Overcoming Obstacles: Nontraditional Jobs for Women

This article identifies some of the obstacles in the nontraditional career choice and implementation process of women. Counselor bias and client attitudes are crucial factors, as are physical strength, co-worker relations, and mathematical ability. The authors suggest ideas for neutralizing these obstacles and maximizing the chances for success, and recommend areas for counselor training and future research.     

The Effect of Verbal Self-Guidance Training for Overcoming Employment Barriers: A Study of Turkish Women

Women over the age of 40 were trained in verbal self guidance, a methodology for training people to identify dysfunctional self-statements and translate them into positive self-talk. Subsequently, they ( n = 27) had significantly higher self-efficacy with regard to re-employment than their counterparts who had been randomly assigned to a control group ( n = 28). In addition, they persisted in job search behavior significantly more so than those in the control group. Job search self-efficacy completely mediated the effect of the training program on job search behavior. Consequently, they were more likely to find a job in their area of interest within 6 months and 1 year of training than were those women in the control group.
Des femmes de plus de 40 ans d'une société musulmane, ont été formées à l'auto-régulation verbale, une méthode pour former les personnes à identifier les auto-évaluations dysfonctionnelles et à les traduire en un dialogue intérieur positif. En conséquence, elles ( n = 27) ont une auto-efficacité significativement plus élevée en ce qui concerne le retour à l'emploi que leurs homologues du groupe contrôle ( n = 28). De plus, elles persistent significativement plus dans le comportement de recherche d'emploi que celles du groupe contrôle. L'auto-efficacité dans la recherche d'emploi influence complètement l'effet du programme de formation sur le comportement de recherche d'emploi. En conséquence, elles étaient plus susceptibles de trouver un emploi en accord avec leur centre d'intérêts en moins de 6 mois et 1 an de formation que les femmes du groupe contrôle.     

Overcoming focusing failures in competitive environments

This paper attacks one of the chief limitations of the field of behavioral decision research—the past inability to use this literature to improve decision making. Building on the work of Thompson, Gentner, Loewenstein and colleagues (Loewenstein, Thompson, & Gentner, 1999; Thompson, Gentner, & Loewenstein, 2000; Gentner & Markman, 1997), the current paper finds that it is possible to reduce bias in one of the most robust problems in the decision literature, the Acquiring a Company Problem (Samuelson & Bazerman, 1985). Past research has shown that individuals make suboptimal offers as a result of the failure to think about the decisions of others and to incorporate a clear understanding of the rules of the game. In the current study, we find that by allowing study participants to see and understand differences in seemingly unrelated decision problems—versions of the Monty Hall Game (Nalebuff, 1987; Friedman, 1998) and Multiparty Ultimatum Game (Messick, Moore, & Bazerman, 1997; Tor & Bazerman, 2003)—study participants can learn to focus more accurately on the decisions of other parties and the rules of the game, the keys to solving the Acquiring a Company Problem. This research offers a new piece of evidence that comparative and analogical processes may be a successful direction for improving decision making. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Overcoming default categorical bias in spatial memory

In the present study, we investigated whether a strong default categorical bias can be overcome in spatial memory by using alternative membership information. In three experiments, we tested location memory in a circular space while providing participants with an alternative categorization. We found that visual presentation of the boundaries of the alternative categories (Experiment 1) did not induce the use of the alternative categories in estimation. In contrast, visual cuing of the alternative category membership of a target (Experiment 2) and unique target feature information associated with each alternative category (Experiment 3) successfully led to the use of the alternative categories in estimation. Taken together, the results indicate that default categorical bias in spatial memory can be overcome when appropriate cues are provided. We discuss how these findings expand the category adjustment model (Huttenlocher, Hedges, & Duncan, 1991) in spatial memory by proposing a retrieval-based category adjustment (RCA) model.     

Overcoming Problems of Relativism in Postmodern Psychotherapy

Relativism as an ideal of postmodern informed therapy remains a topic of debate. The thesis that no truth in conversation is privileged over and above another appears to leave the impression that a narrator can shape any preferred version of reality. This has often led to accusations of ideological neglect of issues such as power abuse, and cultural or political discrimination. This paper proposes a step towards a solution to this problem, by challenging the postmodern notion that one can speak of historically and culturally situated contingencies of multiple realities, while also stating that no truth is privileged. It shall be argued that the idea of clients’ multiple realities implies that these must be treated as socially reproduced realities, in which many forms of truth may resist the freedom of narrative choice. Further, the different realities of the client call for both a nomothetic and ideographic concept of truth, and correspondingly both strictly scientific and pragmatic ideals within narrative therapy. These aspects shall be combined in an outline of a concept describing ‘Complex Social Realities’, which opens narrative therapy towards integrative and cooperative approaches to therapy.     

Methods of Overcoming Children's Fears

Forty-eight noninstitutionalized elderly were administered Piaget's Conservation of Surfaces Test. Only 13 subjects were designated as conservers in this content domain. A strong relationship existed between conservation ability and educational attainment, but not between sex and performance, and age and performance. Results indicated that cognitive abilities may be subject to qualitative disorganization in the latter portions of the life-span.     

Overcoming the Shame of Cancer

The author describes the silencing and dehumanizing effects of being diagnosed with cancer. This experience evolved from a sense of being totally stunned, to being flooded with shame, and finally to be able to reenter an experience of subjectivity through the support of his family, friends, and community. He describes his personal struggle to disclose having cancer to his patients and supervises and the incredible beneficial effects of disclosure and being virtually and actually held and cared for. The author describes from Relational, Kleinian, and Lacanian perspectives his understanding of the effects of self-disclosure in reestablishing the capacity for symbolization and the ability to create personal meaning.