What makes a collegial higher education student? How personality and goal orientations contribute to prosocial behavior

ABSTRACT

University professors’ collegiality has received far more attention in higher education research than collegiality among higher education students. Hence, this lack of research concerning higher education students’ collegiality represents a research gap that this study aims to fill. The present study aimed at examining the contribution of personal characteristics and goal orientations to collegiality among higher education students. A total of 196 undergraduate students participated in the study. Path analysis revealed that different personality characteristics (gender, age, type of study program, years in college, and academic self-concept) and traits (Big Five and altruism) are related to goal orientations as well as positive and negative collegiality. Results are discussed regarding theoretical assumptions on pro-social development, measurement problems, and practical applications in higher education courses or trainings.

KEYWORDS:

• University students
• social skills
• student development
• altruism

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Burkhard Gniewosz for his comments on the statistical analyses. Both authors contributed to all parts of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Informed consent

Participation was voluntary. All ethical standards were applied.

Code availability

Codes available on request.

Data availability statement

Data and material are available on request.