This study was designed to determine the effects of child-centered play therapy as a play therapy training model for beginning play therapy students. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of child-centered play therapy training on play therapy trainees in (a) improving positive attitudes and beliefs toward children; (b) improving knowledge of child-centered play therapy; (c) improving confidence in applying child-centered play therapy skills; (d) reducing dominance tendencies in trainees' personality as measured by the California Psychological Inventory; and (e) increasing tolerance levels in trainees' personality as measured by the CPI. The experimental group, consisting of 37 counseling graduate students with a specialty in child counseling, received 45 clock hours of introduction to play therapy graduate course training at the University of North Texas, Denton. The control group, consisting of 29 counseling graduate students with a specialty in child counseling, received other counseling graduate courses training but no play therapy training at the time of their participation in this study at the University of North Texas. Both experimental and control group students completed the pretest and the posttest on the Play Therapy Attitude Knowledge Skills Survey and the California Psychological Inventory at the beginning and the end …

This study resulted in the development of the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA), an assessment instrument for the Adlerian construct of discouragement in adults more than 18 years of age. The DSA is a 60-item instrument that contains five sub-scales corresponding to five life tasks identified in Adlerian literature as work, love, society, self, and spirituality. Age, gender, and ethnicity norms were established for the DSA using a diverse sample (N=586). Additional normative data was developed with a presumed discouraged sample (N=47), and a special sample of traditional college students aged 18-27 years (N=531). Findings on the norm sample indicated that females are less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and on society and spirituality sub-scales. The 18-34 year old group was more discouraged than other age groups on the Total DSA and on work, society, and spirituality sub-scales. Presumed discouraged sample findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the society sub-scale. College student findings indicated that females were less discouraged than males on the Total DSA and sub-scales of love, society, spirituality, and work. A significant difference was found among ethnic groups in self sub-scales. Students with no absences per week were less discouraged than …

This study was designed to investigate the correlation of the variables of gender, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality preferences, and androgyny as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) in Counselor Education graduate students. Instruments were administered to Counselor Education graduate students at nine institutions in five national regions. A total of 172 participants (18 males and 154 females) who were enrolled in Master's level theories courses or practicum courses completed a student information sheet, informed consent, MBTI, and BSRI. Instruments were hand scored and chi-square test was used to determine significance of the hypotheses; the saturated model of log linear analysis was the statistic used for the research question. As predicted, of the sixteen MBTI types, the most common for Counselor Education graduate students emerged as ENFP: extraversion, intuition, feeling, and perception. Additionally, this MBTI type was found to be significantly more common among the population of Counselor Education graduate students than is found among the general population. The expectation that more male Counselor Education graduate students would score higher on the androgyny scale of the BSRI was unsupported; low sample size for male Counselor Education graduate students prevented use of chi-square; however, it was apparent through the …

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Intensive Filial Therapy in: (a) improving the self-concept of child witnesses of domestic violence; (b) reducing internalizing behavior problems, such as withdrawal, somatic complaints, anxiety and depression, of child witnesses of domestic violence; (c) reducing externalizing behavior problems, such as aggression and delinquency, of child witnesses of domestic violence; (d) reducing overall behavior problems of child witnesses of domestic violence; and (e) increasing communication of empathy between mothers and child witnesses of domestic violence. A second objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Intensive Filial Therapy with Intensive Individual Play Therapy and Intensive Sibling Group Play Therapy with child witnesses of domestic violence. The experimental group consisted of 11 child witnesses of domestic violence whose mothers received 12 Intensive Filial Therapy training sessions within a three week period and had 12 mother-child play sessions. The Intensive Individual Play Therapy comparison group, consisting of 11 child witnesses, and the non-treatment control group, consisting of 11 child witnesses, were utilized from the Kot (1995) study. The Intensive Sibling Group Play Therapy comparison group was utilized from the Tyndall-Lind (1999) study. Children in all studies completed the Joseph Preschool …

