Career Exam One - Ability and Aptitude Assessment in Career Counseling

Skills

Proficiency/competency/dexterity that is acquired through use

Stability of work relevant abilities

1) Abilities relatively stable from adolescence onward 2) Small gender differences in work-related abilities. NO difference in IQ but.... Women better in verbal ability & computation, men better at spatial ability & problem solving 3) No cultural differences in IQ, although schooling experience may affect IQ

Cattle and Horn - Fluid vs. Crystallized Intelligence

1) Fluid intelligence The culturally free portion of intelligence with which we are innately born, capacity to learn & use the mind to solve novel problems • Slightly declines with age •Carroll finds evidence that fluid intelligence is synonymous with g 2) Crystalized intelligence Acquired as we learn; affected by our environmental experiences, schooling, culture, and motivation Peaks in early 40s, then stable til ~85 years

Ability assessments use in counseling

1) Give people info on their strengths and weaknesses 2) Know how to fit into world of work 3) Set goals 4) Explore careers & make decisions Specifically, counselors help cts expand career options, narrow options, confirm career choices, & enhance their job performance

To use assessments...

1) you must have proper training (counseling skills, assessment skills, & be competent with the specific test) 2) know how to select good tests (psychometrics, usefulness, etc)

Aptitude

Any attribute that can be used to predict your ability to succeed in an environment. In regards to cognitive ability, it is your potential

Ability assessments

High school: EXPLORE & PLAN: interest and needs assessment plus achievement tests For 8th/9th graders and for 10th graders, respectively ACT: achievement test for 11th & 12th graders SAT: aptitude test for 11th & 12th graders College: CISS: measures skills & interests GRE: aptitude test regarding ability to do grad work Adults: O*NET: has Ability Profiler, a multiple aptitude test battery (new GATB) CAPS (Career Ability Placement Survey): ability assessment tool ASVAB: multi-aptitude test battery (new Army Alpha)

Ability self-report

No very objective. People rate themselves compared to how they see others. Different from self-efficacy.

Pros and cons of objective assessment

Pros: better validity, can uncover unknown or untapped abilities Cons: doesn't assess all work-relevant abilities, clients could see as threatening Tools: ASVAB, O*NET Ability Profiler, Differential Aptitude Tests, Career Ability Placement Survey, Ball Aptitude Survey

Pros and cons of ability self assessment

Pros: get at abilities unmeasured by objective assessments, easier to administer, cheaper, perhaps less stressful, & can take into account self-concept & self-understanding of abilities Cons: may get distorted/inaccurate picture of abilities (women underestimate theirs, men overestimate) due to individual factors or having a poor reference group to compare self with Tools: skills checklist, card sort

Spearman's Factor approach

Spearman believed intelligence was a single factor or process. S = specific factor, G = general factor.

Abilities

Your power to complete a specific task or action, physical or mental

g

fluid intelligence opens the door to job opportunities but not enough just to have high g, you need social and practical skills as well