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The goal of this study was to better understand the lived experiences, perceptions, and attitudes of nontraditional, adult university students enrolled in an online baccalaureate degree program, who were given an opportunity to participate in an engaged, study-abroad program. This understanding was achieved through rigorous analysis of student learning journals required as part of the course. Students were asked to journal their feelings, perceptions, experiences and learning. The purpose of the analysis was to identify and describe the various experiences and perceptions, then group these experiences and perceptions into a logically organized description of the lived experience of adult students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which explored the contrasting views regarding the length of time needed for completing a group development cycle. The study analyzed verbal statements from the members of three encounter groups with 4, 12, and 20-hour lengths using Borgatta's Behavioral Scoring System (BSs System), here-and-now rating system, and judge reliability. The study found inconclusive relation between group length and group process.

The article discusses two studies regarding the differential effects of the duration of time spent in encounter groups on the responses of participants to Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) and the level to which changes are retained. The first study focused on the experiences of brief versus extended growth group, while the second focused on the differential effect of distributed against massed group experiences. The study showed the fallacy over the use of multiple t-tests.

The prevalence of depression in a large suburban county was found to be lower than that estimated for either rural or urban populations. Differences in affluence probably account for much of the observed discrepancy. While the prevalence of depression among women was twice that of men, gender was not found to be a major predictor of depression because the variance accounted for by gender was largely accounted for by other, more powerful predictors. Age was the strongest predictor, with younger people being more depressed. Measures of social support and socioeconomic status were also major predictors of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The St. Barnabas Committee is a voluntary group whose members are concerned with the quality of life of the dying person. They focus their work on advocacy for needed programs, on public education, and on supportive visiting with dying patients and the network of family, friends, and staff who interact with those patients. Decrying the trend to professionalize and institutionalize services that meet basic human needs, this article describes the St. Barnabas Hospice Committee as an example of community members trying to take care of their own. The role of the psychologist as a consultant rather than leader is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the development and underlying factor structure of a brief measure of consumer satisfaction. Four factors, accounting for 69.1% of the variance, were extracted. They appeared to measure satisfaction with the quality and outcome of treatment, satisfaction with the intake process, satisfaction with the timing of the termination of treatment, and satisfaction with the costs. Analysis of the content of responses to open-ended questions revealed that most consumer concerns had been addressed in the multiple-choice section of the questionnaire. Differences in client groups in level of satisfaction were found on one factor but not the others, supporting the conclusion that satisfaction should be considered multidimensional. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Counselor judgment regarding the appropriateness of student curricular choice and the strength of counselor commitment to that judgment were related to student persistence in college. Students who failed to change curricula when the counselor felt such change was indicated remained at the University a fewer number of terms than any of the other groups studied. Sex of student and strength of counselor judgment regarding curricular choice were also significantly related to persistence, although strength of counselor judgment regarding curricula choice was best treated as moderating the relationship between student behavior in relation to counselor judgment and academic performance. Results were discussed in terms of objectives and procedures of counseling with respect to academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study undertaken to identify a set of empirically derived values stated in a less abstract form on the hypothesis that such a set would yield psychologically meaningful constructions of value systems. The study also sought relationships between one's value system and certain other variables that appear to be related conceptually to values, example, sex, age, marital status, political affiliation, church membership, and others. Significant correlations between values and these other variables would lend construct validity to the obtained value systems. Seventy-five introductory psychology student volunteers at the Pennsylvania State University were used to generate an initial set of value statements. Eight factors were obtained which accounted for 64 per cent of the variance. The general approach of the present study makes it possible to study value constructions as they are existential in groups. For example, different constructions of values might be expected to emerge when groups different from college sophomore populations are studied, example, adolescents, the disadvantaged, inmates of prisons, the aged, teachers, counselors and others.