Abstract
Individuals have to actively manage their careers and with it their identities in this life domain. With the help of empirical findings and field reports, we will show how these changing demands need to be negotiated as part of identity development and, thus, career counseling processes. While Dialogical Self Theory (DST) is used to describe the constant negotiation of the self (identity) including dialogues within the person as well as dialogues with others, the Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM) will help depict the development of career pathways that result from both – with a special focus on affective linking. Based on DST and TEM, it is argued that finding the right career is an ongoing and affective process and with that a developmental phenomenon that can be supported by different means: typologies that relate the individual to a larger population as well as idiographic approaches.
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Notes
For an evaluation of her counseling approach see Weil (2012).
One of the counselling trainers of the first author, a former university professor, now, being retired, runs an apple plantation in East Germany. She thus moved from working in the academic field to working in nature following a passion that she had not been able to focus on for a long time, but has more time for now.
The sculpture is – once finished – looked at from “North, South, West, and East”, always with a different question (potentials, limitations, general impression, immediate wish to change something) to analyse the situation.
Valsiner (2007) states that human psychology is affective in its nature and is organized by semiotic tools that represent the mental-reflexive aspects of psychological life: “We make sense of our relations with the world—and of the world itself—through our feelings that are themselves culturally organized through the creation and use of signs“ (p. 301).
Not only the conditions under which individuals pursue “careers”, but also the understanding of the term “career” itself has changed. Career stems from the Latin word carrus (wheeled vehicle) and thus described a certain path to be traveled that traditionally led to higher achievements (e.g. a more respected position, additional income). The term now encompasses a broader meaning, as today the paths to be traveled are more diverse and entail unexpected turns that demand constant navigation and realignment. Therefore, “finding the right career” is a continual process that encompasses not only work-related decisions, but also leisure, family and other life domains.
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Acknowledgments
We thank all the students and clients that participated in the interview studies and counseling sessions introduced in this article and the client that gave permission to publish the included photographs. We would also like to thank the organizers of the Niels Bohr Lectures in Aalborg, Denmark, where the idea for this article emerged.
This work was supported by the Estonian Science Foundation (Grant number ETF9221).
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Watzlawik, M., Kullasepp, K. Career as Affective Journey: How Constant Flux Challenges the Search for Career Pathways and Counseling. Integr. psych. behav. 50, 492–506 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-016-9349-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-016-9349-3