Our little snowflakes
From the
London Daily Mail:
How college students think they are more special than EVER: Study reveals rocketing sense of entitlement on U.S. campuses
Books aside, if you asked a college freshman today who the Greatest Generation is, they might respond by pointing in a mirror.
Young people's unprecedented level of self-infatuation was revealed in a new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has been asking students to rate themselves compared to their peers since 1966.
Roughly 9 million young people have taken the survey over the last 47 years.
Pyschologist Jean Twenge and her colleagues compiled the data and found that over the last four decades there's been a dramatic rise in the number of students who describe themselves as being 'above average' in the areas of academic ability, drive to achieve, mathematical ability, and self-confidence.
But in appraising the traits that are considered less invidualistic - co-operativeness, understanding others, and spirituality - the numbers either stayed at slightly decreased over the same period.
Researchers also found a disconnect between the student's opinions of themselves and actual ability.
While students are much more likely to call themselves gifted in writing abilities, objective test scores actually show that their writing abilities are far less than those of their 1960s counterparts.
Also on the decline is the amount of time spent studying, with little more than a third of students saying they study for six or more hours a week compared to almost half of all students claiming the same in the late 1980s.
One of the comments has this to say:
Not all of this generation are like this, but I would say at least 50% are. In my business it's the 18-20somethings that show up 30 minutes late for an appointment and are shocked and incensed they aren't treated like princesses when they walk through the door and are even argumentative when they realize that they have lost their appointment, but are still being charged for it. I did hire four young women in this age range as assistants and they were awful, they barely lasted a month each. Wonderfully engaging personalities, but never finished a single project, were sloppy and apparently justified it when they stole things. One of them had her father call me and insist that I not file a police report when I fired her for theft. He thought she was wonderful - considering he is probably going to have to support her for the rest of his life, that might be a good thing. The ones who aren't like this are amazing and work their tails off to accomplish their goals.
Classic
Dunning�Kruger effect...
Posted by DaveH at January 6, 2013 12:57 PM