CAREER EXPLORATION, DECISION-MAKING DIFFICULTIES AND INDECISION IN PORTUGUESE ELEMENTARY STUDENTS Ana Isabel Mota1, Maria do Céu Taveira1, & Alexandra Araújo1 1
School of Psychology, University of Minho (PORTUGAL)
[email protected]
Abstract In adolescence, individuals are invited to actively engage in the processes of exploration and decisionmaking, namely in what concerns the career domain. In this context, exploration assumes a central role, enhancing consciousness and knowledge about one’s self in different work roles, as well as the interest in new role-taking, and advancement in decision-making and lifestyle design. In the th Portuguese educational system, the end of compulsory education (9 -grade) represents a career turning point, during which adolescents are expected to involve themselves in career exploration and decision-making. Although these processes can be exciting for most young people, there are many who experience anxiety and stress, facing serious difficulties in doing these psychosocial tasks. Thus, this study aims to explore the inter-relationships among styles of career exploration, career decisionth making difficulties and the levels of career indecision of Portuguese 9 -graders, and plan career th intervention based on this empirical evidence. The sample consists of 272 students in 9 -grade, of which 51.5% are girls (N= 140) and 48.5% boys (N= 132), aged 13 to 18 years (M= 14.42, SD=0.78), attending schools in the north-western region of Portugal. The performed cluster analysis (K-Means Clustering Analysis) allowed discriminating four different groups, depending on their career results profile: (a) Informed and Confident, (b) Eager Undecided (c) Undecided and Informed, and (d) Undecided and Little Informed. Implications of the results for differentiated career intervention in Elementary Education are discussed.
Keywords: Career exploration, career decision-making difficulties, career indecision, elementary education. 1
INTRODUCTION
One of the most important developmental tasks in adolescence is the need to make career decisions and choices [1] and to face academic tasks. For a successful resolution of the required tasks, it becomes essential that young people engage in a career exploration process, and subsequent life choices. According to Marcia (1996, cit. in [2]), adolescence is also a critical period, when the individual is actively involved in a process of career choice. In this sense, career exploration is assumed as seeking and experimenting different roles, which occurs before the process of decisionmaking and, therefore, career choices are considered as an important factor in personal identity development.
1.1
Approaching career exploration
Career exploration is a classic theme of Vocational Psychology, and has been subject of numerous studies over the last decades (e.g., [3]; [4]; [5]; [6]; [7]; [8]). Among career development theories, career exploration is conceived as a developmental process and stage which allows individuals to acquire new skills and knowledge about them and the world around, helping individuals to adapt to major career transitions [8]. Stumpf, Colarelli and Hartman [9] have developed a complex sociocognitive model of career exploration that describes the self and the world of work as two information sources that support the process. For these authors, there are not two exploration processes – self and environment exploration, but only different sources of information upon which individuals lied on, to process information, evaluate and decide towards the world of education and work. Currently, career exploration can be defined as a psychological process that allows to achieve individual career goals, by supporting information searching and processing [9], involving the questioning and acquisition of knowledge about oneself and about the world of work (e.g., school, work, home, community) (e.g., [3]; [10]; [11]; [12]). In this sense, self exploration provides information
about individual interests and abilities, while environment exploration provides knowledge about career opportunities and work roles in different occupations. Recently, Porfeli and Skorikov [6] suggested that vocational exploration can better be defined with the distinction between diversive career exploration, which involves global learning’s about the self and the world of work in an independent way and focused in new and exciting careers, and specific career exploration, which involves deeper learning’s about the self and the world of work in an interdependent way. Overall, the process of career exploration provides important information about the congruence of individual’s interests and specific occupations, allowing them to crystallize their interests and make career decisions with confidence [13]. Regarding that career exploration is a complex and continuous process, it can be positively or negatively influenced by a large number of personal and cultural factors. In a study to investigate the influence of anxiety in the career exploration process, Hardin and collaborators [13] suggest that high levels of anxiety are associated with lower levels of career commitment. In addition, age, for example, is a personal variable with predictive power of personal engagement in career exploration tasks [14]. In fact, in the last decades, a large number of studies have been developed in order to understand the influence of several exploratory behaviour factors. Among these are perceived self-efficacy [15], internal and external barriers [10], social support [14], vocational indecision [12], social anxiety [13] and previous work experiences [15].
