Training Counselors to Use Computer‐Assisted Career Guidance Systems More Effectively: A Model Curriculum

A model graduate training curriculum that emphasizes the counselor's role in assisting clients in the effective use of computer‐assisted career guidance (CACG) systems is described. This 4‐module graduate training program emphasizes client readiness and exploration using CACG systems, skill building and simulation exercises, and service learning with career clients. The study is evaluated from the perspectives of counselor educators, counselor trainees, and career clients. Findings from 4 institutions support the efficacy of a model curriculum for graduate training and the beneficial outcomes of using CACG systems under appropriate conditions.     

Comparing Intake Concerns and Goals With Career Counseling Concerns

The authors investigated the relationship among clients' intake concerns, intake goals, and career counseling concerns. Results indicated that intake goals focused primarily on resolving D. E. Super's (1957) exploration stage tasks, but concerns included education‐related issues and ego dystonic emotions related to work. Intake concerns and goals were not related to the content of career counseling. Implications are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Counselor Verbal Response Modes and the Working Alliance in Career Counseling

The authors examined the use of counselor response modes in career counseling, including the overall proportion of each response mode and the relationship of each response mode to the working alliance. Participants were 19 counselors‐in‐training and 26 clients in 78 sessions, making this the largest reported study of career counselor response modes. Seventy‐nine percent of the counselor responses were information, paraphrase, or close‐ended questions. None of the categorized counselor responses was significantly and positively related to the working alliance, although counselor self‐disclosure had a significant negative correlation with the alliance. The type of self‐disclosure used was largely irrelevant or self‐deprecating.     

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.     

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.     

Internationalizing Career Counseling: Emptying Our Cups and Learning From Each Other

The symposium International Perspectives on Career Development included a plenary session that addressed career counseling in a world of limited resources. Panelists representing diverse areas of the world shared their perspectives on career counseling in their countries and the specific problems they faced. They identified common concerns and prospects for the future of cross‐national career counseling in 3 domains: (a) counselor training and human resources, (b) career service delivery practices, and (c) resources and sources of support. Harnessing the energy and capital of the global career counseling community will better equip career development professionals to deal with existing limitations and realize the common goal of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance and the National Career Development Association to internationalize career counseling.     

Life and Work Values of Counselor Trainees: A National Survey

This national web‐based study used the Schwartz Value Survey (Schwartz, 1994) and Super's Work Values Inventory‐Revised (Zytowski, n.d.) to identify general life and work value orientations of 674 female and male entry‐level counselor trainees residing in 27 states. In general, trainees emphasized benevolence, self‐direction, and achievement and the work values lifestyle, supervision, and achievement. Significant multivariate and univariate differences for age, gender, and program of study were found on both value domains. The sample of practicing counselors scored significantly higher on several values than did trainees. Implications for how students construe values to develop toward their professional role of counselor are considered.     

Contributions of the Working Alliance in the Practice of Career Counseling

We see the working alliance, a construct well articulated in the psychoanalytic counseling literature, as a key element in enhancing the counseling of those with career concerns. This article describes the working alliance as that sector of the overall experience of counseling participants characterized by their collaboration, mutuality and cooperation with regard to the work of counseling. The dimensions of the working alliance, the counselor and client contributions to it, and the perspectives of others about it are discussed. This study reviews obstacles to building and sustaining the alliance, such as resistance in the form of fear of counseling, and confusion related to counseling goals, tasks, and bonds. Finally, mention is made of the possible research and policy implications of emphasizing the working alliance in career counseling practice.     

Metacognition and Multicultural Competence: Expanding the Culturally Appropriate Career Counseling Model

The authors focus on the significance of the counselor's cultural contexts in effective career interventions vis‐à‐vis the incorporation of multicultural metacognition. They briefly summarize and critique extant career counseling models for racial/ethnic minority clients and then describe an expanded model for career counseling that incorporates metacognition processes for addressing counselor‐related cultural factors.     

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.     

Donald Edwin Super: The Career of a Planful Explorer

Donald Edwin Super was a member of the National Career Development Association from 1934 to 1994, a full 60 years. Starting at midcentury, his writings and lectures provided the main impetus to expand vocational guidance to encompass career counseling. This article, structured around the five stages in Super's life stage model and narrated in the language of vocational development tasks that he identified and researched, tells the story of Super's own career development and extrapolates the major themes in his unparalleled career as a vocational psychologist and career counselor.     

