Integrating vocational interest inventory results and expressed choices

Though many studies have examined the predictive power of expressed choices versus that of measured interests, fewer have been concerned with the relationship between the degree to which choices and interests agree and later persistence in an expressed choice. This study explored that relationship, using longitudinal data for 7706 college students and 1372 employed persons. Four levels of congruence between expressed choice and measured interests were identified. Results indicated that persistence in an expressed choice increases systematically as congruence between choice and interests increases. Implications for counselors are noted.     

Extending Holland's Hexagon: Procedures,Counseling Applications,and Research

Since its introduction nearly 25 years ago, Holland's (1985) hexagon has remained in skeletal form. The hexagon is used to depict similarities and differences among occupations—but only six general types of occupations. The authors show in this article how to extend the basic concepts embodied in the hexagon. Procedures for locating counselees and occupations on the hexagon are illustrated. These procedures, which are compatible with scores from a wide variety of assessment instruments, can help counselees identify and explore occupational options. The authors also report research on the hexagon locations of 27 career groups.     

The Units Of Selection And The Causal Structure Of The World

Genic selectionism holds that all selection can be understood as operating on particular genes. Critics (and conventional biological wisdom) insist that this misrepresents the actual causal structure of selective phenomena at higher levels of biological organization, but cannot convincingly defend this intuition. I argue that the real failing of genic selectionism is pragmatic – it prevents us from adopting the most efficient corpus of causal laws for predicting and intervening in the course of affairs – and I offer a Pragmatic account of causation itself which ultimately bears out the claim that genic selectionism misrepresents the causal structure of selective contexts.     

What is it like to think about oneself? De Se thought and phenomenal intentionality

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - The topic of the paper is at the intersection of recent debates on de se thought and phenomenal intentionality. An interesting problem for phenomenal...     

Gender Differences in Experiences with Couples Treatment for IPV

Evidence suggests that conjoint treatment can be effective for certain violent couples in certain situations (Finkel in Rev Gen Psychol 11:193–207, 2007; LaTaillade et al. in J Cogn Psychother 20:393–410, 2006; Fals-Stewart et al. in J Consult Clin Psych 73:239–248, 2005; Stith et al. in J Marital Fam Ther 29(3):407–426, 2003). However, not as much is known about which aspects of conjoint treatment make a difference, nor if male and female participants experience these elements of treatment differently. Knowing which components of couples’ treatment clients perceive as helpful—and whether their perceptions differ by gender—will allow us to redefine models with an eye toward making them more effective. In this study we used qualitative methods to examine the aspects of a particular couples’ treatment program (Stith and McCollum in Aggress Violent Beh 16(4):312–318, 2011) that clients found useful while also considering the differences between men’s and women’s responses. Fourteen couples, in which the male had been identified as the primary aggressor, were interviewed multiple times to gain their perspectives about components of the program they found helpful and their suggestions for program improvement. Themes are analyzed by gender. Implications for treatment and future research are provided.     

Visual selection mediated by location: Feature-based selection of noncontiguous locations

Experiments using two different methods and three types of stimuli tested whether stimuli at nonadjacent locations could be selected simultaneously. In one set of experiments, subjects attended to red digits presented in multiple frames with green digits. Accuracy was no better when red digits appeared successively than when pairs of red digits occurred simultaneously, implying allocation of attention to the two locations simultaneously. Different tasks involving oriented grating stimuli produced the same result. The final experiment demonstrated split attention with an array of spatial probes. When the probe at one of two target locations was correctly reported, the probe at the other target location was more often reported correctly than were any of the probes at distractor locations, including those between the targets. Together, these experiments provide strong converging evidence that when two targets are easily discriminated from distractors by a basic property, spatial attention can be split across both locations.     

Extraordinary moral commitment: young adults involved in social organizations

The personality of exemplary young adults was studied in an effort to paint a portrait of moral excellence that expanded upon the traditional emphasis on moral reasoning maturity. These young adults were nominated based on their extraordinary moral commitment towards various social organizations. The sample included 40 moral exemplars and 40 matched comparison individuals who responded to a battery of questionnaires and participated in a semistructured interview. It was found that moral exemplars, in contrast to comparison individuals, were more agreeable, more advanced in their faith and moral reasoning development, further along in forming an adult identity, and more willing to enter into close relationships. These findings are discussed in the context of describing moral excellence from a multifaceted, personality perspective.     

Dreams of Life and Death

This article examines the personal and archetypal aspects of images from six dreams that occurred during the illness and after the death of the dreamer's sister. It connects the dream images to the unresolved issues in the relationship between siblings and to the dreamer's own reflections on typology. It also explores the larger questions concerning the psychological process of grief, the common occurrence of synchronistic events related to death and loss, and includes Jung's comments on life and death. Finally, the article suggests solutions to our very human fears of death and encourages the development of our capacity to discover a personal mythology, a working sacred story, of “the beyond” or “life” after death.