Another vector posited by Chickering is that of developing autonomy.
Autonomy begins to develop with disengagement from parents.
Reliance is then transferred to peers or to an occupational or institutional reference group. In time there is less need for such support and the individual becomes more emotionally independent and free of continual and pressing needs for reassurance, affection, and approval. In attempting to develop scales to assess the development of autonomy, various aspects of autonomous behavior were identified as they relate to college students. Emotional independence is one aspect and thus two sets of items were developed, one to measure emotional independence from peers and another emotional independence from parents. Items were responded to on a five-point Likert scale.