We investigated the association between Frankl’s (1985, 1988) construct of purpose in life with Bandura’s (1977, 1997) theory of self-efficacy as a possible predictor of students who may be at risk for leaving school. For this study, 344 undergraduate college students (233 females, 111 males; 76% White/Caucasian, 10% Asian American/Asian, 7% African American/African, 5% multiracial/multicultural or other, 2% non-White/Hispanic; 79% freshmen, 13% sophomores, 4% juniors, 3% seniors, 1% unspecified grade/year level) completed the Purpose in Life Test, Part A (Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964); the College Self-Efficacy Inventory (Solberg, O’Brien, Villarreal, Kennel, & Davis, 1993); the Scale of Perceived Social Self-Efficacy (Smith & Betz, 2000); the General Self-Efficacy Subscale of the Self-Efficacy Scale (Sherer et al., 1982); and finally, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlow, 1960). All of the variables of self-efficacy were significantly ( p < .01) and positively correlated with purpose in life. Regression analysis revealed that general self-efficacy was the most significant predictor of Purpose in Life scores. The current study lends support to the idea of creating interventions based on self-efficacy theory in order to positively influence students’ subjective sense of purpose in life for the purpose of improving college student retention.

Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy has been used extensively for the study of behavior in a variety of settings. Researchers in the areas of vocational and academic behavior have focused primarily on performance and persistence as well as choices and interests. Less has been done looking at the relationships between self-efficacy beliefs and certain affective variables. The present study focused on the relationship between self-efficacy (i.e., college, social, and general) and college student satisfaction. A sample of 312 undergraduates was administered measures of self-efficacy and college satisfaction. All three measures of self-efficacy were significantly associated with college satisfaction. Regression analysis and analyses of variance revealed that college self-efficacy was significantly associated with college satisfaction, whereas the other two measures of self-efficacy (i.e., social and general) did not account for any unique, additional variance. Results are presented and discussed.

This study examined the effects of physical attractiveness on subjects' perceptions of a female counselor. Thirty males and thirty females viewed the videotaped professional self-descriptions of a presumed counselor who was either physically attractive or unattractive. Subjects indicated their impressions of the counselor on 12 traits and their expectancies of her helpfulness for 15 personal problems. The results indicated that relative to the physically unattractive counselor, the attractive counselor was perceived more favorably by the female subjects, especially with regard to her competence, professionalism, assertiveness, interest, and relaxation, and her ability to help with problems of general anxiety, shyness, career choice, sexual functioning, and inferiority. Two control groups who listened to the tapes but were unaware of the counselor's appearance generally did not differ in their ratings of the two tapes. These results are discussed in the context of previous and future research, and implications for counseling are considered.A person's physical appearance, along with sexual identity, is the personal characteristic most obvious and accessible to others in social interaction. It is perhaps for this reason that many of the precursors of psychology, from mythology to phrenology, have tried to forecast a person's character and personality simply from knowledge of outward appearance. The prevailing theory advanced by most physiognomic theories is simply that "what is beautiful is good."In recent years there has been an increasing amount of research data attesting to the importance of physical attractiveness in a wide variety of interpersonal processes and to the stereotypes surrounding those who are physically attractive. Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (1972) found the influence of physical attractiveness to be so pervasive that not only were physically attractive persons assumed to possess more socially desirable personalities than those of This article is based on a master's thesis completed by the first author under the supervision of the second author and submitted to the

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