团体训练对提高大学生职业决策自我效能的有效性研究

团体训练是心理健康辅导的一种重要方式,本研究选择34名大学生为被试(实验组和对照组各17人),对实验组的被试进行了为期7周的团体训练实验,以检验团体训练对提高大学生职业决策自我效能的有效性。结果表明,实验组被试的前后测得分之间存在显著性差异,对照组的前后测得分之间无显著差异;实验组和对照组的前测无显著差异,后测存在差异显著;实验组被试的职业决策自我效能在3个月后仍能维持较高水平,表明团体训练是提高大学生职业决策自我效能的有效方法。     

Advancing in the career decision-making process: the role of coping strategies and career decision-making profiles

We tested the associations among the career decision-making difficulties, the career decision status, and either (a) the career decision-making profiles of 575 young adults, or (b) the coping strategies of 379 young adults. As hypothesized, a more advanced decision status was negatively associated with both career decision-making difficulties (η² = .24) and the use of non-productive coping strategies (η² = .10), and positively associated with an adaptive career decision-making profile (η² = .05) and the use of support-seeking coping strategies (η² = .06). Productive coping strategies were not found to be associated with decision status (η² = .01). The results and their implications are discussed.     

Note on the construct validity of the ITPA

Correlations with Binet IQ in the ITPA normative sample were corrected for restricted intelligence range. The corrected correlation for the Psycholinguistic Quotient is as high as that between the WISC and the Binet, a finding that raises a serious question about the construct validity of the ITPA.     

A decision-making model applied to career counseling

Christine Olson and Ellen McWhirter are doctoral students and John J. Horan is Professor and Director, Counseling Psychology Program, Arizona State University, 401 Payne Hall, Tempe, Arizona 85287-0611.     

Assessing and changing career decision-making self-efficacy expectations

Conclusion Evidence that a significant percentage of career decision-makers may be helped only partially by traditional information-oriented approaches suggests that career counselors pay increased attention to the personal-emotional barriers which deter many individuals from making and enacting sound career plans. Self-efficacy theory seems to be especially promising as a guide for changing negative expectations, as it offers the counselor a set of specific strategies for assessing low expectations and for treating them. Social-cognitive theory provides a firm research-based framework from which the counselor can encourage clients to gather new efficacy information. Using the basic social-cognitive strategies, counseling can proceed to facilitate the changing of clients' cognitive schemata, by means of the counselor's encouraging clients to consider new evidence and to try further tests of old beliefs. Counselors are encouraged to continue to explore methods for assessing and treating low career decision-making self-efficacy expectations. A self-efficacy-based approach lends itself to the requirement for focused, short-term intervention which is typical of many settings in which career counseling is practiced, while it also ensures that important personal-emotional issues in career decision-making are addressed.     

The construct validity of Institutional Commitment: A confirmatory factor analysis

The present study examined the underlying structure of the variable Institutional Commitment by testing for the convergence, or lack thereof, among different indicators of the construct as represented by three theoretical frameworks (Tinto, 1975, 1987; Bean, 1985; Huselid and Day, 1991). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that Institutional Commitment could be decomposed into two multiple indicators of the same latent construct: a general factor that groups items related to institutional quality, practical value of an education, utility of an education, fit between student and institution, and loyalty to the institution and another factor represented by items indicating similarity of values (Affinity of Values). Moreover, the study established the predictive validity of each subcomponent on different outcomes related to student persistence. While Institutional Commitment was found to have a significant direct effect on both students' intents to persist and actual persistence behavior, Affinity of Values was not as equally predictive of measures of student retention.Paper presented before the 1991 ASHE Annual Meeting. Boston, Massachusetts.     

An empirical study of the construct validity of social creativity

Creativity can be broadly defined as a combination of interacting individual and environmental resources leading to the production of valuable solutions. This paper concentrates on the type of creativity that can be expressed in solving social problems. After reviewing the potentially relevant psychological and contextual variables intervening in social creativity, leading to individual differences in this capacity, we present results of a study testing the nomological validity of social creativity in a group of 70 pre-adolescents. The findings indicate that social creativity performance is linked with socially relevant variables such as social competencies, popularity, and parenting style. Finally, we discuss the relevance of a creativity approach in social domains such as violence prevention programs and education.     

Associations between career adaptability and career decision-making difficulties among Turkish high school students

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - The present study examined the influence of career adaptability and gender on career decision-making difficulties among Turkish...     

Torrance Test of Creative Thinking: The question of its construct validity

Some cognitive dimensions are internationally considered by psychologists to describe and to assess creativity. For example, (Guilford, P. (1976). Creatividad y Educación. Buenos Aires. Ed. Paidos) and (Torrance, E. P. (1977). Discovery and nurturance of giftedness in the culturally different. Reston, VA: Council on Exceptional Children) suggested fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration are the main cognitive processes used to define and assess creativity. However, data from several empirical studies did not confirm a factor structure in accordance with such cognitive functions, despite of the wide use of TTCT (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking) in different countries. In this paper, we present new data collected in Spain and Portugal with TTCT. According to our data, those cognitive functions supposedly present on a subject's performance are not so strong as to explain the variance in scores. Elaboration factors assume some variance explanation, but the main factors are identified with the products in each subtest, suggesting the importance of format, content and demand on TTCT specific tasks. Consequently, we suggest some reflections to amplify the debate concerning the definition of creativity and its evaluation in psychology.     