1.1.1 Career exploration and career decision-making difficulties Career development theories emphasize the role of exploration in career decision-making [3]. Accordingly, the involvement in exploratory activities promotes the individual’s ability to perform a career decision, since it provides a set of required skills to solve vocational tasks, such as planning decisions or the commitment with a given career option [8]. More than that, the effective involvement in career exploration activities seems to be directly linked to career decision-making [10]. In this sense, the career decision-making process has also been conceptualized as an important task in adolescent development [11], with significant implications in different life domains. Nevertheless, before or during the decision-making processes, difficulties can negatively impact personal and work satisfaction, especially of adolescents [16]. Regarding the career decision-making process, individuals may be at different phases: while some ones only have a general career option (or no option at all), others may have already decided for some specific options that they want to explore more, and yet others may have already intensively explored the desired option [16]. Therefore, during a career decision-making process, career counsellors assume an important role in the support they can provide to individuals, facilitating and promoting individual agency [17]. Additionally, career decision-making styles (e.g., rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous) are an important issue in vocational counselling. In fact, the diversity of career decision-making styles requires different career interventions, in order to access individual needs [18]. Furthermore, the way individuals deal with decisional tasks during career decision-making has important consequences to the effective option made. Therefore, self and environmental exploration, the decision-making phase and the commitment with a given decision are assumed as the central tasks in career decision-making process [19].
1.1.2 Career decision-making difficulties and career indecision Career indecision has been one of the most important research areas in Vocational Psychology [20] [21] and can be defined as the difficulties individuals face while making career decisions [22] [23] [24]. For that reason, the construct of career indecision is very close the concept of career decision-making difficulties. According to Silva [25], career indecision may be defined as the individual inability to select or commit with specific educational or vocational goals. Integrating the construct of career indecision in vocational research can contribute to understand the underlying processes in career decisionmaking [21], as well as allow to improve the support given to clients who seek vocational guidance [26 ] [12]. One of the most relevant issues to the study of career indecision, with implications to career counselling, is related to individuals’ career development process. Indeed, career indecision is related to a selection process that configures a normative behaviour, especially during adolescence [27] [28], and also a desirable behaviour since it might reduce the possibility of making a precipitated choice. Nevertheless, according to Vondracek, Hostetler, Schulenberg and Shimizu [29], career indecision
may occur due to several reasons since individuals (a) can imagine themselves in different professional roles or (b) can not imagine themselves in any of those roles; (c) have lack of hope in order to implement their first career choice, or (d) are not prepared to make a career decision, or even (e) are not able to make any decision, in any life domain [26]. Thus, it is necessary to view career indecision in career counselling contexts as embebed in individuals’ life-story, along which he or she was not able to acquire perceptions of higher self-efficacy and self-confidence, information about him or herself and the environment, as well as to develop an appropriated vocational identity and maturity, so individuals can effectively deal with career decisions [30]. Plus, career indecision can be an expected outcome of a career exploration phase or process and can be associated to different types of decision-making difficulties. Therefore, it is necessity to study the simultaneous relationships among career exploration, career decision-making difficulties and career indecision, and to discuss implications of these analysis to career counselling and guidance.
2 2.1
METHOD Sample th-
The sample consists of 272 students in 9 grade, of which 51.5% are girls (N= 140) and 48.5% boys (N= 132), aged 13 to 18 years (M= 14.42, SD=0.78), attending schools in the north-western region of Portugal.
