Abstract
D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)
Career planning is a developmental process that can be facilitated by career
development programmes. One of the recent developments in these programmes
was the introduction of computerized career counselling which enables the user
to explore career activities independently.
An experimental investigation in which the DISCOVER computerized system was
used, was conducted at two universities in an attempt to determine whether
DISCOVER could be a useful aid for career counselling in South Africa.
First-year university students (N=106) were randomly assigned to one of four
groups according to the Solomon Four Group Experimental Design. Subjects
completed a biographical questionnaire, the Career Maturity Scale (CMS),
Senior Aptitude Test (SAT), New South African Group Test (NSAGT), Sixteen
Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), PHSF Relations Questionnaire (PHSF),
Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA), Self-Directed Search (SDS) and
the 19 Field Interest Inventory (19FII). Evaluation questionnaires concerning
the use of DISCOVER were ·also completed by students as well as counsellors.
The main hypothesis, namely that there would be a statistically significant
difference between the mean posttest scores on the CMS of the experimental and
the control groups, was tested according to the integrated statistical
procedure suggested by Spector (1981). The results showed that there is. a
statistically significant increase in the career maturity of students after
they had used the DISCOVER system, compared with students from the control
group (F, 12,15; p <0,0007). After posttest adjustment for pretest
differences, the effect of the DISCOVER programme was still statistically
significant. It could be predicted with 95 , certainty that a person who used
the DISCOVER programme would show an increase of between 0,68 and 2,21 points
in his total score on the Career Maturity Scale (CMS). There was no
statistically significant interaction effect between the DISCOVER intervention
and the pretest.
Variables such as aptitude, personality and study habits, correlated
statistically significant (p <0,05) with the increase in career maturity after
the use of the DISCOVER system.