Theories Used in the MSS Office

One major theory that is used in Student Affairs is Critical Theory. My internship site, Multicultural Student Services (MSS) is part of the student affairs department. Critical theory provides an analytical and ethical foundation needed to uncover the structure of underlying social practices and to reveal the possible distortion of social life in society. The goal of critical theory is to bring about change and achieve equality for an oppressed group of people. Those same factors and goals are the basis for why Student Affairs has was created at most universities and colleges, to increase and facilitate diversity in higher education.

Uncertainty reduction theory is also used a lot in the MSS because most of the work is socially based. Uncertainty reduction theory explores how interpersonal uncertainty affects the communication between those two people. So when you first meet a stranger, you will have very little conversation and as you find similarities with that person, the communication will increase. It also says that with a high level of uncertainty there is a low amount of intimacy, as the level of uncertainty decreases, the level of intimacy increases.

Race is a theory that is used a lot in the MSS because in general it is related to culture. Race is a man made construct that is used to categories differences in humanity. Race is defined by skin tone, presence/absence of body hair, width of the nose, thickness/thinness of lips and coarseness of hair. Although the categories are firmly defined, very few people meet all the standards to fit into one race because of intermingling and the fact that race is not biologically defined. So if the majority of your features appear to be negroe features, you are classified accordingly and subject to the social implications and presumptions that other members of the race are exposed to.

Finally we have the contingency theory. It says that leaders and leadership styles are only effective in certain situations. It says that there is no one right leadership style, it is dependent upon the situation present. For example we would readily agree that a dictatorship style of leader is negative, but one of the advantages to it is that it is fast, decisive and absolute. So in a situation where there is no time to educate others on a situation and getting everyone’s input, it would be more effective to make the decision and meet the important deadline, or whatever the situation may have been.