The diagnostic value of children's play was investigated. The question explored was "Can maladjusted children be discriminated from adjusted children through observation of their play therapy behavior?" The play of 15 maladjusted and 15 adjusted children 5 to 10 years of age was compared during an initial 36-minute play therapy session. Three scales of the Play Therapy Observational Instrument (PTOI)—emotional discomfort, social inadequacy, and use of fantasy-- were used to rate the children's play. The children in the maladjusted group were referred by their parents for counseling and their teachers reported the children had exhibited one or more problem behaviors indicative of emotional disturbance. The children in the adjusted group were recommended by their teachers as exhibiting none of the problem behaviors and their parents did not believe their children needed counseling. Discriminant function equations predicted correct group membership for 23 of the 30 children during the second 12-minute time segment and for the entire play session. The analysis showed the play behaviors on the emotional discomfort scale of the PTOI items discriminated maladjusted and adjusted children. During the second and third 12-minute time segments and when all three time segments were combined, maladjusted children's play expressed significantly more dysphoric …

This study investigated whether behavior disordered children would decrease aggressive behavior if their social interest were developed. Three hypotheses that were tested predicted that there would be a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group on adjusted mean scores on aggressive behavior on post test scores. The measuring instruments used were the Child Behavior Checklist Parent Report Form, the Child Behavior Checklist Teacher Report Form, and the Child Behavior Checklist Director Observation Form. It was also predicted that there would be a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group on post test adjusted mean scores as measured on the Social Interest Scale. An analysis of covariance was employed to test the data. Behavior disordered students in the experimental group participated in three activities designed to develop their social interest. They participated in peer tutoring, socialization with nursing home residents, and group discussions. Data were collected from parents, teachers, and observers of behavior disordered students in an elementary school in Northwest Louisiana during the summer term of 1987. Teachers did report a statistically significant difference between the experimental and the control groups in the decrease of aggressive behavior. These results are in accord with predictions …

This study used a qualitative/phenomenological research methodology to examine the perspective of five bulimic subjects about their lives in order to understand the bulimic individual's point of view and develop a clearer picture of the world of the bulimic. This approach involved three interviews for each of the five subjects totalling 22 1/2 hours. The three interviews dealt with the subjects' past and present experiences and their ideas about the future. The qualitative/phenomenological methodology created an in-depth view of each subject's relationship to the beginning of her bulimia and its subsequent development. During the period when the interviews were being transcribed, patterns and concepts emerged and were examined. Nine categories were developed from this data reflecting some of the characteristics of a bulimic's personality. Six research questions were formulated and then answered by evaluating them in the light of the nine categories as well as data and descriptions from the interviews. No one single category was found to be uniquely dominant, but rather the categories tended to appear in a cluster-like fashion depending on the individual personality of the bulimic. The data of this study revealed a distinction between the personality and the behavior of the bulimic. A form with …

This research examined the influence of psychological temperament and family-of-origin socialization influences on relationship adjustment in marriage. The major goals were to determine: (a) if there was a relationship between the temperament of one mate in the marriage and the temperament of his or her spouse, and (b) if there was a relationship between the marital adjustment scores of a mate relative to either personal temperament or that of his or her spouse. A secondary purpose was to determine if certain family-of-origin socialization experiences influenced adjustment in marriage. One hundred seventy-nine couples (H = 358) completed three test instruments including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Myers, 1962), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), and the Socialization Background Questionnaire (Church, unpublished), along with a demographic questionnaire. The subjects, volunteers from 12 churches in a large metropolitan area, had mean ages of 35.3 and 33.6 years for husbands and wives, respectively, and had been married for an average of 10.1 years. Five hypotheses and two research questions were tested at the .05 level of significance. The results gathered did not support the hypothesis that there was a relationship between temperament type and mate selection. Similarly, no support was evidenced for any specific relationship between …

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to determine the therapeutic effectiveness of group counseling with visually-impaired elderly adults, and (b) to provide information concerning the effectiveness of group counseling to practitioners in the field. The study reviewed the literature regarding aging and vision, psychosocial reactions to vision loss, and group counseling with the visually-impaired and the elderly. Twenty subjects, who were above age 65 and had recently experienced a severe loss of vision, were selected to participate in the study. Ten subjects were assigned to an experimental counseling group and 10 subjects were assigned to a no-treatment control group. The experimental group participated in 1-1/2 hour group sessions once a week for 10 weeks. Both the experimental group and the control subjects were administered pre- and post-tests. The tests measured depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and life satisfaction.

