Career maturity aspects of the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey

The Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (1979) (KOIS) is used in counseling services as an aid in career counseling, but the KOIS does not have a measure of career maturity. The purpose of this study was to determine if selected scores from the KOIS could be indicative of client career maturity. The data for each subject included three scores from the KOIS and one measure of career maturity. The three scores from the KOIS included the highest Occupation score, the highest College Major score, and either the Father score for male subjects or the Mother score for female subjects. Career maturity was assessed with the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale (1973) (CMI). The three scores from the KOIS were correlated with the score from the CMI to determine the relationship between the KOIS and career maturity. t tests were used to test for significant differences between men and women on the four measures. Significant correlations were found between the KOIS scores and career maturity, supporting the statements in the KOIS manual regarding the relationship between high KOIS scores and maturity. There was no significant difference between females and males on the CMI, Occupation, or College Major scores, but females scored significantly higher on the Mother scale than males did on the Father scale. Implications for career counseling were discussed.     

Career education and career maturity

The relationships between career maturity and the career curriculum practices and policies of 38 Melbourne metropolitan secondary schools were investigated in this study. An Australian adaption of the Career Development Inventory was used as the measure of career maturity of random samples of year 9 and year 11 students. Career curriculum practices were ascertained via questionnaires. Questionnaires were completed by the principal, career teacher, and three subject teachers in each of the schools in the study. The questionnaires yielded five factors, one associated with congruence to Super's theory and four assocated with innovation/implementation factors. The results of the study supported the view that schools with career education programs achieved higher gains in the career maturity of their students between years 9 and 11 than schools with no career education programs. The findings also showed a strong relationship between the type of program offered, the support of the school for that program, and the gains in career maturity of the students between years 9 and 11.     

Relationship between career maturity and self-concepts of suburban and urban middle- and urban lower-class preadolescent black males

The relationship between career maturity and self-concepts of 252 sixth-grade black males was investigated. Student samples of suburban and urban middle- and urban lower-class were drawn from 42 different school settings located in Monroe, Erie, and Westchester Counties of New York State. The Attitude Scale of the Career Maturity Inventory and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory were used to assess the association of career maturity and self-concepts. Results indicated relatively weak-positive relationships between career maturity and self-concepts. Significant career maturity differences were found. However, self-concepts of the three groups were not statistically significantly different. Of the set of independent variables predicting and estimating variance accounted for (socioeconomic status, family intactness, place of residence, and reading), socioeconomic status was found to have the strongest predictive value on career maturity. It was suggested that researchers examine elementary school black students' career development in view of the group with whom they identify most.     

The effect of career education on career maturity

According to Hoyt (1974), career education efforts are underway in almost one-third of all school districts in the United States. Indications are that this trend will continue. However, the question of the effects of career education programs remains essentially unanswered. This study was designed to assess the effects of a career education program on students' career maturity as measured by the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI). A pretest/ posttest design was used. The sample consisted of 480 sixth and eighth grade students, one-half of whom participated in a career education program (experimental), with the remaining one-half in a regular school program (control). The career education students consistently displayed higher posttest career maturity levels, four scores being significantly higher. Significant differences were found in occupational knowledge of sixth graders, occupational planning for both the sixth and eighth graders and in the attitude scale score for the eighth graders. It was concluded that the career education program had a positive effect in increasing students' levels of career maturity.     

Antecedents of educational/career preferences and choices

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of social reinforcement, modeling, direct reinforcement, and words and images on the acquisition of career-related preferences. The study also examined the mediating role of career decision-making skills (CDMS) on the factors influencing preference. Finally, the combined influence of career-related preferences and CDMS on certainty about career choices was investigated. A total of 47 college students completed a questionnaire describing antecedent factors influencing their preference for a major or a career and evaluating the degree of influence of each factor. Students' scores on a vocational maturity inventory were the basis for dividing them in high and low groups. Students identified social reinforcement as the most important antecedent for their career preference. Results indicated that CDMS mediate the influence of models and direct reinforcement on career preference. Career-related preference was a better predictor of career certainty among low than high maturity students. Findings support and extend a social learning theory of career development.     

Occupational knowledge and career development in adolescence

In an effort to extend our knowledge of career development, two indices of career maturity were investigated in a sample of 6029 high school seniors sampled from 57 Texas public school districts. The study investigated both the degree to which late adolescents choose occupations whose educational requirements match their stated educational goals and the degree to which students' vocational interests are compatible with their occupational choices. The correlations between educational plans and educational requirements of the chosen occupations were .41 or less. Of the subjects who claimed to have at least considerable understanding of their first choice career, only about half planned to achieve the amount of education appropriate to enter that occupation. Subjects' perceptions of how well they understood their occupational choices were also negligibly related to the compatibility of their vocational interests and their career choices. Although educational understanding and interest compatibility both contribute to realism of occupational choices, the correlation between these two indices of career maturity accounted for less than 1% of the variance.     