2.2
Measures
In this study, Portuguese versions of three measures were administered to assess (a) career exploration through the Career Exploration Survey (CES, [9];[8]), (b) decision-making difficulties through the Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ, Gati & Osipow, 2000, 2002; Silva, 2005), and (c) career indecision through the Career Decision Scale (CDS, [31];[8]). The Career Exploration Survey (CES, [9];[8]) aims to assess behavioural, cognitive and emotional dimensions of career exploration. These three main components correspond to twelve subscales, specifically: (a) six beliefs related with career exploration - employment outlook, certainty of career exploration outcomes, external search instrumentality, internal search instrumentality and importance of obtaining the preferred position (b) four exploration behaviours - extent of environment exploration, extent of self-exploration, intended-systematic exploration and amount of acquired information; and (c) three affective reactions to career exploration - satisfaction with information, exploration stress and decision stress. The Portuguese version of CES has a total of 54 items, 53 of them use a five (items 1 to 43) or seven (items 44 to 53) Likert scale (“Very low/very low probability” to “Very much/very high probability”); the last item (item 54) asks to identify the number of occupational domains individuals have explored until the moment [11]. The Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ, Gati & Osipow, 2000, 2002; adapted by Silva, 2005) was developed to validate the decision-making difficulties taxonomy proposed by Gati and collaborators [22] [16]. It includes three main difficulties categories, with a total of ten specific categories, happening before engagement in a specific career decision-making and the last two categories of career difficulties during the career decision-making process, specifically: (a) Lack of Readiness, that includes the categories lack of motivation, general indecisiveness and dysfunctional beliefs; (b) Lack of Information, which includes four categories related with the lack of information about the career decision-making process, self, occupations and ways of obtaining career information; and (c) Inconsistent Information, which is the main category and includes problems related with inconsistent information due to unreliable information, internal conflicts and external conflicts [32]. In this study we used a CDDQ reduced version for online utilization (CDDQ34q, [33]) and the factorial dimensions used in an exploratory study (cf. [34]), which has a total of 34 items, each one using a nine points Likert scale, in which 1 represents “Doesn’t Describe Me” and 9 represents “Describes me well”. The Career Decision Scale (CDS [31] adapted by [8]) is a one-dimensional measure used to assess vocational indecision, through four factors, specifically: (a) Avoidance of choice, related to the anxiety and the lack of structure and confidence with the approach of a vocational decision-making; (b) External barriers, about the presence or perception of a preferred choice and questions about
alternative possibilities; (c) Approach-approach, that indicates difficulties in deciding from among attractive alternatives; and (d) Conflict, that indicates personal conflicts perception about the decisionmaking process [35]. Since the original study with CDS has revealed incoherent results, the authors advise for the use of global results of the measure, to evaluate the degree of decision, and not the type of indecision. In the Portuguese version, the CDS has a total of 19 items related with vocational indecision concerns [36] [8], with two corresponding subscales, specifically: (a) Certainty (items 1 and 2), to evaluate the degree of certainty related with career decision-making; and (b) Indecision (items 3 to 18), to evaluate vocational indecision [27] [37]. Items 1 to 18 have a four point Likert scale (“Not at all like me” or “Exactly like me”); the last item (item 19) is an open-ended and not scored question that asks individuals to express their career concerns [9] [29].
2.3
Procedure
Participants completed the measures as part of a career intervention program, conducted in public schools in the north-western region of Portugal. This intervention is a brief and structured program, of career counselling in small groups of students (6/8 participants), to support exploration and th th advancement in career decision-making of young students at 9 grade.at the study’s time, the 9 grade corresponded to the end of compulsory education in Portugal. The measures previously described integrated the measurement devices used to evaluate the results of this intervention, preceding, therefore, the implementation of the program, after the students´ parents gave informed consent for their children to participate in this study. The students´ participation in this program was voluntary and confidentiality was guaranteed.
3
RESULTS
Table 1 presents the results of descriptive statistic of the CES´ subscales, CDDQ´ factor and CDS scale. Table 1. Descriptive statistics of CES´ subscales, CDDQ´ factor and CDS scale
Subscales CES Employment outlook Certainly of career exploration outcomes External search instrumentality Internal search instrumentality Importance of obtaining preferred position Extent of environment exploration Extent of self-exploration Intended-systematic exploration Amount of acquired information Satisfaction with information Exploration Stress Decision Stress CDDQ Factor 1 – Lack of information Factor 2 – Inconsistent information and external conflicts Factor 3 – Lack of motivation Factor 4 – Unreliable information and internal conflicts Factor 5 – General indecisiviness
Min.-Max.
