When frames of reference lag perception of reality: Managing senior careers in the first ten years of the 21st century.

This article summarizes a review of the careers of 50 executives who have been outstanding in traversing the careers of their professional lives. In a world of short job tenure-elongated middle age, most executives will have to simultaneously manage two separate careers. One career is called full-time assignment work and is the traditional "job." The other career is called project assignment work, also known as interim or consulting work. Many think these two careers will occur sequentially. This typical framework sets leaders up for perceived failure because this sequential model is no longer realistic. Leaders will be traversing between full time and project based work through their professional lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Central venous catheter bloodstream infections in the neonatal intensive care unit

The aim of the study was to investigate the social background of physicians, the reasons that influenced doctors to enter medicine, and the association between those reasons and satisfaction in career choice of young Finnish doctors. An extensive postal questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 2632 young Finnish doctors in 1988 and to 2332 doctors in 1993. We found out that majority of the respondents reported that interest in people, a wide range of job opportunities, the fact that medicine is a highly-appreciated profession, and success at school had influenced their decision to enter medicine quite a lot or very much. In 1988, 8% and in 1993, 7% of the respondents reported that interest in people had not influenced their career choice at all or only slightly. More women than men were influenced quite a lot or very much by factors like interest in people, success at school and vocation, meaning the lifelong calling to physicians' profession. A total of 22% of respondents would not enter medicine again. Vocation, interest in people and wide range of job opportunities were significantly more rarely mentioned as an important career choice motive by these respondents. It seems that interest in human beings and vocation are important to would-be doctors, and also help them to get along in the physicians' profession. Medical schools should develop their curricula towards more humanistic medicine in order to maintain their students' interest in people.     

Addressing clients’ racism and racial prejudice in individual psychotherapy: Therapeutic considerations.

Psychotherapists lack clear guidelines regarding how to address clients’ racist and prejudicial comments in clinical work. The authors explore the contributions of multicultural, social justice, feminist, and ethical theories to the field of psychotherapy and apply these theories to 2 clinical vignettes in which clients made racially charged statements. These clinical examples highlight the importance of using racial, in addition to traditional, theories to decipher the clinical meanings of racial comments and dynamics in clinical work. The article provides therapeutic conceptualizations regarding how to address clients’ racist and prejudicial comments in psychotherapy and elaborates on the complex meanings that might arise from engaging in racially charged discussions with clients depending on the racial composition of the therapeutic dyad. In addition to highlighting how social justice, multicultural, and feminist lenses are necessary to fully understand the meaning of clients’ comments, the argument is made that addressing clients’ racist and prejudicial comments is at once a clinical and a social justice issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of control and college women's role expectations.

Hypothesized that college women's locus of control orientations would be related to their role expectations, with women with an external locus of control having lower aspirations, more conservative sex-role ideologies, and less involvement in career planning than women with an internal locus of control. 116 female college juniors and seniors completed a career expectation scale, the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale (ANSIE), and an index of sympathy for women's liberation ideology. Regression analyses using ANSIE scores as the predictor variable supported the hypotheses. Compared to Ss with internal orientations, Ss with external orientations expected to have less commitment to their careers, to work for a smaller portion of their lives, and to feel more discomfort due to violating sex-role stereotypes. In addition, Ss with a more external orientation reported less career planning activity, less positive feelings about their future careers, and more conservative views on women's liberation ideology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of perceived barriers and relational support in the educational and vocational lives of urban high school students.

Drawing on developmental contextual theory, the authors examined the relationship of perceived barriers and support with school engagement and vocational attitudes among 9th-grade urban high school students in 2 studies. Study 1 (N=174) showed that both perceived barriers and perceived support from family kin were associated with youths' commitment to school and aspirations for success in their future careers. Study 2 (N=181) replicated and extended Study 1, demonstrating that perceived barriers, general perceptions of support, and kinship support were associated with behavioral and attitudinal indexes of school engagement, as well as with aspirations for career success, expectations for attaining career goals, and the importance of work in one's future. The findings contribute to efforts to identify individual and contextual factors relevant to the educational and vocational lives of urban minority youth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Career counseling: A narrative approach.

Reviews the book, Career counseling: A narrative approach by Larry Cochran (2000). This book introduces a narrative approach to career counselling. The author specifically makes the distinction that this is a counselling approach, not a career development theory. A narrative approach invites counsellors to make their career interventions with clients more personal. In contrast to the traditional objective emphasis in career counselling, this is a subjective approach that emphasizes meaning and meaning-making. Cochran characterizes the central task of career counselling as "emplotment" rather than matching. Emplotment involves casting the individual as the main character in a career narrative that is meaningful, productive, and fulfilling. The book is intended for scholars, professionals, and graduate students who already have some familiarity with counselling and career development. It is presumed that the reader has at least some knowledge and skill in counselling. At the end of each chapter, there are exercises that enable the reader to apply the principles and concepts outlined in the chapter. A client situation is described, and several questions are used to guide the reader. Overall, this book is a welcome addition to the career literature. Indeed, the approach need not only be used in counselling involving work or occupational problems. Meaning-making and narrative concepts can be applied to any and all issues in people's lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment, separation, and women's vocational development: A longitudinal analysis.

