Identifying process variables in career counseling: A research agenda

Impact of the Career Style Interview on Individuals With Career Concerns

A total of 18 participants ranging in age from 20 to 55 were administered the career style interview (CSI) and completed a follow-up interview 2 weeks later. Consensual qualitative research analysis of follow-up interview data indicated that after completing the CSI, participants generally felt helped and also typically experienced awareness, self-confidence, direction, confirmation, and a sense of encouragement related to their career concern. Most participants' occupational narratives demonstrated a change from pre-CSI to post-CSI, moving toward more specification. Participants primarily recalled role models as the most meaningful aspect of the CSI, and integration of Holland code typology within the CSI produced higher rates of recall than previous studies. This study addresses implications of these findings for theory, practice, and research.

Proceso y productos de una intervención psicológica vocacional

Este estudio analiza el proceso y los productos de una intervención psicológica vocacional. Participaron 321 estudiantes (178 grupo experimental y 143 grupo control), entre 13 y 17 años. Se evaluó el proceso de intervención a través del Sistema de Reacciones de los Clientes, y los productos a través de las Escala de Exploración Vocacional y de Indecisión Vocacional. El análisis de las sesiones de intervención demuestra que a través de todo el proceso, las reacciones confianza, bienestar, auto-concepto, claridad, responsabilidad, alteración de perspectivas, educación, cambio y falta de reacción, registran cambios estadísticamente significativos, a favor de la intervención. El grupo experimental obtuvo puntaciones estadísticamente significativas superiores en varias escalas de la exploración vocacional y puntaciones estadísticamente significativas inferiores en la indecisión vocacional. El tamaño del efecto pre-postest fue medio a alto en casi todas las dimensiones de la exploración y medio en la escala de indecisión vocacional.

Vocational Counseling and Interventions: An Exploration of Future ‘‘Big’’ Questions

This article in a series on the next ‘‘big’’ questions in vocational psychology focuses on vocational interventions. The author proposes three primary questions with the first question asking vocational psychologists to consider the role they are going to play in the delivery of effective vocational or work-related interventions. The second question also addresses effective interventions and concerns what interventions are most helpful to which clients and under what conditions. The final question proposed by the author concerns what are the cost/benefits ratios of career counseling or vocational interventions.

Avaliação do processo de aconselhamento vocacional: revisão da literatura

As questões acerca do processo de intervenção têm sido cada vez mais alvo de atenção e estudo na Psicologia. Este artigo apresenta uma revisão da literatura acerca da panorâmica atual do processo de aconselhamento vocacional. Deste modo, são abordados, uma descrição do processo de aconselhamento vocacional e das variáveis comuns ao aconselhamento psicológico pessoal e vocacional, seguindo-se uma breve caracterização das investigações sobre o processo da intervenção psicológica vocacional. Por último, apresenta-se um conjunto de sugestões para futuras pesquisas.

Processus de Changement et Variabilité Individuelle au Cours des Consultations d’Orientation

A ce jour, l’étude des effets du conseil en orientation n’a guère abordé les aspects intraindividuels du changement et la variabilité interindividuelle qui y est associée. Cette recherche étudie les niveaux de changement de participants à un atelier de conseil en orientation professionnelle en modélisant les patterns à trois temps clés de l’intervention. Les résultats montrent, pour chaque variable étudiée, que trois groupes de participants se distinguent soit par un effet substantiel, un effet modéré ou une absence d’effet. Les variables cognitives et conatives modèrent peu ces différences entre patterns. Toutes ces données sont interprétées dans le cadre général de la théorie du conseil adaptatif, qui invite à individualiser l’accompagnement des personnes au cours des consultations afin d’améliorer la grandeur des effets.

The Psychometric Properties of the WAI in a Career Counseling Setting: Comparison With a Personal Counseling Sample

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Working Alliance Inventory-Client version (WAI-C) and Working Alliance Inventory-Short and revised (WAI-SR) in a career counseling setting. Moreover, it compared the impact of career versus personal counseling settings based on results obtained using the WAI-SR. Subjects were 188 French-speaking career counseling clients and 95 French-speaking personal counseling clients, mainly students. For the career counseling sample, total reliability was .87 for the WAI-C and .76 for the WAI-SR. The shape of the distribution was normal but the variance was significantly lower for the career counseling sample. Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) confirmed the presence of an overall working alliance factor but indicated a clearer hierarchical structure for the WAI-SR than for the WAI-C. The psychometric properties seemed only slightly affected by the counseling setting, suggesting that this inventory is also relevant for career counseling, especially the WAI-SR, which has a more robust factorial structure.

