Toward a psychological cost-benefit model for educational and vocational choice

The usefulness of cost-benefit models for analyzing the individual's educational and occupational choice is discussed, with the choice after high school graduation as an example. As a background, the economic approach linked to the human capital concept is described as well as the use of cost-benefit analysis within this framework. Cost-benefit analysis is then discussed as a possible model within the area of educational and occupational choice. First, the traditional, strictly economic model is analyzed and criticized. A psychological economic alternative is proposed which, in contrast to the economic model, is based on the individual's perceptions and expectations regarding costs and benefits. As a third step, a purely psychological cost-benefit model is suggested, where the cost and benefit concepts are broadened to include all types of personal sacrifices and rewards. This model is regarded as more realistic for the individual's career choice than the economic prototypes.     

Psychological cost-benefit as an intervening construct in career choice models

A causal model for career choice was outlined, encompassing psychological cost-benefit-profit as a central intervening construct. The model was applied to the career choice (education vs work) after high school graduation and tested on longitudinal data from 173 students. The main problem concerned the relationship among the components in the causal career choice model, using multiple correlation and path analysis as tools. The results showed clear sex differences. For boys, the model was a rather powerful predictor of career choice (R = 0.70), and Psychological profit with regard to continued education had a clear direct effect as well as an indirect effect on career choice. For girls, the predictive validity was low (R = 0.35) and Psychological profit affected career choice only indirectly via Educational aspiration.     

A causal model of college women's career choice

A model of women's career choice was tested using the structural equation modeling methodology (Bentler, P. M. (1980). Multivariate analysis with latent variables: Causal modeling. Annual Review of Psychology, 31, 419–456) and the LISREL VI computer program. In the initial model, it was hypothesized that the independent variables Previous Work Experience, Academic Success, Role-Model Influence, and Perceived Encouragement affect the dependent variables Attitudes toward Work, Attitudes toward Self, and Sex-Role Attitudes. These variables, in turn, affect the dependent variable Life-Style Preferences and Plans, which affects Realism of Career Choice; Realism of Choice is also affected directly by the three attitude variables. Based on information generated by LISREL, seven modified models were tested, two of which are reported in detail. In the final model, found to be most plausible in the sample population, the independent variables Ability, Achievement Orientation, and Feminist Orientation affect the dependent variables Family Orientation and Career Orientation; these dependent variables in turn affect the variable Career Choice, also affected directly by Ability. Theoretical implications of the final model are discussed, as well as methodological issues and limitations of the study. The promise of this line of inquiry into women's career development is noted.     

A psychological interview process for career assessment

The authors present a comprehensive four-step process for conducting initial career assessment by interview. The process assesses skills, interests, values, non-work relationships, goals and activities, and psychological aspects such as self-esteem and work attitudes. The interview process is flexible, internally consistent and portable. Step One analyzes the client's work history and includes reasons why such a history may be inadequate. Step Two examines work-related preferences. Step Three investigates lifestyle context, and Step Four produces a summary of all the accumulated interview information, including options the client wishes to avoid. Detailed worksheets accompany the article.This article has been adapted, with permission, from Chapter 3, Promoting Client Self Understanding, in Yost, E. B., and Corbishley, M. A.Career Counseling: A Psychological Approach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987.     

Response selection in choice reaction time: Test of a buffer model

Two experiments were conducted to test a buffer model of response selection. Subjects reacted to the onset of one of six possible visual stimuli by pressing either a left- or a right-hand key. Two stimuli were assigned to one key Itwo-item set) and four stimuli were assigned to the other key flour-item set). An irrelevant monaural tone accompanied the visual stimulus in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2. Results of Experiment 1 showed that reactions were faster when the location of the tone corresponded with the response than when it did not, and the difference between these corresponding and noncorresponding conditions was greater for the two-item set than for the four-item set. Results supported the notion that the response selection process involved a serial self-terminating search of response buffers and that the tone determined the buffer searched first. In both experiments, reactions were faster to stimuli from the twoitem set than to stimuli from the four-item set     

