Annotated Bibliographies

As appearing in Spring 2000, Journal issue 20(1)

Keywords used for the Index and Annotated Bibliographies . Use words found on this page to assist in searching the Index and bibliographies.  Search for articles using the "find" capability of your browser.

Betz, Nancy E. & Schifano, Ross S. (2000). Evaluation of an Intervention to Increase Realistic Self-Efficacy and Interests in College Women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56(1), 35­52. Keywords: career advising research.

The purpose of this research was to develop and evaluate a self-efficacy based intervention for women using the Realistic theme from Holland's 1997 vocational theory.

Participants for the study included 54 female Introductory Psychology students who volunteered for the study as part of the requirements for the course. The mean age of the participants was 19.9 years and the majority of the sample was self-identified as Caucasian (83%). Participants were prescreened and included in the study based on moderate levels of Realistic interest and low levels of Realistic confidence. Twenty-four women were randomly assigned to the experimental group, which received the Realistic intervention, and 30 women were randomly assigned to the control group, which received a neutral intervention.

Pre- and posttest measures were administered using the following instruments: a) the Realistic, Investigative, and Social Scales of the Skills Confidence Inventory, which is a 60-item measure of self-efficacy expectations with regard to the six Holland themes; b) the Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale measures student's perceptions of self-efficacy with respect to 20 commonly known occupations; and c) a 15-item measure of interests in Realistic activities. The 20-item Masculinity Scale of the BEM Sex Role Inventory was the administered posttest only to assess instrumentality (traditional masculinity) and expressiveness (traditional femininity).

The experimental group received a 3-session, 7-hour intervention that entailed building, repairing, and constructing activities. The intervention also included the four elements of Bandura's self-efficacy theory: a) vicarious learning, b) performance accomplishments, c) social persuasion, and d) anxiety management. The control group received a neutral intervention that consisted of participants discussing their opinions of recent films.

Several analyses were used to evaluate the data: a) repeated-measures analyses of variance were used to evaluate changes in confidence, interests, and occupational self-efficacy over time and as a function of treatment group; b) discriminant analyses were used to further examine the nature of significant posttest differences in confidence and interest at the task level; and c) a simple ANOVA was used to examine posttest differences in instrumentality.

Results indicated that the 7-hour intervention used with the experimental group significantly increased the self-efficacy expectations of college women in the sample with respect to the Realistic domain of Holland's vocational theory. The experimental group's Realistic confidence increased from a pretest mean of 2.73 to a posttest mean of 3.45. This change was three times the size of both the pretest standard deviation and the size of the change in the control group.

One limitation of the study was the relatively small sample size (24 in the experimental group and 30 in the control group). However, this study is an important step toward opening the doors for women to the same variety of occupations that are available to men.

This article examines the advantages to using the World Wide Web in career services centers as a mode of service delivery and the impact that computers have on the current practices in career centers. Seven critical issues that focus on the implications for technology in career centers are reviewed.

Many advantages are cited for delivering career services via the World Wide Web. Those noted in the article are as follows: a) career information is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can be accessed from anywhere; b) specific career information can be retrieved easily and quickly; c) information is easy to update frequently; d) the need for paper is reduced; e) users can link and refer to other sites; f) a variety of information can be presented on-line, such as assessments, resumes, job search, and so forth; g) repetitious tasks are reduced; and h) users have the opportunity to be involved in career planning and job search tasks.

An example of career services offered on-line is available at the University of Missouri at Columbia's Career Center's Web site, which contains over 2,000 pages of career planning and job search information. Student usage of the Career Center's services has drastically changed since the addition of the Center's Web site in Fall 1995. As a result of the shift from walk-in to Web site service, the number of Web site users doubled the number of walk-in students.

While the benefits of Web-based career service delivery are evident, some issues are important to consider in planning or expanding career services delivered via the World Wide Web. These issues range from questioning the appropriateness of career services for a Web site and how on-line services meet the variety of needs presented by students. An important issue for career counseling professionals is whether services delivered on-line adhere to ethical guidelines of the profession. How can career service professionals insure that Web-based services are benefiting students and not harming them? The author points to the need for focusing on the high-touch aspect of career services now that the high-tech delivery mode has been established. If career service centers espouse a holistic approach to career counseling, can this be accomplished via the World Wide Web? Staffing and financial concerns are also discussed along with the importance of outcome data that provide evidence that the outcomes of career services provided on the World Wide Web are equivalent to those of traditional services. In addition to outcome research, the author suggests both survey research and controlled between-group designs to evaluate the impact of World Wide Web career services.