Predictors of Student and Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy Among Nontraditional College Women

A study of 354 nontraditional college women found robust levels of confidence in their ability to manage the student role and pursue career‐related tasks. Findings indicated that perceived career barriers and social support accounted for variance in student and career decision‐making self‐efficacy for nontraditional college women with and without children. Social support added to the prediction of self‐efficacy over and above the contribution of perceived barriers. The discussion focuses on recommendations for career counseling interventions to facilitate educational and vocational success among nontraditional college women.     

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.     

Career Decision Self‐Efficacy of Asian American Students: The Role of Curiosity and Ethnic Identity

This study examined the role of curiosity and ethnic identity in career decision self‐efficacy among Asian American college students. Given that curiosity can promote the process of exploring one’s possible future self, opportunities, and career goals, the authors hypothesized that curiosity would be associated with career decision self‐efficacy, directly or indirectly, through a sense of ethnic identity. Results based on data from 425 Asian American incoming first‐year college students suggest that students with high curiosity tend to present a stronger sense of competence in completing career decision‐related tasks. These findings also confirmed a hypothesis that ethnic identity mediates the association between curiosity and career decision self‐efficacy. Implications for future research and career counseling with Asian American college students are discussed.     

Vocational Identity at Work: Mediating Between Essence and Occupation

This case report presents the thoughts and experiences of a professional mediator. The narrative tells the story of a 46‐year‐old Caucasian woman who has overcome numerous barriers only to find herself in the midst of a formidable career crisis. The crisis originated when powerful people in her field attempted to force her to act in ways that were incongruent with her self‐concept and vocational identity. She has come to the career counselor seeking direction and an effective resolution of her career crisis.     

Career Decision Making for Korean International College Students: Acculturation and Networking

The authors examined the relationship among acculturation, career networking, and career decision self‐efficacy for Korean international college students. Networking is an essential skill for career success, and acculturation is connected to career outcomes for diverse populations; however, little research has examined the relationship between these factors. A total of 172 Korean international students (117 women, 54 men, 1 not reported) completed measures of acculturation; networking comfort, intensity, and proactivity; and career decision self‐efficacy. Using structural equation modeling, the authors found acculturation to affect career decision self‐efficacy through networking. The relationships among acculturation, networking, and career decision self‐efficacy indicated a medium to large effect size. These findings indicate that career counselors should collaboratively attend to acculturation concerns, such as stress and identity development, as well as provide opportunities for networking skill development. More research is needed on acculturation and networking among additional international student populations.     

Relation of Type and Amount of Training to Career Counseling Self‐Efficacy in Italy

This study examined the relation of self‐efficacy to length and type of training in a sample of Italian career counselors. Findings indicated that amount of career counseling training was positively related to counselors' self‐efficacy regarding their abilities to conceptualize vocational problems, deal with career indecision concerns, and provide educational counseling. In addition, counselors who had participated in an in‐service training course that focused on social cognitive/learning theories reported stronger self‐efficacy regarding their skills at vocational problem conceptualization and at educational counseling than did those who received more eclectic training.     

An Emergent Phenomenon of American Indian Secondary Students’ Career Development Process

Nine single‐race American Indian secondary students’ career development experiences were examined through a phenomenological methodology. All 9 participants were in the transition period starting in late secondary school (age 18). Data sources included individual interviews and journal analysis. The phenomenon of American Indian secondary students’ career development process comprised 7 themes, which were integrated into 3 interacting dimensions: introspective, relational, and contextual. Findings reveal unique career development processes for American Indian secondary students living in tribal settings, including career decision process, career options, outcome expectations, and self‐efficacy. Implications for school counselors and counselor educators are discussed.     

Adolescents' Career Decision‐Making Process: Related to Quality of Attachment to Parents?

This longitudinal study examined how adolescents' perceptions of attachment security with parents relate to their process of choosing a major in higher education. The participants were 281 students who were investigated at the beginning, middle, and end of Grade 12. Findings showed that higher perceived security with mother, but not with father, predicted higher levels of coping with the career decisional tasks of orientation, broad and in‐depth environmental exploration, and self‐exploration in the future. However, perceived security did not relate to the degree of change in decisional tasks during Grade 12. Finally, results suggested that the association between perceived security with mother and the decisional tasks of orientation, broad and in‐depth environmental exploration, and self‐exploration was mediated by adolescents' career decision‐making self‐efficacy.     

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.