Applying Decision Theory to Career Counseling Practice: The Sequential Elimination Approach

This article provides career counselors with a practical procedure, based on decision and information processing theories, for assisting clients in making career decisions. The proposed procedure, which is derived from the sequential elimination approach, considers the individual's limited cognitive and material resources and provides specific guidelines aimed at facilitating career decision making and increasing the quality of the process and its outcomes. The proposed procedure has been found useful in making various types of career decisions.     

Assessing Depression in Childhood and Adolescence: A Guide for Social Work Practice

Depression is relatively common in children and adolescents, and if left undetected and untreated, can have long-term negative consequences. Social workers providing services to families, children and adolescents need to understand the characteristics, and conduct developmentally appropriate assessments, of depressive symptoms. This paper provides a review of current literature related to the definition, prevalence, co-occurrence, and measurement of depression in childhood and adolescence. It also highlights relevant gender, race, and ethnic influences.     

Neighborhood Effects on Racial–Ethnic Identity: The Undermining Role of Segregation

African American and Latino youth experience stereotypes about their group’s academic ability but youth high in three components of racial–ethnic identity Connectedness, Awareness of Racism, and Embedded Achievement are buffered from these stereotypes and are more likely to attain good grades in school, feel efficacious, and engaged with academics. In the current study, the effect of neighborhood segregation on these components of racial–ethnic identity was examined. Segregation impairs racial–ethnic identity Connectedness, Awareness of Racism, and Embedded Achievement among African American and Latino youth. Eighth graders (n = 206 African American, n = 131 Latino) living in 100 census tracks filled out racial–ethnic identity scales. A multilevel model demonstrates that segregation is associated with lower scores on each of the components of racial–ethnic identity.

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Older Parent–Child Relationships in Six Developed Nations: Comparisons at the Intersection of Affection and Conflict

Intergenerational solidarity and ambivalence paradigms suggest that emotional relationships between generations consist of both positive and negative sentiments. We applied latent class analysis to measures of affection and conflict in 2,698 older parent–child relationships in 6 developed nations: England, Germany, Israel, Norway, Spain, and the United States (Southern California). The best fitting model consisted of 4 latent classes distributed differently across nations but with a cross‐nationally invariant measurement structure. After controlling for demographics, health, coresidence, contact, and support, the following classes were overrepresented in corresponding nations: amicable (England), detached (Germany and Spain), disharmonious (United States), ambivalent (Israel). We discuss policy and cultural differences across societies that may explain why the prevalence of particular emotional types varied by nation.     

Terror, Resource Gains and Exclusionist Political Attitudes among New Immigrants and Veteran Israelis

This study analyses the antecedents of exclusionist political attitudes towards Palestinian citizens of Israel among Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Union in comparison to Old Jewish Israelis (OJI). A large-scale study of exclusionist political attitudes was conducted in the face of ongoing terrorism in Israel through telephone surveys carried out in September 2003 with 641 OJI and 131 immigrants. The main goal of the survey was to estimate the influence of perceived loss and gain of resources-as a consequence of terror-on attitudes towards Palestinian Israelis, while controlling for other relevant predictors of exclusionism-i.e. authoritarianism or threat perception. Findings obtained via interaction analyses and structural equation modelling show that a) immigrants display higher levels of exclusionist political attitudes towards Palestinian citizens of Israel than OJI; b) loss of resources, authoritarianism, and hawkish (rightist) worldviews predict exclusionist political attitudes among both immigrants and non-immigrants; c) failure to undergo post-traumatic growth (resource gain) in response to terrorism (e.g. finding meaning in life, becoming closer to others) is a significant predictor of exclusionist political attitudes only among immigrants.     

Framings of Career Compromises: How Career Counselors Can Help

Compromise is a significant component of career decisions as well as many other personal decisions. This article presents a conceptual model for dealing with career compromise and discusses its implications for the career counseling process. The model identifies three possible framings that individuals may adopt when facing compromise. Specifically, compromise may be framed in terms of career alternatives, the importance of different aspects, and within-aspect preferences. The distinctions among the three framings have distinct implications for the career decision-making process. Suggestions are discussed for relevant intervention options aimed at decreasing the potentially harmful effects of the need to compromise.     

Gendered Influence of Downward Social Comparisons on Current and Possible Selves

Because men and women differ with regard to independent and interdependent self-construals, we propose that downward comparisons are more likely to lower women's achievement-related self-evaluations compared to men's. We also hypothesize that gendered self-schemas provide men with advantages in the processing of self-related dispositional information and women with advantages in the processing of self-related social-contextual information. To the extent that a downward social comparison presents a potential threat to the self, men and women differ in how effectively they can fend off the implications of different types of comparisons. Results from three experiments (total N = 393) support these hypotheses, suggesting that gendered responses to downward comparison are at least in part driven by a culturally normative focus on dispositional information prevalent in the West.     

Norms of Filial Responsibility for Aging Parents Across Time and Generations

This investigation examined the normative expectation that adult children should be responsible for the care of their aging parents, and how this norm changes over the adult life span, across several decades of historical time, in relation to generational position in families, and between successive generations. Analyses were performed using 4 waves of data from the University of Southern California (USC) Longitudinal Study of Generations between 1985 and 2000. A multilevel latent growth model was estimated using 4,527 observations from 1,627 individuals nested within 333 families. Results revealed that filial norms weakened after midlife, in response to parental death, and over historical time, yet strengthened in later‐born generations. Findings are discussed in terms of the malleability of filial responsibility over the life course.     

Keeping in touch: Ecological factors related to foster care visitation

Visitation, assumed to be important for children in foster care, has not been studied in sufficent detail. In the present study, patterns and characteristics of home and foster family visitation and telephone contact are described in a national sample of children in foster care in Israel (n=590). Relations between child, biological and foster family characteristics are explored by type of contact and foster placement. Parent-child contact is most strongly related to foster family characteristics and relations with the biological family. Patterns differ for relative and nonrelative foster families.Dr. Oyserman is on sabbatical leave