PathwayU
The Science Behind PathwayU
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PathwayU
Most college students face enormous developmental tasks during their college years, including establishing a sense of identity, building healthy relationships, […]
Most college students face enormous developmental tasks during their college years, including establishing a sense of identity, building healthy relationships, and making key decisions about the direction of their educational and career paths. This latter challenge has been a focus of decades of research within applied psychology – an academic subfield that builds on the study of individual differences, developmental theory and research, and psychometrically-sound measurement strategies.
With an emphasis on bridging science and practice, applied psychology also values evidence- based intervention strategies. Designed by internationally renowned scholars in career decision- making and online training, PathwayU’s PathwayU portal is an online career assessment and guidance system informed by the best available scientific research at every step.
Specifically, PathwayU leverages this science by (a) using reliable and valid assessments to (b) predict the level of fit between students and vocational paths based on students’ personal attributes and the unique characteristics of particular career paths, while (c) providing students with useful, empirically-supported feedback and support so they can effectively navigate the education and career decision-making process.
The PathwayU portal measures key attributes which are critical for informed career decision- making: work-related values, vocational interests, personality, and workplace preferences.
Workplace Preferences refer to the needs individuals express for particular values, beliefs, and actions that characterize an organization’s culture. PathwayU assesses seven workplace preferences drawn from a revision of the Organizational Culture Profile, arguably the most well-regarded assessment of organizational culture available.5 These dimensions are: Excellence, Guiding Principles, Collaboration, Innovation, Recognition, Performance, and Stability.
The measurement instruments used within PathwayU were carefully selected or developed according to several factors including the strength of the evidence supporting their reliability and validity. Two (the Work Interest Profiler and the Work Importance Locator) were developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, one (the HEXACO Personality measure) is a proprietary version that converges well with the HEXACO-60, and one (the Organizational Culture Profile) is based on early work by O’Reilly and colleagues, later modified by Cable and Judge, and more recently by Sarros and colleagues.
More specifically, person-environment fit (P-E fit) theorists propose that fit to a particular career path predicts both satisfaction and persistence within that path – that is, students who pursue educational paths that fit them well tend to be happy, find their educational path to be meaningful and engaging, and are committed to earning a degree and obtaining relevant employment within their chosen career path.6
Putting P-E fit principles into practice, PathwayU uses proprietary algorithms that match students to career paths predicted to fit them well based on their unique psychological profiles. The “person” is quantified within the PathwayU portal whereas the “environment” is quantified with extensive data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor in its Occupational Information Network (O*NET).
O*NET provides detailed information for approximately 1,100 career paths. Validity evidence for PathwayU’s predictive methodology is drawn from several published meta-analyses, which provide quantitative summaries of decades of research on the psychological variables assessed by PathwayU. Because any single research study can be subject to chance factors that may lead to spurious results, meta-analyses are an extremely important source of evidence supporting the predictive validity of the PathwayU methodology.
Meta-analytic studies combine results drawn from many studies with the goal of identifying patterns across settings and estimating true relationships between variables. For the meta- analyses reported below, a summary statistic (averaging results of all available studies across a body of research) estimates the extent to which a characteristic, such as individual interests or fit to job, predicts meaningful outcomes.
Several recent meta-analyses yield support for the stability and predictive power of values, interests, and workplaces preferences among college students and employed adults. For example:
Collectively, these meta-analyses establish evidence that the PathwayU assessments and methodology measures stable constructs that are predictive of important career development outcomes.
Evidence suggests that effective career choice interventions have been developed across a range of modalities, including individual or group counseling, career development courses, and computer-assisted career guidance systems.11 Effect sizes have ranged from .30 to .50 (small to moderate) in meta-analyses comparing career interventions to a no-treatment control.12 One meta- analytic review identified five “critical ingredients” included in effective career interventions: (a) individualized interpretation and feedback, (b) up-to-date occupational information, (c) attention to support-building, (d) opportunities to learn from models of targeted behavior, and (e) written exercises.13 Given this evidence, PathwayU’s PathwayU portal and accompanying materials were designed to incorporate all five of these intervention components.
Finally, the initial concept that became PathwayU was tested in a study funded by the U.S Department of Educations’ Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE). This study used a randomized controlled trial design to compare three conditions:
More than 600 students from three community college campuses and one four-year university served as participants, with follow-up data collection targeting only the community college students. Results established evidence of the effectiveness of this earlier version of the PathwayU portal, particularly when paired with a workshop, on key career development
outcomes such as:
Results also suggested that the effectiveness of the software and workshop was equivalent across gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, career decision readiness, and sense of relative control over one’s career decision-making. Although the effects were modest in magnitude, they were in predicted directions, and trends suggested that effects on some key outcomes (e.g., career decision self-efficacy, academic major satisfaction, and self-efficacy strivings) were maintained over a one-year period.14
The PathwayU platform is evolving and is updated continually based on new scientific evidence as it emerges. Nevertheless, the current PathwayU product is supported by the best available science in several ways, such as: (1) psychometrically-sound assessments, (2) a well-supported predictive model used to suggest career paths that fit, and (3) empirically-supported career development feedback and support.
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