Six-Year Harvard Study Reveals Increase in Students' Alienation

If you've been feeling alienated lately, a new book based on studies of alienation at Harvard says you're not alone.

In "The Uncommitted", published this month, Kenneth Keniston '51, reports that disenchantment among today's academic youth is more prevalent than at any precious time in history.

One cause of this alienation from U.S. society, his book says, is the absence of any exciting, positive goals or challenges in today's over-civilized world.

Keniston, a former Junior Fellow and lecturer in the Soc Rel Department, helped run the intensive psychological studies between 1956 and 1962. He was a member of a team directed by Henry A. Marray '15, professor of Clinical Psychology, Emeritus, and sponsored by the Harvard Center for Research in Personalities.

Three different personality types-the very alienated, the very unalienated, and the average -- were included in the studies. The team selected twelve of each type from hundreds of volunteers on the basis of their answers to sample questions.

Backgrounds Probed

The personal and family background of each student was thoroughly studied. Except for slightly higher SAT scores by the very alienated, none of the groups had common backgrounds.

Students classed as 'alienated' were those who had expressed feelings of exclusion from American society.

Keniston is currently an assistant professor of psychology at Yale. He said yesterday that the statistical details of the Harvard study will be included in his next book. "The Alienated Student," which will be published next year.