Assessinging Self-authorship Development Of College Seniors

Career choice is among the first important decisions in life for college students in their adulthood.Research has shown that undergraduate students are often confused,lack of self-orientation and dependent on external voices when they make career decisions.The purpose of this study is to explore the meaning-making of career decision-making of college seniors to assess their self-authorship development and contributing factors.Career decisionmaking is an important arena for assessing self-authorship development.An individual's meaning-making of important decisions can reflect selfauthorship development level.In addition,career decision-making involves an individual's meaning-making of knowledge,himself or herself,relationships with others and external opinion,which as a whole reflects the meaning-making structure and self-authorship development level.The theory of self-authorship development is one of the integrated student development theories.It encompasses three dimensions of development: epistemological,intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions.It integrates three phases of development: following external formula,at the crossroads and self-authorship.This study used a mixed-method research design.A contextualized survey instrument was used to assess the developmental level of college seniors at two universities in Shanghai,and in-depth interviews followed to supplement the quantitative study.It is found that survey results confirm the interconnections of the three dimensions and the relations between three phases of self-authorship development.The study also found that the development of diverse college students in three dimensions is imbalanced.The most advanced development occurred in the epistemological dimension and the least advanced dimension is the intrapersonal dimension.Extra-curricular activities and family support have significantly positive impacts on selfauthorship development.