Intrasubject predictions of vocational preference: Convergent validation via the decision theoretic paradigm

The degree of convergent validity among four methods of identifying vocational preferences was assessed via the decision theoretic paradigm. Vocational preferences identified by Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), a rating procedure, and ranking were compared with preferences identified from a policy-capturing model developed from an evaluation of graphically portrayed vocational stimuli. The results from the policy-capturing method showed greater convergent validity with the rating and ranking procedures than did the VPI. Predictions made by the policy models were also found to relate more strongly to expressed vocational preference than predictions made by the VPI. The construct of vocational identity was found to moderate the degree of convergent validity among the methods, in that there was greater convergence among methods for individuals high in vocational identity than low. Over 50% of the the cross-validated variance in vocational identity was explained by a five-variable model composed of both decision theoretic and occupational concepts. The results are discussed in the context of using the decision theoretic paradigm to examine vocational preference and vocational identity in ways which may overcome some of the problems associated with more traditional methods.     

Vocational Rehabilitation Day-Care Services for a Drug-Dependent Population

The philosophy, history, and operations of the Vocational Opportunities Center (VOC) are described. The functions of VOC include intake and evaluation, vocational and educational training, job development, child care, a women's vocational group, legal services, and cultural activities. The VOC is offered as a model of employability service to a specific client group and part of a more comprehensive multimodality drug program.     

职业价值结构初探

本研究通过对教师、管理人员及会计三类人员共307名被试的职业价值评价结果的因素分析,探寻职业价值结构。结果显示：职业价值结构涵盖了11个类别因子,即交往因子、义利因子、挑战因子、环境因子、权力因子、成就因子、创造因子、求新因子、归属因子、责任因子及自认因子,这些因子涉及了职业活动的目标、手段、环境、对象等多方面的价值内容。     

Construction and validation of a physician career development inventory

The development and psychometric characteristics of the Medical Career Development Inventory (MCDI) are described. The MCDI represents the initial construction of a career maturity measure for a homogeneous population of adults who encounter a common set of vocational development tasks. The inventory is intended to measure both degree of vocational development and readiness to cope with the developmental tasks encountered in a physician's career. The MCDI includes 35 items that address coping behaviors germane to dealing with the vocational tasks constituting the career development continuum of physicians. Initial evaluation of the MCDI's psychometric properties with a sample of 160 student-physicians supported the content validity of the items, construct validity of the scales, and criterion validity of the inventory.     

Vocational choice: A decision making perspective

We propose a model of vocational choice that can be used for analyzing and guiding the decision processes underlying career and job choices. Our model is based on research in behavioral decision making (BDM), in particular the choice goals framework developed by Bettman, Luce, and Payne (1998). The basic model involves two major processes. First, the selection of a decision strategy according to four choice goals: maximizing decision accuracy, minimizing cognitive effort, minimizing negative emotion, and maximizing justifiability of the decision. Second, the construction of situation-specific preferences, which can reflect irrelevant task and context factors such as the evaluation mode. This basic model is extended to account for social influences and the long decision time typical of most career and job decisions. We review research on vocational choice in light of this model, discuss normative implications for counseling, and outline a research agenda for studying vocational choice from a behavioral decision making perspective.     

Counselors' Reports of Performance: Facilitative and Debilitative Cognitions in the Job Interview

Thirty vocational counselors participated in a job interview thought-listing procedure. Potentially facilitative and debilitative cognitions relating to the job interview were grouped and analyzed in terms of their frequency of occurrence and their impact. The results show that the interviewee's cognitions relate to social evaluation and the skilled performance of interview tasks.     

Guidance in scottish secondary schools: A client evaluation

Formal provision for pupil guidance in Scottish secondary schools has been a controversial innovation. This paper provides some ofthe first evidence of its impact based on the evaluation of its clients and using data collected as part of a major national survey of Scottish school-leavers. It indicates that guidance teachers have been having some influence on the curricular and vocational decisions of more-able leavers and also provides evidence of progress over time. It suggests, however, that in terms of distributing and focussing their efforts such teachers have yet to make much impact on the vocational problems facing less-able leavers. Progress in the area ofpersonal guidance for ail leavers has also been restricted. Some reasons underlying these developments are discussed.     

A trilevel approach to motivators for retraining

A three-level taxonomy of the reasons for vocational retraining is proposed. The compliance level is characterized by the necessity of immediate acquisition of a profession. At the identification level retraining is motivated by the need for a satisfying self-definition through the profession. With the internalization level the profession is chosen to suit one's capabilities and self-fulfillment. Participants in retraining programs filled out the following questionnaires: locus of control, vocational maturity attitudes, level of motivation for retraining, evaluation of the retraining program, and new job satisfaction. Internalization level motivators positively correlated with internal locus of control and vocational maturity attitudes. No such correlations were found for identification or compliance level. Subjects who retrained because of high compliance motivation were less satisfied by the programs, more inclined to drop out, and less apt to seek employment in jobs for which they had retrained than those high on the other levels of motivation. No difference in job satisfaction was determined for those who did work in the new profession.     

基于元认知的拓展训练对高职学生自信心的影响

本研究以高职学生常见的自信心缺失为出发点,选取同专业同年级的两个班级随机分为实验组和控制组,分别进行为期10周的拓展训练和排球训练,研究基于元认知理论设置的拓展训练对于提高高职学生自信心的影响。实验前两组被试在自信心各因子和自信总分方面没有显著差异,实验结束后,实验组在接受拓展训练后各个维度均有提高,尤其在学业表现、外表自信、社会交往、心境四个分量表及量表总分方面的得分显著高于控制组,课程结束时被试对小组成员的满意度很好,对自己自信心的评估有显著提高。因此,基于元认知理论设置的拓展训练课程提高了高职学生的自信心。     

图书编辑人员胜任力素质测评的初步构建

胜任力素质测评问卷可以将某一职业中卓有成就者和表现一般者区分开采。结合心理学研究方法和人才测评方法,对我国图书编辑人员的胜任力素质做了深入研究。初步研究结果表明我国图书编辑人员胜任力素质可从专业素质、职业精神和人格特质三大方面来考察,这一研究结果将为我国图书编辑人员的人才选拔、评价和培养提供心理学及能力结构方面的科学依据。     

当代大学生职业兴趣结构特征研究

通过实际调查对当代大学生的职业兴趣结构特征进行了分析研究。用主成分分析方法以及多维尺度方法探索出当代在学生的职业兴趣有三个潜在维度,可以分为18类。利用RANDALL和18RQNd96程序检验职业兴趣结构,构建了职业兴趣的球形模型。     

Measuring specialty indecision among career-decided students

Increasing numbers of career-decided students in professional and graduate schools have difficulty choosing a specialty. To begin to examine this problem, a measure of specialty indecision was devised by changing the Career Decision Scale items to deal with specialty indecision rather than career indecision. The scale was then administered to 567 medical students along with measures of vocational development and exploratory behavior. Initial evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Specialty Indecision Scale indicate that it is internally consistent, relates more to specialty choice than to career choice, and inversely relates to both vocational development and exploratory behavior. A factor analysis of the scale items extracted four factors that reflect cognitive, conative, criterion, and implementation restraints on the decision-making process. The Specialty Indecision Scale seems to be useful for diagnostic and research purposes in the study and treatment of specialty indecision.     

Evaluating a Guidance and Language Arts Unit for High School Juniors

In this study the authors report on the evaluation of a program enhancing both the career development and writing skills of high school juniors. Participants were 166 juniors attending a suburban midwestern high school. School counselors and English teachers worked together to provide an opportunity for students to develop academic skills while exploring relevant career issues. Results indicated that for a wide range of students, participation in the program led to the achievement of specific guidance competencies. Changes in perceived mastery of guidance competencies predicted positive change in vocational identity and attainment of higher English grades for girls. Implications for promoting school counselors' involvement in guidance program evaluation practices are discussed.     

Vocational evaluation: A primer

Vocational evaluation (VE) is a comprehensive assessment process that can be used to inform assessment of people with barriers to employment other than the physical or mental disabilities for which it is typically used. This article defines components of VE as established by an international health and human services accreditation organization. The author's experience as a vocational evaluator and rehabilitation program supervisor serves as a reference. Implications for expanding its use and future research are discussed.     

