Implications For Career Counseling Research Articles

Examining the degree of congruency between a traditional career instrument and an online self‐assessment exercise

This comparative study examined the degree of congruency between the results of the Self‐Directed Search Form E (J. L. Holland, 1990) and an online self‐assessment career planning exercise. A relatively high level of congruence was found between the 2 measures. Implications for career counselors and for future research studies are briefly discussed.

Choosing the right career: What approach? Implications for career counselling of secondary school students

The presentation made here accepts the thesis that the choice of career is not a simple matter. In fact, it asserts that more than ever before, the choice of a career on a training programme now requires a lot of thinking as well as taking into consideration several factors before choosing, planning and entering into a particular career. Prominent among the factors to consider is that the chooser must understand himself/herself (i.e. know his/her own natural aptitudes, self abilities, interests, ambitions, resources, personalities and limitations) and secondly, he/she must know the requirements of the occupation in order to gain success in the vocation. Without knowledge of self and occupations, the chances of making an effective career choice are terribly reduced. Therefore, the choice of a right career is a major developmental task that must be accomplished by every secondary school student. The Nigerian Journal of Guidance and Counselling Vol. 8 (1) 2002: pp. 29-46

Validation of Wong’s Career Interest Assessment Questionnaire and Holland’s Revised Hexagonal Model of Occupational Interests in Four Chinese Societies

Recent research has advanced our understanding of the modifications needed for Holland’s hexagonal model of occupational interests when applied to Hong Kong Chinese. This study continues this line of research in testing the validity of Wong’s Career Interest Assessment Questionnaire (WCIAQ) and the revised hexagonal model developed in Hong Kong to three other Chinese societies, namely Macau, Mainland China, and Taiwan. Samples of undergraduate students were obtained in these three Chinese societies and Hong Kong. Results indicated that the WCIAQ and the revised hexagonal model developed in Hong Kong are more applicable to these three Chinese societies than Holland’s original model developed in Western societies. Implications for career counseling and education and further research in these Chinese societies are discussed.

Self‐Efficacy, Perceptions of Barriers, Vocational Identity, and the Career Exploration Behavior of Latino/a High School Students

This study explored the potential relationship between the social cognitive variables of career decision‐making self‐efficacy and perceptions of barriers and the outcome variables of vocational identity and career exploration behaviors in a sample of 128 urban Latino/a high school students. The results indicated that higher levels of career decision‐making self‐efficacy were related to both a more differentiated vocational identity and a greater engagement with career exploration tasks. Perception of fewer barriers was also found to be related to a more integrated vocational identity. Implications for career counseling and future research are discussed.

Trauma Symptoms: Relationship With Career Thoughts, Vocational Identity, and Developmental Work Personality

Knowledge of traumatic events and how trauma symptoms relate to social and psychological well‐being continues to grow. One aspect of an individual's functioning that may be affected by exposure to traumatic events is the ability of the individual to engage in career‐ and work‐related activities (D. H. Coursol, J. Lewis, & L. Garrity, 2001). The current study examines the relationship between trauma symptoms and the career development process of 131 college students. Results indicate a significant relationship between higher levels of trauma symptoms and higher levels of dysfunctional career thoughts and lower levels of work personality. Implications for career counselors are discussed.

Strengthening Career Human Agency

Rooted in A. Bandura's (1982, 2001b) social cognitive theory, the notion of human agency has received considerable attention in vocational and career psychology for the last 2 decades, especially with the recent emergence of social constructivist thinking in the field. This article continues in the same direction. In reviewing the notion of human agency in the broad life-career context, the article illustrates and highlights the constructivist philosophy of human intention and action that constitutes the conceptual foundation of career human agency. Implications for career counseling are discussed with suggestions for using and enhancing agentic functioning in individuals' life-career development.

Battered Women’s Process of Leaving: Implications for Career Counseling

Using consensual qualitative research, we considered how battered women’s intimate partner abuse and subsequent experiences and expectations of shelter services and assistance of the criminal justice system have affected their work and employment opportunities. Results indicated that participants expected shelters to assist them with finding housing and employment and regard law enforcement and the legal system to be quite ineffective in their response to domestic violence issues. Results also revealed that women expected to be abused following their partner’s alcohol or drug use and further noted that their partner’s patterns of abuse had either prevented or disrupted their employment. Participants expressed strong interest in finding work or pursuing a career and expected to complete educational and/or licensing requirements that were commensurate with their stated work/career goals. Finally, determined to not be abused by their partner again, participants aspire for a future of freedom and peace of mind, without their abuser, while focusing on reestablishing and building healthy relationships with their children. Implications for career counseling and research are discussed.

