Responding to and Retreating from the Call: Career Salience,Work Satisfaction,and Depression Among Clergywomen

The authors examined career salience, work satisfaction, and depression among 189 clergywomen from all geographic regions of the United States. Participants demonstrated, on average, a moderate level of commitment to their careers and exhibited a high degree of work satisfaction, yet the majority also showed many symptoms of non-clinical depression. A regression model controlling for demographics and work history and conditions revealed that work satisfaction had a significant negative effect on depression, suggesting that higher job satisfaction results in less depression. The effect of career commitment on depression approached significance, suggesting greater levels of commitment resulted in higher levels of depression.     

Applying Chaos Theory to Careers: Attraction and attractors

This article presents the Chaos Theory of Careers with particular reference to the concepts of “attraction” and “attractors”. Attractors are defined in terms of characteristic trajectories, feedback mechanisms, end states, ordered boundedness, reality visions and equilibrium and fluctuation. The identified types of attractors (point, pendulum, torus and strange) and their relevance to career development are described. The attractor concept is then applied to major barriers in career development and life transition by a consideration of closed and open systems thinking. It is contended that ultimately the context of human experience is an open system and that career development difficulties arise when closed systems thinking is used in an open systems reality. The practical counseling applications and counseling research evidence using attractors are briefly reviewed. The additional potential contributions of the Chaos Theory of Careers to the career development field are also outlined.     

The relationship between career decision status and important work outcomes

This paper describes a longitudinal study exploring the relationship between career decision status and work outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, organizational commitment and performance) in a group of newly appointed graduates. Graduates employed into similar roles in a large Multinational Consultancy were tracked over 12 months at three time intervals: on appointment; 6 months after appointment and 12 months after appointment. It was concluded that job satisfaction promotes career comfort, decidedness predicts organizational commitment and this relationship is moderated by met expectations, and that neither being decided or comfortable predicts performance. Some evidence was found to suggest that those employees claiming high self-clarity (that is knowledge of their abilities, skills, and personality) were rated as higher performers. It was concluded that career decidedness is still relevant to a contemporary work environment, but that comfort with career decisions and knowledge of self (i.e. self-clarity) has the potential for far greater impact.     

Parental Influences on Young Women’s Certainty about Their Career Aspirations

Identity control theory (Kerpelman, Pittman, & Lamke, Journal of Adolescent Research, 12: 325–346, 1997) and the literature on possible selves (Markus & Nurius, American Psychologist, 41: 954–969, 1986) and family influences on adolescents’ vocational choices (e.g., Otto, Journal of Career Development, 27: 111–117, 2000; Whiston & Keller, The Counseling Psychologist, 32: 493–568, 2004) were used to guide this study of young women’s career aspirations. How mother–daughter and father–daughter relationships were associated with young women’s certainty about their anticipated future careers was addressed with data from 304 female undergraduates. Findings indicated that parent–daughter connectedness predicted the young women’s anticipated distress, as well as their willingness to change to fit parental views should their parents disagree with their career aspirations. In addition, anticipated distress mediated associations between willingness to change and connectedness with parents, and between willingness to change and father–daughter career discussions. Discussing career goals with mother increased mother’s influence, but decreased father’s influence, on daughter’s career certainty under conditions of father–daughter disagreement about career choice. The ability to separate her own feelings from those of her father was particularly important in reducing the daughter’s willingness to change her career goals to fit maternal or paternal expectations. Collectively, these findings offer additional insights about the role of parent–adolescent relationships in understanding young women’s career aspirations and note the importance of considering the distinct influences of mothers and fathers on their daughters’ career goals and plans.     

小学生团队合作学习成绩之群体影响因素研究

将小学四年级实验班42名小学生组建成七个异质团队,进行为期三个月的团队合作学习训练,以探讨群体变量对团队合作学习成绩的影响,并比较实验班和对照班之间语文成绩之间的差异。研究结果表明:团队组长管理风格、团队承诺、团队集体效能感、团队凝聚力四个群体变量对合作学习型团队的学习成绩有显著的影响。团队满意感虽然与团队学习成绩显著相关,但对团队学习成绩的影响不显著。     

中国职工组织承诺的结构模型检验

本文对作者所研究的中国职工组织承诺五因素结构模型采用SEM技术进行了检验。结果证明其是理想模型。二阶因子分析表明,五因素模型又可划分为心理因子和社经因子。根据相关分析,得到了五个新的承诺组合模型。     

基于管理者安全管理行动的高风险企业安全氛围改善

随着系统可靠性的提高,高风险企业超过三分之二的事故原因涉及人的因素。员工不安全行为是系统失效的触发因素,潜藏的社会情境因素(如安全氛围)是“常驻的病原体”,因此探索并改善影响安全行为的社会情境因素是有效提升组织安全的关键。在众多的情境因素中,安全氛围对安全绩效的积极影响已得到充分的文献支持,但对如何改善安全氛围的探索却有限。本项目围绕管理者对安全的承诺这一安全氛围的核心维度,基于信号理论提出直接安全管理行动是体现管理者安全承诺的重要途径,并在探索主管和经理关键安全管理行动对团队和组织安全氛围影响的基础上开展相应的干预研究。具体而言,在团队层面,探索改善主管关键安全管理行动对团队安全氛围提升的有效性;在组织和团队两个层面,探索改善经理的关键安全管理行动对同时提升组织和团队安全氛围的有效性。研究结果预期可以在安全管理实践中推广应用。     

大学生的专业承诺、学习倦怠的关系与量表编制

通过对大学学习情境中的承诺和倦怠的研究,编制了适用于大学生学习心理研究的大学生专业承诺量表和大学生学习倦怠量表。对量表统计分析后表明：专业承诺包括情感承诺、继续承诺、规范承诺和理想承诺四个维度;学习倦怠包括情绪低落、行为不当和成就感低三个维度,量表具有良好的信度和效度。回归分析证明,情感承诺是大学生学习倦怠的重要预测变量。     

The Influence of Compensation Method and Disclosure Level on Information Search Strategy and Escalation of Commitment

In this study we examined the extent to which compensation method and public disclosure influenced information search strategy and escalation of commitment. A laboratory experiment involving 182 student subjects employed a 3 (compensation: no-pay, salary, and contingent) by 2 (disclosure level: public and private) fully randomized, crossed design. Results show that in light of negative feedback concerning performance results of an investment portfolio, subjects whose initial allocation decisions were announced publicly reduced their search for prospective information, increased the search for retrospective information, and exhibited greater escalation of commitment than subjects who did not announce their initial investment strategy. The search for retrospective information and escalation of commitment was monotonically higher across the no-pay, salary, and contingent pay conditions respectively, while the search for prospective information decreased correspondingly. This study provides evidence that escalation of commitment is positively related to the search for retrospective information and negatively related to the search for prospective information. The results obtained from this experiment complement and extend prior work in the areas of accountability, cognitive dissonance and escalation of commitment. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.