#CSAM18 Day 1: 31 Days of Theory


As student affairs enters our annual Month of Recognition, and we share all of the Warm and Fuzzies of the jobs we do, we should also recognize the knowledge we need to function as competent professionals. Our jobs aren’t just fun and games - we’re also often trained in development, risk and crisis management, and mental health awareness. We should be doing more this month than trying to recruit people and tell everyone how wonderful our jobs are - and how they can just remain in college the rest of their lives.

Over the next month, I, along with a few friends (hopefully), will go over psychosocial, cognitive development, racial identity development, sexual identity development, engagement, and success theories. This isn’t going to be an exhaustive list, and I had to make choices, right or wrong, of what to include. I’m hoping to hit the main ones that most of us reviewed in grad school, along with some we may have forgotten. As a side goal, I wanted to make sure I had a wide scope for those practitioners who didn’t go to grad school and those who might not have a theoretical background.

The posts I write will be conversational in nature, without in-text citations, and they will cover what the theory is, who the author is, the population originally studied, how we can apply the theory when we interact with students or plan programs, and some words of warning about the theory. The bottom of each post will be links to online resources and/or citations of books I’ve used to create the post, or interesting things related to the author, theory, or topic. Between each set of theories, there will be a post about what that set of theories can mean for us as practitioners

The main book I’m using to outline the references is Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession, 4th edition, by Susan R. Komives, Dudley B. Woodard, Jr., & Associates.

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