The author undertook this study to investigate the conventional wisdom that an on-line course would require a greater commitment of instructor time and effort than does traditional courses. This article presents data collected in a year-long study in which the author and his assistants kept detailed records of their time spent teaching and maintaining two comparable university courses.

Undergraduate geography courses were compared. One course was offered on-line to adult professionals away from campus; the other was offered to undergraduates in traditional classrooms on campus. The courses had similar learning objectives, similar student activities, and equally favorable ratings by students. Both were mature courses that required only routine maintenance and revision. The study was not a controlled experiment. Some uncontrolled variables were inevitable and discussed by the author.

During the study period (July 1999 to June 2000), the instructor and his assistants recorded any work episode lasting approximately 5 minutes or longer. They independently developed categories of class-related performance that included management of the courses, preparation time spent on the courses, comparison of classroom hours and students, and frequency of days teaching.

The data do not support the widely held belief that teaching an asynchronous on-line course requires more effort than teaching a comparable synchronous classroom course. Although the distance course required more frequent attention, the total teaching and maintenance time spent per student was less than that required to teach and maintain the classroom course. The methodology used in this study would be an interesting one to apply to a similar study that compares traditional with distance advising.

This study sought to estimate the cognitive impact of information technology utilization during the first year of college. The sample in this study consisted of incoming first-year students at 18, 4-year and 5, 2-year colleges and universities located in 16 states. Institutions were chosen from The National Center on Educational Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System to represent differences in colleges and universities nationwide on a variety of characteristics, including institutional type and control. The individuals in the sample were students participating in the National Study of Student Learning (NSSL). The initial data on 3,840 students were collected in the autumn of 1992. Data collected included a NSSL pre-college survey that sought information on student demographics, orientations toward learning, and expectations, as well as Form 88A of the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) designed to assess general skills acquired by students during the first 2 years of college. Follow-up data collection followed in the spring of 1993.

The two independent variables of primary interest in this study were the extent of computer and E-mail use. Four different dependent variables were identified: a) end-of-first year cognitive development, b) pre-college characteristics and student experiences in college, c) teacher organization and clarity, and d) estimate of aggregate student cognitive ability.

Controlling for an extensive array of confounding influences, the findings suggest that the cognitive impacts of information technology may be more conditional than general; that is, they differ in magnitude or direction for different kinds of students and in different institutional contexts. For example, there was substantial greater computer and E-mail use by 4-year-college students than by 2-year-college students. Factors enhancing computer and E-mail use among 2-year college students included being a younger student, hours spent studying, and the number of first-year courses taken in mathematics and technical/professional areas. Study time and technical/professional courses also positively influenced 4-year-college students. Unlike 2-year students, computer and E-mail use by 4-year-college students was also enhanced by their pre-college academic motivation. Taking courses in the arts and humanities negatively influenced computer use for 4-year students, and the effects were similar in direction and magnitude for 2-year students; however, only the weighted estimate was statistically significant. In an interesting result, the authors found little to suggest that background factors such as pre-college cognitive development, gender, socioeconomic status, or measures of effective teaching during college had net influences on computer use for either 2- or 4-year-college students. However, the evidence suggests that in 2-year colleges, Latino students were at a distinct disadvantage in terms of computer use relative to other students. The authors warn that because of rapid changes in hardware and software, as well as the substantial recent increases in information technology use in American post secondary education, their research may be somewhat dated.

This article presents the guidelines used for the rationale, development, delivery, and evaluation of The Learning Community in Educational Technology (LCET) initiated by Delaware Tech. LCET is a model program for using technology in the classroom. It is based on partnerships and linkages addressing the technology training needs of college and K-12 faculty as well as students.

The author identifies seven distinct forces for change motivated by this initiative. Although described in term of challenges at Delaware Tech, these forces represent those faced by other state and community colleges. These forces include the need to use technology in the learning process, to train teachers in the necessary technology skills, to set statewide standards, to address the need for workforce ready graduates, to coordinate of K-12 outcomes, to assess tools and strategies needed by teachers to improve K-12 learning, and to address the escalation of knowledge and skills needed by students in a technological age.

The program is described by its development and delivery. Indicators of program success are also discussed. This article can serve as a blueprint for other organizations initiating technology training for teaching and learning.

