Abstract. This study examined the relationship between the secondary constructs of Holland's (1997) theory of vocational interests and career choice readiness (career maturity) attitudes with 358 Swiss secondary students. The hypothesis was tested that the secondary constructs consistency, coherence, differentiation, and congruence are measures for the degree of vocational interest development. Thus, they should belong to the content domain in career choice readiness and should show meaningful relations to career-choice readiness attitudes. The hypothesis was confirmed for congruence, coherence, and differentiation. Interest-profile consistency showed no relation to career-choice readiness attitudes. Vocational identity emerged as a direct measure for career-choice readiness attitudes. Realism of career aspirations was related to career-choice readiness attitudes and coherence of career aspirations. Profile elevation was positively connected to more career planning and career exploration. Differences between gender, ethnicity, and school-types are presented. Implications for career counseling and assessment practice are discussed.

Based on common aspects of recent models of career decision making (CDM), a six-phase model of CDM for secondary students is presented and empirically evaluated. The study tests the hypothesis that students who are in later phases possess more career-choice readiness and consider different numbers of career alternatives. Two hundred sixty-six Swiss secondary students completed measures tapping phase of CDM, career-choice readiness, and number of considered career options. Career-choice readiness showed an increase with phase of CDM. Later phases were associated with a larger increase in career-choice readiness. Number of considered career options showed a curve-linear development with fewer options considered at the beginning and at the end of the process. Male students showed a larger variability in their distribution among the process with more male than female students in the first and last phases of the process. Implications for theory and practice are presented.

A career workshop that applies models of the Cognitive Information Processing Approach (Sampson, Reardon, Peterson, & Lenz, 2004) and incorporates critical ingredients (Brown and Ryan Krane, 2000) to promote the career choice readiness of young adolescents was developed and evaluated with 334 Swiss students in seventh grade applying a Solomon four group design with a three-month follow-up. Participants significantly increased their performance in terms of career decidedness, career planning, career exploration, and vocational identity. Implications for evaluation research and counselling practice are presented.

Background: Many authors have highlighted that a classificatory system such as the ICD-10 or the DSM-IV should attempt to integrate categorical as well as dimensional aspects rather than relying only on a categorical distinction. Methods: In the current study, a method is presented that allows both perspectives to be considered. Based on their clinical experience, 20 therapists were asked to rate a selection of ICD-10 mental disorders in terms of their similarity. The resulting data were processed by nonmetric multidimensional scaling on individual basis as well as mean basis and a cluster analysis. Results: From a categorical point of view, the resulting mean cognitive map and the cluster analytic groups showed a good concordance with the ICD-10 F groups. Additionally, analogies to the critical observations with regard to the classification systems could be observed. From the dimensional point of view, there were two dimensions found (cognition and psychosis) which showed high correlations in the mean map. Conclusions: The method presented in this study offers an opportunity to account for dimensional as well as categorical aspects of classification by exploring the structure of the ICD-10 mental disorders directly from the point of view of therapists and thus creating the basis for an expert model.

Using Accuracy of Self-Estimated Interest-Type as a Sign of Career Choice Readiness in Career Assessment of Secondary Students A frequent applied method in career assessment to elicit clients' self-concepts is asking them to predict their interest assessment results. Accuracy in estimating one's interesttype is commonly taken as a sign of more self-awareness and career choice readiness. The study evaluated the empirical relation of accuracy of self-estimation to career choice readiness within a sample of 350 Swiss secondary students in seventh grade. Overall, accuracy showed only weak relations to career choice readiness. However, accurately estimating one's first interest-type in a three-letter RIASEC interests-code emerged as a sign of more vocational identity and total career choice readiness. Accuracy also correlated positively with interest profile consistency, differentiation, and congruence to career aspirations. Implications of the results for career counseling and assessment practice are presented.