The Role Change Assessment

Occupational role performance is a key concept of occupational therapy theory and practice. The Role Change Assessment was developed to facilitate the systematic evaluation of the rolc performance of older adults. It uses a semi-structured interview format to examine 48 roles in family and social, vocational, self-care. organizational, leisure, and health care categories. This article describes the need for and development of the instrument and illustratcs its use through case reports.     

Skills Evaluator: a multicriteria decision support system for the evaluation of qualifications and skills in Information and Communication Technologies

Employees need to acquire new qualifications throughout their lives in order to deal with the multiple changes in the labour market. This knowledge and competences (formally or non-formally acquired) must be identified and evaluated. For that reason, an integrated approach to the evaluation of Information and Communication Technology knowledge and skills is proposed. The multicriteria method that has been developed refers to professionals who wish to be accredited in a particular specialization through the evaluation of their professional experience, studies and vocational training. The aim of this paper is to present the multicriteria decision support system, Skills Evaluator, which brings into effect the aforementioned method. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wie kann man in der Sozialtherapie Therapieerfolg feststellen oder messen?

The tradition of social therapeutic evaluation research in Germany is as old as the institution of social therapy itself. Social therapeutic facilities constitute the royal road to correctional treatment in the German prison system providing an integrated approach for offender treatment by means of psychotherapy (mainly cognitive-behavioral), vocational and job training, social work and leisure time therapy embedded in a therapeutic community. It was generally expected that evaluation research would prove the effectiveness of this method and generate results for the advancement of offender treatment. However, research results have yielded only moderate findings concerning the effects of social therapeutic interventions. This article considers how the outcome of social therapy and offender treatment is measured. Fundamental methodological challenges that evaluation research has to face are identified. In addition, a short overview of recent results from a longitudinal evaluation study is presented to substantiate the dilemmas and solutions of evaluation research in this field. It is discussed why it is so difficult to provide evidence for effectiveness of correctional treatment and concluded that this can by no means lead to a renunciation of the correctional treatment approach.     

Mismatch of vocational graduates: What penalty on French labour market?

This study explores individual effects of educational mismatch on wages, job satisfaction and on-the-job-search on French labour market. We distinguish between horizontal matches (job matches with field of studies) and vertical matches (job matches the level of qualification) on the one hand and skills matches (worker's assessment) on the other hand. We use data from the French survey “Generation 98,” conducted among a sample of 22780 young vocational graduates asked about their employment situation 3 years after leaving school. We show that whatever the criterion chosen, there is a minority of matched situations. We find that situations of vertical mismatch and skill mismatch have strong negative effects on wages, while situations of horizontal mismatch have not. However, horizontal mismatch increases both job dissatisfaction and the desire to find another job, even if their job is qualified, permanent and reasonably well paid. Implications for the evaluation of vocational training programs are discussed.     

FACTORS RELATED TO SUCCESS IN AN MDTA PROGRAM

A study was undertaken to attempt to relate selected defined factors to success in a Manpower Development Training Center program. Subjects were disadvantaged or culturally deprived adults who were referred to a nurse aide-orderly training course that consisted of both vocational and remedial education phases. Factors studied were an evaluation by the referring counselor in the stated interest of an individual taking the training, previous employment history (compiled by both type and duration), formal educational level, age when completing the course, expressed attitudes toward the course while enrolled, and aptitude test results.     

Identity in vocational development

J. L. Holland's (1985, Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall) formulation of the new construct vocational identity did not deal with its relation to other developmental constructs in vocational psychology. The present study investigated the association of vocational identity with vocational development by administering the Vocational Identity Scale, the Medical Career Development Inventory, and the Ego Identity Scale to 143 first- and second-year college students with the same career aspiration. The results indicated that vocational identity related to both degree of vocational development and progress in egoidentity achievement. In particular, vocational identity associated most with the task of crystallizing tentative preferences and progressively less with the other tasks in the vocational development continuum. Interpretation of sex differences in the results led to recommendations for research on stability of vocational identity and the identity formation process.