Abstract
This study mapped important dimensions of change from the perspective of the person experiencing the change. Results suggest that people who face a variety of meaningful changes relate to a common set of cognitive goal and process perceptions. We conducted this study in two phases. In the first phase 47 people from both a university and a community setting responded to open-ended questions about a self-selected, anticipated change. We analyzed the content of subjects' responses to develop a list of descriptors of goal and a list of descriptors of process. We developed items based on these descriptors and based on specific Gestalt therapy concepts. In the second phase 304 university students named an anticipated change. Subjects rated items, which described the goal and process of their future change. Eighteen factors were extracted from the 65 x 65 goal correlation matrix by principal component analysis. Twenty-seven factors were extracted from the 95 x 95 process correlation matrix by principal component analysis. In both cases factorization was controlled based on an eigenvalue equal to, or greater than, 1.0. For both data sets the respective factors were rotated to Varimax criterion. Goal factors accounted for 65.0% of the total variance of the goal items. Process factors accounted for 67.3% of the total variance of the process items. If in future studies cognitive map is identified as a stable set of factors across another variety of changes, we may conclude with increasing confidence that people do compare their proposed changes to meaningful aspects of the field: how they know themselves, their relationships, and their resources.
