1Cognitive Career Assessment: Concepts and Applications

This article discusses conceptual models of cognitive assessment and describes a variety of cognitive assessment methods derived from those models. These strategies are then applied to the assessment of career undercommitment, overcommitment, work-related anxiety and depression, and work-related personality problems. Sigmund Freud, when reportedly asked what an individual should be able to do well, responded, &dquo;Lieben und Arbeiten&dquo; (to love and to work). Despite the initial joining together of these two great spheres of human activity, psychologists and counselors have generally focused much more on the &dquo;Lieben&dquo; than on the &dquo;Arbeiten.&dquo; Historically, career and vocational counseling has developed in a quite different direction from psycho-therapeutic counseling for personal difficulties. Indeed, these differences are reflected in the separate developmental paths taken by counseling/counseling psychology on one hand and clinical psychology on the other. However, as has been noted by many writers (e.g., Watkins, Schneider, Cox, & Reinberg