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The purpose of this case study was to trace the development of the image of the College of William and Mary in order to test the hypothesis: The image of a selective liberal arts college is not exclusive to the private sector. In tracing the development of the image, the concept of saga, defined by Clark (1968) as an historically based understanding of organizational development was viewed as the theoretical basis for the study. Four factors were found to have a positive impact upon the development of the selective image of the College. (1) The restoration and growth of Colonial Williamsburg which attracts over one million visitors to the area each year. (2) The admission philosophy and policies which projected and fostered a selective image prior to the actual development of selectivity. (3) The administrative philosophy and development of the mission of the institution as espoused by the four presidents who served during the period. (4) The student bodies of the time period studied--their academic credentials, activities and foci during their college careers--both as a group and as individuals.;Statistics were compiled for the period 1946-1980 listing: the number of applicants; the percentage accepted; the percentage of admitted students enrolled; and the high school academic credentials including test scores and ranks-in-class. These were used to demonstrate the degree of selectivity which developed during the period.

The demand for increased cognitive and skilled abilities in the workplace has raised college students' expectations for career-education programs to supplement the liberal arts curriculum. A response to this challenge has been the design of career-education courses that stress the integration.

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The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a structured Adlerian-based group education program (PREP) on the self concept, locus of control, and family relationships of alternative high school students, with and without parent participation in a parent education group.;The sample consisted of students at Point Option Project, an alternative high school in Newport News, Virginia, who requested to take the PREP course for elective credit (n = 34). Students were assigned randomly to two treatment and one control group, with students whose parents were participating in the STEP-TEEN parent education program becoming PREP Group 1 and those students whose parents were not becoming PREP Group 2. Both treatment groups received identical information taught by the same instructor. The control group followed a regular class schedule. All classes met three times a week for approximately 50 minute periods. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale, the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children, and the Family Environment Scale were administered to all students as pretest-posttest measures. An analysis of covariance was conducted on the difference in pretest and posttest scores using the pretest score as the covariate.;The major findings of this study were: (1) Students in both treatment groups did not significantly (p < .05) improve their Total Positive score on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. (2) No significant differences (p < .05) were found between the experimental and control groups on movement toward internality. (3) No significant differences (p < .05) were found in perceptions of family environment as a result of participation in the PREP program.

This study compared the effectiveness of two structured small-group counseling techniques, Peer Counseling and Achievement Motivation Training, on the school attendance and academic achievement of underachieving alternative high school students. It also investigated whether participation in daily counseling sessions over a six-week period positively effected measures of self-concept, locus of control, and tendency to achieve.;Experimental subjects were 81 high school students in grades nine through twelve in a public open alternative high school. Subjects were students who had passed fewer than 75 percent of their classes during the marking period preceding the study.;Subjects were assigned randomly to one of four treatment groups: Achievement Motivation Training (AMT), Peer Counseling Training (PC), Attention Placebo control, and No-Treatment control. The AMT group participated in a structured training program designed to facilitate behaviors characteristic of high achievers.;The PC group participated in a structured program in human relations training designed to develop communication skills. The Attention Placebo group engaged in unstructured group discussions, while the No-Treatment control group pursued the normal Groups met daily for fifty minutes for six weeks.;Academic grade point averages and percentage of classes attended were calculated pre- and post-treatment for all subjects. The Tennessee Self Concept Scale, Rotter's I-E Scale, and Mehrabian and Bank's Measure of Achieving Tendency were also administered pre- and post-treatment. It was hypothesized that students participating in the AMT group would show greater increase in achievement motivation and movement toward internal locus of control than those participating in the PC group or control groups. It was also hypothesized that students participating in AMT and PC groups would show greater increase in self-esteem, and greater improvement in attendance and achievement than control group subjects.;Data analysis did not support any of the experimental hypotheses. All groups, experimental and control, showed significant improvement in grade point average subsequent to the experimental treatment period.;It was concluded that neither experimental treatment significantly effected the academic achievement, class attendance, achievement motivation, locus of control, or self-concept for this population. Several possible reasons were discussed for the failure to obtain the hypothesized results.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of participation in structured group counseling on the self-concept and leadership skills of disadvantaged gifted elementary school children.;Subjects were forty-eight elementary students from the Chesapeake Public School District in Chesapeake, Virginia. All students had been identified as potentially gifted and talented and were in attendance at a school designated as Title I by the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 (ESEA).;Three instruments were used to carry out the study: The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), figural form, to measure creative thinking ability; the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale (PHCSCS) to measure change in self-concept; and the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS), Part IV, Leadership Characteristics to measure change in leadership.;The research design used for the investigation was the Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design. Analysis of Variance using an a priori contrast was employed to determine significance of treatment. A Pearson Product-Moment Correlation was used to investigate the relationship between creative thinking ability, self-concept, and leadership skills. All hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of confidence.;The findings indicated that: (1) participation in a program of structured group counseling did not significantly increase self-concept or leadership test scores of disadvantaged gifted students and (2) among the program participants, high creative students did not have significantly higher mean gain scores in self-concept and leadership than low creative students. It was also found that (3) although there was no significant correlation between creative thinking test scores, self-concept test scores, and leadership test scores, there was significant correlation between self-concept test scores and leadership test scores.;Because research is limited, further study investigating the self-concept, leadership, and creative thinking ability of disadvantaged gifted students is needed in order to generate a broader base of knowledge and more finite instrumentation. In addition, group guidance and instructional activities focusing on the needs of the disadvantaged gifted should be implemented so as to provide opportunities for development of potential.

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The Type A behavior pattern, which has been linked to a high incidence of heart attack among adult males, has been the subject of much research by both medical and psychological professionals. There have been very few attempts to modify this damaging behavior pattern in individuals who have not shown any symptoms of heart disease. This research is concerned with the student population most likely to contain a high production of Type A's, the academically superior.;Thirty honor roll students from each of three junior high schools were identified as Type A using the student form of the Jenkins Activity Survey. After random assignment, the students in the six treatment groups participated in five weeks of Stress innoculation Training consisting of deep muscle relaxation, the symptoms/identification of stress and the modification of self-statements. Each group was conducted by a counselor in the students' home school who had been trained in SI. The course of the treatment followed a detailed outline to optimize consistency.;Post-treatment measures included the Timed-Arithmetic Task to measure achievement striving, the Adjective Check List to measure need for achievement, the Writing Speed Task and the Time Estimate Task to measure Time Urgency, and the end of treatment grade point averages to measure achievement.;Using a 3 x 3 factorial design it was predicted that there would be no differences between treatment groups or between the several schools on any of the measures. In addition, it was predicted that there would be no interaction effect between the schools and treatments.;The two way analysis of variance conducted on the post treatment measures indicated that there were no significant differences on achievement levels, achievement striving or need for achievement. Although some significant school effects were noted on the reduction of Time Urgency, post hoc measures failed to yield any consistent pattern of variance. It was thus concluded that the treatment was not effective in reducing the Type A pattern in the subject population.