Training Career Practitioners

This article summarizes 8 presentations from Group 8 on the theme “Training of Researchers and Practitioners,” which were part of the 2007 joint symposium of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Society for Vocational Psychology, and National Career Development Association held in Padua, Italy. Three themes representing challenges for the profession emerged from the presentations: (a) the need for public policies addressing career development, (b) the need for greater competency standardization, and (c) the need to create innovative training programs. Discussion group participants presented creative strategies for addressing these challenges.     

Unraveling the Source of African American Children's Positively Biased Perceptions of Peer Acceptance

The present study investigated possible ethnic contributions to overly positive self‐perceptions in middle childhood. The goals of this study were threefold. First, the present study sought to replicate the intriguing findings reported by Zakriski and Coie that African American children overestimate their acceptance, and European American children underestimate acceptance by other‐ethnicity peers. Second, this study examined possible explanations for ethnic differences in the pattern of perceptual bias. Finally, this study extended prior research by examining ethnic differences in the accuracy of children's perceived peer acceptance. Archival data consisting of 826 children in third (N = 284), fourth (N = 241), and fifth grades (N = 301) were used in the present investigation; 237 of which were African American children, and 589 were European American children. Results of this study replicated the findings of Zakriski and Coie . Moreover, African Americans' overestimation and European Americans' underestimation of acceptance by other‐ethnicity peers was found to be attributable to more positive views of self and others among African American children relative to European American children. Finally, children were found to be more accurate about judging their acceptance by peers of the same ethnicity than those of a different ethnicity. Possible explanations of what causes African American children to have more positive views of self and others than European American children are discussed.     

The Good Life: what about the children?

This paper is a reflective historical survey of how Australia, despite its affluence, has not delivered ‘the good life’ to poor Australians, both indigenous and non‐indigenous. It argues that, contrary to our national mythology, this country was founded on institutionalised social inequality and on the exclusion of Indigenous people from land rights, property and equal citizenship. As one of the world's twenty richest countries, we perform poorly across a wide range of social and health indicators because we suffer from entrenched, systemic and growing inequality. If we are to survive the challenges that face us from climate change and the global financial crisis, we need to shape policies that mitigate income and social inequality and that promote inclusion and better social cohesion.     

Temporal Sequence of Global‐Local Processing in 3‐Month‐Old Infants

In 3 experiments, the temporal processing sequence of local and global visual properties was investigated with 3‐month‐old infants. Across the experiments, a global pattern was discriminated under conditions of less familiarization than was necessary for local elements to be discriminated, thus indicating a global precedence in the sequence of visual processing at 3 months of age. Patterns of discrimination were also observed to vary as a function of individual differences in infants' look duration. Furthermore, the pattern of novelty and familiarity preferences for short‐looking infants varied in complex ways as a function of familiarization time: Preferences for novel global properties were supplanted by familiarity preferences at the point in familiarization at which infants first became sensitive to local properties.     

Family Structure and Educational Attainment: Sex Differences among Urban Blacks

Abstract

This research evaluates the impact of family structure on the educational attainment of northern urban blacks. Separate analyses of male and female adults reveal little support for the traditional view that the “broken home” lowers the achievement of black males. Rather, we find it is black females, especially in segregated contexts, who have been most adversely affected by parental absence. These findings are interpreted as reflecting the different relationship of males and females to the family under conditions of structurally-induced poverty.