Applying a Systemic Procedure to Locate Career Decision‐Making Difficulties

Abstract

Locating clients' career decision‐making difficulties is one of the first steps in career counseling. The authors demonstrate the feasibility and utility of a systematic 4‐stage procedure for locating and interpreting career decision‐making difficulties by analyzing responses of 626 college students (collected by Tai, 2007) to the Career Decision‐making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ; Gati, Krausz, & Osipow, 1996). In addition, the responses of 2 students selected from this group are individually analyzed and interpreted. The procedure makes it possible to map the various career decision‐making difficulties of undergraduate students and tailor the appropriate career counseling intervention to the unique needs of clients.

An Examination of the Structure of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale (Short Form) Among Italian High School Students

“…The CDSES-SF is a valuable aid in identifying these issues, which, we believe, need to be adequately integrated in a wide spectrum process of consulting: From this point of view we agree with Gati and Amir (2010) when they argue that 'it is therefore obvious that there are no substitutes for the career counselor's expert judgment about the intervention sequence, taking into account the client's unique situation and personal traits' (p. 318), and with Osipow (1999) who, referring to Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale (CDMSES) (Taylor & Betz, 1983), emphasizes that it 'can identify those aspects of the career decision-making process itself in which clients may be deficient. Having done that, emphasis in counseling can be placed on helping individuals acquire the skills needed to progress further in their career decision status' (p. 152).…”

Resilience and Decision‐Making Strategies as Predictors of Career Decision Difficulties

“…Gati, Landman, Davidovitch, Asulin‐Peretz, and Gadassi () suggested that individuals may be described more accurately as using a combination of approaches in career decision making and that it may be more informative to consider a broad set of decision dimensions than to focus on broad styles (e.g., avoidant, dependent, rational). Gati et al suggested using the profiles of 11 different decision dimensions. Information gathering reflects the degree of involvement in the collection and organization of information.…”

“…Gati et al defined these 11 dimensions as “behavioral patterns for dealing with the challenge of making a decision” (p. 286). For the purposes of our investigation, we chose to use the term strategy to refer to these 11 dimensions because they are behavioral plans to achieve a goal.…”

“…The term strategy seems to more aptly describe a behavioral plan for solving or deferring a career decision problem. Gati et al suggested that sets of strategies can be viewed in relation to their adaptive or maladaptive influences on career decision making. They proposed that adaptive decision making is associated with higher scores on seven strategies: (a) information gathering, (b) information processing, (c) locus of control, (d) effort invested, (e) speed of final decision, (f) consultation with others, and (g) willingness to compromise.…”

The Outcomes of Vocational Interventions

“…Also several diagnostic systems have been developed (Brown et al, 2012;Gati, Krausz, & Osipow, 1996;Hacker, Carr, Abrams, & Brown, 2013;Saka & Gati, & Kelly, 2008), with Gati and colleagues system used extensively with some success to direct intervention efforts (e.g., Gati & Amir, 2010;Gati & Levin, 2014). Peterson and his colleagues at the Career Center at the Florida State University have been tailoring treatments to client problems for some time via their cognitive information processing theory (Reardon, Lenz, Sampson, & Peterson, 2000), although outcome data on their treatment-matching approach are quite limited.…”