A Social Cognitive Framework for Career Choice Counseling

This article extends social cognitive career theory by suggesting how several of its major hypotheses can be applied to counseling persons with career choice difficulties. Several theory-derived counseling strategies are described that can be used to assist clients in developing a broad array of career options, analyzing and overcoming barriers to career choice, and counteracting choice-limiting self-efficacy beliefs. Each strategy is illustrated with a case example. Future research needs related to the counseling model are discussed.     

A Telephone Counseling Program for Elder Abuse in Japan

ABSTRACT

In the 21st century, one-fourth of the Japanese population will be 65 years and older. Not only is the duty to report elder abuse not defined by the law but there is no special organization with clinical facilities to respond to incidents of elder abuse. A report in 1994 by the Society for the Study of Elder Abuse (SSEA) showed the need for definitive social measures to prevent elder abuse. Based on that research, SSEA organized the Japan Elder Abuse Prevention Center and initiated a volunteer telephone counseling service “Help Line” that was available for several hours on Mondays. Within an 18 month period, 209 cases were handled of which 150 concerned abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. Callers were more often the elder or the daughter than other relatives or outsiders. Sons were the more prevalent perpetrators, and financial abuse the most common type of mistreatment reported. Recommendations include new laws and social welfare policies that adapt to the changes in an aging society.     

Career Assessment and Counseling for STEM: A Critical Review

Career counselors must continually enhance their knowledge and skills to assist clients contemplating careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Therefore, the authors review STEM disciplines and theory‐driven strategies for assisting diverse individuals to explore, enter, and persist in STEM careers. Appropriate use of career assessments can contribute greatly to this effort. To identify available measures for STEM‐focused domains and constructs, the authors conducted a journal content analysis of stand‐alone STEM‐related career assessments from 1983 to 2016, identifying 39 articles with 153 measures. Notable results included the emergence of social cognitive theory and social cognitive career theory as prevailing frameworks for instrument development, a wide variety of disciplines and journals represented, an underrepresentation of minority samples, and untapped potential for cross‐discipline and researcher–practitioner collaboration. Useful strategies and resources for counselors and recommendations for enhancing career assessments and interventions are addressed.     

The Storied Approach: A Postmodern Perspective for Career Counseling

The author discusses the storied approach as a constructivist perspective on career counseling. The storied approach explores the client's world through story development as the client and counselor collaboratively co‐construct, deconstruct, and construct life stories. Story development encompasses the client's past, present, and future life experiences that are related to life roles (i.e., family, student, worker, leisure, community). Assessment consists of both quantitative and qualitative data that are woven into the client's story as the symbols or meanings that call for further exploration.     

Randall Collins,Ideas and Ritual Solidarity

Sociological Forum -     

Career Counseling Is Personal Counseling

Despite many changes that have occurred in the field of career counseling, counselors continue to rely on models of counseling that emphasize the rational, informational aspects of career decision making. The author argues that career counselors need to pay more attention to the affective, psychological issues confronting clients with career problems. The impact of significant psychological variables that influence career decision making are discussed: developmental stages and tasks, identity formation and status, self-concept, psychological needs, and internal barriers.     

Rational Suggestions for Pre-Marital Counseling

Pre-marital counseling purports to help clients discover and challenge unrealistic expectations they may have for themselves and for one another. Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET) is ideally suited to locating and correcting irrational thoughts that precipitate personal and interpersonal conflict. In order to demonstrate the utility of RET pre-marital counseling, this article presents examples of specific irrational beliefs which clinicians can use to help couples develop and maintain intimacy with minimal conflict. Mental health practitioners are encouraged to apply these principles to other specific irrationalities they may discover in their own work experience.     

Constructivist Counseling for Career Indecision

Twentieth-century vocational guidance has been an objective enterprise in which counselors have studied and treated career indecision by abstracting and objectifying it. This article describes how the logical positivist perspective on indecision as an objective phenomenon has evolved over the course of this century. Then, the article explains how constructivist counselors view indecision as clients' subjective attempts to give meaning to crisis points in their lives. This view permits a conceptualization of career counseling as a process of articulating a client's life theme. The article concludes with a case study that illustrates a life-theme approach to counseling for career indecision.