Brown, Lent - 2016 - Vocational Psychology Agency, Equity, and Well-Being-annotated

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Vocational Psychology: Agency,
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Equity, and Well-Being
Steven D. Brown1 and Robert W. Lent2
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2016.67:541-565. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
Access provided by Universidad de la Laguna on 03/07/18. For personal use only.
1
School of Education, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60611;
email: sbrown@luc.edu
2
College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742;
email: boblent@umd.edu
Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2016. 67:541–65 Keywords

First published online as a Review in Advance on career adaptability, self-efficacy, work volition, social class, STEM
October 2, 2015
participation, work well-being
The Annual Review of Psychology is online at
psych.annualreviews.org Abstract
This article’s doi: The present review organizes the vocational psychology literature published
10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033237
between 2007 and 2014 into three overarching themes: Promoting (a) agency
Copyright c 2016 by Annual Reviews. in career development, (b) equity in the work force, and (c) well-being in
All rights reserved
work and educational settings. Research on career adaptability, self-efficacy
beliefs, and work volition is reviewed in the agency section, with the goal
of delineating variables that promote or constrain the exercise of personal
agency in academic and occupational pursuits. The equity theme covers re-
search on social class and race/ethnicity in career development; entry and
retention of women and people of color in science, technology, engineer-
ing, and math (STEM) fields; and the career service needs of survivors of
domestic violence and of criminal offenders. The goal was to explore how
greater equity in the work force could be promoted for these groups. In
the well-being section, we review research on hedonic (work, educational,
and life satisfaction) and eudaimonic (career calling, meaning, engagement,
and commitment) variables, with the goal of understanding how well-being
might be promoted at school and at work. Future research needs related to
each theme are also discussed.
541
Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
AGENCY: MECHANISMS OF SELF-DIRECTION
IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Adaptability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Self-Efficacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
Work Volition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
EQUITY: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Educational and Occupational Attainment and Success of Underserved Youth . . . . . 548
STEM Entry and Retention of Women and People of Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Promoting Work Participation of Survivors of Domestic Violence
and Criminal Offenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
WELL-BEING: POSITIVE ADAPTATION TO SCHOOL

AND WORK SETTINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Hedonic Well-Being: Job, Academic, and Life Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Eudaimonic Well-Being: Calling, Meaning, Commitment, and Engagement. . . . . . . 555
SUMMARY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
INTRODUCTION
Many schemes have been used to organize prior reviews of the vocational psychology literature.
To fashion a framework for this review, we began by searching the tables of contents of six
journals that are exclusively or largely devoted to vocational psychology and career development
(Career Development Quarterly, Journal of Career Assessment, Journal of Career Development, Journal
of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Counseling Psychology, and The Counseling Psychologist). The time
frame for this search (2007–2014) was set to dovetail with the last Annual Review of Psychology
examination of the vocational psychology literature (Fouad 2007).
A frequency count of theories, constructs, and populations revealed that two theoretical per-
spectives, person-environment (P-E) fit and social cognitive career theory (SCCT), had received
the bulk of research attention during the review period. The P-E fit perspective hypothesizes
that the degree of match (or fit) between person characteristics (e.g., interests, work values, per-
sonality, abilities) and characteristics of the work environment is an important predictor of work
satisfaction, performance, and tenure. SCCT focuses on the roles of person characteristics (e.g.,
self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, goals) and contextual factors (e.g., supports, barriers) in
educational and work interest development, choice making, satisfaction, and performance. Career
construction theory, which emphasizes the ways in which people help to author their own work
lives in relation to environmental (e.g., family, role model) influences, had also received favorable
attention as a practice framework, though less vigorous empirical activity, with the notable excep-
tion of recent research on the career adaptability construct. A few other conceptual frameworks,
such as the psychology of working perspective, which is concerned with the work participation
of underserved and understudied workers, also stimulated valuable discussion and some inquiry
during the review period.
In terms of constructs, we noted that the following had received concentrated research
attention since 2007: self-efficacy beliefs, career adaptability, career exploration and decision
making, career and educational barriers and supports, work and well-being, work volition, career
542 Brown · Lent

