Racial and ethnic diverse populations experience discrimination in educational and career attainment and remain underrepresented in the counseling profession. The current literature provides limited guidance for the counseling profession and academic institutions for successfully recruiting racial and ethnic minority students in a master's level counselor training program. Social Constructivist theory and Adlerian/ Individual Psychology are the theoretical foundations of the study. This constructivist grounded theory study sought to understand the career decision-making process of African Americans choosing to enter in the counseling profession and the influence of racial and ethnic identity on this decision-making process. Utilizing semistructured interviews via video-conferencing; 43 self-identified African Americans were commissioned to co-create an iterative career decision-making theory that informs recruitment and retention of African Americans to the counseling profession. Following the Charmaz's (2014) approach to data analysis; 15 themes which support the development of Embracing Ujima an interpretive theory of African Americans choosing to join the counseling profession—that informs a framework of recruitment and retention of African Americans to the counseling profession. The implications for social change include closing the knowledge gaps and informing counselor training institutions of the importance of physical representation, a sense of belonging, developing early career pipelines, and positioning counselor educators as the chief career development professionals for the field of counseling.

In this study the experiences of young people who engage in a gap year were explored. The focus of the study was on how the gap year influenced career decision-making. A case study design was used to gather information about the experiences of three young people who engaged in various types of gap years. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews, life-lines and collages created by the participants. They were also consulted throughout the research process and participated in the data analysis. Content analysis was applied to the gathered data, and various themes and sub-themes were identified. These were confirmed by the participants before the completion of the study. This study found that the value of the gap year may be in the personal growth that it facilitates, the time it allows people to take before finalising their decisions, and its impact on career maturity. The findings indicate that the gap year may help people to resolve their career indecision by providing opportunities to experience the world and gain self-knowledge, thereby becoming more career mature. This in turn leads to the ability to make a career decision. / Dissertation (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

The work examines and compares personal values, behavioural patterns, personal motivation and career choices of six individuals from the Velvet Revolution period using interviews obtained by the oral-historical method. The main aim is to answer the question where people who helped transform one regime into another had come from and how they coped with tasks they could not have been prepared for in advance. In late 1989, the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia collapsed. One way of running the society was quickly replaced by another, but the society did not collapse, and life went pretty smoothly on. All of a sudden, many opportunities opened up as well as many responsibilities to generations of people who could not have been prepared to take either of them. Yet at least some of them did so. How did they manage? Keywords Czechoslovak society 1989-1992, career decision-making, Velvet revolution of 1989, network of social acquaintances, transformation of society

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While there is evidence about the relationship between career development and psychological outcomes, more work is needed to understand how career development is related to personal mental health outcomes in college students. Studying some of the social and cognitive predictors of self-efficacy, this study espouses a holistic perspective to career development and aims to better understand its impact on well-being. Using social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and Super's life-span, life-space theory, this study examines how social (e.g., parental support) and cognitive (e.g., career values awareness) factors influence career decision-making self-efficacy, and furthermore, how this impacts well-being in undergraduate students. Specific mediation hypotheses were assessed, including the mediating role of career values awareness in the relationship between parental support and career decision-making self-efficacy, and the mediating effect of career-decision-making self-efficacy on well-being. Data were collected from 1446 undergraduate students at a large Midwestern public land-grant university through an online survey. Using structural equation modeling to analyze the data, results indicated that: (a) career values awareness mediated the relationship between parental behaviors and CDMSE; (b) CDMSE mediated the relationship between parental behaviors and well-being; and (c) CDMSE mediated the relationship between career values awareness and well-being. In an alternative model, parental support and socioeconomic status (SES) were also found to be significant positive predictors of well-being. Post hoc analysis revealed that academic standing (i.e., year in school) did not moderate the relationship between CDMSE and well-being. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are suggested along with implications for clinical practice.

Studying social work in Sweden is less popular among men than women. Only about one in five applicants who applied to the programme during the autumn of 2018 in Stockholm University were male, showcasing a gender imbalance. Thus, the aim of this study is to research why male social work students applied to the programme, how their environment influenced their choice, and their attitude towards working in a female dominated field. Furthermore, the study has a deductive approach where the two theories, socialization and Connells theory of masculinity, laid the groundwork for the analysis. Nine male students in Stockholm University were divided into two focus group interviews, and their discussions were later analyzed qualitatively. The empirical data was then constructed into four themes which were examined through previous research and the earlier mentioned theories. The results show that the respondents prioritize comfort and safety over status and income when choosing a profession, that they perceive important qualities in a social worker to be empathic yet assertive, that social work in general is viewed as an unclear subject which hinders others from seeing it as a viable career option and that men in social work are desirable in the labour market.

This study explored the relationship between self-development as evidenced in the domain of narcissism and the process of vocational development as evidenced in career values, planning, and decisiveness/self-efficacy. It was suggested that this relationship would be impacted by family birth order and gender. Heinz Kohut's theory of self-psychology was utilized to understand narcissism from both an adaptive and maladaptive, developmental perspective. A review of narcissism and self-development theories was included to provide a comparative and comprehensive approach. Literature indicated that the development of narcissism was influenced by birth order and gender. Additionally, a review of the literature suggested a connection between Kohut's theory of the self and narcissism and aspects of the career development process, such as planning, decision-making, and occupational values. The sample consisted of 346 undergraduate students. Structural Equation Modeling was performed to test causal hypotheses. The major findings of the current study were that superiority (a measure of grandiosity) predicts altruistic career values and career decisiveness. Superiority is a slightly better predictor of altruistic career values than decisiveness. Additionally, goal instability (idealizing) predicts altruistic career values and career decisiveness. Goal instability had a predictive value that was nearly three times stronger for decisiveness. The results indicated that birth order and gender were not moderator variables in examining the relationship between goal instability and superiority. This study provided insight into the relationship between narcissism and the vocational/career development processes. These relationships may be important for career counselors and other related professionals. These findings may encourage counselors to assess and understand a client's narcissistic tendencies and individual representations when assisting in the career development process. A client's values regarding career options, along with his/her associated self-efficacy and ability to make important decisions, appear to be factors to consider when counseling an individual through vocational/career development. Limitations of the study were addressed and directions for further research discussed.

