Computer-Assisted Career Guidance: A National Perspective on the Use of DISCOVER and SIGI

The authors describe the institutional use of DISCOVER and SIGI, two computer-assisted career guidance systems, in terms of services provided, staffing, management, and implementation.     

Computer-Assisted Careers Counselling: A New Approach

This paper describes the outcome of a research and development project concerned to construct a computer aid for careers advisers and career decision-makers which differs in basic philosophy and design from others currentiy in the field. The resulting Careers Decision Aiding System (CDAS) is principally concerned with improving the quality of the decision-making strategy employed by clients by raising their awareness of the way in which their career choice is made, ratherthan with employing computer technology to attempt to match people to careers. The use of the CDAS by clients and careers advisers is illustrated by two case-studies.     

SCOPE: A Comprehensive-Sequential Approach to Career Counseling

SCOPE is a comprehensive career-counseling program presently in operation at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey. It consists of a basic program plus a cluster of supplemental, optional exercises. The basic program has a sequence of four career-planning phases, one of which applies to each undergraduate year. Efforts are made to process students systematically through the entire basic program. An individual checklist kept for each participating student provides an internal mechanism for program evaluation and modification. Early results suggest effectiveness and positive student reactions.     

Puzzling Your Career: A Self-Responsibility,Self-Acceptance Approach to Career Planning

Puzzling Your Career is a career planning approach that identifies and resolves unrealistic client expectations by focusing on self-acceptance and self-responsibility.     

Computer-Assisted Careers Guidance Systems and Organisational Change

This article describes a study conducted to identify the range of potential influences that a computer-assisted careers guidance system (PROSPECT (HE)) had on the functioning of organisations (careers services in higher education). Data from six institutions indicated that use of PROSPECT (HE) was associated with important and varied change within the organisations. It appears that when a careers service seeks opportunities for change, CACG systems can be an important catalyst for change in two respects: by providing a focal point for achieving previously established goals; or, as a consequence of system use, by making staff aware of the potential for new organisational goals.     

Restating A Client-Centered Approach to Career Counseling

Too often, career counseling is associated with objective test scores and rational decision making. The purpose of this article is to reiterate the importance of considering the client's developing self-concept in career counseling.     

Computer-Assisted Career Counseling: Dilemmas,Problems, and Possible Solutions

Computer-assisted career guidance systems (CACGSs) are one of the available tools used to facilitate the career decision-making process of deliberating counselees. The development and utilization of these systems have raised dilemmas and problems that the author discusses from the viewpoint of information-processing and decision theory. These dilemmas involve (a) the occupational data base, (b) the complexity of the career decision-making process, (c) the effectiveness of the dialogue, and (d) the context in which the CACGS is embedded. After describing and analyzing each problem or dilemma, possible ways to overcome, circumvent, or at least minimize it are explored. The relevance for face-to-face career counseling is also discussed.     

A Relational Approach to Career Counseling: Theoretical Integration and Practical Application

This article reviews the current status of career theory in practice and presents a theoretical overview of relational theory and its logical extension to the career domain. Despite the emergence of literature regarding the interconnectedness of career progress and the quality of relationships in one's life (e.g., D. L. Blustein, 2001; D. L. Blustein, M. S. Prezioso, & D. E. P. Schultheiss, 1995; D. E. P. Schultheiss, H. M. Kress, A. J. Manzi, & J. M. Glasscock, 2001), counseling practice is limited by the absence of a meaningful approach to intervene in clients' relational and career worlds. The relational career counseling approach moves counseling toward a contextually based relational perspective to facilitating career progress. This approach is illustrated with a case example.     

Career Psychology: A Cultural Approach for India

This paper sets out to address an important aspect of human development, namely, the processes by which career choices are made. Highlighting the necessity of considering the unique cultural, social, and economic factors that influence career development in the Indian context, the paper presents the cultural preparation process model as a potential framework for the development of a career psychology for India. Data from the Work Orientations and Responses to Career Choices: Indian Regional Survey (WORCC-IRS) is presented to illustrate the model and to discuss occupational and career interests which are constructs that are central to career guidance. Data is provided to show that cultural factors such as parental approval and the attribution of prestige have a strong influence on the formation of occupational and career interests. The paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of creating a platform for the emergence of an Indian career psychology that integrates into its purview the diverse factors that influence career development in the Indian context.     

Campus Career Guidance: Assessment and a Model

This article reports a model for assessment of the needs and resources for career guidance on the college campus and the results of one such assessment. Students' need for career guidance was assessed by opinion polls on campus. Resources available on campus were assessed by structured interviews with all department chairpersons and deans. Graduates' views of the usefulness of college education as career preparation were obtained through mailed questionnaires. Results indicate that (a) family and personal friends have the greatest influence on career choice, (b) university departments supply very limited resources for aid in career choice, and (c) most graduates view their college major as a necessary or desirable prerequisite for their current employment. Recommendations are made for action that counseling centers, college divisions, and departments can take to improve career guidance resources on campus.     

A Stage Approach to Career Counseling With Christian Women

Almost 75% of married women ages 25–54 years are in the labor force in the United States. Many are in occupations that are below their potential or are not personally satisfying. Lack of role satisfaction can result in depression, but the career issues of women in treatment are often ignored. Christian women may be particularly vulnerable to role dissatisfaction. The authors offer a stage model for assessment of Christian women who present with symptoms of depression, in hopes of addressing issues of role satisfaction from work and lessening depressive symptoms.     

Career Interest Search: A Prototype,Computer-Assisted Occupational Interest Inventory for Functionally Illiterate Adults

The central focus of this study was to develop a prototype occupational interest inventory for academically disadvantaged or functionally illiterate adults and to develop a microcomputer version of the prototype.