ABSTRACT
In 1936, psychologist Kurt Lewin presented his groundbreaking equation, B = ƒ(P, E), stating that behavior is a function of the person and her or his environment (Lewin, Heider, & Heider, 1936). This was a paradigm shift in that it suggested one must consider an individual’s momentary situation (the environment), rather than relying entirely on the person’s past, in order to understand a person’s behavior. Due to Lewin’s influence, the study of higher education has focused on creating campus environments to successfully engage college students, and the results of that research have proven useful to educators and student affairs practitioners interested in shaping learning environments. However, the focus on campus environments cannot come at the expense of understanding individual differences as they pertain to the college experience. How the environment affects non-majority populations is of great importance in this era of mass higher education. By focusing on the effects of student characteristics and group differences on spirituality, Bowman, Small, and Gehrke have moved the research in a direction that will serve practitioners well.
