Vocational behavior and development in times of social change: new perspectives for theory and practice

Abstract

A review of new and emerging conceptions of work and career is complemented by a description of a comprehensive systems framework that avoids many of the dichotomies found in current accounts of career development and intervention. This is followed by a description of Ford and Smith's (Educational Psychologist 42(3):153-171, 2007) ''thriving with social purpose'' framework, which is offered as a potentially more inclusive approach to intervention than that based on the meta-theoretical framework of social constructivism.Résumé Comportement et développement vocationnel en période de changement social : nouvelles perspectives pour la théorie et la pratique. Une revue de nouvelles et émergeantes conceptions du travail est complétée par une description d'un cadre conceptuel compréhensif en termes de systèmes qui évite de nombreuses dichotomies que l'on trouve dans les contributions actuelles du développement et de l'intervention de carrière. Ceci est suivi par une description du cadre «prospérité dans un but social» de Ford et Smith (Educational Psychologist 42(3):153-171, 2007), qui est offert comme une approche potentiellement plus inclusive face aux interventions que celle basée sur le cadre méta-théorique du constructivisme social.Zusammenfasung Laufbahn Verhalten und Entwicklung in Zeiten des sozialen Wandels: Neue Perspektiven fü r Theorie und Praxis. Eine Ü bersicht über neue und aufkommende Konzepte von Arbeit und Laufbahn wird durch eine Beschreibung von einem umfassenden systemischen Rahmenmodell ergänzt, welches viele der Dichotomien in den gegenwärtigen Beschreibungen von Laufbahnentwicklung und

Job search motivation of part-time or unemployed Japanese college graduates

“…Consistent with the theory, we found that personal motivation varies on the basis of the changing contexts in the process of transition to full-time employment. This implies that young people actively adapt their career attitudes and such adaptive behavior supports the premise of MST that humans are selfconstructing, self-organizing, and self-regulating living systems (Ford & Smith, 2007;Vondracek et al, 2010). In addition, our findings also confirmed that emotions collaboratively act with negative perceptions toward the future, present, and past, coupled with a positive perception of future goal attainment (i.e., self-efficacy), can motivate job switching and job search.…”

“…Although a career consciousness variable is not situated within the MST framework, the findings demonstrated the premise behind the theory that suggests the dynamic interactions between person and environment, proposing that individuals are both shaped by and shape their environment over a lifelong (Fouad & Kantamneni, 2008). As such, this study illustrated the core conception that mutually reinforcing patterns of goals, personal agency beliefs, and emotions can have powerful motivating effects leading individuals to engage in new challenges and opportunities (Ford & Smith, 2007;Vondracek et al, 2010).…”

“…Therefore, counselors should understand the dependence of clients' career attitudes on the socio-cultural contexts in which they operate. They should also realize that clients have the potential to become agents of social change, and therefore, at the same time, may foster social justice (Vondracek et al, 2010). We agree with Coutinho, Dam, and Blustein (2008) who proposed that ''counselors can help clients become more critically conscious, encouraging them to reflect the broader social and political world, to ultimately become active participants in civic society'' (p. 16).…”

“…One approach that can be applied to career counseling is based on motivational systems theory (MST; Ford & Smith, 2007). MST has been used in a growing body of research supporting the notion that mutually reinforcing patterns of goals, personal agency beliefs, and emotions can have a powerful motivating effect that leads individuals to engage in new challenges and opportunities rather than adopt a stagnant or defensive posture (Patton, 2008;Vondracek, Ferreira, & Dos Santos, 2010;Vondracek & Porfeli, 2008). In MST, positive representations of future outcomes, called capability beliefs, reflect judgments about whether one has the knowledge, skills, and biological capabilities needed to attain a goal.…”

A Tour with Fred Vondracek to Hotspots of Occupational Development

“…His work has demonstrated that a developmental-contextual perspective is necessary to understand why individuals choose certain jobs and careers and why some are more successful than others in a certain job and in the career as a whole. Fred, without a doubt, played a major role in championing the contextual view, which is also illustrated in his research on social change (Vondracek, Ferreira, & Santos, 2010) -the historical change in macro-context structure and how this macro-level change then affects vocational development at the individual level.…”