Creating a psychological portrait of a modern student

    A psychological portrait of any social group is always a collective image that contains the most striking and typical features of representatives of this group. We propose to analyze the basic properties of modern students and create their psychological portrait. Regardless of some psychological peculiarities, most students are very busy and may want to buy term papers online.

    A psychological portrait of the student’s personality

    University students are young people aged 18 to 25 years, students of higher educational institutions. In the US, the number of this social group is 49 million people.

    According to the theory of W. Strauss and N. Howe, modern students are representatives of generation Z.

    Student characteristics

    Modern young people are characterized by:

    • “clip” thinking, when any information is absorbed quickly, but in small portions; 
    • poorly developed communication skills compared to other generations, which is explained by an active virtual life;
    • hyperactivity;
    • independence of opinions;
    • the tendency to constant self-development and acquisition of new knowledge.

    These qualities were formed in the modern generation of students, not by chance. Their development was facilitated by the digital age, in which young people were destined to be born.

    None of the previous generations received information in such a volume as the generation that was born after the 2000s. 

    Statistics help to complement the portrait of modern university students. It is known that:

    • Every 10th student in the US lives in a dormitory.
    • 94% of students are not related by family ties.
    • 81% of students have personal transport.
    • 72% of university students prefer intellectual work to physical work.

    More than half of the students prefer to combine study with work and choose distance learning.

    Social media remains the most popular Internet resource among modern young people.

    What should be the ideal student, what qualities should he have

    Regardless of belonging to a particular generation, the idea of an ideal student does not change over the years. Here is a list of qualities that a successful student and a promising young specialist should have:

    Independence. The training program at the university, unlike high school, is aimed at developing this quality in young people. You need to study a large amount of information on your own, you have to prepare yourself for seminars, reports, and presentations. This is not easy for all students, but for modern employers, the presence of this quality in employees is of great importance.

    The desire to constantly develop. It is rather a personal quality that is difficult to acquire. But if it is, consider that you have received a gift from God. The desire to develop and learn new things, in addition to personal satisfaction, promises constant professional development and decent remuneration for their work.

    The right attitude to criticism. This is a quality that is necessary for life not only for students. The most important thing in criticism is to understand the essence of claims and use them for personal growth and self-improvement.

    Identifying your strengths. An important property for any person. A real assessment of one’s capabilities helps to express oneself as effectively as possible, first in studies, and then in work.

    The development of their talents and abilities. Just taking your strengths for granted is not enough. To achieve real success, your talents and abilities must be constantly developed.

    Ability to work in a team. The university can only partially cultivate this property in a person. In school, teamwork is not common, but in the professional sphere, it is used daily.

    Responsibility. An important property of a successful personality is to be responsible for their actions/work/results. Even in the case of unsatisfactory and failed results. Shifting responsibility to others and the desire to find the guilty one leads to the degradation of the individual.

    The ability to listen. This is a mega-useful quality for both students and young professionals, as well as for other categories of people. It will allow you to feel comfortable in any team.

    How to create a portrait of a modern student

    To create a portrait of a student of the 21st century, it is necessary to clearly understand what kind of people they are, what they live, what they love, what they are fond of and how they relate to life, what their character and temperament are.

    Today, several sciences are engaged in the study of a student’s portrait at once: statistics, sociology, psychology. 

    Here are some of the results of these studies that help to get to know modern youth better:

    Only a few young people are ready to engage in volunteering and socio-political activities, to engage in student clubs and circles.

    Only 45% of university students read classical works at least once a week. 

    In music, young people prefer rock, hip-hop, electronic and classical music.

    They like action movies, Hollywood comedies, and foreign TV series from the cinema.

    Students prefer to choose successful people from their inner circle as role models.

    Most of the students consider a master’s degree to be a sufficient factor for building a career in the future.

    How is it different from the students of the last century

    A comparison of two generations can help in creating a psychological portrait. For example, students of eighties and modern students. After all, students of the last century and modern students are very different, almost like people from different planets. They have completely different educational standards, social values, life plans, and personal desires.

    Let’s list these differences:

    Students from the eighties lived under the guardianship of the state, which allowed them to feel relatively safe from external factors. But today’s youth is free from obligations and used to rely on their strength and the strength of their family. 

    Students from the previous century are naive romantics who believe in state mentorship modern university students are rational pragmatists who follow their personal goals and desires.

    Prior students were brought up in a completely different system of values, where relationships between people, and not material values, were at the forefront. In modern society, a person is a competitor to a person, and the main goal of everyone is to achieve material well-being.

    Students from the eighties did not have access to a huge number of sources of information that modern young people have. Back then, the news was dosed, the negative was completely hidden.

    Modern young people have been absorbing a huge amount of negative information since childhood, which contributes to the development of their personality negatively.

    Despite the huge difference in the views, upbringing, and life of two generations of students, it cannot be said that modern students are worse than the prior ones or vice versa. Each generation is destined to go its way in life, which strongly depends on socio-political and social conditions. 

    Previous articleSign up to The Independent’s free cryptocurrency expert panel event
    Next articleBitcoin Elliott Wave Analysis iii) of 3 of (5) [video]