Inner Experiences and Personal Growth with Person-Centred Counselling Among Malay Female University Students in Malaysia

Despite the high regard practitioners and counsellor educators have for the person-centred approach to counselling, their main concerns in applying the approach in the Malaysian context are the lack of structure and direction in its egalitarian counsellor-client relationship style, and the counsellor’s personal qualities of genuineness, unconditional positive regard and empathy. In relation to these concerns, the study aimed to describe the inner experiences and personal growth among female Malay university students attending the person-centred counselling. Firstly, the inner experiences of the clients in the study with regard to the non-directive, egalitarian relationship as postulated by the counselling approach were described. Secondly, the clients’ inner experiences in response to the person-centred counsellor’s qualities of genuineness, unconditional positive regard and empathy were also explored. The third objective was to explore the clients’ experience of personal growth as they engaged in the process of self-exploration in a non-directive, egalitarian counselling relationship with a person-centred counsellor. Fourth, the study attempted to describe the indicators of personal growth based on aspects of non-verbal expressions of the clients, in their relationship with a genuine, unconditionally accepting and empathic counsellor. The study employed the qualitative case study design. Based on purposive sampling technique, three Malay female clients participated in the study. They were students from a local university, aged twenty to twenty-four years old with situational and developmental concerns. Clients attended twelve counselling sessions conducted by the researcher who had undergone training and been certified as person-centred counsellor by three observer judges. Altogether, thirty-five counselling sessions were held for the purpose of the study. All the sessions were audio-visually recorded with the permission of the clients. The sessions were transcribed and qualitatively analysed to meet the purpose of the study. Clients were requested to write journal entries after each session. Interpersonal process recall interviews were also conducted with each client. Finally, based on the audio-visual recording of the counselling sessions, the clients’ non-verbal expressions were observed and described by the researcher. The study indicated that the Malay clients were apprehensive at the beginning of the counselling relationship; however, as they perceived the counsellor was genuine, accepting and empathic, they became more positive with the counselling sessions and the counsellor’s personal qualities. Although some of them had expected to receive advice from the counsellor, the counsellor’s personal qualities enabled them to appreciate the counselling relationship despite its non-directive nature. In terms of the indicators of personal growth, the major themes include flow of emotion, awareness of self, others and experience, personal changes, self-directed behaviour and spiritual dimension. Clients’ non-verbal behaviour also indicated some constructive changes where less rigidity and more congruent expressions were manifested by their eye-contacts, body posture, hand and arm gestures, vocal cues, eyes and facial expressions. The findings provided information on the inner experiences and personal growth of the Malay female clients participated in person-centred counselling. Limitations and implications of the study were discussed, and recommendations for future research were provided

Factors affecting the preparation of the construction work programme

Work programme can be valuable management tool that allows the contractor to use resources efficiently and provides advance notice of situations that may cause the project to be delayed. It can also be an important tool for evaluation and proving delay claims. A previous study revealed that poor factual evidence and flaws in claim such as presenting a good and proper work programme are the principal facts leading to delays construction claims. Therefore, the objectives of this research are (1) To identify the factors that affecting the preparation of better construction work programme; and (2) To determine the approaches that can improve in preparing a better construction work programme. Comprehensive literature review has been conducted to gather the information on the factors affecting the preparation of construction work schedule followed by conducting structured interview session with the project personnel who has been working in the industry for 20 years and more as a main tool to gain data to establish the affecting factors. The data attained were analyzed these factors were divided into four (4) main categories which were project specific factors, project management, working condition and external environment related factors. Hence, all respondent are in their opinion that complexity, size, type, nature of the construction project, identifying the critical activities, good relationship, good coordination, good leadership as well as scope of nature of the work are the affecting factors in preparing the construction work programme. In conclusion, the study also identified recommendations that can be used by the project participants in order to prepare effective and good construction work schedule in the local construction industry

Coping strategies used by international students who recovered from homesickness and depression in Malaysia

International students use various self-help coping strategies to manage depression and home-sickness, but previous studies have not concluded on how international students have recoveredfrom depression and homesickness after using their self-help coping strategies. The aim of thisstudy is to use the semi structured interview to identify the self-help coping strategies used byinternational students who were unwilling to get treatment and had recovered from theirsymptoms of depression and homesickness in Malaysia. The second aim is to quantitativelyidentify the major psychosocial problems attributing to depression and homesickness amongstudents who have not recovered from the symptoms. Thirty-one international students out of520 diagnosed with depression and homesickness yet were unwilling to get treatment, wereinvited forthe reassessment of their homesickness and depressionafter three-and-a-halfmonths.Psychological assessment shows 9 students had recovered but 20 students had not. These ninestudents were interviewed to explore how they recovered from depression and homesickness.Meanwhile,the20studentswereaskedtocompleteaquestionnairewhichmeasuredtheirreasonfor not being able to recover from depression and homesickness. Results of the semi structuredinterview shows that some of the self-help coping strategies used by participants includingsharing their problems with others who were not experiencing homesickness and depression,keeping themselves busy with some useful activities, indulging in physical exercise, facing thesituation courageously, thinking positively, and reading and following some advice from re-ligious texts. The 20 students who did not recover faced more problems involving language,social connection, academic, loneliness, stress and family problems. Overall, self-help copingstrategies used by this study’s participants are useful in managing depression and homesickness

