The effects of the youth counselling program on the growth toward self-actualization.

[摘要] The primary aim of the study was to investigate the effect upon growth toward self-actualization;and to explore changes in cross-cultural attitudes for Guidance pre service teachers who wereparticipants in a Youth Counselling program. It was hypothesised that participants would growsignificantly toward self-actualization. The data were collected through pre- and posttestadministration of Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) and through a researcher-designedquestionnaire, the Attitude Inventory. The control group consisted of EnglishMethodology students, The results indicated that participation in the Youth Counselling programwas not effective in increasing self-actualizing attitudes. Significant change in the YouthCounsellor's perceptions of her/his ability to form interpersonal relationships with individualsfrom racial groups different from her/his own was also not confirmed. Nevertheless, as, aby-product of the study. certain Interesting findings were noted, namely South African preserviceteachers (of Guidance and English Methodology) centre excessively on the past or the futurerelative to the present and tend to misuse time. Further, they are bound by social pressures andsocial expectations, and are unclear as to whether to conform or to act autonomously, Empiricalobservation demonstrated the Youth Counselling program was the first time that many ofthe Youth Counsellors had entered into a relationship with an individual of another race,Recommendations for further research include a Youth Counselling program which is voluntaryand not mandatory, of a greater length than five months, more closely monitored and lessambiguous. It was suggested that a more reliable method of measuring self-actualisation, whichis more appropriate to South African conditions should be developed. It was also suggested thatfurther use of the Attitude Inventory is postponed until validity and control studies have occurred.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand