Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rochat 2019
Rochat 2019
Revised 12/17/18
Accepted 12/18/18
DOI: 10.1002/cdq.12191
Method
Participant
Lucas, a 16-year-old high school student of middle-class socioeconomic
status, sought career counseling at the career counseling service of a
university in Switzerland. For purposes of this case study, client-related
information was altered in accord with the American Psychological
Association’s (2010) ethical standards. Lucas and his parents signed
a consent form allowing the recording of meetings and the use of the
collected data for research purposes. Part of this material was used in
a previous study (Rochat & Rossier, 2016). Lucas’s counselor was a
PhD student in vocational psychology at the same university who had
worked previously as a career counselor for young people who were not
in education, employment, or training.
Procedure
Lucas’s career counseling intervention followed a standard procedure of
three phases (e.g., Masdonati et al., 2009; first, initial interview; second,
assessment; and third, decision-making) spread over four sessions. During
Measures
Interests, personality, and values. During the assessment phase, quan-
titative instruments were used to evaluate Lucas’s interests (revised
form of the Rothwell-Miller Interests Blank; Bernaud & Priou, 1994),
personal characteristics (self-report on a list of adjectives), and values
(Work Value Questionnaire; Super, 1990). Finally, the decision-making
phase included feedback that his assessment results were consistent
with Holland’s (1997) Investigative–Realistic type. This last phase also
comprised an exploration of relevant career alternatives and planning
of the next steps to take. The CDDQ was administered to Lucas prior
to the assessment phase.
Career decision-making difficulties. The French version of the CDDQ
(Rossier, Rochat, Sovet, & Bernaud, 2015) was used to assess Lucas’s career
decision-making difficulties. The CDDQ is a 34-item self-report measure
that includes two control items. Items are rated on a 9-point Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 (does not apply to me) to 9 (fully applies to me), with
higher scores indicating more difficulty on the associated career decision-
making difficulty. The CDDQ assesses 10 types of career decision-making
difficulties that can provide a total indecision score or be grouped into three
higher order categories. The French version of the CDDQ demonstrated
good internal consistency (α = .93) for the CDDQ total score and dem-
onstrated weak to good consistency for the three higher order categories
(α = .57 to .93; Mdn = .87) as well as for the 10 types of difficulties (α =
.58 to .87; Mdn = .78; Rossier et al., 2015). The structure of this French
version was found to be relatively similar to that of the original version
(Gati et al., 1996, 2000).
Results
Standard CDDQ Interpretation
In a previous article, Amir et al. (2008) suggested beginning the in-
terpretation of clients’ CDDQ scores by assessing the credibility of
TABLE 1
Credibility of Responses According to Amir et al. (2008) When
Simultaneously Considering Answers to Control Items 7 and 12
Item 7
Variable Not Credible (1–2) Doubtful (3–4) Credible (5–9)
Item 12
Credible (1–5) Doubtful Credible Credible
Doubtful (6–7) Not credible Doubtful Credible
Not credible (8–9) Not credible Not credible Doubtful
Note. Item 7 = Liking to do things in one’s own way (validity item); Item 12 = Doing
what we are told to even if it is against one’s will (validity item).
7 salient
4 moderate
2 negligible
1
CDDS R Rm Ri Rd L Lp Ls Lo La I Iu Ii Ie
FIGURE 1
Lucas’s Career Decision-Making Difficulties Profile
Note. Threshold values for the difficulty level (salient, moderate, and negligible) refer to
the criteria proposed and tested by Amir et al. (2008). The solid black bar represents the
total indecision score, the bars with a heavy black outline represent clusters, and the
remaining bars represent difficulty categories that make up the clusters, with difficulty
categories belonging to the same cluster sharing the same shading type. CDDS = total
score on the Career Descision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire; R = lack of readiness;
Rm = lack of motivation; Ri = general indecisiveness; Rd = dysfunctional beliefs; L =
lack of information; Lp = lack of information about the process; Ls = lack of information
about the self; Lo = lack of information about the occupation; La = lack of information
about where to find additional information; I = inconsistent information; Iu = unreliable
information; Ii = internal conflicts; Ie = external conflicts.
Discussion
Providing Feedback
Overall, the case of Lucas emphasizes the need for the career counselor
to investigate the client’s responses at the item level to gain a better
understanding of the client’s needs and reason for seeking counseling.
However, regarding giving feedback to the client, counselors may want
to use the graphical illustration of the results at the cluster and scale
levels to synthesize the information for the clients through visual sup-
ports. Therefore, the career counselor can present the results of the
10-item scales while using his or her in-depth understanding of the
The analysis of your responses indicated a moderate score on the item “lack of
information about the career choice process.” You seem to be well aware of the
factors that should be taken into consideration when making a career decision;
however, you reported having difficulties in knowing how to apply this informa-
tion to make an actual decision. What do you already know about the factors that
have to be taken into consideration when making a career choice?
External conflicts
Items 33–34 Using My System of Career Influences (McMahon, Watson, &
Patton, 2005) or the Career-O-Gram (Thorngren & Feit, 2001)
Note. Items 7 and 12 are validity items. PIC = prescreening, in-depth exploration, and choice.
Conclusion
In addition to being a useful tool for research, the CDDQ appears to
be an effective instrument for practice. To fully benefit from its richness,
counselors are encouraged to conduct an in-depth analysis of responses at
the item level to gain a better understanding of clients’ intervention needs
and to provide more effective counseling. The CDDQ also seems relevant
for fostering the working alliance between career counselors and their
clients and providing a concrete map for interventions. Further empiri-
cal validation is needed to support use of the CDDQ for these purposes.
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