aspirations, work transitions, work-family conflict and enhancement, vocational calling, interests,
and personality. A variety of population segments (and individual difference variables) had been
studied, with a focus on such dimensions as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social
class, and disability; children and adolescents; prisoners and ex-offenders; and domestic violence
survivors. International samples were also included more frequently than in prior years, marking
an important new era in vocational psychology research.
In conducting our analysis of journal content, we realized that much of the recent literature
can be organized around three overarching themes that reflect the social justice zeitgeist of con-
temporary vocational psychology: promoting agency in career development, equity at work, and
well-being in occupational and educational settings. It can be argued that these three themes form
a cogent narrative for the field at present, along with a meaningful framework for integrating
much research on its theories, constructs, and populations of interest. Although a good deal of
valuable research on more traditional vocational psychology topics (e.g., interest measurement,
career decision making) was generated during the review period, our goal is to focus more se-
lectively on work that is emerging from newer as well as ongoing conceptual streams and that
reflects the field’s concerns with a variety of contemporary social issues. We also seek a balance
between topics that have received a good deal of research during the review period and topics that
have received more limited inquiry but are relevant to vocational psychology’s understanding of
agency, equity, or well-being. Given space considerations, in many instances, we cite only a few
studies as examples of larger bodies of research.
The first theme (agency) includes research on career adaptability, self-efficacy beliefs, and work
volition. The second theme (equity) encompasses (a) the career development of underserved youth;
(b) the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) entry and retention of women and
people of color; and (c) the career experiences and service needs of domestic abuse survivors and
criminal justice populations. Although these groups have received varying levels of attention in the
literature, their inclusion in this review reflects the field’s increasing emphasis on persons who often
face significant impediments to their work participation or career advancement. The third theme
(well-being) involves research on both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being in educational settings
and in the workplace. Hedonic well-being includes such affective outcomes as job and academic
satisfaction. Coverage of eudaimonic well-being focuses on topics, such as meaning and calling,
that capture ways in which people achieve a sense of growth and fulfillment at school and work.
Our review concludes with an outline of several directions for future inquiry on agency, equity,
and well-being in the context of academic and work settings.
AGENCY: MECHANISMS OF SELF-DIRECTION

IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT
In this section, we highlight research involving constructs that, theoretically, enable people to
exercise agency in their career development and to adapt well to their vocational options. At the
same time, these research streams often point to contextual (e.g., social and economic) variables
that may either maximize or hinder the exercise of agency in career pursuits.
Adaptability
Career adaptability refers to “the readiness to cope with the predictable tasks of preparing for and
participating in the work role and with the unpredictable adjustments prompted by changes in
work and working conditions” (Savickas 1997, p. 254). Adaptability is a central construct of career
construction theory. Though it has been operationalized in a variety of ways (e.g., Rottinghaus et al.
www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 543

2012), most recent research on the construct has used the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS).
Savickas & Porfeli (2012) described the development and initial psychometric examination of the
scale, which was studied within a remarkable multicountry collaborative project.
Factor structure and correlates of adaptability. The CAAS consists of four 6-item scales,
each corresponding to the conceptual dimensions of career adaptability: career (a) concern (an
orientation toward planning for the future), (b) control (tendencies toward conscientiousness
and organization), (c) curiosity (willingness to explore how one fits into the work world), and
(d ) confidence (self-efficacy regarding one’s problem-solving capabilities). Confirmatory factor
analysis of the CAAS has supported a hierarchical latent structure, with each of the primary four
dimensions loading on a higher-order adaptability factor (Savickas & Porfeli 2012). CAAS total
and subscale scores have been found to relate to a wide array of career and noncareer variables,
such as vocational identity (Porfeli & Savickas 2012), job and life satisfaction (Maggiori et al.
2013), and Big Five personality factors (van Vianen et al. 2012). Hamtiaux et al. (2013) found
evidence of convergent validity between the CAAS and an alternative measure of adaptability.
Model tests and developmental considerations. Several studies have tested theoretical models
of how career adaptability functions in relation to other variables. For example, Guan et al. (2013)
examined career adaptability relative to the job search process in Chinese university graduates,
finding that career adaptability was associated with more favorable appraisals of job search self-
efficacy which, in turn, predicted later employment status and aspects of fit to the new work
environment. In a study of Serbian business students, Tolentino et al. (2014) found that career
adaptability was related to entrepreneurial career intentions through entrepreneurial self-efficacy,
particularly among participants with exposure to a family business. Other studies have reported
that career adaptability partially mediated the relation of personality factors to work engagement
(Rossier et al. 2012) and explained unique variance in career satisfaction and self-rated performance
beyond personality factors (Zacher 2014a).
A few investigations have examined aspects of change or malleability in career adaptability.
In a longitudinal study of Australian workers, Zacher (2014b) found that age, education, future
temporal focus, and certain personality dimensions predicted change in one or more of the four
dimensions of career adaptability over time. In a quasi-experimental study with Dutch university
graduates, Koen et al. (2012) offered training designed to promote career adaptability. Relative
to a control group, they found that those receiving training exhibited positive change on three
of the four adaptability dimensions. A six-month follow-up indicated that, among those who
subsequently found employment, participants who had received adaptability training fared better
than controls on indicators of employment quality (e.g., higher job satisfaction, lower turnover
intentions).
In sum, the recent literature on career adaptability, particularly that involving the CAAS, is
remarkable both in the amount of research generated in a short time and in the breadth of variables
to which adaptability has been related. A useful future research direction might include study of
how adaptability functions relative to preparation for, or adaptation to, work transitions. For
example, might higher levels of career adaptability promote more thorough preparation for work
changes (e.g., via anticipatory marshaling of coping resources or proactive skill updating) or more
resilience (e.g., quicker recovery) when adverse work events occur? It may also be useful to clarify
the types of criterion variables that career adaptability should, theoretically, explain. Such added
theoretical precision may help to target particularly salient questions (e.g., what is the role of
career adaptability relative, say, to social support and other psychosocial resources in the process
and aftermath of work changes?).
544 Brown · Lent

