From Invisibility to Integration: Lesbian Identity in the Workplace

This article represents a first step toward a vocational psychology of lesbians that incorporates scholarship in lesbian and women's identity development and that is considered within the larger framework of women's career development. First, literature in lesbian and women's identity development is reviewed, followed by a discussion of the vocational issues of lesbians as related both to identity development and to the literature in the vocational psychology of women. The article concludes with suggestions for research and practice.     

Measuring Adoptive Identity: Validation of the Adoptive Identity Work Scale

Guided by Erikson's as well as Grotevant and colleagues’ identity theorizing, three studies were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the Adoptive Identity Work Scale (AIWS), a self-report measure of the identity work contributing to one's adoptive identity. Adult adoptees were solicited in a series of surveys (study 1: N = 196; study 2: N = 119; study 3: N = 217) to complete existing measures of adoptive identity and well-being as well as the newly formed AIWS. The studies reported here provide concurrent, construct, and predictive validity for the AIWS, consisting of five items measuring reflective exploration and five items measuring preoccupation.     

The influence of a grandfather's disease process and death on the formation of personal identity in a granddaughter

This case study investigated the influence of a grandfather with Parkinson's disease and his death on the development of personal identity in his granddaughter. The case was complicated by the granddaughter's diagnosis at age 20 with a potentially terminal illness 3 months after his death. The granddaughter experienced symptoms similar to those of her grandfather. Analysis of a retrospective interview with the granddaughter revealed four themes: shared interests, coping skills and adaptation, enlightenment, and influence. These themes were examined within the context of Erik H. Erikson's theory of identity development as a conceptual framework for understanding the influence of the grandfather–granddaughter relationship.     

Conceptions of Gay Male Life-Span Development

Abstract

Four of Erikson's eight psychosocial crises were used in this qualitative, exploratory study as an organizing framework. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, seven men were interviewed with the goal of understanding how they have navigated Erikson's life stages. Significant results included: an early sense of being different and a period of time between “coming out to self” and “coming out to another person,” both complicating Erikson's sense of “social trust.” The men also described finding non-biological ways of achieving generativity as well as the development of a strong internal sense of authority or locus of control. Other strengths gained included: achieving a broad base of social support or a “family of choice,” and becoming role models themselves in response to a clear absence of positive role models during their own adolescence, which many identified as delaying their coming out. Finally, AIDS was discussed by many as a critical factor affecting how these men navigate each of Erikson's stages. Implications of these tentative findings are suggested for research, teaching, practice, and for psychosocial theory itself.     

Designing Lives and Empowering Clients: The Case of Sue

This case response centers on the client Sue, a professional mediator who seeks counseling to resolve a conflict with her employer that threatens her vocational identity (M. C. Rehfuss, 2003). P. B. Baltes's (1997) Selective Optimization With Compensation model of human development and J. Heckhausen and R. Schulz's (1995) Life‐Span Theory of Control are used to frame Sue's career development, identify her current control orientation, and assist her in making the transition from compensation to an optimizing strategy. Such a strategy aims to preserve her vocational identity while satisfying the needs of her employer.     

Leisure,School, and Work Activity Preferences and Their Role in Vocational Identity Development

Elements of an expanded construct of adolescent vocational identity were examined in terms of their interrelationships with each other, as well as relationships with preferences among leisure, school, and work activities, engagement in those activities, and identity status. Investigating a sample of 660 7th through 12th graders, we found that vocational interests, occupational self-efficacy, and occupational prestige were closely associated with each other, with school and leisure interests, and with actual engagement in corresponding (exploratory) activities. We also found that adolescents did not draw significant distinctions between leisure, school, and work activities. The role of school and vocational exploration in adolescents' self-chosen vocational identity is discussed.     

Lessons from Erikson

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine issues related to autonomy across the life span and to draw comparisons between a young child's search for autonomy and an older adult's efforts to maintain autonomy. The paper includes an introduction of the challenges for young children and older adults as related to autonomy. A definition of autonomy and an explanation of Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development are included. Each of Erikson's stages is reviewed with consideration given to traits, characteristics, and needs of the young child and older adult. Similarities and differences between young children and older adults in their search for autonomy are examined. The paper concludes with implications for caregivers regarding their practices with young children and older adults.     

