Peer Review

The Stages of Personal Transition

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: The paper is a description of a model that can be used for dealing with personal
change in one's life. It has applicability to use with a variety of people
including in the workplace. IKt also presents a fairly detailed view of the
basis for the model, personal construct psychology
Type of Material:: Advanced reference/textbook level presentation of an important school of
thought.
Recommended Uses:: A good preparation for personal change counseling (either as a counselor or
client); understanding orgnaizaitonal change from a personal perspective; or
material for a course dealing with managing personal change. Suggested for
leadership classes.
Technical Requirements:: Web browser. High speed not required.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Major learning goals appear to be the personal transition curve, a model for
viewing change in life; and personal construct psychology, understanding how
others view their world so we can communicate with them more effectively.
Target Student Population:: It could be used for almost any group from community college through graduate
school and almost any level of employee. It might have some applicability for
high school level practitioners. However, beware of the level of sophistication
in the material presented.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Understanding of general psychology prinicples and an understanding of what
personal change might entail.

Rating:
Strengths:: It is well written and supported with active links and reference materials.
Concerns:: The personal transition curve is NOT fully described by the text in the
referring main page of this tool. The diagram referred to in the introduction
should be identified as ESSENTIAL to understanding the personal transition
process. Also, some of the concepts (2003 version of diagram) are NOT discussed
in the main text--shouldn't the author be discussing the most recent (2003, not

2000) version of the frameworkl?

Rating:
Strengths:: it provides a fairly concise description of a tool to use when dealing wiht
personal change issues.

Could be a very useful tool (if one explores all the links suggested) for
helping advanced students understand their own approaches to transition.
Concerns:: How does personal construct theory stack up against other ways of viewing
indivisual perception? For example, the theiry of "cognitive frames," is
gaining a lot of populatrity in recent years--where does Fisher's approach
stand in relation?

It does a fine job of outlining the theories forwarded by the author, but not at
holding them up to a comparative light versus other ways of thinking about this
topic.

Rating:
Strengths:: Excellent structure. Links are positioned when and where they would be needed.
Excellent references in the end.
Concerns:: Capitalize the section headings--the present format looks unprofessional. Also,

the html could be cleaned up a bit--the fonts were huge on my browser.

These are details. Overall well done.

Other Issues and Comments:: This is a very reasonable tool for teachers seeking to provide advanced
students
with a basic understanding of personal transition theory/issues. If the work
were a little more self-critical (i.e., compare with other theories--like
frames) value-added would increase but the work stands alone quite well in its
present form.

Looks like a good paper to support other materials in either couselor education
or training for organizaitonal transition couselors.
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