A Comparison of Certain Experiences by Life Stages of Selected Groups of Self-Actualized, Modal and Low- Functioning College Students
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A COMPARISON OF CERTAIN EXPERIENCES BY LIFE STAGES OF SELECTED GROUPS OF SELF-ACTUALIZED, MODAL AND LOW- FUNCTIONING COLLEGE STUDENTS By CLARENCE WALLACE DUNCAN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE COUNOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1970 t*f ^ift... iSi .'jbV : J- fc.; », * ! '- I^irriV * ,' -¥- .iMiwPRSITY OF FLORIDA lisii: Copyright by Clarence Wallace Duncan 1970 AC KNOVJLED GEMENT S The writer wishes to acknowledge the assistance of many persons in the completion of this dissertation. Special appreciation goes to the 478 students at the University of Florida and Santa Fe Junior College vmo participated in this research. This study could be done only because so many of these students were willing to give their tine and share personal information about themselves. Words cannot adequately express the v;riter's appreciation to his doctoral committee chairman. Dr. Ted Landsman, whose research in the areas of positive experience and the beautiful and noble person v;ere part of the foundation of this study, and whose personal influence has been formidable in the writer's professional growth. Dr. Landsman has been and continues to be a valued friend and mentor. Dr. William Purkey and Dr. Franz Epting, members of , the doctoral committee, were .very helpful during the designing phase of this research and again during the writing of the dissertation. Dr. Bobby Cage v;as the writer's statistical consultant and gave all the time and valuable advice needed for the project. Appreciation is expressed to Dr. Walter Busby, Dr. Carolyn Griffis, Dr. Ted Landsman, Dr. VJilliam Purkey, Dr. Robert Myrick, Dr. Allan Dahms , Mr. George Huber and Mr. iii Robert North for allowing their classes to take the screening test used in this research. Special thanks go to Lourdes Valdes , Marta Konik and William Persons III who provided the ratings used in this study. Rosemary Brant gave many hours to routine clerical tasks, test scoring and typing. Hers was an invaluable contribution. Thanks is also expressed to Mrs. Carolyn Lyons and her staff at Professional Typing Service for helping the writer through those final difficult stages. Finally, profound gratitude and love go to Vicki, Renae, Laura and Paul Duncan, the writer's children, and to his wife. Rose. They helped him endure the frustration and anxiety, and shared v/ith him the joy of his v7ork. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOVJLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES • ix ABSTPACT X Chapter I. INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 1 II. PROCEDURES 19 III. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA 48 IV. SUM2-IARY, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 135 Appendix A 15 8 B 171 C 174 BIBLIOGRAPHY 29 5 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 29 8 .. LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Sources of Male and Female Subjects in Each Sample Group 26 2 Interrater Reliabilities 28 3. Personal Orientation Inventory Time Incompetence: Time Competence and Other- Directed: Inner-Directed Ratios 50 4. t Tests for Differences Between the Means of the Modal Sample and 478 Students on the Personal Orientation Inventory Time Competence and Inner-Directed Scales 52 5. Chi Squared Comparison of Personal Orientation Inventory Mean Profile (478 Students) and the Modal Sample 53 6 Geographical Backgrounds 55 7. Do You Enjoy Competition? 56 8. Childhood Religious Training 58 9. Perceived Parental Pressure for Grades 58 10 Religious Preference 61 11. Active in Religion 63 12. Rating of One' s Ov/n Mental Health 65 13. Parents' Marital Happiness 67 14 Parents Divorced 68 15. At Least One Parent Dead 68 16 Fathers ' Education 69 17 Fathers ' Occupations 70 vi ... — LIST OF TABLES -Coyitirmed Table Pago 18 Fathers ' Mental Health 72 19 Mothers ' Education „ 74 20. Mothers at Home or Avray from Home 75 21 Mothers ' Mental Heal th 77 22. Subjects' Marital Status 7 8 23 Subjects ' Marital Happiness 80 24. Spouses' Mental Health 80 25. Total Number of Experiences Eeported 82 26 Number of Crucial Experiences 83 27. Distribution by Life Stages of Crucial Experiences 84 28. Focus of Experience (Positive and Negative) 87 29. Focus of Positive Experiences Alone 88 30. Focus of Negative Experiences Alone 89 31. Subtypes of Positive Experiences 93 32. Subtypes of Positive Experiences (Duncan and Landsman Samples) 95 33 Subtypes of Negative Experiences 99 34. Positive-Negative Experiences by Focus ... 101 35 Sharers of Positive Experience 105 36 Sharers of Negative Experience 105 37. Experiences with Opposite Sex Peers (Positive and Negative) 109 38 Opposite Sex Positive Experiences 109 ..'.,..'''