Abstract
The purposes of this study were to examine 1) how university students perceive self-change, and 2) the relationship of their perceptions on self-change to the realization of such change and the participants' psychological adjustments. First, an open end preliminary survey was conducted. Participants were 71 university students (23 men, 47 women, 1 unknown; average age: 19.30 years, SD=0.82), and they answered question about their perceptions on self-change. The various types of responses were sorted into four categories were obtained and survey items were developed including findings from previous studies. Following this, a primary survey of 400 university students (156 men, 242 women, 2 unknown; average age: 20.35, SD=2.12) was conducted. Factor analysis results revealed that perceptions on self-change fell empirically into the following categories: “anxiety / conflict,” “expectation,” “difficulty,” “ambivalent evaluation,” and “dependence on others.” Next, multiple linear regression analysis was performed using perceptions on self-change as the independent variable, and the realization of self-change, self-esteem, and time perspectives as dependent variables. This analysis demonstrated that “anxiety / conflict” and “difficulty” were negatively correlated with the realization of self-change, self-esteem, hopefulness, and self-fullness. Based on these results, the directions of support for distressed university students were discussed.
