AN INVESTIGATION OF ADJUSTMENT LEVELS OF TURKISH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH RESPECT TO PERCEIVED COMMUNICATION SKILL LEVELS

Ceyhan, Aydogan Aykut

This study aimed to determine whether the adjustment levels of university students differ according to their perceived communication skill levels. The research was carried out with 277 Turkish university students. Data were collected through The Communication Skills Assessment Scale (Korkut, 1996) and the Hacettepe Personality Inventory (Özgüven, 1992). The findings of the study revealed that personal, social, and general adjustment levels were significantly related to perceived communication skill levels. Students who have high perceived communication skill levels had significantly higher personal, social, and general adjustment levels. Results are discussed in relation to their implications for effective communication skills of university students.

Keywords: adjustment, communication skill, university students.

University students are in a transitional period between adolescence and adulthood. This period has been called emerging adulthood, and includes the years between the late teens into the twenties, generally the ages of 18-25 years (Arnett, 2000). In this stage of life, individuals are faced with specific developmental tasks which are peculiar to this period, such as taking responsibility for oneself, making independent decisions, having a job, preparing to set up a family, establishing and maintaining meaningful close relationships with others, establishing friendships, and so on. Thus, the young person is expected to be adult. In this stage, being unsuccessful in setting up intimate relationships or experiencing role confusion may prevent the youth from attempting to establish close relationships with others, and the young person may isolate him- or herself from others, or may be shunned by others. Therefore, it becomes difficult for some young people to share their emotions that are similar in nature with others and to get along with them (Kilicci, 1989).

University students living in emerging adulthood can expreience stress in some ways and they may experience several difficulties (Lafreniere & Ledgerwood, 1997; Vollrath, 2000; Ye§ilyaprak, 1986). These problems may involve accommodation, nutrition, and economic problems, distress related to establishing and maintaining close relationships, anxiety for the future (Karasar et al., 1999), adjustment difficulties as a result of encountering new environments and circumstances, preparing themselves for professions, and spending their free times in the best way, difficulties of making independent decisions, loneliness, hopelessness, and so on. Moreover, university students also face the global problems of today's societies, like inadequacy in following rapid changes in technology, and unemployment. In the university years, the obstructions originating from self and environment in achieving these concerns drive the emerging adult into depression (Kihcci, 1989). Consequently, like individuals in all stages of life, emerging adults encounter various concerns and it is necessary for them to learn to live with these situations and to cope with these difficulties, to be in a process of continuous improvement and change, and to achieve developmental tasks. To accomplish all these goals, it is essential to have effective communication skills.

The most important human social behavior is communication. Communication means an exchange or communion with another (Fenson, 2000). Individuals need good communication skills to establish interpersonal relations and to communicate effectively in their daily lives. In the communication process, the degree of the skill possessed by the persons who give and take messages determines the quality of communication. Effective communication requires skills in making a reply and reflecting the speaker's feelings and thoughts, asking open nondirective questions, exploring nonverbal cues, responding truthfully to messages, willingness to listen, establishing eye contact, focusing on understanding, giving corrective feedback, responding with "I" messages, self-disclosure, demonstrating empathie understanding, responding positively to criticism, demonstrating assertive behaviors, managing conflicts and solving problems appropriately, and showing unconditional acceptance.

In society, university graduates are expected to possess skills in communication, to be good at interpersonal relations, self-management, creativity, decision making, and problem solving (Sawyer, Tomlinson, & Maples, 2000). Their communication skills may have powerful effects on their relations, academic performance, and development, because, emerging adults who have effective communication skills may be more successful at establishing social interactions with their environments, and in self-development and adjustment. Nowadays, a great deal of importance has been given to the effects of interpersonal relationships on individuals' personal and social adjustment, and individuals' adjustment and maladjustment have been thought of as resulting from their established relations (An, 1989).

Adjustment, while described differently according to various approaches, may be defined as the degree of establishing and maintaining good relations with both self and environment of the individual in general (Özgüven, 1992). Lazarus (1961) states that adjustment is a process of coping with stress successfully; on the other hand maladjustment is an outcome of coping with stress inadequately. Therefore, it is necessary for emerging adults to be aware of their own emotions and experiences, to undertake responsibility for themselves, and to be actively involved in social life in which they establish social relations with their own environment (An, 1989). Thus, the emerging adults' adjustment with to their environment depends on communication skills. Some studies (Anthony, 1973; Hatch & Guerney, 1975, as cited in Korkut, 1996b), demonstrating the positive relationships between interpersonal skills and psychological adjustment support this explanation.

