on Student Consumerism by Justin M. Sinicki is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.