Vocational Functioning Research Articles

The Psychological Assessment of Vocational Functioning

A model for the assessment of psychological functioning for vocational planning is discussed. The responsibilities of both the referring counselor and the psychologist are delineated. A common set of constructs is proposed with an emphasis upon vocationally relevant worker traits. A worksheet is included as a guide for psychological referrals.

Behavioral and Psychological Processes in Ischemic Heart Disease

The morbidity and mortality associated with ischemic heart disease remain health problems of major proportions and require continuous effort toward prevention. Although primary prevention is the ideal goal, secondary prevention, or that which occurs when persons with clinical manifestations modify their life style or risk factors and reduce the incidence of subsequent illness events, is also desirable. Thus, recovery, or rehabilitation, exerts preventive influences. Physicians and nurses who care for patients with ischemic heart disease have an opportunity here. The article by Stern et al in this issue (p 1680) reports that a behavioral state, characterized primarily by persistent depression, is associated with a higher rate of hospital readmission for reinfarction, coronary insufficiency, or infarct-related physical complications. Persistently depressed patients also showed a lower level of vocational and sexual function one year after infarction. This disclosure of a behavioral correlate of morbidity is not surprising in view of the considerable

A Comparative Study of Long-Stay Psychiatric Patients Discharged to Boarding Houses and Satellite Houses

A comparative psychosocial study of two groups of long-stay psychiatric patients discharged from Callan Park Hospital to boarding houses and satellite houses in the Callan Park Hospital region is reported. It was concluded that the social and vocational functioning of both groups was at a low level but that satellite house residents had more spare money and described a less institutionalized and a more homely environment in satellite houses.

The Deaf in the World of Work

Deaf persons form a distinct minority in the world of work. Many deaf persons are underemployed and face bleak vocational futures. Many actions can be taken to change the status of deaf employees. Professionals working with the deaf should be aware of the current vocational functioning of their clients. Deaf clients need specific job information, their social and communication skills may need improvement, and they may need basic skills in applying for a job. Comprehensive vocational counseling for the deaf is an obvious need. Also, employees must be encouraged to reduce job discrimination against the deaf. Employer attitudes preclude the deaf for appropriate job trials. If the counselor, client, and the employer work closely together, the occupational picture of deaf workers can be greatly upgraded.

Implications of drug treatment for the social rehabilitation of schizophrenic patients.

The psychopathology of schizophrenia, characterized by dramatic manifestations such as hallucinations, delusions, and bizarre posturing, has tended to blind us to the more prevalent and disabling psychosocial aspects of this chronic disorder. Traditional treatment, which has focused primarily on symptom modification and removal of the patient from the community, has failed to affect the patient's impaired social and vocational functioning. Schizophrenic patients released from hospitals have generally not been successful in maintaining themselves in the community. Rehospitalization rates have indicated that between 40 and 60 percent of schizophrenic patients discharged from hospitals will be rehospitalized within 2 years (Mosher et al. 1971) and 65 to 75 percent by the end of 5 years (Anthony et al. 1972). The disruption caused by hospitalization (Fontana and Dowds 1975) may account for the fact that only between 15 and 40 percent of schizophrenic patients living in the community are able to support themselves (Anthony et al. 1972 and Mosher et al. 1971). The direct as well as indirect to our society for the care of the 2 to 3 million Americans carrying a diagnosis of schizophrenia have been estimated by Gunderson and Mosher (1975) . . . at $11.6 to $19.5 billion annually. About two-thirds of this cost is due to lack of productivity by schizophrenic patients and about one-fifth to treatment costs (p. 901).

Residual disability in survivors of stroke--the Framingham study.

Of 123 survivors of documented completed stroke from the Framingham Cohort, 119 received objective evaluations of functional status along with an equal number of controls matched for age and sex. Of the stroke survivors, 16 per cent were institutionalized, 31 per cent dependent in self-care, and 20 per cent dependent in mobility. In addition, 71 per cent had decreased vocational function, and 62 percent decreased socialization outside the home. Each of these frequencies was significantly greater than the corresponding rate in the control group.