In Turkey, many studies related to adjustment have found similar results. In these studies, it was found that adjustment was related to many variables, such as locus of control, introversion-extraversion, loneliness levels, sex roles, and social support, as well as demographic and personal variables (Ceyhan, 2000). Moreover, it was also shown that there were relationships between adjustment and dominant ego states of university students (An, 1989), between low adjustment and loneliness (Goswick & Jones, 1981). The findings also indicated that loneliness levels of university students who did not have a romantic relationship were significantly higher than the loneliness levels of those who did, and that the social skill levels of students had an important effect on establishing and maintaining social communications and romantic relationships (Deniz, Hamarta, & An, 2005). It was pointed out that one of the important indicators of adjustment levels of university students is good human relations and the variables related to this (Alperten, 1993).

It is necessary to provide these young people with the means to improve their abilities to cope with difficulties and stress sources, and to establish concordant relationships with themselves and their environments. If it is taken into consideration that university students provide important contributions to the development of society as the adults of the future (Yesilyaprak, 1986) but they are faced with many difficulties, it will be seen that it is not very realistic that the students are expected to become well adjusted. In addition, various difficulties experienced by university students raise the question of "what is the state of the university students' mental health? In university life, the students' interpersonal relations and social development are as important as their academic studies. Therefore, courses should be conducted to develop students' personal and social relations and skills (Alperten, 1993), and to increase students' adjustment power and mental health. The results of these may provide important contributions and directions for developing activities for the students by academic staff, psychologists who work with university populations, or university counseling centers and so on.

As a result of these explanations, it may be hypothesized that university students who have better communication skills will demonstrate more personal, social, and general adjustment in their lives than those having poorer communication skills. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between university students' communication skills and adjustment levels. For this purpose, the following questions were to be answered in this study: "What are the relationships between university students' perceived communication skill levels and personal, social, and general adjustment levels?" and "Do university students' personal, social, and general adjustment levels differ significantly with respect to their perceived communication skill levels?"

METHOD

PARTICIPANTS

This research was conducted with 277 university students attending various programs at the Faculty of Education, Anadolu University, Turkey in 2004 taken by the random sampling method. Participants comprised 156 female (56.30%) and 121 male (43.70%) students; 60 of them were first grade (21.70%), 75 of them were second grade (27.10%), 90 of them were third grade (32.50%), and 52 of them were senior grade (18.80%) university students. All the university students in the sample are native to Turkey and participated in the study voluntarily.

INSTRUMENTS

Communication Skills Assessment Scale (CSAS) In this research, the perceived communication skill levels of university students were assessed by means of the CSAS which was developed by Korkut (1996a). The CSAS is a self-report measure determining students' assessments relating to their own communication skills. The CSAS uses a 5-point Likert type scale ranging from always to never and consists of 25 positive expressions including items such as, "I can see the situations from different perspectives", "While trying to understand someone, I talk with a peaceful tone of voice", and "While listening to someone, I try to understand what s/he means more than how I will respond". The total score of the scale ranges from 25 to 125. The higher the score, the higher the positive assessment level of communication skills.

Validity and reliability studies of the CSAS were undertaken by Korkut (1996a). Related with criterion-related validity of the scale, correlation coefficients between the CSAS and Dökmen's Empathie Tendency Scale (1998) were computed as .52 in a study with 58 students and .48 in a study with 61 adults. In the reliability studies of this scale, Cronbach a coefficient was calculated and the test-retest method was used. The Cronbach a coefficient concerning the internal consistency of the scale was calculated as 0.86 for university students. Also, the Cronbach a coefficient was computed as .75 in the other study with 61 adults. In the test-retest method, the correlation coefficient obtained with a two-week interval for 58 university students was calculated as 0.78, p

Hacettepe Personality Inventory (HPI) To determine adjustment levels of university students, the Hacettepe Personality Inventory, which was developed by Özgüven (1992), was employed. The HPI consists of two main sections: personal adjustment (PA) and social adjustment (SA). The PA comprises four subscales; self-realization, emotional stability, neurotic tendencies, and psychotic symptoms. The SA also comprises four subscales; family relationships, social relationships, social norms, and antisocial tendencies. Each subscale of the PA and SA includes 20 items (Özgüven, 1992). The HPI consists of 168 items that are rated on two alternatives "yes" and "no". Using the HPI, a total score, and at the same time, scores for the two main sections and each of the subscales, and a validity score can be obtained. The highest scores indicate being healthier and better-adjusted, and lower scores indicate more maladjustment (Ceyhan, 2000).

