Itamar Gati

A TAXONOMY OF DIFFICULTIES IN CAREER DECISION MAKING

A general theoretical taxonomy of career decision-making difficulties, based on decision theory, has been developed. To examine the proposed taxonomy empirically, a questionnaire was constructed in which the various possible difficulties in the theoretical model were represented by respective statements. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 259 young Israeli adults who were at the beginning of their career decision-making process and to an American sample of 304 university students. The observed relations among the 10 scales, which represent the 10 theoretical categories of difficulties, and those among the items within 2 selected categories, were similar in the 2 samples and compatible with the expected relations derived from the theoretical model. The implications for career counseling and research are discussed. The growing rate of change in the world of work increases the number of career transitions individuals make during their lifetime. The quality of the career decisions made during these transitions is significant for both the individual and society. Making a career decision is, however, a complex process. Although some people make such decisions easily, at least apparently, others face difficulties in making their career decisions, and many seek professional help. One of the central aims of career counseling is to facilitate the career decision-making process of counselees and, in particular, to help them overcome the difficulties they encounter during this process. Therefore, identifying the unique difficulties that prevent individuals from reaching a decision is an essential step in providing them with the help they need. The construct of career indecision has been used to refer to the problems individuals may have in making their career decision (for a review, see Slaney, 1988). Because of its recognized significance, career indecision is one of the central research issues of career psychology (Betz, 1992;

Weighting common and distinctive features in perceptual and conceptual judgments.

By adding the same component (e.g., glasses) to two stimuli (e.g., schematic faces) or to one stimulus only, it is possible to assess the impact of that component as a common or as a distinctive feature. A formal procedure, based on the contrast model (A. Tversky, 1977, Psychological Review, 84, 327–352), for estimating the relative weight of common to distinctive features from similarity judgments between separable stimuli with independent components, was developed. The results show that in verbal stimuli (e.g., descriptions of persons, meals, trips) common features loom larger than distinctive features. On the other hand, in pictorial stimuli (e.g., schematic faces, landscapes) distinctive features loom larger than common features. Verbal descriptions of pictorial stimuli were evaluated like other verbal stimuli and unlike their pictorial counterparts. In conceptual comparisons, the relative weight of common to distinctive features was higher in judgments of similarity than in judgments of dissimilarity.

The structure of vocational interests.

Although the significance of the structure of occupational interests is generally acknowledged, there is less agreement regarding the nature of the structure. This article first discusses the circular-hexagonal model for this structure and the problem faced by it and then describes the hierarchical model for the structure of interests, which is proposed as an alternative to the circular-hexagonal model. Studies testing the assumptions of the hierarchical model are reviewed. A comparison between the circular and the hierarchical model in 18 data sets revealed an advantage of the hierarchical model. Additional support for the hierarchical model. Additional support for the hierarchical model and the compatibility of this model with the findings of previous studies are reviewed. The relation between the way occupational interests are classified and the structure of the resulting clusters is explored. Finally, the research, theoretical, and counseling implications are discussed

Emotional and Personality-Related Aspects of Career-Decision-Making Difficulties

This research focuses on developing a theoretical framework for analyzing the emotional and personality-related aspects of career-decision-making difficulties. The proposed model is comprised of three major clusters: pessimistic views, anxiety, and self-concept and identity. In Study 1, the Emotional and Personality Career Difficulties Scale (EPCD) was developed, refined, and used to empirically test the model with an Israeli Internet sample (N = 728). Study 2 (N = 276) provided evidence for the cross-cultural validity of the proposed model, using an American college student sample. The relations between the cognitive and emotional components of career-decision-making difficulties are discussed, and theoretical, research, and counseling implications are explored.

Construct and Concurrent Validity of the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire:

In order to examine the construct and concurrent validity of the Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ), responses of 403 university students (76% freshmen) to this questionnaire as well as to the Career Decision Scale (CDS) and the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale (CDMSES) were analyzed. As hypothesized, the correlation between the CDDQ and the CDS was positive (.77), and the correlations of these two questionnaires with the CDMSES were negative (-.50 and -.52, respectively). The structure of the 10 difficulty categories of the CDDQ replicated previous findings. In addition, undecided students had significantly higher CDDQ and CDS scores, and lower CDMSES scores than decided students. The implications of the findings for the assessment of difficulties associated with career decision making in counseling and research are discussed.

