Academic Decisions as a Function of Writing Apprehension

Abstract

The decision to select one academic major over others is important for those enrolled in programs of higher education. Each of the approximately eleven million full-time college students currently involved in degree programs have made or will make such decisions. Future students, presently of high school age or even younger, will face the same issue at a later date. While such choices are made in some systematic fashion by students, the various psychological components involved are not well specified. Research which has explored academic choice-making typically falls back on schemes devised by scholars interested in occupational or vocational decision-making (Crites, 1969; Holland, 1966). Those models generally suggest the individual will select an occupation which he or she perceives can maximize available rewards and minimize associated negative consequences. Many suggest as well that optimal satisfaction with an occupation derives from a close psychological fit between individual characteristics and the inherent requirements of the job. Working within such frameworks scholars have found a number of personality variables predictive of major choice in the academic setting (Goldschmid, 1967; Morrow, 1971). Individual differences such as cognitive style (Osipow, 1969), flexibility (Sherrick, Davenport, & Colina, 1971), impulsiveness (Kipnis, Lane, & Berger, 1967), and achievement motivation (Isaacson, 1964; Malone, 1969; Wish & Hasazi, 1973) have been successfully utilized as discriminators of students' choice-making. An inherent requirement of any college major is a certain amount of writing. Beyond basic, across-the-board requirements, academic majors obviously vary in the amount demanded. Journalism or English majors might expect to write more in their collegiate career than Physics or Mathematics majors. And beyond classroom requirements, the particular academic area chosen foreshadows future vocational opportunities themselves differing in writing demands (Daly & Shamo, 1976). Given that academic majors differ in the amount of writing required, we might expect individual differences directly related to writing to play an important role in making decisions about majors. More specifically, an individual's level of writing apprehension should predict his or her evaluation and choice of majors given some specified or expected level of required writing.

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