Identifying Career Concerns of Entering University Freshmen Using My Vocational Situation

VI scale items of My Vocational Situation for entering freshmen at a midwestern university were analyzed using a cluster analysis technique. Four major clusters were identified suggesting that vocational identity as measured by the VI scale is not a unitary construct. Discussion focused on the possible use of the procedures and results. One possible use suggested was by career planning and placement personnel in planning career programs and services. Another possible use suggested was by counselors who could use the information about entering freshmen's vocational identity in individual counseling.     

An Application of Erikson's Theory to the Recovery-from-Divorce Process

The purpose of this article is to work toward an understanding of the psychological processes involved in divorce, and to develop a conceptual framework to describe these processes. A review of the literature shows that individuals proceed through various stages of divorce that overlap and do not come in a fixed order. There are tasks that must be accomplished in order for a person to recover from a marriage that has been terminated by divorce. Erikson's stages of man provide a framework through which to view the tasks of recovery from divorce.     

Measuring Career Development: Current Status and Future Directions

Donald E. Super's work to linguistically explicate and operationally define career development and its central processes has strongly influenced how counselors throughout the world comprehend and guide their clients' vocational behavior. Starting at midcentury, Super conceptualized career development in terms of life stages and developmental tasks. He proposed that counselors measure career maturity, globally, by comparing chronological age with developmental task being encountered, and that they measure career maturity, specifically, by identifying the coping methods used in facing a task. Super advanced counselors' abilities to understand and counsel adolescents who are trying to specify educational and vocational choices by explaining the importance of career choice readiness and by devising measures of career maturity. To complement the construct of maturation as the central process in adolescent career development, Super proffered the construct of adaptability as the central process in adult career development and also devised a measure of this process.     

Family Life Cycle Stages

Individual life stages happen within the context of family life. This article describes Betty Carter's and Monica McGoldrick's Family Life Cycle stages as a context for Eric Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, Daniel Levinson's Stages of a Man's Life, and Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development. The author juxtaposes the tasks of each family life stage with the individual life stages that accompany it. Implications for treatment are inferred. Questions to consider and treatment goals regarding a case study are presented.     

Self-Esteem,Vocational Identity,and Career Salience in High School Students

This study used Super's (1980) life span career development theory to investigate the relations between self-esteem level, vocational identity, and career salience in high school students. Two hundred fifty-one students were randomly selected from junior classes in urban, suburban, rural, and vocational schools. Results indicated that high self-esteem students scored significantly higher than low self-esteem students on vocational identity and career salience (participation, commitment, and values expectations) in school and home or family roles, but they did not differ on work, community, or leisure roles. Implications for life span career counseling are discussed.     

Career Development Attributes and Occupational Values of Asian American and White American College Students

This study examined differences in career development attributes and occupational values between Asian American and White American college students using (a) the Crites' (1978) Career Maturity Inventory; (b) Harren's (1978) Assessment of Career Decision Making: Styles Subscales; (c) Holland, Daiger, and Power's (1980) My Vocational Situation; and (d) Rosenberg's (1957) Occupations and Values Scale. Asian Americans were found to have greater preferences for Dependent decisionmaking styles and also a lower level of career maturity. No differences in vocational identity were found between the cultural groups. Asian Americans also placed greater emphasis on extrinsic and security occupational value clusters (e.g., making more money, having a stable, secure future) relative to White Americans. The counseling and research implications of the results are discussed.     

Confucian or Communist,Post‐Mao or Postmodern? Exploring the Narrative Identity Resources of Shanghai's Post‐80s Generation

Thirty years after the post‐Mao reforms, twenty years after the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, the next generation of “comrades” is emerging in China. They are called the Balinghou, or the “Post‐80s” generation, referring to the cohort born between 1980 and 1989. This article is taken from a broader study on the narrative resources that Shanghai's Post‐80s young adults call on to construct their identities, given the historical situation in which they live. Symbolic interactionism is useful for studying identity construction processes across cultural contexts, particularly in China where interactionist concepts have seen limited application to date. The discussion also explores the theoretical implications of structural elements that significantly alter the resources available for identity construction, such as the One Child Policy.     

