Randomly assigned 42 men and 34 women classified as having avoidant personality disorder to one of three treatment conditions or to control group. Treatment subjects displayed significantly greater improvement on self-report and behavioral measures than did controls. Inclusion of skills-training procedures did not contribute to effects of…

Explores role played by personality attributes of family therapist in facilitating and or inhibiting one's adherence to variety of approaches to family practice using experienced family therapists (N=156). Found personality attributes of family therapist did play role in predicting adherence to belief and action systems unique to particular…

Investigated differences among women and men (N=151) employed in traditional female occupations (staff nursing, elementary school teaching, librarianship) who took the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI). Findings on the VPI Social, Investigative, Conventional, Enterprising and Artistic scales showed women, when compared to men in the same…

Reviews previous approaches to the study of successful ageing and details an alternative approach. Discussion of new ways to investigate successful ageing concentrates on the complementarity between quantitative and qualitative research strategies. (RJC)

The Leadership Opinion Questionnaire, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and a demographic questionnaire were administered to 115 student organization officers. The level of relationships between leadership attributes and personality preferences as well as differential leadership attributes and/or personality preference patterns were investigated.…

Used archival data on individuals identified as shy and reserved in late childhood in 1954 to trace the continuities and consequences of the individuals' behavioral style for the subsequent 30 years of their lives. Childhood shyness did not produce pathological or extreme outcomes, but did have significant consequences for later development,…

Investigated relationship between alcohol use and misuse and personality in 347 high school students. Students completed measures of alcohol involvement and personality. Results demonstrated that as adolescents increasingly became involved with alcohol, the more their personality characteristics differed from those of adolescents not involved or…

Cluster analysis on 302 vocationally undecided students showed the existence of five types of undecided students. Results suggest that it may be appropriate to consider undecided students as making up multiple subtypes. (Author/NB)

Six profiles of theoretical types of gifted and talented children are offered including (1) the successful gifted, (2) the divergently gifted, (3) the "underground" gifted (who want to hide their giftedness), (4) the dropouts, (5) the double-labeled (with physical or emotional handicaps) gifted student, and (6) the autonomous learner. (DB)

Examination of stories invented by four- and five-year olds indicated that narrative skill was a better predictor of the inclusion of conflict and psychological causation in a story than was age. Plotted narratives included conflict and psychological causation more often than did less-structured narratives. (BC)

Examines issues involved in distance career guidance. Issues involved include adequacy of guidance without face-to-face contact, what is lost or gained by noninterpersonal approaches, and in what circumstances distance guidance might be appropriate and how it is best provided. (JPS)

Undergraduates (n=208) with at least an eight-point difference between the first and second letters of their Holland type code completed the Self-Directed Search and Vocational Counseling Preference Inventory. Significant preference differences appeared among personality types in terms of counseling framework, career aspirations, and decision…

Personal style patterns and environmental constraints and opportunities of the workgroup were identified by 367 Navy personnel and 114 supervisors. Personal style predicted different job outcomes--performance, satisfaction, withdrawal--across the organization and within groups. Recognition of personal style and environmental patterns could enhance…

Cross-cultural issues in personality and career assessment include ethnocentrism; the concept of culture; whether personality is culturally constructed; and linguistic, conceptual, scale, and normative equivalencies of assessment instruments across cultures. Research should include broader cultural pools, and counseling must take a cross-cultural…

The Myers-Briggs Type Inventory provides a way of determining the fit between individual preferences and potential occupations. It can give people an appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses and awareness of possible blind spots. Recognition of individual types can help in selecting appropriate steps for career planning and lifelong…