THE MEANING OF BEING SMART: AN IDENTITY STUDY OF FIRST-YEAR HONORS COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

What does it mean to be “smart?” Being identified as intelligent, gifted, or high achieving affords students stimulating experiences, motivating social environments, and advanced educational and career opportunities. However, research has also identified potential negative psychological and social costs to being labeled smart. These are particularly apparent during transitions. Many “smart” students begin college while expecting to continue to achieve highly. But, the first-year of college is a time of intense change, with new peers, different requirements, and unfamiliar standards for success that can raise questions about how smart one really is. Students respond differently to such challenging experiences and questions; some are intimidated, some prevail, others even thrive. Why? The current study investigated the meaning of being labeled smart as part of the identity and experiences of honors students in the first year of college. Twenty-four first year Honors students at a large, urban university were interviewed about the meaning of being smart and their experiences in the first year in college. Data analysis was framed deductively by an emerging identity model—the Dynamic Systems Method of Role Identity (DSMRI)—and inductively by an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The dissertation presents six cases that were purposively selected to display variability in students’ meaning-making about being smart, identity, and experiences. The results demonstrate how each student’s meaning of smartness has been incorporated into her or his identity system within the particular educational context, and how it framed their experiences, decisions, and coping with challenging situations. The findings further demonstrate the differences in the ways individual students made meaning of the smart label, the multiple values of being smart particularly in regards to peer relations, complex negative psychosocial implications, and the important role of educational contexts in these meaning-making and identity formation processes. The findings can inform educators and researchers who aim to investigate and address students’ maladaptive beliefs and behaviors and to support their healthy identity development.