Online career construction for a trauma survivor with career choice ambivalence
Abstract
This article reports on the online administration of career construction counselling for a trauma survivor who sought help in resolving her career-choice ambivalence (uncertainty). The participant was purposively selected from a group of people attending a workshop on career construction counselling. An intrinsic, descriptive, exploratory intervention case study based on career construction counselling (involving administering the Career Construction Interview (CCI) to elicit the participant’s micro-narratives qualitatively) was used to generate data and adapted thematic data analysis incorporating the analytic style proposed by Savickas was used to analyse the data reflexively. The intervention shed light on the participant’s conscious knowledge about herself and on her subconsciously regulated views on her preferred future career choices. The findings confirmed the value of career construction counselling in promoting the participant’s psychological self as an autobiographical author especially. They also underlined the importance of timely intervention for trauma survivors in pre-empting the occurrence of unmastered developmental tasks and repetition of trauma. Future research should involve diverse participants in individual as well as group contexts. Equally important is contextualising the intervention discussed here to meet the distinctive diversity needs of participants in individual and group contexts.
Downloads
References
Adler, A. 1958. What life should mean to you. New York: Capricorn Books.
Arastaman, G. 2019. “Reconsidering the career construction in modern era.” In Vocational identity and career construction in education, ed. T. Fidan, 1‒14. IGI Global: Hershey, PA.
Bandura, A. 1997. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Biank, N. M. and A. Werner-Lin. 2011. “Growing up with grief: Revisiting the death of a parent over the life course.” OMEGA 63(3): 271‒290.
Braun, V. and V. Clarke. 2019. “Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis.” Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health 11(4): 589‒597.
Braun, V. and V. Clarke. 2021. Thematic analysis: A practical guide. London: SAGE Publications.
Cardoso, P., M. L. Savickas, and M. M. Gonçalves. 2019. “Career Construction Counseling: Proposal for an Integrative model.” Career Development Quarterly 67(3): 188‒204.
Chater, A. M., N. Howlett, G. W. Shorter, J. K. Zakrzewski-Fruer, and J. Williams. 2022. “Reflections on experiencing parental bereavement as a young person: A retrospective qualitative study.” International Journal of Environmental research on Public Health 19(4): 1‒19.
Cochran, L. R. 1997. Career counseling: A narrative approach. California: Thousand Oaks.
Del Corso, J., M. C. Rehfuss, and K. Galvin. 2011. “Striving to adapt: Addressing Adler’s work task in the 21st century.” Journal of Individual Psychology 67: 88‒106.
Erikson, E. H. 1968. Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
Erikson, E. H. 1994. Identity: Youth and crisis (No. 7). New York: Norton.
Fouad, N., E. W. Cotter, and N. Kantamneni. 2009. “The effectiveness of a career decision-making course.” Journal of Career Assessment 17(3): 338‒347.
Freud, S.1964. The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press.
Gati, I. and I. Asher. 2001. “Pre-screening, In-depth exploration, and choice: From decision theory to career counseling practice.” The Career Development Quarterly 50(2): 140–157. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2001.tb00979.x.
Gati, I. and V. Kulcsár. 2021. “Making better career decisions: From challenges to opportunities.” Journal of Vocational Behaviour 126: 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2021.103545.
Gati, I., T. Ryzhik, and D. Vertsberger. 2013. “Preparing young veterans for civilian life: The effects of a workshop on career decision-making difficulties and self-efficacy.” Journal of Vocational Behaviour 83(3): 373‒385.
Guichard, J. 2009. “Self-constructing.” Journal of Vocational Behaviour 75(3): 251‒258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.03.004.
Gülsen, C., G. Seçim, and M. L. Savickas. 2021. “A career construction course for high school students: development and field test.” Career Development Quarterly 69(3): 201‒215. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12268.
Hartung, P. J. 2011. “Career construction: Principles and practice.” In Shaping the story: A guide to facilitating narrative career counselling, ed. K. Maree, 103‒120. Pretoria, South Africa: Van Schaik.
Hartung, P. J. 2015. “Life design in childhood: Antecedents and advancement.” In Handbook of life design: From practice to theory, and from theory to practice, ed. L. Nota and J. Rossier, 89‒101. Hogrefe.
Hartung, P. J. 2019. “Life design: A paradigm for innovating career counselling in global context.” In Handbook of innovative career counselling, ed. J. G. Maree, 735–737. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2020.1773394.
Hartung, P. J., J. M. Taylor, and B. J. Taber. 2022. “Affect as a predictor of occupational engagement, career adaptability and career decidedness.” African Journal of Career Development 4(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/ ajcd.v4i1.58.
Hill, C. E., S. Knox, B. J. Thompson, E. N. Williams, S. A. Hess, and N. Ladany. 2005. “Consensual qualitative research: An update.” Journal of Counselling Psychology 52(2): 196‒205.
Janesick, V. J. 2000. “The choreography of qualitative research.” In Handbook of qualitative research, ed. N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln, 390‒396. London: Sage.
Kelly, K. R. and W.C. Lee. 2002. “Mapping the domain of career decision problems.” Journal of Vocational Behavior 61(2): 302‒326. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1858.
Krumboltz, J. D. 2009. “The happenstance learning theory.” Journal of Career Assessment 17(2): 135‒154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072708328861.
Kulcsár, V., A. Dobrean, and I. Gati. 2020. “Challenges and difficulties in career decision making: Their causes, and their effects on the process and the decision.” Journal of Vocational Behaviour 116(Part A): 103346.
Levin, N., H. Braunstein-Bercovitz, Y. Lipshits-Braziler, I. Gati, and J. Rossier. 2020. “Testing the structure of the career decision-making difficulties questionnaire across country, gender, age, and decision status.” Journal of Vocational Behavior 116(Part A): 1‒13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103365.
