Essays on Vocational Psychology and Career Counseling

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Essays in Vocational Psychology

Essay 22. Managing White Collar Job Loss: Causes of and Responses to Recycling. More white collar workers face job loss due to restructuring and other causes; this essay identifies some sources to the problem and suggests some solutions to such displaced workers. (Andrew D. Carson). July, 2007.

Essay 20. Job Search Tactics. (Andrew D. Carson). Reviews the 11 basic job search tactics that will help you to land your desired job. May, 2007.

Essay 19. State of the Site. (Andrew D. Carson). Overview of traffic to this website. March, 2007.

Essay 18. Tactics for a Successful Job Interview. (Jennette Siebens, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology). How to get a job through effective interviewing skills. Fall, 2006.

Essay 17. Getting Along With Your Boss. (William Knor, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology). Outlines methods for improving the quality of your relationship with your boss. Also discusses methods for making the relationship with your boss less stressful. Summer, 2006.

Essay 16. Don't Be Late to Work! (Andrew D. Carson). It is essential that one avoids chronic tardiness at work. Reasons for chronic lateness are reviewed and solutions suggested. Spring, 2006.

Essay 15. Comic and Tragic Aspects of Career Development (Andrew D. Carson). Careers have both comic and tragic aspects. Career counselors need to address both sides of career when working with clients. Winter, 2006.

Essay 14. Childhood Pretend Play and the Emergence of Vocational Personality (Andrew D. Carson). Extends Holland's vocational theory to address childhood pretend play, especially play with toys. Fall, 2005.

Essay 13. Gifted Education and National Security Concerns (Andrew D. Carson). Argues for the reauthorization of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) to support better industrial competitiveness and intelligence resources. Fall, 2004.

Essay 12. Kitson's Hexagon (Andrew D. Carson). In the 1920s, Harry Dexter Kitson (a leading professor in vocational guidance) created his own version of a vocational hexagon similar in some ways to the one later made famous by John Holland. Spring, 2004.

Essay 11. The Seven Deadly Sins at Work (Andrew D. Carson). The seven deadly sins identified in the early history of the Christian church represent a 2,000 year old folk psychology with direct applications to conceptualizing psychological adjustment to work. It is argued that these sins represent bipolar dimensions of personality, the extremes of which lead to poor work adjustment. Winter, 2004.

Essay 10. Why Has Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences Had So Little Impact on Vocational Psychology? (Andrew D. Carson). Howard Gardner has proposed a theory of multiple intelligences that should be of interest to vocational psychologists, but has carried out little or no research to test it, and his theory has as yet has little impact on the field or related professional practice. Summer, 2003.

Essay 9. The Career Development of Teachers. (Andrew D. Carson). Vocational psychologists can contribute to education reform by studying the career development of teachers. This essay provides an outline for an ongoing project on the career development of teachers. Winter 2003.

Essay 8. A History of Computer-Assisted Career Guidance Systems (CACGSs) (Andrew D. Carson). Computers may be providing more career intervention services today than human counselors. This essay reviews the history of computerized career guidance systems, and suggests some areas of concern in their development. Fall, 2002.

Essay 7. Leisure and Vocational Psychology (Andrew D. Carson). Introduces topics related to a vocational psychology of leisure, with emphasis on the relations of leisure, play, and work, theories of leisure and work, and related research. Summer, 2002.

Essay 6. The Selection of Interests (Andrew D. Carson). Extends a selection theory of traits to account for the origins and development of interests through a complex interaction of nature and nurture. Environmental factors (e.g., parenting and education) and autopoiesis (self-organization) serve to select interests from among a limited array of (genetically linked) potential interests. Spring, 2002.

Essay 5. Blood Type (Andrew D. Carson). Addresses claims by Japanese investigators and American Naturopaths that blood type may affect vocational adjustment via effects on personality. Winter, 2002.

Essay 4. Drugs and Work (Andrew D. Carson). Patterns of drug use and preferences may correspond to vocational choice and interests; this essay explores this issue, linking preferences in the two areas (drugs and work) via Holland's theory. Fall, 2001.

Essay 3. Expertise in Career Development (Andrew D. Carson). Describes possible applications of expertise theory (from Anders Ericsson) to career development. Summer, 2001.

Essay 2. Simulation-Based Tools in Self-Assessment of Teachers (John W. Jacobs, Applied Simulation Corporation). This essay describes a simulation-based assessment of teacher skills -- The ATTP- Skills Profiler™. Spring, 2001.

Essay 1. What Was Vocational Psychology? (Andrew D. Carson). This essay explores the "received view" of vocational psychology and its relation to kindred fields. Winter 2001.

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