•" vii . — LIST OF TABLES Continued Table Page- 39. Opposite Sex Negative Experiences 109 40. Location of Positive Experiences 112 41. Location of Negative Experiences 114 42. Experience Scores Showing X, Rank and Kruskal-Wallis H 117 43 Total Autobiography 120 44 Preschool Years 122 45 Elementary School Years 123 46 Junior High School Years 124 47 High School Years 125 48. College Years 127 49 Graduate School/Adult Years 129 50. Analysis of Variance for Ages of the Three Samples 130 51. Differences between the Self-actualizing and Modal, Modal and Lovz-functioning and Low- functioning and Self -actualizing samples , 148 vxii — — LIST OF FIGURES Figure , Page 1. Personal orientation inventory profiles means of three samples and 478 college students 51 2. Three samples; focus of experience percentages compared 85 3. Three samples' percentages of positive experiences distribution compared 92 4. Three samples' percentages of negative experiences distribution compared 9 8 5. Three group comparison of experiences which changed from positive to negative or negative to positive 102 6. Percentages of sharers of experiences (positive and negative) 104 7. Percentages of positive and negative experiences with opposite sex peers 10 8 8. Location of significant experiences for three sample groups Ill 9. A single continuum model of m.ental health 15 3 10. Two dimensional model of mental health 156 IX Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council of the Universi.ty of Florida in Partial Fulfilli;ient of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy A COMPARISON OF CERTAIN EXPERIENCES BY LIFE STAGES 0? SELECTED GROUPS OF SELF-ACTUALIZED, MODAL, AND LOW-FUNCTIONING COLLEGE STUDENTS By Clarence Wallace Duncan August, 1970 Chairman: Dr. Ted Landsman Major Department: Counselor Education The purpose of this study was to coro.pare the life experiences and situational variables of samples of self- actualized, modal and low-functioning subjects. It was hoped that commonalities of experience or personal background might be found particularly among the self-actualizing sub- jects. Four hundred and seventy-eight undergraduate and graduate students were given the Personal Orientation Inventory (Shostram, 1964) . From these, 30 self-actualizing, 30 modal and 30 low-functioning students vzere selected for further study. The Personal Orientation Inventory was the. criterion for all three groups. Each of tiie 90 subjects completed a Personal Data Questionnaire and a Structured Autobiography. The Personal Data Questionnaire asked about X personal background in terms of family location, religion, occupational and educational status and mental health of parents, spouses and subjects. The Structured Autobiography solicited experiences from the preschool, elementary, junior high, high school, undergraduate and graduate/adult life periods. Each experience was rated by a trained graduate student v;hose reliability had been established. It v/as rated for focus (self, interpersonal or environmental) , type (positive, positive-negative, negative or negative-positive) , subtype of positive experience as described in 19 61 by Landsman (conquest, excitement, beauty, completion, interpersonal, earned success or mystical) , and subtypes of negative experience (failure, sickness/pain, interpersonal, boredom, loneliness, escape/disgust, fear, violence, death, anger/ hostility, mystical/drugs) . In addition the raters designated the principal sharer and the location of each experience where possible. In this study there was no relationship between the individual type of reported experience and the level of functioning. However, when the patterns of experience were compared, important differences emerged. The low- functioning subjects reported a consistently negative oriented pattern while the m.odals reported a consistently positive oriented pattern. The self-actualizing subjects were more like the low-functioning when the total life was considered, but showed '. ' . xi considerable fluctuation among the life stages. Mien individual types of experience were examined there seemed to be a consistent trend toward larger positive scores from preschool through undergraduate for the self-actualizing subjects although the scores never attained significance. It seemed that the peers and the school were the most potent sources for positive experiences and the home and family v^ere most potent for negative experiences. This holds some implications for the role of the school in the development of superb human beings. Unfortunately, there was a higher rate of negative than positive experiences with teachers. It appeared that the low- functioning and self- actualizing samples were most alike and the modal sample stood apart. It may be that there is no single continuxim from lov;- functioning to modal to self -actualized in the mental health model. It is hypothesized from these data that there are, in fact, two developmental