MacPhail, C., N. Khoza, L. Amble, and M. Ranganathan. 2015. “Process guidelines for establishing intercoder reliability in qualitative studies.” Journal of Qualitative Research 16(22): 198‒212. https://doi.org/10.1177/146879411557701.
Maree, J. G. 2013. Counselling for career construction: Connecting life themes to construct life portraits. Turning pain into hope. Rotterdam: Sense.
Maree, J. G.. 2014. “Career construction with a gay client: A case study.” British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 42(4): 436‒449.
Maree, J. G.. 2016. “Career construction counseling with a mid‐career Black man.” The Career Development Quarterly 64(1): 20‒34.
Maree, J. G.. 2017. The Career Interest Profile (Version 6). Randburg: JvR Psychometrics.
Maree, J. G.. 2019. “Group Career Construction Counseling: A mixed‐methods intervention study with high school students.” The Career Development Quarterly 67(1): 47‒61.
Maree, J. G. 2020. Innovating counselling for self- and career construction: Connecting conscious knowledge with subconscious insight. Cham: Springer.
Maree, J. G. 2021. “The psychosocial development theory of Erik Erikson: Critical overview.” Early Child Development and Care 191(7‒8): 1107‒1121.
Maree, J. G. 2022a. “Managing the Covid-19 pandemic in South African Schools: Turning challenge into opportunity.” South African Journal of Psychology 52(2): 249‒261.
Maree, J. G. 2022b. “Rekindling hope and purpose in resource-constrained areas during Covid-19: The merit of counselling for career construction.” South African Journal of Science 118(5/6). Art. #13091. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2022/13091.
Maree, J. G. 2008. “Development of a post-modern career interest questionnaire.” Journal of Psychology in Africa 18(1): 125‒30.
McAdams, D. P. 2001. “The psychology of life stories.” Review of General Psychology 5: 100‒122. doi: 10.1037/1089-2680.5.2.100.
McAdams, D. P. 2010. “The problem of meaning in personality psychology from the standpoints of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations, and life stories.” Japanese Journal of Personality 18: 173‒186.
McAdams, D. P. 2013. “The psychological self as actor, agent, and author.” Perspectives on Psychological Science 8(3): 272‒295.
Niles, S. G. and J. Harris-Bowlsbey. 2017. Career Development Interventions. New York: Pearson.
Nota, L., S. Santilli, and S. Soresi. 2016. “A life-design-based online career intervention for early adolescents: Description and initial analysis.” The Career Development Quarterly 64(1): 4‒19.
O’Connor, C. and H. Joffe. 2020. “Intercoder reliability in qualitative research: Debates and practical guidelines.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 19(2): 1‒13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919899220.
O’Reilly, N. 2013. “Wellbeing: The five essential elements.” The Journal of Positive Psychology 8(2): 174‒176.
Rath, T, J. K. Harter, and J. Harter. 2010. Wellbeing: The five essential elements. Washington: Gallup Press.
Richardson, L. 2000. “Writing: A method of inquiry.” In The SAGE handbook of qualitative research, ed. N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln, 923‒948. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Rottinghaus, P. J., N. Jenkins, and A. M. Jantzer. 2009. “Relation of depression and affectivity to career decision status and self-efficacy in college students.” Journal of Career Assessment 17(3): 271–285.
Saka, N., I. Gati, and K. R. Kelly. 2008. “Emotional and personality-related aspects of career-decision-making.” Journal of Career Assessment 16(4): 403–424. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072708318900.
Savickas, M. L. 2015a. “Career counseling paradigms: Guiding, developing, and designing.” In The APA handbook of career intervention, ed. P. J. Hartung, M. Savickas, and W. Walsh, 129‒143. Washington: APA Books.
Savickas, M. L. 2015b. Life-design counseling manual. Rootstown: Author.
Savickas, M. L. 2016. “Closing keynote presentation.” National Career Development Association Conference, July. Chicago, United States of America.
Savickas, M. L. 2019. Career Counseling. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Savickas, M. L. 2021. “Keynote Address at the 2021 APCDA Conference.” Paper presented at the Asia Pacific Career Development Conference, May. Virtual conference in Singapore.
Savickas, M. L. and S. Savickas. 2019. “A history of career counseling.” In International handbook of career guidance, ed. J. A. Athanasou and H. N. Pereira, 25‒44. Springer.
Sprouts. 2017. 8 Stages of development by Erik Erikson. 23 April. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYCBdZLCDBQ&t=46s.
Stringer, K., J. Kerpelman. and V. Skorikov. 2011. “Career preparation: A longitudinal, process-oriented examination.” Journal of Vocational Behavior 79(1): 158‒169.
Taber, B. J. and W. C. Briddick. 2011. “Adlerian-based career counseling in the age of Protean Careers.” Journal of Individual Psychology 67(2): 107‒121.
Taber, B. J., P. J. Hartung, H. Briddick, W. C. Briddick, and M. Rehfuss. 2011. “Career Style Interview: A contextualized approach to career counseling.” Career Development Quarterly 59: 274‒287.
Udayar, S., N. Levin, Y. Lipshits-Braziler, S. Rochat, A. Di Fabio, I. Gati, and J. Rossier. 2020. “Difficulties in career decision making and self-evaluations: A meta-analysis.” Journal of Career Assessment 28(4): 608‒635. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072720910089.
Winnicott, D. W. 1965. The family and individual development. London: Tavistock.
Yin, R. K. 1984. Case study research: Design and methods. London: SAGE.
Copyright (c) 2022 J.G. Maree
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
