Critical moments in career construction counseling

An important research need concerns identifying and describing factors that promote reflexivity and change in life-design career interventions. Career construction counseling, a primary life-design intervention, uses narrative methods in an interpersonal process of helping people design a work life through reflexive action. Using Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR), the present study examined what prompts reflexivity and change in career construction counseling. A single case analysis method involving a 24-year old Caucasian woman examined one client's experience of processes that prompted change and reflection about her current career transition. Post-counseling IPR with the client of her videotaped career construction counseling session indicated five major themes: (a) role models prompt identity reflection, (b) early recollections foster cohesion, (c) follow-up questions add depth to the story, (d) counselor as audience provides clarity and validation, and (e) career construction interview questions illuminate perspective and need for action. Results support prior research indicating the usefulness of career construction counseling for promoting reflexive action in life design.     

Personality and values as predictors of medical specialty choice

Research rarely considers the combined influence of personality traits and values in predicting behavioral outcomes. We aimed to advance a germinal line of inquiry that addresses this gap by separately and simultaneously examining personality traits and physician work values to predict medical specialty choice. First-year medical students (125 women and 119 men) responded to measures of personality and physician work values. After graduation, participants' residency choices were identified. Results indicated that personality traits predict person- or technique-oriented medical specialty choice. Physician work values, whether used alone or in tandem with personality traits, however, did not significantly predict specialty choice. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Ant Colony Optimization and Local Weighted Structural Equation Modeling. A Tutorial on Novel Item and Person Sampling Procedures for Personality Research

Measurement in personality development faces many psychometric problems. First, theory‐based measurement models do not fit the empirical data in terms of traditional confirmatory factor analysis. Second, measurement invariance across age, which is necessary for a meaningful interpretation of age‐associated personality differences, is rarely accomplished. Finally, continuous moderator variables, such as age, are often artificially categorized. This categorization leads to bias when interpreting differences in personality across age. In this tutorial, we introduce methods to remedy these problems. We illustrate how Ant Colony Optimization can be used to sample indicators that meet prespecified demands such as model fit. Further, we use Local Structural Equation Modeling to resample and weight subjects to study differences in the measurement model across age as a continuous moderator variable. We also provide a detailed illustration for both tools with the Neuroticism scale of the openly available International Personality Item Pool – NEO inventory using data from the UK sample (N = 15 827). Combined, both tools can remedy persistent problems in research on personality and its development. In addition to a step‐by‐step illustration, we provide commented syntax for both tools. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology