New Directions in Career Guidance: A Special Report for the Profession

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SELF-REPORTED ASSERTIVE JOB-SEEKING BEHAVIORS OF MINIMALLY EDUCATED JOB HUNTERS

Little research attention has focused on the job-search behavior of minimally educated workers. The primary objective of the studies reported was to examine the relationship of self-reported assertive job-hunting behavior to acquisition of employment among minimally educated workers. The results of three studies provide: (a) construct validity evidence for the Assertive Job-Hunting Survey (AJHS; Becker, 1980), (b) evidence for construct similarity across minimally educated job seeker and college student populations, (c) evidence of a significant relationship between the AJHS and both subjective and objective job acquisition criteria in postdictive and predictive research designs, and (d) evidence that the AJHS, a measure of a non-cognitive variable, can make a unique contribution to the prediction of job acquisition beyond cognitive ability measures.     

Family Functioning and Mental Illness: A Comparison of Psychiatric and Nonclinical Families

The primary objective of the present investigation was to examine adaptive functioning in the families of patients with a wide range of psychiatric disorders. Seven dimensions of family functioning, as measured by the Family Assessment Device (FAD), were compared across families of patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 61 ), bipolar disorder (n = 60 ), major depression (n = 111 ), anxiety disorder (n = 15 ), eating disorder (n = 26 ), substance abuse disorder (n = 48 ), and adjustment disorder (n = 46 ). Families in each psychiatric group were also compared to a control group of nonclinical families (N = 353 ). Results indicated that regardless of specific diagnosis, having a family member in an acute phase of a psychiatric illness was a risk factor for poor family functioning compared to the functioning of control families. However, with few exceptions, the type of the patient's psychiatric illness did not predict significant differences in family functioning. Thus, having a family member with a psychiatric illness is a general stressor for families, and family interventions should be considered for most patients who require a psychiatric hospitalization for either the onset of, or an acute exacerbation of, any psychiatric disorder.     

THE INFLUENCE OF TELECONFERENCING MEDIUM AND STATUS ON PARTICIPANTS' PERCEPTION OF THE AESTHETICISM,EVALUATION, PRIVACY,POTENCY, AND ACTIVITY OF THE MEDIUM1

This study investigated the influence of teleconferencing medium and status on users' reaction to the medium. Subjects received either high or medium status inductions, and subgroups solved a problem in two node audio, video, and face-to-face conferencing configurations. These subgroups proceeded through the three media treatment conditions in counterbalanced order, and responded to scales measuring the aestheticism, evaluation, privacy, potency, and activity of the medium. Analysis indicated both face-to-face and video conferencing elicited more positive aestheticism and evaluation reactions than the audio conferencing medium. Face-to-face and audio conferencing media were perceived as being more private than the video teleconferencing medium while both video and audio media were perceived as being more potent than face-to-face conferencing. The analysis revealed neither an activity of the medium nor status main effect. The results were discussed in light of information theory.     

How Do People React to Stigma Acknowledgment? Race and Gender Acknowledgment in the Context of the 2008 Presidential Election1

Some studies have found that acknowledging one's stigmatized social identity in an evaluative context leads to more favorable evaluations, whereas others have found that stigma acknowledgment can increase negative evaluations. The present study examined one potential factor (i.e., evaluators' attitudes toward social groups to which acknowledgers belong) that may moderate the relation between stigma acknowledgment and evaluations, in the context of race and gender acknowledgment in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Results indicated that acknowledgment of race, but not gender, led to more negative evaluations, particularly for high‐prejudiced individuals. The findings highlight the importance of examining stigma acknowledgment effects from a Person × Situation perspective. Implications for advancing understanding of acknowledgment as a useful strategy in evaluative contexts are discussed.     

Susceptible to Social Influence: Risky “Driving” in Response to Peer Pressure1

In 2 studies, college students were socially influenced to be risky or not in a driving simulation. In both studies, confederate peers posing as passengers used verbal persuasion to affect driving behavior. In Study 1, participants encouraged to drive riskily had more accidents and drove faster than those encouraged to drive slowly or not encouraged at all. In Study 2, participants were influenced normatively or informationally to drive safely or riskily. As in Study 1, influence to drive riskily increased risk taking. Additionally, informational influence to drive safely resulted in the least risk taking. Together, the studies highlight the substantial influence of peers in a risk‐related situation; in real life, peer influence to be risky could contribute to automobile accidents.     

The impact of imagined audiences on self‐appraisals

The concept of the relational self suggests that simply imagining significant others produces shifts in self‐assessments consistent with one’s roles and experiences with those others. To test relevant hypotheses, college women (from the United States) imagined a significant other as part of a visualization task. After imagining parents as compared to peers, participants described themselves as less sensual, dominant, and adventurous (Experiment 1), a pattern consistent with other women’s ratings of how they actually felt with those others. Supporting the idea that self‐esteem differences emerge in more evaluative contexts, self‐esteem moderated self‐assessments on key dimensions (Experiment 2). After imagining a romantic other but not a best friend, self‐esteem was directly related to women’s self‐ratings of sensuality, physical attractiveness, and being at ease.