No abstract

A model of psychological preselection is proposed to account for findings of higher psychiatric morbidity among Arts students than in other faculties. The predictions of this model and a competing 'course factor' model are tested. Arts students are found to show more evidence of anxiety, insomnia, depression and poorer relationships with parents before academic courses have begun. Some of these differences are found to be constructed from distinct sex-linked components. Certain aspects of the preselection model were not supported by the findings, and refinements to the model are presented. It is suggested that the preselection may be based on an interconnection between clarity of identity, cognitive style and educational choice. The data also support the view that adolescent 'storm and stress' may be the experience of the relatively few.

Out of 1279 first-year undergraduates, two matched groups of students potentially vulnerable to psychological disturbance were identified. One was left to its own resources; the other was offered psychotherapeutic intervention, the effects of which were measured by the number of consultations with general practitioners, type of treatment and rate of withdrawal from university. Although the students in the intervention group had fewer consultations, lower General Health Questionnaire scores at follow-up, and fewer withdrew from university, due to the small numbers involved none of these differences achieved statistical significance.

Three-hundred and eighty final year Undergraduates were classified into one of four occupational ego-identity (OEI) positions using the Student Progress Questionnaire (SPQ1). Evidence of the validity of the OEI classifications was found in that their distribution by Faculty was as predicted from previous research. Male students in the four OEI positions were shown to vary in levels of course satisfaction in directions indicated by Waterman and Waterman (1970). Equivalent results were not found for the female group. It is suggested that course satisfaction is a dubious criterion of course quality, in that such ratings may be biased by students' characteristics. The results also suggest that Erikson's theory of adolescence may be biased towards a masculine psychology. A view of course satisfaction involving the parallel processes of identity resolution and identification is proposed. This view is seen to be consistent with current research in the area of job satisfaction.