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Older adults, defined as those aged 65 or older, are rapidly becoming the largest group of individuals in the United States. As this population steadily increases, so will the demand for adequate and appropriate mental health care. Counselors need to be prepared to meet this increasing demand by understanding efficacious ways to conceptualize and intervene with older adults. Existential theory and therapy is one tool to conceptualize older adults in counseling and is uniquely suited for therapy with older adults by its direct focus on late-life issues such as death and meaningfulness. This paper provides a brief overview of the existential theory, followed by a discussion of how to meet the mental health needs of older adults by utilizing existential techniques. Two therapy cases are presented as preliminary evidence that existential therapy can be useful with older adults. The limitations of this approach are also discussed. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/GCP)

This article explains that the phenomenological approach in counseling began as a movement to counterbalance the influence of psychoanalysis in psychotherapy and counseling. Phenomenology is defined as the study of the world as we immediately experience it, pre-reflectively rather than as we conceptualize, categorize, or reflect on it. Through dialogue, we grasp the essence or common meaning of co-constructed lived experience. The counselor's understanding of the client is a shared experience brought about through such dialogue. Counseling approaches as they relate to phenomenology are discussed, including transpersonal, person-centered, and existential counseling. The article concludes that phenomenology differs from both positivism and post-modernism because it emphasizes the subjective meaning of each individual and the essence of human lived experience. Recommendations are provided for counselors, including being cautiously aware of their influence on the interaction between client/participant and himself/herself. Also included is a discussion of the similarities between the counselor and researcher approach to phenomenology in focusing on the here and now meaningful experiences of participants. (Contains 11 references.) (JDM)

This paper explains how the hardiness approach has had an impact on psychology and related fields. It states that in this process, the development of the hardiness approach to enhancing performance and health has been facilitated by continual cross-fertilization between theorizing, research, and practice. It first emerged from individual differences research on stress reactions as the attitudes of commitment, control, and challenge. Since then, the impetus of combing research and practice has led to the supplementation of hardy attitudes with hardy skills concerning coping, social interaction, relaxation, nutrition, and physical exercise. Also, the role of and mechanisms whereby hardy attitudes and skills enhance performance and health are better understood. This more comprehensive picture also involves the expansion of the hardiness approach from the individual to the organization level. As we approach the next century, hardiness will be even more useful. (Contains 4 figures and 40 references.) (JDM)

Science teachers need to select tenets from the philosophy of education which stress student attainment of vital context, abilities, and attitudes. This paper discusses diverse schools of philosophical thought in terms of how each might relate to improving the science curriculum. For example, a science teacher who is a realist emphasizes that one can know the real world, in whole or part, as it truly is. The mind then does not modify or change what is being perceived; hence, specific objectives of instruction can be determined by science educators for students to achieve. Experimentalists stress a problem-solving approach in the curriculum. They emphasize that individuals cannot know the real world as it truly is; however, individuals obtain experiences from this reality. Thus in the science curriculum, problem-solving is the focus. Idealists believe that one can receive ideas about the real world only. In idealism mental development becomes of the utmost importance, therefore depth teaching is needed to cultivate the intellect in guiding student achievement in science. Decision-making opportunities in science are important for existentialists. Problem-solving can encompass all these philosophies and should be a major tenet of education to emphasize in the teaching of science. Contains 18 references. (PVD)

This essay examines the ways in which philosophy, as a discipline, has been influenced by feminist scholarship in the field. It explains that in the 1970s feminist philosophers introduced questions regarding personal life and sexuality as matters for philosophical analysis, and that scholars began to challenge the notions of the Western canon. Feminists argued that understanding philosophical texts required reading symbolic and metaphorical language to discover subtexts that held philosophical reasoning in place. The essay goes on to discuss the radical interpretive techniques, such as deconstruction, used by feminist philosophers, and explains that scholars have begun to question the very identity and root impulse of the discipline of philosophy. The essay concludes that the use of feminist materials in philosophy courses can lead to deep change in the way that philosophy is conceived of and taught, because women's work in philosophy has tended to be grounded in existential issues, critically self-reflective of its methodology, and open to interdisciplinary enrichment. The document includes a list of related electronic resources. (Contains 48 references.) (MDM)

Elementary and secondary preservice teachers' philosophical perspectives were examined before and after their participation in field-based activities in a professional development school. A philosophical perspective survey was administered at the start and again at the end of the semester. The five categories were existentialism, behaviorism, perennials, essentialism, and progressivism. The preservice teachers were enrolled in university courses conducted at public school sites taught by a faculty member from the university. T-tests were conducted to examine whether or not overall differences occurred in philosophical outlooks for both the elementary and secondary preservice teachers. The interns had a statistically significant difference in their student-centered-progressive outlook. The elementary interns were more existentialist than the secondary interns, and the secondary interns held a stronger view regarding behaviorism. Qualitative data were collected from the secondary preservice teachers' journals. Generally, both quantitative and qualitative data suggested that the program was influential in affecting philosophical changes, in particular a trend toward combining existentialism and progressivism. The experiences that the interns faced during their program at the public school changed their outlook toward stronger student-centered views of teaching. Recommendations for improving a professional development school are provided. The philosophical perspective survey is appended. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/ND)