Career Decision Self-Efficacy, Career Barriers, and College Women’s Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence

Relationships between college women’s experiences of violence from intimate partners, career decision self-efficacy, and perceived career barriers were assessed using social cognitive career theory as a theoretical guide. Among 129 students, sexual coercion was negatively associated with three aspects of career decision self-efficacy (self-appraisal, goal-selection, and problem solving) after adjustment for symptoms of depression, whereas negotiation (a positive conflict tactic) was positively associated with goal-selection self-efficacy. Psychological aggression, physical assault, and injury were not uniquely associated with career decision self-efficacy. Intimate partner abuse was generally unrelated to perceived barriers, with the exception of disability/health concerns, which were negatively related to psychological aggression, sexual coercion, and negotiation. Ideas for future research and implications for career counselors who work with female college students are presented.

Career Counseling With Persons Living With HIV: An Ecological Approach

Advances in medical treatment have greatly extended the life span and quality of life of persons living with HIV, with the nature of the disease evolving from causing an early death to chronic, manageable illness. Career counselors will increasingly be called upon to assist persons living with HIV. This article provides an overview of HIV disease and of career-related issues unique to persons living with HIV. Career counseling interventions are discussed from an ecological perspective. Career counselors are called on to assist diverse populations in the process of career development, and recent approaches to career counseling have emphasized the importance of providing appropriate services to such populations. Although the needs of persons living with HIV have been examined in the general counseling literature, only one study (Hunt, Jaques, Niles, & Wierzalis, 2003) has addressed the career counseling concerns of persons living with HIV. The purpose of this article is to highlight the unique concerns faced by this population and to provide career counselors a model for conceptualizing and designing career counseling interventions in working with individuals with HIV. We use an ecological perspective (Cook, Heppner, & O'Brien, 2002) to build an understanding of career-related needs of individuals with HIV and to create an organized, intentional approach to addressing such needs. Specifically, this article includes (a) current trends in HIV/AIDS disease, (b) the role of work for persons with HIV, (c) career counseling implications, and (d) a case illustration. HTV Today Approximately 900,000 persons in the United States are living with HIV; an additional 40,000 persons become infected with the virus annually (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2000). HIV is a virus that leads to the destruction of blood cells that normally protect the body from infection; the disease may cause a variety of health problems that lead to a diagnosis of AIDS (CDC, 200Ib). Of the 900,000 persons living with HIV in 2001 in the United States, 362,827 individuals were known to be living with AIDS (CDC, 2001a). Because of the seventy of symptoms most often associated with AIDS, this discussion focuses on career counseling approaches for persons with an HIV diagnosis. Persons living with HIV represent a diverse proportion of the American population, but new HIV infections have occurred disproportionately according to gender (70% men) and race (54% Black; CDC, 2000). African Americans are 10 times more likely than Whites to contract HIV, with incidence rates increasing most rapidly among African American women and other women of color (CDC, 1999). The CDC identifies the most common risk factors for infection as men having sex with men (42%), heterosexual contact (33%), and injection drug use (25%). HIV most commonly affects young adults, with more than one half of new infections occurring in persons under 25 years of age (CDC, 2000). Career theorists have identified early adulthood as a key period in career development that influences how an individual functions in other life roles (e.g., Super, 1990). Although HIV most often affects those in the early stages (under 25 years of age) of career development (Fesko, 2001; Hoffman, 1996, 1997), there is a dearth of literature regarding career counseling with persons living with HIV. This lack of information may be due to the reality that earlier an HIV diagnosis meant rapid, progressive disability. For this reason, services for persons living with HIV focused on providing case management services to individuals who were dying from HIV/AIDS (Brooks & Klosinski, 1999; McReynolds, 2001; SaIz, 2001; Yallop, 2000). Although such services remain necessary, the shift in HIV/AIDS from fatal disease to long-term, chronic illness has created a need for attention to the process of living with, rather than dying from, the disease. The course of HIV/AIDS has been drastically changing since the introduction of a class of medications known as protease inhibitors in the mid-1990s. …

Relation of Disability Type and Career Thoughts to Vocational Identity

This study compared dysfunctional career thoughts and perceptions of vocational identity for individuals with different types of disabilities and examined whether the relation of career thoughts to vocational identity was moderated by type of disability. Ninety adults with cognitive and physical impairments were administered the Career Thoughts Inventory and the My Vocational Situation. Results indicate that individuals with cognitive impairments had more decision-making confusion and external conflict than individuals with physical disabilities. The groups did not differ in their perceptions of vocational identity, and disability type did not significantly moderate the relationship between career thoughts and vocational identity. Implications for career counseling of individuals with disabilities are discussed.

Theoretical application of holland's theory to individual decision‐making styles: implications for career counselors

Career decision making is an important aspect of career choice and career development. This theoretical article explores the relationship between J. L. Holland's (1997) 6 dimensions of personality and individual decision‐making styles. Implications for career counselors are also provided.