Self-Efficacy
In this section, we discuss findings on self-efficacy and related social cognitive variables in relation
to a broad array of educational and work topics. In later sections, we highlight inquiry on social
cognitive variables specifically within the context of STEM domains as well as in relation to
well-being outcomes.
Self-efficacy, interest, and choice. One of the more active areas of career self-efficacy inquiry
has involved tests of social cognitive career theory’s interest and choice models (Lent et al. 1994). In
brief, these models hypothesize that career-relevant interests are largely a function of self-efficacy
(beliefs about personal capabilities) and outcome expectations (beliefs about the consequences of
actions), in particular performance domains (e.g., science, arts). People are likely to make educa-
tional and occupational choices that are consistent with their interests, self-efficacy, and outcome
expectations, particularly if their preferred options are accompanied by favorable environmental
conditions (e.g., adequate supports, minimal barriers). Sheu et al. (2010) reported a meta-analysis
of data from 45 independent samples that had tested versions of the SCCT choice model. The
results were reported separately by Holland themes (Holland 1997), which group people and envi-
ronments into six primary types: (a) realistic (e.g., preference for mechanical, manual, and physical
tasks), (b) investigative (e.g., preference for scientific and mathematical activities), (c) artistic (e.g.,
preference for artistic and creative activities), (d ) social (e.g., preference for helping and teaching
people), (e) enterprising (e.g., preference for selling, leading, managing, and persuading people),
and ( f ) conventional (e.g., preference for an ordered work environment and engaging in detailed
business tasks).
Sheu et al. (2010) found that the choice model generally fit the data well across Holland themes,
though self-efficacy (confidence in successfully completing theme-related tasks) tended to con-
tribute to the prediction of choice goals more indirectly, through outcome expectations (expected
outcomes of engaging in theme-related tasks) and interests, than directly. In addition, contextual
supports and barriers generally produced more reliable indirect paths to choice goals, via self-
efficacy and outcome expectations, than direct ones. These findings suggest a nuanced interplay
among person and contextual variables in the career choice process. For example, contextual sup-
ports and barriers (e.g., the presence or absence of mentors or financial resources) may bolster
or temper self-efficacy and outcome expectations, which in turn may reshape interests and goals.
Although Sheu et al.’s (2010) path analysis was based on cross-sectional data, several longitudinal
studies have supported many of the hypothesized temporal linkages among the social cognitive
variables, including the paths from self-efficacy to outcome expectations, interests, and goals (e.g.,
Lent et al. 2008, 2010).
Self-efficacy, performance, and persistence. The relations of self-efficacy and other social cog-
nitive variables to performance outcomes has been a topic of interest to researchers in educational
and organizational psychology as well as vocational psychology, with some studies specifically
aimed at testing SCCT’s performance model, which posits that academic and occupational per-
formance (indicators of success) and persistence result from the interplay among ability or past
performance, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and performance goals.
Wright et al. (2013) examined the role of self-efficacy in relation to college students’ per-
formance and persistence behavior. They found that, controlling for gender, ethnicity, first-
generation status, and prior performance, self-efficacy regarding academic capabilities was a good
predictor of students’ academic success as well as of their likelihood of remaining in college beyond
their first semester. Cupani & Pautassi (2013) examined the relations of social cognitive variables

