This study examined how vocational interests, vocational personal styles and work values impact on major satisfaction and specialization choice of 256 students in Master of Social Work programs from several regions of the United States. Participants completed the General Occupational Themes (GOTs) and the Personal Style Scales (PSSs) of the Strong Interest Inventory (SII; Donnay et al., 2005), the Values Scale (VS; Super & Nevill, 1989), and the modified Academic Major Satisfaction Scale (AMSS; Nauta, 2007). A series of logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine factors predicting major satisfaction, and a series of discriminant function analyses were conducted to investigate factors involved in distinguishing the three specialization groups (clinical social work-health/mental health/special population; clinical social work-children/youth/family; and non-profit organization administration/management, policy, community development). The results supported the importance of person-environment fit (P-E fit) in the membership of the MSW programs, the MSW students’ major satisfaction, and their specialization choices. The results also showed the validity and the utility of the GOTs, the PSSs, and the VS. Beyond three-letter Holland codes, further utilization of the GOTs and integration of the PSSs and the VS seem to be essential. Significant roles of work values of the VS were also noted. Implications for future research and career counseling are discussed. Recommendations for administrators of MSW programs are offered to more effectively recruit students, support their process of selecting a specialization, train them during the program, and provide additional training to professional social workers.

The aim of the present study was to explore the associations between different types of orientations toward materialism, and to investigate the relationship between materialistic orientations and different self-construal types as suggested by the Balanced Integration and Differentiation (BID) Model (imamoglu, 1998, 2003). The sample was consisted of 335 Middle East Technical University students (168 females, 167 males) with a mean age of 21.34. The questionnaire consisted of eight scales that were used to measure materialism, self-construals, family environment, attachment, and self and family satisfaction. The scales were Material Values Scale (Richins &amp / Dawson, 1992), Aspiration Index (Kasser &amp / Ryan, 1996), the New Materialism Scale which was developed for the current study, Balanced Integration and Differentiation Scale (BIDS, Imamoglu, 1998), Perceived Family Atmosphere Scale (Imamoglu, 2001), Family Satisfaction Index, and Self Satisfaction Index (Imamoglu, 2001) as well as the Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew &amp / Horowitz, 1991). Through the analyses on the data from the New Materialism scale, that had acceptable psychometric qualities, four sub-constructs of materialism were found that are extrinsic orientations, acquisitiveness, attachment to possessions, and sharing. Both MANOVA and regression analyses were performed and it was seen that respondents with related-individuated and separated-patterned self-types, proposed by the BID Model to represent the most balanced and unbalanced self-types, respectively, significantly differed from each other in terms of materialism score ratings measured by Material Values Scale and New Materialism scale. The people with the unbalanced type seemed to be more oriented towards materialism compared to the ones with the balanced type. While lower levels of individuation predicted higher levels of materialism for all materialism measures except attachment to possessions, the lower levels of relatedness predicted higher levels of materialism in terms of happiness, the belief that happiness can be gained through possessions, and sharing, the degree of unwillingness to share one&rsquo / s possessions with other people. Considering gender, women are found to be more acquisitive, giving a central importance to possessions and more interested in image as an aspiration. Through the analysis of the relationship patterns using SEM, a model was proposed for the relationships between different types of materialism, self orientations, and gender. Three different types of materialism, i.e. existential materialism, relational materialism, and indulgent materialism, were generated. Low levels of individuation predicted all three types of materialism. Low levels of relatedness predicted only relational materialism, whereas being woman predicted indulgent materialism. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed in the framework of the BID Model.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T13:53:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AlinnePCQ_DISSERT.pdf: 1893742 bytes, checksum: 7e97cee14efe2142e77ccf54ef3f0ba1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-19 / O advento das novas tecnologias e a dinamicidade das mudan?as que estas provocam, impactam diretamente em v?rios aspectos da sociedade, dentre estes, na educa??o. Novas metodologias e mudan?as no processo de ensino-aprendizagem tornam-se pr?ticas cada vez mais frequentes neste campo. O elemento basilar desta nova constitui??o ? o docente, capaz de transformar a utiliza??o desses recursos em ferramentas que favore?am o processo educativo. Essa readequa??o do comportamento exigida por essas constantes mudan?as ? orientada pelos valores pessoais dos sujeitos que vivenciam a situa??o. Os valores s?o idealizados como crit?rios que interferem diretamente nas atitudes, prefer?ncias e at? mesmo no comportamento humano, influenciando no modo como o indiv?duo interpreta as suas pr?prias atitudes e as dos outros, inclusive no ?mbito profissional. Dessa forma, o objetivo geral da presente pesquisa ? analisar as rela??es entre o perfil de uso da tecnologia e os valores dos docentes da UFRN Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, baseado na escala de valores de Schwartz. Para isso foram utilizados os tipos motivacionais que comp?em a teoria de valores de Schwartz, atrav?s de question?rio aplicado junto aos docentes. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de enfoque anal?tico quantitativo que utiliza um question?rio da escala de valores desenvolvida por Schwartz et al. (2001) conhecida como PVQ (Portrait Values Questionnaire). A pesquisa foi desenvolvida a partir de uma amostra de 200 docentes entre atuantes da modalidade presencial e/ou na modalidade de ensino a dist?ncia. A estrat?gia de an?lise dos dados utilizou t?cnicas de estat?stica descritiva, an?lise de gr?ficos, an?lise das frequ?ncias relativas e a t?cnica estat?stica MANOVA (An?lise Multivariada de Vari?ncia). Os resultados apontaram que os docentes utilizam moderadamente os recursos tecnol?gicos avaliados nesta pesquisa, como ferramenta de apoio pedag?gico. Com rela??o ao perfil de valores, os docentes apresentaram prioridade entre os tipos motivacionais Autodetermina??o, Benevol?ncia e Universalismo, enquanto os menos priorizados foram os de Tradi??o, Realiza??o e Poder, respectivamente. Contudo, n?o foram identificadas rela??es significativas entre o perfil de valores e o perfil de uso da tecnologia entre os docentes estudados nesta pesquisa

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.