Solution Focused Brief Therapy
New Approach of Counseling for Students’ Self Determination Development
Nandang Rusmana and
Dodi Suryana
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Focused Brief Therapy, Self Determination, New Approach.
Abstract: This research is motivated by a condition in which the majority of students are not able to accomplish their
task based on its requirement, having low GPA resulting in congestion and drop out. Self-determination of
this research is competence capability, connectedness and individual’s independence to act and to choose
and make decisions related to their studies. The effort to develop self-determination is through a new
approach namely focused brief therapy solution. The purpose of this research is to test the new approach in
group setting for students’ self-determination development. This research used quasi experiment method
with non-equivalent control group design. The participants of this research were the 3
rd
semester students in
several study programs available at Indonesia University of Education Based on the results of Testing the
Difference obtained m
2
value of 0.001 which can be concluded that this new approach is able to develop
students’ self-determination, but in practice based on the indicators like; the awareness self-ability to change
to better situation, having support from family and having an adult to be consulted when the individuals get
confused, thinking carefully about the decisions made and having a courage to take risk of the decision
made. is not yet effective.
1 INTRODUCTION
Self-determination is a very important element for
supporting the ability to communicate, making
decisions, expressing choices, exercising to control
the type and intensity of support received,
participating and contributing to their environment,
advocating their selves and others through various
activities (Loman, et al. 2010; Vansteenkiste and
Sheldon, 2006).
Self-determination is owned by each individual.
This ability can be discovered, learned and developed
(Deci and Ryan, 1985). In higher education context,
students with high determination will demonstrate
good behaviors such as: perseverance and persistence
in achieving goals, enjoying academic tasks, higher
self-satisfaction, being committed to their action, and
having harmonious relationships with lecturers or
friends and demonstrating higher conceptual
knowledge (Deci and Ryan, 2000; Deci and Ryan,
2008; Deci, et al., 1991; Lynch, Vansteenkiste and
Ryan, 2010; Wichmann, 2011; O'Connor and
Vallerand, 1994).
Research Deci et al. (1991) found that students
with low self-determination will exhibit behaviors
such as: skipping lectures, boredom in learning,
apathetic in doing the tasks, lack of motivation,
feelings of helplessness, self-indulgence, self-
deprecation, negative thinking and dependent on
others and inadequate self-motivated (Lynch,
Vansteenkiste and Ryan, 2010; Roberson, 1985; Deci
and Ryan, 2000; Ryan, et al., 2011).
The result of preliminary study about self-
determination of S-1 UPI student of 2015 shows that
the students come to the class only to fill the
absenteeism, acting solely to fulfill the obligation,
coming to campus late, doing their homework or
campus project only because of the desire to boast of
parents, wasting more time for self-indulgence, not
having a priority scale in determining the task to be
done, doing the task in accordance with their mood,
do not accept criticism of others to the task that has
been done, not yet consistent in maintaining their
determination and desire, trying to get a grade or a
high GPA solely to please the parents, and have not
had the pleasure to do their tasks properly.
The study of American College Health
Associations (2006, in Misra and McKean, 2000)
states that 32% out of 97.357 students were not able
to complete their tasks properly and got lower GPA.
The results of research conducted by Solomon and
Rusmana, N. and Suryana, D.
Solution Focused Brief Therapy - New Approach of Counseling for Students’ Self Determination Development.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 1, pages 109-114
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
109

Rothblum (1984) states that the indication of students
faced academic congestion caused by lack of self-
determination development, therefore they spend
their study for 5 years or more. Based on the data of
the administrative bureau of planning and
information system (BAPSI) in one of the state
universities in Indonesia shows that 57% of
2004/2005 students of are still registered as students
in 2010/2012 or they study more than 6-7 years, so
the students are indicated to delay their study
completion (Rumiani, 2006). In addition, they are
individuals who have difficulty in completing the
study. Yabu and Irfan (2013) states that if individuals
who have difficulties in completing the study are left,
then they are exposed of dropping out.
