Abstract
M.A. (Clinical Psychology)
This research was undertaken as a result of the researcher dealing with
bright children who were not achieving in school. Many of these children
seemed to be depressed and lacking in motivation, and the researcher was
unable to find recent information directly related to these psychological
variables and underachievement. A sample of children were selected from
a group of children who had approached the researcher and a colleague
for career guidance. Very few of the parents of the children in the sample
approached were willing to allow their children to participate in this study,
and as a result the study only comprises a small number of subjects. The
subjects who did participate in the intervention completed questionnaires
related to their motivation levels and their feelings of hopelessness and
depression, as these traits were 'considered important in assessing why
these children were not succeeding academically. The children then each
spent an hour a week for six weeks with the researcher, discussing why
they were not achieving at school. These meetings took place for six
weeks. The results of this study indicate that the intervention did change
some of the levels of motivation, hopelessness and depression for some of
the children.