The Use
and Development of the Career Thoughts Inventory
James P. Sampson, Jr.,
Gary W. Peterson, Janet G. Lenz,
Robert C. Reardon, and Denise E. Saunders
December 1999
The Career Center,
Dunlap Success Center
100 S. Woodward Avenue,
Florida State University,
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4162
(850) 644-6431 (Voice) 644-3273 (FAX)
http://www.career.fsu.edu/techcenter
(ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 447 362)
Adapted
and reproduced by special permission of the Publisher, Psychological Assessment
Resources, Inc., 16204 North Florida Avenue, Lutz, Florida 33549, from the
Career Thoughts Inventory by Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, and Saunders,
Copyright 1994, 1996 by PAR, Inc. Further reproduction is prohibited without
permission from PAR, Inc.
The CTI,
CTI Workbook, and the CTI Professional Manual are available from PAR, Inc.,
(800) 331-TEST. http://www3.parinc.com/products/product.aspx?Productid=CTI
Appropriate Populations for the CTI
Administering and
Scoring the CTI
Use of the
CTI and the CTI Workbook
Development
of the CTI and the CTI Workbook
CTI
Item Selection and Scale Construction
CTI Workbook Development and Pilot Testing
The
Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI; Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, &
Saunders, 1996; 1998) is a theory-based assessment and intervention resource
intended to improve the quality of career decisions made by adults, college
students, and high school students and the quality of career services delivered
to these individuals. The CTI is a
self-administered, objectively scored measure of dysfunctional thinking in
career problem solving and decision making.
The CTI and “Improving Your Career Thoughts: A Workbook for the Career
Thoughts Inventory” (the CTI Workbook; Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, &
Saunders, 1996) are based on a cognitive information processing
(CIP) theoretical approach to career development and career services (Peterson,
Sampson, & Reardon, 1991; Peterson, Sampson, Reardon, & Lenz, 1996) and
a cognitive
therapy theoretical approach to mental health and mental health
services (Beck, 1976; Beck, et al., 1979; 1985).
The CTI was developed to
integrate the functions of assessment and intervention within a career service
delivery context. The goal was to link the measure and the accompanying workbook
in such a way that clients might make more efficient use of their time and
their human service practitioner's time, while more effectively incorporating
the assessment concepts into intervention strategies for change. As a result,
the CTI is comprised of traditional assessment components (CTI Test Booklet and
Professional Manual) plus a learning resource (the CTI Workbook).
Cognitive Information Processing
theory postulates that effective career problem solving and decision making
requires the effective processing of information in the following four domains:
1)
Self-Knowledge
includes individuals' perceptions of their values, interests, skills, etc.
2)
Occupational Knowledge includes knowledge of individual occupations and having a
schema for how the world of work is organized.
3)
Decision Making Skills are the generic information processing skills that
individuals use to solve problems and make decisions, including the
subcomponents of communication, analysis, synthesis, valuing, and execution.
* Communication: Individuals become
aware that a gap exists between an existing and a desired state of affairs as a
result of one or more external cues (positive or negative events or input from
one or more significant others) or internal cues (client perceptions of
negative emotions, avoidance behavior, or physiological changes).
* Analysis: Individuals form a
mental model of the problem and perceive relationships among the components,
e.g., relating self-knowledge with occupational knowledge to better understand
the necessary characteristics of the occupation or other option they seek.
*
Synthesis:
Individuals expand (elaborate) and then narrow (crystallize) the alternatives
that they are considering.
* Valuing: Individuals evaluate
the costs and benefits of each of the remaining alternatives to themselves,
significant others, their cultural group, and their community or society in
general, ultimately leading to a first choice.
*
Execution:
Individuals formulate and commit to a plan for implementing their tentative
choice, including a preparation program, reality testing, and employment
seeking.
4)
Executive Processing includes metacognitions which control the selection and
sequencing of cognitive strategies used to solve a career problem through
self-talk, self-awareness, and control and monitoring.
In
order to simplify the process of instrument development, the above domains and
subcomponents were organized into eight cognitive information processing (CIP) content
dimensions that include:
1) Self-Knowledge
2) Occupational Knowledge
3) Communication
4) Analysis
5)
Synthesis
6)
Valuing
7)
Execution
8)
Executive Processing
Dysfunctional
thinking in any of the above CIP eight content dimensions could impair an
individual's ability to solve career problems and to make career
decisions. For the purposes of this
instrument, the terms thinking and information processing are used
synonymously.