This research study investigated the effectiveness of a child-centered play therapy intervention conducted by trained high school students on the behavior of preschool and kindergarten children with adjustment difficulties. Specifically, this research determined if play sessions conducted by high school students trained in child-centered play therapy skills and procedures facilitated change in the children's behaviors. The experimental group children (N=14) each received 20 weekly individual play sessions from a high school student enrolled in a Peer Assistance and Leadership class. The high school students were randomly paired with a referred child. The high school students completed 7 one-hour training sessions in child-centered play therapy procedures and skills prior to beginning the weekly, supervised play sessions. The control group (N=12) received no treatment during the study. Pre and post data were collected from parents who completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and teachers who completed the Early Childhood Behavior Scale (ECBS). Multivariate analyses of variance of gained scored revealed statistical significance in 2 of the 4 hypotheses. Specifically, the children in the experimental group showed significant decreases in internalizing behaviors (p = .025) and total behaviors (p = .025) on the CBCL. Although not in the statistically significant range, positive trends …

This study examined how current family counseling/therapy programs train students to work with families with young children and made recommendations for training in this area based on recommendations of child and family therapy experts and the research and clinical literature. These recommendations explored what knowledge and skills all students should acquire versus students who want to specialize with this population. Changes to accreditation standards were also proposed as well as a description of resources to support changes in program curricula. Current training was measured by examining curricula from master's level marriage and family counseling/therapy programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) and the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP) and master's level social work programs with a family-related concentration accredited by the Council on Social Work Education Commission on Accreditation (CSWE), the accreditation standards from these three organizations, course syllabi from the COAMFTE and CACREP programs, and surveys of COAMFTE and CACREP program directors (60% response rate). Recommendations for training were obtained through a qualitative analysis of quotations from the literature concerning training and through interviews of child and family therapy experts (65% response rate). The results revealed the …

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of EEG biofeedback in a school setting to assist students who had attentional challenges. The equipment for implementing biofeedback was relatively inexpensive and was easily integrated into the school setting. Twenty students ranging in age from 7 to 17 were recruited for this study. Data was used from 14 subjects, 12 males (2 Hispanic, 1 African American, and 10 Caucasian) and 2 females (1 Hispanic, 1 Caucasian.) The subject pool was reduced due to non-compliance or the students. moving from the school district. Significant effect size was obtained in the treatment group in areas pertaining to visual perception and motor coordination. However, significant effect sizes in other areas were obtained when the control group scores worsened. The inclusion of student subjects who, perhaps, did not meet stringent criterion of attention deficit may have skewed the results. The small number of students in the study may have hindered accurate measures of statistical significance. Conversely, the information obtained from this study may offer insight to school districts in providing their students an alternate/adjunct to psychopharmacological medication and a non- invasive method of helping students with psycho-social challenges.

This research study investigated the effectiveness of a filial therapy training model as a method to train fifth grade students in child-centered play therapy skills and procedures. Filial therapy is an intervention that focuses on strengthening and enhancing adult-child relationships. The fifth grade students were trained to be a therapeutic change agent for kindergarten children identified as having adjustment difficulties, by utilizing basic child-centered play therapy skills in weekly play sessions with the kindergarten children. Specifically, this research determined the effectiveness of filial therapy in increasing the fifth grade students': 1) empathic responses with kindergarten children; 2) communication of acceptance with kindergarten children; 3) allowance of self-direction with kindergarten children, and 4) involvement in play activities of kindergarten children. The experimental group of fifth grade students (N=12) received thirty-five minutes of training twice a week for 5 weeks and then once a week for the duration of the 10 weeks of play sessions. The control group (N=11) received no training during the 15 weeks of the project. Fifth grade student participants were videotaped playing with a kindergarten child identified as having adjustment difficulties in 20-minute play sessions before and after the training to measure empathic behavior in adult-child interactions. Analysis …

Depression is believed to be the most prevalent mental dysfunction among older adults, and depression and anger are frequently linked in theory and in therapy. This study was undertaken to determine whether participation in group counseling sessions would increase awareness and expression of anger and decrease depression levels in women aged 65 and older. Treatment group members were compared to a matching control group. Both groups completed the Anger Self Report Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory. Comparison of the ASR subscale scores, Awareness of Anger, Expression of Anger, Guilt, Condemnation of Anger, and Mistrust, revealed no significant differences between the treatment and control groups. However, the treatment group scored significantly higher on the BDI than did the control group. Analysis of variance of the ASR and the BDI, and the variables upon which the treatment and control groups were matched revealed some significant differences, and comparison of the women in this study with the two groups upon whom the ASR was validated showed this study's older women scored significantly lower than the validation groups on the ASR. The author concluded that six sessions is not long enough to effect change in either anger awareness or expression in older women, …

