This study investigated personality differences among students who seek personal, career, and academic counseling and students who do not seek counseling. Students in the 1983 freshman class (N = 3,245) at Ball State University were administered various tests including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Counseling center files were examined to determine the number of students who subsequently sought counseling (n = 494) and which services they sought. Virtually no previous research existed using these variables. Therefore the study was considered exploratory in nature.In the statistical analyses, descriptive statistics were used to examine counseling groups. Loglinear analysis model fitting was performed on the four MBTI scales for the counseling seeker groups and the nonseekers.Results of the descriptive statistics showed that, in addition to the three counseling service groups, a fourth group emerged. Nearly one-fourth of the seekers did not return for services after intake (the "no services" group). Women represented about two-thirds of the total counseling seekers and of each counseling group. There was a significant relationship between year in school and counseling service sought. In the freshman and sophomore years, students sought more career and academic counseling. By the junior and senior years, students sought more personal counseling.Results of the loglinear analyses showed that the best-fitting model for the counseling groups contained the MBTI scales of sensing-intuiting (S-N) and judging-perceiving (J-P). The model further discriminated between the personal and academic counseling seekers and the nonseeking group. The personal counseling group was intuiting and perceiving (NP) and the academic group was sensing and judging (SJ). No differences were found for the no services and the career groups.The results of this study indicate there are definite personality differences among counseling seekers and nonseekers. By personality type, academic counseling seekers prefer the practical and concrete. Personal counseling seekers prefer the theoretical and abstract. Career counseling seekers and the no services group appear more like the general student population on the MBTI. Suggestions for counseling interventions and future research were given. / Department of Educational Psychology
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181097 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Stader, Sally Ann |
| Contributors | Fischer, Wyman E. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | x, 174 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | n-us-in |
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