Career development of trauma survivors: expectations about counseling and career maturity

Trauma survivors include individuals who have been affected by a severe physical or psychologically threatening experience. This study compared the expectations for career counseling and the level of career maturity among trauma survivors and nonsurvivors (individuals who have had no trauma experience) who participated in a program at a midwestern social service agency. The findings indicated that trauma survivors were more motivated and open to counseling than nonsurvivors, but expected their counselors to be less empathic. No significant differences were noted on career maturity. Implications for counselor training and future research are also discussed.     

The effects of value confrontation and reinforcement counseling on the career planning attitudes and behavior of adolescent males

An experiment was conducted to compare the relative effectiveness of a value confrontation procedure and a procedure based on verbal operant conditioning in enhancing career development attitudes and increasing the frequency of information-seeking behavior in rural adolescent males. Ninety subjects were identified as internally controlled or externally controlled based on their locus of control scores and then randomly assigned to one of the two experimental treatment groups or a control group. The value confrontation procedure involved developing an awareness of self-dissatisfaction about one's career planning and relating this self-dissatisfaction to the importance one gave to the values logical and responsible. These values had been identified empirically in this study as having a relationship to career planning. The reinforcement counseling treatment involved the interpretation of individual career maturity data followed by the verbal operant conditioning of responses indicative of career maturity. Post tests administered 7 weeks after the treatments showed that the value confrontation procedure resulted in significantly greater frequency of information seeking for internally controlled subjects when compared to the reinforcement counseling and control procedures. No treatment was significant in increasing the maturity level of career development attitudes.     

Time perspective in vocational maturity and career decision making

This study investigated the hypothesis that time perspective is a component in vocational maturity and career decision making. Ninety-seven college freshmen responded to two measures of time perspective and seven measures selected to represent attitudinal vocational maturity, cognitive vocational maturity, and career decision making. The nine variables were intercorrelated and the resulting matrix was subjected to alpha factor analysis. Three factors were extracted and titled Attitudinal Vocational Maturity, Cognitive Vocational Maturity, and Career Decision Making. As predicted, time perspective was a component in the Attitudinal Vocational Maturity and Career Decision-Making factors. The results supported the hypothesis and specifically linked time perspective to planfulness and degree of indecision.     

Work role salience as a determinant of career maturity in high school students

It has often been contended that vocational or career maturity is largely determined by socioeconomic status and sex. But these, although surely important determinants, may function as such only because they determine commitment to working careers. This latter may itself be the immediate determinant of career maturity. In this study data were collected from some 382 students of whom about 55% were girls, using a Personal Data Blank, the Salience Inventory, and the Career Development Inventory. Measures of career and home commitment were obtained from the second, while measures of career or vocational maturity were derived from the last-named instrument. Canonical correlations and variance analyses were done to examine the roles of SES and sex when combined with career commitment. Four hypotheses received full support, three were partially supported, and one was not supported.     

The validity of the Crites model of career maturity

To test the validity of the Crites model of career maturity, career maturity and noncareer maturity measures were administered to 312 ninth graders and to 200 technical college students. Scores on all measures were intercorrelated and factor analyzed. The results show that, as predicted, most of the Career Choice Competencies have more in common with each other than they have with Career Choice Attitudes; Career Choice Competencies are fairly highly positively related to each other; Career Choice Attitudes and Career Choice Competencies have more in common with each other in grade 9 than they do in the post-secondary grades; and there is a relationship between career maturity and sex and race of ninth graders and technical college students. The results do not support the hypothesized multidimensional structure of the Crites model or the hypothesis that variables in the Crites model have more in common with each other than they have with noncareer maturity variables. Discussion includes several possible explanations for failure to support the Crites model, and suggestions for further research.     

Reference group perspectives and the vocational maturity of lower socioeconomic black youth

The reference group perspectives of 188 lower socioeconomic black high school seniors were found to be related to their career maturity. Students who evidenced an orientation toward middle-class reference group perspectives obtained higher vocational maturity scores than those who subscribed to reference perspectives traditionally associated with the lower class. Students' sex and family background were not related to their reference group perspectives or to their vocational maturity ratings. It was found that students' post-high school plans (either work- or college-bound) and their views of the opportunity structure of America were related to both their reference group perspectives orientation and their career maturity scores. Questions are raised concerning the relevance of the term career maturity for analyzing the career development of lower socioeconomic black youth.     

Cognitive complexity and career maturity among college students

The role of cognitive complexity in the career maturity of college students was investigated. Simple and multiple correlational analyses were performed upon data from 99 college students who were administered the Attitude Scale and Competence Test of the Career Maturity Inventory, the Bieri Repertory Test, and the Bodden Cognitive Differentiation Grid. Results generally supported the prediction that career maturity would be found to be positively associated with cognitive complexity.     

