College students overestimate their own abilities while exhibiting increased feelings of entitlement, according to a new study by Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University. The Huffington Post reports:
Among other things, Twenge and her colleagues found that a growing percentage of incoming college freshmen rated themselves as “above average” in several categories, compared with college freshmen who were surveyed in the 1960s.
When it came to social self-confidence, about half of freshmen questioned in 2009 said they were above average, compared to fewer than a third in 1966. Meanwhile, 60 percent in 2009 rated their intellectual self-confidence as above average, compared with 39 percent in 1966, the first year the survey was given.
In the study, the authors also argue that intellectual confidence may have been bolstered by grade inflation, noting that, in 1966, only 19 percent of college students who were surveyed earned an “A” or “A-minus” average in high school, compared with 48 percent in 2009.”So students might be more likely to think they’re superior because they’ve been given better grades,” Twenge says.
Read the full story at The Huffington Post.
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