This study investigated the relative merits of the paradoxical directives (PD) counseling techniques to the more didactic cognitive restructuring (CR) intervention. It was hypothesized that subjects in the PD groups would show an improvement in self-esteem, a reduction in depression and anxiety, and a change reflective of a more internal locus-of-control orientation to a degree significantly greater than the CR and the control groups.;The sample consisted of sixty eighth grade volunteers, twenty from each of three middle schools in a local area school district. Six groups were formed of ten subjects each, two groups for each treatment and two groups receiving no treatment. Participants were randomly assigned by treatment and counselor within each school. Eight group meetings were held, two a week for four consecutive weeks.;The research design used was the pretest/posttest control group design. Instruments used were the Coopersmith Self Esteem Inventory, the Children's Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (trait anxiety portion only), and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus-of-Control Scale for Children. An analysis of covariance was used to discern differences in posttest group means by treatment taking into consideration pre-treatment group differences. Statistical analysis resulted in the acceptance of null on hypotheses 1, 3, and 4 as reviewed in Chapter 4 and below. The null hypothesis was rejected at the .95 level of confidence for the second hypothesis. Posttest treatment means did not significantly differ with regard to self-esteem, anxiety, and locus-of-control. On the other hand, posttest treatment group means differed significantly at the 0.05 level on the measure of depression.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:wm.edu/oai:scholarworks.wm.edu:etd-1973 |
| Date | 01 January 1986 |
| Creators | Hall, David Alvin |
| Publisher | W&M ScholarWorks |
| Source Sets | William and Mary |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects |
| Rights | © The Author |
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