Many universities offer career exploration courses designed to assist students in making effective career choices; however, it remains unclear whether pre-existing resources have a significant influence on students’ ability to benefit. The purpose of this study was (a) to measure the efficacy of a career exploration course at an Appalachian institution in improving college and career decision self-efficacy and (b) to determine if the following pre-existing resources, academic readiness, academic achievement, and familial financial resources, were significant predictors of post-test college and career decision self-efficacy scores. Participants were 127 traditionally-aged, undergraduate students at a private, Appalachian university enrolled in a 15-week career exploration course. Paired samples t-tests revealed a significant positive change from pre to post-test for college and career decision self-efficacy; however, hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed no significant influence of the pre-existing resources on post-test scores for either construct.
Heuristics are mental shortcuts that aid people in everyday problem-solving and decision-making. Although numerous studies have demonstrated their use in contexts ranging from consumers' shopping decisions to experts' estimations of experimental validity, virtually no published research has addressed heuristics use in problems involving genetic conditions and associated risk probabilities. The present research consists of two studies. In the first study, 220 undergraduates attempted to solve four genetic problems--two common heuristic problems modified to focus on genetic likelihood, and two created to study heuristics and probability rule application. Results revealed that the vast majority of undergraduates used heuristics and also demonstrated a complete misuse of probability rules. In the second study, 156 practicing genetic counselors and 89 genetic counseling students solved slightly modified versions of the genetic problems used in Study 1. Results indicated that a large percentage of both genetic counselors and students used heuristics, but the counselors demonstrated superior problem-solving performance compared to both the genetic counseling students and the undergraduates from Study 1. Research, training, and practice recommendations are presented.
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