The Reasonable Adventurer

By Roy A.K. Heath

A few months after Roy Heath accepted the responsibility of serving as faculty adviser and friend to a group of Princeton University freshmen, he found that his students were developing as three psychological types: Non-committers (Xs), Hustlers (Ys), and Plungers (Zs). The students within each category matured during their four coIIege years, but several from aII groups achieved an apex of development: their individuality became more finely delineated; they became less self-centered and more compassionate. The students who reached this ideal of personal maturity, alternating detachment with involvement, were the Reasonable Adventurers.
The Reasonable Adventurer, as a study of the growth of students in college, proposes a nontechnical theory of personality development that has broad implications for higher education in the United States. The interaction of Xs, Ys, and Zs during their coIIege years provides a microcosm of personalities developing under the stresses and chaIIenges of our coIIege system. The book suggests what kinds of educational institutions are capable of graduating Reasonable Adventurers, and it analyzes the basic personalities produced by our society.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822950715
• ISBN13: 9780822950714
• Release Date: January 1964
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.6" x 5.4"