Researchers Discard 'Stereotypes' In Studying House differences

The stale question of "house stereotypes" is being pushed to the background this year, in a fresh research project aimed at discovering if Harvard Houses really differ.

As part of the extensive "Student Study" program, the project is trying to find out whether Houses affect their occupants differently, especially in terms of career choice, achievement, and "social behavior."

Becky Vreeland, a graduate student heading the research, has so far conducted lengthy in Kirkland, Winthrop and Leverett. Eliot House is next in line, and she plans to finish the research by June.

For the interviews, she selects a cross-section of staff and faculty members and leaders of extracurricular activities.

The Masters, not always amiable in such matters, have in this instance agreed to give their full support to the research.

John Conway, Master of Leverett, in a letter to students scheduled for interviewing, described the research as "interesting and provocative."

In contrast, a study of Harvard Hoses made several years ago by David Riesman and Christopher S. Jencks '58 aroused considerable resentment from the Masters.

Students Agree on Pressures

Results of the current project only tentative, but one important result is that students agree substantially about the "pressures," which prevail in their own House.

Specifically, they are asked if there are "student norms" or "currents of conformity" which make people act in a certain way.

In Kirkland, a majority of the students interviewed felt pressure toward participation in House activities, especially athletics. The "current of conformity" in Winthrop was very different; it ran toward gregariousness, or "regular-guyism."

In another question students are asked whether they think of their house as a unit, or as a group of "cliques." Palpable trends have again emerged in both Winthrop and Kirkland.

House Cliques

Many Kirkland House students divided their house members into three groups, broadly characterized as athletes, musicians, and "drama-English major types." In Winthrop, the groups were the athletes and non-athletes; Mrs. Vreeland compared them to two "closed circles," touching only on the peripheries.

Before the project can discover how students change during their stay in a particular House--its main object--the data from the interviews must be collated with other Student Study data.

But a side project, analyzing change in career choice during students' sophomore years, has shown that the Houses do not differ in their influence on such changes.

About half the students questioned in each house switched their career plans, but the only distinctive direction of change was in Kirkland, where many switched toward academic career plans.

Graduate School Trend

The "currents of conformity" in this respect had their effect on the College as a whole. Many students changed their mind in favor of going to graduate school during their sophomore year, especially to law and medical school.

There is another statistic, as yet not thoroughly analyzed; beer mugs with House emblems last year, while only 43 did so in Dunster, a poor second. Beer-mug purchasing, Mrs. Vreeland has found, is closely correlated with participation in House athletics.