Examining predictors and outcomes of a career calling among undergraduate students

The current study examined predictors and outcomes of a career calling among 292 undergraduate students at two time points over a three-month period. Using structural equation modeling, a model was tested that examined the extent to which calling, life meaning, the search for life meaning, vocational clarity, and personal growth at Time 1 would predict these same variables at Time 2. Results showed that calling was a significant predictor of personal growth and life meaning and that life meaning, the search for life meaning, and vocational self-clarity significantly predicted the presence of a calling. Although findings demonstrating calling as a predictor variable are consistent with previous research, these results also demonstrate the potential reciprocal relation of calling to proximal work and well-being variables over time. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

师范生职业使命感与学业满意度及生活满意度的关系：人生意义感的作用

采取职业使命感量表、人生意义感量表、学业满意度量表和生活满意度量表对679名免费师范生进行调查,考察免费师范生的职业使命感与其学业满意度和生活满意度的关系,以及人生意义感在其关系中的作用。结果表明:(1)师范生的职业使命感不存在性别和年级差异。(2)师范生的职业使命感对其人生意义体验、学业满意度和生活满意度均存在显著的预测作用。(3)人生意义体验在职业使命感与学业满意度之间起显著的部分中介作用;人生意义体验也在职业使命感与生活满意度之间起显著的部分中介作用。(4)人生意义寻求在职业使命感与学业满意度、生活满意度之间的调节作用未得到支持;人生意义寻求在人生意义体验与学业满意度、生活满意度之间的调节作用也未得到支持,这可能体现了中西文化的差异。     

圣人之道，吾性自足：自我概念对生命意义的影响

生命意义是人类生命存在的永恒追求。东西方的理论均认为意义源于个体内在的自我结构,即自我概念。为了验证自我概念对生命意义的影响,对68名大学生进行实验研究。现场实验结果显示,控制生命意义基线水平和正负情绪后,自我概念仍显著预测生命意义;且自我概念提高组的生命意义得分显著高于降低组。行为实验结果显示,在高、低生命意义词汇记忆任务中,相比于低生命意义词,自我概念提高组对高生命意义词的再认率更高;相比于高生命意义词,自我概念降低组对低生命意义词的再认率更高。这些结果均表明,自我概念影响生命意义。结果暗示构建积极的自我概念形成强大的内心才是个体生命意义构建的根本途径。     

Testing a calling model of psychological career success in Australian young adults: A longitudinal study

Theory-based longitudinal research on career calling is sparse. In a two-wave, cross-lagged panel design we assessed Hall and Chandler's (2005) calling model of psychological career success using 216 young adults (M age = 20.44 years, SD = 2.54). We tested if changes in career calling over time were associated with changes in goal-directed effort (work effort and career strategies) and psychological career success (life meaning and career adaptability) over time, and if goal-directed effort mediated between career calling and psychological career success over time. The standard causal model showed a better fit over the base, reverse, and reciprocal causation models. T1 career calling predicted T2 work effort, career strategies, life meaning, and career adaptability. Only career strategies mediated between T1 career calling and T2 life meaning and T2 career adaptability. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Calling, vocational development, and well being: A longitudinal study of medical students

The present study investigated the relation of calling to the vocational development and well-being of a sample of medical students. Students were surveyed at two time points: prior to beginning the first year of medical school and prior to beginning the third year of medical school. At each time point, calling moderately correlated with positive vocational development and life meaning. At Time 2, participants had higher levels of vocational development relative to Time 1 and lower levels of calling and life satisfaction relative to Time 1. Calling at Time 1 did not significantly predict vocational development or life meaning at Time 2. However, vocational development and life meaning at Time 1 each significantly predicted calling at Time 2. Students who were able to view their lives as more meaningful and advanced in their vocational development over time also endorsed higher levels of a career calling. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

自然联结对大学生抑郁的影响:有调节的中介模型

为考察自然联结与大学生抑郁的关系,采用问卷法对中部地区6所高校四个年级共720名大学生进行调查。结果显示:(1)自然联结显著负向预测大学生抑郁;(2)生命意义感在自然联结与抑郁的关系中起部分中介作用;(3)自然联结对大学生抑郁的直接效应和生命意义感的中介效应均受到了感恩的调节,且这两种效应均在感恩水平较高时更为显著。在前半路径中,感恩增强了自然联结对生命意义感的影响;在直接路径中,自然联结对抑郁的影响在感恩水平较高时更强。研究结果对于预防大学生抑郁具有重要参考价值。     

let your life speak: assessing the effectiveness of a program to explore meaning,purpose, and calling with college students

Typical career planning courses assist students with the self‐assessment process, career exploration, and decision making. Although this assistance is helpful, college students are increasingly concerned with issues of meaning and calling (P. Braun, 2005). The authors describe and test the effectiveness of the Let Your Life Speak course, a program to help students articulate their framework of life meaning and increase their sense of vocational calling. Results indicate an increase in sense of vocational calling, greater confidence in ability to achieve goals, and a deepened framework of life meaning. Moreover, 96% reported they would recommend the course to others.     