Despite efforts made in the past decade to prepare students for the rigors of college course work, educators continue to find that a high percentage of students need varying degrees of remediation to help them succeed in college courses. This problem is strongly felt by community colleges. Most, if not all, community colleges conduct placement testing to assess student skills in reading, writing, and mathematics and sometimes for study skills and learning styles. However, the dilemma arises once underprepared students are identified: Should they be placed in developmental classes or allowed to fail? The literature uses various terms to characterize the dilemma, including "access versus success," "access versus standards," "open door versus revolving door," etc.

The author focuses on Colorado to address these issues through a state perspective. In Colorado, placement testing is mandatory, but students have a right to waive placement into developmental courses. The overarching dilemma involving mandatory placement rests at the heart of that which community colleges pride themselves on most: the egalitarian position of open access and the effort to provide all students with the highest quality education. This dilemma raises ethical issues as well as exposes a number of ironies, which this article explores: access versus success, course prerequisites for college-level courses, the junior-level writing requirement at the University of Colorado-Boulder, performance indicators in Colorado, measures of student achievement against national norms at the junior entry to establish institutional accountability and future state financial support, the right to fail, egalitarianism, and context.

The author concludes that unless community college administrators take the step of defining entrance competencies and guaranteeing that developmental courses will help students achieve these competencies, they will open themselves up to the arguments of those who believe that mandatory placement discriminates against students, particularly minorities.

This study examined the stability of career-related values and salience of young women over a 3-year period.

Participants in the study included women who submitted applications for the 1994 Summer Research Program of the Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science and Technology. Of the 156 qualified applicants who agreed to participate, 154 were included in the initial sample. These women were in the 11th grade, had a mean age of 16.48 years and a mean score on four science courses of 88.35%. Most participants resided in and attended high school in urban settings (n = 105). By 1996, the majority of these women were enrolled in postsecondary education: 113 were in science-related fields, 30 were in other fields (arts, business, education), and 6 were not attending postsecondary or other education institutions.

The Values Scale and Salience Inventory was used to measure the importance of values and role salience. The Values Scale consists of 20 value statements, each having five corresponding items. The Salience Inventory measures behavioral and affective components of the five major life roles: studying, working, community service, home/family, and leisure on three dimensions-participation, commitment, and role value implementation. These instruments were administered initially in 1994 and again in 1996. This study also included semistructured telephone interviews in 1995 and 1996 to review demographic information, participants' current status (e.g., employment, education, living arrangements), how their previous plans (studying and working) had worked out, sources of income or financial support, study plans, current work, and level of satisfaction.

Results indicated that career-related values were stable from 1994 to 1996. Personal development, ability utilization, achievement, social relations, altruism, economics, prestige, and autonomy continued to be highly important to participants. Priorities within the five major life roles changed over time. The authors speculate that greater independence, increased responsibility for personal decision making, and experience with the post­high school world may have contributed to the variation. Those women who changed career fields indicated that they wanted a career that they viewed as relevant, studying courses for which they could see direct application, or studying a program that was closer to their interests, once they determined that science was not as satisfying as they had anticipated.

Out of the initial group of participants enrolled in science-related fields, 26% indicated that medicine was their career goal. By 1996, the number of women aspiring to careers in medicine was 20%. Participants cited length of course, competitive premed courses, long hours of work, and intensity of work as reasons for incompatibility with future home-family role aspirations.

The authors cite attrition as a major limitation of the study as well as the study confinement to one province in Canada. For these reasons generalizing these findings to a wider population of students should be done with caution.

This article details the steps in planning and delivering a quality, Internet-based career assessment system. Using Careerhub.org (http://www. careerhub.org/) as a model, the authors describe the challenges and ethical issues involved in designing a site, developing content, and selecting instruments.

In designing their site, the authors envisioned their audience as individuals seeking assistance and career professionals within career centers. The challenge for the design team was organizing content so that users could match their needs with the resources offered by the site, which retained an underlying career planning model. A four-step model was developed: a) career change package, b) research links, c) tips for decision making, and d) taking action. The authors discuss the ethical issue of the readiness of users to benefit from a self-directed site and the implementation of design components necessary to address these concerns.

The authors discuss the issues involved with developing and converting relevant career instruments for Internet use. Preliminary data on the psychometric qualities of the instruments are presented, along with the results of a pilot study in which the site's components were evaluated.