This article examines the unique spiritual journey of the counselor in relation to her attempts to aid clients through their wildernesses. Both the therapist and the client journey to a common end. However, it is the manner in which the counselor travels that allows her to discover her own destiny while assisting clients to realize their unique potential. Specific considerations discussed are counselor preparation for spiritual intervention, the nature and the utilization of the "wilderness experience" in counseling, and the implications of spiritual growth within the healing relationship. Particular attention is given to the stages of spiritual development, the wilderness journey, and those factors which contrast a productive, growth-inducing experience with an aimless wandering in an existential void. Contains 24 references. (Author)

Logotherapy is a meaning-centered psychotherapy which focuses on both the meaning of human existence and the personal search for meaning. If the will to search for meaning is frustrated, "existential frustration" may result. This study validates the Existential Anxiety Scale (EAS) developed by Good and Good (1974). Basic principles of logotherapy are discussed and related research is reviewed. The materials used in this study include the EAS, the Purpose in Life (PIL) test, the Seeking of Noetic Goals (SONG) test, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and a demographic data sheet. The researcher chose multiple regression to test the significance of the combination of PIL, SONG, depression, drug use, and other demographic variable on high existential anxiety. It was hypothesized that high existential anxiety correlates with low PIL scores, high SONG scores, high depression, drug use, high sexual activity, fewer close friends, and lack of involvement in spiritual or religious activities. Results substantiated the hypothesis that high existential anxiety is significantly related to low PIL scores, high SONG scores, and high depression. No other hypotheses were substantiated. Contains 15 references. (RJM)

This paper describes ethnosociology and provides an application of this interpretive research model in dealing with problems in rural special education. The expansion of rural special education knowledge should begin with discovering and elaborating on special education knowledge at the local theory level. Such inquiry would be based on the following principles of ethnosociology (which combine interpretive anthropology, enthnomethodology, and existential sociology): (1) reality is socially constructed through interaction and reflection, and is constantly changing; (2) cultural meanings provide for the ways to construct realities; (3) individuals choose their actions based on socially constructed local theories of social order; (4) at any given time, local theories of social order are potentially rational and irrational, cognitive and affective, conscious and tactic, and formal and informal; (5) local theories of special education social order are the proper subject matter for an ethnosociology of special education; (6) local theories of social order are primarily accessible through the use of interpretive ethnographic methodologies; and (7) interpretive researchers should reflect on their own local theories of the special education phenomena under study. An application of this model to the problem of recruitment and retention of rural special education teachers is presented. (LP)

This document discusses the application of a systems approach for family counseling for African American families with a family member infected with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). It begins by citing statistics that illustrate that there exists a disproportionate representation of cases of AIDS among African Americans. A discussion on empowerment of the family gives some historical perspective to the black family and cautions against taking a Eurocentric approach when working with other cultural groups. The systems approach is explained and the discussion then integrates the systems approach in combination with a multicultural approach which involves empowering the African American family by using its strengths. A section on the African American family in therapy is followed by a discussion of the AIDS family. It is noted that the application of a systems approach for counseling African American AIDS patients and their families allows the counselor to deal with the ramifications of the disease within a cultural framework inclusive of extended relationships. Specific strategies are presented which combine these perspectives with the existential dilemmas encountered by the dying and his or her family. The document concludes that counselors also need to be responsible advocates of safe sex and drug usage in their efforts to prevent AIDS. (NB)

A study compared the informal theories about the child held by 10 preservice education students with those held by 8 educational leaders with experience in the elementary grades. During interviews, students and educators were asked to define "the child" in everyday terms. They were also asked to categorize and respond to 32 statements about what the child is like or can do. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed, then analyzed for themes and topics. Respondents tended to espouse an existential philosophy of the child as a particular kind of entity, possessing uniqueness, self-awareness, decision-making power, and vulnerability. Both experienced and preservice educators expressed existential ontologies, but the experienced educators did so more consistently. The few nonexistential comments were made almost exclusively by preservice students. This heavy commitment to viewing the child in an existential manner may cause important misunderstandings when education students are exposed to formal, academic theories of learning and development in their teacher education programs. The study report includes a review of the literature on informal theories, a discussion of the implications of study findings, and the 32 statements about the child that were used in the interviews. (AC)

Study seeks to determine if existential well-being has a positive impact on survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Findings reveal that severity of abuse was associated with the level of existential well-being present in the survivor. The relationship between abuse and existential well-being is unclear. (Contains 23 references and 3 tables.) (GCP)

The purposes of this article are (a) to introduce the existential perspective as a viable theoretical framework for school counselors to utilize when addressing possible violent behavior in youth; and (b) to present a case study that introduces possible school counselor case conceptualization and interventions designed to address the existential factors that may influence youth at risk for violent behavior. (Contains 43 references.) (GCP)

Proposes a psychodynamic-existential perspective as a theoretical model that explains career burnout and serves as a basis for a counseling strategy. According to existential theory, the root of career burnout lies in people's need to find existential significance in their life and their sense that their work does not provide it. (Contains 40 references.) (GCP)

Examines writings on educational theory and philosophy in the 1960s, discussing the dynamism, turmoil, and conflict of this era, when educational philosophy came into its own as a vital discipline. The paper notes that both the analytical and existentialist trends of this era shared an emphasis on doing philosophy rather than on philosophical or theoretical system building. (SM)