Adolescent Generativity: A Longitudinal Study of Two Possible Contexts for Learning Concern for Future Generations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate developmental pathways to Erikson's (1959) construct of generativity, defined as care and concern for the next generation and traditionally viewed as important for midlife adults, in a late adolescent sample. A sample of 198 adolescents was followed three times over a 6‐year period, from ages 17 to 23. Questionnaire measures of generative concern, parenting style, community involvement, and personal adjustment were collected. Adolescents' generative concern was positively related to good adjustment, as has been observed previously among adults. Generative concern at age 23 was predicted by earlier reports of family authoritative parenting, and especially by higher levels of earlier prosocial community involvement among these adolescents. Overall, results suggest that generativity may be a developing element in the domain of prosocial moral concern in later adolescence, and that family and community roots may be important in its establishment.     

Social identities, class identity and political perspectives

There has been considerable controversy over the extent to which class is a salient social identity, and the importance of other social identities Marshall and his colleagues (1988) argue that class identity remains a salient frame of reference in people's daily lives while Saunders (1989;1990) and Emmison and Western (1990) argue that class identity is not as strong as they claim, and the importance of other social identities cannot be denied. However, proponents and opponents in the debate are agreed that the salience of social identities depends upon the context in which they are found which cannot be fully explored in highly-structured interviews. Drawing on data from a ‘qualitative re-study’ of the Affluent Worker series, it will be argued that people have many different identities, including a strong class identity, which co-exist at the same time. That said, their class identity is the most important influence on the formation of political perspectives. This finding concurs with the Essex team and Saunders even though he has sought to distance himself from this conclusion.     

Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development—2012

This annual review of the 2012 career development/vocational psychology literature includes 191 empirical (69%) and conceptual (31%) articles from career, counseling, development, and international journals. The review is divided into 4 major areas: professional issues, work and well‐being, life‐span perspectives, and career theory and concepts. Subsumed within these clusters are foci on the status of career/vocational guidance around the globe, the career development experiences of immigrants, and the effects of economic stress. The authors offer three summarizing impressions. First, the 2012 collection is definitively global; this is a credit to the individual and institutional dimensions of the counseling profession. Second, the research articles represent a wide array of methodological approaches, and researchers have made wise research design choices for their areas of inquiry. Third, there is a true professional responsiveness to the needs of the world. It is suggested that the 2012 literature reflects Parsons's early vision of social justice and multiculturalism.     

Postmodern Swing Dance and Secondary Adjustment: Identity as Process

In this article, the author describes activities of strategic consumption that members of a postmodern swing dance scene utilized to construct identity. He deploys Goffman's category of “contained secondary adjustment” for describing social interactions that are moments of purposeful resistance designed to usurp (while also being lodged within) organizational and/or institutional claims and constraints for identity and self. Specifically, the article describes swing dancers' presentations of unique selves, thrift store shopping, tavern socializing, and swing dancing. Swing dancers utilized these secondary adjustments to resist the dictates of corporate‐driven and mass‐mediated claims and constraints for “mainstream” consumer identities. These secondary adjustments add up to an “identity distancing,” which is the individual's and/or group's purposeful distancing and separation from other identities or groups associated with popular culture. Describing the swing dancers' secondary adjustments reaffirms the symbolic interactionist stance that identity construction is a durable social interactional process.     

Careers in a Cultural Context

This article gives an overview of research on Super's theory across cultures within the United States as well as internationally. Research indicates that the theory has some cross-cultural validity, yet there seem to be measurement concerns. The article also discusses two areas for future investigation: development of ethnic identity as a vocational task and research on developmental contextualism (Vondracek, Lerner, & Shulenberg, 1986).     

Rejection,Humiliation, and Parole: A Study of Parolees' Perspectives

Research on status rejection has developed considerably over the past two decades and is applied in a number of different settings to better understand criminal and deviant behavior. Our research contributes to that body of work by examining the ways in which status rejection may create a potentially humiliating dynamic for individuals on parole. Specifically, we use in‐depth interviews with parolees to illustrate how the parolee identity can promote the experience of status rejection and simultaneously foster conditions for humiliation—an emotional state that may impede one's ability to both (re) construct a conventional identity and reintegrate back into one's community.