The Expanded Skills Confidence Inventory: Measuring basic dimensions of vocational activity

This series of studies describes the development and psychometric evaluation of 17 scales measuring confidence or self-efficacy with respect to basic domains of vocational activity. The confidence scales assessed previously measured interest dimensions such as Writing, Mechanical Activities, and Public Speaking, but also included dimensions reflective of recent changes in the nature of work or the culture of the workplace, for example, Using Technology, Creative Production, and Cultural Sensitivity. The scales were internally consistent, showed predictable patterns of gender differences and similarities, and were in generally most highly related to the predicted Holland confidence theme. Discriminant analyses of scores across the eight largest occupational groups represented indicated large improvements over chance, or a priori probabilities, in the prediction of occupational group membership. Further research on and use of these 17 new scales in joint interpretations of parallel measures of interest and confidence are discussed.     

College women’s value orientations toward family, career, and graduate school

This study was designed to examine how college women’s valuing of graduate education predicted their intentions to attend graduate school, using a new measure of the valuing of graduate school. A second purpose was to assess relations of college women’s perceptions of the relative importance of family and career to their valuing of graduate education. Two hundred and sixteen college women completed a newly developed survey that assessed these constructs. The items assessing task values were designed to assess components of task value defined by Eccles et al. (1983). Reliability and factor analyses demonstrated that the instrument adequately measured different components of task value. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that components of task value predicted intentions to attend graduate school. The women were strongly career-oriented, and their orientations to career related positively to their valuing of graduate education.     

Validity of the decisional process inventory

Empirical research on career indecision has been criticized for lacking theoretical conceptualization. To address this problem we examined the validity of the decisional process inventory (DPI), a measure of career decision making derived from a model based in Gestalt psychotherapy theory. Undergraduate college students (91 women, 110 men) responded to the DPI and criterion measures of career indecision and vocational identity. Results supported hypothesized relations between and among DPI items and subscales, and the ability of the measure to differentiate individuals by expressed career choice status. Significant intercorrelations among DPI subscales and criterion measures supported the concurrent validity of the DPI. Confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analysis of the DPI items did not support the hypothesized structure of the DPI to measure three career decision-making process dimensions: readiness, action, and resistance. Although results supported the basic psychometric properties of the DPI as a brief measure of career decision making, additional research is needed to clarify the underlying factor structure of the instrument.     

Critical consciousness and career development among urban youth

This study explored the role of critical consciousness as a key factor in predicting progress in career development among urban high school students. Critical consciousness, or the capacity to recognize and overcome sociopolitical barriers, was operationalized through sociopolitical analysis and sociopolitical control. Canonical correlation analysis indicated a statistically significant relationship between critical consciousness and progress in career development, which was supported by estimates of effect size, for a sample of 220 urban adolescents. Participants with greater levels of critical consciousness had greater clarity regarding their vocational identity, were more committed to their future careers, and viewed work as a larger part of their future lives. These results suggest that urban adolescents may best engage the career development process by maintaining a critical awareness of sociopolitical inequity and situating their individual agency within this critical “reading” of the opportunity structure.     

The evolution of the boundaryless career concept: Examining physical and psychological mobility

Although there has been increased interest in the boundaryless career since the publication of Arthur and Rousseau’s book (1996), there is still some misunderstanding about what the concept means. This article examines the boundaryless career and presents a model that attempts to visually capture Arthur and Rousseau’s suggestion that the concept involves six underlying meanings. Rather than considering whether or not an individual has a boundaryless career, the model focuses on the degree of mobility reflected in a career along two continua: one psychological, one physical. Based on the model, we suggest five propositions and a series of directions for future research.     

The interplay of boundaryless and protean careers: Combinations and implications

The boundaryless and protean career concepts are compared in this article. It is suggested that the theories can be more finely delineated to produce more effective theory and research. The boundaryless career concept is profiled according to Sullivan and Arthur’s (this issue) categories of psychological and physical boundarylessness. The protean career concept is discussed based upon the degree of self-directed and values driven career orientations a career actor demonstrates. We join these respective boundaryless and protean delineations to produce eight likely career profiles based upon combinations of the boundaryless and protean career orientations. These eight profiles are examined in terms of challenges to career actors and those who assist them in their career development.     

Mentor and protégé predictors and outcomes of mentoring in a formal mentoring program

This study examines the predictors and outcomes of mentoring received by participants of a 12-month formal mentoring program. Based on relationship theory, we examined how the personality of the individuals in the mentoring dyad, their perceived similarity, and mentor perceived support for mentoring contributed to relationship outcomes. The study includes data from both mentors and protégés at the program launch, midway through the program, and at program close. Mentor proactivity was related to more career and psychosocial mentoring; protégé’s perceptions of similarity to the mentor was related to more psychosocial mentoring. More mentoring was related to positive protégé and mentor outcomes, including improved protégé career clarity over the duration of the study.     

How well can the theory of planned behavior account for occupational intentions?

We tested the capacity of an extended version of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to account for intentions to work for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) as a nurse, physiotherapist or radiographer amongst three groups: professionally unqualified (N = 507), in professional training (N = 244), and professionally qualified (N = 227). We found strong support for the three core TPB variables attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control as predictors of behavioral intention, and limited support for two additional variables: moral obligation and identification. There were some differences in the relative importance of TPB variables between groups. We conclude that the TPB has utility for more complex behaviors as well as simpler ones that are more frequently researched. However, more attention should be paid to differences in people’s circumstances, particularly regarding past vocational decisions and behavior, and to obstacles to implementing an intention.     

Psychological and demographic correlates of career patterns

Recent years have witnessed a growing diversity of career patterns, resulting from the relative decline of stable employment. In the present study of 1368 employed and self-employed German adults career pattern diversity was assessed using nine pictograms. The goal was to identify psychological and demographic correlates of these patterns and to answer the question of whether they differed for participants from the former (communist) East and the capitalist West. Findings indicated that upward-pointing career patterns still connected to extrinsic criteria such as income and job security. With regard to psychological correlates, upward patterns connected to lower work-related demands imposed by social change and a higher level of personal and social resources. Only in the West, upward patterns related to male gender and high education, reflecting more traditional access to upwardly mobile career opportunities.     

The intelligent career framework as a basis for interdisciplinary inquiry

This paper examines how separate behavioral science disciplines can be brought together to more fully understand the dynamics of contemporary careers. We adopt one interdisciplinary framework – that of the “intelligent career” – and use it to examine how separate disciplinary approaches relate to one another. The intelligent career framework suggests careers unfold through three interdependent “ways of knowing” reflecting why, how and with whom people work. Breaking this framework down into six unidirectional links, we examine the contributions made by a variety of behavioral science approaches. Our review suggests that separate bodies of career-relevant theory reflect separate links from one way of knowing to another. We offer several lessons concerned with (a) the intelligent career framework; (b) evidence underlying separate theories; (c) differing definitions of career; (d) research methodologies; (e) time; and (f) interdependence among variables. We conclude with some ideas on how to better promote future interdisciplinary careers research.