The Relationship Between Attitudinal and Behavioral Aspects of Career Maturity

The construct of career maturity has played a prominent role in career development theory. To have practical significance, however, career counselors should know that career maturity is linked to actual career-related behaviors. Toward this end, the current study investigated whether a meaningful relationship existed between an attitudinal measure of career maturity and a measure of career maturity reflecting job performance-related behavioral competencies in a sample of minority youth. Only modest relationships were found between several career maturity attitudes and the behavioral measures. Results are discussed and implications for career counselors working with minority adolescents are provided.     

Exploration to Foster Career Development

Responses to the Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI: Super, Thompson, Lindeman, Myers, & Jordaan, 1988) were organized through cluster analysis to identify different ways in which adults use exploratory behavior to cope with career development tasks. Significant differences in life-role salience among the types of adult career explorers identified were also investigated. Findings indicated a variety of ways in which adults use exploratory behavior. However, no significant differences were found in life-role salience among the types of career explorers. The discussion explains how career counselors can interpret their clients' ACCI profiles to select appropriate career interventions.     

Relationships Among Career and Life Stress,Negative Career Thoughts,and Career Decision State: A Cognitive Information Processing Perspective

According to cognitive information processing theory, career thoughts mediate the relationship between career and life stress and the ensuing career decision state. Using a sample of 232 college students and structural equation modeling, this study found that an increase in career and life stress was associated with an increase in negative career thinking and that an increase in such thoughts was associated with a lower level of decidedness and satisfaction with career choice. However, when the variation associated with negative career thoughts was partitioned in the mediated causal model, career and life stress became associated with less career indecision and dissatisfaction with career choice. The results suggest that counselors attend to negative career thoughts when individuals encounter career and life stress.     

Überqualifizierung im Kontext organisationaler Karrieren

Overqualification occurs when a person has a surplus of knowledge, experience, and qualifications relative to the job he or she holds. Approximately 15 to 20% of employees in industrialized countries are overqualified. Thus, overqualification has become an integral part of organizational reality. The present paper deals with overqualification in the context of career development. We first summarize attitudinal, well-being, and behavioral outcomes of overqualification. Afterwards, we will provide an overview of the relationships between overqualification and career-related outcomes. Based on the partly contrary findings, we develop a conceptual model. In particular, we postulate that overqualified individuals’ proactive behavior might be a signal for organizational decision makers, which in turn triggers career-enhancing changes and developments. Finally, we discuss practical implications of the empirical findings and the proposed model.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDINAL COMMITMENT AND BEHAVIORAL COMMITMENT

This article is concerned with the relationship between attitudinal and behavioral commitment. The role of work rewards and status characteristics regarding this issue is also considered. Data from 1,385 workers representing a variety of occupational groups suggest that attitudinal and behavioral commitment have strong reciprocal effects. The two-stage least-squares estimates indicate that behavioral commitment is the strongest predictor of attitudinal commitment, and vice versa. These data further suggest that attitudinal and behavioral commitment may have their roots in different aspects of the work setting. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Structure and Measurement of Career Indecision: A Critical Review

This article presents a comprehensive review of literature published between 2000 and 2017 relating to the theoretical and empirical progress of indecision structural models and assessment. Because career indecision remains a central topic for counseling, it is important for the field to achieve an updated understanding of relevant models and measurement. Based on their review, the authors found that factors of career indecision can be reliably and validly measured by three instruments: the Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire, the Emotional and Personality Career Difficulties scale, and the Career Indecision Profile. Drawing from these results, the authors developed an integrative model of career indecision consisting of five factors: neuroticism/negative affectivity, choice/commitment anxiety, need for information, lack of readiness, and interpersonal conflicts. Implications and recommendations for practice and research are discussed in a global context.     

Measuring blog engagement: Testing a four-dimensional scale

This study proposed and validated a measurement scale of blog engagement. The researchers explicated the concept of blog engagement as the likelihood and outcomes of interactive blog communication that encompass cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral attachment. Following this definition, a four-dimensional scale was tested. This study suggests that interactive blogs can enhance self-company connection, positive attitudes toward the company and supportive WOM intentions.     