This study tested a proposed model investigating the relations among attachment to and separation from parents, career self-efficacy, and career aspiration over a 5-year period with a sample of 207 young women. Results suggested that being attached to parents may lead to the development of confidence in pursuing career-related tasks, which in turn influences career aspiration. Separation from parents did not have direct effects on career self-efficacy. Results also indicated that women's career plans changed over a 5-year period with young women selecting more traditional and less prestigious careers than those to which they aspired in their senior year of high school. In addition, these women chose careers that underutilized their abilities. Finally, this sample of young women intended to have both careers and families, and the majority of these women ranked family as more important than career. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serendipity is not serendipitous.

Serendipitous events have been shown to affect the careers of prominent counseling psychologists. Why should this seem surprising? Unplanned events affect everyone's career. The surprise is due to the widespread but unfounded assumption that career decisions should be the logical outcome of a "true reasoning" process. Counseling psychologists need to (a) broaden their view so that the reluctance to make an occupational commitment in the face of unpredictable future events can be celebrated as open-mindedness, not denigrated as indecisiveness, (b) teach clients that unplanned events are a normal and expected part of the career development process, and (c) teach clients how to generate unplanned events that contribute to a more satisfying life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The future of career.

Reviews the book, The future of career edited by Audrey Collin and Richard A. Young (see record 2000-16337-000). In this book on the future of career, the editors intend to clarify the themes, issues, and implications that are likely to be characteristic of career in the new century. In general, the authors raise the question of whether the construct of career has a future, most particularly within North American and European countries, and Australia. The editors' rationale for this focus centres around the notion that career is a unifying construct that gives purpose and meaning to individuals' experience and helps them to construct their perceptions of the future. Audrey Collin and Richard Young bring together a collection of essays which were written by a number of academics of diverse perspectives and from different countries. These essays, which can be used individually or together, examine the broad changes in the work contexts, analyze new constructions which appear to be emerging from work contexts, and suggest some ways to conceptualize career so that it has a future in the next century. In this volume, the editors have done an excellent job of assembling information and perspectives to accomplish their purpose. The book is set against the background of career developing out of the industrial revolution, the rise of individualism, the bureaucratic career, and career guidance as a social movement. It includes both modernist and postmodernist perspectives and addresses the future of career in its diversity. As such, this volume represents a process perspective on the changes in the workplace and what is happening to individuals as a result. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Succeeding against the odds: An examination of familial influences on the career development of professional African American women.

In spite of racism, African American women have pursued career goals, entered the workplace, and maintained successful careers. This persistence by African American women can be connected theoretically to several phenomena—the most notable being the family experience. The purpose of this study was to describe how 14 African American women in the midpoint of their careers perceived their family's influence on their career development. Consensual qualitative research (C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, and E. Nutt-Williams, 1997) was used to analyze the interview responses of these women. The most salient variables related to career development included family emphasis on education, relationships with family members, and family's social and economic resources. Other variables that shaped the career development of this sample included family gender role socialization and values toward work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of Men's and Women's Careers in U.K. Construction Industry

This paper reports on a study of the factors and interrelated decisions that influence the career dynamics of female and male construction professionals. The research involved the collection of detailed career history profiles of matched pairs of male and female informants, at different stages of their careers. These data were used to establish the disparity between men's and women's career progression and to explore the determinants of women's organizational and occupational mobility patterns. It was found that problems existed for women at every career stage, where pressures created by the demanding work environment were compounded by inflexible working arrangements and overt resentment from their male colleagues. The findings suggest that ingrained attitudes and operating practices of large U.K. construction organizations will be difficult to change to the extent that they will encourage more female participation. Nevertheless, addressing the equality issue is essential if the industry is to develop a skilled workforce in the millennium, which taps the talents of all within society.     

Bringing a mythological perspective to clinical practice.

Effective psychotherapists must develop an awareness of the mythology within which they themselves operate, as well as help clients understand the personal myths that shape their view of reality and their behavior. The nature of personal myths and the 7 principles that govern their evolution are described. A 5-stage model embodying these principles is outlined, and a case history that illustrates each of the stages is presented. The principles can be used to teach people to identify personal myths, to revise these myths based on intuitive sources and informed cognitive analysis, and to bring this renewed mythology to bear on their daily lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When psychologists work with religious clients: Applications of the general principles of ethical conduct.

