My Career Story: Description And Initial Validity Evidence
career; Career construction counseling; career construction theory; career intervention; career planning; decision-making; latent semantic analysis; life design; life design; my career; narrative career counseling; Psychology; story
My career story (MCS) comprises a self-guided autobiographical workbook designed to simulate career construction counseling. The MCS contains a series of questions from the Career Construction Interview to elicit a life-career story and reveal a life theme that are then related to a current career problem indicated by the workbook user. Reflecting on the answers to the questions aims to promote key life-design goals of adaptability, narratability, intentionality, and action. After describing its development and use, a case illustration and initial preliminary validity study of the MCS is presented. Latent semantic analysis, a method for determining meaning similarity of words and passages within bodies of text, indicated a mean agreement level of .81 between MCS life portraits constructed by participants (N =10) and those constructed for the participants by experts in career construction counseling. The MCS shows some initial promise for self-guided career intervention to increase self-reflection and ability to tell and enact one's career story. Future research is needed to support the validity of the MCS workbook.
Hartung P J; Santilli S
Journal of Career Assessment
2018
2018-05
Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/1069072717692980" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1177/1069072717692980</a>
Career Construction And Subjective Well-being
career assessment; career construction; career intervention; narrative career counseling; Psychology; self; subjective well-being; traits; true
Experienced happiness and reported life contentment represent cardinal elements of subjective well-being (SWB). Achieving happiness and contentment with work and other domains, such as love, play, and community, constitute fundamental life goals. Career construction offers a developmental theory of vocational behavior and a career assessment and counseling model counselors can use to promote client SWB. As an intervention model, career construction assists individuals with using work to foster self-completion and derive meaning, satisfaction, and happiness as they design their lives. Career construction counseling promotes SWB because its aims are consistent with increasing both immediate life satisfaction and overall life contentment. The present analysis describes the basic principles and practice of career construction and explains the career style interview as an assessment and counseling method useful for assisting individuals to identify and pursue self-selected goals and projects, endeavors that contribute to SWB.
Hartung P J; Taber B J
Journal of Career Assessment
2008
2008-02
Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/1069072707305772" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1177/1069072707305772</a>
Critical Moments In Career Construction Counseling
Career construction counseling; Career construction interview; clients; Counseling; Interpersonal Process Recall; narrative career counseling; narrative therapy; process and outcome; Psychology; style interview
An important research need concerns identifying and describing factors that promote reflexivity and change in life-design career interventions. Career construction counseling, a primary life-design intervention, uses narrative methods in an interpersonal process of helping people design a work life through reflexive action. Using Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR), the present study examined what prompts reflexivity and change in career construction counseling. A single case analysis method involving a 24-year old Caucasian woman examined one client's experience of processes that prompted change and reflection about her current career transition. Post-counseling IPR with the client of her videotaped career construction counseling session indicated five major themes: (a) role models prompt identity reflection, (b) early recollections foster cohesion, (c) follow-up questions add depth to the story, (d) counselor as audience provides clarity and validation, and (e) career construction interview questions illuminate perspective and need for action. Results support prior research indicating the usefulness of career construction counseling for promoting reflexive action in life design. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Hartung P J; Vess L
Journal of Vocational Behavior
2016
2016-12
Journal Article or Conference Abstract Publication
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.014" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.014</a>