Journal of Career Assessment current issue

Integrating Social Class Into Vocational Psychology: Theory and Practice Implications

Diemer, M. A., Rasheed Ali, S. — 2009-07-22

Although social class plays a salient and significant role in career development and occupational attainment, social class is underrepresented in vocational psychology theory, scholarship, and practice. Vocational psychologists are in a unique position to meet the career development needs of persons from all social classes by integrating a fuller understanding of social class into their scholarship and practice. This article provides an interdisciplinary review of conceptualization and operationalization of social class, the consideration of social class by theories of career development, the impact of social class upon career development processes, and implications of social class for career counseling and assessment. Through helping vocational psychologists more deeply understand social class and its interconnections to career development and occupational attainment, this article intends to create a springboard for the further integration of social class into vocational psychology scholarship and practice.

Social Class and Work-related Decisions: Measurement, Theory, and Social Mobility

Fouad, N. A., Fitzpatrick, M. E. — 2009-07-22

In this reaction to Diemer and Ali's article, "Integrating Social Class Into Vocational Psychology: Theory and Practice Implications," the authors point out concerns with binary schema of social class, highlight the contribution of social class to the social cognitive career theory, argue for a more nuanced look at ways that work provides social mobility in the United States, and note the need to integrate social class with other contextual variables.

Relation of Depression and Affectivity to Career Decision Status and Self-Efficacy in College Students

Rottinghaus, P. J., Jenkins, N., Jantzer, A. M. — 2009-07-22

Further investigations are necessary to explore the interface between personal-emotional and career-related factors. The authors examined links between participants' emotional life, including depression and positive/negative affect, and career decision status and average level of vocationally relevant self-efficacy in a sample of 388 university students. Participants who had made a career decision were significantly less depressed, as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, than those who were undecided about their career. Furthermore, the authors found no significant difference in the average level of positive affect or negative affect, as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, across career choice status groups. Gender accounted for 8.4% of the variation in overall average level of self efficacy, as measured by the Kuder Skills Assessment—College and Adult Version, and positive affect significantly contributed incremental variance (12.7%). The importance of addressing depression and affectivity in vocational research and practice is discussed.

Ethnic Identity and Career Development Among First-Year College Students

Duffy, R. D., Klingaman, E. A. — 2009-07-22

The current study explored the relation of ethnic identity achievement and career development progress among a sample of 2,432 first-year college students who completed the Career Decision Profile and Phinney's Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure. Among students of color, correlational analyses revealed a series of statistically significant, but small positive correlations between higher levels of ethnic identity achievement and career decidedness, choice comfort, indecisiveness, and choice importance. Additionally, racial group was found to moderate the relation between ethnic identity achievement and career decidedness. For Black and Asian American students, those with higher levels of ethnic identity achievement were found to have significantly higher levels of career decidedness, whereas ethnic identity achievement had no significant relation with the decidedness of White and Latina/o students. It is suggested that for first-year students of color, ethnic identity achievement may play a meaningful, but limited role in being decided in one's career decisions. Research and practice implications are discussed.

Susceptibility of Job Attitudes to Context Effects

Bowling, N. A., Boss, J., Hammond, G. D., Dorsey, B. — 2009-07-22

Researchers have typically overlooked the possibility that responses to job attitude items might be produced "on the spot" using information that is temporally accessible to participants. In the current study, the authors test this possibility by examining context effects that occur when questionnaire content influences responses to subsequent survey items. Using data collected from employed students, the authors conducted three experiments that provide evidence that responses to job attitude measures are sensitive to context effects. Specifically, asking participants to think about either positive aspects or negative aspects of their jobs/organizations influenced subsequent responses to job attitudes items. Further analyses suggested that some effects of context manipulations on job attitudes were mediated by participant mood. The authors conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Dispositional Resistance to Change and Occupational Interests and Choices

Oreg, S., Nevo, O., Metzer, H., Leder, N., Castro, D. — 2009-07-22

Through two field studies, we examine the role that individuals' orientation toward change has in determining their occupational choices and interests. In Study 1, 139 job applicants' dispositional resistance to change (RTC) scores were associated with occupational choice, such that individuals applying for investigative and enterprising jobs tended to have lower RTC scores in comparison to those applying for realistic and conventional jobs. In Study 2, among 45 individuals in artistic jobs and 61 individuals in conventional jobs, the routine-seeking dimension of RTC was negatively associated with the artistic choice and interests and positively associated with the conventional choice and interests. The inverse pattern of relationships was found for the emotional reaction dimension of RTC. The relevance of these findings for the occupational field is discussed.

The Development and Initial Validation of Social Cognitive Career Theory Instruments to Measure Choice of Medical Specialty and Practice Location

Rogers, M. E., Creed, P. A., Searle, J. — 2009-07-22

Social cognitive career theory served as the basis for the instrument development for scales assessing self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals to predict medical career choice. Lent and Brown's conceptualization of social cognitive constructs guided the development of items to measure choice of medical specialty and practice location. Study 1 involved four stages: identification of attitudes and beliefs, generation of scale items, evaluation of scale items by experts, and a pilot study. The pilot study tested the item pool with 293 medical students and allowed item and exploratory factor analyses. Study 2 administered the scales to a second sample of 499 medical students. Confirmatory factor analysis assessed consistency and validity, and identified six psychometrically sound instruments. Initial validity for the scales was found encouraging, with further testing of these measures expected to support their use. Implications for use in research are discussed.

The Effectiveness of a Career Decision-Making Course

Fouad, N., Cotter, E. W., Kantamneni, N. — 2009-07-22

This study examined the effectiveness of a college career course designed to increase career decision-making confidence and facilitate career exploration. Participants were 73 students from a large Midwestern university (65.6% women, 34.4% men, mean age 18.56). Students were given questionnaires assessing career decision-making difficulties, career decision-making self-efficacy, and perception of career and educational barriers during the first and fifteenth weeks of the course. Repeated measures analyses were conducted to examine possible differences in students' responses before and after the course. Results indicated that on completion of the course students' career decision-making difficulties decreased, career self-efficacy increased, and perceptions of barriers did not change.