to the academic performance (math grades) of Argentinian high school students. Consistent with
hypotheses, numeric ability was linked to performance both directly and indirectly through math
self-efficacy. Stronger self-efficacy and outcome expectations were each associated with more am-
bitious performance goals, which in turn predicted better performance. Unexpectedly, however,
ability was negatively associated with outcome expectations.
Two meta-analyses assessed the SCCT performance model during the period examined in
this review. In the first meta-analysis, support was found for the joint roles of ability and self-
efficacy relative to college academic outcomes (Brown et al. 2008). Measures of ability and high
school performance predicted college grades both directly and indirectly through self-efficacy;
however, the relation of ability/past performance to persistence was fully mediated by self-efficacy.
Performance goals contributed to the prediction of persistence but not of grades.
In the second meta-analysis, Brown et al. (2011) tested the performance model in the context
of work performance. As in the academic performance meta-analysis, goals did not explain unique
variance in performance beyond that explained by self-efficacy and cognitive ability. It was also
found that conscientiousness, a personality factor, was linked to performance both directly and
indirectly, via self-efficacy. Thus, performance may profit not only from cognitive ability and
technical skills but also from self-efficacy and conscientiousness, which enable workers to leverage
their talents. Other work using longitudinal designs has tended to support the roles of goals and
self-efficacy as antecedents of career performance (Abele & Spurk 2009) as well as hypothesized
reciprocal links between self-efficacy and performance (Spurk & Abele 2014).
Self-efficacy, process behaviors, and the socioeconomic context. Many studies have exam-
ined self-efficacy and other social cognitive variables in relation to process aspects of career devel-
opment (Lent & Brown 2013), that is, agentic behaviors, such as decision making or job seeking,
that people employ to achieve their educational and occupational objectives across varied per-
formance domains and often in the face of obstacles (e.g., economic limitations, work-family
conflict). Gibbons & Borders (2010) studied the college-going expectations of racially diverse and
economically challenged middle schoolers whose parents had not attended college. They found
that students’ college-related self-efficacy and outcome expectations were predicted by perceived
barriers (e.g., financial limitations, lack of role models) and social supports relative to college at-
tendance; self-efficacy and outcome expectations were, in turn, predictive of students’ intentions
to attend college. In a study of high school students in a high-poverty rural area, Ali & Saunders
(2009) found that students’ self-efficacy (related to educational and job-finding skills) and outcome
expectations (related to career decision making) predicted their level of career aspirations beyond
social supports and economic variables.
Dahling et al. (2013) examined the job search goals of unemployed workers in the context
of financial strain and regional unemployment rates. They found that self-efficacy and outcome
expectations were each positively related to search goals. Financial strain had a direct, negative
relation with job search self-efficacy and indirect, negative relations (via self-efficacy) with job
search outcome expectations and search goals, particularly under conditions of high regional
unemployment.
Most of the process-oriented research on social cognitive variables has involved career decision-
making self-efficacy in student samples. Mirroring findings on content aspects of career choice
(i.e., goals to pursue particular career paths, such as science), research has shown that intention
to engage in career exploration or decision-making activities is well predicted by career decision
self-efficacy and outcome expectations. For example, Huang & Hsieh (2011) found that Taiwanese
college students’ self-efficacy and outcome expectations mediated the relation of family socioeco-
nomic status (SES) to career exploration intentions. Self-efficacy and goals were each found to
546 Brown · Lent

account for unique variance in Australian high school students’ career planning behavior, both in
cross-sectional (Rogers et al. 2008) and longitudinal studies (Rogers & Creed 2011). In a recent
meta-analysis, Choi et al. (2012) reported that career decision self-efficacy is related strongly and
negatively with career indecision. In sum, self-efficacy has been linked to greater career exploration
and job search intentions, more engagement in the career planning process, and lower levels of
career indecision.
Self-efficacy sources and interventions. Researchers have also examined the learning experi-
ences that are assumed to give rise to self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Thompson & Dahling
(2012) found that the primary sources of efficacy information (e.g., performance accomplishments,
vicarious learning) were, as hypothesized, related to college students’ self-efficacy and outcome
expectations across Holland themes. They also found that the paths from gender and perceived
social status to self-efficacy and outcome expectations were partly mediated by the sources of
self-efficacy in certain Holland themes, suggesting that gender and socioeconomic privilege pre-
dict exposure to learning experiences that, in turn, help to shape career-relevant self-efficacy and
outcome expectations.
Tokar et al. (2007) found that the paths from gender to the sources of efficacy information
were partly mediated by conformance with gender role norms in particular Holland’s themes
associated with gender-typed choices. These results suggest the interplay among person variables
and socially mediated learning experiences that help to perpetuate the status quo. For example,
women tend to receive more exposure to learning experiences that promote efficacy at social
than at realistic activities, along with encouragement to conform to gender role norms. Career-
relevant choices may thus become constrained in part through an environmental shaping process
that fosters internalized beliefs about personal efficacy and the range of acceptable occupational
options for one’s sex.
Several researchers have designed and tested educational or counseling methods to help pro-
mote beneficial efficacy beliefs. For example, Betz & Borgen (2009) compared the effects of two
online career exploration systems with undecided college freshmen. Both systems were associated
with significant increases in career decision self-efficacy and decidedness about college majors.
Positive changes in career decision self-efficacy and related outcomes (e.g., vocational identity)
have been reported with other online (Tirpak & Schlosser 2013) and career course (Scott & Ciani
2008) interventions as well. (For a review of research on interventions and experimental studies
relative to change in self-efficacy and other social cognitive constructs, see Sheu & Lent 2015.)
Work Volition
Work volition has been defined as “the perceived capacity to make occupational choices despite
constraints” (e.g., Jadidian & Duffy 2012, p. 155). Volition is a key notion in the psychology
of working perspective (Blustein 2006, Blustein et al. 2008). Blustein (2006) argued that, given
their life circumstances (e.g., income, race/ethnicity, availability of resources), many people are
not sufficiently privileged to make unencumbered work choices or to work in their ideal careers.
Thus, extant theories that emphasize agency may be less relevant to those with less privilege. Two
specific hypotheses about the role of work volition in the occupational choice and attainment
process have been suggested: (a) A negative relationship exists between work volition and the
number of constraints that people encounter, and (b) the relationship between agentic-like career
variables (e.g., self-efficacy beliefs, goals) and choices is moderated by work volition (e.g., the path
from self-efficacy to goals in the SCCT choice model should be weaker for those with less volition
and stronger for those with more volition) (Duffy et al. 2014b).

