Integrating Individual Differences in Career Assessment: The Atlas Model of Individual Differences and the Strong Ring

Career assessment methods often include measures of individual differences constructs, such as interests, personality, abilities, and values. Although many researchers have recently called for the development of integrated models, career counseling professionals have long faced the challenge of integrating this information into their practice. The authors examine the use of integrated models to enhance the career counseling process, including Armstrong, Day, McVay, and Rounds's (2008) RIASEC‐based Atlas Model of Individual Differences (using Holland's 1997, typology of 6 interest types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional [RIASEC]) and Armstrong, Smith, Donnay, and Rounds's (2004) basic interests‐based Strong Ring. These models provide a structured framework for presenting clients with assessment feedback that emphasizes connections between interests, personality, and abilities.     

Relationships Among Middle‐School Adolescents' Vocational Skills,Motivational Approaches,and Interests

This study examined gender differences in relationships among vocational skills, motivational approaches, and same‐gender and cross‐gender interests for urban adolescents. Results showed gender differences in interests, with males having greater Realistic interests and females having greater Artistic and Social interests, based on Holland's (1997) theory of interest types. Structural equation modeling revealed that males tended to approach the occupational world with assertiveness, the desire to create opportunities, and the use of instrumental support. Females tended to approach the occupational world by being adaptable, capitalizing on their skills and abilities, actively preparing themselves for the future, exploring options, and using emotional support. Recommendations for career development practice are provided.     

The Independence of Aptitudes,Interests, and Career Beliefs

The importance of client beliefs in career counseling depends on their ability to add unique information about the client over and above that contributed by aptitudes and interests. The Career Beliefs Inventory was administered to 200 Australian students in grade 10 together with measures of Holland's RIASEC interest themes and scholastic aptitudes. The correlations between scales from the three domains showed clearly that beliefs made a contribution distinct from that provided by aptitudes and interests. Even though the results may reflect possible sampling or method variance, career beliefs in this sample added unique information to that traditionally used in career counseling.     

John Holland's Contributions: A Theory‐Ridden Approach to Career Assistance

Holland influenced practice and research in career development by contributing a clear theory useful in organizing information about individuals and career alternatives and for understanding individuals' entry and persistence in occupational and other environments. His theory was repeatedly revised in response to evidence. As Holland's own career unfolded in a succession of organizational environments, he used the research opportunities these environments afforded to conduct large‐sample tests of his ideas and assessment tools. J. L. Holland's (1970) Self‐Directed Search is intended to be a career intervention, and Holland developed it and tested it as such. In outlining Holland's contributions to career counseling, a précis of his theory and some biographical context are provided.     

The Influence of Role Models on Women's Career Choices

This study of 368 female undergraduates examined self‐efficacy and role model influence as predictors of career choice across J. L. Holland's (1997) 6 RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) types. Findings showed that levels of self‐efficacy and role model influence differed across Holland types. Multiple regression analyses indicated that self‐efficacy and role model influence accounted for significant variance in career choice for all 6 RIASEC types. Role model influence added to the prediction of career choice over and above the contribution of self‐efficacy in all but 1 of the RIASEC types. The importance of attention to role models in career counseling is discussed.     

Negotiating Gender in Uncertainty: A Mechanism of Women's Marginalization in the Japanese Workplace*

Abstract Women have been long absent from important white-collar positions in large Japanese organizations. Two approaches have been made to understand women's work experiences and career outcomes in these organizations, namely, the structuralist and the rational choice approaches. The underlying assumption of both approaches is that individual women's career orientations are basically fixed and larger factors outside the workplace play central roles to determine women's career outcomes. In order to understand women's work experiences and perspectives more realistically, however, we need to turn our attention to the workplace itself and to examine the mechanisms through which women are constantly marginalized, if inadvertently, in everyday interactions with others. Drawing on a developing perspective that focuses on the dynamic nature of women's career experiences. this paper, based on a case study, demonstrates a major way in which the influences of outside factors, specifically of women's attitude toward work, are in fact reinforced within the workplace. A major component of this mechanism is women's sense of uncertainty generated through their day-to-day work lives.     

