The effects of meditation and actualizing therapy on selected personality factors, self-esteem and self-actualization of seminarians

• Main Author: Antao, Andre A.J.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1995
• Subjects: Meditations; Psychotherapy; Personality; Self-actualization (Psychology); Self-esteem; Seminarians; Educational Psychology; Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/733
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study establishes the effects of Meditation and Actualizing Therapy, as separate and combined therapeutic procedures, on 1) five selected personality factors, 2) self-esteem, and 3) self-actualization of seminarians. The therapeutic procedures are given either separately or in combination.After receiving the interventions, the indicator was an improvement in the posttest scores. Such was measured by the California Psychological Inventory, the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, and the Personal Orientation Inventory.The subjects were 60 seminarians of different dioceses and religious congregations from the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay. All were college graduates within the age bracket of 23 to 38 years.An experimental study that used a modified pretest/posttest control design was utilized. The subjects were randomly assigned to three groups--one received the Meditation program, another the Actualizing Therapy, and the third received both the Meditation program and the Actualizing Therapy. Data gathering was done through psychological testing, log book recordings, and individual interviews. The statistical treatment included the ANCOVA, two-way repeated measure design, LSD, and eta square. The findings proved that among the five selected personality factors, the subjects were better in their sociability, empathy and tolerance than in their self-acceptance and flexibility. The findings on self-esteem indicated that the seminarians had a low self-esteem level. The findings on self-actualization suggested that the seminarians were less self-actualized. Psychologists such as Claxton (1986) Engler (1984) Epstein (1981, 1986) and Wortz (1986) propounded the combined use of meditation and conventional psychotherapy.In terms of the interventions, the findings revealed that significant effects on most of the dependent variables existed when Meditation and Actualizing Therapy were combined.The findings indicated that the Actualizing Therapy was able to effect a change on the selected personality factors. This was more that what was identified in the group which received the Meditation program. The study pointed out that resolving repressed traumas/feelings and residue was of fundamental importance in personality changes. The Meditation program was able to significantly effect total self-esteem. However, the group which received the Actualizing Therapy revealed no change in the self-esteem variable at the posttest. It was suggested that Meditation help improve self-esteem and that Actualizing Therapy could create an interim disturbance in the sense of self. The findings indicated that all the interventions showed significant effects on self-actualization and its sub-components. The study strengthened the views of humanistic psychologists.