This paper reports psychometric properties of a German version of the Career Exploration Survey (CES-G). The instrument's 16 scales allow for a detailed description of career exploration. Based on data from two studies (N[subscript 1] = 1023; N[subscript 2] = 816), confirmatory factor analyses supported the 16-factor model. With regard to…

The study tested the relationship between occupational aspirations/expectations (type and status) and decision-making difficulties, efficacy and career barriers in 498 Chinese high school students. Males aspired to investigative and enterprising types, but expected realistic and enterprising ones; females aspired to enterprising and conventional…

This paper discusses the cultural transitioning process that immigrants undergo in order to attain educational, occupational, and social integration within Canadian society. Results of this phenomenological study examining 31 Jewish immigrants from Argentina, Israel, France and the Former Soviet Union, reveal that lack of educational equivalency…

The paper presents a survey among 300 employees in Northern Italy to assess the willingness to mentor and identify the factors that affect it. Men and respondents with previous mentoring experience indicate a higher willingness to be a mentor. Willingness is affected by personal characteristics that are perceived as necessary for a mentor and the…

This study tested the hypothesis that self-efficacy in career roles moderates the relation between perception of career barriers and career planning, in a study with Portuguese students, 488 in Grade 9 and 517 in Grade 12. The results supported the hypothesis only among Grade 9 girls, showing that perception of career barriers leads to less career…

This article proposes a social action, mixed methods approach to verifying the efficacy of vocational guidance programs. Research strategies are discussed in the context of how the processes and purposes of efficacy research have been conceptualized and studied in vocational psychology. Examples of how to implement this approach in future efficacy…

Counselling for work and relationship is proposed as another way of thinking about vocational psychology and vocational guidance. It can contribute to the search for a new paradigm for these fields. Central to this way of thinking are two shifts. A shift from a discourse about career to a discourse about work, and a shift to expand the focus of…

This study aims to take an in-depth look at the role of emotional intelligence and personality traits in relation to career decision difficulties. The Italian version of the Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ), the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory: Short (Bar-On EQ-i: S), and the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) were administered to…

In addressing the issue of interdisciplinary research in vocational guidance, twelve propositions important for understanding the vocational guidance process as joint, goal-directed action are presented. They address the encounter between client and counsellor leading to relational ethics, the relevance of everyday action theory and methods for…

The literature on interdisciplinarity identifies several forms of collaboration: multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and interdisciplinary (as bridge building or integration). To assist vocational psychology translate its interdisciplinary discourse into action, this paper uses that literature to identify the benefits, challenges and conditions…

Major global changes during the last decades have influenced the individual's work-life and career. As a result of globalisation, increasing societal complexity and flexibility, careers have lost their linearity and predictability. Traditional models of career development no longer provide a comprehensive explanation for an adequate career…

The article gives an overview of a social cognitive perspective on psychosocial well-being and adjustment (Lent, 2004), along with a model of educational and work-related satisfaction (Lent & Brown, 2006) that has been derived from it. The theoretical perspective integrates cognitive, behavioural, social, and personality variables hypothesized to…

This paper considers some of the debates surrounding the term competence and the relevance that these have for the development of competence frameworks. Such frameworks are increasingly on the agenda, since they purport to support training programme development, to identify competence gaps, to promote self-development, and to ensure common…

In 2007 the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG) launched the Educational and Vocational Guidance Practitioner credential (EVGP) as one means of formally acknowledging the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes that practitioners need in order to provide quality career development services to clients. This…

We are approaching career counselling from the perspective of "Being", which we recognize to be a daunting task. Nevertheless we find it extremely important that the counsellor become aware of and try to think, talk and act from his or her embeddedness in being, and by that help the client to do the same. This process involves an ontological and…