Relative to the first hypothesis, statistically significant but small negative relations of work
volition to career barrier perceptions have been found in student (Duffy et al. 2012b) and adult
(Duffy et al. 2012c) samples, suggesting that those with a greater sense of control over their work
lives tend to perceive somewhat fewer hurdles to their occupational progress. In a study testing the
second hypothesis among undergraduate science majors, Duffy et al. (2014b) found that volition
did not moderate self-efficacy/outcome expectation or self-efficacy/goal relations in the SCCT
choice model. That is, these relations were comparable regardless of level of volition. Other
research has found work volition to relate strongly to career decision self-efficacy (Duffy et al.
2012b, Jadidian & Duffy 2012) and moderately to academic satisfaction ( Jadidian & Duffy 2012)
in college students. Duffy and colleagues found that, controlling for self-efficacy, work volition
explained unique variance in the job satisfaction of employed workers (Duffy et al. 2013c) and the
life satisfaction of unemployed workers (Duffy et al. 2013b).
On balance, this modest set of findings suggests that perceptions of control over one’s work life
may contribute directly to broad affective outcomes but do not moderate paths in the SCCT choice
model. Although further construct validity data are needed, the work volition measure appears to
represent a generalized sense of efficacy, or agency, in the career domain (Brown 2015). Like career
adaptability, work volition may translate or “carry” the effects of personality traits into the career
domain. Because predictors tend to produce larger relations with criterion variables to the extent
that they are well matched with them in terms of content, context, and level of specificity (Ajzen
1988), work volition may improve upon nondomain-specific personality indices in predicting
career-relevant outcomes. By the same token, work volition may account for unique variance
beyond more task-specific measures of self-efficacy in predicting overall job and life satisfaction
because it may better match the latter at a global (versus specific) level of measurement.
EQUITY: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT

A commitment to social justice is a central value of vocational psychology science and practice
(Blustein 2006). In this section, we review research on the career development of persons who are
underrepresented in particular career paths (women and most racial/ethnic minority groups in
STEM fields) or who often face substantial hurdles in educational and occupational settings (e.g.,
underserved youth, survivors of domestic violence).
Educational and Occupational Attainment and Success of Underserved Youth

Much has been written about how experiences associated with poverty (e.g., lack of financial re-
sources, under-resourced schools, lack of role models, neighborhood violence) can severely limit
the types of occupations available to and attainable by poor youth as they grow into adulthood
(e.g., Arbona 2000). Youth growing up under lower socioeconomic conditions tend to have dis-
proportionately lower rates of occupational attainment compared to more affluent youth (Natl.
Cent. Educ. Stat. 2002). Poor youth of color may experience additional sociopolitical barriers to
occupational attainment (e.g., structural racism and discrimination), compounding the long-term
effects of poverty on occupational attainment (e.g., Blustein 2006). In this section, we review
vocational psychology research on the linkage of poverty and race to occupational attainment.
Socioeconomic status and occupational attainment. Research has explored the direct and
mediated effects of SES (usually indexed by some combination of parents’ education, occupation,
and income) on educational or occupational aspirations or expectations. Aspirations reflect the
amount of education or level of occupational attainment adolescents hope to attain (under ideal
conditions). Expectations involve the educational or occupational level that adolescents expect
548 Brown · Lent

