There is an urgent need to improve the tool predicting success or failure of academic achievement of nursing in Korea so as to identify as early as possible those students who should receive special instruction and to improve screening- procedures for admission of nursing. The main purpose of this study is to identify the correlation between the grade point averages of courses learned and their psychological test characteristics in a baccalaureate nursing program. All 240 students, except freshmen, enrolled in Nursing Department of Seoul National University in the spring semester, 1972, participated in this study. All of the subjects completed the psychometric tests such as interest test, per- sonality test and test of self-concept. Total grade point averages, grade point averages of general education subjects, of supporting science courses and of pr- ofessional education subjects were used as performance criteria of the students. Through the calculation of product-moment correlation coefficients between the test scores and four grade point averages of each class and of total subjects, the following findings and recommendations were obtained. 1. There was so much variation in characteristics of interest test correlated with academic achievement of nursing students in each class. 2. Since the school objectives, curriculum and teaching strategies may affect predictive efficiency of characteristics of students' interest test, interest test must be utilized in a homogeneous group in order to predict school achivement. 3. Characteristics of interest test positively correlated at significant level with total grade point averages of all subjects were scientific interest-biological, scie- ntific interest-physical, and humanitarian interest. Scientific interest-physical was the only characteristic positively correlated at significant level with total grade point averages and grade point averages of professional courses. 4. There were various patterns in characteristics of personality test correlated with school achievement of nursing students by class pattern and personality maturation as they progress toward higher classes. 5. A characteristic of personality test, responsibility, is in high positive corre- lation with academic achievement in the upper division of classes. 6. Responsibility was the sole personality factor positively correlated at signif- icant level with total grade point averages and grade point averages of nursing courses in the total number of students. 7. There were very different correlation coefficients between characteristics of self-concept test and academic achievement according to the type of each class and type of courses they learned. 8. Characteristics of self-concept test positively correlated at significant level with total grade point averages and grade point averages of nursing courses of all students were physical self and row variability. Those who have positive concept on their own physical status and who are dificient in self-concept were higher in total grade point averages and grade point averages of professional courses than other students. 9. Scores of professional courses offered in freshmen and sophomore classes were in positive correlation with limited number of characteristics of psychological tests. In pursuit of a tool predicting successful academic achievement of nursing students, their G.P.A. during the junior and senior year of nursing will serve as the more reasonable criteria. 10. Junior students of this school were in higher positive correlation with many psychological factors than other classes.

Although the average menopausal age has not changed, women's life span has increased. Today's women live longer after their menopause than those in the past, and this calls for attention in both nursing and medical fields. Many studies have revealed how women reacted to menopause and suffered from it. But they did not discriminate the menopausal meaning and effects from the climacteric phenomena. So, this author tried to clarify what menopause itself meant to the climacteric women, by means of grounded theory methodology. The interviewees were 21 women, whose ages were between 46 and 60 years. They were selected by theoretical sampling technique, and the author tried to include all levels of important variables such as age, educational background, religion and job. Data were collected by the author through in-depth interviews and observations in July, 1994. The interviews were mostly done in the homes of the subjects, or in some cases at the author's office or in a hospital. Interviews took from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed later by a research assistant. Data were analyzed as gathered, by the constant comparative method proposed by Strauss and Corbin. Eleven concepts were discovered from the data, and they were grouped under six higher order categories. These six categories were "to give menopause a meaning", "to experience value change", "to have self-help strategies", "to have no strategies", "to live a life worth living", "to have a sense of powerlessness". Among these "to experience value change" was selected as the core category. Five major categories were systematically integrated around the core category. Women's adaptation to menopause was defined as proceeding as follows: Most women felt relief and sorrow at the same time when they faced menopause, and some only sorrow or agony. Then, they consulted with others about menopausal symptoms, or tried to think of them by themselves. Finally, they gave menopause a meaning, which was that menopause and its symptoms were natural phenomena. But menopause made women reflect on themselves and their past lives. As they reflected on themselves, their value on life began to change. As their value changed, some women seeked self help strategies. Those self help strategies were what they had learned from collegues, professionals or mass media. The ouality of their lives depended on whether they practiced self help strategies or not. Three types of lives were found. Twelve women enjoyed a life worth living, and practiced the self help strategies, because they accepted menopause a chance to change. They were characterized by a high educational level, having a professional job and a sincere faith in God. Seven women were living as usual, because they did not have the necessity to change. They were high school graduates and house wives. Two women recognized menopause a chance to change, but they did not try self help strategies. Their characteristic was low educational level. Those who did not try self help strategies complained of powerlessness to varying degrees. The educational background, full-time jobs and faith helped women adapt to menopause positively. But social support was not helpful to women's adaptation to menopause. Three hypotheses were derived from the analysis. (1) The higher the educational level, the more the need to change. (2) Women with higher educational background will practice self help strategies more than those with lower edcational background. (3) The more women practice self help strategies, the worthier lives they will live. Suggestions for further studies are as follows. (1) Studies to test hypotheses are needed. (2) A study to find the relationship between the degree of practicing self help strategies and locus of control. (3) Spiritual approaches would better be applied to help menopausal women. (4) Education through mass media should be given more frequently.

