Cognitive structures in vocational information processing and decision making

Self-Efficacy and Career Choice and Development

“…In a study illuminating important cognitive processes influencing the use of efficacy information, Nevill, Neimeyer, Probert, and Fukuyama (1986) found relationships between college students' vocational schemas, that is, cognitive information-processing capabilities, and CDMSE. Higher scores on the CDMSE scale were found to correspond to higher levels of cognitive integration for students whose cognitive processing was more differentiated.…”

Structure and style in career decision making

“…Lacking sufficient coherence in their own career decision frameworks, it seems likely that these individuals appeal instead to others for making such decisions. Particularly likely candidates would be parents or friends whose decisions might be easily co-opted by an individual who cannot depend on his or her own framework since it lacks the coherence and organization essential to effective decision making (Cochran, 1977;Nevill, et al, 1986).…”

“…The first of these investigated the relationship between levels of vocational structure and career decision making skills, career exploration, and career planning, noting that more loosely organized systems were related to greater career exploration whereas more highly integrated systems were associated with more effective vocational decision making skills (Neimeyer, Nevill, Probert & Fukuyama, 1985). An extension of this work investigated the relationship between cognitive structure and both information processing and career decision-making self-efficacy (Nevill, Neimeyer, Probert & Fukuyama, 1986). Results of the study revealed that, following an occupational information intervention, the accuracy of information recall was a joint function of levels of vocational integration and differentiation.…”

“…Operating at the lowest level of structural development, poorly integrated and differentiated systems lack the diversity (differentiation) and clarity (integration) that more highly developed systems would permit. Marked by a particularly loose organization among relatively few vocational constructs, these systems would have to depend on coopting the available decisions made for them by others (Neimeyer & Metzler, 1987;Neimeyer et al, 1985;Nevill, et al, 1986) or simply "shooting from the hip" since the system lacks sufficient organization to permit rapid and definitive decision making (Cochran, 1977;Nevill et al, 1986). Kelly (1955) defined loose constructs as those that lead to varying predictions, and previous work has already noted that lower levels of vocational integration permit greater career explora-tion (Nevill, et al, 1986), a strategy that is curtailed as the system develops a more tightly organized system of constructs that lead to more definitive occupational judgments.…”

“…A highly differentiated system that lacks sufficient integration would enable widely varied vocational exploration (Nevill, et al, 1986)~ but it would lack the essential coherence to permit rational decision making. In contrast, a poorly differentiated system that becomes increasingly integrated to the exclusion of diversification, would become exceptionally narrow, permitting a kind of "tunnel vision" that would predispose the individual either to impulsive or compliant decision making.…”