Counseling reentry women: An overview

The author presents an overview of issues related to counseling women reentering the workforce. He suggests that counselors are in a strategic position to help women through the transitions and conflicts associated with returning to work and discusses (a) career barriers related to gender role stereotyping, (b) current job trends for women, (c) expectations for women reentering the workforce, (d) suggestions for raising aspirations for reentry women, and (e) developing energy opportunities.     

Judging the Professional Woman: Changing Research, Changing Values

This article offers a framework for understanding contradictory findings in the field of the personality of working and professional women. Modern theory and research display two patterns: the early pattern of the 1960s, which viewed professional women as violating sex stereotypes, lacking femininity, and having personality disturbances; and the contemporary view, which emerged during the 1970s and suggests the possibility of combining career with family without psychological conflicts and personality disturbances. A critical appraisal of the literature in four areas (psychological role conflict, fear of success, comparison between housewives and career women, and comparisons between women in traditional and pioneer occupations) concludes that little evidence supports the view that professional women have personality disturbances because of their career. Possible explanations for shifting viewpoints and contradictory findings are presented. The article also analyzes the issues and problems professional women currently face and assesses the accessibility of those issues to empirical study.     

Effects of career exploration on career undecided reentry women: An intervention and follow-up study

This study examined the effects of two different career interventions on career undecided reentry women. A total of 34 women were randomly assigned to either a Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) or a Vocational Card Sort (VCS) treatment program. The effects of treatment were assessed 3 weeks after the interventions and again 6 months later. The domains assessed included vocational needs, treatment satisfaction, career indecision, and career choice change. Statistically significant effects were found for both treatments, with the women experiencing less career indecision following the interventions. The career choice changes that were found suggested that the interventions were equally effective, and the women expressed equal satisfaction with both treatments. The results overall support the usefulness of both the SCII and VCS with reentry women. These results are discussed along with their implications for counseling practice as well as future research.     

The Musician's Personality

Regardless of culture, being a musician (whether composing, arranging, or performing) is a complex undertaking. Choosing to be a musician cannot be attributed to personality factors per se. Like any career choice, being a musician represents a blend of genetic and biological endowment with social and emotional reinforcers received in life experiences. Using a cognitive social-learning framework, this article examines research relevant to the musician's personality and seeks answers to 3 questions: (a) Why does one person, and not another, become a musician? (b) What influence, if any, does music have on personality? and (c) Does the musician have distinguishing personality characteristics? Research supports and contradicts numerous possible personality characteristics for musicians, but has yielded little, if any, unassailable empirical support for believing that there are personality characteristics unique to musicians. It has neglected the possible relation between the musician's personality and factors like the venue or context in which the music is performed, the particular musical genre, the presence or absence of career success, and culture. Research points toward music enhancing learning for musicians and nonmusicians alike. In addition to addressing personality and factors, future research will likely give emphasis to genetic or biological endowments.     

Personality and Situation in the Prediction of Women's Life Patterns

The present study examined the importance of both personality variables and family situational variables in determining the career activities of young women. In a longitudinal design, family situational variables producing constraint (marriage and children) predicted strongly negatively both career persistence and career activity pattern. Within various family situations, two personality variables—Self-definition and the need for Achievement—predicted these same life outcomes. Results were strongest in indicating that self-definition was associated with professional career activity among relatively unconstrained women, but with "freelance activity in the home" among married women with children. These effects were strengthened further when the length of time a woman had been relatively constrained or relatively autonomous was considered. Results indicate that at least in this sample of young women still caring for small children situational variables may set broad limits on probable behaviors, while personality variables may predict the choice of particular behavior within those broad limits. Personality variables may be most salient and predictive when considered in the context of a temporally stable situation.     

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.     

Secretarial and management students: Attitudes,attributes, and career choice considerations

Secretarial and management students were compared on characteristics that have differentiated between traditional and nontraditional career women. Fifty-five female secretarial students and 55 female management (bachelor of commerce) students completed the following measures: (a) the Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire (WOFO); (b) the Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS); (c) the Powerful Others, Personal Control, and Chance Scales (I-E Scale); (d) the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ); and (e) a measure of career choice considerations. The groups differed on two aspects of the WOFO (competitiveness and desire to master difficult intellectual challenges), and on Personal Control, sex role orientation (PAQ), and career choice considerations. The results are discussed with respect to sex role socialization and the denigration of secretarial work.     

