Journal of College & Character VOLUME 11, No. 2, May 2010 A New Me Generation? The Increasing Self-Interest Among Millennial College Students Brian Bourke, Louisiana State University Heather S. Mechler, The University of Alabama 1 Abstract Each new generation of college-goers presents a new set of challenges for faculty and student affairs educators, and the Millennial Generation has certainly done so since they began arriving on college campuses. Research suggests that characteristics unique to most Millennials are that they are highly motivated and high-achieving. Their ambitions are tied to personal gratification, and they utilize achievement as a means for gaining approval. In this article, the authors summar- ize research that demonstrates an increase in personally interested thinking and externality among Millennials, and discuss implications of these findings for moral judgment development and moral functioning. S ince they began arriving on college and university campuses in 2000, members of the Millennial Generation (Millennials) have presented faculty and student affairs educators with challenges never before faced in previous generations. As Millennials began enrolling, researchers attempted to describe their traits and characteristics (Howe & Strauss, 2000), and to anticipate what they would require or demand from their collegiate experiences (Howe & Strauss, 2003). Extant literature reveals that Millennials (born since 1981) differ from their predecessors, members of Generation X (Gen X) (Strange, 2004). Generational differences that pertain to development of moral judgment and reasoning are of particular concern to student affairs educa- tors and others in higher education as reflected in the decline in Postconventional moral reason- ing, the rise in both personal interest morality (Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, & Thoma, 1999a) and narcissistic thinking. These aspects of development are of concern because they influence the ways in which students make ethical choices in their college years and later as adult members of society. Research on college student development is an area of scholarship that is rich (Evans, Forney, & Guido-DiBrito, 1998; McEwen, 2003; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) and enhances understanding of how students develop capacities for critical thinking and moral reasoning (Pizzolato, 2007; Pizzolato, Chaudhari, Murrell, Podobnik, & Schaeffer, 2008). This growing body of literature provides faculty and staff who work with college students a means of better understanding of how college students make decisions, and how those decision-making processes evolve during their time in college. Theories of moral judgment and moral reasoning fit into the 1 Brian Bourke, PhD, is an assistant professor of Higher Education & Student Affairs in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy and Practice at Louisiana State University. Heather S. Mechler is a doctoral candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy in educational psychology in the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling at The University of Alabama. Peer Reviewed Article JCC © NASPA 2010 http://journals.naspa.org/jcc/ doi:10.2202/1940-1639.1034 Brought to you by | University of Connecticut Authenticated Download Date | 5/28/15 9:13 PM