The Implications of Preference Crystallization
on Career Decision-Making
Itamar Gati and Aviva Shimoni Hebrew University Beit Berl of Jerusalem Academic College
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Facilitating Career Decision-Making
is one of the goals of career counseling
One approach for guiding this process is the PIC model:
Prescreening career alternatives to locate a small and manageable set of promising occupations
In-depth exploration of promising alternatives to locate the suitable ones
Choice of the most suitable alternative
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The goal to locate a small group of promising alternatives which merit an in-depth exploration
The means clients’ career-related preferences (including interests, length of training, team work, verbal ability, etc.)
The 3 Facets of Preferences:1. The relative importance of each aspect
2. The level regarded as optimal
3. Additional, less desirable, but yet acceptable level(s) – reflecting the willingness to compromise
Prescreening
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Crystallization of Preferences refers to the degree to which individuals are aware of what they regard as desirable, undesirable, and unacceptable, and which aspects are important, less important, and unimportant to them.
Why is this important? The degree of preference crystallization is an
indicator of decision-making readiness
uncrystallized preferences can lead to non-optimal choices
Assessing theCrystallization of Preferences
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1. Defining the concept of preference crystallization as expressed in terms of career-related aspects by adopting and adapting concepts from vocational interest
2. Developing a theoretically-based and empirically-tested quantitative model for assessing clients’ degree of preference crystallization
3. Validating the proposed indicators using experts’ judgments and client’s self-reports
The Goal
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Differentiation between the aspects’ ratings, reflected by the variance and the resolution of the client’s preferences
Consistency between the ratings of related aspect couples (e.g., travel - work environment)
Coherence among the 3 facets of preferences (relative importance and optimal level, and relative importance and willingness to compromise)
The Proposed Indicators of Preference Crystallization
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METHOD
ParticipantsExperts – 20 career counselorsClients – 247 MBCD usersClients – 1019 Surfers in Future Directions
Tools Making Better Career Decisions - a self-directed, Internet-
based career guidance system based on the PIC model.Prescreening is based on sequential-elimination, using the individuals' preferences in 31 career-related aspects
Future Direction – a free, anonymous Israeli Internet career guidance portal; the assessment of preference crystallization is based on the algorithm developed and validated using the expert counselors’ judgments
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Making Better Career Decisions
http://mbcd.intocareers.org
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Future Directions http://www.kivunim.com
An Israeli website in Hebrew, designed for assisting deliberating individuals in making their career decisions. It is a public service and is offered free of charge.
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METHOD - Procedure
VALIDATION BY EXPERTS Career counselors’ expert judgments of the preference crystallization of career clients
Data - Career-related preferences of 6 individuals from a sample of 247 cases from the database of MBCD
VALIDATION BY CLIENTS’ SELF-REPORTS of vocational decisiveness
Data - 247 MBCD clients’ career-related preferences and self-reported vocational decisiveness
VALIDATION BY CLIENTS’ SELF-REPORTS Clients’ self-reported degree of preference crystallization
Data - 1019 Future Directions young adults self-assessed and measured aspects-based-estimate of preference crystallization
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Results - VALIDATION BY COUNSELORS: Crystallization of Preferences
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3
4
5
6
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-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
ALGORITHM
Judgedcrystallization
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RESULTS - VALIDATION BY EXPERTS
Correlations between Experts’ Judgments and the respective Computed Measures of Preference Crystallization
Measures of CrystallizationCounselors’
JudgmentOverall Crystallization**97.
Differentiation**97.
Consistency81.
Coherence *85.
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RESULTS - VALIDATION BY CLIENTS’ SELF-REPORTED VOCATIONAL DECIDEDNESS
One way ANOVA:Group 4 [users who had "a defined vocational direction”] had higher overall crystallization than Group1 [“do not have even a general sense of direction”]
Degree of Decidedness 1 2 3 4
n=57 n=75 n=100 n=14
F (3,242)
Overall
Crystallization
57.14 58.18 58.67 62.32 (6.49) (6.17) (6.11) (4.21)
2.81 *
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Preference Crystallization
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Self assessed crystallization (%)
Measured– model-based estimate of preferencecrystallization
Low Medium High
High101211
Medium131310
Low11129Highly crystallized (33%)Medium crystallization (13%)Low crystallization (36%)Others (inconsistent) (19%)
Results – Degree of Preference Crystallization (N=1019)
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Self assessed crystallization (%)
Model-based assessment of preference
crystallization
LowMedium High
High101211
Medium131310
Low11129
Results – Degree of Preference Crystallization (N=1019)
)35% (Accurate )35%" (Modest ”)31% (Overconfidence
In measured pref. crystallization difference between men and women: 43% of men tend to be medium, women about 1/3 in each level
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Major Findings
Individuals differ in the degree of the crystallization of their preferences
Individuals differ in the awareness of the degree to which their preferences are crystallized
The proposed measures of preference- crystallization matched experts’ judgments
Clients with more crystallized preferences were more decisive
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Theoretical & Practical Implications
Expanding the concept of vocational-interest crystallization to the crystallization of career-related preferences
Face-to-face Counseling: Assessing client’s readiness in terms of their crystallization of career-related preferences
Integration of crystallization indicators based on career-related aspects into self-help Internet (computerized) interactive programs – guiding clients with low levels of preference crystallization to face-to-face counseling
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Results - VALIDATION BY STUDENTS: Crystalization of Preferences
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-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
ALGORITHM
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3 indicators of crystallization
Measures of Preference Crystallization
3 facets of preferences
DifferentiationConsistencyCoherence
Relative importance
Ri-DifRi-ConRi-OL Coh
Optimal levelOl-DifOl-ConRi-Wc Coh Willingness to
compromiseWc-DifWc-Con
OVERALL DIF
OVERALL CON
OVERALL COH
OVERALL CRYSTALIZATTION