students attending the same college. This group is generally much larger and more diverse than that of ones high school. As representatives of social psychology, Smith and Henry state that the social self is both derived from interpersonal relationships and derived from belonging to larger, less personal collective groupings such as race, Ethnicity, or culture (Baron and Byrne 165). The broad label of college student could be included upon a list of such collective groupings, whereby creating noticeable changes in the behavior and ideals of an individual that was not too long ago labeled as a high school studentNot only is social environment a factor in determining self, but time is also a major player. As a number of my peers and I have noticed, it seems like we have been in college much longer than we actually have, due to the multiple and seemingly strong relationships that we have already formed as well as the great amounts of work having already been completed. Therefore, with the passing of what seems to have been a lot of time in a new setting, it is impossible for college students to avoid making so many changes over such a short amount of time. Baron and Byrne state that " You are not the same person you were ten years ago, and you are not likely to be the same person ten years from now that you are today" (167). Although ten years is much longer than the nine to ten months that pass in a single year of college, the great social transformations that have taken place for each individual help to create such an illusion. In turn, this illusion enables or may even require that individuals make overt alterations internally to go along with the dramatic and sudden external changes. There are also those forms of social control within a college or university that must be considered in this discussion. With the founding of any institution there always exists some form of administrative and political order that needs to be ma...