Design And Analysis Of Discrete High Slew Rate Low Noise Voltage Regulator For RF Transceiver System

Communication system consists of various circuits and having a good and regulated source is crucial in order to get the desired signals at the output. The common problems in getting such good sources are spikes, ripple and fluctuating DC input. Linear voltage regulator is a source circuit to supply a steady, constant output. In addition to its basic function, an attempt to implement its usage in the radio frequency circuits has been made through out this project. Three regulator circuits have been designed, which are negative voltage regulator, positive voltage regulator and ripple rejection voltage regulator. The basic schematics for these circuits were implemented from two types of integrated chips; LM317 and µA723. The positive voltage regulator is used to detect positive peak of ripple input voltage and negative voltage regulator performs vice versa task. Ripple rejection voltage regulator acts as an auto-ripple rejecter circuit, which will reject the ripple detected by positive and negative voltage regulators and supply smooth and constant input to the next circuitry. As the gain of the ripple rejection voltage regulator is very small compared to the input voltage, this regulator also can be applied in the gain compression circuit. Those circuits designed in this project are direct transformation from the schematics used in the low frequencies to the design using microstrips for RF circuits

Meaning in life among Muslim students

Meaning in life as a psychological phenomenon is only understood based on the Western perspective which calls for exploring Muslims’ perception about the concept. Fifteen Muslim postgraduate students from the IIUM participated in the study. With the use of a semi-structured interview that lasted for 12-25 minutes for each participant, six themes emerged from the transcribed data. Findings reveal that Muslim students perceive that having a close relationship with God and serving His purpose helps them to perceive life to be meaningful.. Implications for the study based on cultural and existential factors and religion were also discussed

Person-centred approach to counseling : indicators of personal growth experienced by Malay clients

The emergence of the themes suggests that the Malay clients in the study did move in the direction of personal growth and maturity in the non-directive, egalitarian person-centred counselling. The flow of emotion experienced by clients indicated that, in the safe climate of person-centred counselling, where the client' positive and negative feelings were accepted and understood accurately by the counsellor, a tremendous sense of relief and comfort were felt by the client, as found by Watson (2002)

Issues faced by adolescents living with HIV in shelter homes in Malaysia

UNICEF Malaysia has found that adolescents with HIV face several emotional, behavioural and social problems. Based on past literature, the result of these incidences has led to a lower well-being in these aspects. As the stage of adolescence is filled with change, inner growth, and sometimes conflict, adolescents coping with HIV face an added stressor as they strive to grow emotionally, behaviourally and socially. Given the lack of studies investigating these factors in a Malaysian setting, the present study seeks to fill this gap in research by identifying the issues facing adolescents with HIV. The main participants involved are namely: (1) 30 Malaysian adolescents with HIV from shelter homes; the personnel of the shelter homes comprising the: (2) programme coordinators; (3) staff; and (4) volunteers of the shelter homes, recruited via purposive sampling. Focus group discussions were conducted with the adolescents with HIV while semi-structured interviews were conducted with the personnel of the shelter homes. Thematic analysis was utilized in analysing findings through several themes. The findings indicated that the issues of adolescents living with HIV are Emotional issues, Behavioural issues, Social issues, Academic issues, Coping skills issues and Conative issues

Establishing content validity of an instrument measuring content knowledge of an intervention program for adolescents living with HIV

This paper seeks to explore the dynamics underlying the wellbeing factors in the organization and workers’ psychological well-being. Considering the degree and impact of inequality among various communities, the high-demanding workloads in relation to work demands and out-of-work life challenges, it is pertinent that the well- being of every employee is central to the success and improvement of any organization. Positive psychology, in support to other aspects of mainstream psychology, has spread across disciplines like education, organizational functioning, career counseling, mental health, and human resource. It offers some valuable resources through flow and meaning that helps fosters the well-being of the employee and optimum productivity within the work setting. From review of related studies, experiencing optimal experience or being in a state of flow in situations of everyday life puts the worker in better psychological state when going through challenging periods. However, this positive momentum is yet to be felt in non-Western societies in both research and practice. While academicians need to invest greater attention in this area, it is recommended that managers and corporate bodies have to volte-face ways of improving productivity and performance at work towards making employees work more meaningful, and exploring measures to in-build amenities towards making workers to attain flow experience