Effects of Career Interventions on Vocational Cognitive Complexity

The Self‐Directed Search as a Stand‐Alone Intervention With College Students

“…Consistent with previous research (Mau et al, 1997;McGowan, 1977;Zener & Schnuelle, 1976), we found that compared with students receiving no intervention, students who completed the SDS reported a greater increase in the number of occupations they were considering 4 weeks later. Because this finding now extends across several studies using follow-up intervals of varying lengths, it seems reasonable to conclude that, for many students, the SDS, even when used outside the context of counseling, will prompt a consideration of more career alternatives.…”

“…First, we evaluated whether we could confirm the previous findings that the SDS promotes an increase in the number of career alternatives being considered, an increase in career exploration, and a decrease in the perceived need for counseling. Consistent with the earlier findings (Krivatsy & Magoon, 1976;Mau et al, 1997;McGowan, 1977;Zener & Schnuelle, 1976), we hypothesized that compared with those receiving no intervention, students who completed the SDS would subsequently report a greater increase in the number of career alternatives they were considering, a greater increase in the amount of career exploration being conducted, and a decreased likelihood of having sought career counseling after the intervention. An increase in career alternatives being considered would be expected because the SDS is designed to promote a consideration of many careers or majors that are congruent with one's personality, and an increase in exploration would be expected because the recommended next steps in the ancillary materials that accompany the SDS include researching careers and majors of interest.…”

“…If the goal of administering the SDS is to prompt students' consideration of a greater number of career options, our findings and those of other studies (Mau et al, 1997;McGowan, 1977;Zener & Schnuelle, 1976) suggest that doing so with broad students' groups outside the context of counseling may be one avenue for efficiently assisting students. This form of intervention would seem to be most useful with students in fairly early stages of career development (i.e., Super's [1953] growth or early exploration stages), when the goal is to encourage students not to overlook careers that are congruent with their personalities (Holland, 1997).…”

“…Some evidence does, in fact, support the use of the SDS as an intervention outside of counseling. When asked to indicate the careers they are considering, high school and college students who have taken the SDS list more alternatives than do students in control conditions immediately afterward (Mau, Calvert, & Gregory, 1997;McGowan, 1977;Zener & Schnuelle, 1976) and 3 weeks later (Zener & Schnuelle, 1976). In one study, high school students who completed the SDS reported less need to see a counselor immediately afterward than did students who did not complete the SDS (Zener & Schnuelle, 1976).…”

“…It seems important to evaluate further whether the SDS promotes beneficial outcomes to determine whether its use as an intervention with large groups of students (e.g., in orientation classes) is justifiable when counselor-involved intervention is not feasible. Currently, the only outcome that has been reliably found across several studies (Mau et al, 1997, McGowan, 1977Zener & Schnuelle, 1976) is that the SDS increases the number of career alternatives being considered. From the results of single studies, it appears that the SDS as a stand-alone intervention may also increase career exploration (Krivatsy & Magoon, 1976) and reduce the perceived need for counseling (Zener & Schnuelle, 1976), but these findings need to be replicated.…”