The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a cognitive self instruction-based career and life planning group intervention on the perception of locus of control. The null hypotheses pertained to the differences in perception of locus of control between treatment and control groups as measured by the Nowicki-Stricklard Locus of Control Scale for Children.Career and life planning is a concept that was designed to help people recognize themselves as active change agents in their own lives. Perception of locus of control has been shown to be influential in determining proactive as well as reactive behaviors. For example, people perceiving an internal rather than an external locus of control are more likely to actively engage in information gathering and use newly acquired information to aid in decision-making. Cognitive self-instruction has been used effectively with various groups to change behaviors. The emphasis of this intervention mode was on developing self-control through the awareness of alternative and more constructive self-talk.The subjects were pre-delinquent high school adolescents from a midwest residential treatment center. Eighty subjects were randomly selected by computer from a population of 131. Through computer randomization, half of the subjects were assigned to a treatment group and half to a control group. The treatment and control groups' experiences all occurred at the residential treatment center.The treatment group sessions were forty-five minutes long and were conducted every third day. A total of six sessions were held. The treatment material and approach emphasized role playing as a technique to examine self-talk that led to negative outcomes and explore alternative selftalk to achieve more satisfying results. The control group maintained their normal daily routine while the treatment group was dismissed to attend the group sessions.Immediately following the last treatment group session and again four weeks later all subjects were administered the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children. The instruments were scored and the differences between the average raw scores of the scale were subjected to two univariate analyses of variances, with differences considered significant at the .05 level.The computed F values for the treatment group effects relevant to the post and delayed post-test(F = .16, p < .6897 and F = .04, p < .8373, respectively) were not significant. Therefore, the null hypothesis-- there will be no significant difference between the treatment and control group subjects' mean scores on the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children immediately following and four weeks after treatment--was not rejected.Analysis of the data indicated that there was no significant difference in perception of locus of control between the treatment and control groups as measured by the locus of control scale. Therefore, it is concluded that using this six forty-five-minute group intervention mode, the cognitive self-instruction and career and life planning experience did not produce a significant change in perception of locus of control as measured by the aforementioned instrument scale.Comments by the subjects indicated that many positive relationships between the group leaders and the adolescents were established. Five of the six group leaders were completely inexperienced in working with pre-delinquent adolescents. Although they demonstrated the ability to relate well to the subjects, they did experience difficulty and some failure in keeping the group experience closely related to the specific treatment material. More intense training of group leaders regarding the use of the treatment material with this specific population could have been helpful.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/179810 |
| Date | 03 June 2011 |
| Creators | Provenzo, Angelo M. |
| Contributors | Donn, Patsy A. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 109 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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