The Relationship Among the Six Vocational Identity Statuses and Five Dimensions of Planned Happenstance Career Skills

Abstract

The current study investigated how the five components of planned happenstance skills are related to vocational identity statuses. For determination of relationships, cluster and discriminant analyses were conducted sequentially on a sample of 515 university students in South Korea. Cluster analysis revealed vocational identity statuses to be divided into six meaningful groups, as the six-cluster model originally proposed by Porfeli, Lee, Vondracek, and Weigold: achieved, searching moratorium, moratorium, foreclosed, diffused, and undifferentiated. Moreover, discriminant analysis indicated that planned happenstance skills differentially discriminated the six vocational identity statuses. The more advanced vocational identity statuses (i.e., achieved and searching moratorium) had higher scores on the assessment of planned happenstance skills than their counterpart, the less advanced group (i.e., diffused and undifferentiated). Implications of the findings were discussed in the context of career counseling intervention (133 words).

Initial Validation of the Planned Happenstance Career Inventory–English Version

“…One difference is that optimism had the highest correlations with the other PHCI subscales in the present study, whereas persistence had the highest correlations with the other PHCI subscales in the Korean sample in Kim, Jung, et al's study. The validity was also supported by the correlations between vocational identity status and the PHCI, which is consistent with the findings from Rhee et al ().…”

“…Vocational identity status is a concept that classifies the career development process of individuals across three dimensions: exploration, commitment, and reconsideration (Porfeli, Lee, Vondracek, & Weigold, ). Rhee, Lee, Kim, Ha, and Lee () reported that the exploration and commitment dimensions of vocational identity status were related to higher levels of persistence and optimism, whereas the reconsideration dimension was positively related to flexibility. We expected that the current study would produce similar results as in these previous studies.…”

Cognitive Processes and Their Associations With Vocational Identity Development During Emerging Adulthood

“…The three processes are exploration, commitment, and reconsideration, which often yield six identity statuses: achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, diffusion, undifferentiated, and searching moratorium. Continuing studies replicate the three processes and six statuses, and empirical findings of correlates seem to support that the three processes of vocational identity development have its own uniqueness (Negru-Subtirica, Pop, & Crocetti, 2015;Porfeli, Lee, Vondracek, & Weigold, 2011;Rhee, Lee, Kim, Ha, & Lee, 2016;Sestito et al, 2015). Research using the three-dimensional model of vocational identity development is only in its initial stage, and more studies are required to understand the developmental trajectories of the processes and possible antecedents and consequences of vocational identity development.…”

Planned Happenstance Skills as Personal Resources for Students’ Psychological Wellbeing and Academic Adjustment

“…The planned happenstance theory [1] or otherwise the happenstance learning theory [3,18], unlike other career counselling theories eliminating the existence of unplanned events in a person's career path, treats such events as a learning experience which may turn into useful career opportunities. In accordance with this theory, chance events are inevitable and even desired [19]. The key idea behind the happenstance learning theory is that one should adopt an active position in identifying and generating, by himself/herself, planned happenstance events which may be utilised as career opportunities.…”

“…The planned happenstance theory suggests the guidelines for taking constructive action in order to create beneficial opportunities in career development [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. To begin with, the theory places an emphasis on exploratory activities [21].…”