The article presents results from a qualitative study on the imagined future. The main research aim was to explore students' visions of their future professional life. Participants were asked to write an essay following the instruction: "How would you like to spend an ordinary weekday in 10 years (in the year 2033)? Please provide a detailed description". In total, 92 essays were collected from Polish female pedagogy students aged 19-24. The study revealed that work-life balance represents a prevailing model of future life. The vast majority of participants would like to work in the field of their current studies. They do not express fear or uncertainty about finding employment in their studied profession. Visions of future lives are described as reachable, mundane, and regular. The article also presents the meaning attributed to the professional sphere by current pedagogy students.
This paper outlines the methodology and research design used to explore how counsellors conceptualise growth and how this may inform their work with clients. Five counsellors practicing on the island-nation of Malta were interviewed in a process driven through the use of stimuli intended to support participants to access deeper, more complex sources of meaning. Participants noted that the use of visuals and metaphors within the research design facilitated prompt, profound access to themes, concepts and reflections about their own beliefs and approach to counselling. The study highlights the role of creative and analogical thinking in fostering reflexivity and deeper therapeutic engagement when using imagery and metaphors. These helped evoke discourse that surprised the participants themselves. Findings suggest that incorporating metaphorical and visual elicitation techniques in research and practice can provide rich, complex data; enhance participants' understanding of complex psychological constructs and support professional development within the field of counselling.
Academic procrastination, frequently seen in student populations, is regarded as a significant barrier to achieving academic success. However, it is often viewed as the result of certain maladaptive strategies shaped by underlying cognitive and behavioural factors. Therefore, the present research examines how academic procrastination, fear of failure, and self-critical rumination are connected to students' tendencies to engage in academic self-handicapping. The study sample included 360 university students (72.2% female, 27.8% male M-age = 22.45) in T & uuml;rkiye. The dataset was examined using structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques. The results demonstrate that self-critical rumination and academic self-handicapping act as full mediators in the association between fear of failure and academic procrastination. These results imply that interventions targeting self-critical rumination and academic self-handicapping strategies may be effective in students experiencing academic procrastination. Furthermore, while fear of failure contributes to procrastination, the cognitive processes and behavioural strategies associated with this fear play a particularly influential role.
Background: Resilience has a positive impact on the mental health of college students. However, few studies have focused on group differences in resilience among first-year students. Therefore, this study aims to explore these group differences and analyze the relationship between resilience, Solution-Focused Thinking (SFT), Strengths Knowledge and Use (SKUS), and Benefit Finding (BF). Methods: Using purposive sampling, a survey was conducted with 611 freshmen from two universities. Data were analyzed using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and multinomial logistic regression. Results: Group differences in resilience were identified among first-year students. LCA revealed three subgroups: High resilience group, Middle resilience group, and Low resilience group, which were correlated with SFT, SKUS, BF, and individual characteristics of the freshmen. Conclusions: SFT, SKUS, and BF can distinguish participants across different subgroups. Positive psychological interventions leveraging SFT, SKUS, and BF should be used to improve the resilience and mental health of first-year students.
Menopausal students are absent from the scholarly literature. Through this research, we challenge the invisibility of this group within university counselling training courses. In this study, the menopausal students' experience is explored using a phenomenological lens. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three counselling students and one osteopathy student and analysed using two of van Manen's [1997. Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. London, ON: The Althouse Press] lifeworld existentials, "lived body" and "lived space". Menopausal symptoms deter menopausal students from contributing in class and precipitate their physical, intellectual and emotional withdrawal. They experience exclusion and feel unwanted in the academic space. Inclusion and exclusion are ethical issues for counselling trainers. Menopausal students' experiences reveal exclusionary processes and potential hidden inequalities. The findings reflected how menopausal students occupy and use learning spaces and may help counsellor educators to reflect upon how forms of exclusion can operate outside conscious awareness and impact social interaction.
