Personality types and the ways in which students interact with their environments affect development. Each theory or category of theory attempts to explain a different aspect of development. Thus, theories can be combined to explain more about student development. While some staff consider student development to be the primary goal of the university, certainly it is the focus of student affairs staff members. Student affairs staff emphasize the development of the whole student , that is all aspects of students development, including career development.
Development occurs differently for diverse groups of students , particularly men and women.
In addition, personality type impacts students experience of developmental tasks. Finally, each individual student experiences development in unique ways. While there are many ways of knowing and these are affected by our gender, race, sexual orientation, and other factors, in order to be successful as a counselor or higher education administrator, OR as a citizen in our modern information society, we need to move towards greater cognitive complexity. In particular, we need to move FROM being received knowers who look to faculty and supervisors as the authorities whose duty it is to provide us with knowledge TO constructed knowers who realize that we all help to construct knowledge. Understand cognitive and psychosocial theories, along with the impact of personality types, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and environments on student development.