Psychologists become more effective and relevant when they appreciate that many clients hold religious values and commitments. Greater awareness of religion and religious values in the lives of clients may aid clinicians' efforts to provide more accurate assessments and effective treatment plans. The authors use the American Psychological Association's (1992) "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct" as a framework to examine many of the ethical issues relevant when psychologists work with religious clients. This article also provides suggestions for ways in which clinicians may obtain the skills needed to offer competent assessments and interventions with religiously committed clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Men and women in optometry. II. Attitudes toward career and family

BACKGROUND: Optometry has experienced a dramatic upward shift in the percentage of women entering the profession during the past 20 years. Our survey assessed the mechanisms for sustaining balance in professional and personal roles used by women optometrists and how these mechanisms may differ from those of their male colleagues. METHODS: A survey questionnaire was mailed to a large nationwide random sample of optometrists, composed of equal numbers of men and women. RESULTS: Data were analyzed from 353 men and 358 women; margin of error was +4%. Most of the respondents indicated they derived personal satisfaction from their career. A majority of both groups did not indicate that lack of time for their career was a source of frustration. However, significantly more women than men indicated some frustration in pursuing those activities that lead to career advancement. There were significant differences in response patterns of men and women about the effect of family, child care, and household work on their careers. CONCLUSIONS: Both men and women optometrists are satisfied with their careers and neither group feels compelled to choose between career and family. Optometrists do not fit into one pattern, but instead make individualized career choices on the basis of needs.     

Supporting the Thin Blue Line: Gender-Sensitive Therapy With Male Police Officers.

Why might psychologists wish to incorporate an understanding of the male gender role into their work with male police officers? The answer to this question lies in understanding the paradox presented to male police officers by the differing demands of their chosen career and their interpersonal lives. In detailing this, the authors review the body of literature on the consequences of traditional male socialization--specifically, male gender role conflict--and explore how it can be used to understand the types of distress typically experienced by male police officers. The authors then provide suggestions for making the progression of psychotherapy more palatable to members of this population and discuss the practice, research, and professional implications of their work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extend careers at both ends?

Suggests that psychologists could lengthen their careers by completing professional training earlier and finding distinctive services they could render after usual retirement age. Early beginning of professional career is associated with success in the career. Further, retired psychologists might be valuable in work with elderly adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developing Structural Integrated Stressor–Stress Models for Clients’ and Contractors’ Cost Engineers

Estimation is not a purely scientific task. It requires cost engineers equipped with a wide knowledge of construction and a professional ability to make judgments. However, stress will deaden their use of knowledge and influence their professional judgment in estimating. In the construction industry, cost engineers can generally be divided into two main groups: clients’ cost engineers in consultant firms or in a development company who serve clients; and contractors’ cost engineers in construction companies working for the contractors. This study investigates the causal relationships between the stressors and stress of clients’ and contractors’ cost engineers. Two stressor–stress integrated models were developed for these two cost engineer groups by using the structural equation model. The findings revealed some stressors that affected both clients’ and contractors’ cost engineers: (1) poor environment, role conflict and work underload affect their stress positively; (2) social support and Type A behavior affect their stress negatively; and (3) work underload induces stress via the role conflict among cost engineers, their supervisors, and the organization. On the other hand, some deviations between these two groups of cost engineers also occur: (1) social support acts as a source of stressors of clients’ cost engineers; (2) a private life stressor only affects the stress of contractors’ cost engineers; and (3) a closed interactive looping relationship among role conflict, Type A behavior, and work underload affects contractors’ cost engineers. Based on the results of this study, some recommendations are suggested to manage cost engineers’ stress well.     

A contextual behavioral approach to the role of emotion in psychotherapy supervision.

As behavior therapy expands to address problems related to private events, appropriate methods of supervision must be developed to train individuals to work with the full range of human experience, using a behavioral model. The authors suggest that therapists’ in-session emotions are an important source of information about the impact of clients’ behavior on others. Contextual behavior therapists may enhance their effectiveness in meeting clients’ needs by attending to the therapist’s own emotional responses. This paper provides a contextual behavioral rationale for including a focus on emotion in supervision, with a four-phase model for shaping early trainees’ ability to use their emotional reactions to facilitate therapy in a coherent manner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of early work challenge to job performance, professional contributions, and competence of engineers.

Investigated the relationship of the work challenge experienced by 85 engineers at the beginning of their career to their subsequent job performance, professional contributions, and competence. Engineers whose initial job experience involved challenging technical work tended to contribute to knowledge relatively early and to maintain professional competence and good job performance during their careers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)