A Swedish Perspective on the Importance of Bourdieu's Theories for Career Counseling

For many years, professional career counseling practice has been based on psychological rather than sociological theories. In this article, the authors argue that sociological theories, particularly that of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (P. Bourdieu & L. Wacquant, 1992), are important for the framework of the counselor.     

Patterns of perceptual change in the ages 7 to 15 years: a cross-sectional study of the Rod-and-Frame Test and the spiral aftereffect technique

Abstract.— Studied cross-sectional changes in Rod-and-Frame Test (RFT) deviation scores and spiral aftereffect (SAE) duration scores in 124 boys and 124 girls aged 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 years. The gradual decrease in magnitude of RFT deviation with age reached its minimum at the age of 13. A sex difference, disappearing with age, was adequately described by a measure of performance change, boys counteracting to a higher extent than girls the frame influence as the RFT trials proceeded. An increase in SAE duration, found previously with 5-year-olds, appeared here with 111-year-olds but later in a series of ten trials rather than initially as with the younger children. Relations between RFT and SAE scores were mainly found with 7-year-olds, i.e. at an age when per-ceptual-figural regulations may still dominate the cognitive organization of some children. The SAE results are viewed within a multi-line developmental model characterizing cognitive growth as a dialectic process of progressive shifts between objectivized and self-centered modes of representation.     

Forms, uses and functions of children's favourite objects

In this study, the notion of a favourite object is used as a heuristic concept for things that children are occupied with and absorbed by. According to earlier studies, favourite objects can be grouped into four categories: forerunners of transitional objects, primary and secondary transitional objects, and favourite toys. This initial classification was compared to results of cluster analyses of characteristics of favourite objects among 32 preschool and 30 primary school children, corroborating the initial classification and specifying the typology. The distribution of types of objects was different for the two groups of children, but was not dependent on age within groups or, for the preschool children, on mental development. These results indicate that changes of favourite objects with mental maturation are slow.
The softness of the material of primary and secondary transitional objects and the preference for objects that could be kept close to the body suggest that the comforting character of these favourite objects has its root in the child's self-soothing actions with the object.