Critical Ingredients of Career Interventions

We would like to share with you the following article from the National Career Development Association on best practices for career interventions. Some of the research cited in this article is based on the meta-analyses that one of our consultants, Nancy Ryan Krane, Ph.D., conducted for her dissertation. Dr. Ryan Krane and a former Career Vision consultant, Laurie Mattera, Ph.D., (FKA Edens), contributed to a second article as well. Career Vision’s Advantage Packages are designed to incorporate these best practices, giving our clients the best chance of accomplishing their goals.

Have you ever wondered which career counseling interventions are most effective? A number of researchers (i.e., Oliver and Spokane (1988), Whiston, Sexton, and Lasoff (1998) have conducted meta-analyses of research studies on career counseling interventions to find out. Although these studies have clearly established that career counseling is effective when administered individually, in groups, to classes, or via computer-assisted guidance, they have shed less light on which interventions are most effective, with exception that self-directed interventions tend to be less effective. However, a meta-analysis described by Brown and Ryan Krane (2000) examined the components included in a large collection of research studies and found significant differences in effectiveness of interventions that include certain critical ingredients. Examining the components of 62 career intervention studies, 18 components were identified, from card-sorts to computerized systems (Brown et al, 2003). By comparing the effectiveness of these 62 studies based on the components used in the intervention, five components were found to make a significant contribution to the effectiveness of the intervention.

The five components that increased effectiveness were:

• workbooks or written exercises
  

• individualized interpretations and feedback
  

• world-of-work information

• modeling
  

• attention to building support

Further, using more than one of these components appeared to increase the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies that contained none of these components achieved an average effectiveness rating of .22. Those with one, two, ore three of these components averaged .45, .61, and .99 respectively. None of the studies examined included more than three of these five components. Every one of the five components raises as many questions as it answers. Exactly how should it be implemented for greatest effect? How can it be adapted to specific settings and clients? Do different clients respond differently to the five components? As we focus on these issues, we may find ways to further increase our effectiveness. This tantalizing glimpse into the keys to success begs for experimentation and research into the effectiveness of the many possible variations of these components.

References

Brown, S.D., & Ryan Krane, N.E. (2000). Four (or five) sessions and a cloud of dust: Old assumptions and new observations about career counseling. In S.D. Brown & R.W. Lent (Eds.), Handbook of Counseling Psychology (3rd ed., pp. 740-766). New York: Wiley.

Brown, S.D., & Ryan Krane, N.E., Brecheisen, J., Castelino, P., Budisen, I., Miller, M., and Edens. L. (2003). Critical ingredients of career choice interventions: More analyses and new hypotheses. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 62, 411-428.

Oliver, L.W., & Spokane, A.R. (1988). Career-counseling outcome: What contributes to client gain? Journal of Counseling Psychology, 35, 447-462.

Whiston, S.C., Secton, T.L., & Lasoff, D.L. (1998). Career-intervention outcome: A replication and extension of Oliver and Spokane (1998). Journal of Counseling Psychology, 45, 150-165.

Bio:
Marilyn Maze, Ph.D., is a Field Editor for Career Convergence and a Principal Research Associate for ACT, Inc.

This article originally appeared in NCDA's newsletter, Career Developments, at http://www.ncda.org. Copyright National Career Development Association, (December, 2007). Reprinted with permission.