to achieve (under current conditions). Although aspirations are frequently not realized, higher
aspirations are associated with more favorable occupational outcomes, perhaps in part because
low aspirations prompt avoidance of educational experiences that can facilitate higher attainment
(Howard et al. 2011). Both aspirations and expectations have been found to predict educational
and occupational attainment (with educational attainment also predicting later occupational
attainment; Lee & Rojewski 2009, Mello 2008). It is, therefore, important to understand the
pathways through which they operate.
Several studies (Ali & Sanders 2009, Garriott et al. 2013, Navarro et al. 2007) used SCCT
(Lent et al. 1994) to explore the relations of social class to educational or occupational expecta-
tions. Both Garriott et al. (2013) and Navarro et al. (2007) found that the relation of social class
to math/science goals (expectations, or intentions, to take math courses) was completely medi-
ated by past performance in math classes, which in turn had positive relations with mathematics
self-efficacy. Math self-efficacy then predicted intentions. Garriott et al. (2013) found that math
outcome expectations also predicted course-taking intentions among prospective first-generation
college students, but Navarro et al. (2007) did not find such a link in a sample of Mexican American
eighth-graders. Ali & Sanders (2009) found that SES and vocational/educational self-efficacy and
outcome expectations each contributed to the prediction of occupational aspirations among rural
adolescents, but they did not test for possible mediation effects.
Two other studies employing adolescent samples reported that academic ability and achieve-
ment mediated the relationship between SES and occupational expectations. Cochrane et al.
(2011) found that the SES–occupational expectation relationship was mediated by scores on a
test of vocational aptitude, whereas Schmitt-Wilson (2013) found that the relationship was medi-
ated by academic achievement and by parent and student educational expectations. That is, SES
positively predicted academic achievement and parents’ educational expectations, parental expec-
tations positively predicted student educational expectations, and student educational achievement
and expectations positively predicted students’ occupational expectations.
The importance of parental educational expectations and adolescent school achievement was
underscored in a 34-year longitudinal analysis of data collected from a British cohort born in
1970 (Ashby & Schoon 2010). Parent educational expectations when participants were 16 years
old related to concurrent levels of students’ career aspirations and school achievement. Career
aspirations and school achievement then predicted occupational status when participants were
34 years old. SES accounted for about 25% of the variance in parent educational expectations. In
a longitudinal analysis of a national database in the United States, Ling & O’Brien (2013) found
that, among non-college-bound youth, high school educational attainment predicted adult job
attainment, stability, and quality. Number of jobs held and hours worked in high school were the
only other variables that predicted adult job stability and quality.
Some scholars have criticized traditional SES indicators based on parents’ education, occu-
pation, and income as failing to capture the psychological aspects of social class (e.g., Diemer
& Ali 2009, Fouad & Brown 2000). They have argued that measures of perceived social status
will account for more variance in vocational and educational outcomes than do traditional indi-
cators. Several studies have recently explored perceived social status in the vocational psychology
literature. Matheny & McWhirter (2013) reported that the relation of SES to career decision-
making self-efficacy beliefs was mediated by perceived social status. Thompson & Dahling (2012)
found that the relation of perceived social status to self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations
was mediated by learning experiences. These results suggest that adolescents with lower social
class backgrounds may perceive that they have lower social status (e.g., less power to affect their
lives and less access to resources), which is associated with differential access to learning experiences
that underlie decisional and occupationally relevant self-efficacy and outcome expectations.

In sum, findings suggest that social class may limit the occupational attainment of children and
adolescents growing up in low-SES families in part via several intervening variables, including
(a) parental educational expectations; (b) adolescent educational expectations, school achievement,
and aptitude; and (c) academic and subject matter self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations.
Each of these variables suggests avenues for intervention to promote the educational and occu-
pational expectations (and later attainment) of poor youth. Adolescent perceptions of power and
resources (perceived social status) may also mediate between social class and these other outcomes
and, thus, provide another potential target for intervention.
Race/ethnicity and occupational attainment. The educational and occupational aspirations

and expectations of youth of color have also received concerted research attention in recent years,
with a particular focus on variables that may mediate or mitigate the effects of racism and dis-
crimination on educational and occupational behavior. Three major types of variables, sometimes
studied in the context of SCCT, tended to receive the bulk of the attention: (a) supports and
barriers; (b) racial/ethnic identity and social political development (SPD); and (c) acculturation,
enculturation, and related variables (e.g., Anglo versus Mexican orientation).
Three studies (Ali & Menke 2014, Irvin et al. 2012, McWhirter et al. 2007) explored racial/
ethnic differences in perceptions of barriers between students of color and white high school
students. All three reported that Latino high school students reported more barriers to pursuing
postsecondary education than did white students, especially barriers related to parent support
and expectations, separation from family, and inadequate preparation (McWhirter et al. 2007).
Irvin et al. (2012) found that African American high school students perceived more barriers than
did their white, but not Latino, counterparts. Despite the imbalance in barrier perceptions, the
Latino students in Ali & Menke’s (2014) study reported stronger vocational/educational self-
efficacy beliefs and similar levels of aspirations relative to white students, suggesting that they may
not have perceived the barriers to be insurmountable. Ojeda & Flores (2008), however, found
that the perception of barriers accounted for unique variance (beyond gender, generational level,
and parents’ education) in Mexican American high school students’ aspirations. Thompson (2013)
reported that perceptions of ethnic discrimination and classicism correlated negatively with coping
efficacy beliefs in a sample of Native American college students.
In terms of supports, Gibbons & Borders (2010) reported that both parent and teacher supports
related positively to the college-going self-efficacy beliefs of seventh-graders who were prospective
first-generation college students. Perry et al. (2010) found that both teacher and parent career
support related to the amount of career planning engaged in by urban (mostly minority) high school
students. Career planning, in turn, related positively to school grades via school engagement. In
other words, students who engaged in career planning were also more engaged in school and
displayed higher levels of school achievement, a set of findings that has important implications for
the role of career planning activities in school achievement.
Ethnic identity, defined as identification with one’s ethnic group and participation in shared
cultural activities (Phinney 1996), has long been assumed to play a positive role in the career
development of racial/ethnic group members. Although Byars-Winston et al. (2010) found that
ethnic identity did not contribute to the prediction of STEM goals of college students of color,
Tovar-Murray et al. (2012) found that ethnic identity interacted with experiences of racism-related
stress to predict levels of career aspirations in African American college students. Specifically,
racism-related stress was associated positively with career aspirations when ethnic identity was
well defined, but negatively among those with a less integrated identity, suggesting that ethnic
identity may serve as a protective factor in the context of racism-related stress.
550 Brown · Lent