Recently much interest has been expressed in assessing the effectiveness of distance learning. Often, comparative studies are widely criticized as offering little conceptual details on the field of distance learning. However, these studies can serve an important role in advancing understanding of the distance education phenomenon.

The problem with comparative studies lies not in the comparison but with the media/method confound. A confound factor is a variable that, because of its relationship to treatment control variables, precludes the attribution of change (as frequently measured) on differences in posttest performance to the manipulation of treatment variables. Studies with generalizable findings control confounding factors by ensuring that only clearly explicated treatment variables are studied.

Many different confounds are found in media studies. The most pervasive confounds are the media-delivery, system-method, and delivery-method confounds. The basis for criticism is the failure of these methods to account for differences in instructional treatments other than those identified by the media type. For example, in studies that compare one-way interactive video conferencing with audio-graphic conferencing, the audio-graphic treatment may necessitate the use of a greater variety of methods to accommodate increased learning fatigue due to a lack of visual stimulation. If such a study found "no significant differences" between the two treatments, a faulty conclusion would be that the two treatments are equally effective. This conclusion would be faulty because a) no significant difference does not prove the null hypothesis, and b) the manipulations of the media were equally effective not the use of the media methods.

The authors propose a schema system based on media attribute theory that can be used to classify both media and delivery systems based on research related to learning and motivation. The framework is based on identifying and defining categories of attributes embedded within each delivery system and the media used by the delivery system that may support learning in different ways. The categories of attributes the authors suggest include a) realism/bandwidth, b) feedback/interactivity, and c) and branching/interface. Realism/bandwidth should address concreteness, motion, cueing strategies, social processing, and motivation. Feedback/interactivity should address system immediacy, overt/covert interaction and video, audio, and/or digital interactivity. Branching/interface should address accessibility to learning resources, navigability, pacing, and learning support. The authors propose these categories because comparative researchers should explain more than just the technologies that were used: They must also explain why and how media and delivery systems were used to support learning and motivation.

This study sought to predict the collegiate goals of grade-point average (GPA) and career decidedness for both traditional and nontraditional full-time undergraduates. The author defined traditional age as 23 years and under and nontraditional students as 24 years and over. These students were assessed on five personal dimensions (academic self-efficacy, global self-worth, social acceptance, career decision making self-efficacy, and social support) and two learning dimensions (intrinsic motivation and self-regulation). Self-efficacy is one's confidence to succeed at a task rather than one's actual ability. To assess the relationship between academic performance and career development, GPA was also used as a predictor of career decidedness, and career decidedness was used as a predictor of GPA. It was expected that 1. Academic self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and self-regulation would be the leading predictors of academic success (GPA) for all students. 2. The Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale (CDMSE) would be the leading predictor of career decidedness for all students. 3. Social support would be a significant predictor of both GPA and career decidedness for all students. 4. GPA and career decidedness would emerge as predominately separate goals.

Participants were 355 full-time undergraduates at a private liberal arts college. Students represented various liberal arts majors and had the career majors of nursing, accounting, and management. The sample was comprised of 92% Caucasians. Students completed a packet of seven questionnaires and a demographic information sheet in a single session. Permission to access their student academic records was also received.

Multiple regression assessed which dimensions predicted the two collegiate goals. Significant predictors were generally the same for both traditional and nontraditional students. Academic efficacy, self-regulation, and social support were positive predictors of GPA. Career decision-making self-efficacy and social support were positive predictors of career decidedness. Nontraditional students and females had higher GPAs and greater decidedness. Academic performance and career development were seen as concurrent but largely separate processes. The author discusses how using a variety of teaching methods (cooperative, collaborative, and other less teacher-centered methods) as well as directly teaching specific strategies to students (self-regulation) could be beneficial for improving both GPA and career-decidedness goals of college students.

This study examined the effects of gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and 8th grade test scores in mathematics, reading, science, and history/geography on postsecondary educational choices.

Participants for the study included a subsample (N = 7,645) of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. This subsample represented students enrolled in various types of U.S. postsecondary institutions (4-year public and private colleges/universities, 2-year colleges, and public and private vocational/technical schools) who indicated a specific major field of study 2 years after graduating from high school.

