Development of a career-enabler framework within a South African higher education institution

This study developed a preliminary career-enabler framework for use in a higher education setting. A quantitative survey was conducted with a sample of 1392 employees within a higher education institution in South Africa. Structural analysis was performed using exploratory factor analysis. The analysis yielded three enablers with acceptable psychometric properties, namely: self-transcendence, self-enhancement and self-conservation through work motives and needs. Interventions that focus on career-enablers within a higher education institution need to address these three factors.     

Development of a Post-Modern Career Interest Questionnaire for South-African School Settings

The study explored the potential value and viability of an interest narrative (questionnaire) in terms of its psychometric properties and by comparing it with a commonly administered (positivist) career interest questionnaire. Participants were 159 boys and 183 girls, mean ages were 17.87 (males) and 17.41 (girls), SD (males) = 1.63, SD (females) = 1.70. In the first phase, four provinces were selected purposively: one urban and three rural or semirural. Secondly, a stratified random sample of schools was selected, divided according to medium of instruction (Afrikaans/English) and area (urban/rural area). Data were collected and analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative approaches: trustworthiness, assessment-reassessment consistency and intercorrelations with the Rothwell Miller Interest Blank (Hall, Halstead & Taylor, 1986). The CIP yielded satisfactory results with regard to, inter alia, trustworthiness, assessment-reassessment reliability and intercorrelations with the RMIB, and provides psychologists with a useful instrument for the identification of interest profiles of Grade 11 learners in South Africa.     

Personality Factors Explaining Career Success for Soldiers: An Analytical Review

Personality factors influence career success of soldiers in the military. This article focuses on the diversity and complexity of the nature of the military as a working environment. In this regard the article focuses on general personality characteristics (like locus of control, ego power, etc.) and specific personality characteristics for pilots and divers as an example to explain career success with the person-environment fit model as moderator, in the military.     

Factors Impacting on Career Choices of Technikon Students From Previously Disadvantaged High Schools

Career development is a socially constructed process involving complex interactions among different structures, forces, and systems all constituting spheres of influence. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influence career decisions. Eighty respondents (40 males and 40 females with mean age of 22 years) participated in the study. Results revealed that family variables of parental high expectations of children and appropriate communications within the family, as well as factors such as prestige statuses of some occupations, school curricular subjects, academic performance, teacher influences, and peer pressure had strong positive influences on career choices. Barriers to career choices identified included finance, lack of appropriate information, poor academic performance, and unsatisfactory career counseling services. Results suggest need for a better approach to career education in schools and counseling services that are adaptive to social, economic, and cultural contexts.     

Resilience in Children of Poverty

Most studies reviewed show that poverty has a negative impact on school success and the social and emotional functioning of learners in schools. Students' personal beliefs about their capabilities were found to influence their motivation and learning in schools. However, some children reared in poverty can become notably resilient and adaptive.     

Work-to-family enrichment: Influences of work resources,work engagement and satisfaction among employees within the South African context

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of work resources, work-to-family enrichment, engagement and job satisfaction among employees in the South African context. Data were collected from 627 participants (females=67%, Afrikaans or English speakers=81.8%). The analysis utilised multiple regression analysis to predict work resources and work-to-family enrichment dimensions from work engagement dimensions, job satisfaction and career satisfaction. In the multiple regression analyses, work-related development opportunities, work autonomy and work-family affect were significant predictors of work vigour. Furthermore, work-related development opportunities, work autonomy, work-family affect and work-family perspectives were significant predictors of work dedication, job satisfaction and career satisfaction. Results support the idea that participation in one role may enrich the quality of life in the other role and provides a more comprehensive understanding of the positive side of the work/family interface.     

Initial Review of the Psychometric Properties of a Computerised Career Preference Test for Career Guidance Assessment

Psychometric proprties of the Career Preference Computerised Adaptive Test (CPCAT) (De Beer & Marais, 2010; De Beer, Marais, Maree, & Skrzypczak, 2008) are reported. Participants were high school students (n=343; males=279, females=164)at Grade 9 and Grade 11 level from a South African school district. Reliability and construct validity indices suggest the CPCAT could be of utility in the career counseling of high school students.     

Personality and values as predictors of medical specialty choice

Research rarely considers the combined influence of personality traits and values in predicting behavioral outcomes. We aimed to advance a germinal line of inquiry that addresses this gap by separately and simultaneously examining personality traits and physician work values to predict medical specialty choice. First-year medical students (125 women and 119 men) responded to measures of personality and physician work values. After graduation, participants' residency choices were identified. Results indicated that personality traits predict person- or technique-oriented medical specialty choice. Physician work values, whether used alone or in tandem with personality traits, however, did not significantly predict specialty choice. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Academic self-concept in high school: predictors and effects on adjustment in higher education

Academic self-concept is considered a relevant psychological construct influencing many educational outcomes directly or indirectly. Therefore, the major focus of the current study is on the predictors and effects of academic self-concept in late adolescence. First, we studied the simultaneous effects of individual, class-average and school-average achievement (i.e., assessed by school grades) on academic self-concept in the final year of high school, thereby replicating and extending previous research on the big-fish-little-pond effect model. Second, the predictive value of high school academic self-concept for academic adjustment and success in the first year of higher education was examined. The sample comprised 536 twelfth grade students (44% boys) recruited from 24 schools (67 classes) that were representative with regard to geographical region and educational network in Flanders. Structural equation modeling showed that, when examining the joint contribution of school- and class-average achievement, only class-average achievement was significantly and negatively associated with academic self-concept. Furthermore, a significant effect of academic self-concept in high school on academic adjustment and success in higher education (in addition to any effects of high school academic achievement) was found. These results highlight the importance of considering academic self-concept in educational research and policy.