This study examines and supports the hypothesis that diverse student behavior can be meaningfully and usefully construed when viewed from the single perspective described here as hedonism vs. the Protestant Ethic. Subjects were 1375 male and female undergraduate students. Anonymous questionnaires dealing with background, academic life, social and sexual behavior, drug use, and help seeking, were collected during three successive academic years. Six comparable data sets were derived from the questionnaires, one for each sex in each of the three years. Each data set contained 42 variables per subject, and data from each set were treated separately. Product moment correlations were calculated from all complete data pairs, and the six resulting correlation matrices were factor analyzed using a principal components procedure. The six sets of first factor loadings proved highly consistent with each other. Associated with the hedonic end of this dimension are higher frequencies of sexual behavior and drug usage. Students who tend toward the traditional end of this dimension report opposite behavior patterns. Little change is observed within each sex over the three year period, but some sex differences exist. Conceptual simplicity and utility are offered by this unidimensional schema. (Author/JLL)