The dependent variable for the study was postsecondary major fields of study classified using The Educational Opportunities Finder from Holland's Self-Directed Search. Participants' major fields were classified according to the predominant Holland type: 6.5% were in realistic; 31.3% were in investigative; 7.9% were in artistic; 27.3% were in social; 20.5% were in enterprising; and 6.5% were in conventional majors. Predictor variables included gender, SES, and 8th grade academic performance and were collected from student and parent questionnaires and tests administered when students had been in the 8th grade.

A Chi-Square Automatic Interaction Detector was used to analyze the data. Results indicate that gender was the strongest individual predictor of Holland type of major and 8th grade academic performance was the next strongest indicator. SES was the weakest predictor, but was still significant. SES was a stronger predictor of major choice for women than for men. Women with higher SES were the least rigid in gender role­based choices and were the most likely to choose nontraditional majors. Of the four subject areas tested in the 8th grade, mathematics was the strongest predictor of major choice for men at three out of the four SES levels.For women, reading was the strongest predictor at three of the four SES levels.

The research findings in this study point to the impact of early achievement experiences on major choices at the postsecondary level. The authors encourage counselors to assess students' perceptions, beliefs, and values in relation to their academic performances and influences on choices. In addition, the authors emphasize exploring the effects of gender role socialization on achievement-related perceptions and beliefs. These findings support the need for separate theories of educational/occupational choice for men and women.

This study uses aspects of Tinto's model that emphasize the importance of student involvement and sense of community within their residence halls in facilitating a sense of belonging within the university. Astin's 1977 research that indicated that residence hall living increases the chances of student persistence by approximately 12% was also used as part of the rationale for the program. Use of differential association theory is employed in the program to promote learned behavior (in this case, disciplined study behavior) through active association with others who are demonstrating the behavior.

A special residence hall program at Stephen F. Austin State University was implemented in 1992 with an immediate goal of improving study skills and academics and had an ultimate goal of increasing freshmen and sophomore retention. Two specialty residence halls were created: the Academic Excellence Center (ACE) for honors students and the Academic Enrichment Living Center (AELC) for students who wanted to improve academically. The eligibility requirements for enrolled students to be accepted into the Excellence Center was a 3.25 grade-point average; entering freshmen must have had a 28 ACT score or 1200 SAT score to live in the ACE. Two halls were created for the Academic Enrichment Living Center, one for males and one for females, to reduce distractions and to support gender differences in learning.

Academic disciplinary strategies in the AELC included a) supervised study halls and tutorial sessions for close to 25 courses, b) faculty mentor and academic advisor participation, c) programs on time management, study skills, and substance abuse, and d) 22 quiet hours from Sunday through Thursday with visitation ending at 10:00 p.m. on these days. Students who do not follow the program rules were required to move to another residence hall.

A comparison study was done in 1995­96 on the incidence of academic probation in the general population of students at Stephen F. Austin versus those students who were a part of the enrichment halls. Out of the freshman and sophomore classes, 38.1% of the males in the general university population were on academic probation compared to 27.6% of the males in the enrichment hall. For females, 25.3% of the general population was on probation compared to 22.5% of the females in the enrichment halls.

As appeared in the Fall 2000Journal issue 20(2)

Inconsistent findings were the result of studies of relations between academic self-concept and subsequent achievement. These inconsistencies may, in part, reflect limitations with current methods of conceptualizing and measuring academic self-concept. In an effort to develop a more sensitive measure of academic self-concept, the authors drew upon two conceptual frameworks: Kabassa's (1979) hardiness theory and Dweck and Leggett's (1988) model of academic motivation. Through the hardiness theory, Kabassa posited that three cognitive appraisal processes serve to buffer the deleterious effects of stressful life situations: commitment, challenge, and control. Dweck and Leggett identified two distinct cogitative-affective-behavioral patterns in academic performance. Students who pursue performance goals attempt to establish their abilities and avoid demonstrating their inadequacies. Students who pursue learning goals view academic challenges as opportunities to acquire new skills and to enhance their competencies. The perspective offered by hardiness theory and research on academic motivation suggests that, in the academic realm, many students may choose to maintain positive self-concepts by strategically avoiding demanding course work that may tax their capabilities, invite failure, and thus threaten their self-views.

The authors developed an Academic Hardiness Scale (AHS) that was created on the bases of hardiness theory and research on academic motivation. Participants for this study consisted of 481 students who were enrolled in a midwestern high school. They ranged in age from 14 to 19 years (M = 16) and reported a mean 2.9 (out of 4.0) fall semester grade-point average. The students were predominately Euro-American (92%), female (52%), and living with both biological parents (61%). Sixty-three percent of the sample had clear career goals, and 75% were planning to attend college. In addition to completing the AHS, participants were asked to complete a battery of measures during two regular scheduled class periods.