Cognitive therapy theoretical
concepts (Beck, 1976; Beck, et al., 1979; 1985) specify that dysfunctional
cognitions have a detrimental impact on behavior and emotions. Through cognitive restructuring,
collaborative empiricism, attention to emotions, and the development of an
effective helping relationship, clients learn to replace dysfunctional
cognitions with functional cognitions, resulting in positive changes in
behavior and emotions.
In developing the CTI, the
following assumption was made:
While dysfunctional thinking in career problem
solving and decision making cannot be measured directly, it can be inferred
from an individual's endorsement of statements (test items) reflecting a
variety of dysfunctional career thoughts.
For
the purposes of this instrument, career thoughts are defined as
outcomes of one's thinking about assumptions,
attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, feelings, plans, and/or strategies related to
career problem solving and decision making.
Regardless
of whether CTI items refer to assumptions, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs,
feelings, plans, and/or strategies, all items reflect dysfunctional thinking
that inhibits effective career problem solving and decision making.
Appropriate
Populations for the CTI
The CTI is designed for the
following individuals: (a) eleventh- and twelfth grade high school students who
may be choosing a postsecondary field of study, choosing an occupation, or
seeking employment; (b) college students who may be choosing
a major field of study, choosing an occupation, or seeking employment; and (c) adults
who are considering an occupational or employment change, seeking employment
due to unemployment or underemployment, or reentering the labor market after a
substantial period of nonpaid work (such as child rearing).
Using the Harris-Jacobson Wide
Range Readability Formula (Harris & Jacobson, 1982), the readability of the
CTI and the CTI Workbook was calculated to be at a
6.4 and 7.7 grade level, respectively.
Given this finding, the CTI and CTI Workbook can be used without
assistance with most high school and college students and adults.
Administering and Scoring the CTI
In order to facilitate quick
completion, scoring, and profiling of the instrument and avoid unnecessary
delays or disruptions in the service delivery process, the CTI combines the
inventory, answer sheet, and profile form into one booklet. The Test Booklet can be quickly scored by
clients, human service practitioners, or clerical support staff. The CTI
Profile is printed on the back page of the booklet.
Use of the CTI and the
CTI Workbook
In service delivery, the CTI can
be used by practitioners to help adults, college students, and high school
students identify, challenge, and subsequently alter dysfunctional thinking
that impairs their ability to effectively solve career problems and make career
decisions. Specifically, the CTI can be used as an instrument for screening and
needs assessment, as well as a learning resource in delivering career services.
The CTI Professional Manual provides additional details on the use of the CTI
and CTI Workbook, including specific strategies for individual counseling,
group counseling, self-directed career decision making, workshops and
curricular interventions.
As a screening measure, the CTI
can be used to identify individuals who are likely to experience problems in
making career choices as a result of their dysfunctional thinking. Individuals
identified as having more dysfunctional thoughts will likely require more
assistance in making effective use of career services, whereas individuals
identified with fewer dysfunctional thoughts will require less assistance. The
CTI Workbook can be used to facilitate an individual's understanding of how
much help he or she will likely need to make effective use of career
services. The CTI Total score is a
single global indicator of dysfunctional thinking in career problem solving and
decision making.
As a needs assessment measure,
the CTI can be used to identify the specific nature of dysfunctional thinking
noted in the screening process. In problem-solving terms, the CTI is used to
help define the problem space. Career interventions to reduce career choice
problems can then be recommended. The CTI Workbook can be used to facilitate an
individual's understanding of the nature of his or her dysfunctional
thoughts. Construct scores include: Decision-Making Confusion, Commitment Anxiety, and External Conflict.
Decision-Making Confusion
(DMC) refers to the inability to initiate or sustain the decision making
process as a result of disabling emotions and/or a lack of understanding about
the decision making process itself.
The Commitment Anxiety (CA)
scale reflects the inability to make a commitment to a specific career choice,
accompanied by generalized anxiety about the outcome of the decision making
process. This anxiety perpetuates indecision.
The External Conflict (EC)
scale reflects the inability to balance the importance of one's own
self-perceptions with the importance of input from significant others,
resulting in a reluctance to assume responsibility for decision making.
