Role Induction in Career Counseling

Many vocational psychologists advocate addressing career as well as personal concerns in career counseling. However, some clients may have inappropriate expectations toward career counseling and may not be prepared or want to discuss personal issues. This study examined whether perceptions of the career counseling process could be modified with the use of role induction. Results indicated that, whereas role induction was associated with perceptions of students' own career concerns, gender was a strong influence in perceptions of counseling overall and in the stigma associated with a holistic perspective on career counseling.     

Advancing the Career Counseling Profession: Objectives and Strategies for the Next Decade

This article discusses the 9 analyses of the career counseling profession's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that appear in this September 2003 special issue of The Career Development Quarterly. The author identifies points of convergence, proposes a mission statement, and summarizes what career counselors seem intent on doing in the coming years. The analysts recommended that the career counseling profession concentrate on 8 objectives: advancing theory that is more holistic, contextual, and multicultural; using accumulated research more effectively; focusing new research on the career counseling process; exploiting technology to construct new tools; ameliorating career counseling training; expanding the National Career Development Association's role; increasing advocacy about public policy; and fostering the international growth of the profession.     

The Inseparability of “Career” and “Personal” Counseling

In this article it is argued that “career” and “personal” counseling should not be viewed as different types of counseling because: (a) the holistic philosophy of counseling emphasizes helping “whole” persons whose lives contain many important and meaningful roles; (b) recent research on the implications of gender and race for career development further demonstrates the inseparability of our career and “personal” lives; and (c) there are numerous commonalities in the “career” and “personal” counseling process.     

Identification and Integration of Career Theory: Students’ Perspectives on the Process

In many counseling programs, while students are learning about career theory, they may be tasked in a separate course with identifying a theoretical approach to counseling. This may result in a dichotomous situation in which students lack an understanding of the relationship between career theory and counseling theory. Career counselors have long recognized the artificial distinction between career counseling and general counseling. However, counselor education programs generally lag, and there is a dearth of literature regarding the process of identifying and integrating career theory and counseling theory. This phenomenological study examined 6 students’ perceptions of the process of career theory identification and integration. Analysis of in‐depth interviews yielded 5 major themes: theory identification and integration, perceptions of career counseling, resources, personal dimensions, and application across the life span. Findings of this study have the potential to inform counselor education pedagogy regarding career theory identification and its application to the counseling context.     

The Pyramid Model: A Useful Tool in Career Counseling With University Students

Often university students are faced with career decisions and seek help from the university counseling center. The pyramid model is a useful tool to assist the counselor and the student in the decision-making process. The metaphor enables the student to understand the tasks that lie ahead in the career counseling process. It is holistic. A case study is included to illustrate the three-dimensional model of career counseling of university students.     

Career Counseling Practicum: Transformations in Conceptualizing Career Issues

The authors describe how their participation in a doctoral-level career counseling practicum has influenced their perceptions of the relationship between career and personal counseling, attitudes toward career services, and career interventions skills.     

Career Counselors as Advocates and Change Agents for Equality

This analysis of the career counseling profession's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats emphasizes the importance of the profession's contributions to fostering equality in a democratic society. Career counseling professionals and their National Career Development Association are well positioned to expand their concentration on fostering the career development of individuals to encompass advocacy about public policy and agency in changing systems. Advances in the use of technology, attention to multicultural issues, and advocacy of holistic models have the potential to enrich the career counseling profession's contributions to individual development and social equality.     

Cultural Context of Career Choice: Meta‐Analysis of Race/Ethnicity Differences

The authors focus on career counseling from a cultural perspective, using the proxy construct of race/ethnicity. They briefly describe traditional career counseling and critique the degree to which the myriad cultural contexts that shape clients' career development are incorporated into vocational theories and practice. They conducted a meta‐analysis of research that has investigated the relationship between culture and vocational choice variables and concluded (a) that race/ethnicity differences do not greatly affect career aspirations but (b) that there are differences among racial/ethnic groups in perceptions of career‐related opportunities and barriers.     

Career Development of Women of Color and White Women: Assumptions,Conceptualization, and Interventions From an Ecological Perspective

Current career counseling practices are based on certain assumptions about clients and their career development, and these assumptions implicitly reflect male, western European experiences and worldviews. These assumptions may not reflect the general life priorities and specific role commitments of many women of color and White women. An ecological perspective on career counseling is proposed to conceptualize the dynamic interaction between the person and the environment. This perspective holds promise for assisting career counselors in their work with women of color and White women.     

Toward a More Complex View of Career Exploration

This article examines the concept of career exploration in adult populations. In contrast to the prevailing positive view of career exploration, the authors present a more complex and balanced perspective of this process, addressing some of the barriers to career exploration and the applicability of this concept to different populations. They examine differences between voluntary exploration and forced or chance exploration, discuss how relationships may be barriers to exploration, consider various outcomes of career explorations, and call for a more holistic view of the individual in career counseling.     

The Future of Career Counseling as an Instrument of Public Policy

Since the early 20th century, career counseling has been the object of public policy and legislation. As such, the important contributions of career counseling to labor market processes have reinforced the role of career counseling and related career interventions as sociopolitical instruments vital to the facilitation of national goals. The author discusses the interactions of career counseling and public policy; the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to such interactions; and selected strategic issues facing professional career counselors in the 21st century.     

