Career Construction Theory

Academic book that reports research on the psychology of career adaptability

Academic textbook paper backDescribes a theory of vocational behavior

This volume applies the insight and methods of career construction theory to explore how autobiographical writing is used in different professional careers, from fiction and journalism to education and medicine. It draws attention to the fact that a career is a particular kind of artefact with distinctive properties and features that can be analysed and compared, and puts forward a new theory of the relationship between narrative methodology and the vocation of writing. Career construction theory emerged in the late twentieth century, when changes to the patterns of our working lives caused large numbers of people to seek new forms of vocational guidance to navigate those changes. It employs a narrative paradigm in which periods of uncertainty are treated as experiences akin to 'writer's block', experiences which can be overcome first by imagining new character arcs, then by narrating them and finally by performing them. By encouraging clients to see their careers as stories of which they are both the metaphorical authors and the main protagonists, career construction counsellors enable them to envisage the next chapter in those stories. But despite the authorial metaphor, career construction theory has not been widely applied to analysis of professional careers in writing. The chapters in this volume remedy that gap and in various ways apply the insights of career construction theory to analysing the relationship between writing and professional life in diverse careers where writing is used, from literature to journalism and from education to medicine. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal, Life Writing.

"This is a must-have for any researcher in vocational psychology or career counseling, or anyone who wishes to understand the empirical underpinnings of the practice of career counseling." -Mark Pope, EdD College of Education, University of Missouri - St. Louis past president of the American Counseling Association Today's career development professional must choose from a wide array of theories and practices in order to provide services for a diverse range of clients. Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work focuses on scientifically based career theories and practices, including those derived from research in other disciplines. Driven by the latest empirical and practical evidence, this text offers the most in-depth, far-reaching, and comprehensive career development and counseling resource available. Career Development and Counseling includes coverage of: Major theories of career development, choice, and adjustment Informative research on occupational aspirations, job search success, job satisfaction, work performance, career development with people of color, and women's career development Assessment of interests, needs and values, ability, and other important constructs Occupational classification and sources of occupational information Counseling for school-aged youth, diverse populations, choice-making, choice implementation, work adjustment, and retirement Special needs and applications including those for at-risk, intellectually talented, and work-bound youth; people with disabilities; and individuals dealing with job loss, reentry, and career transitions Edited by two of the leading figures in career development, and featuring contributions by many of the most well-regarded specialists in the field, Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work is the one book that every career counselor, vocational psychologist, and serious student of career development must have.

This book sets out to provide context for innovating counseling for self- and career construction. It gives readers insight into the theory underlying an innovative, integrative qualitative-quantitative approach to career counseling. Three key ideas recur throughout the book. First, the idea of not dispensing “advice” to people—instead, enabling them to advise themselves. Second, the idea of listening for instead of to people’s stories to help them choose and construct careers and themselves and shape their career identities. Third, the idea of helping people connect what they know about themselves consciously with what they are aware of subconsciously. The book confronts some of the main challenges posed by Work 4.0 on the workplace but also foreshadows the imminent advent of Work 5.0. It endeavors to promote career counselors’ ability to help people “thrive” at a time when many speculate that work itself is at risk, occupational contexts no longer “hold” workers in the way they used to, and the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting the workplace.

50-page monorgaph that describes the theory of career construction

This essential primer, amply illustrated with case studies, presents the latest research and developments in the field and explores an exciting postmodern theory and approach to career counseling.

Academic textbook Hard coverDescribes a theory of vocational behavior

The Chaos Theory of Careers outlines the application of chaos theory to the field of career development. It draws together and extends the work that the authors have been doing over the last 8 to 10 years. This text represents a new perspective on the nature of career development. It emphasizes the dimensions of careers frequently neglected by contemporary accounts of careers such as the challenges and opportunities of uncertainty, the interconnectedness of current life and the potential for information overload, career wisdom as a response to unplanned change, new approaches to vocational assessment based on emergent thinking, the place of spirituality and the search for meaning and purpose in, with and through work, the integration of being and becoming as dimensions of career development. It will be vital reading for all those working in and studying career development, either at advanced undergraduate or postgraduate level and provides a new and refreshing approach to this fast changing subject. Key themes include: Factors such as complexity, change, and contribution People's aspirations in relation to work and personal fulfilment Contemporary realities of career choice, career development and the working world

A monograph that describes the practice of career counseling according to career construction model