Two major purposes existed for this study. The first purpose was to compare how persisters and nonpersisters in the first year of a two-year nursing program differed in locus of control, selected personality traits, and seven demographic variables. The second major purpose was to develop a predictive model for the persisters and the nonpersisters. The particular personality variables examined were intelligence, superego strength, extraversion, anxiety, tough poise, and independence as measured by the 16PF. The summary findings were that persisters had significantly higher scores on the NDRT and the B and G traits, significantly lower externality, and were generally younger with no previous nursing experience, and more likely not to have prekindergarten age children than the nonpersisters. The major significance of this research comes from its use of data gathered at the beginning of an educational program to make predictions which can be available to teachers, counselors, and administrators who may make use of the information to improve the chance potential nonpersisters have of completing the nursing program, or perhaps to assist students in reexamination of their career choice.

Among the social sciences, guidance is relatively young, having evolved out of the American social experience with its concern for the welfare of the individual. As an independent discipline, guidance is about seventy years old. However, the foundations for guidance are imbedded in the nation's historical past. Beginning with seventeenth-century New Englanders, who stressed religious and economic reasoning, a systematic approach to occupational selection began. By the close of the colonial period, the precedent of freedom of choice of vocation and educational opportunity was well established.