Midpoint
Mean
StandardDeviation
3 – 15 3 – 15
9 9
9.91 8.81
2.32 2.91
10 – 50 4 – 20 3 – 15
30 12 9
37.78 14.46 11.27
8.45 3.23 2.33
4 – 20 5 – 25 2 – 10 3 – 15 3 – 15 4 – 28 5 – 35
12 15 6 9 9 7.5 20
9.72 15.17 4.28 8.72 9.56 15.70 22.84
3.80 4.66 1.88 2.15 2.3 4.87 7.35
12 – 108 5 – 45
60 25
58.72 17.26
19.13 7.67
3 – 27 2 – 18
15 10
8.25 7.92
5.00 4.02
3 – 27
15
15.38
5.74
Factor 6 – Internal conflicts Factor 7 – Dysfunctional beliefs CDS
3 – 27 4 – 36 15 – 60
15 20 37.5
11.87 21.66 36.58
5.31 6.02 6.79
To define career groups or profiles, we performed a cluster analysis (K-Means Clustering Analysis), which is an exploratory multivariate analysis method that allows to organize a group of individuals or variables into homogeneous groups (clusters) according to one or more common characteristics, represented by mean values (such that individuals within a group are as similar as possible to each other, and distinguished from others) (Morroco, 2007; [9]). In this study, after analysing the two, three and four groups’ solutions, we considered that the definition of four groups of clusters presents a more consistent pattern of results, allowing a clearer profiles’ characterization. Based on this analysis, it was possible to obtain four different clusters in terms of career exploration, career decision-making difficulties and career indecision. Table 2 presents individuals’ number and gender in each cluster. Thereby, cluster 1 is the second biggest cluster and has mainly male students (15.8%); cluster 2 is the smallest cluster and has mainly female adolescents (9.2%); cluster 3 is the biggest group of classified students and has more female students (16.5%); and cluster 4 has the third larger number of students, and the majority of male ones (13.6%).
Table 2. Number and sex of individuals in each cluster Sex Cluster
N (%)
Female (%)
Male (%)
Total (%)
1
78 (28,7%)
35 (12.9)
43 (15.8)
78(28.7)
2
42 (15,4%)
25 (9.2)
17 (6.3)
42(15.4)
3
80 (29,4%)
45 (16.5)
35 (12.9)
80(29.4)
4
72 (26,5%)
35 (12.9)
37 (13.6)
72(26.5)
Table 3 presents the means of CES, CDDQ and CDS subscales, for each of the four clusters group. Cluster 1 is characterized by students who have higher levels of intended-systematic exploration and are more satisfied with the amount of acquired information; although the extent of self-exploration presents moderate mean values, these individuals have low mean values in the CES´ subscales importance of obtaining preferred position, exploration and decision stress as well as in the CDDQ´ factors and CDS scale. Therefore, this cluster was named “Confident Informed”. Cluster 2, the smallest group, is characterized by adolescents who have higher levels of exploration and decision stress, as well as career decision-making difficulties and career indecision. On the other hand, they present the lowest mean values of satisfaction with information, as well as amount of acquired information below the mean values; the remaining CES´ subscales have shown values within the average, with the exception of the extent of self-exploration, which registered values above means scores. Therefore, this cluster was named “Eager Undecided”. Cluster 3, the largest group, is characterized by students registering higher mean values in employment outlook, certainly of career exploration outcomes, external and internal search instrumentality, importance of obtaining preferred position, and extent of environmental and self-exploration CES´ subscales. These groups of individuals also present values below the mean in intended-systematic exploration and in inconsistent information and external conflicts CDDQ´ subscale. In the remaining CDDQ´ subscales, CDS and in the amount of acquired information and satisfaction with information CES´ subscales, the values are above the mean. Therefore, this cluster was named “Informed Undecided”. Cluster 4 is composed by those students who present lower mean values in the employment outlook, certainly of career exploration outcomes, external and internal search instrumentality, extent of environment and selfexploration and amount of acquired information CES´ subscales, as well as in lack of information, unreliable information and internal conflicts and in dysfunctional beliefs CDDQ´ factors. Therefore, this group was named “Undecided Little Informed”.