Testing a calling model of psychological career success in Australian young adults: A longitudinal study

Theory-based longitudinal research on career calling is sparse. In a two-wave, cross-lagged panel design we assessed Hall and Chandler's (2005) calling model of psychological career success using 216 young adults (M age = 20.44 years, SD = 2.54). We tested if changes in career calling over time were associated with changes in goal-directed effort (work effort and career strategies) and psychological career success (life meaning and career adaptability) over time, and if goal-directed effort mediated between career calling and psychological career success over time. The standard causal model showed a better fit over the base, reverse, and reciprocal causation models. T1 career calling predicted T2 work effort, career strategies, life meaning, and career adaptability. Only career strategies mediated between T1 career calling and T2 life meaning and T2 career adaptability. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Unconscious determinants of career choice and burnout: theoretical model and counseling strategy

A psychodynamic‐existential perspective is proposed as a theoretical model that explains career burnout and serves as a basis for a counseling strategy. According to existential theory, the root of career burnout lies in people's need to find existential significance in their life and their sense that their work does not provide it. The reason that people choose a particular career is explained by psychoanalytic theory, which attributes it to significant childhood experiences, family dynamics, and familial vocational choices. Two detailed and 4 brief cases are presented to demonstrate the application of the psychoanalytic‐existential approach to career counseling that is sought as a result of burnout.     

Job choice and career relevance for today's college students

Previous research on college student employment has focused on differences among students based on year of college attendance but included relatively few participants over the age of 25. The current study investigated the relationship between job choice, job/career relevance, and job satisfaction for students under age 20 (n = 143), students ages 20–24 (n = 253), and students over age 25 (n = 141). Results revealed significant differences among age groups in reasons for job choice and reaffirmed the positive correlation that past research had found between job satisfaction and career relevance. Findings emphasized the importance of choosing employment for career‐oriented reasons rather than for reasons of convenience.     

Individual unionization decisions: a multilevel model of cost-benefit influences

An important part of the unionization process is predicting the individual's vote for or against union representation. We proposed and tested a multilevel model based on the relative importance of costs and benefits of representation. Regression statistics from within-person analyses were used to show the influence of perceived costs and benefits on judgment policies about intent to vote in a representation election. Using these statistics as outcome variables, between--person analyses were used to show the influence of decision frame on cost-benefit influences, in which framing a vote as one for or against the union was conceived as a contextual variable in an election. Results were used to extend prior unionization research and to suggest how employers and unions may attend to framing effects in an election.     

Interrelationship of career choice competencies and Career Choice Attitudes of ninth-grade pupils: Testing hypotheses derived from Crites' model of career maturity

This paper presents the results of a study designed to determine whether or not the two dimensions of Career Choice Attitudes and Career Choice Competencies are interrelated as hypothesized in the Crites (1965, 1973a) model of career maturity. To test six associational hypotheses derived from the Crites model, three different career maturity instruments which provide a total of 10 separate scores were administered to a sample of ninth-grade pupils (N = 90). The 10 scores were intercorrelated and factor analyzed. Fairly strong support was found for four of the six hypotheses. The correlation between the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale and the variables classified as career choice competencies were found to be higher than predicted by the model. The factor analysis yielded two factors, one defined by the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale, the Information and Decision-Making Scale of the Career Development Inventory, and the six subtests of the Cognitive Vocational Maturity Test; the other factor was defined by the Planning Orientation and Resources for Exploration Scales of the Career Development Inventory.     

The career resources model: an integrative framework for career counsellors

Changes in the nature of work and organisations have led to an increased need for self-directed career management (SDCM). However, there is no consensus in the literature of what constitutes SDCM and many related concepts have been proposed. Integrating previous research across different conceptualisations of SDCM, the article proposes four critical career resources which are essential for career development in the modern context: human capital resources, social resources, psychological resources and identity resources. Implications of this framework for counselling practice are presented.     