Measures of Psychological, Vocational, and Educational Functioning in the Blind and Visually Handicapped: Introductory Remarks

Measures of Psychological, Vocational, and Educational Functioning in the Blind and Visually Handicapped: Introductory Remarks

Beyond Rehabilitation: The Federal City College Lorton Project-A Model Prison Higher Education Program

Some years ago, Arthur Pearl and Frank Riessmanl very gingerly suggested that the training of prisoners to carry out prison functions was a worthwhile investment. Although they did not specifically focus on higher education, it was not excluded. In the three examples that they cited-Indiana, California and North Carolina-higher education was treated as incidental to the more pressing vocational functions for which inmates were trained. Shortly after the publication of their work, an ambitious Prison College Program was begun at San Quentin. By September of 1972 the situation had changed drastically; twenty prison systems reported live instruction beyond the 12th grade level inside their walls. Thirty-one prison systems reported some form of higher education program, including traditional correspondence courses, which, until the '60s, were the only posthigh school form of education available to prisoners. More than 121 junior colleges are involved in this effort; one-half of their offerings were of an academic nature, with the rest falling into the vocational or adult education categories. Most of these institutions, like Federal City College, have become involved in prison higher education within the past five years.2 This writer first became interested in the issue of prison education in 1958 as a result of a brief acquaintance with the late Malcolm X. Malcolm, representing the Nation of Islam and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, was arguing that the black community

Cardiac rehabilitation: Its role in evaluation and management of the patient with coronary heart disease

Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation is not for every patient, but rather for those who require more than the services of a physician and a nurse. The services which eventually are required may be provided simply in some cases by paramedical persons and in the more complicated cases by an experienced multidisciplinary team. The main evaluative expertise of cardiac rehabilitation specialists is the functional evaluation of the patient—that is, the physical, psychological, social, and vocational functioning by a variety of specialized techniques. The major therapeutic recommendation is usually endurance-building exercise training for secondary prevention. The educational and supportive aspects of the rehabilitation process may make the difference between non-limiting impairment and disability.

Intelligence and adjustment to chronic hemodialysis

Two OF the most important aspects of adjustment to chronic hemodialysis are (1) adherence to the diet regimen, and (2) continued vocational functioning. Compliance with medical recommendations, especially with the dietary requirements of dialysis, is often the deciding factor between relatively good health and death. The patients’ potential for continued vocational functioning (rehabilitation) is important, and not only for their own welfare while on dialysis. In many places there are insufficient facilities for chronic dialysis so that the potential for rehabilitation is often the official or unofficial criteria for patient selection. Unselected patients die, while patients selected for dialysis can live for years. Factors that influence or predict adjustment are therefore of great importance. Intelligence is one of the factors thought to influence patients’ adjustment. The precise relation between intelligence and various aspects of adjustment is, however, as yet unclear. Different studies have used different and sometimes unsatisfactory methodology and have produced contradictory findings: Sand [l] reported “a small but consistent tendency for the more intelligent patients to be seen as showing better cooperational and emotional adjustment” in a group of patients with an IQ range of 94 to 143 (x = 115). Similarly, Gombos [2] is of the opinion that average and above average intelligence is required in order to meet the demands of self care. Sheldon [3] on the other hand prefers patients with average intelligence to patients with higher than average intelligence. Davis [4] in a recent summary of the literature reported the impression that patients of lower socio-economic class and patients with little education comply less well with medical recommendations and are therefore less adjusted. His further studies, however, do not support this impression since no demographic factors were found to influence compliance. Borkman [5] in a recent study based on questionnaires from many dialysis units, found that estimated intelligence level is moderately but significantly associated with rehabilitation but not associated with most aspects of dietary adherence. Education was found to influence rehabilitation and diet adherence in a similar way; i.e. moderately associated with rehabilitation but not associated with diet adherence. The situation as regards the relation between intelligence and adjustment is neatly summarized by Husek [6] in her (unpublished) review of the psychological aspects of chronic dialysis: “Evidence regarding any possibility of a relationship between intelligence and probability of successful adaptation to dialysis is meager. Perhaps some minimal amount of intelligence is all that is required; perhaps there is a strong linear correlation between intelligence and rehabilitation or adaptation. At this time there is no evidence to choose between these two very different hypotheses.”