Factorial Invariance of the Indecision Scale of the Career Decision Scale: A Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Results of a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (N= 686) indicated factorial invariance of a 3‐factor model of the Indecision scale of the Career Decision Scale (CDS; Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976 ). Differential item function was not observed when ΔCFI (comparative fit index) was used for comparison of models, thus indicating strong measurement invariance across gender. Men had significantly greater latent means for all 3 dimensions of career indecision. Given the multidimensional structure, use of the CDS may provide an initial step to help practitioners identify possible factors that are responsible for a client's career indecision. Clients may need assistance for initiating a career search, information to help them identify career possibilities for a chosen major, or detailed information concerning several possible careers that are under consideration.     

The effects of propensity score weighting on attrition biases in attitudinal,behavioral, and socio-demographic variables in a short-term web-based panel survey

Propensity score weighting often is used to correct for attrition biases in panel surveys. While methodological literature exists on the logic of propensity score weighting and its practical applications, an in-depth discussion is lacking on the effects of using this weighting to correct for attrition biases in attitudinal, behavioral, and socio-demographic variables. By applying a split panel design, we assessed the effects of weighting on attrition biases in 48 attitudinal, 38 behavioral, and 27 socio-demographic variables. Our findings suggest – while acknowledging the estimate-specific nature of bias – first, that biases vary across these types of variables and second, that the effects of propensity score weighting are not homogeneous across the types. Accordingly, a sole reliance on socio-demographics to evaluate attrition in the present panel survey would have resulted in an underestimation of the biases of attitudinal variables and an overestimation of the ability of weighting to cure the negative effects of attrition in behavioral variables.     

Examining the joint impact of relationship norms and service failure severity on consumer responses

ABSTRACT

This study investigates consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes after service failure encounters with companies with which they have previously established good relationships. It indicates that conformity with or violation of relationship norms guides consumers’ decision making, and that their subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes further depend on the severity of the service failure. Through a 2 (relationship norm types: exchange vs. communal) × 2 (service failure severity: minor vs. major) between-subjects experiment, the study shows that when the prior relationship norms are exchange-based, consumers demonstrate similar attitudes toward the minor and major failures. However, when these relationship norms are communally-based, consumers respond relatively positively in the minor failure situation, but they display more negative attitudes in the major failure situation. This study contributes to public relations literature regarding the role of company-consumer relationships in service failure situations.     

Information sharing between the child welfare and behavioral health systems: Perspectives from four stakeholder groups

This qualitative study articulates the challenges, best practices, and facilitators to information sharing when addressing the behavioral health needs of children in out-of-home care. 13 interviews and nine focus groups were conducted to illuminate the perspectives of foster parents, mental health clinicians, provider agency social workers, and city-employed child welfare professionals. In total, 65 individuals participated in this qualitative study and data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. Results indicate that challenges and best practices in cross-system information sharing articulated across the four stakeholder groups are attributed to variation in information accessibility, clarity in roles and protocols, ability in obtaining signatures for consent/release forms, and attitudinal differences towards collaboration. Implications to improve policy and practice are discussed.     

The efficacy of tables versus graphs in disrupting dark networks: An experimental study

An agent tasked with disrupting a dark (covert and illegal) network must first be presented with information about the organization's structure. This paper uses a behavioral experiment to test in a stylized dark network disruption setting whether an agent makes a better disruption choice when the information is displayed in a table or a graph format. We find that subjects make decisions more quickly when presented with graphs, but that subjects perform weakly better with tables. An important lesson is that the display should explicitly distinguish non-existent links from potential links of unknown status.     

Chronopolitics: What Time Do People Vote?

Insights from time-budget studies are applied to reassess previouswork on factors conditioning the time of day when people vote.In sharp contrast to expectations raised by the literature,the findings reveal weak multivariate effects of attitudinal,behavioral, and situational conditioning factors.     

The Effect of Attitudinal and Behavioral Commitment on the Internal Assessment of Organizational Effectiveness: A Multilevel Analysis

Using a multilevel analysis including 207 volunteers and paid workers nested within 51 nonprofit organizations (NPOs), this study examines the effect of individual and group attitudinal and behavioral commitment on their assessment of organizational effectiveness. Drawing on classical attitude theories, our results indicate that individuals with higher affective organizational commitment tend to assess their NPO’s effectiveness higher, while individuals staying because of the lack of alternatives assess it lower. However, in line with behavioral commitment theories, both relationships are mediated by the effect of teamwork behavioral commitment. We also found a negative effect of normative attitudinal commitment partially nested at the group level. Overall, our results suggest that encouraging volunteers and paid workers to participate in concrete teamwork behaviors on a daily basis constitutes a twofold benefit: it adds to the effect of affective attitudinal commitment at the individual level, while counter balancing the negative effects related to normative individual and collective resistances.     

