Woman—A sense of identity: A counseling intervention to facilitate personal growth in women.

Abstract

An intervention was designed, implemented, and evaluated by the authors with the goal of facilitating the psychological growth of women. Focus was on increased self-esteem and competence through self-awareness, skills development, cognitive changes, and changes in overt behavior. Three eveluation studies are described indicating the model's effectiveness with two populations of college women. Study 1—pretest, posttest, and follow-up results on the Adjective Check List and the Self-Assessment Scale indicated statistically significant increases in self-esteem, confidence, and autonomy and decreases in deference and dependency. Gains were sustained over follow-up. Study 2—pretests and posttests were completed on the Adjective Check List, the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, and the Adult Self-Expression Scale for one control and two intervention groups. Significant changes occurred in the intervention groups on all measures and in the control group only on the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Study 3—change was measured over a 10-week waiting period prior to the intervention using the instruments of Study 2. There was essentially no change over the waiting period, but significant change over the intervention. Use of the model as a training program is discussed as well as limitations of the evaluations completed.