Koorosh Massoudi

Effectiveness of career counseling and the impact of the working alliance.

This study analyzes the role of the working alliance on the life satisfaction and career decision difficulties of clients participating in career counseling in Switzerland. The study also compares these career counseling clients to a group of students who did not seek counseling, to explore the overall effectiveness of a face-to-face career counseling intervention, using a pre—post design. Results indicated that the working alliance was positively associated with clients’ satisfaction with the intervention and with the final level of their life satisfaction. Working alliance was also negatively associated with the final levels of career decision difficulties. Moreover, clients’ career decision difficulties significantly decreased and their life satisfaction increased throughout the intervention. These findings suggest that working alliance represents an important variable to better understand career interventions’ underlying mechanisms. Moreover, face-to-face career counseling is effective considering career-specific as well as broader, life-related indicators.

The psychometric properties of the french version of the personality inventory for DSM-5

In the context of the publication of DSM-5, the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) has been proposed as a new dimensional assessment tool for personality disorders. This instrument includes a pool of 220 items organized around 25 facets included in a five-factor second-order domain structure. The examination of the replicability of the trait structure across methods and populations is of primary importance. In view of this need, the main objective of the current study was to validate the French version of the PID-5 among French-speaking adults from a European community sample (N=2,532). In particular, the assumption of unidimensionality of the 25 facet and the five domain scales was tested, as well as the extent to which the five-factor structure of the PID-5 and the DSM-5 personality trait hierarchical structure are replicated in the current sample. The results support the assumption of unidimensionality of both the facets and the domains. Exploratory factor and hierarchical analyses replicated the five-factor structure as initially proposed in the PID-5.

The career indecision profile : measurement equivalence in two international samples

This study tested for the measurement equivalence of a four-factor measure of career indecision (Career Indecision Profile–65 [CIP-65]) between a U.S. sample and two international samples; one composed of French-speaking young adults from France and Switzerland and the other of Italian adolescents. Previous research had supported the four-factor structure of the CIP-65 in both the United States and Iceland but also showed that items on two of the four scales may be interpreted differently by young adults growing up in these two countries. This study extends previous research by testing whether the four CIP-65 factors are measured equivalently in two additional international samples. Results largely supported the configural and metric invariance of the CIP-65 in the United States and international samples, but several scales showed a lack of scalar invariance. Some explanations are offered for these findings along with suggestions for future research and implications for practice.

Working Alliance as a Moderator and a Mediator of Career Counseling Effectiveness

This study analyzed the role of working alliance in individual career counseling. The level of career decision difficulties and satisfaction with life of 188 clients was assessed at the beginning and at the end of career counseling. Clients’ perceived working alliance was assessed after the third session, and their satisfaction with the intervention (SWI) was assessed at the end of the intervention. Results showed that working alliance (1) moderated the decrease of lack of career information, (2) predicted SWI, and (3) played a mediator role in the decrease of inconsistent career information. The study confirmed the importance of relational factors in career counseling, particularly of the client–counselor agreement about intervention goals and tasks.

Comparing the Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism Scale and the Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale in Two Cultures Switzerland and South Africa

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism Scale (HVIC) and the Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale (AICS). The sample consisted of 1,403 working individuals from Switzerland (N = 585) and from South Africa (N = 818). Principal component factor analyses indicated that a two-factor structure replicated well across the two countries for both scales. In addition, the HVIC four-factor structure replicated well across countries, whereas the responsibility dimension of individualism of the AICS replicated poorly. Confirmatory factor analyses provided satisfactory support to the original theoretical models for both the HVIC and the AICS. Equivalence measurement indices indicated that the cross-cultural replicability properties of both instruments are generally acceptable. However, canonical correlations and correlations between the HVIC and AICS dimensions confirm that these two instruments differ in their underlying meaning of the individualism and collectivism constructs, suggesting that these two instruments assess individualism and collectivism differently.

Influence of clients’ personality and individual characteristics on the effectiveness of a career counselling intervention:

Clients’ personality traits and individual characteristics, such as age, gender, reason for seeking counselling, and further compounding problems in their personal or academic lives, may pose risk factors that render career decision making difficult and may also impact the overall effectiveness of a career counselling intervention. Neuroticism and conscientiousness as well as clients’ age and gender directly affected clients’ satisfaction with life and certain aspects of their career indecision scores before participating in our short-term career counselling intervention. Career counsellors can use personality and career-specific and career-non-specific instruments to tailor career counselling interventions to meet clients’ individual needs.

Career pathways and professional transitions : preliminary results from the first wave of a 7-year longitudinal study

The main purpose of this chapter is to present and to discuss the implementation and the main methodological characteristics, notably in terms of design and research protocol, sampling and data collection procedure via a mixed-mode approach, of our 7-year longitudinal study on professional trajectories. More specifically, adopting several psychological perspectives, this study addresses professional transitions and career pathways and personal experiences – particularly in terms of well-being – of employed and unemployed middle-aged adults (25–55 years) living in Switzerland. Furthermore, based on the first wave of data (N = 2469), we introduce some results concerning, amongst others, the predictors of the choice of the mode to complete the questionnaire and of the intention to participate in the next wave, and possible differences on vulnerability indicators with reference to personal characteristics, resources and professional situation. Finally, considering the procedure implemented and the results emerging from this first wave, we discuss several implications and challenges for the next waves.

The moderating effects of culture-driven individual differences in the stress-strain relationships: comparison between Switzerland and South Africa

ABSTRACT This study investigated the moderating effects of culture-driven individual differences in the relationship between work conditions and work-related health outcomes in Switzerland and South Africa: Swiss natives (nu2009=u2009397) and Swiss foreigners (nu2009=u2009224), White South Africans (nu2009=u2009432) and non-White South Africans (nu2009=u2009434). We used the horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism scale to measure culture-driven individual differences, the Job Content Questionnaire to measure psychological job demands, and the General Health Questionnaire and the General Work Stress Scale to measure work-related health outcomes. Results suggest that high vertical individualism had a general buffering effect in the stress–strain relationship among the South African White group. Low vertical collectivism played a similar role among the South African non-White group and the Swiss foreigners group, while high horizontal collectivism had a detrimental effect in stressful work conditions in both South African groups. Finally, horizontal individualism had no moderating effect. Generally, our study suggests that to investigate the moderating role of culture-driven individual differences according to the ethnic group of belonging is promising, given that the same individual characteristic does not necessarily interact in the same way in the stress–strain relationship.