The impact of college experiences on conventional career logic.

Using interview data from 20 college students, the factors students consider in choosing a college major were scaled on an analytic-intuitive dimension, emphasizing a continuum of thinking orientations from logical, rational thought to a more intuitive, reflexive mode. Administration of a subsequently developed 27-item questionnaire containing these factors to 586 undergraduates revealed that differences in thinking orientation were associated with sex, area of study, and year in school. A dramatic difference between strongly analytic freshman and more intuitive sophomore thinking seemed to reflect a clash between the conventional wisdom of parents and counselors and the direct emotional experiences of college. Overall, the apparent lack of explicit rationality in student educational decisions appears to be adaptive, because the uncertainties surrounding career opportunities and the involvement of emotions and broad life goals in career choice may make fully rational career planning impossible and undesirable. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial factors affecting the employment of former vocational rehabilitation clients.

Analyzed questionnaires completed by 211 former vocational rehabilitation (VR) clients (aged 15–61 yrs) 2 yrs after case closure for a clarification of the psychosocial factors that affect vocational adjustment. Questionnaires assessed employment status and problems, sources of income/financial status, health, and job satisfaction (for employed Ss only). WAIS Full Scale IQs were available for 195 Ss, and 120 Ss had completed the 16PF—Form E. Results show that the primary criteria of vocational adjustment (employment, job satisfaction, and persistence in looking for work) were associated with better self-appraised physical and mental health, greater perceived family support in seeking employment, more optimism about employment prospects, and attribution of the problem source to the environment. These variables suggest useful points for intervention by VR practitioners. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new psychodiagnostic tool for clients in rehabilitation settings: The MBHI.

The Millon Behavioral Health Inventory (MBHI), a 150-item self-report inventory, may provide measures relevant to the client's psychological outlook and prognosis. It also appears useful as a guide for treatment planning and psychological counseling. The rationale, development, and uses of the MBHI are briefly described, and the focus of each of the instrument's 20 scales is outlined. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparative impact of the SCII and the Vocational Card Sort on career salience and career exploration of women.

The effects of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), the Vocational Card Sort (VCS), and an exercise designed to make respondents aware of myths and realities of women in the world of work, the Auxiliary Informative Material (AIM), were examined in relation to (a) number and type of career options considered, (b) frequency and variety of information-seeking behaviors, (c) career salience, and (d) satisfaction with the career exloration experience. 120 female dormitory residents were randomly assigned to a control group and 4 treatment groups: (a) VCS only, (b) AIM and VCS, (c) SCII only, and (d) AIM and SCII. Analyses of variance indicated some differences in the impact of the SCII and the VCS on the dependent variables; the VCS was more effective than the SCII in broadening career options and in increasing the frequency with which Ss read occupational information. Although the AIM had no significant impact on broadening the career options or on stimulating information-seeking behaviors, it increased the career salience of women. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home healthcare nursing in the managed care environment. Part II. The impact on clients and professional nurses

Part I, published in last month's issue of Home Healthcare Nurse, provided information about managed care and health maintenance organizations (HMOs). This article, Part II, presents an overview of the history of home healthcare nursing, the results of a purposeful sample, and interviews of home care nurses. Interviews were conducted to determine how nurses perceived the impact of managed care on their clients and nursing practice. Conclusions are presented in terms of emergent categories gleaned from the interviews. Recommendations for the continued growth and advancement of professional nursing in the context of managed care are given.     

Parents as agents of career development.

This study tested the effectiveness of a program for parents to help their adolescent children in career planning. In a pretest–posttest control group design involving 20 families in the experimental group and 20 families as a wait-listed control group, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test improvement on five variables concerned with parent–child relations and career development. The MANOVA yielded a significant effect for groups over time. Using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures, four of five univariate tests were also significant. In addition, all parents and six adolescents were interviewed after the program to gain a qualitative assessment of program effectiveness. Interview data tended to support the varied degrees of improvement that the adolescents showed on the quantitative measures. It was concluded that parents can function effectively in fostering the career development of their children, when provided with a structured program that they can follow. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring quality of life in cardiac rehabilitation clients