Identifying process variables in career counseling: A research agenda

Remarkably little is known about what underlying processes and mechanisms lead to effective change in career counseling. This article examines potential reasons why career counseling process research has been infrequently conducted and provides 10 avenues from psychotherapy process research, and the limited pool of existing career counseling process research, that hold promise for advancing a productive process-research agenda in career counseling. These 10 avenues include: (a) examining the working alliance and five promising counselor techniques; (b) reconceptualizing career counseling as a process of learning, and investigating the processes that lead to effective learning; (c) investigating differences in career counseling process and outcome due to subtype membership, cultural perspectives, and other critical client attributes; (d) investigating differences in career counseling process and outcome based on counselors’ levels of self-efficacy, cultural perspectives, and other critical counselor attributes; (e) examining influential session events; (f) utilizing a common problem resolution metric for examining change across clients; (g) examining client change longitudinally to examine stability of change and functional practicality of assessed outcomes; (h) examining cognitive processes that may be mediating the career counseling process; (i) developing molecular and global taxonomies of counselor behaviors; and (j) utilizing advances in methodological approaches and statistical analyses.     

The role of personality in adolescent career planning and exploration: A social cognitive perspective

Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) recognises the importance of individual differences and contextual influences in the career decision-making process. In extending the SCCT choice model, this study tested the role of personality, social supports, and the SCCT variables of self-efficacy, outcome expectations and goals in explaining the career readiness actions of career planning and exploration. The authors surveyed 414 Australian high school students in Years 10, 11 and 12. Career exploration was associated with goals and social supports, whereas career planning was associated with self-efficacy, goals, personality and an interaction term for goals and social support that indicated that levels of planning were highest when social support and goals were highest. Implications for parents, teachers and guidance counsellors as well as recommendations for future research directions are discussed.     

Mediation and Moderated Mediation in the Relationship Among Role Models,Self‐Efficacy,Entrepreneurial Career Intention,and Gender

This paper addresses the effects of role models and self‐efficacy on forming career intentions, and whether the effects vary by gender and process. Focusing on entrepreneurship as a career choice, we explored (a) the effect of exposure to entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurial career intention; (b) the difference in effects between men and women; and (c) the mediating functionality of self‐efficacy. Results indicate that role models have a significant and positive impact on intention, that gender moderated the effects, and that self‐efficacy mediated it. A moderated mediation relationship was observed such that, for women, role models had stronger influence on self‐efficacy, which, in turn, influenced entrepreneurial career intention. Results are discussed in terms of implications for theory and practice.     

A Qualitative Exploration of Counselor Educators' Collaborative Authorship Perceptions and Practices

Limited research exists that examines the ethics of counselor educators' collaborative authorship practices. The study purpose was to explore the collaborative authorship decision-making perceptions and practices of counselor educators (N = 11). We identified six themes: (a) human process and communication, (b) context and nature of relationships, (c) learning experiences about authorship, (d) academic and career stage expectations, (e) collaborative authorship practices, and (f) philosophy of authorship. Implications and recommendations for research are discussed.     

Themes That Facilitate the Success of Female Counselors in Specialty Areas

As the profession of counseling continues to grow and expand, counselors’ careers are diversifying across specialty areas and practice settings often led by women. However, information regarding how these women accomplished this career expansion is lacking. The authors used a qualitative case study to identify 8 themes that influenced and empowered female counselors to develop careers that successfully extended into specialty areas: (a) managing family and career choices, (b) the importance of mentors, (c) overcoming career obstacles, (d) parental support with expectations, (e) integrating experiences with passions, (f) overcoming personal life challenges, (g) a sense of uniqueness, and (h) resourcefulness.     

Where are the Males? Gender Differences in Undergraduates’ Interest in and Perceptions of the Genetic Counseling Profession

Genetic counseling is a female-dominated field, with women comprising about 95% of the profession (Smith et al. 2009). Greater patient choice and satisfaction may be achieved by increasing the number of male counselors, but empirical evidence about the reasons for this gender imbalance is limited. In this study 190 undergraduates (110 females, 79 males, 1 unknown) in upper division bioscience courses completed a survey assessing their knowledge and perceptions of and interest in genetic counseling as a career. There were only two significant gender differences. Females indicated significantly greater interest than males in pursuing a genetic counseling career, and they rated interpersonal skills as more integral to genetic counseling than males. Multiple regression analyses of knowledge and perceptions as possible predictors of male and female interest in pursuing a genetic counseling career yielded no significant predictors of male interest. For females, there were four significant predictors: estimated salary, career characteristics, perceptions of genetic counseling as interpersonally focused, and whether they had already chosen a career. Implications for recruiting males to the profession, and research recommendations are presented.     