High expectations of long-term ex-state hospital patients.

In an effort to determine the effectiveness of rehabilitation efforts with long-term patients who leave state hospitals, discharged patients were randomly assigned to high- or low-expectation programs in the community. The high-expectation setting included a day treatment center and a halfway house. The low-expectation setting included mostly boarding homes, where little was required of the patients. The authors found that the high-expectation setting was superior to the other not so much in keeping patients out of the hospital longer but in increasing their level of vocational and social functioning.

Perceived Relative Impact of Disabilities on Vocational, Educational, and Social Functioning

Perceived Relative Impact of Disabilities on Vocational, Educational, and Social Functioning

Pre‐Hospital Vocational Functioning of Psychiatric Patients

Vocational Guidance QuarterlyVolume 18, Issue 4 p. 293-296 Pre-Hospital Vocational Functioning of Psychiatric Patients LEO A. MICEK, LEO A. MICEK Leo A. Micek is Research Coordinator, NIMH Research Project, Fort Logan Mental Health Center, Denver, Colorado.Search for more papers by this author LEO A. MICEK, LEO A. MICEK Leo A. Micek is Research Coordinator, NIMH Research Project, Fort Logan Mental Health Center, Denver, Colorado.Search for more papers by this author First published: June 1970 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-585X.1970.tb00258.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume18, Issue4June 1970Pages 293-296 RelatedInformation

The Urban League and the Vocational Guidance and Adjustment of Negro Youth

There is an increasing need to use the processes of community organization for the improvement of programs of vocational guidance and adjustment affecting all of the community's youth. The central purpose of the larger work from which this report is abstracted was to urge the utilization of these processes in the interest of minority youth. The need becomes particularly crucial with the realization that community organization processes facilitate cooperative effort between such major contributing agencies as the school and the social agency. Thus a further delimitation of the concern, to give momentum to this cooperative effort as it relates to this specific facet of the educative process. In relation to both the method of community organization and the objective of improved planning and programming for vocational guidance services cognizant, of the needs of minority youth, the work of a single agency, the National Urban League, commends itself to both the professional educator and the professional social worker. This observation is significant in light of attributes of the League's program-use of social work methods, respect for vocational guidance as a technical competency, and a commitment to supplementing community agencies having prior responsibility for the vocational guidance function. Study of the Urban League's program as it relates to vocational guidance has involved a review of relevant administrative pronouncements, questionnaire data reflecting its cooperative work with the school within the context of community planning, and visitation of communities in which programs of action were under way. Critical examination and appraisal of League activity entails two important considerations: (1) a definitive statement of the vocational guidance function, and (2) acquisition of understandings basic to an operational program tied to the community and purporting to supplement the work of agencies having prior responsibility. The essential elements in an adequate program have been delineated and given authoritative endorsement by the National Vocational Guidance Association. This well-known analysis includes the following services: occupational information, self-inventory and personal data collecting, vocational counseling, vocational preparatory, placement, follow-up and adjustment. Acceptance of this frame of reference permits a point of view of vocational guidance in terms of (1) specific services, and (2) the more functional conception implicit in the term process. The involvements of this viewpoint emerge as both psychological and sociological -the former concern with enlightening, informing and assisting the in-

A teachers college should be a teachers college

I view with alarm a tendency which seems to be spreading throughout the country to make all our teachers colleges institutions for general education with the vocational function no longer the single purpose of these institutions. California has made such a change in the organization of its teachers colleges as have the Commonwealth of Virginia and the States of Ohio and Michigan. Apparently the change is regarded as a step forward. Presumably it is believed that these institutions have arisen to a new dignity and are academically more respectable because of this alteration in their status.