The problem of this study was to isolate predictors of academic success in both self-paced classes and lecture classes in Introductory Accounting. The purposes of the study were to determine if learning style, locus of control, reading ability, age, sex, accounting work experience, and prior accounting academic experience are predictors of success in Introductory Accounting classes taught using self-paced methods of instruction and lecture methods of instruction. Another purpose was to determine if there is a difference in the set of predictors of success in the two instructional methods and to provide some direction as to determinants of success which may be addressed by counselors in advising students. The data were collected from 463 students at a suburban community college in the Southwest. Each of the variables was analyzed by a stepwise multiple regression analysis and a backward elimination regression for students grouped according to instructional method. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine whether the distribution of scores on the potential predictor variables were equivalent for students in the two teaching methods and for successful completers of the course and noncompleters. Consideration of the data findings of this study permitted the following conclusions: 1. Age and …

This study examined the use of group counseling and group discussion as a method of demonstrating changes on selected personality variables of first-year theology students. It was hypothesized that the subjects would become less dogmatic (more open-minded), motivated from a more internal locus of control, feel less anxious, and demonstrate greater creativity and self-concept following their participation in either group counseling or group discussion. Group counseling was hypothesized to be the best method for effecting changes. The subjects were first-year theology students at a southwestern theological seminary. These participants planned to work in some phase of ministry; several planning to be ordained as priests or to enter the deaconate. This study was based upon the premise that ministers often assume a counseling role and they therefore, need training in counseling skills and an opportunity to enhance their personal development. Group counseling and group discussion were explored as possible means to achieve these ends. Each of the five personality variables was measured on a pretest-posttest design. The subjects were tested prior to meeting in one of the two formats and tested again after fifteen hours of participation in one of the groups. A control group was also tested at these same …

This study investigated the difference in stress levels of stress factors according to the structure or type of family. The relatedness of the ranking of stress factors within and across three family types and the relationship between level of stress and number of years in current family type were also examined. Important aspects of this study were using three family types, using families seeking counseling as the subjects, and investigating numerous stress factors across family types. These research techniques avoided the limitations of previous research which investigated only one family type, thus isolating special stress issues for a certain family type where those special issues actually might not differentiate among family types. Also, considering numerous stress factors at one time, rather than only a few factors, indicated relative levels of stress as well as absolute stresses that families are likely to experience. Targeting families who had sought counseling should give counselors a more realistic view of clients and their problems.

This study investigated whether students in an Alternative School differed significantly from students who remain on a regular high school campus on measures of goals of misbehavior which included the factors of attention, power, revenge, inadequacy, and on measures of social interest. This study also investigated whether the attitudes of parents of Alternative School students differed significantly from the attitudes of parents of regular campus students on the factors of confidence, causation, acceptance, understanding and trust.

This meta-analysis investigated the efficacy of counseling to favorably change self-concept; the effectiveness of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) in measuring self-concept change; and whether the TSCS is consistent with other self-concept instruments in measuring self-concept change when used in the same research study. The meta-analysis inclusion criteria were: one or more psychotherapy or counseling treatments administered to the subjects; comparison of two groups, including an alternate treatment or control condition; investigated self-concept change; pre-post-test measurements of self-concept dependent variable were reported; sample was randomized and/or matched for equivalence; and sufficient information was reported to calculate or reconstruct an effect size.

This research study was designed to investigate the relationship between participation in a nursing education program and the factors of stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept experienced by the participants. Also, the study examined the relationship between age of participants and these same factors. The purposes of this study were (1) to determine if beginning and ending nursing students differ in stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept, (2) to examine the relationship between age of nursing students and stress, physical illness, anxiety, and self-concept, (3) to provide information that may help develop a theoretical base concerning stressful life events and illness in nursing students, and (4) to provide information that may be beneficial with regard to future research involving stress, physical illness, anxiety, self-concept, and age in nursing students.

