This book examines the complicated personal and institutional factors that influence a student's decision to terminate his studies; it investigates ways to enable him to resume his education and utilize his talents. The opening chapters approach the problem from an administrative point of view, reporting on statistical and psychological research and indicating future directions. Subsequent chapters deal with personal dimensions: relations between the student and his college environment; the effects of timing of readmission; family attitudes toward the dropout; the effectiveness of psychiatric treatment; personality traits that contribute to a student’s difficulties. College administrators will find this study relevant to policy decisions on admissions, medical services, and course structuring. Clinicians and researchers will find guidelines for therapy and suggestions for further investigation. Finally, parents of college dropouts will gain new understanding of the problem and the best way to meet it.
Originally published in 1966.
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Lawrence A. Pervin is Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University. Following an undergraduate education at Brooklyn College and Queens College (City University of New York), he obtained his doctorate from Harvard University in 1962. After six years at Princeton University he went to Rutgers as an Associate Dean to help develop a new, experimental college. The author of many journal articles, including a Citation Classic, and invited book chapters, he also is the author of two leading personality texts, MDULPersonality: Theory and ResearchMDNM (Fifth Edition) and MDULCurrent Controversies and Issues in PersonalityMDNM (Second Edition). Dr. Pervin has served on the editorial board of MDULPsychological ReviewMDNM and the MDULJournal of Personality and Social PsychologyMDNM, and is founding editor of MDULPsychological InquiryMDNM, a new international journal of peer commentary and review.