Reliability studies of the HPI were carried out by Özgüven (1992) by using various samples. In these studies, correlation coefficient was obtained with test-retest method which was calculated as average .82, including the lowest .58 and the highest .92 (Özgüven, 1992). In many studies, reliability coefficients were also calculated and the lowest coefficient was found to be .76 (Ceyhan, 2000). Validity of the HPI was also tested by many studies. In these studies, it has been reported that the inventory may differentiate normal and abnormal persons from each other, the prediction and criterion validity of the HPI are high (Özgüven, 1992). Depending on all the results of the studies, it can be stated that each main section and each of the subscales of HPI can be used as a measure, independently (Özgüven, 1992).

In this study, to determine the personal, social, and general adjustment levels of university students, the HPI-brief form was employed. The HPI-brief form was developed by reducing half-and-half of the subscales' items. The HPI-brief form consists of 80 items including 40 items relating to personal adjustment such as, "When others try to discuss with you, are you bothered immediately?" , "Are you frequently worried about trivial things?", and "Do you sometimes think that nobody understands you?", and social adjustment such as, "Does going back home in the evening make you anxious?" "Do you feel comfortable in situations where females and males are together?" and "Do you suspect that others gossip about you?" A total score (general adjustment), and at the same time, scores for each main section (personal adjustment and social adjustment) can be obtained through the HPI. The scores range between O and 40 for PA and SA, and between O and 80 for general adjustment, with a higher score indicating a better adjustment level (Özgüven, 1992). The HPI has been widely used as a measure of adjustment in studies in Turkey.

PROCEDURE

The university students completed the CSAS and HPI in December 2004. In this research, to determine the impact of university students' perceived communication skills on their adjustment, the extreme groups for the variable of perceived communication skills were determined. Subjects with scores at either extreme end were selected. The selection criterion was ±1 standard deviation from the means. Thus, subjects with high scores formed the "high" group; subjects with low scores formed the "low" group. The following procedures were carried out. Firstly, mean and standard deviation of scores were calculated to divide university participants into high and low groups. According to this calculation, mean and standard deviation of the perceived communication skill scores were 87.66 and 15.52, respectively. secondly, below the 1 standard deviation from the mean of the sample's perceived communication skill scores distribution was about 72 and above 1 standard deviation was 103 score. 163 subjects whose scores were between 72 and 103 were eliminated from analysis. Finally, the sample was divided into a "low perceived communication skill group" which consisted of 63 subjects whose perceived communication skill points were between 58 and 72, and a "high perceived communication skill group" comprising 51 subjects whose points were between 103 and 115. Therefore, data obtained from 114 students for the variable of perceived communication skills were analyzed.

In data analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients and f-test for independent groups were applied by using the SPSS program and p = .05 was accepted as a reference point to be statistically significant.

RESULTS

The findings related to the subproblems were presented as follows.

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERCEIVED COMMUNICATION SKILL LEVEL AND ADJUSTMENT LEVELS

In this research, the aim was to examine whether or not there is a relationship between university students' perceived communication skill levels and personal, social, and general adjustment levels. Descriptive statistics related to the distributions and Pearson correlation coefficients between perceived communication skill level and personal, social, and general adjustment levels were computed. A summary of descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients and significances are given in Table 1.

As shown in Table 1, the results demonstrate that there are significant relationships between the students' perceived communication skill levels and personal, social, and general adjustment levels, respectively.

COMPARISONS OF ADJUSTMENT LEVELS OF STUDENTS WITH RESPECT TO PERCEIVED COMMUNICATION SKILL LEVEL

Firstly, the subjects were divided into extreme groups. Subjects with low scores formed the "low" group (n = 63) and subjects with high scores formed the "high" group (n = 51), using the criterion of 1 standard deviation above and below the mean of perceived communication skill scores to find out if university students' personal, social, and general adjustment levels differ significantly according to their perceived communication skill levels. Subjects with points between ±1 standard deviation from the mean of distribution (n = 163) were extracted in the analysis. Then, the personal, social, and general adjustment levels of students were compared with respect to perceived communication skill level by r-test. The findings related to these comparisons are shown in Table 2.