The findings suggest that the AHS shows promise in producing scores that are reliable indicators of the cognitive, affective, and motivational aspects of academic hardiness among high school students. The AHS, and the challenge subscale in particular, distinguish both college-bound orientation and persistence in difficult academic course work more effectively than did the measure of global academic self-concept employed in the investigation. To the extent that future research yields similar findings, the AHS may be a useful predictor of long-term achievement-related motivation and outcomes in high-demand academic contexts or in the pursuit of challenging educational goals.

The Web-based content accessibility of community college home pages was studied. Community colleges frequently are points of access to postsecondary training and education for members of special populations. Physical barriers are obvious problems that limit access for individuals with disabilities, and community colleges have made reasonable accommodations for this population. However, on-line barriers that limit access to Web-based content are often overlooked. To provide background on this issue, the authors provide an overview of the legal aspects of reasonable accommodation and summarize the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

From 720 community college Web sites, a random sample of 260 was selected for analysis. Of these sites, only 253 were available for evaluation. Each home page was analyzed using the Bobby 3.2 software package. Bobbie 3.2 produces a summary report that identifies accessibility limits by prioritizing them by error types. Only 23% of the community college home pages evaluated were determined to be accessible to individuals with disabilities. The errors found included no alternative text for images, need for better foreground and background color contrast, and no structural markups that identify Web page content hierarchy and relationships. In conclusion, the authors determined that most community college home pages are not accessible to individuals with disabilities, and they present a discussion of accessibility problems. Resources for designing accessible Web sites and methods of validating Web sites are identified and described.

Higher education is moving through a period of rapid change. The author argues that the nearly exponential growth of information, coupled with the ability to exchange it more rapidly and widely than ever before, is creating a new environment for education. It is one in which the university may have to negotiate its standing as the de facto source of scholarly knowledge. University planners must also consider the significant questions that remain about whether high-quality interactions between students and teacher, and among students-the sine qua non of a quality educational experience-can be replicated, even slightly, in on-line environments.

The author states that universities will have to address balancing their future roles of serving an evolving on-site student demographic while exploring new potential for-profit models of on-line education. University leadership must be clear about institutional goals and possible market niches when planning to serve off-site students. Clearly, there will be an ongoing market for residential higher education. Such institutions will primarily invest in technologies that enhance their regular course offerings, and perhaps they will offer secondary (or no) on-line distance learning. The model that emerges for a particular institution should be the result of careful planning and reflect an approach that includes wise use of the existing and cutting-edge technologies. It should also be customized to subject matter, to student needs and schedules, and to the institution's mission, goals, and budgets.

The authors set out to identify and describe occupational career patterns (OCPs) for over 25 years from a cohort of 170 rural high-school graduates. The authors report that research on career patterns over the past 50 years has revealed a high degree of OCP stability among men and an increasing amount of stability among women. However, much of the earlier work had studied predominately male populations. Three main theoretical perspectives exit. First, stability is explained by enduring personality characteristics found as people encounter fluctuations in labor market opportunities (Holland, 1997). Second, stability is explained by enduring social-structure features that provide stable job opportunities (Hotchkiss & Borow, 1996). Third, change or instability is explained by the person's adaptation to shifts in developmental tasks expected to be mastered during adolescence and early adulthood (Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996).

The sample in the study was drawn from 170 members of the 1973 graduation classes of three rural Wisconsin high schools. The participants responded to a follow-up questionnaire in the summer and fall of 1998. The return rate was 75% and is remarkable among follow-up studies because it includes a high number of farming and working-class members. The community from which the sample was drawn had been settled in the early 19th century by Europeans, primarily German immigrant farmers, and remains today overwhelmingly White and of European descent. The complex process of identifying OCPs was begun when researchers constructed for each individual a work history record that spanned from 1 to 25 years after graduation. A chronology of work positions held by each person was constructed for five points of time. Each position was classified according to the Holland code. Trained judges were assigned the task of evaluating and classifying the reported occupations.