As a learning resource, the CTI
and the CTI Workbook can be used with various counseling interventions in
assisting individuals to challenge and alter the specific dysfunctional
thoughts identified as problematic in the prior needs assessment process. The
primary cognitive restructuring schema (Beck et al., 1979) used throughout the
workbook encourages individuals to identify, challenge, and alter
any negative career thoughts and then follow up with action. This schema is
repeated at several key points in the workbook to reinforce client
understanding of the cognitive restructuring process. By reducing dysfunctional career thinking, clients are more
likely to effectively process information needed for exploration, problem
solving, and decision making. By
becoming more aware of the negative impact of dysfunctional thinking and by
learning the process of cognitive restructuring, clients can become “freed up”
to think in more creative, reality-based ways about their career choices. A theory-based decision-making checklist,
included in the CTI Workbook, can indicate potentially useful areas for
specific instruction in career decision making. The CTI and the CTI Workbook are designed to help clients make
current career decisions as well as learn how to be better problem solvers in
the future. The Workbook includes the
following five sections:
Section 1. Identifying Your Total
Amount of Negative Career Thoughts: The CTI Total Score. The first
section is designed to help clients understand that as dysfunctional career
thinking increases, the level of practitioner assistance likely needed to
benefit from career services increases as well. The intended outcome of using
this section is that clients will be more motivated to seek a level of service
appropriate for their needs.
Section 2. Identifying the Nature
of Your Negative Career Thoughts. The second section is designed to
help clients gain insight into the development and maintenance of their
dysfunctional thinking. The intended outcome of using this section is that
clients will be more self-aware, more capable of monitoring and controlling
cognitions, and more motivated to cognitively restructure negative career
thoughts and take action to make career decisions.
Section 3. Challenging and
Altering Your Negative Career Thoughts and Taking Action. The third
section is designed to improve self-awareness of the detrimental impact of
dysfunctional thinking on career problem solving and decision making, to
improve client capacity to monitor and control negative self-talk, to facilitate
the cognitive restructuring of negative career thoughts through completion of
an exercise, and to facilitate the development of an Individual Action Plan
(IAP) for using career resources and services. The intended outcome of using
this section is that clients will reduce their dysfunctional career thinking
and more effectively use career resources and services, ultimately leading to a
more consistent reduction of dysfunctional thoughts and more appropriate career
decisions.
Section 4. Improving Your Ability
to Make Good Decisions. The fourth section is designed to enhance the
present and future decision-making skills of clients through decision-making
instruction. The intended outcome of using this section is that clients will be
better able to assess and apply their skills in career problem solving and
decision making.
Section 5. Making Good Use of
Support from Other People. The fifth section is designed to help
clients better understand how support resources can be used to their benefit in
cognitive restructuring, career exploration, and decision making. The intended
outcome of using this section is that clients will be more proactive,
knowledgeable consumers in making effective use of available practitioners and
significant others.
Although this paper and the CTI
Professional Manual use the term “dysfunctional” career thoughts, all client
materials use the term of “negative” career thoughts. In using the workbook
with clients, we strongly recommend that practitioners use the term “negative”
rather than “dysfunctional” when referring to thoughts or thinking that limit
career problem solving and decision making.
Consideration of diversity
issues are important in the effective use of the CTI and the CTI Workbook. The
influence of group membership relating to age, disability, ethnicity, gender,
race, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status on career thoughts can be
an important environmental factor in career choice. Group membership may
enhance career choice via networking and mentoring or it may constrain career
choice via stereotyping and prejudice.
The specific nature and consequences of these environmental factors on
career choice will likely vary with group membership. As a result, the specific career thoughts of an individual are a
product of individual experience, mediated by personal characteristics and by
group membership in a cultural context.
It is difficult to develop an
instrument that reflects differences in life experience between group cultures,
and within subcultures of specific groups, that is brief enough to be hand
scored for use as a screening tool in service delivery. The CTI was designed to measure career
thoughts that tend to be common across groups.
In developing the CTI, potential items that were significantly
associated with gender or ethnicity were eliminated from the item pool. It is possible, however, to collaboratively
use the CTI with the client to identify, challenge, and alter career thoughts
of an individual from a specific group.
The Professional Manual includes specific suggestions for dealing with
diversity issues in interpreting the CTI and using the CTI Workbook.
A variety of practitioners may
make effective use of the CTI. In addition to general training in human
behavior, helping skills, and assessment, practitioners need training in career
development, career service delivery, and cognitive-behavior therapy. In addition to general experience in the
delivery of human services, practitioners need experience in the delivery of
career services with appropriate supervision.