PERSONALITY CORRELATES OF AGE AND LIFE ROLES IN ADULT WOMEN

The association between age/family stage, career role, and personality traits was studied using a multivariate statistical approach. Young adult, midlife, and older women from four role groups—homemaker, married career, single career, and student—were compared on a number of personality measures including achievement motivation, affiliation, autonomy, cultural sex role characteristics, self esteem, and adjustment. While some of the expected group differences did not appear, some significant age and role differences were found. Older women showed less achievement motivation and had a greater need for affiliation than young adult and midlife women. Career women had a more internalized locus of control than homemakers and students. When age and role were considered together, the age-role groups were differentiated on autonomy, femininity, and adjustment. There were no differences between either age or role groups on measures of self-esteem, well-being, socialization, or other personality variables.     

Career Assessment for Couples

Most clients are in committed relationships in which both partners are engaged in paid employment, yet counselors have not readily shifted to “couples-oriented” career assessment. This article is devoted to addressing this problem and (a) reviews general approaches to career assessment focused on the individual and provides recommendations for revising these assessment strategies to better fit couples, (b) examines the limited literature on couples-oriented career assessment including strategies to analyze the impact of workplace and social policies on families, and (c) outlines implications for practice, theory, training, and research.     

金融危机背景下家庭社会地位对大三学生择业动机的影响：社会支配倾向的中介作用

以504名来自5所高校三年级大学本科生为被试,采用问卷法收集数据,探讨了家庭社会地位对大学生择业动机的影响。结果表明：（1）家庭社会地位对大学生内部择业动机具有显著的预测作用,家庭社会地位越高,内部择业动机越强;（2）社会支配倾向对家庭社会地位与内部择业动机之间的关系起中介作用,家庭社会地位通过社会支配倾向对内部择业动机产生间接影响;（3）未发现家庭社会地位、社会支配倾向与外部择业动机之间的显著相关。     

Clients As Change Agents: What Color Could My Parachute Be?

Morrill and Forrest (1970) advocate an approach to career counseling (Type 4) that helps clients (a) understand career choice as a developmental process, (b) learn decision-making skills, and (c) become active change agents in their own lives. Referring to the Morrill and Forrest article as a benchmark statement about career counseling, Remer and O'Neill present a decision-making model that encompasses the tenets of Type 4 counseling. The model has 13 sequential steps; the authors indicate the role of the counselor and the objectives for the client at each. The article discusses the potential impact of this self-directed, decision-making model on career counseling. Specific counseling outcomes are discussed along with anecdotal evidence that supports the power of the model to create these outcomes.     

Current Controversies in the Study of Personality across Cultures

Research on culture and personality is thriving. In this article, I address several prominent controversies, including: (a) alternative perspectives on the relationship between culture and personality; (b) the cross‐cultural universality versus specificity of personality structure; (c) whether comparisons of mean inventory profiles reveal valid cultural differences in trait levels; and (d) the importance and role of the trait concept across cultures. Greater consensus regarding the relationship between culture and personality will likely be achieved if researchers clarify which aspects of personality they are addressing (e.g., basic tendencies vs. characteristic adaptations). Recent lexical and indigenous studies have weakened consensus regarding the universality and comprehensiveness of the Five‐Factor Model. The validity of cultural mean profiles remains unresolved. Research on the importance of traits across cultures provides support for both trait and cultural psychology perspectives, although more culture‐comparative studies of consistency and predictive validity are needed. Suggestions for research are offered.     

Traditionality of choice and sex-role identification as moderators of the congruence of occupational choice in college women

This study examined the relationship of traditionality of occupational preferences and sex-role orientation to personality-occupational environment congruence in college women. Three-letter Holland personality codes were obtained for each of 184 college women based on same-sex normative scores from the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and on scores from the ACT Unisex Interest Inventory (UNIACT). Subjects' occupational preferences were classified as traditional, moderately traditional, or nontraditional based on the percentages of women in the occupation. Scores on the Bern Sex Role Inventory were used to classify subjects into one of four sex-role categories. Results indicated a strong association between congruence and traditionality of choice; women whose choices were in nontraditional career fields were significantly more likely to be making choices congruent with their personality type than were women choosing traditional career fields. Further, while sex-role orientation was not significantly related to either congruence or traditionality, masculine-typed women were most likely to make nontraditional and congruent career choices, while the majority of feminine-typed, androgynous, and undifferentiated women stated preferences for traditional career fields. Implications for the applicability of Holland's congruence postulate to women's vocational behavior are discussed.