Date of Award

1989

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Susan A. Myers

Second Advisor

James D. Evans

Third Advisor

John T. Shaffer

Abstract

Therapists views of the nature, function, and effect of the self-actualizing capacity in their clients were investigated. Variation in views as a function of therapists ' gender, experience, and theoretical orientation was also examined. The researcher gathered the information by randomly selecting psychologists from the American Psychological Association's Register and as king 35 men and 25 women to respond to a 12-quest ion self -administered questionnaire.

The results from the questionnaires were coded and grouped into general categories . The responses seemed to fall naturally into two broad groupings of (a) psychological and physical (internal phenomena) effects or (b) factors or environmental (external phenomena l effects.

Five of the 36 chi-square tests run were significant . One of these tests showed a strong relationship between theoretical orientation and the responses given. The remaining significant relationships indicated weak association between the variables. Thus, responses typically did not vary as a function of differences in gender, level of experience, or theoretical orientation . The respondents agreed with each other much more than they disagreed in spite of the fact that they varied in gender, level of experience, and theoretical orientation. The findings indicate that there is wide agreement on the nature and process of self -actualization across the demographic groupings examined here.

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