Purpose and Foundations:
The Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Inventory (SDTLI) is an
assessment instrument designed for use with traditional-age undergraduate
college students (17 to 24 years). Conceptually grounded in the pioneering
work of Arthur W. Chickering in Education and Identity and based on extensive
research on and revision of the Student Developmental Task Inventory (2nd
edition), the SDTLI was designed principally as a tool for assisting students
in understanding their own development and establishing goals and plans
to shape their own futures. It also has utility for assessment, research,
and evaluation purposes as well.
Format:
The SDTLI represents samples of students’ behaviors, attitudes, and
reports of feelings indicative of satisfactory accomplishment of developmental
tasks and establishment of mature, health engendering lifestyles and relationships.
It extends and refines the concept of developmental tasks by presenting
behavioral phenomena that can provide stimuli for facilitating the personal
development of college students. The 135 content items describe activities,
attitudes, and feelings that have been carefully selected to permit generalization
to large developmental domains. Students respond to each statement (plus
5 additional items designed to identify response bias) by determining whether
it is basically an accurate description (true) or an inaccurate description
(false) of them.
Reading Level and Scoring:
The SDTLI has a twelfth grade reading level and requires approximately
25 to 30 minutes to complete by students at or beyond that reading level.
The inventory booklet is reusable, with separate answer sheet that students
can core. The SDTLI can be interpreted idIographically or normatively.
IdIographic interpretation is recommended for individual students, with
emphasis on self-understanding, planning, and goal-setting, and normative
interpretation for research and evaluation purpose. The Understanding and
Using the SDTLI: A Guide for Students is a six-page booklet designed to
aid in scoring and interpreting the inventory with individual students.
Descriptions of the Developmental Tasks and Scales
The Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Inventory is composed of three developmental tasks, two of which are further defined by subtasks and three scales.
Establishing and Clarifying Purpose Task
Composed of 66 items, this task is further defined by five subtasks: (1) Educational Involvement (16 items), (2) Career Planning (19 items), (3) Lifestyle Planning (11 items), (4) Life Management (16 items), and (5) Cultural Participation (6 items). Students who possess high achievement on this task (a) have well-defined and thoroughly explored educational goals and plans and are active, self-directed learners; (b) have synthesized knowledge about themselves and the world of work into appropriate career plans, both making an emotional commitment and taking steps now to allow realization of career goals; (c) have established a personal direction to their lives and made plans for their futures that take into account personal, ethical, and religious values, future family plans, and vocational and educational objectives; (d) structure their lives and manipulate their environment in ways that allow them to satisfy daily needs, meet personal responsibilities, manage personal finances appropriately, and satisfactorily meet academic demands; and (e) exhibit a wide range of cultural interests and are active participants in traditional cultural events.
Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships Tasks
This task is composed of 30 items and is further defined by three subtasks: (1) Peer Relationships (13 items), (2) Tolerance (9 items), and (3) Emotional Autonomy (8 items). Students who have high achievement on this task have developed relationships with peers characterized by independence, frankness, and trust; they appreciate individual differences among friends and acquaintances, and feel reduced pressure to conform to group norms or to conceal disagreements. In relationships with persons from different cultures, races, and backgrounds students show high levels of respect and acceptance and have a general attitude of openness to and appreciation of differences. Students high on this task are free from the need for continuous reassurance and approval from others and have minimal dependence on parents for direction in decision making.
Academic Autonomy Task
This task is composed of 10 items. Students who have accomplish this task have the capacity to deal well with ambiguity, monitor and control their behavior in ways that wallow them to attain personal goals and fulfil responsibilities. They devise and execute effective study plans and schedules, perform academically at levels with which they are satisfied are consistent with their abilities, are self-disciplined, and require minimal amounts of direction from others. While they are independent learners, they are also willing to seek help with their academic work when needed.
Salubrious Lifestyle Scale
This scale is composed of 8 items and measures the degree to which a student’s lifestyle is consistent with or promotes good health and wellness practices. A high score reflects one who eats well-balanced, nutritious meals, maintains an appropriate body weight, plans for and obtains sufficient amounts of sleep and physical exercise, uses effective stress reduction techniques, and evaluates positively his or her physical appearance.
Response Bias Scale
This scale is composed of 5 items and is intended to identify students who are attempting to “fake good” or who were careless in completing the inventory. A high score on this scale indicates the student is attempting to project an inflated or unrealistically favorable self portrait.
Intimacy Scale
An experimental scale, it is composed of 19 (non-gender) items and is completed only by students who report being involved in one or more “intimate relationships” within the past twelve months. Students high on this scale have established a relationship with another person based on high levels of mutual respect, honesty, and trust. Intimacy involves the uninhibited expression of feelings, values, attitudes, wants, and needs to one’s partner. Partners can be themselves, without feeling the need to create a façade, and do not “play games” with each other. This kind of intimacy is not possessive and includes the private sharing of ideas and nonverbal forms of communication.
Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Inventory Manual
The 47-page user’s manual contains: (1) an overview of the theoretical foundations upon which the SDTLI is built, (2) instructions for administering, scoring, and interpreting the inventory, (3) reports of reliability and validity studies, (4) norms, and (5) suggestions for programmatic and research uses of the SDTLI.
Understanding and Using the SDTLI: A Guide for Students
Understanding and Using the SDTLI is a six-page, expendable booklet which instructs students on how to score the SDTLI, in understanding the tasks, subtasks, and scales contained in the SDTLI, and in considering possible actions that may be taken to address each of the areas assessed. A list of 70 activities, categorized by subtasks and scales, in which students may engage to enhance their development are provided and can be used as the beginning point for students’ personal development plans. The Guide focuses on helping students generalize beyond the items on the inventory and move toward self-directed developmental action.