Abstract
The psychosocial competence characteristics of 245 high school students were assessed as they entered group counseling. Differences in race, sex, and status as exemplary or marginal student confirm that different groups are functioning in significantly different ways. Differences in status as exemplary and marginal students support Tyler's tripartite competence configuration of self-attitudes, world-attitudes, and behavioral attributes. Social desirability orientation was also a component of effective functioning. Exemplary (“getting their lives together well and handling school well”) students' characteristics provide a model of effective functioning against which to judge improvement. They are more internal and more active copers than marginals; further for them internality, trust, social desirability, and active coping style are correlated. Black students are more active copers than whites, more social-desirability oriented and more system-blaming with regard to prejudice. They are not less trusting; yet, for them system blame is negatively related to trust, social desirability, and internality. These differences suggest that blacks are actively trying to discover the rules which will permit them to survive in a perceived alien environment.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.