Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to test the application of cognitive principles to the practice of career counseling. Of particular interest were persons' adherence to various career myths and the degree to which their adherence could be effectively modified through the presentation of information disputing these myths. Also of interest was the effect of environmental context upon the recall of the above mentioned material. On the basis of the literature presently available, the following predictions were made: (1) males and females will not significantly differ in their general adherence to career myths as indicated by scores obtained on the Survey of Career Attitudes (SCA--an instrument designed to obtain a score indicating one's degree of adherence to popular career myths), (2) video tape presentation of information disputing the career myths contained within the SCA will result in decreased adherence to career myths as indicated by significantly fewer errors on the SCA upon immediate retesting, (3) after the delay of one week, the effect of information presented in the video tape will be decreased as indicated by SCA errors significantly higher than those obtained after immediate retesting, and (4) subjects retested in the same room as initial learning will commit fewer errors on the SCA than those individuals retested in a new environment. The above hypotheses were tested using 227 undergraduate students from a study skills course at Texas A&M University. An analysis of the data revealed that males and females did not significantly differ in their general adherence to career myths, supporting Hypothesis 1. In support of Hypothesis 2, the decrease in errors observed upon retesting suggests that the video tape presentation of information disputing career myths contained within the SCA had a measurable effect upon the subjects. Hypothesis 3 was not supported by the data. A significant increase in errors after the presentation of the video tape was not obtained across time. Finally, subjects retested in the same room as initial learning committed approximately the same number of errors as subjects retested in a new environment. This is in contradiction of Hypothesis 4.
Nathan, Stuart Joel (1986). An application of cognitive principles to career counseling : can career myths be effectively modified?. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -14792.