OBJECTIVE: To clarify the origin of defective mismatch repair (MMR) in sporadic endometrial cancers with microsatellite instability (MSI), a thorough mutation analysis was performed on the human mismatch repair gene MSH3. METHODS: Twenty-eight MSI-positive endometrial cancers were investigated for mutations in the human mismatch repair gene MSH3 using single-strand conformation variant (SSCV) analysis of all 24 exons. All variants were sequenced. Loss of heterozygosity was investigated at all MSH3 polymorphisms discovered. A subset of tumors were investigated for methylation of the 5' promoter region of MSH3 using Southern blot hybridization. RESULTS: An identical single-base deletion (delta A) predicted to result in a truncated proteins was discovered in six tumors (21.4%). This deletion occurs in a string of eight consecutive adenosine residues (A8). Because simple repeat sequences are unstable in cells with defective MMR, the observed mutation may be an effect, rather than a cause, of MSI. Evidence of inactivation of the second MSH3 allele in tumors with the delta A mutation would strongly support a causal role for these MSH3 mutations. However, there was no evidence of a second mutation, loss of sequences, or methylation of the promoter region in any of the tumors with the delta A mutation. CONCLUSION: Although the delta A mutation is a frequent event in sporadic MSI-positive endometrial cancers, it may not be causally associated with defective DNA MMR.     

Attrition behavior before career development workshops.

Examined differences between 130 persons (mean age 31.6 yrs) who attended career workshops and 56 persons (mean age 27.0 yrs) who registered but did not attend. Nonattenders were interviewed after workshops, and reasons expressed for nonattendance were clustered into 3 categories: 45% had forgotten or felt discouraged; 38% gave environmental reasons (e.g., scheduling and transportation problems); and 17% indicated that they had already met their goals. These 3 attrition groups were each compared with the group who attended workshops on a series of variables obtained at the time of registration, which included the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and checklists on values and abilities. The forgot/discouraged group had lower self-esteem and participated in fewer information-seeking activities. Ss in the environmental-barriers group were similar to Ss who attended on all measures except career decidedness; the environmental-barriers group was more decided. Nonattenders who indicated they had met their goals had higher ratings of career decidedness, more information-seeking behaviors, greater self-esteem, and higher academic orientation. Results support the notion that reasons for nonattendance at career workshops vary, requiring different interventions to increase attendance. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancies and the outcome of a career development intervention.

Investigated 2 hypotheses regarding course outcome expectancies of students: (a) Expectancies assessed by E. E. Lawler's (1973) theory are better predictors of outcomes than the more frequently used global ratings of expectancies; and (b) the full Lawler expectancy model is a better predictor of outcome than its component parts. Outcome measures included appropriateness of (determined by the Vocational Preference Inventory), and attitudes toward, educational and vocational choices as well as career exploration behavior. Ss were 85 undergraduates enrolled in an academic course designed to help students make a career choice. The Lawler model of expectancy was not found to be a better predictor of outcome than were the other measures of expectancy. Expectancy–outcome relationships were strongest for attitudinal outcomes and weakest for the career-exploration behaviors. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between the identity formation process and career development.

Proposed on the basis of a review of the ego identity and career development literatures that variability in career exploration and occupational commitment might be related to characteristic differences in the manner by which individuals explore and commit to their ego identity in late adolescence. To test propositions about the relations between career development and identity formation, measures of ego identity status, exploratory activity, and occupational commitment were administered to 99 college students. A canonical analysis was conducted, which yielded two significant canonical roots. The 1st root, which accounted for 35% of the variance between canonical composites, indicated that occupational commitment is inversely related to the moratorium status. The 2nd root, which accounted for 11% of the variance, suggested that career exploration is positively associated with the moratorium and identity-achieved statuses and inversely related to the diffusion status. The results are related to future directions in theory, research, and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concept of agency in educational and career development.

The present study was designed to develop and evaluate prototypical measures of behavioral competence and perceived self-efficacy with respect to a complex domain of behavior summarized as agency in educational and career pursuits. The domain, originally suggested to be important in a previous study of career competencies in professional women (Hackett, Betz, & Doty, 1985), referred to the tendency of the individual to respond proactively to situations representing educational and career opportunities. 109 undergraduate students were administered measures of competence and perceived self-efficacy in response to 18 situations with potential to elicit agentic behaviors. On the average, college students gave only minimally competent responses to the situations presented, although competence varied considerably across situations. Levels of perceived efficacy were relatively high, but the strength of efficacy beliefs was relatively weak. Male and female students were similar in both agentic competence and self-efficacy. Implications for further research and for using the concept of agency as a focus of counseling interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling session impact as viewed by novice counselors and their clients.

