Assessing Calling in Chinese College Students: Development of a Measure and Its Relation to Hope

Research suggests that perceiving a calling towards a particular career is relatively frequent among college students in Western cultures. However, little is known about how this applies to other cultural contexts. This study assessed the perception of career as a calling in the Chinese culture. Study 1 reports the development of the Chinese Calling Scale (CCS), based on a sample of 788 Chinese college students, and identifies three dimensions of a calling: Altruism, Guiding Force, and Meaning and Purpose. Measurement invariance across gender is supported by the CCS. In Study 2, the convergent and criterion validity of the CSS is examined based on a sample of 387 college students. The CCS is strongly related to an existing calling measure and moderately related to life meaning and life satisfaction. Study 3 examines the relation between calling, hope, life meaning, life satisfaction, and career decidedness among 518 college students. The findings reveal that hope significantly mediated the relation of calling with career decidedness, life meaning, and life satisfaction. In summary, this study provides a new scale to assess calling in Chinese culture and is the first to explore how calling relates to dispositional hope.

Optional course "Homeopathically potentised substances: placebos or effective?" for medical students at the University of Bern, Switzerland

Background Apart from compulsory lectures on classical homeopathy (CH), traditional Chinese medicine/acupuncture, neural therapy and anthroposophically extended medicine (AEM), our institute at the University of Bern offers several optional practical courses for medical students. The aim of this course during autumn 2011 and spring 2012 was to discuss basic research, observational and clinical studies in the fields of CH and AEM, so that students i) learned how to read and appraise scientific publications, ii) learned how complementary medicine can be investigated with scientific methods, and iii) were able to form their own opinion about the possible specific effects and effectiveness of homeopathically potentised substances. Methods Introductory lectures on AEM, CH and study design were given to 12 second year medical students. The students appraised 12 research articles and presented the results in class, followed by discussions with experts in the fields of basic and clinical research from our institute. A company producing homeopathic remedies was visited and students could practise potentization procedures and trituration. At the end of the course, students compiled posters with arguments in favour of and against specific effects and effectiveness as well as their own conclusions. The course was evaluated using a written questionnaire with closed and open questions. Results Previous knowledge about CH and AEM was scarce among the students. It slightly increased during the course, and the course itself fostered their interest on the topic. This course was chosen by most students, because they were genuinely interested in the topic (and not because other courses they had wanted to visit were fully booked). The students especially valued the discussions, the various perspectives presented to them, and experiencing a potentization process. Conclusion Medical students were interested to learn more about homeopathically potentised substances. The contradictory study results made it difficult for them to form their own opinion. Apart from appraising articles, the students would have liked to meet and talk to patients.