Concurrent and predictive validity of career development inventory

After an overview of the situation in vocational guidance for Quebec young people, we present the results of a study of the predictive validity of the Career Development Inventory adapted for French schools in Quebec. This study demonstrates that the instrument could be used to predict student perseverance and satisfaction in their professional choices. We then present the results of a second study which verified the concurrent validity of the Career Development Inventory by comparing the results obtained using this instrument with those obtained using the Career Education Questionnaire with the same students.     

Pathways to understanding mind: construct validity and predictive validity of maternal mind-mindedness

The construct validity of maternal mind-mindedness (MM) was investigated in the context of its relations with children's later understanding of mind. MM measures were obtained from infant-mother (N = 52) interactions at 6 months, and from maternal interviews at 48 months. Children's understanding of mind was assessed using theory of mind (ToM) tasks at 45 and 48 months, and a stream of consciousness (SoC) task at 55 months. One of the early MM measures--mothers' appropriate mind-related comments--was a positive independent predictor of: (a) MM at 48 months, and (b) ToM and SoC performance at 45 to 55 months. Path analyses suggested direct links between mothers' use of appropriate mind-related comments and children's later understanding of mind.     

Content,concurrent and construct validity of the leadership skills inventory

The Leadership Skills Inventory was designed to assist students at the upper‐elementary, secondary, and post‐secondary levels in analyzing the strength of their leadership skills. This study was a subsidiary analyses of the research of Edmunds & Yewchuk (1996) to examine the content, concurrent and construct validity of the LSI. The results of a critical semantic comparison indicate support for content validity. Concurrent validity was supported statistically significant positive correlations between the LSI and all other leadership indicators. Interestingly, all nine categories of the LSI had statistically significant positive correlations with each other. Factor analysis revealed that the LSI contained only one factor, not nine as the separate categories infer. This supports the construct validity of the LSI, but as having only one construct, not nine as the categories suggest. There appears to be merit in using the LSI as a leadership indicator. However, further research is needed to improve its psychometric qualities.     

Differences in memory retrieval: a construct validity investigation

Long-term memory retrieval efficiency was investigated as a potential underlying source of individual and developmental differences in cognitive functioning. Fourth-grade, eighth-grade, and college-aged subjects participated in a task using the Posner letter-matching paradigm. Letter pairs were presented simultaneously under physical-match and name-match instruction conditions. Reaction times were used to estimate parameters of long-term memory retrieval efficiency, basic encoding, decision, and response time, and name and physical output interference. Psychometric tests of verbal and spatial ability were included to assess convergent and discriminant validity of hypothesized relationships between aptitude test performance and basic cognitive processes. Developmental differences were observed in most but not all of the processing variables. Individual difference analyses indicated that less confounded estimates of processing parameters were not systematically related to verbal ability at any age level. Basic encoding and response speed was the most consistent correlate of spatial ability. The results suggest difficulties in previous interpretations of NIPI-verbal ability relationships. The study of cognitive processes in interaction and embedded in meaningful tasks is discussed.     

An assessment of the construct validity of the CCSEQ Quality of Effort scales

A substantial body of research indicates that the greater the effort and time expended by students in the opportunities afforded by their colleges, the greater the likelihood of academic and personal growth, satisfaction with the institution, and persistence within the educational system. The most extensive effort exerted in operationalizing the concepts of involvement and integration was that of C. Robert Pace in his development of theCollege Student Experiences Questionnaire, which was the basis for the development of theCommunity College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CCSEQ). This study examines the construct validity of the eight Quality of Effort scales resulting from the CCSEQ for students involved in all administrations of the instrument from 1990 through 1994. Results indicate that the Quality of Effort measures can be used to make valid and reliable inferences regarding students' efforts and involvement, and that the validity of the inferences is not conditional on whether the students are in vocational or transfer programs, attending full-time or part-time, or of majority or minority ethnic status.     

Assessment of teacher competence using video portfolios: Reliability, construct validity, and consequential validity

The richness and complexity of video portfolios endanger both the reliability and validity of the assessment of teacher competencies. In a post-graduate teacher education program, the assessment of video portfolios was evaluated for its reliability, construct validity, and consequential validity. Although video portfolio facilitated a reliable and valid assessment of teacher competencies, procedures to improve assessment quality were also revealed and are therefore discussed: more explicit grounding of assessment results in the data, peer debriefing, prolonged engagement with the assessment data, cross-checking to find confirmatory or counter examples.     

Career decision-making, career barriers and occupational aspirations in Chinese adolescents

The study tested the relationship between occupational aspirations/expectations (type and status) and decision-making difficulties, efficacy and career barriers in 498 Chinese high school students. Males aspired to investigative and enterprising types, but expected realistic and enterprising ones; females aspired to enterprising and conventional types, but expected conventional and social ones. Students with aspirations/expectations type discrepancies were more likely to be higher achieving females; those with aspirations/expectations status discrepancies had poorer academic achievement, less confidence and perceived more barriers.     

构建外贸业务决策系统

介绍了基于数据仓库的外贸业务分析决策系统的设计与实施、与此项目相关的技术背景和实施必要基础、基于数据仓库的外贸业务分析决策系统的体系结构及各部分功能.讨论了如何利用数据仓库来实施决策支持系统及数据仓库、联机分析处理和数据挖掘技术在外贸业务分析决策系统中的应用.