Table 3. Means of CES´ subscales, CDDQ´ factor and CDS scale, for each of the four clusters group Clusters Subscales CES Employment outlook Certainly of career exploration outcomes External search instrumentality Internal search instrumentality Importance of obtaining preferred position Extent of environment exploration Extent of self-exploration Intended-systematic exploration Amount of acquired information Satisfaction with information Exploration Stress Decision Stress CDDQ Factor 1 – Lack of information Factor 2 – Inconsistent information and external conflicts Factor 3 – Lack of motivation Factor 4 – Unreliable information and internal conflicts Factor 5 – General indecisiveness Factor 6 – Internal conflicts Factor 7 – Dysfunctional beliefs CDS
1 (N=78)
2 (N=42)
3 (N=80)
4 (N=72)
Global Mean
10.43 9.09 39.13 14.97 10.85
9.59 8.81 37.83 14.38 11.29
10.64 9.27 42.58 16.07 11.98
8.71 7.99 30.94 12.17 10.93
9,91 8,81 37,78 14,46 11,27
10.22 15.54 4.60 9.64 10.46 14.23 19.33
9.71 16.24 4.33 8.13 8.83 18.24 27.91
10.39 16.90 4.23 8.76 9.68 16.92 25.67
8.44 12.23 3.98 8.01 8.87 14.44 20.56
9,72 15,17 4,29 8,72 9,56 15,70 22,84
35.21 11.14
84.88 25.01
68.04 16.26
58.55 20.47
58,72 17,26
5.68 4.76
11.50 11.41
7.16 8.71
10.33 8.42
8,25 7,92
11.38 7.59 20.27 31.38
20.43 16.79 23.60 40.99
17.50 12.29 23.48 38.48
14.42 13.18 20.01 37.53
15,38 11,87 21,66 36,58
Table 4 presents the distance between the centre of the four clusters. Table 4. Distance between the centre of the four group of clusters Cluster
1
2
3
4
1
-
-
-
-
2
55,729
-
-
-
3
36,154
21,388
-
-
4
29,085
30,628
18,906
-
Clusters 1 (Confident informed) and 2 (Eager undecided), and 1 and 3 (Informed undecided) are those which register greater distance or less relationship, in terms of career characteristics.
4
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS th
In the Portuguese educational system, at the end of the 9 grade, the majority of adolescents have to make the first career decision, which is a moment that can generate anxiety and stress. Although
many of these students are able to face decision-making processes by themselves, many of them face serious difficulties in completing this task successfully [22]. In this sense, career counsellors’ first step should be to help young people to identify their decision-making difficulties (e.g., [22] [24]), attending to the specific needs of each individual (e.g., [30] [36]. Indeed, individual choices have to be faced as holistic choices that integrate personal, academic and occupational choices, in an integrated manner [38]. In fact, since career exploration helps individuals in the awareness of their own skills and interests, career intervention programs should be designed to provide different work experiences, in a learning-doing perspective, during the whole school year [39]. Therefore, according to Hiebert [40], it is necessary to provide adolescents the necessary tools to actively engage in exploration activities that allow them to advance with confidence and security in a decision-making process in the future. In fact, the results of this study corroborate the results found by Taveira [8], and suggest that the amount of information that individuals have and the satisfaction they feel with it are directly related with the increase of motivation they have to engage in a decision-making process. In addition, the fast technological developments we face nowadays rise new concepts and ways of working [38] [41], as well as socio-political changes in all societies, which transmit young people feelings of insecurity and fear about the future. In this sense, promoting vocational exploration activities becomes extremely important, since it allows adolescents to avoid future decision-making difficulties and vocational indecision. Helping individuals to meet their personal characteristics such as their interests and values is an important task for the vocational counsellor, in order to facilitate decision-making processes in the career domain [4].
REFERENCES [1]
Faria, L. C., Taveira, M. C., & Pinto, J. C. (2007). Família e aconselhamento parental: Trajectórias de carreira saudáveis [Family and parental counseling: healthy career trajectories]. Actas do II Congresso Família, Saúde e Doença: Modelos, Investigação e Prática em Diversos Contextos de Saúde, Braga. Retrieved from http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/handle/1822/7442
[2]
Königstedt, M. (2008). Educação e Carreira: Estudo de avaliação da eficácia de uma intervenção psicológica [Career and Education: Study of a psychological intervention study]. Dissertação de Mestrado [Master thesis]. Braga: Universidade do Minho. Retrieved from http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/handle/1822/8314
[3]
Blustein, D. L. (1992). Applying current theory and research in career exploration to practice. The Career Development Quartely, 41, 174-184.
[4]
Nauta, M. M. (2007). Career interests, self-efficacy, and personality as antecedents of career exploration. Journal of Career Assessment, 15 (2), 162-180. doi: 10.1177/1069072706298018
[5]
Parsons, F. (1909). Choosing a vocation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
[6]
Porfeli, E. J. & Skorikov, V. B. (2009). Specific and diversive career exploration during late adolescence. Journal of Career Assessment, 18 (1), 46-58. doi: 10.1177/1069072709340528
[7]
Super, D. (1957). The psychology of careers. NY: Harper & Row.