Gender Trouble in Town: Educated Women Eluding Male Domination,Gender Violence and Marriage in PNG

Following Zimmer-Tamakoshi's observations about educated Pacific women not wanting to marry their countrymen, I examine educated Papua New Guinean women's perspectives on marrying Papua New Guinean men. Women in this group avoid marriage because they fear such relationships will destroy their career prospects, compromise their economic and decision-making independence and force them to grapple with male jealousy and violence in the domestic realm. In short, educated Papua New Guinean women perceive partnerships with their countrymen as being more troublesome than they are worth. The women's attitudes and actions suggest an emerging trend with important implications for understanding (both) the relationship between gender and education and intimate relationships in Papua New Guinea.     

LINGERING NUANCES: GENDERED CAREER MOTIVATIONS AND ASPIRATIONS OF FIRST-YEAR LAW STUDENTS

This study examined students' career motivations and aspirations at the beginning of their legal education and after one semester in law school. Interviews with 29 law students within the first few weeks of their first semester revealed interesting differences in women's and men's long-term, but not short-term, career ambitions: notably women had lower expectations for their career trajectories than did men. Work and family concerns also played a role in women's perception of possible career paths and were defined by both women and men as potential barriers to their careers. Follow-up interviews with the same students after their first semester in law school also exposed the different experiences of the law students based mostly on their gender and grades. After one semester of law school and after first-year grades were received, the gendered reactions to their grades provided insight into women's and men's perceptions of viable career options.     

What are women's political interests? Connecting theory to empirical approaches in cross‐national perspective

Parliamentarians and other elected officials have the power to “act for” women and improve their substantive representation. Yet, women are not a homogeneous group with identical individual goals. Given the diversity of women, especially considering the social intersections within a multiplicity of socioeconomic and cultural arrangements across the globe, the identification of “women's political interests” worldwide is problematic. Does the concept of “women's interests” grasp the diversity of women's collective political demands? How can this concept be used to study women's substantive representation in legislative bodies? This article presents theoretical perspectives on the concept and their connection to empirical approaches to the identification of women's interests.     

A Holland Perspective on the U.S. Workforce From 1960 to 2000

The authors analyze civilian occupations and employment data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 with respect to 6 kinds of work (Holland's RIASEC [Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional] classification), employment, and gender. For the 1990 and 2000 censuses, kinds of work, gender, and income are analyzed, and for the 2000 census, kinds of work, age, and gender are examined. Past employment trends developed from census data are further analyzed with respect to Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projections through 2012. Implications for further research, employment policy, and career services are offered.     

Accuracy of the College Majors Finder for Three Majors

The Self-Directed Search was administered to 68 university seniors who were majoring in Chemistry/Chemical Engineering, Elementary Education, and Office Administration. Their resulting three-letter summary codes were compared with three-letter college major codes obtained from the College Majors Finder. A high degree of agreement between the two sets of codes was found for each of the three majors. Effective methods for matching people to jobs have held the interest and occupied much time for career counselors and vocational theorists since the inception of the trait-factor approach to career counseling. More recently, Holland (1985a) broadened and clarified matching procedures through the development of his typological theory of vocational choice. Just as personality types and occupational environments have been organized using Holland's framework to foster an understanding of occupational choice, Holland's theory can also be used to explain other types of choices, such as choice of a college major.     

Career Salience Among Nigerian Dual-Career Women

This study investigated the factors that relate to the career salience of Nigerian dual-career women. Findings showed that neither family size nor level of education related to the women's career salience. The husbands' level of education did relate to the women's career salience. Positive self-image and higher family income were identified as the advantages, while nonegalitarianism was emphasized as the major drawback of the dual-career relationship.     

The Gendered Context of Life: Implications for Women's and Men's Career-Life Plans

Some recent perspectives on gender differences in life and career planning are discussed, focusing on the gendered context of women's and men's lives. Men and women tend to develop different orientations regarding occupational achievement and interpersonal relationships. These orientations interact with broader sociocultural norms for the sexes' behavior to produce different life-style opportunities and demands. Work environments also embody broadly accepted assumptions and expectations for men and women, affecting the choices and expectations they face in the work place.     

