The effects of feminist versus conventional career counseling on career self-efficacy ratings among college women.

摘要

The primary purpose of this study was to determine how liberal feminist career counseling and conventional career counseling differentially impact women's career self-efficacy beliefs. Second, the impact on socialization effects was assessed by measuring attributions about the causes of and the solutions to career indecision concerns.;The Occupational Options Inventory (OOI), Helping Models for Vocational Choice (HMVC) scale, Index of Sex-Role Orientation (ISRO), and Personal Information Form (PIF) were administered to forty undergraduate college women participants. Participants were matched on HMVC and ISRO scores and randomly assigned to either a conventional or liberal feminist career counseling condition. Participants heard each of four audiotaped vignettes within their assigned treatment condition over a course of one to two weeks. Immediately after each audio session, participants were asked to complete the Counselor Effectiveness Rating Scale (CERS). Following the fourth session, participants were asked to complete the HMVC and the OOI, as well as the CERS.;Career self-efficacy, educational self-efficacy, career desirability and career probability ratings, gathered from the OOI, were analyzed using MANCOVAs. Two MANCOVAs were conducted, one used to consider all (traditional, nontraditional and gender-neutral) career categories, and one used to analyze only the nontraditional career category. Attribution of responsibility for causes of and solutions to career indecision problems were assessed with the HMVC and change in these attributions was analyzed using a chi-square goodness-of-fit test.;The feminist approach to career counseling was found to have a significantly more positive effect on career self-efficacy and educational self-efficacy than the conventional approach to career counseling for all career groups combined. When considering only nontraditional careers, the feminist career counseling condition had a significantly more positive effect than the conventional condition in the area of career self- efficacy only. No significant differences were found between the feminist and conventional conditions for ratings of career desirability or probability. Participants who heard the feminist career counselor made significant changes in attribution of responsibility for causes and solutions to career indecision concerns, indicating that feminist counseling may have an effect on attributions related to socialization factors.