Journal of Career Assessment

This correlational study, using an adult sample of 175 men and 123 women, replicates the correlational patterns between the Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1985a) and the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI/FFI; Costa & McCrae, 1989) observed in earlier investigations. The relationships between the SDS and the Personal Styles Inventory (PSI; Silver & Malone, 1993)—developed to measure six personality disorders or styles from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.) (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987)—were also explored. Canonical and simple correlational analyses indicate that the SDS is more closely related to the NEO PI/FFI than to the PSI. These analyses lend support to the formulation for some of Holland's Personality types.

The Short Form of the Task-Specific Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale (TSOSS; Osipow, Temple, & Rooney, 1993) and a measure of self-efficacy with respect to 20 occupational titles (Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale [OSES; Betz & Hackett, 1981]) were administered to 111 male and 159 female college students. Results indicated significant gender and order of administration effects for both task- specific and occupational self-efficacy, with higher scores found among males and when the OSES, versus the TSOSS, was administered first. Relationships between task-specific and occupational self-efficacy were moderate in size, and TSOSS factor score intercorrelations were significantly stronger in females than males.

Career indecision scales may obscure important differences between students who are committed to self-chosen vocational goals and students who are committed to goals chosen for them by significant others. To examine this possibility, 199 students responded to a measure of identity status along with the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976), My Vocational Situation (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980), and the Career Decision Profile (Jones, 1989). A MANOVA using identity status as the independent variable and the three decisional measures as dependent variables indicated that the decisional measures discriminated the diffused and moratorium groups from each other and from the identity achieved and foreclosed groups. However, the measures did not discriminate between the achieved and foreclosed groups.

These studies explore the usefulness of thinking about one's occupational future in gender-linked jobs from the perspective of "possible selves." We developed lists of feminine, masculine, and neutral occupations and asked 31 women and 66 men how possible they thought these jobs were for them, and how much they feared them (i.e., believed they would be unhappy doing them). Women feared masculine jobs more than they rated such jobs as possible. Both women and men feared feminine jobs more than they viewed these jobs as possible. The occupational list was revised and a second sample of 34 women was asked how much they expected, feared, and hoped for these gender-typed jobs. The results were similar. Women feared both the masculine and feminine jobs more than they saw these jobs as possible, and there was some indication they hoped for the masculine jobs more than they expected them. The results are discussed in terms of how a possible selves approach could facilitate career assessment and counseling.

The present study evaluated the internal structure of two translated multiple-scale questionnaires: the Task-Specific Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale (TSOSS; Osipow, Temple, & Rooney, 1993) and the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale (CDMSE; Taylor & Betz, 1983). Data were obtained during a pilot study for testing the Hebrew versions of the TSOSS and the CDMSE. Cluster analysis applied to the split scales was found to complement the traditional method used to assess the psychometric properties of the instruments. As proposed by its authors, the TSOSS was found to possess four distinct scales in both language versions. The elimination of problematic items from the Hebrew version revealed the five hypothesized factors assumed to underlie the CDMSE. The proposed clustering analysis of the split scales appears to have potential application to the refinement process of other multi-scale instruments as well.

The present study examined the reliability and validity of the Commitment to Career Choices Scale (CCCS; Blustein, Ellis, & Devenis, 1989) within a large sample of high-school students (N = 481). Data were concurrently gathered on students' college- versus work-bound orientations, cumulative GPAs, and their parents' educational levels; in addition, students indicated whether or not they presently had a definite career goal. Results demonstrated that the CCCS subscales possessed adequate reliability and were significantly related in expected directions with students' career decision status (i.e., decided/undecided). Tendency to foreclose (TTF), but not Vocational exploration and commitment (VEC), scores were negatively related to cumulative GPAs. Regression analysis of student GPAs demonstrated that VEC scores and their interaction with TTF scores significantly predicted students' academic grades beyond that explained by their parents' educational levels and the students' own decision status and college- versus work-bound orientations. Implications of these findings for using the CCCS within high-school samples are considered.

Participants in the study were 323 Hispanic- and African- American students enrolled in various summer enrichment programs sponsored by Baylor College of Medicine. This sample consisted of 101 males and 222 females who were predominantly African- American and Hispanic-American and had a mean age of 16.70 years (SD = 3.62). All participants completed the Values Scale (VS; Nevill & Super, 1986), a research and counseling instrument that was created to assess intrinsic and extrinsic work values. Work values that differentiated between the male and female minority students in this sample included Creativity, Aesthetics, Altruism, Social Relations, and Life Style, with males placing more emphasis on these values than females. As the VS was normed separately for males and females, differences found in the present study may be due to the cultural differences between the normative sample and the ethnic minorities in the present sample.