The authors reported several conclusions, but they advised caution in generalizing from the results. They found that career patterns, operationally defined by Holland types applied to interval samplings of occupations, capture individual differences in early to mid-adult careers. More than one third of the respondents experienced stable OCPs, and stable OCPs were associated with Holland Realistic environments. In addition, two changing occupational patters emerged: exploratory changers were identified as those who switched type of occupation before their 7th year out of high school and stayed with that type of occupation for the duration of the time studied, and advancing changers were identified as those who began their post­high school years in one type of work but advanced to managerial occupations before 1992 and stayed in management through the 25th year. Gender but not family of origin was linked to OCP stability in the years immediately after graduation, but it did not affect midlife career satisfaction. OCP stability was linked to midlife career and job satisfaction and was independent of early experiences related to family origin or gender.

The authors argue that some of the implications of this study support the need for career guidance for people out of school and in the workforce. Also called into question is the often-repeated expression that people change careers an average number of times during a lifetime. Central tendency statistics do not capture such job change experiences for a representative cohort of people; hence the lore may be misleading if used in a counseling situation.

This study was designed to identify the social correlates of sexual values among a sample of university students. Six-hundred and twenty never-married undergraduates at a large southeast university identified the sexual values that guide their behaviors in sexual decision making. Students completed a questionnaire that assessed their sexual value system as one of absolutism, relativism, or hedonism. Analysis was run by sex, race, age, relationship status, and a series of Likert-scored questions pertaining to attitudes.

Both men and women were more relativistic than absolutist or hedonistic. However, men were six times more hedonistic than were women. Other factors significantly associated with hedonism included being over age 20, uninvolved in a relationship, being open to living together, and a belief that divorce was justifiable. Implications for university faculty, therapists, advisors, and students are suggested.

The purpose of this study was to develop a predictive model of satisfaction of adult learners in a Web-based distance education course and student intent to participate in future Web-based distance education courses. The development of Web-based instruction has created a new opportunity for distance education. Unlike synchronous distance education courses, Web-based courses allow learners to access a course at any time. However, learners in a Web-based course are required to use a computer regardless of their degrees of computer skill. Because adult learners in a Web-based course must use computers, computer self-efficacy of the learner must be determined. In this study, computer self-efficacy was defined as one's belief in his or her ability to use computers and to learn new computer skills.

The study population consisted of 235 adult learners who were taking a Web-based distance-learning course at five institutions in the spring and summer semesters of 1999. During this time, a questionnaire was posted to the participants. Multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses. Personal and experiential variables were used as predictor variables. Personal variables were age, gender, computer self-efficacy, academic self-concept, and academic status. Experimental variables were years of computer use, frequency of computer use, computer training, Internet experience in a class, and participation in a workshop for a Web-based course.

The criterion variables were satisfaction levels with the Web-based distance education course and intent to participate in future Web-based courses. The researcher found a positive relationship between learners' satisfaction with their Web-based distance education courses and their intent to participate in future Web-based courses. The number of courses taken using the Internet and years of computer use can explain almost 27% of the variability in computer self-efficacy.

The author concludes that the preparation of the learner for Web-based distance education must be considered. Adult learners are presumed to have proper computer skills as they enroll in the program, yet many of them grew up in an environment in which a computer was not a household item. Understanding and preparing the adult learner may be crucial for the success of both the educational institution and the learners.

The authors of this study investigated the differences in use of and satisfaction with career counseling services as a function of sex, race, and age based on a nationally representative sample of college graduates of different ages, genders, and ethnicities (N = 10,080). Data for this study were obtained from respondents in the Baccalaureate and Beyond 1993­94 survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and were obtained from a subsample of the students selected for the 1993 National Post Secondary Aid Study (NPSAS). Gender, age (traditional, younger than 26, and nontraditional 26 and older), and ethnicity were the independent variables of the study. The use of career and job counseling services, and satisfaction with the job and career counseling services were the two dependent variables. Three control variables were included in the analysis: GAP, the risk index, and institutional type and size. The risk-index values depicted the number of risk factors (factors that might delay graduation) associated with each respondent (NCES, 1996).

Results showed significant race and age differences in use of career counseling services and gender differences in satisfaction with the services. Hispanic and nontraditional students were the most likely to underuse the career counseling services. The authors conclude that counselors in higher education need to examine their services to ensure that unnecessary blocks preventing students from accessing career and job counseling services have been removed.

In this study, friendsickness (preoccupation with and concern for the loss of or change in precollege friendships) is seen as a significant source of distress for college students and affects college adjustment. The concept of friendsickness builds on three shortcomings in college transition research: little investigation of divestment (vs. investment issues), underemphasis on the loss of friendships in conceptions of homesickness, and limited application of conceptions of grief to distress from friendship change and dissolution (vs. death).

