Anxiety and career exploration: Gender differences in the role of self-construal

Given the social nature of many tasks involved in exploring and committing to a career, we hypothesized that social anxiety would correlate to exploration and commitment, even after controlling for general anxiety. We also hypothesized that self-construal and gender would interact with social anxiety in relation to exploration and commitment. In a sample of predominantly European American undergraduates (n = 161), higher social anxiety associated with lower vocational commitment for both women and men, after accounting for general anxiety. For women, interdependence was also associated significantly with vocational commitment. Social anxiety correlated to environmental exploration only for men low in independence. Neither social anxiety nor self-construal associated with environmental exploration for women or foreclosure for either group.     

Phenotypic and genetic relationships between vocational interests and personality

Relationships between personality and vocational interest factors were examined at the phenotypic and genetic levels. Twins and siblings (N = 516) completed self-report personality and vocational interest scales. Following factor analyses of each scale, five personality and six vocational interest factors were extracted. At the phenotypic level, correlations between personality and vocational interests ranged from zero to .33. Heritability estimates of the scales showed that genetic components accounted for 0–56% of the variance for the vocational interest factors and 44–65% for the personality factors. Genetic correlations between the two areas ranged from zero to .50. The results suggest that personality is related to some vocational interest dimensions and that some of these observed relationships have a common genetic basis.     

Sexism, Vocational Goals, and Motivation as Predictors of Men’s and Women’s Career Choice

In the present study we analyzed the impact of vocational goals, sexist attitudes toward women, and motivation on career choice, in a sample of 448 Spanish college students (65.2% women and 34.1% men). Although we found some similarities between men and women in terms of their motivational orientations (extrinsic vs. intrinsic) and vocational goals, men’s extrinsic motivations appear to differ depending on the college major. We also found differences in sexist attitudes toward women by gender and chosen major: both male and female students enrolled in technical majors reported the most sexist attitudes (both hostile and benevolent). These findings underline the importance of taking sexist attitudes toward women into account in attempts to explain gender differences in career choice, something which has been largely overlooked in the research to date.     

Some types of stability in the study of students' work values

It is suggested the concept of “stability” in the study of work values has at least three facets: (1) hierarchical stability, (2) response pattern stability, and (3) factor stability. These three facets are investigated using a sample of 165 Australian students, assessed using a work values list initially in Grade 12 and then $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$ years later during which time all had engaged in full-time tertiary study. Of the 13 work values assessed only independence and intellectual stimulation increased in importance and surroundings decreased. Canonical correlation analysis revealed four significant response patterns which indicated that the same work value may sometimes be stable or changeable in combination with other work values. It was also found using factor analysis that two rotated principal components appeared stable over time. They were identified as an Intellectual Concern factor and People Concern factor. An Extrinsic Concern factor for subjects as high school students was found to differentiate into a Status/Power Concern factor and a Co-workers Concern factor by the time of the second assessment. A Freedom Concern factor found in the Grade 12 assessment was not discovered until $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$ years later. The results confirm the need for further theoretical and methodological refinement of the notion of stability in the study of work values.     

Images and Policy Preferences

This article reports the results of an experiment that tests the independent and interactive effects of two dimensions of international images: perceived historial relationship and cultural differences. Priming techniques are used to manipulate images in subjects who are involved in a simulated international conflict. Dependent variables include attitudes and behaviors, the latter in the form of policy preferences arranged on a cooperative-conflictual continuum. The results indicate that images do matter. When the perceived relationship is hostile, subjects develop more negative attitudes toward their opponents and choose more conflictual policies. Cultural differences produce more negative attitudes in all conditions but result in more negative policy selections only when the perceived relationship is hostile. In other words, in considering policy moves, cultural differences exacerbate conflict between enemies, but make no difference between friends, in spite of the negative outgroup attitudes they elicit.     

Development and initial validation of brief public domain RIASEC marker scales

Although commercially developed interest measures based on Holland’s RIASEC types are effectively used in a variety of applied settings, these measures have somewhat limited research utility due to their length and copyright restrictions placed by the test publishers. In the present study, two sets of 8-item RIASEC scales were developed using activity-based items selected from the 30-item RIASEC scales of the Interest Profiler, and two sets of 8-item RIASEC scales were developed using sets of 30 occupational job titles selected from the O∗NET database representing each Holland type. Responses to the items were obtained from three samples of college students with a total of 1024 female and 639 male participants. Results obtained in the initial development and validation process suggest that the sets of brief activity- and occupational-based RIASEC scales developed in the current study retain acceptable levels of reliability and convergent validity. The development of these brief public domain RIASEC interest measures addresses the copyright and length limitations of current scales and may be useful when conducting integrative research examining the inter-relations between Holland’s types and other individual differences measures.     

Parental and school influences upon the career development of poor youth of color

Critical career development tasks for adolescents include developing vocational expectations and a connection to the world of work. Given the sociopolitical barriers to the career development of poor Youth of Color, it is vital to identify contextual resources facilitative of their career development. The present study examines the impact of relational and instrumental parental support and instrumental school support upon vocational expectations and work salience among poor Youth of Color. Participants from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) were examined longitudinally from 12th grade to two years after they had finished high school. The obtained structural models suggested that relational and instrumental parental support had a direct effect upon work salience and instrumental parental support a significant indirect effect two years later. Instrumental school support and relational parental support had direct effects upon vocational expectations and nonsignificant indirect effects two years later. These findings illuminate contextual factors facilitative of vocational expectations and work salience, provide support for school-based career development programs, and suggest that incorporating relational and instrumental parental support could augment intervention programs for poor Youth of Color.     

Apologia Pro Intermundia Sua

As a disquisition, Apologia Pro Intermundia Sua discusses a study of seven members of the clergy who have made or are making the transition out of parish ministry to engage the world as part of mainstream culture and their experience of being between worlds, or intermundia. This paper traces a path of using an imaginal approach by means of an alchemical hermeneutic methodology and transference dialogues to extend beneath the complexity of our knowledge and the knowledge of our complexity enfolded by reverie and fantasy. This paper also offers for consideration a proposal for an interventionless approach to the intermundia of clergy transitioning out of parish ministry.

Decision-Making About Reproductive Choices Among Individuals At-Risk for Huntington's Disease

We explored how individuals at-risk for HD who have or have not been tested make reproductive decisions and what factors are involved. We interviewed 21 individuals (8 with and 4 without the mutation, and 9 un-tested) in-depth for 2 hours each. At-risk individuals faced a difficult series of dilemmas of whether to: get pregnant and deliver, have fetal testing, have pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, adopt, or have no children. These individuals weighed competing desires and concerns: their own desires vs. those of spouses vs. broader moral concerns (e.g., to end the disease; and/or follow dictates against abortion) vs. perceptions of the interests of current or future offspring. Quandaries arose of how much and to whom to feel responsible. Some changed their perspectives over time (e.g., first “gambling,” then being more cautious). These data have critical implications for genetic counselors and other health care workers and future research, particularly as more genetic tests become available.