Parent Adaptive Doll Play, a technique in an early stage of development, is designed for use by parents in assisting their young children to cope with the stresses of parental separation/divorce. The effects of technique implementation by parents of three- through six-year-old children were investigated. Data was collected before and after parents received training and implemented the technique over an eight-week period. Parents completed the Child Behavior Rating Scale, Burks' Behavior Rating Scales, the Parenting Stress Index, and the Parental Attitude Scale. Twenty-two parents, reporting marital separation through separation and/or divorce, within 18 months prior to the beginning of the study, and reporting more than 50 percent physical custody of a three- through six-year-old child qualified for participation. Twelve children were experimental subjects and ten were control subjects. To determine differences between groups, a one-way analysis of covariance was performed on each post test variable. Positive differences were calculated in several areas of child behavior by parents of subjects in the experimental group. No significant differences between groups were found in any area of child behavior. The score which most closely approached significance, however, was found in the Burks' Behavior Rating Scale area of poor anger control.

The purposes of this study were to determine the accuracy of counselor perception of client attributes after an initial interview, to determine the relationship that exists between counselors' perceptions of a client's attributes and the counselors' possession of the same attributes, to determine the accuracy of counselor self-perception and to determine whether there were significant differences between counselors who are accurate perceivers and counselors who are inaccurate perceivers of client attributes. The findings pointed to the need for more training in the area of person perception in the master's level counseling program. This need is two-fold. First, counselors-intraining need to become more aware of their own personality, needs and emotions and how these might affect what they see in their clients. Second, counselors-in-training need to become more aware of personality attributes, needs, and emotions in their clients.

The study focused on the student service related problems of culturally distinct groups of students attending a community college. The groups selected for the study were sixty international students and sixty English as a Second Language students. The researcher administered the Michigan International Student Problem Inventory, an instrument which has been widely used to indicate foreign students' problems. Combining the use of naturalistic research methodology, the researcher utilized an indepth interview to document the problems they were facing. Patterns and trends among the problems were analyzed and reported. The results indicated that many international students experienced concerns in the area of financial aid, had difficulties with some of the immigration regulations and work restrictions, and experienced forms of racial and social discrimination. The English as a Second Language students tended to experience most difficulties in the area of English language functioning but also experienced problems related to academic functioning and making friends. The student service areas most closely related to the international students' concerns were Financial Aids, Admissions, Placement, Counseling, and English Language Services. English as a Second Language students' problems were most closely related to the areas of English Language Services, Admissions, Counseling, and Academic Advisement. Recommendations generated by …

This research study was designed to investigate the relationships of stress, anxiety, self concept, social support and illness in children and to examine the potential of specific cognitive mediating variables, self concept and anxiety, and an external mediating variable, social support and an interaction between self concept and social support, to significantly increase the efficiency of stress as a predictor of children's illness. The purposes of this study were (1) to determine if stressful life events, anxiety, self concept, social support, sex and illness are related in children, (2) to determine if stressful life events are an adequate predictor of illness in children, (3) to determine if a combination of anxiety, self concept and social support will increase the predictive efficiency concerning illness in children, (4) to provide information that may help develop a theoretical base concerning stressful life events and illness in children, and (5) to provide information that may be beneficial with regard to future research involving stress, anxiety, self concept, social support, sex and illness in children.