The relationship between work and well‐being in clergywomen: implications for career counseling

This article focuses on the ministry, a profession in which 2 important characteristics intersect to pose special challenges for women in balancing their work and family responsibilities. In this qualitative study of clergywomen (N = 190), the authors examined the impact of being female in a male‐dominated occupation, particularly one that has been traditionally structured as a “2‐person career.” They argue that career counselors are in a unique position to prepare future clergywomen for the special challenges they will face in the ministry and make recommendations for ways in which career counselors may serve this distinctive population.

Evaluating DISCOVER's Effectiveness in Enhancing College Students' Social Cognitive Career Development

College students (20 women, 14 men) seeking career counseling services at a university career center participated in this exploratory investigation. A 2 (DISCOVER treatment) × 2 (counseling treatment) research design was used to evaluate the individual and combined effects of DISCOVER (ACT, 1998) and counseling on participants' career decision‐making self‐efficacy and career decision‐making attributional style. Findings revealed a significant effect of the use of DISCOVER on participants' career decision‐making self‐efficacy and their sense of control over the career decision‐making process. Results are discussed regarding the implications for career counseling and ideas for further research in this domain.

The trend toward spirituality in the workplace: overview and implications for career counseling

The author provides career counselors with an overview of the trend toward spirituality in the workplace and examines its potential pros and cons for workers. The growing openness in organizations to explore work from a spiritual perspective provides a new tool to the career practitioner. Career counselors can help clients draw on their spirituality as another resource for negotiating the increasingly complex world of work.

Self-Efficacy as a Mediator of the Relationships between Personality Factors and Career Interests

Relationships among the Big Five personality factors (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), career interests, and career self-efficacy (using Holland’s realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional types for both of the latter) were examined. Among a sample of 147 college students, self-efficacy mediated four out of five personality-interest relationships that have been found to be robust across a number of other samples. The findings generally support social cognitive career theory’s model of interest development and have implications for career counselors who are working to help clients understand their interest assessment results.

Five-Factor Model of Personality and Career Exploration

This study investigates whether the dimensions of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality are related to specific career exploration variables. Based on the FFM, predictions were made about the relevance of particular traits to career exploration variables. Results from a canonical correlation analysis showed that variable loadings on three roots were generally consistent with predictions. One source of covariation involved association between conscientiousness/extraversion/low neuroticism and career search self-efficacy/career information seeking. A second source involved association between openness and a lack of career information seeking. The third source involved association between neuroticism/openness and self-exploration. Results are discussed relative to the FFM and implications for career counseling and assessment.

Revisiting the Work Ethic in America

Starting with a reflection on the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center and the corporate fraud and bankruptcies of 2002, the authors provide an overview of the professional literature concerning the origins, evolution, practice, and future implications of the work ethic in the United States. Discussion focuses on the American work ethic from both a historical and a modern‐day perspective, highlighting the formation of what is now considered a major paradigm of work; views on the changing nature of the work ethic, especially for women and members of minority groups; and implications for career counselors.

Structural and discriminant validity of the career factors inventory

Using a sample of 350 college students, this study examined the structural and discriminant validity of the Career Factors Inventory (CFI; Chartrand, Robbins, Morrill, & Boggs, 1990), a multidimensional measure of career indecision intended to be scored for two informational indecision components (Need for Career Information and Need for Self-Knowledge) and two personal–emotional components (Career Choice Anxiety and Generalized Indecisiveness). Results of confirmatory factor analyses and correlations revealed that: (a) the underlying structure of the CFI was similar for women and men, (b) the original four-factor model corresponding to the CFI’s scoring scheme demonstrated an excellent fit to the data, (c) a non-hierarchical two-factor model and a hierarchical model were both supported by the data, and (d) the CFI demonstrated evidence of discriminant validity. Implications for career counseling and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Skills‐Based Occupational Representations: Implications for Career Counseling

The authors used measures of workplace skills to construct graphical representations of occupations. Interpretable groupings of occupations based on similar skills emerged, as did an occupational map with salient skill dimensions. Implications for the use of skills information in a career counseling context are discussed with respect to (a) selection of courses, (b) consideration of alternative careers, (c) honest appraisal of the nature of particular occupations, and (d) planning curricula.

An Investigation of Personality Traits in Relation to Career Satisfaction

We examined personality traits in relation to career satisfaction and job satisfaction for 5,932 individuals in career transition. Personality traits were related to career satisfaction and job satisfaction in the total sample and 14 separate occupational groups. Regression analyses revealed three personality traits consistently related to career satisfaction: emotional resilience, optimism, and work drive in initial and holdout samples as well as in all 14 occupational groups, accounting for an average of 17% of career satisfaction variance. Personality traits correlated with career satisfaction included the Big Five traits of conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness and other, narrower traits, such as assertiveness, customer service orientation, and human managerial relations orientation. Results were discussed in terms of Holland's general personal competence factor, Goleman's emotional intelligence, career adaptation, and the nomothetic span of personality constructs. Also discussed were study limitations, suggestions for future research, and practical implications for career counseling.