Pregnant women need to be supported by their husbands and other family members. But little is known about the factors that contribute to perceived support in pregnant women. So this study is designed to identify the factors contributing to perceived support in pregnant women. The subjects for this study were 19 women who had had vaginal deliveries and 11 who had had cesarean sections in one hospital affiliated with a university. Data were collected during July and August 1992 through interview which lasted 20~30 minutes and used open ended questions. Each woman was interviewed once about their pregnancy experience. The data were analyzed by Van Kaam's phenom-enological analysis method and categorized according to similarity of content. Results of this study are as follows. 1) Mothers felt physically supported by having help with their activities from their husbands or other family members. Psychological stress was relieved by not having to worry about and/or giving a birth to a baby boy; getting special attention; and hearing encouraging words. 2) Mothers felt not supported when indifference was shown by her husband and/or relatives; when forced to do an unusual household activities; or on hearing words stressing her responsibilities. Suggestion for further study are as follows. It is necessary to see if or not the contents of an educational program would increase the perceived support of pregnant women. This could be done by carrying out an experimental research project.

Recent research reported that postpartum mothers showed different responses according to the type of delivery, and though most mothers preferred vaginal delivery to cesarean section, the numbers of negative comments about the delivery experience were higher in a vaginal delivery group than in a cesarean section group. This study set out to understand the meaning of vaginal delivery as perceived by mother who delivered their babies vaginally and how the mothers felt about their delivery experience. The subjects of this study were 17 primiparous mothers right after vaginal delivery in one university affiliated hospital. Data were collected from March to April, 1992 through interviews lasting 20~30 minutes using open ended questions about the delivery experience. The data were analyzed by Giorgi's phenomenological analysis method and categorized according to similarity of content. The meaning of the vaginal delivery was grouped in to four categories and the reason for vaginal in to three. One category of the meaning of vaginal delivery was pain, consisting of the subcategorics too painful, want to be rid of the pain, unbearable pain and bearable pain. Another category was a sense of accomplishment containing the subgroups wonderful, good and being finished, The third category was the feeling of becoming a mother. The fourth category was that of not having any sense yet of the experience. The reasons for preference for vaginal delivery to a cesarean section were categorized in to the instinctive thinking that vaginal delivery was the natural method, a shortened period of recovery and lower incidence of complications and s stronger feeling of maternal identity.

Recently, the rate of cesarean section in Korea has been increasing. The results of several previous studies in foreign countries on the emotional responses of cesarean section mothers showed that they might experience difficulties in the mother-infant interaction due to fatigue, lack of early mother-infant interaction, disappointments, anger, feelings of loss of control, and other factors. Human behavior is said to be determined by one's self concept, and self concept is influenced by both internal and external environmental factors. A scale to measure the self concept of cesarean section mothers was needed in order to identify those who might have difficulties in the mother-infant interactions in future. The purpose of this study were to develop a measuring scale, and to test its reliability and validity. The process of this study was as follows. A structured interview was done with 50 cesarean section and vaginal delivery mothers to fine their state of emotional reaction after giving birth to their babies. Based on the results of the interviews, a 50 items Likert scale was developed. The self concept of 268 cesarean section and vaginal delivery mothers who were hospitalized at six hospital in seoul were measured, during the period between Feb. 1 and April 30. Reviewing the discriminating power of each item by means of crosstabulation, ten items were selected for the final scale. The reliability and validity of this ten item scale were tested by Cronbach's alpha and t-test, using spss pc+package. The results of this study and recommendation are as follows. 1. The ten selected items were as follows. I feel pains in my breast.(-) I have a good appetite now.(+) I feel pains in my flank.(-) I feel fine now.(+) My body seems to have returned to its prepregnant state.(+) Thinking of the delivery process, I feel sorry.(-) I want to hold my baby in my arms.(+) I want to keep my own life, even if I became a mother. (-) I want to delegate the care of the baby to my mother/mother in law.(-) I think baby is my alter ege.(+) 2. The reliability of this scale was tested by Cronbach's alpha, and the coefficient of this scale was 0.8066. 3. The construct validity of this scale was tested by means of known group methods. The value of self concept for cesarean section mother was significantly lower than for vaginal delivery mothers(t=-5.51, df=226, p=0.007). 4. The criterion validity of this scale was tested indirectly. Though this scale could discriminate the section and vaginal delivery mothers, the five items on the personal self concept scale didn't show any difference between cesarean section and vaginal delivery mothers. Therefore, the study indicate that those who shows lower values in the personal self concept measurement, that is, lower than 12.03 points, could be regard as "risk mothers". 5. Further studies using this scale to clarify the influencing factors on negative self concept are strongly recommended.