Taboo desires,creativity, and career choice

Two studies suggest that Protestants are more likely than Catholics or Jews to sublimate taboo desires into motives to pursue creative careers. The results are consistent with a synthesis of psychological and classic sociological theories. In Study 1, Protestants induced to have taboo sexual desires were likely to express a preference for creative careers (as opposed to prosocial ones). In Study 2, a national probability sample revealed that “conflicted” Protestants—who had taboo desires but tried to rule their sexual behavior according to their religious beliefs—worked in the most creative jobs. The effects in both studies did not hold for Catholics and Jews. Results suggest that intrapsychic conflict can partially motivate important real-world decisions, such as the choice to pursue a creative career.     

Using person matching to predict career specialty choice

Person matching promotes career exploration and choice by linking persons to persons in occupations based on inventory profile score similarity. We examined the efficacy of the procedure for career specialty choice. Medical students (N = 196 women, 224 men) responded to the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) in their first year of training. After graduating and selecting a medical residency, members of a reference subgroup (n = 62) of the total sample were matched with members of a criterion subgroup (n = 358) based on 16PF score equivalencies determined by the D² statistic. Person matching predicted medical specialty choice 43-60% of the time. Using broader specialty group categories and adding criterion persons increased the number of specialty matches. Additional refinement and analysis should enhance the efficacy of this idiographic approach as an alternative to nomothetic P-E matching for career exploration. Future research should examine person matching in terms of consequential validity.     

Change in vocational choice as a function of initial career choice,interests, abilities,and sex

This study examines changes in expressed vocational choices made over an 18-mo period by a sample of students who were each enrolled in one of 62 2-yr institutions. Four mutually exclusive categories of vocational choice change were constructed. Ability, interest, and family background measures were used as independent variables. Results indicated (a) that changers were very similar to nonchangers in terms of the independent variables examined, (b) that there were substantial differences in the choice changes made by males and females, and (c) that vocational choice change patterns varied widely among groups of individuals whose original vocational choices places them in different major vocational categories.     

The effect of verbal reinforcement on career choice realism

Twenty-four male undergraduates viewed 102 slides containing occupational titles and stated whether or not each represented a realistic career choice. Each subject was given three trials, with the experimental subjects receiving positive verbal reinforcement on the second trial for realistic responses. (If the choice was congruous with the individual's occupational type, as determined by the Vocational Preference Inventory, it was scored as realistic.) The results of the research revealed a tendency for all subjects to increase in career choice realism as a function of participation in the experiment, with significantly (p < .05) more experimental subjects than control subjects demonstrating an operant pattern of responses. Implications of the findings for counselors were discussed.     

A model for career development through curriculum

This article describes a practical model for a systematic, sequential approach to career development in the K-12 curriculum. The model builds on career development principles and vocational development tasks; it is self-concept oriented and uses a variety of methods and media in its implementation. Several strategies for facilitating career development are suggested for each level.     

Effects of a persuasive communication on beliefs, attitudes, and career choice

Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action was used to formulate a persuasive communication in an attempt to influence unclassified American college students' beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors regarding signing up for a career as a registered nurse. A two-stage cluster sample was used to assign 90 male and female students to either an experimental or control group. After persuasive communication exposure, the experimental group showed a significantly more positive change in beliefs, attitudes, and intentions than did the control group exposed to a neutral message. Sign-up rate was also statistically significant for the experimental group. With the Fishbein model to predict sign-up behavior, no other scores were found to add to the prediction once behavioral intention was entered into the model. Change in behavioral intention explained 49% of the variation in behavior. Normative belief scores did not approach statistical significance.     

An age-graded model for career development education

Career development is defined as including self-awareness, career-awareness, and career decision making components. This paper attempts then to provide a framework by which educators interested in stimulating career development can choose the learning experiences most likely to have payoffs for different age youth. Eight stages of child development are described in terms of the major behavioral orientation of the child in each. Career development themes are then suggested for each stage along with sample activities and experiences for each theme. Finally, instructional media are recommended for each stage and related to the themes and activities suggested earlier.