The presence of a calling and academic satisfaction: Examining potential mediators

The present study examined the relation of calling and academic satisfaction with a diverse sample of 312 undergraduate students. The presence of a calling was moderately correlated with academic satisfaction, and a multiple mediation model was utilized to test three potential mediators to this relation: career decision self-efficacy, work hope, and meaning in life. Using bootstrapping techniques, significant indirect effects were found for two of the three mediators, career decision self-efficacy, and work hope. After including the mediators in the model, the relation of calling and academic satisfaction was non-significant. These results indicate that calling relates to greater satisfaction in the academic domain in part because of increased career decision self-efficacy and work hope. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Calling and Life Satisfaction Among Undergraduate Students: Investigating Mediators and Moderators

The present study examined the relation of calling and life satisfaction among a diverse group of undergraduate students. In line with previous research, the presence of a calling weakly correlated with life satisfaction and moderately correlated with meaning in life. Three potential moderators of the calling-life satisfaction relation were tested: religiousness, living one??s calling, and core self-evaluations. The relation of calling and life satisfaction was not different based on levels of religiousness or experiences of living one??s calling. However, the relation of calling to life satisfaction was stronger for students with low core self-evaluations. Additionally, using a multiple mediation model, academic satisfaction and life meaning were found to fully mediate the calling-life satisfaction relation. Participants more likely to view their career as a calling were more satisfied in life because of attaining greater life meaning and satisfaction within the academic domain. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Breadwinner and caregiver: A cross‐sectional analysis of children's and emerging adults’ visions of their future family roles

Participants were 150 school‐age boys and girls, 58 high school students, and 145 university students drawn from communities in the Southeastern United States. In this cross‐sectional study, family role attitudes and expectations were examined across development. Parental work traditionality (occupational prestige and traditionality, and employed hours) predicted daughters’ social role attitudes and plans for future family roles, such that daughters’ envisioned families resembled that of their parents. Sons’ and daughters’ own attitudes about adult family roles predicted their plans to work or stay home with their future children; however, mothers’ work traditionality predicted daughters’ future plans over and above daughters’ own attitudes. The only exception to this was in the case of university daughters, where university women's attitudes about social roles fully mediated this relationship. It may be that, as young women approach adulthood and the formation of families, they adjust their vision of their future self to match more closely their own attitudes about the caregiving role.     

职业使命感与免费师范生学业投入的影响：基于社会认知职业理论的视角

本研究以436名师范生为研究对象,采取社会认知职业理论（SCCT）为理论分析视角探讨了职业使命感对大学生学业投入的影响及其内在机制。结果表明：（1）职业使命感可以显著提高师范生的学业投入度;（2）职业结果期待和职业自我效能在职业使命感与学业投入之间起到部分中介作用;（3）职业使命感还可以通过职业结果期待、职业自我效能影响职业满意度,进而影响大学生的学业投入。最后,本研究对实践意义和研究局限进行了讨论。     

The True Self and Psychological Health: Emerging Evidence and Future Directions

A variety of philosophical and psychological perspectives converge to suggest that a happy and meaningful life is the product of living in accord with one’s true self. This idea similarly appears throughout literature, film, and folk wisdom. The current paper examines both theoretical and lay conceptions of the true self and reviews the empirical evidence that supports its role in psychological health, with a particular emphasis on current research that demonstrates that both the accessibility and ease of thinking about one’s true self‐concept is associated with the experiences of meaning and satisfaction. The merits of different approaches to defining the true self, measurement issues, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Assimilation and contrast effects: The role of self‐construal and regulatory focus as moderators in collectivistic cultures of honour

Human judgments are context dependent. When answering a question about one's overall satisfaction with life, a previous question about one's romantic life might pose redundancy problems influencing one's judgment of life satisfaction, something known as item order effects. However, in order to detect such redundancy, one needs to pay attention to the context of the conversation. Any variable that influences the amount of attention given the context of the conversation can determine whether the presumed redundancy is detected or not. In three studies, two experiments and one correlational study, we tested the influence of induced self‐construal (study 1) and self‐regulatory focus (study 2) and self‐regulatory focus measured as an individual difference variable (study 3) as moderators of context effects among college students from Mexico. In study 1, participants induced to have an independent mindset were less likely to detect the redundancy posed by two questions, resulting, as predicted, in a contrast effect. In study 3, participants with lower levels of prevention focus were less likely to detect the redundancy posed by the same two questions as study 1, resulting, as predicted, in an assimilation effect. The implications of the results were discussed within the framework of the inclusion/exclusion model.     

Research on calling: What have we learned and where are we going?

Work as a calling is an emerging concept for scholars across a variety of psychological disciplines. In the current paper, the extant literature on calling is reviewed, showcasing its salience among college student and adult populations and highlighting consistent links between perceiving a calling and heightened levels of career maturity, career commitment, work meaning, job satisfaction, life meaning, and life satisfaction. These links appear most robust when individuals are actually living out their calling at work. Seven suggestions are proposed for future researchers to better understand what it means to have and live a calling: developing a stronger conceptual understanding, collecting more longitudinal data, studying more diverse cultural groups, focusing on behavioral outcomes, examining the dark side of a calling, building theory, and testing interventions. It is hoped that the promising research base and vast areas of potential growth will continue to make the study of calling attractive to scholars across psychological disciplines.     

