Success in the first phase of the vocational career: The role of cognitive and scholastic abilities,personality factors,and vocational interests

The present study examines the relationship of cognitive and scholastic abilities, vocational interests, and personality traits with vocational success in the first phase of the vocational career. Drawing on large samples of technicians and industrial clerks, the effects of the covariates on satisfaction and dropout intention in the first months of vocational education and training (VET) were examined. Results show that the sets of predictor variables, especially personality traits and vocational interests, had a large proportion of variance in common, but exhibited different patterns of effects. Whereas in the case of personality traits the predictor-outcome relationships were largely invariant across different fields of VET, vocational interests exhibited a non-invariant pattern of effects that was in line with the congruence hypothesis (Holland, 1997). Vocational interests in the dominant domain characterizing the field of VET were the strongest predictors, whereas interests in the non-dominant VET domains were less important for predicting success. Abilities did not turn out to be important predictors of the markers of success under study. The results underscore the crucial role of personality traits and vocational interests in securing success in the first phase of vocational career.     

Effectiveness of parent counselling in eating disorders

ABSTRACT

Eating Disorders (ED) are often severe illnesses entailing a heavy burden for families. Family therapy is recommended for young patients, but only a few studies have investigated therapeutic interventions with families tailored also to adult and longstanding patients. We recruited 87 families with daughters affected by an ED, aiming to assess the effectiveness of eight sessions of parent counselling. The primary outcome was the improvement of parents' coping abilities to achieve more effective support skills. Before treatment, 54% of parents showed poor coping resources whereas 43.7% of the sample improved after parent counselling. Parents with good coping resources responded significantly better to this treatment. Although future research is warranted, these preliminary findings support the effectiveness of parent counselling in ED.     

On the capacity of attention: its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes

Working memory (WM) is the set of mental processes holding limited information in a temporarily accessible state in service of cognition. We provide a theoretical framework to understand the relation between WM and aptitude measures. The WM measures that have yielded high correlations with aptitudes include separate storage-and-processing task components, on the assumption that WM involves both storage and processing. We argue that the critical aspect of successful WM measures is that rehearsal and grouping processes are prevented, allowing a clearer estimate of how many separate chunks of information the focus of attention circumscribes at once. Storage-and-processing tasks correlate with aptitudes, according to this view, largely because the processing task prevents rehearsal and grouping of items to be recalled. In a developmental study, we document that several scope-of-attention measures that do not include a separate processing component, but nevertheless prevent efficient rehearsal or grouping, also correlate well with aptitudes and with storage-and-processing measures. So does digit span in children too young to rehearse.     

Have sex differences in spatial ability evolved from male competition for mating and female concern for survival?

Drawing on the theoretical and empirical foundations of two evolutionary models, we argue that, among humans and other mammals, a twofold selection process would parsimoniously account for sex-linked advantages in spatial contexts. In males, a superiority for both solving navigation-related spatial problems and understanding physical principles that apply to the behavior of projectiles could have been inherited from mating-oriented male competition involving extensive ranging and agonistic displays. In females, a form of superior spatial memory may have been shaped in relation to a costly reproduction system compelling them to safeguard their survival and that of their offspring by fostering low-risk strategies consisting of restricted navigation as well as concentration on nearby spatial cues. Based on the combined action of competition and survival pressures, we submit new predictions as to spatial sex differences in several species including humans.     

Parents' Explanations of Their Child's Performance in Mathematics and Reading: A Replication and Extension of Yee and Eccles

This study was conducted to examine whether Finnish parents would endorse the the classic gender-related attribution pattern and explain their son's mathematical performance in terms of talent and their daughter's in terms of effort. In addition, we examined whether the pattern of attributions would be the opposite in regard to parental explanations of their child's reading performance. A group of parents (N = 486), both mothers and fathers, were requested to assess the level of competence of their 1st grader in mathematics and reading. The parents were also asked to recall events from their child's 1st school year in which the child succeeded and failed in mathematics and reading; they were then asked to evaluate the importance of talent, effort, and task to the child's outcomes. The parents of boys assessed their child's mathematical competence to be higher than did the parents of girls. Furthermore, the parents of boys rated talent as a more important reason for their child's mathematical success than did the parents of girls. In contrast, the parents of girls rated effort as a more important reason for their child's mathematical success. Although the girls were perceived to surpass boys in reading, the girls' positive outcomes in reading were explained by effort more than the boys' outcomes, and at the highest level of assessed competence, the boys' verbal talent was rated as a more significant cause of success in reading than the girls' verbal talent. In sum, our results suggested that in both mathematics and reading, girls were not entitled to ability-based attribution to the same extent as were boys.     

‘Brain-Malfunction’ Cases and the Dispositionalist Reply to Frankfurt's Attack on PAP

Harry Frankfurt has famously argued against the principle of alternate possibilities (PAP) by presenting a case in which, apparently, a person is morally responsible for what he has done even though he could not have done otherwise. A number of commentators have proposed dispositionalist responses to Frankfurt, arguing that he has not produced a counterexample to PAP because, contrary to appearances, the ability to do otherwise is indeed present but is a disposition that has been ‘masked’ or ‘finked’ by the presence of a counterfactual controller. This article argues that this response to Frankfurt does not undercut his attack on PAP, since there are Frankfurt-style counterexamples to the principle—‘brain-malfunction’ cases—that evade the dispositionalist analysis.     

Working memory and early numeracy training in preschool children

Many factors influence children’s performance in mathematical achievement, including both domain-specific and domain-general factors. This study aimed to verify and compare the effects of two types of training on early numerical skills. One type of training focused on the enhancement of working memory, a domain-general precursor, while the other focused on the enhancement of early numeracy, a domain-specific precursor. The participants were 48 five-year-old preschool children. Both the working memory and early numeracy training programs were implemented for 5 weeks. The results showed that the early numeracy intervention specifically improved early numeracy abilities in preschool children, whereas working memory intervention improved not only working memory abilities but also early numeracy abilities. These findings stress the importance of performing activities designed to train working memory abilities, in addition to activities aimed to enhance more specific skills, in the early prevention of learning difficulties during preschool years.