The problem of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a group vocational counseling method among community college students. The purposes of this study are to present an application of developmental counseling to group vocational counseling with community college students, and to determine whether this vocational counseling program will have an effect upon certain selected variables. Self-concept congruence was measured by a semantic differential, the Personal Concept Scale; and vocational maturity was measured by the Attitude Scale of the Vocational Development Inventory. Anxiety associated with the concepts "myself," "other people," "choosing a career," and "five years from now" was assessed by the Concept-Specific Anxiety Scale. Certainty and satisfaction with vocational plans were assessed by eleven-point rating scales included on the Vocational Status Sheet, an instrument designed specifically for the present study. Included on this same instrument was a check list designed to measure vocational information gathering activity.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of determining the relationship between the variables of acculturation, imagery, self-concept, anxiety, stress, and seriousness of disease in Mexican-Americans. The purposes of this study were 1) to determine the statistical predictive efficiency of stress and its relation to disease, 2) to determine if a combination of anxiety, acculturation, self-concept, imagery, along with stress, would increase the statistical predictive efficiency concerning seriousness of disease, and 3) to provide information that may help to develope a theoretical base concerning the above variables and disease in Mexican-Americans.

This study was conducted to investigate whether cognitive variables (as measured by six self-report inventories) covaried with changes in behavior following group assertiveness training as postulated by several assertiveness training theorists and practitioners. Statistical analysis of the data did not support any of the hypotheses. No significant differences were found between the groups on any of the self-report measures or the behavioral ratings, although experimental group subjects consistently scored higher (in the predicted direction) on all self-report measures or were rated higher than placebo group subjects. The hypotheses that experimental group subjects would exhibit significantly higher levels of self-reported assertiveness, self-acceptance, self-esteem, and self-confidence than placebo group subjects were rejected. The hypothesis that the experimental group would exhibit a significantly greater shift toward self-reported internal locus of control than the placebo group was rejected. The hypothesis that the experimental group would exhibit significantly larger decreases in levels of self-reported anxiety than the placebo group was also rejected. Furthermore, no support was found for the hypothesis that experimental group subjects would exhibit significantly higher levels of objectively-rated assertive behavior than placebo group subjects. An examination of the data revealed substantial improvements on each of the six self-report measures for subjects in …

Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology emphasizes the uniqueness of individuals and describes the life style, or personality, as the unique and characteristic pattern of coping with and solving problems and interacting with other people. The purpose of this study was the development of a similar instrument that would quantitatively identify life styles in children.

This study investigates the predictive value of the high-school-level battery of the Tests of General Educational Development (GED) for two-year college academic performance. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using a variety of statistical techniques including univariate and multivariate correlation methods, t-test, and analysis of variance. Of the thirteen hypotheses formulated and tested in the study, eleven were statistically significant at the .05 level. With the acceptance of the majority of the research hypotheses, it is concluded that the GED is a valid predictor of first semester, two-year college GPA. It is also concluded that the use of the standard scores of individual component subtests of the GED as predictors provides valid and slightly more efficient prediction of first semester, two-year college GPA than the use of only mean GED standard score as a predictor, and that GED Test 4, Interpretation of Literary Materials, is the single most effective GED subtest in predicting this criterion.

Counselor education programs are charged with the responsibility to train students to be effective counselors. Despite relative consistency in academic and clinical experiences, some students are less effective than others. It was the intent of this research to investigate possible relationships which may exist between students' background and experiences and their levels of demonstrated counselor effectiveness as measured by the Counselor Rating Form - Short Version (CRF-S) and the Supervisor Rated-Counselor Interaction Analysis (SR-CIA). It was hypothesized that counselor effectiveness would be negatively correlated with prior teaching experience and level of religious participation. Data was collected using a demographic survey from masters level counseling students participating in their practicum semester. Counseling tapes from each of the participants were collected towards the end of the semester. These tapes were then rated by doctoral students using the CRF-S and the SR-CIA. The total sample size was 28. Regression analysis was used to investigate the hypotheses. Three models were constructed. The dependent variables used were scores from the CRF-S, the SR-CIA and a third comprised of a normalized composite of CRF-S and SR-CIA termed COMPOSITE. Each model used, as the independent variables, years of teaching experience, and hours of religious participation. Results from …

The problem of this study is to investigate the differences in perceived parental behavior patterns, child rearing attitudes, and learning disabilities in natural and adoptive families. The purposes of this study are to compare the child rearing attitudes of adoptive and natural parents, to compare the child's perception of parental behavior in adoptive and natural families, to discover if the two groups differ in their ability to predict their children's perceptions of parental behavior, and to investigate the incidence of learning disabilities among adoptive children. Findings indicate that significant differences exist between natural and adoptive parents as measured by the PAS and the CRPBI-R. Adoptive fathers are not as likely as natural fathers to feel it is impossible to change a child from his already determined way of behaving and believe parental or environmental influences to be more important than natural or inherent causations. The younger the child was at the time of adoption, the better the adoptive parents were able to predict what the child would report about parental discipline. Adoptive parents are also found to be more accepting of childhood behaviors and feelings and have more mutual trust and understanding of their children than are natural parents. There …

Extensive documentation exists which firmly establishes the high use rates and disastrous consequences of alcohol consumption by university students. Use rates for this population have been linked to attitudes toward alcohol consumption, especially alcohol expectancies. Research to date on alcohol expectancies has shown differences in expectancies among various groups. However much of this research has been conducted without a theoretical basis, accomplishing little in explaining how beliefs and drinking behavior are related. The investigation was designed to explore the relationships among and between early recollections and alcohol expectancies and to explore how the contents of early recollections function in relation to expectancies in terms of alcohol consumption patterns among three groups of college males (student-athletes, fraternity men, and independents). The content of individuals' early recollections was analyzed and compared to expectancies and consumption rates for each of the three groups. The study addressed seven hypotheses regarding alcohol consumption rate comparisons, comparisons of consequences experienced as a result of alcohol consumption, comparisons of alcohol expectancies, and comparisons of reported content of early recollections. Multiple regression analysis was utilized to test the extent to which select early recollections and alcohol expectancy scores contributed to the explained variance in alcohol consumption patterns.

The effectiveness of guided imagery as an enhancement to the Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) program was explored during a shortened 8-week program using three parent groups of elementary-age students matched for parent training experience and couple participation: a) an imagery-modified STEP group (STEP-Im, n = 14); b) a traditional STEP group (STEP, n = 14); and c) a drop-out comparison group (n = 10). Guided imagery consisted of centering exercise(s) for focus and concentration; structured imagery of Adlerian concepts; and open-ended role-assumption imagery for clarifying personal values, the perspectives of others, and concept practice.

According to Alfred Adler, founder of Individual Psychology, a feeling of inferiority is in some degree common to all people. People who are unable to overcome these inferiority feelings by striving for cooperation may become discouraged. Although there are three scales to measure social interest, no scales measuring discouragement for adults was found. Additionally, Adler held basic assumptions regarding homosexuality, and the findings suggest that the assumptions should be reexamined. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, three University of North Texas candidates developed a discouragement scale for adults 18 years of age and older, known as the Discouragement Scale for Adults (DSA). Discouragement was examined relative to the five life tasks. Second, this candidate normed the instrument for the scores of gay male subjects and compared it to the scores of the other subject groups. Since the emphasis was on developing the instrument and norming it for various subject groups, no hypothesis was developed. Data was collected on three subject groups, known as the general norm subjects, the discouraged subjects, and the gay male subjects. Analyses were performed on the scores. Among the analyses, it was found that gay male subjects were slightly more discouraged than the general …

This survey research was designed to identify play therapy behaviors of sexually abused children. A survey instrument was developed from a comprehensive review of the professional literature and the assistance of an expert panel. After a field test, 140 items of play therapy behavior were developed into a survey instrument. The respondent was asked to rate on a Likert scale the frequency of occurrence of these play therapy behaviors of sexually abused children. Each play therapy behavior was rated for the following four groups: Males, 3-6 Years; Females, 3-6 Years; Males, 7-10 Years and Females, 7-10 Years. The entire international membership of the Association of Play Therapy (APT) was used to obtain the largest possible number of viable responses. As anticipated, of the 786 replies, 41% were not seeing sexually abused children in play therapy. In order to insure the most robust findings possible, it was determined to utilize data from the 249 most experienced play therapists (having worked with 16 or more sexually abused children). The typical respondent in this group was a female play therapist, 40-50 years of age, with a Masters degree in Counseling or Social Work.