The adaptive success identity plan (ASIP): A career intervention for college students

The Adaptive Success Identity Plan (ASIP) uses the construct of success identity as the core of a career intervention program. Three empirical studies (N > 2,000) explored the success identity construct and its application in a structured career intervention. Study 1 provided reliability and validity evidence of the measures. Study 2 indicated that programming efforts targeting family involvement, self-efficacy, and stress and time management should enhance a number of college outcomes. Study 3 found that students who received the ASIP intervention were more likely to use the success identity construct in defining their role in college success. This monograph examines two issues related to constructing effective life transition programs for college students. First, a theoretical metamodel based on Developmental Systems Theory (DST; Ford & Lerner, 1992) and a theoretical model drawn from social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), diathesis-stress models, and social integration theory (Tinto, 1987) provides the rationale for how to successfully build transition programs. Second, the Adaptive Success identity Plan (ASIP) illustrates how the theoretical framework can be applied to facilitating college students' transitions. Section I introduces DST as the framework guiding transition programming. This section highlights self-identity as the unit of analysis and provides a case study exploring the difficulty of changing self-identity without active environmental intervention. Section II introduces theoretical constructs associated with promoting successful transitions. These constucts were drawn from social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), diathesis-stress models, and social integration theory (Tinto, 1987). Section III provides validation for the success identity construct (Study 1). Section IV introduces ASIP as a comprehensive college intervention program designed to build success identities and thereby enhancing college outcomes. Section TV includes an overview of ASIP, application of developmental systems theory, and describes the range of systemic applications. Section V evaluates the effectiveness of the constructs to predict college outcomes and the effectiveness of ASIP in producing success identities. Finally, Section VI explores future directions for research and :intervention programming.