Social competence and career development: validation of a scale with secondary students

This paper presents a validation study of the Perceived Social Competence in Career Scale (SCCarS). The sample included 571 adolescents, 283 girls (49.6%) and 287 boys (50.3%), aged 14 to 25 years old (ì=16.33±1.41), 10th and 11th grade students attending secondary schools in the northern, central and southern Portugal. Exploratory factor analysis indicates the presence of eight factors, with eigenvalues superior to 1.00, explaining 79.16% of the total variance of the items. Confirmatory factor analysis provided support to the factorial structure of eight factors, with adequate fit indices (X2/df=4.229, CFI= 0.909, GFI= 0.869, RMSEA= 0.079, p= 0.000). These results are consistent with the factorial structure found in previous studies carried out with Portuguese samples from 8th grade. Implications are drawn related to the need for further study of the psychometric characteristics of the SCCarS with young people from different age groups

The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of the Psychology of Training, Development, and Performance Improvement

This handbook is a unique contribution to the field, as it joins together training and appraisal as tools for promoting individual development within organizations. The handbook is divided into four sections: training, e-learning, personal and professional development in organizations, and performance management.

Integrating life design counseling and psychotherapy: Possibilities and practices.

The debate on the relation between career counseling and psychotherapy revealed the close relation between psychosocial and career issues. The connection between these two approaches paves the way for the integration of career counseling into psychotherapy. One of the key challenges of integrating career counseling into psychotherapy is to avoid discontinuities and inconsistencies in the psychotherapeutic intervention. The aim of this article is, therefore, to present the Systematic Treatment Selection perspective as a framework for an effective integration of psychotherapy and career counseling. Then, Life Design Counseling is described, highlighting its possibilities to fit the psychotherapeutic approach. Finally, an illustrative case is presented and discussed.

Qualidade de vida no trabalho nos serviços de maior turnover do Hospital Nossa Senhora do Rosário, E.P.E.

O desempenho de uma atividade laboral prende-se, de um modo geral, com a necessidade de realização pessoal e profissional e a necessidade de subsistência. A qualidade de vida no trabalho envolve fatores fundamentais, desde as condições físicas do local de trabalho à progressão na carreira que, por sua vez vão influenciar a produtividade, a motivação e os custos associados à falta de qualidade dos cuidados. Cabe a cada Organização ser responsável pela manutenção e melhoria qualidade de vida dos seus colaboradores e, deste modo, com o desenvolvimento de pessoal especializado e motivado, a Organização consegue diminuir os custos e aumentar a produtividade. Esta investigação pretende identificar quais os fatores que influenciam a qualidade de vida no trabalho dos enfermeiros que desenvolvem os seus cuidados nos Serviços com maior turnover do Hospital Nossa Senhora do Rosário, E.P.E. (HNSR, E.P.E.), que são: o Serviço de Cirurgia, Medicina e a Urgência Geral. Foi elaborado um questionário dirigido aos enfermeiros prestadores de cuidados com o intuito de recolher dados relativos aos fatores que influenciam a qualidade de vida e as suas consequências (turnover, acidentes de trabalho e stress ocupacional). Os enfermeiros destacaram como principais fatores influenciadores da qualidade de vida no trabalho a sobrecarga de trabalho e a motivação para a realização do trabalho e como consequências da falta de qualidade de vida no trabalho a desmotivação e o desgaste físico e psicológico. ABSTRACT: The requirement of an employment is closely related to personal and professional fulfilments, and also to subsistence matters. The quality of life of the employee depends upon factors like physical labor conditions to range from career development. These factors will affect the performance and motivation of the employee. Each institution should be responsible for the maintenance and improvement of the quality of life of their employees. This will allow for the development of specialized staff which in turn may lead to a reduction on costs and to higher productivity. The aim of this research project is to identify the factors that have a great influence on the quality of life of nurses working on HNSR, E.P.E. departments with higher turnover. The departments with higher turnover are: surgery, medicine and emergency. ln order to collect information about the different factors influencing quality of life and their ultimate consequences, such as turnover, labor accidents and occupational stress, a questionnaire was set up. Afterwards, this questionnaire was sent to nursing care staff of HNSR, E.P.E. The nurses mention as major indicators influencing their quality of life at their job: the overload of work and motivation to care. The main stated consequences of the lack of quality life at work were: demotivation and burnout.

