Career choice, study drop out and identity development: The gains of the opportunity to change majors for students and society

As all university students and teachers will have noticed by now, the Dutch government aims to reduce the student drop out in higher education. In this blog post, it is argued that blocking the possibility to change majors in university is detrimental for individual’s identity development, and in the long run for society as well.

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Psychological traits: There’s more than what doesn’t meet the eye

Psychological traits such as self-esteem explain how people differ from each other, but what explains the psychological traits and their development? Psychologists tend to explain individual differences and developmental trajectories of traits based on variables that are separate from the traits themselves. I argue that individual differences and developmental changes can also be explained by looking at the changes in the observable traits, looking within the trait and not outside of the trait.

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