Literature Review #4

(1) Visual

 

(2) Citation            

• Piorkowski, Geraldine K. "Survivor Guilt in the University Setting." Personnel & Guidance Journal 61.10 (1983): 620-621. Print.

(3) Summary

•  The article studies the psychological difficulties that arise among urban first-generation students. These students often feel guilty for "being spared", while their family members lack social mobility. The author writes that this concept of survivor guilt presents "emotional and academic difficulties" (620).

(4) Author(s)

• Geraldine K. Piorkowski is the director of the Counseling and Testing Service at Roosevelt University, Chicago. She conducted studies through counseling sessions with students from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. She focused on urban, low-income, first-generation students and found that they exhibited symptoms of survivor guilt.

(5) Key terms

•  depressive withdrawal- psychological symptom in response to family conflict and disintegration
• "blank in mind"- description of survivor's state of mind following a tragic event; not being able to focus intellectually which interferes ability to concentrate on intellectual material at the college or university level.

(6) Quotes

• "Often these students wonder why they should escape poverty with all of its attendant ills when their brothers and sisters have failed to do so" (620).
• "With low-income, urban, first-generation college students, the issue is not always death in the physical sense but rather death or stagnation at the emotional level" (620).
• "Some of these urban university students have encountered serious forms of psychosocial pathology among their families; others have witnessed less dramatic but equally meaningful examples of psychosocial failure, such as unemployment, apathy, or chaotic interpersonal relationships" (620).

(7) Value

• The article is helpful because it concentrates on the probability that first-generation students come from an urban or low-income background. It provides a more specific explanation of survivor guilt among first-generation students by introducing the severity of urban first-generation students. The author also introduces that maybe these students face tougher challenges because they are most likely to commute, juggle family responsibilities, and face tragic family misfortunes. This connection of survivor guilt gives an unforeseen reason for low first-generation student retention rates I have found in other sources.