Personality Types and Vocational Choice: A Test of Holland's Theory

In order to test the adequacy of Holland's theory of vocational choice with reference to a broad segment of entering college students, a sample of the freshman class entering the Pennsylvania State University evaluated themselves in terms of the six personality styles of Holland's theory. Relationships between the personality styles and vocational choices were studied for groups of Decided, Tentative, and Undecided students. While several inversions in the data are evident, the data possess sufficient consistency to indicate that the personality identifications these students made in Holland's frame of reference were related to their initial vocational choices.     

Transitional Adolescents,Anxiety, and Group Counseling

One hundred-eighty college-bound high school seniors were studied to determine whether small group counseling would affect their anxiety level. 60 students comprised the experimental group and 60 students each the 2 control groups. 6 small group counseling sessions were conducted during the spring just prior to high school graduation and 6 more in the fall, following college enrollment. Comparison of anxiety levels was made at the conclusion of each series of counseling sessions. The students of the experimental group showed significantly lower anxiety scores than did those of the control groups, both in the spring and in the fall. The conclusion was drawn that experience in small group counseling was followed by significantly lower levels of anxiety in transitional adolescents.     

Wistful Wish: Evaluation Without Values

Two recommendations from a recent statement of standards for counselor education are examined for underlying philosophical assumptions. The first recommendation, that counselors should possess ability for and conduct scientific research, assumes that the counseling process is lawful and orderly, that theoretical concepts can be operationally defined and that empirically testable predictions can be derived from counseling theories. A second recommendation suggests that counselors-in-training be selectively admitted and retained. Underlying this recommendation is the assumption that counseling is a process of influence that can be evaluated. Such evaluation must be based on conditions outside the counseling relationship, in the social context of the life of the client. The serious implications of these assumptions are illustrated and discussed.     

Oculomotor adaptation to wedge prisms with no part of the body seen

When S looks at a visual target through prisms, adaptive shifts in reaching behavior occur even though he sees no part of his body through the prisms. These shifts are caused by a change in the judgment of the direction of gaze (oculomotor change), which in turn is caused by two secondary prismatic effects: (a) asymmetry of the visual display and (b) apparent rotation about a vertical axis of a panel or wall facing S. The “asymmetry” factor contributes 22% of the total oculomotor change, and the “rotation” effect contributes the remaining 78%. Oculomotor change is not facilitated by eye-movement activity. The adaptive oculomotor change induces a non-adaptive proprioception change about one-tenth as large as the oculomotor change. These findings are capable of accounting for the previously unexplained results reported by Wooster in 1923, and also for the current controversy about the role of reafferent stimulation in sensorymotor adaptation.     

Emotional trauma in rats: Age as a factor in recovery

Old (7 months of age) and young (2 months) male rats were divided into groups matched for spontaneous exploratory activity and for age. Experimental rats in the two age categories were then traumatized by giving them a 90 volt shock to the feet for two sec. on only one occasion. It was shown that nearly all the young rats recovered from the trauma within 5 weeks, as measured by brief exploratory activity and defecation, while at the end of 6 months the old rats still had not recovered. These results point up the greater resiliency of young animals, and the need for caution in the interpreting of research and theories on early experience.