Toward a career development model for postbaccalaureate premedical programs: from theory to practice

The purpose of this study was to assess the career maturity of 168 minority and disadvantaged premedical students upon entry into a medical education preparatory program. All took the Medical Career Development Inventory as a pre-assessment in the course. Students' scores identified three instructional groups: on, below, and above instructional level. A model for career intervention for postbaccalaureate premedical programs is presented.     

Stressful events compromise control strivings during a major life transition

Prior research on stressful events has largely ignored their potential impact on motivational processes. This study prospectively examined the association of a stressful event with control strivings in the school-to-work transition. Five waves of data on stressful events, control strategies, and potential mediating variables were collected from an adolescent sample in Berlin (N = 420) during the year before high school graduation. The occurrence of a stressful event (death of family member, parent divorce) predicted a decline in general career-related and specific apprenticeship-related control strivings. This association was mediated by a decline in control-related means-ends beliefs. Proximity to the deadline of graduation exacerbated this association for apprenticeship-seeking control strivings, but this effect was buffered by usage of selective secondary control strategies (cognitive strategies to enhance commitment to a goal). Thus, stressful events can exacerbate challenges and require additional means of control striving.

An investigation of traumatic life events and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), like most other psychiatric disorders, is suspected of being influenced by an interaction between life events and genes, both with regard to onset and course of illness. To date, no specific genes have been identified as playing a frequent role, and only a relatively few empirical studies have assessed the association between stressful life events (SLEs) and OCD. The present study builds on past research by examining the potential contributions from traumatic life events (TLEs) on the severity and symptom features in 265 individuals with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID)-diagnosed OCD. Of these participants 54% endorsed having experienced at least one TLE in their life time. The presence of one or more TLEs was associated with increased OCD symptom severity. This relationship remained significant despite controlling for key variables including age, OCD age-of-onset, comorbidity, and depressive symptoms. In addition, obsessions/checking and symmetry/ordering were two of four symptom factors that were specifically associated with the occurrence of TLEs. These results are generally supportive of a pathoplastic relationship between TLEs and OCD symptomatology and thus suggest the need for greater systematic consideration of life stresses in research focused on the nature and treatment of OCD.     

Consciousness and biological order: Toward a quantum theory of life and its evolution

Biological order is discussed within the context of the idealist interpretation of quantum mechanics. A quantum mechanism is proposed for quantum speciation and for quantum evolution, in general. It is shown that an extension of neo-Darwinism to include quantum evolution via a quantum mechanism can resolve some of the recent controversies that have rattled evolution theory. It is pointed out that the quantum approach has the further benefit of giving a straightforward insight into the nature of life itself. Experimental support for some aspects of the theory is discussed.     

Chaotic careers: a narrative analysis of career transition themes and outcomes using chaos theory as a guiding metaphor

ABSTRACT

In a rapidly changing world of work, little research exists on mid-career transitions. We investigated these using the open-systems approach of chaos theory as a guiding metaphor and conducted interviews with seven mid-career individuals chosen for their experience of a significant mid-career transition. Four common themes were identified through narrative analysis, where ‘false starts’ to a career were a common experience prior to finding a career ‘fit’. Career transitions, precipitated by a trigger state and/or event such as a period of disillusionment, were an important part of this ‘finding a fit’ process. Overall, career success outcomes were shaped by a combination of chaos elements: chance, unplanned events, and non-linearity of resultant outcomes. We discuss implications for future research and practice.     

Toward a taxonomy of career studies through bibliometric visualization

One of the greatest strengths and liabilities of the career field is its diversity. This diversity allows for wide coverage of relevant career dynamics across the lifespan and across levels of analysis. However, this diversity also reflects fragmentation, with career scholars failing to appreciate how the insights from other thought worlds can advance their own work. Using advanced bibliometric mapping techniques, we provide a systematic review of the 3141 articles on careers published in the management literature between 1990 and 2012. In doing so, we (1) map key terms to create a systematic taxonomy of career studies within the field of management studies, (2) provide a synthetic overview of each topic cluster which extends prior reviews of more limited scope, and (3) identify the most highly influential studies on careers within each cluster. Specifically, six local clusters emerged — i.e., international careers, career management, career choice, career adaptation, individual and relational career success, and life opportunities. To classify a broad range of research opportunities for career scholars, we also create a “global” map of 16,146 career articles from across the social sciences. Specifically, six global clusters emerged — i.e., organizational, individual, education, doctorate careers, high-profile careers, and social policy. We describe and compare the clusters in the map with an emphasis on those avenues career scholars in management have yet to explore.     

Adler's psychology (of use) today: personal history of traumatic life events as a self-handicapping strategy

We investigated the hypothesis that the reporting of a history of traumatic life events may serve as a strategy to control attributions about performance in an evaluative setting (i.e., self-handicapping). Following from Alfred Adler's early theorization in the psychology of use, as well as more recent theory and research on self-handicapping, we predicted that individuals would emphasize the adversity of events and experiences in their background when an uncertain evaluation was expected and when a traumatic background would serve as a suitable excuse for potential failure. Results generally supported the hypothesized self-protective reporting of traumatic life events.     

Toward a quantitative theory of punishment

In two experiments, pigeons' key pecking for food on concurrent variable-interval schedules was punished with electric shock according to concurrent variable-interval punishment schedules. With unequal frequencies of food but equal rates of punishment associated with the two keys and at several intensities of shock, the response and time allocation of all six pigeons overmatched the obtained relative frequency of food. The overmatching was predicted by a subtractive model of the interaction between punishment and positive reinforcement but not by two alternative models. Increases in the k and r_e parameters of the generalized matching law could not account for the observed shifts in preference.     

Toward a perceptual theory of transparency

Theories of perceptual transparency have typically been developed within the context of a physical model that generates the percept of transparency (F. Metelli's episcotister model, 1974b). Here 2 fundamental questions are investigated: (a) When does the visual system initiate the percept of one surface seen through another? (b) How does it assign surface properties to a transparent layer? Results reveal systematic deviations from the predictions of Metelli's model, both for initiating image decomposition into multiple surfaces and for assigning surface attributes. Specifically, results demonstrate that the visual system uses Michelson contrast as a critical image variable to initiate percepts of transparency and to assign transmittance to transparent surfaces. Findings are discussed in relation to previous theories of transparency, lightness, brightness, and contrast-contrast.