In particular, practitioners using the CTI with clients should be
familiar with the professional manual, personally complete all components of
the CTI, and make use of appropriate supervision.
Development
of the CTI and the CTI Workbook
CTI Item Selection and
Scale Construction
A rational-empirical approach
was used in developing the CTI. After
reviewing the theoretical foundations of the CTI and the literature on dysfunctional
thinking in career choice, criteria were developed for each of the eight CIP
content dimensions. An initial pool of
248 items was then created based on actual client statements from the career
counseling experience of the authors.
After review by experienced career counselors for item clarity and
realism, the pool was revised to 195 items and then reviewed by a six-member
bias panel to identify and correct any bias related to ethnicity (African
American, Hispanic American, Asian American), gender, disability, and age. The 195 item pool plus 13 randomly inserted
items from the short form of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale
(Reynolds, 1982) was administered to 320 volunteer undergraduate students. Eighty items were retained on the basis of
their general psychometric quality, freedom from gender, ethnic, or social
desirability bias, item-scale reliability, and content domain coverage. A
principal components analysis with Varimax rotation from an administration of
these 80 items with a new sample of 196 volunteer undergraduate students
revealed three interpretable constructs that were associated with dysfunctional
career thinking: decision-making
confusion, commitment anxiety,
and external conflict. Items could
then be identified as relating to one of these three constructs as well as
contributing to one of the eight CIP content dimensions. The 80 items were also administered to
clients seeking services, allowing an analysis of the capacity of individual
items to distinguish clients (n=68) from non-clients (n=196). A shortened 48-item version of the CTI was
then derived on the basis of factor loadings, contribution to scale separation,
capacity to discriminate clients from non-clients, and content domain
coverage. The 48 items were then administered
to a new sample of 145 volunteer undergraduate students. A second principal components analysis with
Varimax rotation revealed the same three interpretable constructs as above.
CTI Workbook Development
and Pilot Testing
Workbook development began with
the cognitive restructuring exercise in Section 3. In order to assist clients in challenging and altering their
thoughts, reframing stimulus statements were written for each CTI item to show
clients how negative thoughts interfere with their ability to make career
decisions, and to provide information on making the best use of time spent on
career decision making. Reframing stimulus statements include varying
combinations of the following themes: (a) the difficulty often encountered by
individuals making career choices; (b) the often inherent ambiguities in making
career choices; (c) the importance of assuming personal responsibility for
decision making while also considering input from significant others; (d) the
importance of linking career choices with other life choices; (e) the
identification of factors that make it more difficult to think clearly about
career options; (f) the identification of absolute dichotomous thinking that
interferes with career choice; (g) the assumption that improved decision-making
and information-seeking skills can be learned; (h) the value of broad career
exploration prior to final choice; (i) the value of using a variety of sources
of information in career exploration; and (j) the value of obtaining assistance
from a helping professional when individuals experience difficulty in career
choice. The reframing stimulus statements were then examined for potential bias
regarding ethnicity, gender, disability, and age. The exercise was pilot tested and subsequently revised for
clarity. Interpretive and
decision-making instruction sections were then added to the workbook.
CTI normative data were
collected for adults (n=571), college students (n=595), and
eleventh- and twelfth grade high school students (n=396). Combined data on college student and adult
clients (n=376) were also collected. In
general, all groups were representative in terms of geographic distribution, gender, and ethnicity, with the
exception that female adults were overrepresented, Hispanic American adults
were underrepresented, and female clients were overrepresented. As stated previously, organizations and
individuals are strongly encouraged to develop local CTI norms to allow more
specific population comparisons.
Analysis of normative data revealed that gender and ethnicity accounted
for .2% and .1% of the variance, respectively, in CTI Total scores for all
groups combined. Therefore, it was
concluded that there is little relationship between gender or ethnicity with
respect to CTI Total scores, and that there was no need to provide separate
norms for either of these factors.
Internal
consistency. The internal consistency of the CTI Total score and
construct scales was determined by calculating coefficient alphas for each of
the respective norm groups. The internal consistency (alpha) coefficients for
the CTI Total score ranged from .97 to .93.
Alpha coefficients for the construct scales ranged from .94 to .74.