A Test of the Tripartite Model of Career Indecision of Brown and Krane for African Americans Incorporating Emotional Intelligence and Positive Affect

Brown and Krane have posited a tripartite model of career indecision, which includes three higher order factors: negative affect, poor vocational identity development, and lack of career information. The purpose of this study was to examine the adequacy of their tripartite model of career indecision for African American students, considering that the samples used in the meta-analysis of Brown and Krane were predominantly Caucasian. With regard to recent research suggesting the importance of emotional intelligence for career development, this study also examined the presence and degree of relationship among positive affect, emotional intelligence, and the three factors in the model of Brown and Krane. A total of 171 participants from a Historically Black University completed a packet of career diagnostic assessments that included a measure of emotional intelligence. Factor analysis suggested that five factors (career self-efficacy, career-related emotional maturity, information needs, vocational identity development, and career decisional status) could be extracted to represent the constructs related to career decision making for African American students. Implications for career counseling are discussed with regard to viewing positive affect and emotional intelligence as an integral factor in the career decision-making process.

The Vocational Significance of Black Identity: Cultural Formulation Approach to Career Assessment and Career Counseling

Scholarship is emerging on intervention models that purposefully attend to cultural variables throughout the career assessment and career counseling process (Swanson & Fouad, in press). One heuristic model that offers promise to advance culturally-relevant vocational practice with African Americans is the Outline for Cultural Formulation (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). This article explicates the Outline for Cultural Formulation in career assessment and career counseling with African Americans integrating the concept of cultural identity into the entire model. The article concludes with an illustration of the Outline for Cultural Formulation model with an African American career client.

Effectiveness of Career Counseling and the Impact of the Working Alliance

This study analyzes the role of the working alliance on the life satisfaction and career decision difficulties of clients participating in career counseling in Switzerland. The study also compares these career counseling clients to a group of students who did not seek counseling, to explore the overall effectiveness of a face-to-face career counseling intervention, using a pre—post design. Results indicated that the working alliance was positively associated with clients’ satisfaction with the intervention and with the final level of their life satisfaction. Working alliance was also negatively associated with the final levels of career decision difficulties. Moreover, clients’ career decision difficulties significantly decreased and their life satisfaction increased throughout the intervention. These findings suggest that working alliance represents an important variable to better understand career interventions’ underlying mechanisms. Moreover, face-to-face career counseling is effective considering career-specific as well as broader, life-related indicators.

Social-Cognitive Factors Affecting Clients’ Career and Life Satisfaction After Counseling

This study examines factors affecting clients’ career and life satisfaction in the first 6 months after having participated in career counseling. In particular, we tested a large subset of the recent social-cognitive model of work satisfaction of Lent and Brown using a longitudinal data set of 195 former counseling clients. Our results showed that clients’ goal self-efficacy at the end of the career counseling had a positive impact on their career satisfaction 6 months later. This relationship was fully mediated by external barriers, goal progress, and subsequent goal self-efficacy. The level of career satisfaction 6 months after the counseling was in turn positively related with clients’ life satisfaction. Also personality traits had an influence on clients’ career and life satisfaction, though only indirectly via goal self-efficacy.

An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Adult Clients' Experience of My Career Chapter

This paper reports a study of adult clients' experience of My Career Chapter, which is a theoretically-informed, qualitative career assessment and counselling procedure. My Career Chapter engenders personal exploration through a client's writing and reading aloud a career-related autobiography, which is formulated on the basis of structured steps and a sentence-completion process. In a predominantly qualitative, mixed method design (i.e., QUAL+quan), interpretative phenomenological analysis of six interview transcripts constructed three major clusters representative of clients' experiences: implications for instructions and guidelines; induction of personal contemplation and self-reflection; and positive emotional experience. Secondary quantitative data aligned with the primary qualitative results. The results of this study were consistent with and extend upon previous research; and were indicative of the safety and potential of My Career Chapter as a narrative career assessment and counselling procedure for adults.

Career Development Concerns of Recent Immigrants and Refugees

The number of recent immigrants and refugees in the United States is growing dramatically. Among key reasons for migration is search for adequate employment and hope for opportunities to develop occupationally. However, recent immigrants and refugees face multiple obstacles in their career development in the United States. This article uses social cognitive career theory to examine the role of relocation circumstances, stressors of migration, acculturation patterns, and oppression on the career development and employment functioning of recent immigrants and refugees. Specific suggestions for career counselors working with this population are provided.

Work and vocational psychology: theory, research, and applications

Work is integral to human functioning, and all psychologists need to understand the role of work in people's lives. Understanding factors influencing work choices and helping individuals effectively make career decisions is the focus of vocational psychologists. However, external changes, such as shifts in the economy and labor force, as well as initiatives within the field are challenging the assumptions within vocational psychology. This chapter reviews the empirical work since 1995 in four areas: (a) what factors influence career choices, (b) how people make career decisions, (c) how context influences career choices, and (d) effective interventions for help with the first three questions. The review focuses first on vocational psychology's rich tradition of theoretically driven research, and then discusses research in career development that crosses a number of theoretical approaches, and finally identifies the assumptions in the field and questions for future examination.