Career guidance in Scotland: retrospect and prospect

Devolution of powers to Scotland has accentuated pre-existing divergence from the rest of the UK with respect to education, training and career guidance provision. Scotland now has an all-age national careers service—Careers Scotland. It is suggested that it is unlikely that a national, publicly-funded careers agency would have been established in the absence of devolution. The article outlines the development of career guidance in Scotland over the last 25 years and how the pre-existing Scottish context and the new context of devolution have impacted upon it. The role of Careers Scotland and its relationship with other providers of career guidance in Scotland are examined. Other key issues considered include: the allocation of resources based on need; relationships with local authorities and schools; and training and professional identities in an increasingly diverse UK guidance context.     

Coping with AIDS: Psychological and Health Implications1

The current study explored the relationship of coping to both psychological and health parameters in 50 gay men recently (within three months) diagnosed with AIDS. Three methods of coping (active behavioral, active cognitive, and avoidance) and eight different coping strategies (positive involvement, expressive/ information seeking, reliance on others, positive understanding/create meaning, passive/ruminative, distraction, passive resignation, and solitary/passive behaviors) were assessed. Findings indicate that avoidance coping is not protecting these people from distressful feelings, mood disturbance, and concerns. The three coping methods evidenced distinctly different associations with measures of psychological and health variables. Active-behavioral coping was related to lower total mood disturbance and higher self-esteem, while avoidance coping was inversely related to self-esteem and positively correlated with depression. The frequencies of specific coping strategies indicate men in this study were using cognitive strategies most frequently. Suggestions for interventions to help people cope with AIDS are given.     

Instructions, self-instructions and performance

Four semantically equivalent instructions were used for a classification task, in which response was required to the larger of two classes of items. The variables in the instructions were (1) the explicitness of the negative used to define the smaller class, and (2) the order of reference to this class within the sentence. Superior performance was obtained with instructions containing “except” compared with those using “not,” regardless of order. Analysis of the self-instructions generated by the subjects, prior to performance, indicated that their form was largely determined by the given instruction. Speed of performance was related to form of self-instruction elicited prior to the task, but not to that elicited after completion of the task.     

Attributional styles for helplessness and depression: The importance of sex and situational context

Differences between the sexes in attributions for positive and negative outcomes in either affiliative or achievement situations were examined using the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ). Separate regression analyses for each sex related the ASQ to a measure of helplessness and the Beck Depression Inventory. No differences were noted for attributions to internality or stability; however, females attributed more global causality to positive outcome affiliative situations and negative outcome achievement situations. Regression analyses failed to support the helplessness attributional model of depression. No ratings on the ASQ predicted depression for males; furthermore, for females, only the internal/external dimension was relevant, moderated by both outcome and type of situation. Sex differences were discussed in light of the higher incidence of depression among females.     

Factor analytic study of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale

A factor analysis of the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale was conducted with a biracial u sample of children over a wide age range. The Scale was completed by 348 10-17 year old students in a rural community. Seven factors of 10 had sufficient item loadings to be interpretable. Six matched those found in the manual and an additional factor was found relating to Aggression. Race, sex, and age relationships are also reported for these seven factors.     

Is science socially constructed—And can it still inform public policy?

This paper addresses, and seeks to correct, some frequent misunderstandings concerning the claim that science is socially constructed. It describes several features of scientific inquiry that have been usefully illuminated by constructivist studies of science, including the mundane or tacit skills involved in research, the social relationships in scientific laboratories, the causes of scientific controversy, and the interconnection of science and culture. Social construction, the paper argues, should be seen not as an alternative to but an enhancement of scientists’ own professional understanding of how science is done. The richer, more finely textured accounts of scientific practice that the constructivist approach provides are potentially of great relevance to public policy. This paper is based on a Topical Lecture presented at AMSIE'96, the 162nd National Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Baltimore, Maryland, 8–13 February 1996. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of the AAAS or its Board of Directors. For permission to cite or quote any part of this paper please refer to the author for permission.     

Attention deficit disorder and age of onset of problem behaviors

In the course of a prospective longitudinal study, we examined age of onset of behavior problems in a group of boys and girls identified with attention deficit disorder (ADD) at age 11. Onset occurred during the preschool years, by the first year of schooling, or by the end of the second year of school. Onset was strongly related to informant source at age 11, pattern of comorbidity of disorder at age 11, and developmental language, perceptual motor, and IQ measures. Onset by the first year of schooling was particularly related to poor reading skills. By age 15, nearly three-quarters of those with onset of problems before age 6 had one or more DSM-III disorders.