Computer-Assisted Career Guidance: A National Perspective on the Use of DISCOVER and SIGI

The authors describe the institutional use of DISCOVER and SIGI, two computer-assisted career guidance systems, in terms of services provided, staffing, management, and implementation.     

Understanding Dual Career Couples

The increasing number of clients seeking to maintain a dual career life-style has increased the need for counselors to educate themselves to the unqiue set of concerns, needs, and characteristics particular to dual career partners and their families. This article presents an overview of the published literature delineating the variables associated with this life-style, including the numerous benefits or incentives, the common conflicts and stressors, and the personality dynamics shared by these men and women. In addition, the article will describe dysfunctional coping strategies as well as adaptive strategies employed by individuals attempting to manage the coupling of both career and family.     

DEVELOPMENT OF A BEHAVIORALLY BASED PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM

This paper describes the development of a behaviorally based performance appraisal system. Blanz and Ghiselli's Mixed Standard Scale was used as the basis for developing the performance appraisal system for assessing the performance of highway patrol personnel. However, the particular developmental procedures described here differ in some respects from those reported in the literature. Rather than developing rating items describing general traits such as "diligence,""initiative," or "enthusiasm" in behavioral terms, the items in the present scale were developed to describe proficiency levels of specific job tasks. This characteristic is expected to enhance the objectivity of the evaluation system for both appraisal and job counseling purposes. The appraisal instrument was subjected to a series of reliability and validity tests that demonstrated its high reliability and validity. Although the content of the appraisal sytem desribed here included highway patrol tasks, a similar system could be developed using the procedures described for a wide variety and level of jobs.     

Overcoming Obstacles to Interpersonal Compliance A Principle of Message Construction

Scholars recognize that language can be used to accomplish goals. If so, messages should be constructed so as to overcome obstacles to the achievement of interpersonal objectives. Based upon this perspective, six hypotheses were deduced that predicted the linguistic features of help-seeking messages from obstacles associated with (a) the type of request (borrowing favors) and (b) relational intimacy. The results of a study that tested these hypotheses are reported; support for each was found. Specifically, messages seeking to borrow a resource proposed contractual arrangements aimed at reducing the costs of lending. On the other hand, favor-seeking messages included more inquiries about the costs of compliance to the target and offers of compensation. Relational obligations and resulting facework were also studied. As predicted, when seeking to borrow a resource, intimacy was negatively related to communicated facework; when seeking a favor intimacy was positively related to facework. Finally, when a request to borrow a resource was rejected, intimacy was positively related to counter persuasion cues and negatively related to expressed forgiveness; however, when a favor-seeking message was refused, intimacy was positively related to communicated forgiveness.     

Group Members’ Decision Rule Orientations and Consensus

Recent speculation and research concerning the achievement of unanimous agreement in small groups underscores the importance of consensus, implicit or explicit, regarding the criteria for selecting an option from the pool of alternative decisions. Moreover, an emerging stream of research indicates that individuals vary in their tendency to make choices that are indicative of specific decision rule orientations. Although many individuals do not demonstrate consistent orientations, many others display tendencies to select options congruent with assumptions underlying maximax, maximin, and maximum expected utility decision rules. In the present study, participants were assigned to groups composed of members who were either identical (matched) or different (mixed) with respect to decision rule orientation. The results indicated that, for interacting groups, consensus was more likely in matched than in mixed groups. However, the hypothesis did not hold for noninteracting groups. Implications for group consensus and the decision rule orientation construct arc discussed.