This descriptive study with quantitative aspects examined the phenomenon of elder abuse through the systematic review of 60 cases of elder abuse. Cases were randomly selected from the files of an Adult Protective Services agency in the North Central Texas area. Research questions examined the characteristics of the victims and abusers, types and duration of abuse, descriptions of abusive situations, the reporting and verification of abuse, case management strategies utilized by caseworkers, and the consequences of those strategies. The results of this study point to the probability of the elderly abuse victim being 75 years of age or older, female, white, and widowed. There did appear to be some connection between race and type of abuse with white victims more likely to experience physical and financial abuse. Approximately half of the elderly abuse victims had severe limitations in physical and/or mental functioning leading to some degree of dependence upon their abusers. However, eighty percent of the elderly victims resided in their own homes and half of these individuals were functionally independent. This study provided descriptions of the various types of abuse that were observed: physical, financial, emotional, passive neglect, and active neglect. Financial abuse was noted most frequently, and multiple …

This study sought to determine the influence of pretherapy religious value information upon potential clients' (a) perceptions of a counselor, (b) willingness to see a counselor and (c) confidence of counselor helpfulness. Two hundred and ten undergraduate college students volunteered for the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups and given varying amounts and types of written information about a counselor. Group 1 received just the counselor's credentials. Group 2 received the same information plus statements about the counselor's beliefs about counseling and his therapeutic approach. Group 3 received the same information as group 2 plus a statement of the counselor's religious values. Subjects then viewed a short video tape of the counselor in a counseling session. Results of statistical treatment of dependent variables indicated that subjects' perceptions of the counselor, willingness to see the counselor, and confidence of counselor helpfulness were not influenced by the written information, including the statement of religious values that the subjects received before viewing the video tape of the counselor. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of the use of parents as therapeutic agents. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to determine the effect of filial therapy on parental acceptance, self-esteem, parent-child relationship, and family environment. A second was to analyze the results and make recommendations concerning the effectiveness of filial therapy as a treatment modality for parents and their children. The experimental design of the study was a nonrandomized, pretest-posttest, control group design.The sample (N=47) consisted of the experimental group (parents N=15, children N=9) who received filial therapy and the control group (parents N=12, children N=ll) who did not. The treatment included ten, two hour weekly parent training sessions. During these sessions the parents were taught the principles of client-centered play therapy and were instructed to conduct weekly one-half hour play sessions at home with their own children. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1) Filial therapy does significantly increase the parents' feeling of unconditional love for their children and 2) Filial therapy does significantly increase the parents' perception of expressed conflict in their family. In addition to the statistically significant results, there were some …

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 study investigated: the impact of addition of learning styles identification and interpretation on an existing academic skills improvement program, the effect of student's learning new material at preferred or non-preferred times of day, and learning style characteristics for different sexes, ethnic groups, and college majors. Student GPAs and probationary status were compared for 144 freshman students admitted on Individual Approval status, i.e., 71 students who completed the Academic Skills Workshops during the Fall of 1983 and 73 students who completed a revised program in 1984. Reading gain scores and learning style characteristics were studied for the 1984 students. Learning style characteristics were measured by the Productivity Environmental Preference Survey and reading gains were measured by the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. Analysis of variance, simple effects analysis, and chi square analysis were used to determine whether GPAs and probationary status significantly improved after the addition of learning style information for the total sample, sex and ethnic subgroups. Reading gain scores were compared by means of a t test. Analysis of variance and simple effects analysis were used to determine whether different learning style preferences existed for different sex, ethnic, and college major groups. Findings indicated that GPAs and probationary status did …

