The Viability of Readiness Assessment in Contributing to Improved Career Services: Response to Jepsen (2000)

This article responds to D. A. Jepsen's (2000) commentary on Sampson et al.'s theory‐based approach to using readiness assessment to improve career services (J. P. Sampson, G. W. Peterson, R. C. Reardon, & J. G. Lenz, 2000). Three topics are included in this response: the reliability, validity, and utility of readiness assessment measures; verbal ability and the use of cognitive information‐processing theory in practice; and the potential contribution of reflective evaluation in career decision making. This article concludes with recommended research questions to examine the impact of readiness assessment on the effectiveness of career service delivery.     

Association of progressively Type-II censored order statistics

The association of progressively Type-II censored order statistics from a sample of associated random variables _X1,…,_Xn$X_1,\dots ,X_n$ is established. Moreover, some bivariate dependence properties are discussed for independent but not necessarily identically distributed _X1,…,_Xn$X_1,\dots ,X_n$.     

Tobacco, depression, and lifestyle choices in the pivotal early college years

The author explored the correlates of tobacco use among 18- and 19-year-old students at a major midwestern university. A sample of 203 randomly selected freshmen and sophomore students completed a survey that included questions about tobacco use, other drug use, mental health issues, eating disorders, stress, smoking environment, and healthy lifestyles. The prevalence rate for tobacco use was 29% for the past year and 32% for the past month. Multivariate analyses suggested that students with a lifetime diagnosis of depression or treatment for depression were 7 times as likely as other students to use tobacco. In addition, marijuana and alcohol use and weekend exposure to smoke increased the likelihood of being a tobacco user. Stress and diet behaviors were found not to be significantly associated with tobacco use. Implications for health promotion among high school and college populations are drawn from the study findings.     

Erste Ergebnisse faktischer Anonymisierung wirtschaftsstatistischer Einzeldaten

Summary: This paper presents first results of the project Factual anonymization of business microdata. The project aims at creating and providing scientific–use files of business data. For this, appropriate anonymization strategies and methods are created. The anonymization procedures are judged by whether they can guarantee the factual anonymity of company and operating data without limiting their potential value for statistical analysis. As an example the survey of German cost structure in the processing industry is considered. Here, both the impact of different anonymization methods on the potential use of the data as well as their effect on the re–identification risk is examined.

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Zusammenfassung: Mit diesem Beitrag werden erste Ergebnisse des Projektes Faktische Anonymisierung wirtschaftsstatistischer Einzeldaten vorgestellt. Ziel des Projektes ist es, die Grundlagen für die Erstellung von Scientific–use–files im Bereich der Unternehmens– und Betriebsdaten zu legen. Hierzu werden entsprechende Anonymisierungsverfahren und –strategien entwickelt. Die Anonymisierungsverfahren müssen danach beurteilt werden, ob sie die faktische Anonymität von Unternehmens– und Betriebsdaten sicherstellen können, ohne das Analysepotenzial über Gebühr einzuschränken. Am Beispiel der Kostenstrukturerhebung im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe werden erste Ergebnisse vorgestellt. Dabei wird sowohl untersucht, wie sich verschiedene Anonymisierungsmaßnahmen auf das Analysepotenzial der Daten auswirken, als auch welche Effekte sie auf das Re–Identifikationsrisiko haben.

     

A Content Analysis of Career Development Theory,Research, and Practice—2013

This annual review of the career counseling and development literature presents a content analysis of refereed journal articles published in 2013. Four research questions guided the analysis: (a) What content topics were included in career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? (b) To what extent are theory, research, and practice integrated in career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? (c) What variation exists in the characteristics of career development articles published in refereed journals in 2013? and (d) What variation exists in the content included in theory, research, and practice articles? A total of 360 unique topics were identified in 357 articles from 24 journals. Results indicated that topic content in journals evolved slowly with limited integration of theory, research, and practice. Implications are suggested for (a) future topic content; (b) better integration of theory, research, and practice; (c) education and training; (d) journal editorial policy; and (e) future content analyses of journal articles.     

Mindfulness and Decision‐Making Style: Predicting Career Thoughts and Vocational Identity

Mindfulness has been a focus of psychological research and practice in recent decades. Yet, there is limited research on the relationship between mindfulness and vocational decision‐making. This study’s purpose was to examine the role of mindfulness in a career context by investigating the relationships among mindfulness, decision‐making style, negative career thoughts, and vocational identity. The sample included 258 undergraduate students (204 women, 54 men) at a large southeastern U.S. university. Mindfulness was significantly (p < .01) associated with fewer negative career thoughts, external and thinking‐based decision‐making styles, and higher vocational identity. Multiple regression procedures found that mindfulness, coupled with decision‐making style, accounted for 31% of the variance in negative career thoughts and 22% of the variance in vocational identity. These findings suggest that more holistic career counseling interventions could incorporate mindfulness techniques to help reduce anxiety and negative thoughts while increasing self‐clarity and problem‐solving skills. Future research could include more diverse samples, additional constructs (e.g., choice volition, self‐efficacy), and a pretest–posttest design to examine the efficacy of mindfulness‐based career interventions.     

Data sources for trend extrapolation in technological forecasting

Trend extrapolation is only one part of technological forcasting. This tool must be used carefully, for the past is an indication of the future only when the environmental structure of the past remains constant in the future. If one can indeed assume that no changes have taken place then there are a series of models available for trend by extrapolation. All such models deal with empirical data, and this article has attempted to suggest some methods that will provide the forecaster with the capability to develop a data base.