A. J. Metz

Houston, 2001 Context and Legacy

This article presents an overview of the Houston 2001 National Counseling Psychology Conference. The authors discuss the context for the 4th National Counseling Psychology Conference, documentthe process of decision makingaboutthe conference, andexamine the content of the conference. The authors also examine a unique feature of the conference, the social action groups, discussing their philosophical underpinnings as well as how they were organized, what took place, and recommendations drawn from the groups. The authors evaluatethe outcomes of the Houston Conference andalso assess the conference within the context of the legacy of the three other counseling psychology conferences held at Northwestern University in 1951, in the Greyston Conference Center at Teachers College in 1964, and in Atlanta in 1987. Finally, the authors make recommendations for the field to move the conference’s initiatives forward and plan for future conferences.

Leadership in Division 17 Lessons from the Presidential Addresses

Themes of Division 17 presidential addresses from 1984to 2002, published in The Counseling Psychologist, were examined using a grounded theory approach. Sorting and coding of the data yielded six major categories: distinctiveness of counseling psychology, disappointments/missed opportunities, successes, foundations of counseling psychology, outside influences, and future recommendations. Review of the coding provided identification of underlying dimensions. Specifically, the connections that emerged from the qualitative analysis are explained using a grid with “identity” on a temporal x-axis (from who we are to who we want to be) and “actions” on a functional y-axis (from internal to the division to externally focused). The combined messages or stories of the Division 17 presidents may provide insight into the forces that have influenced counseling psychology over the last 2 decades.

Measuring Noncognitive Factors Related to College Student Outcomes: Development and Initial Construct Validation of the Student Strengths Inventory

This study describes the development and initial construct validation of the Student Strengths Inventory (SSI), a brief measure of noncognitive variables previously found to be related to college student outcomes. A sample of 760 first-year college students completed an initial item pool in addition to a lengthier, established noncognitive assessment tool with similar constructs. Results support a 48-item, six-factor measure with the following scales: Academic Self-efficacy, Academic Engagement, Campus Engagement, Resiliency, Social Comfort, and Educational Commitment. The SSI demonstrates good internal consistency reliability and construct validity. Future research is needed to examine the predictive validity of the SSI subscales with respect to academic performance and persistence. Practice implications include providing individualized feedback to students on their noncognitive strengths and weaknesses and helping them set goals for their academic success. Moreover, the results of the SSI can inform interventions at the individual, group, and institutional level.

Promoting Transferable Non-Cognitive Factors

In this chapter we highlight the value of education and the high educational aspirations of young people. At the same time we present statistics that demonstrate the difficulty young people have navigating the educational pipeline. This is followed by a review of interventions that have been designed to promote student success and prevent attrition.

The Relationship Between Interests and Values in Career Decision Making The Need for an Alternative Method of Measuring Values

Personal attributes such as interests and values are typically combined as part of an integrated career assessment to help clients examine, clarify, and integrate self-knowledge. Although most researchers agree there should be some relationship between these constructs, the empirical evidence is scarce and yields mixed results. The relationships between career interests (as measured by the Choices Interest Profiler) and work values (as measured by the Choices Work Value Sorter) were examined in this study using a sample of 57,032 individuals. Results showed good internal consistency reliabilities for career interests (all αs above .93), but extremely poor internal consistency reliabilities for work values (five of the six were negative). The low reliabilities for work values were due to the ideographic model for measuring work values. It is proposed that measuring work values nomothetically (as abilities and interests are measured) would improve the psychometric properties of values scales and make them more useful in career guidance. As would be expected, the correlations between career interests and work values were all close to zero.