Initially administered in 1961, the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) was the first paper-and-pencil measure of vocational development. The present research revised the CMI to reestablish its usefulness as a succinct, reliable, and valid measure of career choice readiness, with a few theoretically relevant and practically useful content scales for…

An empirical measurement model for interest inventory construction uses internal criteria whereas an inductive measurement model uses external criteria. The empirical and inductive measurement models are compared and contrasted and then two models are assessed through tests of the effectiveness and economy of scales for the Medical Specialty…

Career maturity denotes degree of readiness to make realistic career choices. Clients below a certain threshold of readiness lack the life experiences and personal inclinations needed to make fitting occupational choices. To increase their readiness, a counselor may help these clients develop the decisional attitudes and learn the choice concepts…

The growing number of career choice process instruments may have outstripped counselors' understanding of these increasingly sophisticated and complex measures. The differences among measures bearing similar titles is often confusing and has led some counselors to misapply or misinterpret them. The most important developments/advances in the…

Conducted two studies and factor analyzed nine measures of career decidedness taken by first-year college students (Study 1, n=182; Study 2, n=168). Single factor empirically defined choice status, suggesting that, although a variety of words used in items to assess choice connote multiple dimensions in the construct of choice status, these words…

Describes how the logical positivist perspective on indecision as an objective phenomenon has evolved. Explains how constructivist counselors view indecision as clients' subjective attempts to give meaning to crisis points in their lives. This view permits a conceptualization of career counseling as a process of articulating a clients' life theme.…

A literature review on the Career Development Inventory since 1979 found support for its sensitivity and specificity as a measure of readiness to make educational and vocational choices. Research is needed on its predictive validity. Revision should address increasing the reliability of the two cognitive scales. (63 references) (SK)

Synthesizes studies categorized by medical specialties and using the following instruments into the Five Factor Model of personality: Adjective Check List, California Psychological Inventory, 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Suggests a loose association between personalty factors and medical specialties and…

Reviews 1988 literature on career development and counseling. Addresses career development theories and their application, career intervention, career exploration motives and constraints, and problems in career decision making. Emphasizes conceptual contributions offering new perspectives on career choice and development, research reports stating…

Usable data from 214 of 227 college students who completed the Career Factors Inventory (CFI), Career Choice Status Inventory, Vocational Identity Scale, and Career Development Inventory demonstrated the CFI's construct validity through correlations with age and years in school. Concurrent validity was supported by correlations with career…

Examined Career Decision Scale (CDS) as type indicator, using cluster analysis to group 368 college students on basis of responses to CDS. A five-cluster solution seemed to indicate the general decisional task being faced and nine-cluster solution suggested specific problem being encountered. Results were interpreted with regard to career…

Describes Career Decision-Making Course, designed to help high school students develop decisional attitudes and competencies that increase readiness to deal with career choice tasks and facilitate behavioral responses that meet these tasks. Reports results from field test of course in which, compared to controls, tenth grade students who…

Examined predictive validity of Medical Specialty Preference Scales (MSPS) and Medical Specialty Preference Inventory (MSPI). Administered MSPS to 71 medical students and MSPI to 73 medical students. Findings indicated that MSPI predicted accurately three times more than did MSPS. Based on predictive validity and teaching possibilities, MSPI seems…

Demonstrates the use of Adlerian vocational psychology to conceive the career pattern described by the Publican in an article in this issue, to relate it to his vocational behavior, and select counseling topics that could aid his career development. Describes Adler's psychology as offering a process theory of vocational behavior that comprehends…

Investigated the hypothesis that time perspective is a component in vocational maturity and career decision making with college freshmen (N=97). Results supported the hypothesis and specifically linked time perspective to planfulness and degree of indecision. (LLL)