Na expressão de um sonho: Barreiras da carreira em universitários com incapacidade

Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar a perceção de barreiras ao desenvolvimento da carreira num grupo de estudantes Universitários portadores de incapacidade. Participaram 19 estudantes de 3 estabelecimentos de Ensino Superior, com idades compreendidas entre os 19 e os 45 anos. Responderam a uma entrevista semiestruturada que avaliava a perceção de barreiras e de sistemas de apoio ao seu desenvolvimento da carreira no passado, no presente e no futuro. Os resultados obtidos evidenciam dimensões de estabilidade e de mudança na perceção de barreiras: as persistentes nos três momentos avaliativos e as específicas a esses momentos. Também revelam que as pessoas significativas e as ajudas pedagógicas são os tipos de apoio ao desenvolvimento da carreira mais referidos. Os resultados são discutidos quanto às suas implicações para a prática e às perspetivas que abrem à investigação do desenvolvimento da carreira desta população. ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to examine barriers perception to career development in a group of disabled university students. Nineteen students of three institutions of colleges participated, aged between nineteen and forty-five years. they responded to a semi-structured interview that appraised support systems and barriers perception to their career development in past, present and future. The results show barriers perception’s change and stability dimensions: the persistent in the three analise moments and those specific to these moments. lt also reveals that the most said career development's types of support are significant persons and pedagogical aids. The results are discussed regarding their implications for practice and prospects that open for research career development of this population.

Integrating Life-Design Counseling and Psychotherapy: Possibilities and Practices

The relationship between career counseling and psychotherapy is not a new subject. The debate allows the affirmation of career counseling as a dimension of personal counseling and recognizes the close relationship between psychosocial and career issues (Blustein & Spengler, 1995). The connection between these two approaches paves the way for the integration of career counseling with psychotherapy. Indeed, the inseparability of mental health and career issues frequently leads psychotherapists to help their clients to deal with work satisfaction, underemployment or unemployment through psychotherapy. Moreover, when working with specific populations (e.g., people with intellectual disabilities and people with addiction or mental health problems), psychotherapy calls for occupational integration to consolidate and enhance therapeutic gains (Blustein, 1987; Jordan & Kahnweiler, 1995; Leff & Warner, 2006).

Indecisão vocacional em alunos do ensino superior

A literatura tem mostrado uma percentagem significativa de estudantes do ensino superior vocacionalmente indecisos. Assim pretende-se analisar em estudantes do ensino superior a relação da certeza vocacional com a identidade vocacional e com a indecisão vocacional. E também estudar diferenças nestas variáveis em função do género e da idade dos participantes e do ciclo de estudos que frequentam. Para tal foram aplicados 3 questionários (Escala de Certeza Vocacional, Escala de Identidade de Vocacional e Escala de Indecisão na Carreira) a 262 alunos oriundos de três instituições de ensino superior público português. Os resultados demonstram que a redução da indecisão vocacional é acompanhada de maior certeza vocacional e de maiores níveis de identidade vocacional. Não foram encontradas diferenças de género nas variáveis consideradas. Relativamente à idade os participantes, nas fases de desenvolvimento da carreira mais avançados verificaram-se diferenças significativas somente para as varáveis certeza vocacional e identidade vocacional. Conclui-se ainda que estudantes de mestrado evidenciam identidade vocacional mais definida, mais certeza vocacional e menores índices de indecisão vocacional, relativamente aos alunos de licenciatura. Estes resultados podem contribuir para uma melhor compreensão da indecisão vocacional nos estudantes do ensino superior e consequentemente, contribuir para intervenções mais eficazes; The career indecision in higher education students Abstract: The literature has shown a significant percentage of students in higher education vocationally undecided. So we intend to analyze in higher education students the relationship of vocational certainty with vocational identity and the career indecision. And also study differences in these variables by gender and age of the participants and the course of study they attend. In this sense, three questionnaires have been applied (Vocational certain scale, Vocational Identity Scale and Indecision Scale Career) to 262 students from three public higher education institutions in Portugal. The results show that reducing the career indecision is associated to higher vocational certainty and higher levels of vocational identity. No gender differences in the variables were found. Regarding participants’ stage of career development, results show significant differences concerning for vocational certainty and vocational identity, favouring participants in advanced stages of career development. We conclude also that master students show more defined vocational identity, more vocational certainty and lower levels of career indecision than undergraduate students. These results can contribute to a better understanding of career indecision in higher education students and thus contribute to more effective interventions.

Life Design Counseling Group Intervention With Portuguese Adolescents

This article examines the process and outcome of a life design counseling group intervention with students in Grades 9 and 12. First, we applied a quasi-experimental methodology to analyze the intervention’s effectiveness in promoting career certainty, career decision-making, self-efficacy, and career adaptability in a sample of 236 students. Second, focus groups comprising 33 participants were conducted, examining participants’ perceptions of the intervention process and outcome. Our findings showed that the intervention had a significant effect on both career certainty and career self-efficacy, but it had no effect on career adaptability. Our results also showed that My Career Story (MCS) had a stronger effect on Grade 12 students. Focus group participants reported on the usefulness of MCS, as well as on its benefits, which include increased information as well as a sense of direction, self-discovery, connection, and increased self-awareness. Grade 9 participants expressed more difficulties in narrating self-experience than Grade 12 participants did. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.