It was found that the students whose levels of perceived communication skill were high demonstrated significantly more general adjustment than did the students whose levels of perceived communication skill were low. These findings are also in the same direction for the two main sections (personal adjustment and social adjustment) of general adjustment.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

According to the research findings, as expected, there are significant positive correlations between university students' perceived communication skill and personal, social and general adjustment levels. Consistent with these findings, the adjustment levels of the students differ according to perceived communication skills and the students who perceive themselves as having higher communication skills are better adjusted than the others who perceive their skills as lower. These results support the current study's hypotheses and appear to be parallel with the findings of the other related studies (Alperten, 1993; Anthony, 1973; An, 1989; Baker, 2003; Cam, 1997 & 2002; Ceyhan, 2000; Deniz, Hamarta, & An, 2005; Goswick & Jones, 1981; Halamandaris & Power, 1997,1999; Hatch & Guerney, 1975; as cited in Korkut, 1996). In the light of all these findings, it may be stressed that the possession of effective communication skills is associated with level of adjustment, and the training of university students in these skills is very significant for them during the emerging adulthood stage.

The years of university education are a transitional period that requires adapting to different cultures and new conditions. Nowadays, since the majority of students starting at university are encountering very different physical, social and cultural environments, they ares likely to experience various problems (Lafreniere & Ledgerwood, 1997; Yesilyaprak, 1986). In this emerging adulthood stage, the social relations they were accustomed to formerly are interrupted, and instead of these old relations, they are trying to establish new relations. Therefore, many students experience social and emotional adjustment difficulties in their university lives (Alperten, 1993). These problems may continue throughout university life. It is necessary for students to cope with these effectively, and to decrease their negative impacts on their behaviors. Essentially, as the addictions to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and narcotic substances usage increase more and more in the rapidly developing and changing societies, it is extremely important for individuals to cope with the problems of daily life and to adjust (Alperten).

The results of previous studies demonstrate that ineffective problem-solving skills were associated with greater alcohol intake and with more sedentary leisure behavior (Godshall & Elliott, 1997), academic self-efficacy and optimism were strongly related to performance and adjustment (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001), and social problem-solving appraisals were a significant predictor of psychosocial adjustment to university, perceived stress levels, motivational orientations, and academic performance (Baker, 2003). In addition, it has been found that the self-appraised effective problem solvers were better adjusted psychologically (Heppner & Anderson, 1985), had higher self-concept and lower self-criticism scores, lower frequencies of dysfunctional thoughts, fewer irrational beliefs, and coping styles that were less blameworthy and more problem focused (Heppner, Reeder, & Larson, 1983) than were the self-appraised ineffective problem solvers. Thus, consistent with these explanations and findings it may be stressed that the students who have effective and competent communication skills, find it easier to manage their problems by getting much social support, and becoming personally and socially well adjusted.

From the social cognition perspective, it has been stated that optimum adjustment and development occur with the highest level of coping skills and self-sufficiency, along with proper interactions with the environments of the individuals (Atwater, 1990). The present findings support these explanations. Consequently, it may be stressed that because of having effective communication skills, individuals may cope with stress sources more effectively, and build up healthy relations with their environment, and thus, these may enhance the emerging adults' personal and social adjustment. Being healthy in communication provides the individual with the means to make deep, meaningful, and satisfying relationships, while poor or ineffective communication leads to the feeling of being misunderstood, undesirable loneliness, and deep emotional problems (Korkut, 1996b). Therefore, it is important to organize activities and programs aimed at improving and teaching effective communication skills. These may prevent the manifestation of adjustment issues at a later date.

The findings of this study, if examined within the context of the Turkish culture, demonstrate that it is very important to arrange effective programs and course activities aimed at increasing effective or good communication skills for Turkish university students. There are some cultural differences between Turkish and Western families in terms of family structure (Hortacsu, Oral, & Yasak-Gültekin, 1991), value judgments system, and child-rearing practices. For example, the traditionally accepted parenting style in Turkey is authoritarian, and control of children and their behavior - especially for females - is more prevalent (Sümer & Güngör, 1999b). As compared to American youth, Turkish youth perceived more family control (Kagitçibasi, 1970), cultural differences in insecure attachment styles were observed, and students with preoccupied styles in the Turkish sample and those with dismissing and fearful styles in the American sample were found to be overrepresented (Sümer & Güngör, 1999a). Authoritarian and permissive/indulgent parenting styles located at two opposite poles were found to be the most common child-rearing practices used by Turkish parents, unlike the results of studies in Western culture (Sümer & Güngör, 1999b).