Stability. Stability concerns the extent to which individuals
achieve the same CTI scores on two different occasions. The stability of the CTI Total score and
construct scales was determined by having 73 volunteer college students and 48
volunteer eleventh- and twelfth grade high school students complete the CTI
twice over a four week interval. Four-week test-retest stability coefficients
for the CTI Total score was high (r = .86) for the college student
sample, indicating little change in responses to the entire 48 items over the
4-week period. The stability coefficients for the construct scales ranged from
.82 to .74, following a similar pattern as the data for internal consistency,
with lower correlations for scales with fewer items. This pattern was also
observed for the high school student sample, with the CTI Total at r =
.69 and the construct scales ranging from .72 to .52, showing that adequate
stability exists for the use of the instrument.
Content
validity. Content validity concerns the congruence of CTI items,
CIP content dimensions, and construct scales with the theoretical basis of the
instrument. This congruence was built into the development strategy for the CTI
items and scales. Individual items and construct scales are directly linked to
CIP theory through content dimensions. CIP content dimensions (self-knowledge,
occupational knowledge, communication, analysis, synthesis, valuing, execution,
and executive processing) provided specific criteria for developing items. The CTI Professional Manual groups all 48
CTI items by content dimension and includes the corresponding criterion number
or numbers for each.
Construct
validity. Construct
validity is concerned with the extent to which clusters of empirically
associated items that are conceptually consistent with the theory can be identified
and reproduced across populations.
Evidence of construct validity was established through a series of
factor analyses. The constructs of decision-making
confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict, that were
identified in two different samples during CTI development, were replicated for
adults, college students, and eleventh- and twelfth-grade high school students
based on normative data. The CTI Total
score is highly correlated (r = .89 to .94) with DMC for all groups.
These correlations, along with the large percentage of the variance accounted
for by DMC (factor 1), suggests that a general predisposition toward
dysfunctional thinking strongly influences subsequent specific aspects of
dysfunctional career thinking, such as commitment anxiety. External conflict
(EC) appears somewhat less related to general dysfunctional thinking, as
represented by the lower correlation of EC with the CTI Total score and DMC.
Correlations among construct scales, especially CA and EC, are distinctly lower
for the client population than for non-client adults, college students, and
high school students. CA and EC appear to be more distinct from DMC for clients
than nonclients.
Given the magnitude of
correlations among CTI factors observed above for adults, college students, and
high school students, a Principal Components Analysis with oblique rotation was
used to extract the factor structure of the instrument. A three-factor model
was confirmed for the college population, the combined normative sample, and the
client comparison group. A two-factor solution (decision-making confusion and
external conflict) was the most interpretable solution for the adult sample,
whereas a different two-factor solution (decision-making confusion and
commitment anxiety) was most interpretable for high school students. Our
interpretation of these findings is that for adult non-client populations who
are almost all employed or not seeking employment, commitment anxiety is not an
operative construct when a career problem does not exist, whereas confusion
about decision making and external conflict with significant others (such as
spouses) are operative. For high school non-client populations, external
conflict with significant others (such as parents and caretakers) concerning
career problems is not yet an issue, whereas confusion about decision making
and anxiety about post-high school commitments yet to be made are operative.
The three-factor solution, including decision-making confusion, commitment
anxiety, and external conflict, was again reproduced for the client population,
for which the CTI was designed. We concluded that the three-factor solution is
the most appropriate model to use for the instrument as it is the most
generalizable solution across all populations.
What these analyses reveal about
the construct validity of the CTI is that there is a single powerful confusion
entity that is pervasive in career problem solving and decision making. Beyond
this, there are more specific issues related to one’s anxiety about committing
to a career choice and to potential conflict with significant others.
Therefore, all three constructs may be viewed as indicators of the presence of
dysfunctional thinking that constrains the cognitive system that undergirds
career problem solving and decision making.
Convergent
validity. Convergent
validity is concerned with the extent to which the CTI Total score and
construct scale scores correlate with other measures of similar constructs in a
theoretically consistent direction.
Convergent validity measures included the following:
My Vocational Situation (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980a) Identity
Scale and Occupational Information and Barriers categories;
The Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, &
Koschier, 1987) Certainty and Indecision Scales;
The Career Decision Profile (Jones, 1988) Decidedness,
Comfort, Self-Clarity, Knowledge about Occupations &
Training, Decisiveness, and Career Choice Importance scales;
The NEO PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992a) Neuroticism
Domain, including the facets of: Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression,
Self-Consciousness, Impulsiveness, and Vulnerability.