[8]
Taveira, M. C. (1997). Exploração e desenvolvimento vocacional de jovens: Estudo sobre as relações entre a exploração, a identidade e a indecisão vocacional [Exploration and adolescentes vocational development: Estudy about the relationship between vocational exploration, identity and indecision]. Dissertação de Doutoramento [Doctoral thesis]. Braga: Universidade do Minho.
[9]
Stumpf, S. A., Colarelli, M. S., & Hartman, K. (1983). Development of the career exploration survey (CES). Journal of Vocational Behavior, 29, 102-114. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031
[10]
Faria, L. C., Taveira, M. C., & Saavedra, L. M. (2008). Exploração e decisão de carreira numa transição escolar: Diferenças individuais [Exploration and career decision in a schoolar transition: Individual differences]. Revista Brasileira de Orientação Profissional, 9 (2), 17-30. Retrieved from http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/pdf/2030/203014920004.pdf
[11]
Fouad, N., Cotter, E. W., & Kantamneni, N. (2009). The effectiveness of a career decisionmaking course. Journal of Career Assessment, 17 (3), 338-347. doi: 10.1177/1069072708330678
[12]
Lassance, M. C., Bardagi, M. P., & Teixeira, M. A. (2009). Avaliação de uma intervenção cognitivo-evolutiva em orientação profissional com um grupo de adolescentes brasileiros [Evaluation of a cognitive-evolutive vocational intervention with a Brazilian adolescentes]. Revista Brasileira de Orientação Profissional, 10 (1), 23-32. Retrieved from http://pepsic.bvspsi.org.br/pdf/rbop/v10n1/v10n1a05.pdf
[13]
Hardin, E. E., Varghese, F. P., Tran, U. V., &, Carlson, A. Z. (2006). Anxiety and career exploration: Gender differences in the role of self-construal. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69, 346-358. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031
[14]
Rogers, M. E., Creed, P. A., & Glendon, A. I. (2008). The role of personality in adolescent career planning and exploration: A social cognitive perspective. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73, 132-142. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031
[15]
Creed, P., Patton, W. & Prideaux, L. A. (2007). Predicting change over time in career planning and career exploration for high school students. Journal of Adolescence, 30, 377-392. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031
[16]
Amir, T. & Gati, I. (2006). Facets of career decision-making difficulties. British Journal of Guidance & Counseling, 34 (4), 483-503. doi: 10.1080/03069880600942608
[17]
Gati, I. & Asher, I. (2001). Prescreening, in-depth exploration, and choice: From decision theory to career counseling practice. The Career Development Quarterly, 50, 140-157. doi: 10.1002/j.2161-0045.2001.tb00979.x
[18]
Gati, I. & Tal, S. (2008). Decision-making models and career guidance. In J. A. Athanasou & R. V. Esbroeck (Eds.), International Handbook of Career Guidance (pp. 157-185). Berlim: Springer Science Business Media. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-6230-8_8
[19]
Germeijs, V. & Verschueren, K. (2007). High school students´ career decision-making process: Consequences of choice implementation in higher education. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 70, 223-241. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031
[20]
Cardoso, P. & Campos, R. C. (2008). Adolescent career indecision and psychopathology: Proposal for a conceptualization. International Journal of Developmental and Education Psychology, 20 (4), 250-268. Retrieved from http://dspace.uevora.pt/rdpc/handle/10174/1806
[21]
Santos, P. J. (2005). Indecisão vocacional e indecisão generalizada [Vocational and generalized indecision]. Dissertação de Doutoramento [Doctoral thesis]. Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra.
[22]
Gati, I., Krausz, M. &, Osipow, S. H. (1996). A taxonomy of difficulties in career decision making. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43 (4), 510-526. Retrieved from http://kivunim.huji.ac.il/courses/pdf/3/Gati,%20Krausz%20%26%20Osipow%20(1996)%20JCP. pdf
[23]
Saka, N. & Gati, I. (2007). Emotional and personality-related aspects of persistent career decision-making difficulties. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 71, 340-358. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031
[24]
Saka, N., Gati, I., & Kelly, K. R. (2008). Emotional and personality-related aspects of careerdecision-making difficulties. Journal of Career Assessment, 16 (4), 403-424. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.03.031
[25]
Silva, J. T. (2004). A eficácia da intervenção vocacional em análise: implicações para a prática psicológica [Analysing the efficacy of vocational intervention: implications to psychological practice]. In M. C. Taveira (Coord.), Desenvolvimento vocacional ao longo da vida. Fundamentos, princípios e orientações (pp. 95-124). Coimbra: Editorial Almedina.
[26]
Faria, L. C. & Taveira, M. C. (2005). Avaliação da exploração e da indecisão de jovens no contexto da consulta psicológica vocacional: um estudo de eficácia da intervenção [Adolescents exploration and indecision evaluation in vocational counselling contexto: a study of na intervention efficacy]. Actas da XI Conferência Internacional Avaliação Psicológica: Formas e Contextos, Braga. Retrieved from http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/handle/1822/7444
[27]
Creed, P., Prideaux, L. A. & Patton, W. (2005). Antecedents and consequences of career decisional states in adolescents. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 67, 397-412. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2004.08.008
[28]
Santos, P. J. (2000). Indecisão generalizada: Um desafio para a orientação escolar e profissional [Generalized indecision: A challenge for school and professional guidance]. Psicologia: Teoria, Investigação e Prática, 2, 183-196. Retrieved from http://repositorioaberto.up.pt/bitstream/10216/16169/2/PsicologiaBraga2000000077892.pdf
[29]
Vondracek, F. W., Hostetler, M., Schulenberg, J. E., & Shimizu, K. (1990). Dimensions of career indecision. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 37 (1), 98-106.
[30]
Holland, J. L. & Holland, J. E. (1977). Vocational indecision: More evidence and speculation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 24 (5), 404-414.
[31]
Osipow, S. H., Carney, C. G., Winer, J. L., Yanico, B., & Koschier, M. (1976). The Career rd Decision Scale (3 revision). Columbus, OH: Marathon Consulting & Press and Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
[32]
Morgan, T. & Ness, D. (2003). Career decision making difficulties of first-year students. The Canadian Journal of Career Development, 2(1), 33-39. Retrieved from http://ceric.ca/cjcd/archives/v2-n1/article4.pdf
[33]
Gati, I, & Saka, N. (2001). High school students’ career decision-making difficulties. Journal of Counseling and Development, 79, 331-340. doi: 10.1177/1069072706286510
[34]
Simões, D. M. & Taveira, M. C. (2010). Decision-making difficulties in the context of career intervention. In M. C. Taveira, A. D. Silva (Coords.), C. Lobo, J. C. Pinto, A. Araújo, S. Ferreira, L. Faria, C. Ussene, N. Loureiro, M, Königstedt, M. Carvalho, & S. Gonçalves, Desenvolvimento vocacional: Avaliação e intervenção (pp. 164-171). Braga: Associação Portuguesa para o Desenvolvimento da Carreira.
[35]
Savickas, M. L. (2000). Assessing career decision making. In C. E. Watking Jr. & V. L. nd Campbell (Eds.), Testing and assessment counseling practice (2 . Ed.), pp. 429-477. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
[36]
Slaney, R. B. (1980). Expressed vocational choice and vocational indecision. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27 (2), 122-129. doi: 10.1037/0022-0167.27.2.122
[37]
Rohner, R.P., Rising, D. G., & Sayre-Scibona, J. (2009). Sex differences in relations among remembered parental behavior in childhood, adults´ current psychological adjustment, and career indecision. Psychological Reports, 104 (2), 558-566. doi: 10.2466/pr0.104.2.558-566
[38]
Herr, E. L. (2008). Abordagens às intervenções de carreira: Perspectiva histórica [Approaching career interventions: historical perspective]. In M. C. Taveira & J. T. Silva (Coord.), Psicologia Vocacional: Perspectivas para a intervenção (13-27). Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade.
[39]
Moreno, M. L. (2008). A educação para a carreira: Aplicações à infância e à adolescência [Career education: application to infants and adolescents]. In M. C. Taveira & J. T. Silva (Coords.), Psicologia Vocacional: Perspectivas para a intervenção (29-57). Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade.
[40]
Hiebert, B. (2010). Comprehensive guidance and counseling in the schools: Career-life planning for all. Comunicação apresentada na VI Conferência Desenvolvimento Vocacional, Universidade do Minho, Braga.
[41]
Van Esbroeck, R. (2008). Career guidance in a global world. In J.A. Athanasou, & R. Van Esbroeck (Eds.), International Handbook of Career Guidance (pp. 23-44). Berlim: Springer Science Business Media.