As a result of this situation, it may be possible that emerging adults who need to reinforce the developmental tasks of adolescence (Kilicci,1989) in Turkish society are more likely to have some undesirable characteristics such as trying too hard to please others, getting very angry easily, shamefulness, difficulties in making decisions about themselves, characteristics leading to low self-reliance (Onur, 1985), not gaining emotional independence, submissiveness, suspiciousness, a lack of assertiveness (Eksi, 1982), external locus of control, inhibition of emotions, and insufficiency in self-expression. In addition, emerging adults may be faced with expectations of high academic achievement in a competitive education system, comparisons with others' success, and disregard of nonacademic achievements. Under such conditions, they are required to have effective communication skills to become mature adults, to have health personality development, and to increase personal and social adjustment.

Consistent with these thoughts, there are some research results demonstrating that personality variables are correlated significantly with social support and psychosocial adjustment to university life, and which show that personality and social support contribute significantly to psychosocial adjustment to university life (Halamandaris & Power, 1999). Furthermore, dysfunctional attitudes have also been found to be significantly related with all the personality and psychosocial adjustment variables, and personality and dysfunctional attitudes contribute significantly to perceived social support and psychosocial adjustment to university life (Halamandaris & Power, 1997). Consequently, teachers and counselors in counseling and guidance centers in Turkish schools should take more responsibility for improving communication skills of students.

Training can be given to emerging adults to improve communication skills. The results of the various studies demonstrate the effects of training programs on communication skills such as, turning students towards a more positive direction (Korkut, 1996b), better problem-solving skill perceptions of teachers (Cam, 1997), enhancing students' skills of self-expression and understanding others, and awareness of communication conflicts leading to engaging in more problemsolving efforts (Cam, 2002). Therefore, training programs to improve young adults' communication skills must be carried out intensively to make them more functional and effective in the future, because they have great importance in the development of society. According to the current findings, making university students realize the importance and effectiveness of communication skills is very important, because a person's ability to build close relationships with others is an essential component of a healthy personality. Individuals' close relationships affect their personal and social development significantly (Deniz, Hamarta, & An, 2005). Thus, various training programs and communication skill courses may be organized (Korkut, 1996b, 1999), especially in schools.

The present study is limited in several respects. The findings must be evaluated in terms of the potential limitations. Firstly, the sample did not represent all university students because the sample size was small and consisted only of education faculty students. Based on this limitation, the findings need to be replicated with more representative and wide samples of university students. secondly, the data about students' communication skill levels were collected by using a self-report scale based on their own perceptions. Hence, the findings are limited by their assessments related to their own communication skills. Further efforts may expand these findings by using different scales and methods, and research designs. In spite of the limitations outlined, the present research provides some evidence for the usefulness and importance of exploring relationships between personal, social, and general adjustment and perceived communication skills of university students. They reveal how important the training programs and guidance activities are for improving the communication skills of university students. The findings may be extremely significant, especially for those in related work, such as academic staff, managers, researchers, workers in the guidance and psychological centers of the universities, and students.

REFERENCES

Alperten, I. N. (1993). Some personal, social, and familial factors that influence the adjustment levels of ODTÜ students. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Ankara: Hacettepe University, Institute of Social Sciences.

Ari, R. (1989). The effect on ego states, assertiveness, and adjustment levels of university students' dominance of ego states, and some personal variables. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Ankara: Hacettepe University, Institute of Social Sciences.

Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55 (5), 469-480.

Atwater, E. (1990). Psychology of adjustment: Personal growth in a changing world (4th ed.). NJ.: Prentice Hall.

Baker, S. R. (2003). A prospective longitudinal investigation of social problem-solving appraisals on adjustment to university, stress, health, and academic motivation and performance. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 569-591.

Ceyhan, E. (2000). The investigation of the personal and social adjustment levels of school counselors with different levels of job difficulties. Eskisehir: Anadolu University Publications No: 1185.

Chemers, M. M., Hu, L., & Garcia, B. F. (2001). Academic self-efficacy and first-year college student performance and adjustment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93 (1), 55-64.

Cam, S. (1997). The effect of a communication skill training programme on teacher candidates' ego states and problem solution skill perceptions, Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Ankara: Ankara University, Institute of Social Sciences.

Cam, S. (2002). The results of communication skills training as a lesson. Submission presented in Yakin Dogu University XI. Educational Sciences Congress, 23-26 October 2002.

Deniz, M. E., Hamarta, E., & An, R. (2005). An investigation of social skills and loneliness levels of university students with respect to their attachment styles in a sample of Turkish students. Social Behavior and Personality, 33 (1), 19-32.