Novelty and significance in orientation and habituation : a feature-matching approach

A feature-matching model to account for the effects of novelty and significance on psychophysiological responsivity is presented. 2 experiments based on a modified version of the Guilty Knowledge Technique were designed to test predictions derived from the proposed model. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that electrodermal responsivity to the test stimulus reflected the degree to which the subjects were habituated to its components. Experiment 2 provided additional support for the proposed model and suggested that the effects of novelty and significance were additive. These findings support the hypothesis that responsivity is positively related to the degree of match between the input and the representation of significance, and it is negatively related to the similarity between the input and the preceding stimuli. It is argued that the proposed model clarifies the processes involved in orienting response elicitation.

Facets of Career Decision-Making Difficulties.

ABSTRACT The present research investigated the relations among the measured and the expressed career decision-making difficulties in a sample of 299 young adults who intended to apply to college or university. As hypothesised, the correlations between career decision-making difficulties, as measured by the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ), and the expressed difficulties were generally high (median = 0.64), but varied among the 10 difficulty categories (range 0.35–0.82). Both measured and expressed difficulties correlated negatively with the students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (−0.63 and −0.65, respectively). The correlations between the CDDQ and both dimensions of the Vocational Decision Style Indicator were negative but low (−0.25 for the introvert vs. extrovert dimension and −0.35 for the thinking vs. feeling dimension). The correlations between the students’ scholastic aptitude test scores and both measured and expressed difficulties were negligible (−0.03 and −0.08, respectively). Participants with more crystallised career plans reported lower career decision-making difficulties, higher career decision-making self-efficacy, and a higher ‘thinking’ (as opposed to ‘feeling’) vocational decision-making style. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Representations of qualitative and quantitative dimensions

Geometric representations of psychological dimensions are analyzed and compared to an alternative set-theoretical approach. Judgments of similarity between forms and figures reveal the following effects: (a) qualitative attributes are curved relative to quantitative attributes, contrary to intradimensional subtractivity; (b) quantitative attributes augment differences in qualitative attributes, contrary to interdimensional additivity; (c) adding a new dimension with a fixed value increases similarity, contrary to translation invariance. The implications of these results to multidimensional representations of proximity data are discussed.

Dysfunctional Thinking and Difficulties in Career Decision Making.

The present study examined the relationships between two measures of career readiness and difficulties—the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI) and the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ)—as well as the relations between these measures and the individual’s degree of decidedness regarding his or her career plans. A total of 192 university students enrolled in a career-planning class filled out both questionnaires. As hypothesized, the two measures overlapped significantly. There was a highly significant correlation (corrected for attenuation) between the total scores of the questionnaires (r= .82), but the correlations between the questionnaires’ subscales varied between –.03 and .83. Both the CTI and the CDDQ distinguish among individuals at different stages of the career decision-making process. As hypothesized, participants with a higher degree of decidedness reported lower levels of difficulties. Implications of the unique features of each of the measures for career-related interventions and further research are discussed.

Emotional and Personality-Related Aspects of Career Decision-Making Difficulties: Facets of Career Indecisiveness.

The current study investigated the Emotional and Personality-related Career decision-making Difficulties model and questionnaire (EPCD) by studying its associations with various personality measures in three samples: (a) 691 deliberating individuals who entered a career self-help website, (b) 197 students in a university preparatory program, and (c) 286 young adults from the general population. As hypothesized, higher levels of emotional and personality-related career decision-making difficulties, as measured by the EPCD, were associated with higher levels of neuroticism, agreeableness, perfectionism, and need for cognitive closure, and lower levels of extraversion, openness to experience, and career decision self-efficacy. In addition, higher levels of these difficulties were associated with a more external locus of control (LoC), and with being less advanced in the career decision-making process.