1. Lydia Butler
HIED 66653: College Student Development
September 24, 2014
William G. Perry
Theory of Intellectual and Ethical Development in College Students
Positions 5-6
WILLIAM G. PERRY
— Feb. 13, 1913-Jan. 12, 1998
— Educational Psychologist
— Harvard Graduate, B.A. in English and Greek 1935, M.A. English 1940.
— Worked at Rivers School in Brookline, followed by a position at William’s
College, then served as a Harvard faculty member (Gilligan, Kegan, Sizer, 1999)
— At Harvard…
o Led Bureau of Study Counsel for 33 Years
o Member of faculty of Arts and Sciences
o Professor of Education at Graduate School of Education ("Paid Notice,"
1999, n.p.)
— Notable Work (Hall, 2013, n.p.)
o 1950s-60s: 15 year study of undergraduates about cognitive and
intellectual development, published in 1970.
o Published a translation of Homer’s Illiad
POSITION 5: Relativism Correlate, Competing, or Diffuse
Tenets of the Position
• Students are moving in this position from understanding something as having a
simple meaning behind it to seeing the “grey” areas and questioning the
complexities
o looking at status of the content, consigning dualism to the subordinate
status
• Up to this point students have been able to find answers to problems as being
either an anomaly or contradictory in nature.
o This view shifts within position 5 to understanding the complexity of a
situation and that you can have two views that are incompatible with one
another.
• However, students are also still thinking in a single-minded fashion where even
though they now understand things to be complex, they are assuming complexity
rather than going back to find the simplicity if it there.
o Example: “I don’t know if complexity itself is always necessary. I’m not
sure. But if complexity is not necessary, at least you have to find that it is
2. necessary before you can decide, ‘well this particular problem needs only
the same approach’” (Perry, 1970, 310).
Definition of Terminology
• Relativism Correlate – students understand that some knowledge that they
acquire is relative, while some knowledge remains absolute and dualistic in its
structure.
o Learning what falls under the “grey area” versus the black and white area.
• Relativism Competing – this occurs when a student wavers between absolutistic
and relativistic assumptions seemingly without noticing that he held these two
generalized and incompatible thoughts.
o Thinking and looking at something from two different lenses but
understanding that the student’s ideas will never come to an agreement.
• Relativism Diffuse – the complete revolution, expressed in assumption of general
assumption in all knowledge (Perry, 1970, 310).
POSITION 6: Commitment Foreseen
Tenets of the Position
— Moving from commitment being a singular item to the whole action or being.
— Refers to a person’s affirmative acts of choice and orientation in a relative world
(Perry, 1970, 311).
— More holistic that just “a man’s commitments”
Definition of Terminology
— Commitment – referring to a person’s affirmative acts of choice and orientation
in a relative world.
— Uppercase “C” distinguishes such acts from unconsidered commitments
deriving solely from familial and cultural absorptions in a dualistic world.
(Perry, 1970, 311).
— Usually commitment refers to the object or content alone, rather than the
whole act or relation. (Perry, 1970, 311).
STRENGTHS OF POSITIONS
— The use of positions within the theory to describe the different stages of student
development is one recognized strength of Perry’s work.
— In thinking about it in stages, we are not imprisoning students in stages,
like we would be if we looked at it as a linear model.
— Emphasizing standpoint (a person’s perspective) has been major foundational
point for social identity theories
— Perry wanted to keep student’s dynamic thinking at the forefront of our
minds as we teach them and the way in which we interact with them.
— Always linking students’ needs to our pedagogy
3. — His attention to the uniqueness of each student’s voice and the role that
that played within his work
— Influenced other models – King and Kitchener’s model of reflective judgment
— Laid a foundation for others to elaborate on this model with more diverse
populations of students (Knefelkamp, 2003, 10-15).
CRITICISM OF POSITIONS
— Population of sample- limited
— Only using white males for the study
— Harvard and Radcliffe male students of the 50s and 60s
— “Privileged” population
— Very limited scope of students
— Not translatable or a good representation of the “American College
Student”
— Older study
— Many adaptations and changes have been made to the study
— Looking at how cultural perspectives and values shape student data and
rating/evaluation methods of the model (Knefelkamp, 2003, 10-15)
—
SOURCES
Gilligan, C., Kegan, R. Sizer, T. (1999). Memorial Minute: William Graves Perry Jr. The
Harvard University Gazette. n.p.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/05.27/mm.perry.html
Hall, Macie. Perry's Scheme - Understanding the Intellectual Development of College-
Aged Students. John's Hopkins University Innovative Instructor's Blog, n.p.
http://ii.library.jhu.edu/tag/william-g-perry/
Knefelkamp, L. (2003). The influence of a classic. Liberal Education, 89(3), 10-15.
Paid Notice: Deaths Perry William G., Jr. (1999). The New York Times. n.p.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/18/classified/paid-notice-deaths-perry-william-
g-jr.html
Perry, W. G., Jr. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college
years: A scheme. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Reinhart, Winston.
4. FURTHER REFERENCE
Knefelkamp L.L. (1978). A reader's guide to student development theory: A framework
for understanding, a framework for design. Unpublished manuscript.
Knefelkamp, L.L. Introduction. In W.G. Perry, Jr. Forms of ethical and intellectual
development in the college years: A Scheme (pp. xi-xxxvii). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Knefelkamp, L.L., & Slepitza, R. (1976). A cognitive-developmental model of career
development: An adaptation of the Perry scheme. Counseling Psychologist., 6(2),
15-19.
