TPC-Journal-V4-Issue4

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 4 380 and 44 postgraduate students) participated in phase 1; 142 students (80 undergraduate students and 62 postgraduate students) participated in phase 2; and 169 students (72 undergraduate students and 97 postgraduate students) participated in phase 3. Instrument The BeMIS is an online assessment and reporting tool used to measure personality. The BeMIS was developed using the Adjective Check List (ACL), a standardized personality trait measure comprised of 300 adjectives commonly used to describe personality traits (Gough & Heilbrun, 1983). The ACL is capable of effectively measuring 37 personality traits under five main categories of traits: (a) responsiveness, (b) psychological needs, (c) specific responses, (d) interpersonal behavior and (e) cognitive orientation (Gough & Heilbrun, n.d.; Center for Credentialing and Education, 2009). The 37 personality traits are enthusiasm, optimism, negativity, communality, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, exhibition, psychologically perceptive, nurturance, affiliation, social energy, autonomy, aggression, change, support seeking, self-blaming, deference, counseling readiness, self-control, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, creativity, structure valuing, masculinity, femininity, fault finding, respectful, work centered, playful, security seeking, affected, intellectualistic, pragmatic and scientific. The behavior for each scale is presented in percentile ranks, and grouped into real and preferred personality traits. The real-self personality traits are the existing traits, and the preferred-self traits are the desired traits. The mean for each measured behavior is 50, with a standard deviation of 10. On average, scores range between 40 and 60. A score of 60 is considered high and indicates a strong expression of the trait. A score of less than 40 is considered low and suggests suppression of the trait. Any extreme score (exceeding 70 or less than 30) may reveal stress and dissatisfaction with life (Gough & Heilbrun, n.d.). The BeMIS was translated into Bahasa Malaysia and the reliability of the Bahasa Malaysia version was tested (See et al., 2011). The reliability and validity of the BeMIS and ACL have been adequately substantiated (See et al., 2011; Center for Credentialing and Education, 2009; Gough & Heilbrun, n.d.). Procedure The researchers conducted the first phase of the study 1 year after the start of the university transformation process. They carried out phase 2 of the study 18 months after the university embarked on the transformation agenda, and carried out the third phase two and a half years after the start of the transformation process. The researchers sent questionnaires to all 26 schools in the university, requesting for each school to randomly select five postgraduate students and five undergraduate students to participate in the study. Participants were required to respond to BeMIS twice during each phase. The first time participants chose adjectives that they thought described them as they really were, while the second time they chose adjectives that they would prefer to describe them. In addition to the questionnaire, participants received a participant information and consent form that served to protect the confidentiality of student information. Results Postgraduate Students’ Personality Profile Figure 1 shows the real-self and the preferred-self traits of the postgraduate students in phase 1 of the study. The postgraduate students did not indicate any extreme low scores (less than 30) or extreme high scores (more than 70) during this phase of the study. The researchers performed a t test, and found significant differences ( p < 0.05) in 17 of the 37 traits between the real self and the preferred self of postgraduate students. Among these 17 traits, four traits were significantly higher in the real self, compared to the preferred self: negativity, support seeking, self-blaming and security seeking. In contrast, 13 traits were significantly higher in the preferred self than the real self (optimism, achievement, dominance, endurance, order, affiliation, self-confidence, personal adjustment, self-satisfaction, structure valuing, masculinity, respectful and work centered), indicating that the postgraduate students desired to be stronger in these traits.