Personal Epistemology and Personal Experience

The world view of students was investigated by measuring covert causal assumptions about the relationship between the person and physical and social reality. The Attitudes About Reality Scale was designed to measure a philosophical dimension ranging between a belief in social constructionism and a belief in logical positivism. These personal epistemologies are related to demographic markers such as religion and birth order, and to experiential variables such as age and sociopolitical identification. Personal epistemology may predispose individuals to seek courses with a content that is consonant with their preexistent ideology. Epistemological position, however, appears changed only slightly by exposure to courses whose paradigmatic focus emphasizes a particular relationship between the person and reality.