Predicting from expressed vocational choice: a review

Information on the predictive validity of expressed vocational choice was gathered in a review of large-sample longitudinal studies. These results indicate that, in general, a person's expressed vocational choice predicts his future employment about as well as interest inventories or combinations of personality and background characteristics. Expressed vocational and educational field choices are moderately stable over one- to five-year periods during and after college. Difficulties and shortcomings in past research are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research on the predictive validity of expressed choice. Implications of these results for the practicing counselor are also considered.     

EMPLOYING CONJOINT ANALYSIS IN MAKING COMPENSATION DECISIONS

A method employing conjoint analysis that generates utility/cost ratios for various elements of the compensation package is described. Its superiority to simple preference surveys is examined relative to optimizing the level of employee satisfaction at any given expenditure level. Results of a study of the use of this method in fringe benefit planning in a large financial institution are reported.     

EMPLOYEE HEALTH BY DESIGN: USING EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT TEAMS IN ERGONOMIC JOB REDESIGN

An innovative, team-based, ergonomic job redesign effort in a large Midwest organization is described. Joint management-labor teams composed of representatives from each department of the plant were formed and trained in team-building and ergonomic principles. These teams prioritized jobs for ergonomic redesign and developed and implemented solutions. Sources of data for this redesign process included: a physical symptom survey, OSHA logs for cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs), observations, videotapes, and employee interviews about their jobs, tools, and pain experienced at work. Ergonomic changes at the plant resulted in significant reductions in the number and severity of CTDs, lost production time, and restricted duty days. Recommendations based on experiences with this ergonomic intervention are made for HRM practitioners.     

An Infertility Primer for Family Therapists:

A seemingly "self-evident truth" in most people's lives is that one day they will have children. This universal, biopsychosocial assumption goes unchallenged until a couple faces infertility. Although the effects of such a challenge are profound, infertility is often treated as a nonevent — both within our society as a whole, and within the field of family therapy in particular. To assist clinicians who work with this numerically increasing population, and the many others who have been affected by their encounter with infertility in the past, this article discusses the biological/medical, psychological, and social factors that shape the experience of infertility in our society.     

Bartky,Domination, and the Subject

Bartky's Femininity and Domination analyses the social construction of femininity and the ways that it oppresses women. Utilizing phenomenology, Bartky provides illuminating examples of the experience of oppression and how women are constructed to submit to images and models of femininity. I raise questions concerning the standpoint of normative critique from which Bartky criticizes the oppression of women, the model of agency that she utilizes, and the politics she supports to overthrow oppression and domination.     

Neurological Impress Method PLUS

The purpose of these two studies was to redirect interest to the Neurological Impress Method, a multisensory approach to reading instruction that occurs between a teacher and a student, which has been largely forgotten in mainstream and special education circles over the past decades. In addition to its emphasis on oral reading, we included a comprehension component that we call the plus (+) to NIM Plus. In our first study, third through sixth-grade below-level readers in a San Diego county school participated in NIM tutoring. On each of the three measures—oral reading fluency, silent reading fluency, and comprehension—students performed statistically better after the five-week (3.3 hours) NIM training than they had at the beginning of the training. In oral reading fluency, the students' scores significantly increased from an average of 96.7 words correct per minute to 112 words correct per minute (p < .0001). In silent reading fluency measure, students' scores increased from an average of 132 words per minute to 154 words per minute (p < .002). On the comprehension assessment, students' scores increased from an average of 3.2 questions correct to 4.5 correct (p < .001). In our second study, which was conducted in an urban San Diego school, similar results were found; the students scored significantly higher on all three measures. In this second study, however, we focused on “glimpses” into the reasons why NIM Plus was so effective. The tutors who provided the NIM Plus training reported that NIM Plus helped both teacher and student to focus on prior knowledge, making connections between and among texts and the world, and overall construction of comprehension. Our findings support the idea that the NIM Plus is adaptable and that it requires further investigation, in experimental settings, as well as in schools and clinics.