This study utilized ethnographic methodology to describe the communicative interactional patterns in families with a member who has breast cancer. Three breast cancer patients whose families were between the adolescent and launching of children developmental lifestage (McGoldrick & Carter, 1982) were chosen for the study. Data were collected from a series of three interview sessions over a period of four weeks with a two week time lapse between each of the interview sessions. Interview sessions were conducted in the families' homes by the researcher. All interviews were video and audio tape recorded for the purpose of preserving data for transcribing and coding. Research questions examined individual perception of meaning in regard to the disease, the structure and organization of the family in relation to the illness, and the effects of family communicative interaction on the course and management of the disease. Findings indicated that family members' responses to the diagnosis of "breast cancer were influenced by multi-generational "beliefs. All three families formulated a collective belief which supported the mother's belief about the disease. Each of the three families were mother-centered, and each mother seemed to use a metacommunicative approach to mediating family transactions. Each of the three fathers were reported …

This study was undertaken to investigate the influence of a military counselor s attire on potential clients expressed perceptions of and preferences for a counselor. Ninety volunteer participants were selected from a large southwestern Air Force base. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 46 years, with 68 male and 22 female volunteers. Rank was divided into 69 enlisted personnel (56 males and 13 females) and 21 officers (12 males and 9 females). Three videotapes were made depicting a counselor in three attire conditions: civilian; military officer; and military enlisted. A pilot study was completed which validated the research assumption that the videotapes differed only in the counselor's attire conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. After each group was shown a videotape portraying the counselor in one of the three attire conditions, the participants were administered the Counselor Rating Form and the Referral Questionaire. The Counselor Rating Form is composed of three scales which assess perceptions of a counselors' trustworthiness, attractiveness, and expertness. The Referral Questionaire assesses subjects preferences to see a specific counselor in the event counseling is desired. Two main hypotheses, each having three subhypotheses, were developed for the study. The first hypothesis compared participants …

This study investigated the Adlerian concept of social interest m entering community college students to determine the predictive value of social interest for academic achievement and to determine the relationship between social interest and ethnicity and gender. Data for this study included age, gender, ethnic origin, high school class quarter, financial aid status, ACT Composite, grade point average, and scores on the Social Interest Scale. The results of stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that the social interest scores did not contribute significantly to the prediction of academic achievement. The results of an analysis of variance indicated a significant difference in the social interest scores of Anglo-American, Black-American, and Mexican-American students but the Scheffe test for multiple comparisons did not indicate any significant differences among or between the three ethnic groups. The results of a two-tailed t-test for independent samples indicated no significant difference in the social interest scores of males and females.

The purpose of this study was to compare working women, career women, and homemakers on the variable of self-concept, locus of control, and attitudes toward women; to determine the relationship between group membership and age, marital status, education, income level, number of children, age of youngest child, maternal education, maternal training, and maternal work history; and to predict self-concept from a linear combination of locus of control, attitudes toward women, group membership, and all the other variables.

The problem of this study was to determine whether or not the variables locus of control, perceived anxiety, anxiety proneness, nursing experience and intensive care experience were better than chance predictors of job stress in intensive care nurses. The study was conducted using 200 volunteer nurses (RN's) who worked in the Intensive Care Units of two major hospitals in a large metropolitan area. All subjects were administered Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale and the Nursing Stress Scale as well as a demographic questionnaire. Multiple Regression Analysis was used to determine the predictive value of the characteristic variables to job stress and to determine the most efficient predictive model possible using these variables.

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.

This study evaluated the relationship between two supervision models (live or delayed) to structural family therapy outcome. Eighteen families participated in this study for a maximum of ten family therapy sessions. Two indices of change were measured before and after family treatment, resolution or non-resolution of the family's presenting problem, and changes in family structure as measured by the FIAT. The Family Interaction Apperception Technique was used as the pre- and post-treatment measure of family structure. Presenting problem resolution or non-resolution was determined by the family's report and demonstration within the counseling session that the presenting problem was no longer a family concern. Problem resolution was judged by the case supervisor and reported on the Session and Problem Checklist.

The problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a stress-reduction training program for women. The purposes were (1) to compare the training program with a group counseling program, (2) to determine the effect of the selected personality characteristics of field dependence, perceived anxiety, and anxiety proneness on perceived stress, and (3) to provide counselors with information concerning the reduction of stress in women.