In literature review it can be seen that there are
several counseling approaches that can develop self-
determination, namely a) Motivational Interviewing
Approach (MI), explaining that the MI approach can
be applied properly to develop self-determination on
the aspect of competence through nondirective and
reflection approach, Autonomy through information
accessibility, and relatedness aspects through
communication relations (Ryan, M. Richard and
Deci, L. Edward, 2008), b) The Person Centered
Approach views individuals who have intrinsic
resources and capacity to develop their potential and
who are responsible for their live, can be developed
by using a person centered approach (Loman,
Sheldon, et al., 2010), c) Visser's research results,
Coert (2012) describes his research in a web-based
survey distributed to 134 counseling practitioners on
testing the effectiveness of the use of solution-
focused counseling in which respondents are asked to
rate how far the solution-focused counseling can be
useful to improve 9 aspects of the client. 3 out of 9
aspects tested are aspects of self-determination. The
results show that the intensity of the use of a brief
counseling approach focuses on the solutions
correlated to the development of three aspects of self-
determination: autonomy, competence, relatedness
and the other 6 aspects of existence of past success,
stepwise change, positive behavior, cooperatively,
client perspective, and focus on what works. d) The
results indicate that SFBT can be used against various
problems and population. Corcoran (2000, in
Cunanan, Elnora, 2003) reports on the effectiveness
of the use of short, solution-focused counseling of
ethnic minority counselors, as indicated by his
statement that solution-focused counseling respect
cultural differences through dominant self-
determination values of the clients, uphold the belief
that every individual has the power and resources to
solve their problems, e) Richarson's research shows
that in practice solution focused brief counseling
encourages individual engagement, trains individuals
with good self-determination and represents a
strength-based approach.(counseling approach based
on the individual strength) (National Standard of
Social Worker, 2008, in Richarson, 2013). The
development of self-determination obtains
implications for the high self-motivated, internal
locus of control, students’ interest and integration,
decreasing the level of anxiety and learning
helplessness.
The researcher chose a solution-focused brief
counseling based on several studies that describe the
suitability of solutions focused brief counseling to
develop self-determination in the form of literature
review, meta-analysis and survey, while research on
it is still limited, especially research involving
experimental treatment. Hence, this study will review
on a solution focus brief counseling new approach in
group settings for self-determination development.
2 METHOD
This research uses quasi experiment method and
quantitative approach and nonequivalent control
group design. According to Creswell, W. J. (2008,
2009), the design of quasi experimental method can
be shown in the Figure 1. The treatment given is
Solution Focused Brief Counseling that conveyed to
experimental group.
Figure 1: Quasi experiment research design.
The population of this research is student of S-1
in several Departments available at Indonesia
University of Education in 2016 academic year.
Sampling is collected by using non-probability
sample and sampling technique is using purposive
sampling with homogeneous sampling strategy
Creswell, W. J. (2012). The instrument concept refers
to the theoretical concept of self-determination Deci
and Ryan (1985). U-Mann-Withney technique is
employed in analyzing the effectiveness of the new
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
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approach.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In general, at university level the self-determination
level profile of 2016 S-1 UPI students can be seen in
Table 1.
Table 1: University level self-determination level profile of
2016 S-1 UPI students.
No
Level of Self
Determination
N Proportion
1
A
motivation 0 0
2 External
R
e
g
ulation
2 1,667
3 Interjected
R
egulation
6 5
4 Identified
R
egulation
59 49,167
5 Integrated
R
e
g
ulation
39 32,5
6 Intrinsic
R
e
g
ulation
14 11,667
Total 120 100
Based on the result of statistical calculation of
experimental group, U-Mann Whitney test obtained
the calculation value of m
2
= 0.001. For the reason
that the value of m
2
is <0.05 then Ho is rejected. It
indicates that Solution Focused Brief Counseling in
group setting is effective to develop student self-
determination.
Specifically, the effectiveness of Solution
Focused Brief Counseling in group settings to
develop self-determination of students tested in this
research has a significant effect, i.e. capable of
generating significant improvement of 9 at average
mean rank score. This indicates that Solution Focused
Brief Counseling gives significant effect to develop
self-determination. It can be seen in Table 2.
Table 2: Student self-determination profile after solution
focused brief counseling.
Self-
Determination
Experimental Group
Gain
Pretest Posttest
Mean of
Rank
Mean of
Rank
Mean of
Rank
3.00 11.00 9.00
With m
2
<0.05, the significance of student self-
determination development is reviewed from the
aspect after following Solution Focused Brief
Counseling in group setting to develop student self-
determination. The following is empirical results of
Solution Focused Brief Counseling in group settings
to develop student self-determination. It can be seen
in Table 3.
Table 3: The effectiveness of solution focused brief
counseling empirical test in group settings are reviewed
from each aspect of student self-determination.
Aspects
Mann Whitney Test
Descriptions
U m
2
Competence 3.000 0.004 Significan
t
Connectivity 2.500 0.002 Significan
t
Independence 6.000 0.017 Significan
t
The data in Table 3 shows that Solution Focused
Brief Counseling in group setting is effective to
develop each aspect of student self-determination.
Based on the results of empirical tests on self-
determination aspects, it indicates that Ho is rejected,
thus Solution Focused Brief Counseling in group
settings effective is to develop self-determination on
the aspects of competence, connectedness and
independence.
Specifically, the effectiveness of Solution
Focused Brief Counseling in group settings to
develop self-determination can be seen in table 4. It
portrayed the comparison of the three aspects of self-
determination average rank test.
Table 4: Experimental group average test ranking of student
determination aspect.
Self-
Determination
Aspects
Experimental Group
Gain
Pretest Posttest
Mean of
Rank
Mean of
Rank
Mean of
Rank
Competence 4.33 10.57 6.24
Connectivity 4.35 10.64 6.29
Independence 4.65 10.14 5.49
Table 4 shows that the effectiveness of Solution
Focused Brief Counseling in developing self-
determination of students can be seen from the
difference of each aspect, spreading on each of the
three aspects with the order of connectedness aspects,
competency aspect and independence aspect.