Fragmented Sisters? The Implications of Flexible Working Policies for Professional Women's Workplace Relationships

Much is being done by governments and organizations to help workers reconcile their family and employment responsibilities. One such measure has been the introduction of flexible working policies. While academic and policy debates focus on the barriers to flexible working, less consideration is paid to those who work alongside flexible workers. Through a gendered lens, this article focuses on professional women and explores the implications of UK flexible working policies for women's workplace relations in organizations that have traditionally been based on male models of working. Drawing on interviews conducted in three English organizations, it was found that the women's interests did not always coincide and that their social relationships, with respect to flexible working, involved both support and resentment. In particular, the women's interests were affected by organizational and job‐related factors and their stage in the life course. These findings illuminate the ways in which policies are negotiated at the level of daily workplace life and show that co‐workers are a pivotal part of the wider picture of flexible working.     

Career Self‐Efficacy and Perceptions of Parent Support in Adolescent Career Development

The authors examined the relative contributions of both proximal and distal supports to the career interests and vocational self‐efficacy in a multiethnic sample (N = 139) of middle school adolescents. Consistent with Social Cognitive Career Theory, it was found that (a) vocational self‐efficacy and career planning/exploration efficacy consistently predicted young adolescents' career interests across Holland (J. L. Holland, D. R. Whitney, N. S. Cole, & J. M. Richards, 1969) themes; (b) gender and career gender‐typing predicted interests in Realistic, Investigative, and Social careers; and (c) perceived parent support accounted for 29% to 43% of the total unique variance in vocational self‐efficacy for all Holland theme careers.     

The Working Family: Helping Women Balance the Roles of Wife,Mother, and Career Woman

This article reviews research literature of the past 15 years to assess the impact of four factors on women's career continuity: (a) husband's attitude toward his wife's paid employment, (b) financial considerations, (c) household responsibilities, and (d) wife's personality variables. Particular issues relevant to career counselors are highlighted throughout this review and a variety of career related strategies are presented that can be used to assist clients in achieving this balance. As the number of women in the labor force continues to increase, women's ability to effectively balance family and career concerns will be essential to successful and continuous employment.     

Disrupting the ‘life-cycle’ of violence in social relations: recommendations for anti-trafficking interventions from an analysis of pathways out of sex work for women in Eastern India

This article argues for the need to change the ways in which anti-human trafficking (AT) non-government organisations (NGOs) and their interventions in India frame and address violence in sex work. The article asserts that AT NGOs need to move beyond their ideological allegiances and infuse their interventions with a better understanding of the lived realities of women who are coerced into sex work. This argument is based on an analysis of women's pathways out of sex work in Eastern India, which include both finding independent routes, and also reliance on AT interventions. The research suggests that AT interventions need to acknowledge the centrality of social relationships in women's lives and experiences of violence. Social relations influence women's entry into sex work, affect their experiences within it, and shape their pathways out of sex work.     

Exploring Women's Retirement: Continuity,Context and Career Transition

This paper reports on an exploratory study examining women's views about and experiences of retirement. It has long been recognized that women's careers often follow a different path than men's due to the differential impact of family and domestic responsibilities and their relative underrepresentation at higher levels of organizations. However, many studies of retirement have implicitly assumed a conventional male career as the norm, where retirement is seen as marking a neat ending to continuous employment. This paper aims to present a richer understanding of women's retirement, utilizing contextual national data and qualitative analysis. The paper begins with a brief summary of literature looking at women's career development. We then explore the concept of retirement and consider current literature with regard to women's retirement. Following a brief discussion of our research approach, we provide some national context using quantitative data. We then discuss the qualitative findings, examining the areas of continuity and change that women experienced in retirement and exploring the factors that they felt enabled and constrained them.     

Feminized cultural capital at work in the moral economy: Home credit and working-class women

One of the defining features of the home credit sector is the role played by its agents—workers who act as intermediaries between lending companies and borrowers to facilitate lending and collect repayments. There is a prevailing and pervasive narrative in the sector that women make superior agents, largely based on the belief that female agents can manage relationships with borrowers more successfully than their male counterparts. This article analyzes data from 349,078 home credit accounts (loans), as well as 71 interviews with home credit agents and lending company managers, to evaluate both the myths and realities of women's roles in home credit. The data is also used to explore the opportunities for—and potential constraints on—women's career progression in home credit work, based on an understanding of the moral economy in which they operate. By exploring the moral economy of low-income communities, the article highlights the role of working-class women's cultural capital within the labor market. Despite women forming the majority of the agent workforce in home credit, women's capital is undervalued in comparison with their male counterparts' capital. The analysis within this article allows a greater understanding of the highly classed and gendered nature of the moral economy of low-income communities and the exchange value of women's capital within the labor market.