The effect of Decisions and Outcomes on the career maturity of high school students

Most high school students have difficulty making effective career decisions. To address this problem, the investigators examined the impact of the College Entrance Examination Board's Decisions and Outcomes Program on the career maturity of 11th-grade high school students. The study demonstrated that the program can increase students' career maturity in specific areas. In addition, the study supported previous research that has demonstrated that students with greater ego identity produce higher scores on certain attitude components of career maturity. Overall, Decisions and Outcomes was most successful in facilitating the affective domain of career maturity.     

High School and Employment Agency Client Views on Career Counseling

Individual interviews of Improved Career Decision Making (ICDM) workshop-trained counselors and focus-group interviews of 41 clients in high schools and state employment agencies in 3 states resulted in findings that may have significance for ICDM training, counselor education programs, and effective delivery of career counseling services to clients. An important emerging concept relates to the notion that exposure to strategies derived from career decision-making models alone will not ensure effective client career decisions. A major implication for counselor training and practice is the need to emphasize metacognitive processing of knowledge and skills (gained from experiential activities) by clients so that they will be motivated to effectively plan for careers.     

主动性人格与大学生职业成熟度的关系:一个有调节的中介模型

为考察主动性人格、职业决策自我效能感、就业压力和职业成熟度之间的关系,采用主动性人格量表、职业成熟度量表等对713名大学生进行调查。结果显示：（1）职业决策自我效能感在主动性人格与职业成熟度之间起部分中介作用,主动性人格既能直接预测职业成熟度,也通过职业决策自我效能感间接预测职业成熟度;（2）职业决策自我效能感的中介作用受到就业压力的调节,就业压力调节了职业决策自我效能感与大学生职业成熟度之间的关系。     

聋人大学生心理控制源对求职行为的影响：职业成熟度的中介作用

采用中国大学生控制源测量问卷、职业成熟度量表和高校应届毕业生求职调查问卷对重庆、北京、吉林、天津4地4所高校的386名聋人大学生进行调查,旨在探讨聋人大学生心理控制源、职业成熟度与求职行为的关系,揭示职业成熟度在心理控制源与求职行为之间的中介作用机制。结果发现：（1）内控对职业成熟度和求职行为均具有显著的正向预测作用。（2）职业成熟度在内控与求职行为之间起部分中介作用。（3）职业成熟度在外控对求职行为的影响中起着“遮掩效应”。     

聋人大学生心理控制源对求职行为的影响：职业成熟度的中介作用

采用中国大学生控制源测量问卷、职业成熟度量表和高校应届毕业生求职调查问卷对重庆、北京、吉林、天津4地4所高校的386名聋人大学生进行调查,旨在探讨聋人大学生心理控制源、职业成熟度与求职行为的关系,揭示职业成熟度在心理控制源与求职行为之间的中介作用机制。结果发现：（1）内控对职业成熟度和求职行为均具有显著的正向预测作用。（2）职业成熟度在内控与求职行为之间起部分中介作用。（3）职业成熟度在外控对求职行为的影响中起着“遮掩效应”。     

Vocational behavior and career development, 1982: A review

This paper reviews the research published on vocational behavior and career development in 1982. A total of 278 studies published in 31 journals are reviewed. The literature is presented in the following major categories: discrimination; performance; turnover; satisfaction; commitment and involvement; job analysis and evaluation; selection and classification; life history experiences; performance appraisal; assessment centers; training; unions and collective bargaining; alternate work schedules; job design; pay; motivation; leadership; stress; Type A behavior; career preference, choice and behavior; consistency; maturity; indecision; work orientation; assessment; interventions; instrumentation; and methodology. Trends in current research and possible directions for future research are discussed.     

自我概念、自立人格与师范生教师职业成熟度的关系

采用师范生教师职业成熟度问卷、田纳西自我概念量表和青少年学生自立人格量表对986名师范生进行调查,考察自我概念、自立人格对师范生教师职业成熟度的影响。结果表明:(1)师范生的自我概念与其自立人格、教师职业成熟度及其职业态度和职业能力均存在显著的正相关;师范生的自立人格与其教师职业成熟度、职业态度和职业能力也存在显著正相关;(2)师范生的自我概念主要通过影响其自立人格间接地正向预测教师职业能力;自我概念不仅可以直接显著地正向预测教师职业成熟度和职业态度,还可以通过影响个体的自立人格进而间接地正向预测教师职业成熟度和教师职业态度。这一结果表明自立人格在自我概念影响教师职业能力的关系中起着完全中介作用,而在自我概念影响教师职业成熟度和教师职业态度的关系中起着部分中介作用。