Another potential protective factor studied during the review period was SPD, which is seen
as an internal resource that marginalized individuals can draw on to cope with inequality. SPD is
hypothesized to consist of (a) motivation to change sociopolitical inequalities and (b) development
of a positive self-definition in the context of oppression (Diemer et al. 2009). Research with
poor youth of color has demonstrated that SPD accounts for unique variance in occupational
expectations (Diemer & Hsieh 2008) and that SPD, along with academic achievement in the tenth
grade, predicted adult (age 26) occupational attainment via tenth- and twelfth-grade occupational
expectations (Diemer 2009). These findings suggest that interventions that aid children of color
in developing positive ethnic identities and SPD beliefs may promote persistence in the face of
adversity, yielding (along with school achievement) more positive vocational expectations and, in
the case of SPD, increased occupational attainment.
The roles of acculturation (orientation to host culture) and enculturation (orientation to home
culture) have also been studied relative to the career development of people of color in the United
States. Several studies found that orientation to Anglo culture (acculturation), though not to
Mexican culture (enculturation), accounted for unique variance in the educational goals (Flores
et al. 2006) and educational aspirations and expectations (Flores et al. 2008) of Mexican American
high school students. Both types of cultural orientation explained variance in college self-efficacy,
though only Anglo orientation contributed to prediction of outcome expectations in Mexican
American college students (Ojeda et al. 2011). Chen & Fouad (2013) found that Asian American
college students’ intentions to pursue advanced degrees were predicted by enculturation (but not
acculturation), academic achievement, and the value of honoring one’s parents. Thus, the role of
acculturation and enculturation may depend on the racial/ethnic group and the criterion of interest.
Other studies have suggested that achievement motivation (Caldwell & Obasi 2010), autono-
mous motivation (i.e., engaging in school work out of a desire to learn rather than due to co-
ercion; Close & Solberg 2008), and autonomy support (i.e., receiving support from teachers for
autonomously motivated school behaviors; Kenny et al. 2010) may also relate to the academic
performance and self-efficacy beliefs of urban high school students and college students of color.
Caldwell & Obasi (2010) reported that achievement motivation and valuing of education added
uniquely to the prediction of academic performance in African American college students. Close
& Solberg (2008) found that autonomous motivation was linked to grades obtained by urban
freshmen and sophomore high school students via academic self-efficacy beliefs, whereas Kenny
et al. (2010) found that autonomy support from teachers was related to levels of achievement
motivation displayed by urban high school students.
In sum, findings suggest that students of color often perceive more barriers to educational
and occupational attainment than do white students. On the other hand, several types of factors,
such as parent and teacher supports, robust ethnic and sociopolitical identities, and autonomous
and achievement motivation, may potentially facilitate career development in the face of barriers.
Acculturation to mainstream culture may also aid some groups (e.g., Mexican Americans) but not
others (e.g., Asian Americans) in fostering positive educational expectations. Each of these potential
protective factors is theoretically amenable to intervention and deserves further research attention.
STEM Entry and Retention of Women and People of Color

Federal policy makers have raised repeated concerns about the supply of workers available to enter
STEM careers. The problem is perceived as a general supply-demand issue as well as a social
justice matter in that women and particular racial/ethnic groups continue to be underrepresented
in STEM educational and occupational paths. Vocational psychology research has, therefore,