The Origin of Major Choice,Academic Commitment,and Career‐Decision Readiness Among Taiwanese College Students

The present study aimed to examine if and how career‐decision readiness relates to the origin of college major choice among Taiwanese college students. A total of 375 junior and senior college students (147 women, 228 men) responded to measures of college major choice, academic commitment, career self‐efficacy, and career‐decision readiness. Results indicated that students' academic commitment to a college major tend to increase when they choose their majors based on personal and career preferences. In sequence, high levels of academic commitment lead to high levels of career self‐efficacy, and increased self‐efficacy augments the extent of career‐decision readiness that students manifest near the end of their college education. These findings have practical implications insofar as many Asian students choose a college major because of parents and other authority figures, and these findings demonstrate that a full understanding of career‐decision readiness may require incorporating the origin of college major choice and its academic effects into future research.     

The development, validation, and implications of a measure of consumer competitive arousal (CCAr)

This paper details the conceptual and empirical development of a 10-item scale to measure consumer competitive arousal (CCAr). Consumers experience competitive arousals in a wide variety of consumption contexts. Though the subject has been of interest in several recent studies, neither a consistent definition nor a reliable and valid measurement of the construct has been developed. The study offers a reliable and valid measurement scale of consumer competitive arousal by testing it in three pre-purchase and one post-purchase situation. The findings support three distinct dimensions of the CCAr construct (performance anxiety, rivalry, and scarcity recognition), which help shape a clear definition of the construct. Both the composite and its individual dimensions demonstrate predictive power for several behavioral and attitudinal outcomes.     

General Job Satisfaction From a Developmental Perspective: Exploring Choice—Job Matches at Two Career Stages

The authors explored predictions of general job satisfaction at early and middle adulthood and uncovered several findings about developmental processes associated with job satisfaction. Tests of life‐span career theory propositions revealed that neither choice‐job congruence nor gender added significantly to predictions of job satisfaction at 2 career stages. Earlier occupational choice and current job added to predictions of midcareer (modal age 43 years) job satisfaction, especially for men. The predictability of job satisfaction is apparently influenced by the career stage when satisfaction is appraised.     

Using the integrative model of behavioral prediction to understand college students’ STI testing beliefs,intentions, and behaviors

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To identify salient behavioral determinants related to STI testing among college students by testing a model based on the integrative model of behavioral (IMBP) prediction. Participants: 265 undergraduate students from a large university in the Southeastern US. Methods:Formative and survey research to test an IMBP-based model that explores the relationships between determinants and STI testing intention and behavior. Results: of path analyses supported a model in which attitudinal beliefs predicted intention and intention predicted behavior. Normative beliefs and behavioral control beliefs were not significant in the model; however, select individual normative and control beliefs were significantly correlated with intention and behavior. Conclusions: Attitudinal beliefs are the strongest predictor of STI testing intention and behavior. Future efforts to increase STI testing rates should identify and target salient attitudinal beliefs.     

Adaptable Careers: Maximizing Less and Exploring More

Today, young adults are expected to decide between educational, vocational, and job options and to make the best choice possible. Career literatures emphasize the importance of young adults' career decision making but also acknowledge the problems related to making these decisions. The authors argue that career counselors could support clients' intuitive processing of career information and help their clients to develop a positive and flexible view of the self and the environment while diminishing concerns about accountability for and irreversibility of career decisions. The authors argue that career adaptability rather than decision making should become the focal concept of career theory and practice.     

Career Maturity Determinants: Individual Development,Social Context,and Historical Time

Two samples of 16- to 19-year-old adolescents from different contexts were compared. Whereas young East Germans had experienced an educational system that offered relatively little choice, West Germans had experienced more leeway. In 1991, youth from East Germany reported more career maturity than did same-aged adolescents from the West. Different variables predicted career maturity in the 2 groups. Whereas person-related variables predicted career maturity in both groups, family and peer contexts were relevant only among the West German youth. In 1996, when differences in social context had greatly diminished, these differences had disappeared. Results confirm the usefulness of a cross-cultural and contextual approach to career development.