Proactive career behaviors become increasingly important in today's career environment, but little is known about how and when motivational patterns affect individual differences. In a six-month longitudinal study among German university students (Study 1; N = 289) it was demonstrated that motivation in terms of "can do" (self-efficacy and context…

Development of career goals that are adapted to self and opportunities is a central component of adolescent career preparation. The present longitudinal study (conducted throughout the eighth grade with three assessment points) investigated how 330 Swiss adolescents simultaneously adapt career goals to interests, scholastic achievement and…

Recent years have witnessed a growing diversity of career patterns, resulting from the relative decline of stable employment. In the present study of 1368 employed and self-employed German adults career pattern diversity was assessed using nine pictograms. The goal was to identify psychological and demographic correlates of these patterns and to…

Childhood marks the dawn of human development. To organize, integrate, and advance knowledge about vocational development during this age period from a life-span perspective, we conducted a comprehensive review of the empirical vocational development literature that addresses early-to-late childhood. The review considers career exploration, career…

Data from the longitudinal Oregon Youth Study for 202 at-risk young men discerned 4 career pathways: long-term unemployment, short-term unemployment, full employment, college education. Long-term unemployment was associated with lowest education attainment and personal adjustment during childhood/adolescence. Most important predictors of pathways…

Compares life-span approaches (function and variable centered) and life-course approaches (person centered and holistic) in the study of career development. Advocates their integration in developmental theory and research. (Contains 69 references.) (SK)

If vocational psychology is to realize its potential as a developmental science, it must speak authoritatively on substantive questions of vocational development and integrate research findings with those of other fields. This will contribute to the larger framework of life-span human development. (Contains 36 references.) (Author/SK)

Analysis of longitudinal data on 658 German adolescents studied from sixth to ninth grade identified four developmental patterns of beliefs about their academic capabilities: steady high, increasing, decreasing, and steady low. Factors influencing patterns included parental involvement/interest, maternal warmth, school grade, school anxiety, and…

Patterns of career and family transitions for German young adults were analyzed using correspondence analysis (interpersonal connections) and configural frequency analysis. Results demonstrated that person-oriented nonlinear methods are valuable approaches to studying the complex phenomenon of career development. (Contains 65 references.) (SK)

A study of 933 German adolescents showed that identity achievers displayed the most exploratory behavior, those in identity diffusion the least. Parent behavior had strong, direct impact on childhood exploration. The breadth of childhood exploration was the strongest predictor of adolescent exploration. (SK)

Ethnic identity and vocational maturity were assessed in four cohorts of 466 majority and 175 minority high school students in Quebec. Results show minorities increased in ethnic identity over time and matured significantly earlier than majority students, but fell somewhat behind in vocational maturity by the 11th grade. (SK)

Commends Pervin's review of the common roots of various current conceptualizations of person-environment relations, agreeing that a dynamic, process-oriented model is needed, but criticizing Pervin's conceptualization as too person centered, not emphasizing the embeddedness of person-environment relations within environments, and not citing…

Charges that a major problem in the vocational literature is the absence of theoretical formulations which deal with vocational development in more than a superficial manner and proposes a theory of life-span vocational role development. Includes comments by Gottfredson and a reply by the first authors. (JAC)