Dökmen, Ü. (1988). Measurement based on a new model of empathy and developing it with psychodrama. Journal of Ankara University Educational Sciences Faculty, 21 (1-2), 155-190.

Eksi, A. (1982). Our young and their problems. Istanbul: Istanbul University.

Fenson, S. (2000), http://www.inc.com/guides/growth/23032.html)

Godshall, F. J., & Elliott, T. R. (1997). Behavioral correlates of self-appraised problem-solving ability: Problem-solving skills and health-compromising behaviors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 929-944.

Goswick, R. A., & Jones, W. H. (1981). Loneliness, self-concept, and adjustment. Journal of Psychology, 107, 237-240.

Halamandaris, K. R, & Power, K. G. (1997). Individual differences, dysfunctional attitudes, and social support: A study of the psychosocial adjustment to university life of home students. Personality and Individual Differences, 22 (1), 93-104.

Halamandaris, K. F., & Power, K. G. (1999). Individual differences, social support and coping with examination stress: A study of the psychosocial and academic adjustment of first year home students. Personality and Individual Differences, 26 (4), 665-685.

Heppner, P. P., & Anderson, W. P.(1985). The relationship between problem solving self-appraisal and psychological adjustment. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 9, 415-27.

Heppner, P. P., Reeder, B. L. & Larson, L. M. (1983). Cognitive variables associated with personal problem-solving appraisal: Implications for counselling. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 30, 537-545.

Kagitcibasi, C. (1970). Social norms and authoritarianism: A comparison of Turkish and American adolescents. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17 (3), 444-451.

Karasar, N., Hakan, A., Can, G., Özdas, K., Sözer, E., Gültekin, M., Anil, H., Boyaci, A., & Cenel, A. (1999). Anadolu university students' socio-cultural and socio-economic characteristics, and expectations and problems. Eskicehir: Anadolu University Publications No: 1097.

Kilicci, Y. (1989). Mental health in the school. Ankara: Safak Offset-Press.

Korkut, F. (1996a). The development of "The Communication Skills Scale": Reliability and validity studies. Turkish Psychological Counseling and Guidance Journal, 2 (7), 18-23.

Korkut, F. (1996b). The effect of communication skills training on high school students' communication skills assessments. Ankara: Hacettepe University Research Fund.

Korkut, F. (1999). The assessment of communication skills of university students. 4th National Educational Sciences Congress - 4, Anadolu University, Eskicehir, Turkey, 196-208.

Lafreniere, K. D., & Ledgerwood, D. M. (1997). Influences of leaving home, perceived family support, and gender on the transition to university. Guidance & Counseling, 12 (4), 14-19.

Lazarus, R. S. (1961). Adjustment and personality. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Publishing Company.

Onur, E. P. (1985). Self-reliance in the child and prerequisites. 3. National Psychological Congress Scientific Studies, 13-15 September 1984 Istanbul Bogazici University, Ankara: Turkish Psychological Association Press.

Özgüven, 1. E. (1992). The manual of HKE Hacettepe Personality Inventory. Ankara: Odak Offset Press.

Sawyer, A. J., Tomlinson, S. R., & Maples, A. J. (2000). Developing essential skills through case study scenarios. Journal of Accounting Education, 18, 257-282.

Sümer, N., & Güngör, D. (1999a). The psychometric assessment of adult attachment styles scales in a Turkish sample and a cross-cultural comparison. Turkish Journal of Psychology, 14 (43), 71-106.

Sümer, N., & Giingor, D. (1999b). The effect of parenting styles on attachment styles, self-esteem, and close relationship. Turkish Journal of Psychology, 14 (44), 35-58.

Vollrath, M. (2000). Personality and hassles among university students: A three-year longitudinal study. European Journal of Personality, 14, 199-215.

Yecilyaprak, B. (1986). The university students' psychological problems. Turkish Journal of Psychology, S (20), 80-85.

AYDOGAN AYKUT CEYHAN

Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey

Aydogan Aykut Ceyhan, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Education, Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey.

Appreciation is due to reviewers including: Kamile Kukulu, PhD, Antalya School of Health, Akdeniz University, Kampus 07058, Antalya, Turkey, Email: kkamile@akdeniz.edu.tr.

Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: A. Aykut Ceyhan, Assistant Professor at Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Education, Anadolu University, 26470 Eskisehir, Turkey. Phone: +90 222 335 0580 Ext. 3526; Fax: +90 222 335 0579; Email: aceyhan@anadolu.edu.tr

Copyright Society for Personality Research, Incorporated 2006
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved