This literature review on vocational choices, decision making, vocational assessment, and career counseling (325 references) focuses on preentry individual behavior. The review finds a predominantly white male heterosexual referent, need to recognize multiple factors affecting behavior, and importance of appropriately powerful statistical…

Data from Japanese university students (176 males, 210 females) showed that females had significantly higher self-efficacy for female-dominated occupations, significantly lower for male-dominated ones. Self-efficacy for male-dominated occupations was associated with instrumentality; for female-dominated occupations it was associated with both…

Multiple regression analysis of data from 127 public school teachers and 126 journalists indicated that negative affect did not completely explain the relationship of cognitive appraisal of stress and degree of distress. Both cognitive processes and trait negative affectivity contributed to the negative emotional reactions to occupational stress.…

According to survey responses from 272 of 843 nurses, full timers demonstrated higher commitment. Nurses who received preferred schedule and shift had significantly more favorable attitudes. Getting one's preferences for full- or part-time work had virtually no effect on work attitudes. (SK)

Holland's Self-Directed Search, a lifestyle questionnaire, and Bem Sex Role Inventory were completed by 63 gay and 60 heterosexual males. Gay men's career interests were less Realistic or Investigative and more Artistic/Social on Holland's scale; their aspirations were less traditional than heterosexuals'. Bem Femininity and Masculinity scores…

Increased turbulence in the workplace is affecting the careers of an aging workforce: changed skill needs, relations with employers and coworkers, and attitudes toward retirement and aging. Study of careers beyond midlife should bear in mind that retirement is an individual decision and the aging process is unique to the individual. (SK)

Of five approaches to studying older workers (chronological/legal, functional, psychosocial, organizational, and life span), the life-span approach accommodates individual differences in career patterns. Middle-age and older adult workers need to be considered as individuals in terms of career choices and employment policies. (SK)

The new "career contract" moves from organization-based careers to protean or self-based careers. The contemporary work environment demands the metaskills of identity development and heightened adaptability. Career stages now involve cycles of continuous learning rather than retraining, a way to tap the potential of older workers. (SK)

In 1987 and 1993, 676 business administration graduates (49% men, 51% women) completed surveys showing the following: fewer women remained in full-time work in midcareer; those still employed full time earned 19% less than men, worked fewer hours, and were promoted less. Although women were just as satisfied as men in midcareer, they had been more…

Study of 72 displaced engineers in a retraining program showed that better training performance led to more successful employment outcomes; higher career motivation was related to lower training behavior and outcomes; and more experienced workers were less able to cope with change and had less positive outcomes. (SK)