Mindfulness and Decision‐Making Style: Predicting Career Thoughts and Vocational Identity

Mindfulness has been a focus of psychological research and practice in recent decades. Yet, there is limited research on the relationship between mindfulness and vocational decision‐making. This study’s purpose was to examine the role of mindfulness in a career context by investigating the relationships among mindfulness, decision‐making style, negative career thoughts, and vocational identity. The sample included 258 undergraduate students (204 women, 54 men) at a large southeastern U.S. university. Mindfulness was significantly (p < .01) associated with fewer negative career thoughts, external and thinking‐based decision‐making styles, and higher vocational identity. Multiple regression procedures found that mindfulness, coupled with decision‐making style, accounted for 31% of the variance in negative career thoughts and 22% of the variance in vocational identity. These findings suggest that more holistic career counseling interventions could incorporate mindfulness techniques to help reduce anxiety and negative thoughts while increasing self‐clarity and problem‐solving skills. Future research could include more diverse samples, additional constructs (e.g., choice volition, self‐efficacy), and a pretest–posttest design to examine the efficacy of mindfulness‐based career interventions.     

Self‐Efficacy,Perceptions of Barriers,Vocational Identity,and the Career Exploration Behavior of Latino/a High School Students

This study explored the potential relationship between the social cognitive variables of career decision‐making self‐efficacy and perceptions of barriers and the outcome variables of vocational identity and career exploration behaviors in a sample of 128 urban Latino/a high school students. The results indicated that higher levels of career decision‐making self‐efficacy were related to both a more differentiated vocational identity and a greater engagement with career exploration tasks. Perception of fewer barriers was also found to be related to a more integrated vocational identity. Implications for career counseling and future research are discussed.     

Counseling trainees’ academic burnout,meaningful work,and career choice satisfaction: A resilience framework

This study focused on examining counseling trainees’ perceptions of meaningful work as a resilience factor against decreased career choice satisfaction, which is related to burnout experience. As a result of latent moderated structural equation modeling, academic burnout and meaningful work were significantly related to career choice satisfaction. Furthermore, meaningful work significantly buffered the negative relationship between academic burnout and career choice satisfaction. Our findings suggest that meaningful work plays both compensatory and protective roles against the negative effect of academic burnout on career choice satisfaction. We provided implications for counselor training and preparation.     

Student and Counselor Perceptions of Career Counselor Work Activities in a Community College

This study examined whether differences exist between student and counselor perceptions of work activities performed by the latter group in a large Southern California community college. Participants responded to a 40-item questionnaire indicating whether tasks were actually performed, and whether they ought be performed by counselors when providing career guidance. Chi-square with Yates's correction for continuity and Fisher's Exact Test were used to analyze the data. Statistically significant results indicated that students did not believe that counselors were actually performing the majority of tasks commonly and ideally associated with career counseling services. Although students and counselors agreed on ideal career counselor work activities, counselor responses revealed no difference between their actual and ideal duties.     

Integrating Work,Family, and Community Through Holistic Life Planning

This article provides a rationale and interdisciplinary framework for integrating work and other dimensions of life by (a) reviewing relevant changes in society and the career development and counseling profession, (b) describing one holistic career‐planning model called Integrative Life Planning (ILP), based on 6 interactive critical life tasks, and (c) discussing questions and issues surrounding narrow versus broad approaches to life planning. ILP includes a strong emphasis on career counselors as advocates and change agents. It focuses on several kinds of wholeness, integrative thinking, democratic values, and helping clients make career decisions not only for self‐satisfaction but also for the common good.     

Predicting Career Indecision in College Students: The Roles of Identity Formation and Parental Relationship Factors

Students' identity formation and perceptions of parental acceptance and encouragement of independence were investigated as predictors of career indecision. The Mother-Father-Peer Scale (Epstein, 1983), Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Bennion & Adams, 1986), and Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976) were administered to 169 undergraduate students with a mean age of 19.68. Analysis using multiple regression indicated that career indecision was predicted by a greater degree of identity moratorium and diffusion, less maternal acceptance and fewer years in college. Suggestions for future research and counseling applications are provided.     

Career Counseling With Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgendered Persons: The Next Decade

The author, on the basis of an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing literature as well as the relevant opportunities and threats, proposes future directions for career counseling with lesbian, gay male, bisexual male and female, and transgendered persons. Suggestions include efforts for theory development, empirical research, career assessment, counseling practice, and counselor education.     

Parental Support in Adolescents' Career Development: Parents' and Children's Perceptions

Using social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2000 ), this study examined the role of parents' and children's perceptions of parental support in adolescents' career choices. A total of 94 Italian adolescents (30 boys, 64 girls) and both of their parents (N = 188) participated in the study. The authors tested a fully mediated model between mothers' and fathers' perceptions of support and career choice through the indirect effect of adolescents' perceptions of parental support and career self‐efficacy. Results provided support for the model. Specifically, both mothers' and fathers' perceptions of support predicted their adolescents' career choice through the mediating effect of the youths' perceptions of parental support and career self‐efficacy. These results have important implications for practice and underscore that parents need to be involved very early on in their children's vocational development.     

Annual Review: Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development, 1990

This review of the 1990 literature on career development and counseling emphasizes literature on career counseling approaches and interventions, and literature related to the general theme of “work within a life.” This theme addresses how work simultaneously expresses and influences how an individual functions as an integrated psychological being. The importance of the context of an individual's life is also emphasized throughout the review. Topics include race, sex, and multiple role issues, selected career choice issues and indecision, coping on the job, and job change and unemployment. Implications for career counseling are provided.