Personal Growth Initiative Scale Research Articles

The Effectiveness of the Strength‐Centered Career Adjustment Model for Dual‐Career Women in Taiwan

The authors investigated the effectiveness of a Strength‐Centered Career Adjustment Model for dual‐career women (N = 28). Fourteen women in the experimental group received strength‐centered career counseling for 6 to 8 sessions; the 14 women in the control group received test services in 1 to 2 sessions. All participants completed the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS), Job Satisfaction Inventory (JSI), and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) before and after the counseling sessions or test services. Analysis of covariance indicated that there were significant differences between the scores of the experimental and the control group on the PGIS and SWLS but not on the JSI.

Happiness and Personal Growth are Attainable in Interferon-Beta-1a Treated Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic debilitating disease. MS is associated with high rates of depression and dissatisfaction with life. “Positive psychology,” (PoP) has endeavored to better understand happiness, meaning in life and how these can be developed. There is a growing interest amongst clinicians and consumers in happiness and personal growth as indicators of patients’ well-being. To evaluate happiness and personal growth in treated relapsing-remitting (RR) MS patients compared with age and gender matched healthy subjects. The Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS) and the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) were completed by 105 RR-MS patients [70 females, mean age 44.4 ± 13.3 years, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 3.6 ± 2.3] and 87 healthy subjects (66 females, mean age 39.7 ± 11.5 years). Scores were correlated with disease and treatment related parameters. All patients were treated for at least 6 months with interferon-beta-1a (Rebif). Mean happiness scores in MS patients for the OHI (103.1 ± 17.0), the SLS (23.9 ± 6.8) and the PGIS (40.1 ± 7.6) were not statistically different from those of healthy subjects. Categorical analysis of the SLS demonstrated a different distribution wherein more MS patients were in the “dissatisfied” subgroup (SLS score < 20) as compared to healthy subjects (24.8% vs. 12.6%, p = 0.045), while rates were similar in the extremely satisfied subgroup (SLS ≥ 30). Happiness was scored similarly in treated RR-MS patients and healthy subjects despite a greater percentage of patients reporting being dissatisfied with their lives. These findings may reflect positive treatment effects, hedonic adaptation or their combination.

Hope and personal growth initiative: A comparison of positive, future-oriented constructs

As new measures are added to the increasingly crowded positive psychology field, they must be juxtaposed with existing instruments to assess their relative utility and guide applied psychology researchers and clinicians in choosing appropriate measures. One such new measure is the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS; Robitschek, 1998). Comparing the PGIS with Synder et al.’s (1991) Hope Scale in a college-student sample ( N = 378) with latent variable analyses using LISREL-8 revealed that PGI and hope are distinct yet related constructs (zero order r = 0.65; latent r = 0.84). Both constructs related to a selected set of outcome measures (optimism, psychological distress and well-being) but only hope accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in predicting these outcomes when hope and PGI were entered simultaneously in the model.

Validity of Personal Growth Initiative Scale scores with a Mexican American college student population.

This study tested the validity of scores on the Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS; C. Robitschek, 1998, 1999) with a Mexican American college student sample. Results indicated that the PGIS scores appear to be culturally relevant for this population, with scores on the PGIS having many similar relations with other variables that have been found in prior research with mostly European American college students. PGIS scores appear to be minimally related to measures of cultural constructs for both Mexican American men and women. Results are discussed in terms of their relations to constructs prevalent in Mexican American cultures. Limitations, implications for counseling, and suggestions for future research are presented.

Personal Growth Initiative: The Construct and Its Measure

This manuscript presents the Personal Growth Initiative construct and describes the development and initial validation of the Personal Growth Initiative Scale.