476 Undergraduate Education
We suggest the following two dynamics for undergraduate
education in the future.
First, Veysey’s (1973) three catalytic forces, the external
demands on higher education, can be considered constant
after more than 200 years of influence—utilitarian needs of
American society, scientific discovery and an increasing re-
spect for empirical evidence in the construction and applica-
tions of knowledge, and the virtues of liberal education in
creating a responsible citizenry. Every generation must grap-
ple with how best to respond to these demands via curricula
and academic practices (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991).
Second, it is the responsibility of the disciplines and the
professions, the internalforces of higher education, to create
and then to communicate increasingly complex theories and
sophisticated applications, thereby enabling students to be
lifelong problem solvers, amiable skeptics, and citizens.
The discipline of psychology is well positioned as a socio-
cultural force in the broader society to address America’s util-
itarian needs, scientific knowledge, and liberal education
values. However, we need continuing scholarship, teaching,
and service for the discipline to be more analytical in its aca-
demic program efforts. Thus, we return to McGovern’s (1993)
questions as a future teaching, research, and service agenda:
What kind of outcomescan be achieved with
What kind of studentstaught by
What kind of facultyusing
What kind of teaching methodsas part of
What kind of curriculum?(p. 218, emphases in original).These questions need to be understood within the contexts of
external forces acting on the academy as well as internal
responses of the faculty and their institutions.
Theoutcomesexpected of a baccalaureate education are
increasingly utilitarian. For example, consumers and sup-
porters of higher education consider the postgraduation
employment opportunities for specific majors to be very
important. This fact is especially critical for psychology to
understand, because we now award almost 75,000 baccalau-
reates annually, and the major’s popularity has not waned.
Research on alumni satisfaction is an essential element of
program evaluation (Borden & Rajecki, 2000; McGovern &
Carr, 1989). Moreover, departments’ program development
activities regularly include community employers and exter-
nal consultants (Korn et al., 1996; Walker, Newcomb, &
Hopkins, 1987).
The kinds ofstudentstaking undergraduate psychology
have changed, most notably in their gender and ethnic charac-
teristics (McGovern & Hawks, 1986, 1988). In a report titled
“The Changing Face of American Psychology,” Howard et al.
(1986) reported the growing percentages of women who re-
ceived baccalaureates in the discipline: 36.8% (1950), 41%
(1960), 46.4% (1972), 66.8% (1982). McGovern and Reich
(1996) reported 73% for 1992–1993. The percentages of doc-
torates achieved by women had similar percentage increases:
14.8% (1950), 17.5% (1960), 26.7% (1972), 50.1% (1984),
and 61% (1992–1993). Ten years after the Howard et al. re-
port, Pion et al. (1996) reported on the consequences of this
shifting gender composition, and they concluded:Psychology, along with the majority of professions and scientific
disciplines, has undergone dramatic shifts in gender composition
over the past two decades. These changes have prompted con-
cern that this increased participation by women may lead to
erosion in the status of these occupations....Societal and disci-
plinary trends are examined, along with data on the patterns of
men’s and women’s involvement in the educational pipeline and
workplace. The results provide little support for the concern over
the increasing representation of women and its impact on the
prestige of the discipline. (p. 509)Denmark (1994) asserted, “Engendering psychology
refers to cultivating a psychology that is sensitive to issues of
gender and diversity. The increase in the number of female
psychologists does not guarantee that the discipline will be
responsive to those issues” (p. 329). In our historical review
of teaching, scholarship, and service activities, we discov-
ered significant changes in the rhetoric about women and the
discipline, but programmatic change continues to be difficult.
As McGovern et al. (1991) noted in their APA/AAC project
report:Comments on an earlier draft of this article also pointed to dif-
ferent views on how best to integrate gender, ethnicity, culture,
and class into the study of psychology....Most psychologists
would acknowledge that faculty members must challenge cam-
pus racism and sexism, but there is less agreement on how to do
so. Gender, ethnicity, culture, and class are seen by some teach-
ers as issues that challenge the contemporary curricula. Such a
challenge also questions traditional research methodologies that
are empirical, quantitative, and positivist, and may advocate al-
ternative psychological methods that are contextual, interpretive,
and more qualitative. Other psychologists believe that, although
these topics and the new knowledge generated by research have
legitimacy in the discipline, they should be subtopics best left to
treatments determined by an instructor’s sensitivities and com-
mitments. (pp. 599–600)The above quotation captures the difficult conversations
that must be taking place in classrooms and in departmental