Seventy first-year college students (52 women and 18 men) participated in the first two waves of a short-term longitudinal study conducted at a state college in the northeastern United States. The undergraduate population of this college consists of approximately 5,500 students with 90% of the first-year students living on campus. The longitudinal sample was composed of 87% Whites, 6% African Americans, 4% Hispanic Americans, 1% Asian Americans, and 1% Native Americans. Participants were approached during a summer orientation program and asked if they would voluntarily take part in the study. Students were mailed questionnaires. Participants were recontacted 10 weeks into their first semester.

As hypothesized, friendsickness was associated with precollege social concerns, discrepancy between expectations and college experiences, more precollege friends in the college social network, and loneliness and poor self-esteem in college. The results of this study suggest that students who are highly preoccupied with and concerned about their precollege friendships exhibit relatively poor adjustment to college. Friendsickness seems to be a normative phenomenon associated with the social challenges of the transition to college, not the direct result of preexisting social adjustment deficits.

Implications for precollege prevention of and college intervention efforts for friendsickness are discussed. The most useful focus for friendsickness prevention programming is students' anticipatory coping as evidenced by precollege expectations and concerns. Learned coping mechanisms are also useful in reducing the distress associated with transitions. In addition, a preparation strategy that involves the activation of social support can be useful to aide prospective college students in transition. Strategies for intervention include grief (loss) education and peer support, tactics borrowed from bereavement counseling, instillation of coping as a process, facilitation of continued precollege relationship support and new friendship development, and facilitation of cognitive assimilation of new experiences.

This study explored how college persistence may be influenced by students' perceived availability of, and satisfaction with, social support. Some researchers think about perceived support as the equivalent of attachment. Perceived support might also be thought of as a stable personality characteristic, perhaps developed from earlier attachment experiences. Social support has two equally important components: objective availability and perception of support. The researcher attempted to extend Tinto's student integration model by exploring psychological characteristics that may influence the ability of college students to become integrated into the social and academic systems of their colleges.

One hundred seventy-one first-year students from a midsize university in the southeast rated their attachment styles during the second week of the semester, and they rated their perceived stress and social support one month after the initial attachment-style rating. Persistence in college was tracked for two semesters.

Results showed that students with one type of insecure attachment (fearful) perceived the most stress, were the least satisfied with available support, and dropped out at a higher rate. Females perceived more stress and dropped out at a higher rate than did males. Satisfaction with support mediated the relationship between attachment and stress, but not between gender and stress.

Successful retention programs offer frequent and rewarding contact between faculty members, staff, and students in a variety of settings outside the classroom. However, the author concluded (based on a psychological perspective) that even if all students are given equal opportunity for integration, all students may not be capable of establishing the necessary support. Because fearful students have a negative view of others, they may find that requesting the help they need to deal with stressors that arise from college life a particularly difficult task. Because some students may be unable or unwilling to ask for help on their own, retention programs that provide automatic, even intrusive, interventions to students who need help may be the most successful.

In this article, the author examines the field of vocational psychology. He argues that vocational psychology has not realized its potential as a developmental science, despite the centrality of its domain across the entire life span and its impressive use in measuring and modifying career behaviors. Rapid changes in technology and in the world of occupations have created new opportunities and new challenges for the field. As examples, the author discussed the rapidly increasing number of women in the workforce, changes in the structure of occupations, the development of cohorts of children and young adolescents who are "technowizards," the shortened life cycle of many occupations, and the blurred boundaries between private life and work.

New external opportunities bring potential external threats. Do-it-yourself career guidance systems may limit individuals seeking and who value the kind of comprehensive career counseling that could be offered by vocational psychologists. In addition, career development seems to have become as much the business of the organization as it is the business of the individual.

In conclusion, the author states his vision for vocational psychology. First, it must become a life-span oriented science and profession. Second, it must become a science and a profession that can inform authoritatively on all substantive questions dealing with the vocational development of children, adolescents, and adults. Finally, professionals in the field must seek to integrate research findings with those of other professions to produce a more coherent, cohesive body of knowledge that addresses every aspect of vocational development within the larger framework of life-span development.

Bibliographies appearing in the NACADA Journal are compiled by George Steele and Melinda McDonald.