Evidence of convergent validity
was established by administering the above measures to 50 adults, 152 college
students, and 151 eleventh- and twelfth-grade high school students. All samples were representative in terms
of geographic distribution, gender, and
ethnicity, with the exception that females slightly outnumbered males (56% to
44%) across all three groups and Hispanic American adults were underrepresented.
Across all three groups (adults,
college students, and high school students), CTI scales were consistently
inversely correlated with positive constructs such as vocational identity,
certainty, and knowledge about occupations and training, and directly
correlated with indecision. The CTI Total score was consistently directly
correlated with neuroticism and vulnerability. Only career choice importance
exhibited inconsistency in relationships across groups as was expected.
Although CTI construct scales covaried directly with angry hostility,
self-consciousness, and impulsiveness, the relatively low magnitude of the
correlations have limited practical importance.
The following additional
relationships were also noted. CTI scales for adults were consistently
inversely correlated with comfort with choice, decidedness, and lack of
information needs and positively correlated with anxiety. CTI scales for
college students were consistently inversely correlated with comfort with
choice and decisiveness, and correlated positively with depression for the CTI
Total score. CTI scales for high school students were consistently inversely
correlated with self-clarity.
Relationships between the CTI
Total score and convergent variables were very similar to the relationships
observed between DMC and the convergent variables. This is to be expected given
the high correlation between the CTI Total score and the DMC scale. The number
of correlations having practical significance (.50 to .75) were 32 for adults,
21 for college students, and 17 for high school students. This is also to be
expected given the slightly lower alpha reliabilities for high school students
and college students in comparison with adults. These lower reliability
coefficients, combined with the lower alpha reliabilities from some CDP scales
and small numbers of items in NEO facet scales, could explain the lower number
of correlations between convergent variables and either CA or EC.
Criterion
validity. Criterion
validity is concerned with the extent to which the CTI accurately discriminates
between persons seeking career services (clients) and persons not seeking
career services (nonclients). Evidence of predictive validity was established
by administering the CTI to 199 clients and 149 nonclients at two different
universities. Both samples were
representative in terms of geographic
distribution and ethnicity, with the exception that females slightly outnumbered
males and a greater proportion of clients were sophomores while a greater proportion
of nonclients were seniors. Analysis of
the data revealed significant differences in CTI Total and construct scales for
each group, with clients having higher scores as predicted. Post-hoc CTI item-level comparisons revealed
significant differences between clients and nonclients on 26 items, with
clients scoring higher than nonclients on all 48 items.
The utility of a test concerns
how well the test achieves its intended purpose within the constraints of
“typical” practice. Many career service
delivery organizations serve numerous clients. In this type of environment, an
instrument used for screening, needs assessment, and learning is most
cost-effective when it can be:
1) quickly administered,
2) rapidly scored,
3) easily interpreted,
4) easily integrated into counseling homework,
and
5) inexpensively used.
The CTI was designed to meet the
above criteria. Quick administration -
most clients complete the 48 CTI items in 7 to 15 minutes. Rapid scoring - the CTI can be hand
scored in 5 to 8 minutes. As a result,
the CTI can be used as part of a brief intake procedure or during an initial
session. Easy interpretation - the CTI
includes a limited number of scales (the CTI Total score and three construct
scales), which simplifies interpretation.
The CTI Workbook presents interpretive information for all four scales
with text, metaphors, and illustrations that practitioners can use to
facilitate interpretation of CTI results.
Easy integration - the CTI workbook has several components that
can be assigned as homework, such as cognitive restructuring of negative
thoughts, developing an individual action plan for using career resources and
services, and learning about the decision-making process. Inexpensive use - the CTI Test
Booklet and the CTI Workbook are relatively inexpensive to purchase and the
hand scoring feature eliminates scoring processing fees.
NOTE: Refer to the CTI Professional Manual
for additional details on the development, standardization, and validation of
the CTI. Further information on CTI
development may be found in Sampson, J. P., Jr., Peterson, G. W., Lenz, J. G.,
Reardon, R. C., & Saunders, D. E. (1996). Negative thinking and career
choice. In R. Feller & G. Walz (Eds.). Optimizing life transitions in
turbulent times: Exploring work, learning and careers (pp. 323-330).
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