The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) was used to measure the perspectives of 17 graduate-student counselors and their 72 17–39 yr old clients on 942 individual counseling sessions along 2 evaluative dimensions—depth and smoothness—and 2 dimensions of postsession mood—positivity and arousal. A components-of-variance analysis showed that, from both perspectives, SEQ ratings varied greatly from session to session; ratings were only modestly predictable from differences among counselors or among counselor–client dyads. However, averages across 6–20 sessions permitted adequately reliable differentiation among dyads, for example, for comparisons with outcome measures. Correlations between corresponding counselor and client dimensions ranged from moderate to negligible, whether calulated across sessions, across clients, or across counselors, Novice counselors' judgments of session depth and value may have had little relation to their clients' evaluations. On the other hand, counselors' comfort in sessions and postsession positive mood were moderately predictive of client reactions. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job interview training with rehabilitation clients: A comparison of videotape and role-playing procedures.

Randomly assigned 19 clients at a rehabilitation center to 1 of 3 treatments designed to improve job interview behavior. Judges' ratings indicated that Ss in a videotape-feedback condition and those in a role-playing condition improved significantly more than those in an attention-placebo control group, but that the 2 experimental groups did not differ from each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in a sample of state vocational rehabilitation clients with traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To examine the relations among age, neuropsychological functioning, and vocational rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Study Design and Participants: Prospective study of 78 adults (18-57 years) who qualified for services with the Missouri Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), based on a history of TBI followed from enrollment to case closure. Group differences based on age were examined for neuropsychological and vocational outcome with multivariate analysis of variance and nonparametric methods. Main Outcome Measures: Neuropsychological test data and DVR data regarding vocational placement. Results: Age-related differences were present for a measure of mental flexibility, isolated demographic characteristics, and 1 DVR service category. Contrary to hypotheses, there were no age-related differences in vocational outcome. Conclusions: In contrast to hospital-based samples, age does not appear to be a negative indicator for individuals admitted to a state DVR program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapists' assessments of their development at different career levels.

Experiences of current and career professional development were surveyed for 3,958 psychotherapists at all career stages in several western countries. Participants included psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health practitioners representing a broad range of theoretical orientations. The mean number of years in practice for the participants was 11.2, with a range of less than 1 to as many as 52. The Ss were aged 22–90 yrs. Measures of experienced development were consistent across professional and demographic categories. As expected, perceived therapeutic mastery increased with increasing years in practice, but currently experienced growth remained at a high and unexpectedly constant level across career cohorts, including the most senior practitioners. Overall findings suggest that therapists experience development simultaneously as a gradually increasing sense of professional expertise and as an ongoing sense of continual improvement, interpreted as essential to maintaining their motivation and morale. Contributions of these aspects of therapist development to process and outcome are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of federal rehabilitation laws on the expanding role of Employee Assistance Programs in business and industry.

Federal statutory and case law protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities has had a major impact in expanding the occupational options for mentally and physically impaired employees. One serendipitous result of these protections has been the expansion of job opportunities for psychologists in business and industry. This article examines important federal laws and regulations pertaining to the employment rights of the handicapped worker and emphasizes the intricacies involved for psychologists who work in the employee assistance field or who consult with management. The expansion of vocational options for psychologists working with business is traced, and future prospects for psychologists in this area are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between career indecision subtypes and ego identity development.

Four cluster groups of career-undecided college students (N?=?423) were formed from Career Factors Inventory scores. Career decision groups were compared across Erikson's first 5 stages of ego identity development as measured by the Ego Development Scale (R. Ochse & C. Plug, 1986). It was predicted that career decision groups would differ in level of ego identity resolution, with groups that experienced the most indecision reporting the least successful resolution. Using profile analysis, overall profile parallelism, level, and shape were examined, and comparisons of career decision groups within the substages were made. Results indicated that the 4 career decision groups differed in their degree of successful identity resolution in the predicted direction. Results are related to career interventions and treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)