Career Exploration With Women Using the Non-Sexist Vocational Card Sort and the Self-Directed Search

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Abstract
This study investigated the effects of participating in a career-exploration exercise on breadth of careers considered, stimulation of vocational information-seeking behaviors, and satisfaction with treatment. The participants were 198 undergraduate women students who were randomly assigned to one of six groups: (a) those who completed the standard Non-Sexist Vocational Card Sort (NSVCS), (b) those who completed a version of the NSVCS which had been revised in accordance with the National Institute of Education Guidelines on Sex Bias and Sex Fairness in Career Interest Inventories, (c) those who completed the standard Self- Directed Search (SDS), (d) those who completed a revised SDS, (e) those who were exposed only to information on the factors affecting women's career choices, and (f) those in the waiting-list control group. Results indicate that those who took the standard or revised NSVCS found a significantly broader range of occupations suggested to them than those who took the standard or revised SDS. Yet, making the interpretive changes and revisions in the instruments in accordance with the NIE Guidelines had little effect on the scores of respondents. There were no differences on any other variables.