Research on calling: What have we learned and where are we going?

Work as a calling is an emerging concept for scholars across a variety of psychological disciplines. In the current paper, the extant literature on calling is reviewed, showcasing its salience among college student and adult populations and highlighting consistent links between perceiving a calling and heightened levels of career maturity, career commitment, work meaning, job satisfaction, life meaning, and life satisfaction. These links appear most robust when individuals are actually living out their calling at work. Seven suggestions are proposed for future researchers to better understand what it means to have and live a calling: developing a stronger conceptual understanding, collecting more longitudinal data, studying more diverse cultural groups, focusing on behavioral outcomes, examining the dark side of a calling, building theory, and testing interventions. It is hoped that the promising research base and vast areas of potential growth will continue to make the study of calling attractive to scholars across psychological disciplines.     

The presence of and search for a calling: Connections to career development

The current study explored the relationship of the presence of, and search for, a calling to the career development of 3091 first year college students. The presence of a calling correlated positively with decidedness, comfort, self clarity and choice-work salience and correlated negatively with indecisiveness and lack of educational information. The search for a calling correlated negatively with decidedness, comfort, self clarity, and choice-work salience and correlated positively with indecisiveness and lack of educational information. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that for both career decidedness and choice comfort, the calling variables taken together added 8% and 5% variance, respectively, above and beyond that accounted for by self clarity, choice-work salience, indecisiveness, and lack of educational information. It is suggested that future research investigate the potential sources of a career calling and counselors be open to exploring this construct with individual clients.     

Who am I? The interactive effect of early family experiences and self-esteem in predicting self-clarity

Previous research suggests that inconsistencies between self-esteem and social feedback reduce feelings of coherence. The current research tested effects of discrepancies between people’s self-esteem and feedback they received in the form of chronic early family experiences. In two studies, participants completed measures of global self-esteem, perceived early family experiences, and self-clarity. Early family experiences that were inconsistent with participants’ current self-views (i.e., negative experiences for high self-esteem, positive experiences for low self-esteem) were associated with lower self-clarity; in contrast, consistent experiences were associated with higher self-clarity. These findings have implications for understanding the development of self-clarity and suggest novel consequences of early family experiences.     

拒绝敏感性与留守中学生病理性网络使用：生命意义感和自我污名的中介作用

为探究留守中学生拒绝敏感性、生命意义感、自我污名与病理性网络使用之间的关系,采用青少年拒绝敏感性自陈问卷、生命意义感量表中文修订版、留守儿童自我污名自陈问卷,以及青少年病理性互联网使用量表,对803名留守中学生进行调查。结果发现：拒绝敏感性既可直接正向预测,也可经拥有意义感、自我污名以及二者的链式中介作用间接正向预测留守中学生的病理性网络使用行为。研究结果可为解释留守中学生病理性网络使用问题的成因及教育干预提供理论依据。     

Optimism and positive body image in women: The mediating role of the feared fat self

We predicted that an expectancy judgment about acquiring a feared fat self and an expectancy judgment about acquiring a hoped-for thin self would mediate dispositional optimism on positive body image. We also predicted that the mediation pathway through the feared self would be significantly stronger than that through the hoped-for self. Participants were 208 female college students who reported their age, height and weight and completed measures of dispositional optimism, the likelihood of acquiring the feared fat and hoped-for thin selves, and positive body image. Statistical analyses revealed that only the perceived likelihood of acquiring the feared fat self mediated dispositional optimism on positive body image. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Life skills development in physical education: A self-determination theory-based investigation across the school term

ObjectivesGrounded in self-determination theory (SDT), the main aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal associations between teacher autonomy support, students’ basic psychological need satisfaction and life skills development in physical education (PE).DesignThis study employed a two-wave longitudinal research design.MethodStudents (N = 266, Mage = 12.94 years, SD = 0.70) completed measures assessing perceived autonomy-supportive teaching, need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and life skills development in PE (teamwork, goal setting, social skills, problem solving and decision making, emotional skills, leadership, time management, and interpersonal communication). Data collections took place during week 6 (timepoint 1; T1) and week 15 (timepoint 2; T2) of the autumn school term.ResultsCross-lagged panel analyses showed that T1 teacher autonomy support did not significantly predict students’ three basic psychological needs, total need satisfaction or life skills development at T2. Students’ T1 total need satisfaction positively predicted their development of all eight life skills at T2. Additionally, students’ T1 autonomy satisfaction positively predicted their teamwork, social skills, emotional skills, leadership, and interpersonal communication skills at T2, T1 competence satisfaction positively predicted students’ teamwork skills at T2, and students’ T1 relatedness satisfaction positively predicted their social skills at T2.ConclusionsProviding partial support for SDT, the findings highlighted that satisfaction of students’ three basic psychological needs had some positive effects on students’ life skills development in PE. As such, a climate that satisfies students’ basic psychological needs should help to develop their life skills in PE.