Coolsen, Michael K.; Kumashiro, Madoka and Quesenberry, Keith A.. 2010. Not just the best years of my life: personal growth in higher education. Journal of International Business Disciplines, 4(2), pp. 1-15. ISSN 1934-1814 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Our conception of product affirmation depicts a product as “sculptor” of the consumer’s ideal self, similar to how a relationship partner can help us achieve our aspirations and goals. We performed two studies to look at the role of higher education as a product in affirming a consumer’s ideal self. We found that product affirmation for undergraduate students and alumni (with the university as the product that affirms the ideal self of the student/alumnus) leads to increases in the experience of various positive emotions, the acquisition of various positive traits, and positive evaluations of the university. Additionally, we found that product affirmation effects were more pronounced and robust in one’s personal ideal-self domain than in one’s professional ideal-self domain. Practical implications, study limitations, and future directions are discussed, as well as preliminary findings from a follow-up experiment using a sample of graduate students.

Item Type:	Article
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Psychology
Dates:	Date Event May 2010 Published
Item ID:	5357
Date Deposited:	25 Mar 2011 08:26
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2020 15:29
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/5357

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