Examination of a Group Counseling Model of Career Decision Making With College Students

Examination of a Group Counseling Model of Career Decision Making With College Students

Authors and Affiliations

  • P. Clay Rowell: Department of Clinical Mental Health Counseling, University of North Georgia

  • A. Keith Mobley: Department of Counseling and Educational Development, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

  • Gulsah Kemer: Department of Counseling and Counseling Psychology, Arizona State University

  • Amanda Giordano: Department of Counseling and Higher Education, University of North Texas

Author Affiliation Changes

  • P. Clay Rowell is now at Department of Clinical Mental Health Counseling, University of North Georgia.

  • Gulsah Kemer is now at Department of Counseling and Counseling Psychology, Arizona State University.

Support and Correspondence

  • Research supported by a grant from the North Carolina Career Development Association.

  • Correspondence: P. Clay Rowell, Department of Clinical Mental Health Counseling, University of North Georgia, 82 College Circle, Dahlonega, GA 30597 (email: clay.rowell@ung.edu).

Study Overview

  • Purpose: To examine the effectiveness of a group career counseling model (Pyle, 2007) on college students’ career decision-making abilities.

  • Methodology: Used a Solomon 4-group design; participants who joined counseling groups showed significantly greater improvements in career decision-making than those who did not.

Background

  • College students face various transitions and challenges in defining and establishing career goals during their late adolescent and early adult years.

  • Literature suggests students must solidify specific occupational objectives in college (Johnson, Nichols, Buboltz, & Riedesel, 2002; Super, 1990).

Identified Difficulties in Career Decision Making

  • Categories of difficulties include:

    • Lack of Readiness: Indecisiveness, dysfunctional myths about careers.

    • Lack of Information: Insufficient knowledge about one's self, opportunities, and process of career decision making.

    • Inconsistent Information: Internal (conflicts with personal beliefs) and external (advice that contradicts) factors complicating decisions (Gati, Krausz, & Osipow, 1996).

Impacts of Career Planning

  • Unresolved career planning can adversely affect salary, job satisfaction, self-esteem, and family relationships (Healy, 1982; Swain, 1984).

Counseling Responses and Trends

  • The increasing need for effective career counseling strategies on college campuses suggests a shift from individual counseling to group methods, including career courses, group sessions, and computer-assisted career guidance (CACG).

  • Career courses have been in place since the 1930s to provide students with decision-making skills (Collins, 1998; Halasz & Kempton, 2000; Smith, Myers, & Hensley, 2002).

  • Studies have shown positive outcomes, such as increased self-efficacy and career decision-making skills (Scott & Ciani, 2008; Thomas & McDaniel, 2004; Johnson et al., 2002).

  • Integrating a reflective counseling component can enhance career courses by helping students fully explore career and life planning processes.

Group Career Counseling Interventions

  • Group settings can facilitate personal development alongside career skills (Berríos-Allison, 2011; Pope, 1999).

  • Previous studies on group interventions (Clark, Severy, & Sawyer, 2004; Peng, 2000; Sullivan & Mahalik, 2000) indicated their effectiveness in enhancing self-efficacy for career decision-making.

Pyle's Group Career Counseling Model (2007)

  • Pyle's model posits that group career counseling includes processing both external and internal information and follows a multitheoretical framework with four stages:

    1. Encounter Stage:

    • Affective Goals: Comfort with group process, confidence in leadership.

    • Cognitive Goals: Clarification of expectations and understanding logistics.

    • Counseling Skills: Attending, being concrete and genuine.

    1. Exploration Stage:

    • Affective Goals: Heightened comfort and reduced anxiety about self-disclosure.

    • Cognitive Goals: Understanding personal influences on decision-making, recognizing cultural barriers in job attainment.

    • Counseling Skills: Empathy, probing questions, modeling self-disclosure, using circling and linking.

    1. Working Stage:

    • Affective Goals: Openness to change, risk-taking, acceptance of help.

    • Cognitive Goals: In-depth job research, learning-making skills, understanding information sources.

    • Counseling Skills: Advanced empathy, challenging discrepancies, facilitating feedback.

    1. Action Stage:

    • Affective Goals: Accomplishment, empowerment, group cohesion.

    • Cognitive Goals: Comprehensive knowledge of self and careers.

    • Counseling Skills: Drawing conclusions, goal-setting, group closure.

Session Activities and Homework

  • Pyle's model includes detailed scripts for group activities and tasks between sessions aimed at developing self-awareness and understanding in relation to career decision-making.

Purpose of the Current Study

  • Address the gap in research around the effectiveness of specific components of career counseling courses, particularly Pyle's model, through guided research questions:

    • Does Pyle’s model increase career decision-making abilities measured by the Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ)?

    • Is there a significant difference in decision-making abilities between participants in the group intervention compared to non-participants?

Methodology

  • Design: Solomon four-group experimental design used to analyze the data.

  • Participants randomly assigned to intervention (group counseling) or control groups.

  • Two groups had a pretest and all groups completed a posttest measure using CDDQ.

Participant Demographics

  • Total participants: 40 (60% response rate from 67 students in a career and life planning course).

    • Gender: 32 Women (85%), 6 Men (15%); 2 no response.

    • Ethnicity Distribution:

    • Asian/Asian American: 2 (5%)

    • Black/African American: 19 (47.5%)

    • Caucasian/European American: 16 (40%)

    • Mixed/Biracial: 3 (7.5%)

    • Year in School: Freshmen (25%), Sophomores (32.5%), Juniors (10%), Seniors (32.5%).

    • Occupational Choice: 27 (67.5%) had made a choice prior to the group.

    • Age Range: 18 to 50 years, Mean: 20.98, Median: 20.00.