The career counselling services industry is currently being challenged by a unique set of conditions which has resulted in calls for a greater client orientation in the delivery of career services. The current study takes up this challenge by using marketing concepts to explore the relationship between the expectations (desired) people in career transition have of a career counselling service and the perceptions career counselling service providers have of client expectations. In the process, it also examines variables (career transition group membership, career decision-making self-efficacy, age, gender, and previous experience with a career counselling service) that may impact on the expectations people in career transition have of a career counselling service. The study used a three-phased mixed method approach to gather expectation and perception data. In Phase 1, focus group interviews were conducted with participants from three career transition groups - Year 12 students, final year university students, and adults in midcareer transition. A series of one-to-one interviews with three groups of career counsellors (those in schools, tertiary institutions, and private practice) was undertaken in Phase 2. Phase 3 consisted of a questionnaire, which was administered to broader populations of people in career transition and career counsellors. The people in career transition subject group completed a three-part questionnaire consisting of the Expectations About Career Counselling measure (developed by the researcher), the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy-Short Form (an existing measure), and demographic questions. Career counsellors completed a two-part questionnaire, which included the Expectations About Career Counselling (EACC) and demographic questions. The people in career transition subject group were asked to respond to the EACC according to what they wanted from a career counselling service. Career counsellors were asked to respond to the same measure as if they were one of their clients attending their first career counselling interview. In the development of the EACC, an existing measure (the Expectations About Counselling-Brief Form; Tinsley, 1982), was modified using career counselling expectation themes derived from the analysis of data collected in Phases 1 and 2. Factor analysis of the data obtained from the EACC identified four clear factors. These factors were named Career Counsellor Responsibility, Client Responsibility, Quality Outcome and Realism. The findings from Phase 3 indicated that people in career transition had high to very high expectations for the EACC subscales Career Counsellor Responsibility and Quality Outcome, moderate expectations for Realism, and moderate to high expectations for Client Responsibility. Significant differences were found based on transition group membership, gender, age, and previous experience with a career counselling service. In addition, it was found that people in career transition had moderate to high career decision-making self-efficacy and that respondents with higher self-efficacy scores also had higher expectations of a career counselling service. The findings also indicated that there was a significant difference or gap between the expectations of people in career transition and the perceptions of career counsellors concerning client expectations of career counselling. Career counsellors perceived that clients were less committed and more unrealistic about the career counselling process and the counsellor's role than was indicated by the results from the people in career transition subject group. Recommendations based on the findings of this research study were made for career counsellors, professional associations, education and training organisations, education institutions and systems and government policy makers. Specifically, the recommendations addressed the importance of acknowledging, clarifying, and managing client expectations, providing interventions to educate people in career transition about the career decision-making process and the role of the career counsellor, and the implementation of processes to promote ongoing professional development in the career counselling services industry.

新聞教育以培育新聞專業人才為主旨，但近年的統計數據指出，新聞系仍是台灣許多高中生嚮往的大學志願，畢業後願意投身新聞職業的新聞系學生卻越來越少。在這之中，新聞系學生在大學期間的從業意願轉變過程與原因值得探討。 本研究從Tiedeman的歷時性觀點出發，以14位不從事新聞工作的新聞系畢業生為研究對象，將他們的職業選擇視為一段由學習與生活經驗構築而成之歷程，並透過深度訪談法瞭解他們對自身學習經驗的主觀詮釋，分析其畢業後首份職業決定的形成過程，並循Krumboltz的生涯決定社會學習論剖析各項影響職業選擇的因素。 研究發現，新聞系學生的非職業抉擇實屬一段歷經新聞從業意願起伏的過程，而非一夕促成的決定。其中，大學學習經驗的影響最是深遠，而「個人的興趣與能力」、「校內實習」與實際接觸新聞實務的「校外實習」是最重要的三個節點，新聞系學生在三者之間經歷職業期望落差，對他們的新聞從業意願造成負面影響。研究者並將新聞系學生的非新聞職業抉擇歷程分為四類：（1）發現新聞之外的職業興趣、（2）校內實習期間經歷職業想像衝突、學習挫折、（3）在校內、外實習經驗的轉換間感知新聞理想與現實的落差，以及（4）從未萌生新聞從業意願。 縱使未投入新聞業，新聞系的專業訓練仍對新聞系學生的職場表現有所助益，諸如資訊蒐集、溝通表達、團隊合作能力等。最後，研究者根據研究結果，對當前的新聞教育提出相關討論與建議。

The aim of the dissertation was to examine the relationship between career adaptability, sense of coherence (SOC) and career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE), and whether there were any demographic differences, namely age, gender and race, between the constructs. The Career Adapt-ability Scale South Africa (CAAS-South Africa), Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ-13), Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale Short Form (CDSE-SF) and a demographical questionnaire were applied in a convenience sample comprising 317 undergraduate students at a residential university in South Africa. The results indicated a moderate positive relationship between career adaptability, and SOC, and a strong positive relationship between career adaptability and CDMSE. CDMSE predicted career adaptability with a variance of 43%. SOC did not emerge as a significant predictor of career adaptability. No gender differences were found. This study makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature and practice, showing that CDMSE and SOC can have an impact on the career adaptability of undergraduate students. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)