Self Determination of 2016 S-1 UPI student is
mostly at the level of identified regulation and a small
part of them is at the level of external regulation and
interjected regulation. The proportion of students'
self-determination level spread to five levels, i.e.
identified regulation; integrate regulation, intrinsic
regulation, interjected regulation and external
regulation.
The use of a Solutions Focused Brief Counseling
new approach in group settings to develop self-
determination can be tested by comparison of the
average ranking test in terms of three aspects of self-
Solution Focused Brief Therapy - New Approach of Counseling for Students’ Self Determination Development
111

determination, the difference of each aspect, spreads
by sequence of connectedness, competence and
independence. The findings found that the difference
of the highest-ranking average in connectivity aspect
is 6.29 which mean that teaching and practicing the
skill are able to give a change to the students
significantly.
From the observation examination, it is found that
there are some behaviors in the competence aspect
have not been optimally developed. The indication
can be found during the intervention process that the
students tend not to be aware of their ability to find
solutions of the problems related to their study, not
yet optimally using the advantages possessed to
achieve better performance, has not worked hard to
improve their low grades, and have not trained the
skills of doing the task on time to get high grade in
the study.
The profile of the group members' assessment of
the group process based on each solution-focused
brief counseling session showed that there is a
decrease in all aspects of the fourth session. This is
due to the fact that prior to the fourth session the
group members felt that skill exercises that they had
could train positive habits in thinking and acting, so
that the group members felt sufficient to develop self-
determination without any follow-up. However,
during the fourth session there were some group
members having difficulty in resolving the barriers of
self-determination, so the facilitator suggested
individual counseling services after the post-test.
Deci and Ryan (1985) shows that individuals who
have an identified regulation level have performances
that occur based on the interest or relevance to the
individual objectives or irrelevance to the individual.
The result of the study of Deci and Ryan (1985)
explains that the category of identified regulation is a
low category. The students who have inadequate self-
determination will show insufficient behavior in
facing various demands, problems or academic or
non-academic pressure that give negative impact on
study completion that may cause them to respond in
a destructive way to the problem (Thoresen and
Eagleston; in Roberson, 1985).
Correlated with self-determination theory of Deci
and Ryan (1985) and Witriani's, et al (2007) findings
of this study implies that the ability of students in
acting and cognitive changing deliberately will affect
the level of self-determination i.e. changes in
dynamics of students in dealing with self-manage if
facing certain tasks. The more individuals internalize
and assimilate the values within themselves, the
greater the individual will feel autonomy in their
behavior (increasingly self-determined). Research
findings on self-determination of students after
Solution Focused Brief Counseling, results of this
study are relevant to the optimistic assumptions about
Solutions Focused Brief Counseling by Henderson
and Thompson (2007) which explains that individuals
have good character, can think rationally, able to
implement positive behavioral changes, and make
decisions. Furthermore, Solutions Focused Brief
Counseling in group settings are developed in
principle: focusing on change and possibilities,
creating favored goals and futures, building strengths,
skills and resources, looking for what is good and
what works, full of curiosity, creating cooperative and
collaborative activities, using a sense of humor as
well as creativity (Sharry, 2007; in Dahlan, T. H,
2011).
Glass, Singer and Miller (1980: in Deci and Ryan,
1985) states that when individuals are sure and
believe that they control the demands of their
environment, the individual can act more effectively,
develop self-determination based on self-
authorization, actions taken based on self-reflection
become attractive, self-benefiting and directing the
behavior of happy, voluntary, committed,
enterprising work (Niemiec, Ryan and Deci, 2008;
Joussemet, Mireille, Renne and Koestner, 2008).
4 CONCLUSIONS
The findings obtained in the preliminary study of
self-determination of 2016 S-1 UPI students in four
departments obtained the result that the students are
at the level of regulation. Overall 2016 S-1 UPI
students in four departments put aspect of
connectedness in the lowest rank in all aspect of
self-determination; Skill exercises given in Solution
Focused Brief Counseling techniques are proven
empirically effective for developing self-
determination of students, unless the competence
aspect with self-awareness of self-ability indicator
to change the situation for the better, the
connectivity aspect of obtaining support from the
family indicator and having adults who can be
consulted when individuals experience confusion
indicator and independence aspects with thinking
carefully about the decisions made and dare to risk
the decisions made indicators. This is because
students find it difficult to identify the potencies
they have, they assume that the potencies they have
can only be identified with others, so they have not
realized the potencies to be developed optimally;
The evaluation result of the Solution Focused Brief
Counseling process show that in general Solution
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
112

Focused Brief Counseling is very satisfying the
counselee with the highest rank rate of 5 from level
1-5.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
that has provided us with grant to do this research. We
are also thankful to all college students who have
shared their experiences with us.
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