The purpose of this study is to find the Korean women's view to pregnancy within the Korean cultural context, to help nurses understand psychosocioemotional schema of the pregnant women, and to contribute to theory- building on the meaning of pregnancy. The interviewees were 21 women in their twenties or thirties and they were selected by theoretical sampling technique. Thirteen women of the interviewees were single and others married. Data were collected by in-depth interviews from September November in 1994. Interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. Data were analyzed by Van Kaam's phenomenological method. Results were as follows. Eighty two descriptive expression were found and they were grouped under fourteen common factors. These are [to maintain family],[instinct][obli-gation],[what one should do],[to make home],[to tie couple firmly],[means to overcome a period of lassitude], [token of love],[hope], [to avoid loneli-ness], [wanted to have a baby],[to provide for old ages], [to be a mother], [to achieve her desire through baby]. Finally, fourteen common factors were grouped under four higher categories. Five common factors, [to maintain family],[instinct],[obligation],[what one should do],[to make home] were grouped under (custom). Three factors,[to tie couple firmly],[means to overcome a period of lassitude], [token of love] were grouped under (love between couple). Four factors,[hope],[to avoid loneliness], [wanted to have a baby],[to provide for old ages] were grouped under (pursuiting safety). Two factors, [to be a mother], [to achieve her desire through baby] were grouped under (self fulfillment). At present, the most distinguishing motivation of childbearing was rooted in the cultural custom. Kortean women thought that it was their duties to have children and children were necessary in life. But they were beginning to recognize that baby could tie couple more firmly and get rid of their loneliness. Korean women no longer considered their children as the one who would take care of them when they were old or who would satisfy their unmet needs. As pregnancy is not women's duty only, authors recommend further studies on men's view to pregnancy.

Working as nurses, authors found that some patients were not content with their hospital life. Some patients wanted to move to another ward, and others complained about their ward atmosphere. In spite of patients' discomfort, nurses didn't know what made some patients complain about their ward. So, authors tried to find factors that influence atmosphere of hospital wards of the neurosurgery patients. To know the atmosphere of wards, authors selected five neurosurgery ward of a university hospital in Seoul. Observation took a month. An author observed using molar approach, in the morning, in the day time, and in evening time. Authors used concealment/no intervention technique. An author checked condition of people in the wards, and observed their verbal and nonverbal communication behavior, their activities and environmental characteristics, and interpreted their meaning through ethnographic research methodology by Spradly. Authors found there was an important factors that influence the atmosphere of ward. It was a human and his attitude. At least one person who was willing to help others made ward atmosphere better. Helping others physically whenever needed, supporting the depressed emotionally, offering foods, or talking to others friendly brought good atmosphere. On the contrary, if everyone was indiffernt to others, the atmosphere became cold. Self-centered or selfish behaviors such as occupying too much area, using the toilet too long, covering other's suction bottle without permission and seeing others deficate or urinate were hurtful. In addition to the attitude of patients and their families, unkindness of medical teams including nurses and doctors and tasteless meal caused bad ward atmosphere. Based on this research finding, authors suggest the followings. A. For the better atmosphere of ward 1. Nurses should try to make the ward atmosphere better by introducing new patient to older ones. 2. Every ward should have dividing curtains to keep patient's privacy. 3. All hospital personnel should be kind enough to make patients feel that they are repected. 4. Hospital should serve high quality meals to patients. 5. Patients had better stay with those in the similar condition. B. For the future studies 1. Repeated researches are necessary to check reliability of this results. 2. Researches for patients in different area such as ICU, or hemodialysis unit are necessary.

The objectives of this study were to verify the effectiveness of the Theory of Planned Behavior in predicting exercise intention and exercise behavior, and to examine the determinants of exercise intention and exercise behavior in the sample of middle-aged women. The subjects who participated in this study were 263 middle-aged women. The instruments used for this study was a survey of general characteristics, attitude (18 items), subjective norm (2 items), perceived behavioral control (19 items), intention (3 items), and exercise behavior (7 items and 23 items for each). Analysis of data was done by use of descriptive statistics and correlation analysis with SAS PC program. The hypothetical model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior was tested by use of LISREL 8.12a program. 1) The overall fit of the hypothetical model to the data was good(chi-square=11.76, p=0.03, RMSEA=0.07, standardized RMR= 0.03, GFI=0.99, AGFI=0.94, NFI=0.97, NNFI=0.95). 2) Perceived behavioral control, attitude, and subjective norm were significant determinants of exercise intention, and these variables explained 35% of the total variance of exercise intention. 3) Perceived behavioral control, intention, and attitude were significant determinants of exercise behavior. But, subjective norm was not a significant determinants. These four variables explained 69% of the total variance of exercise behavior. In conclusion, this study shows the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior in explaining exercise behavior of middle-aged women, and suggests that health care providers should focus on perceived behavioral control and attitude rather than subjective norm to improve exercise behavior of middle-aged women.