Facilitating Growth in a Personal Development Course

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how types of instruction and students' locus of control mediate progress in an undergraduate personal development course. Three factor scores, Satisfaction, People/Security, and Task/Security, from the Life Styles Inventory assessed students' progress. Pretest scores served as the covariate for the 3 (type of instruction) × 2 (locus of control) analysis of covariance. Students in one of the personal development classes had higher factor scores than students in the comparison group. Significant interactions between types of instruction and I-E on two styles factors, People/Security and Task/Security, were found. Under certain conditions a personal development course could exert positive influences on students. The greater impact of the course on internal scorers is consistent with research on counseling.