focused on factors that predict initial interest and choice, as well as persistence, in STEM pursuits,
particularly over the lengthy period of educational preparation prior to career entry wherein earlier
math and science choices and performances tend to grant (or inhibit) access to later STEM options.
Person and contextual variables. Several investigators have focused on person-level variables,
such as interests, that may promote or deter selection of STEM options. Iskander et al. (2013)
examined archival data from the American College Testing (ACT) program over a 30-year period
on expressed interest patterns, ACT scores, gender, and intended college majors or careers.
Results confirmed a significant discrepancy in the number of male and female students expressing
interest in engineering majors and careers. However, they also found that female students with
interests in STEM fields tend to be well prepared academically, based on their ACT scores.
This is a positive sign given that sustained STEM pursuits require ability and skill development
beyond interests alone.
Moakler & Kim (2014), employing a large national database on college freshmen, reported that
students were more likely to choose STEM majors if they had strong confidence in mathematics (a
variable conceptually related to self-efficacy) and parents in STEM occupations. It is possible that
these parents provided their children with greater access to efficacy-relevant learning experiences
(e.g., role modeling, performance opportunities) related to STEM careers. Reflecting prior trends,
female students were less likely than males to choose STEM majors. Of course, once women select
STEM majors, they often must still contend with a host of contextual challenges to their persis-
tence. Morganson et al. (2010) studied the use of social coping (e.g., actively seeking social support)
among women and men in computer science classes. Women reported engaging in more social
coping, which differentially predicted their college major commitment and persistence intentions.
Other research has focused on contextual variables that may enable or discourage interest and
involvement in children’s STEM pursuits. Ing (2014), using data from a large-scale longitudinal
study, examined the role of parent behavior relative to STEM outcomes in middle school and
high school students. She reported that, controlling for gender, ethnicity, and parent educational
level, parents’ intrinsically oriented motivational practices, such as conveying the importance of
math along with high expectations regarding effort and success, encouraged growth in students’
math performance and STEM persistence between the seventh and twelfth grades. In addition,
levels of seventh-grade achievement and growth over time in math achievement forecast STEM
persistence. Fouad et al. (2010) developed a multidimensional measure of contextual supports and
barriers to pursuing STEM educational and career options. They did not find significant gender
differences in overall supports or barriers, though interesting variations were observed in support
and barrier perceptions as a function of educational level (e.g., students generally perceived more
math-related barriers and fewer supports with increasing education).
Model tests. The above studies focused mainly on individual person or contextual variables, often
without explicit theoretical grounding. By contrast, the studies in this subsection involved fuller
sets of person and contextual variables, typically using SCCT as a conceptual base. For example,
Garriott et al. (2014) examined the role of parent support (e.g., encouragement to do well in
math) along with math/science-based sources of efficacy information as precursors of math/science
interests in a sample of high school students of color. They found that parent support was positively
related to most of the efficacy sources and that two of the sources, performance accomplishments
and vicarious learning, uniquely predicted math/science self-efficacy, which was, in turn, linked
to interest.
Several other studies have tested SCCT’s models with the addition of a variety of variables
designed to tap gender-related, cultural, or socioeconomic aspects of the STEM environment.
552 Brown · Lent

Deemer et al. (2014) conceptualized stereotype threat as a type of contextual barrier to women’s
pursuit of STEM options. They studied a sample of female undergraduate students in science
classes and found that stereotype threat (operationalized as perceptions of gender stereotypes
regarding science activities) was negatively related to science-related choice goals via self-efficacy
beliefs and intentions to pursue undergraduate research activities. That is, stereotype threat was
associated with diminished self-efficacy beliefs and research intentions, which in turn predicted
weaker science goals.
Flores et al. (2010) examined the relations of contextual-cultural variables (e.g., Anglo
and Mexican orientation), self-efficacy, and interests to the career choice goals of Mexican
American college students regarding Holland’s realistic (e.g., mechanical-technical) and inves-
tigative (e.g., scientific-mathematic) themes. Byars-Winston et al. (2010) assessed the context in
terms of perceptions of campus climate and included two cultural orientation variables (ethnic
identity and other-group orientation) in a sample of racial-ethnic minority science and engineer-
ing majors. Garriott et al. (2013) studied the linkage of social class to math/science goal inten-
tions in a racially diverse, mostly female sample of high school students participating in a college
preparation program. Navarro et al. (2007) included social class, along with Anglo and Mexican
cultural orientation, in their model predicting the math/science goals of Mexican American mid-
dle school students. Garriott et al. (2013) and Navarro et al. (2007) also included other measures
of social supports and/or barriers as well as efficacy-based learning sources (e.g., performance
accomplishments).
Despite the number and variety of their predictors, and the complexity of their findings, at
least two general patterns are evident regarding the above studies. First, the authors generally
reported indications of good overall model-data fit of the SCCT variations, though not all so-
cial cognitive variables explained unique predictive variance in every study. Second, contextual
and culture-specific variables generally related to math/science interests and choices indirectly,
through social cognitive person variables, supporting the view that the latter are informed by and
help to mediate the effects of more distal person, contextual-cultural, and learning experience
variables. Although it is important to devote more research to the presumed temporal ordering
of these variables, a few longitudinal studies have yielded theory-consistent findings in samples of
students underrepresented in STEM fields (e.g., Lent et al. 2010, Navarro et al. 2014).
Researchers have also examined whether SCCT’s interest and choice models fit the data dif-
ferentially as a function of gender or race/ethnicity. Findings generally suggest invariance of fit
across gender and race/ethnicity in samples of undergraduate STEM majors (Flores et al. 2014;
Lent et al. 2011a, 2013) and in middle school students (Navarro et al. 2007). The cultural gen-
erality of the models has also been examined in international samples, with findings showing
adequate model-data fit across gender in South Korean (Kim & Seo 2014) and Spanish (Inda
et al. 2013) engineering students. In a study of female engineers in the United States, Singh et al.
(2013) found that training and development experiences at work (conceptualized as contextual
supports that inform self-efficacy and outcome expectations) predicted job attitudes both directly
and through outcome expectations. Job attitudes (satisfaction and organizational commitment),
in turn, strongly predicted turnover intentions (i.e., more favorable attitudes were associated with
less turnover intent).
Collectively, the findings in this section point to the importance of environmentally mediated
experiences that can be marshaled via interventions to attract more women and students of color
to, and to encourage their persistence within, STEM fields. In addition, these findings point
to the mechanisms through which contextual supports, barriers, and learning experiences may
operate relative to STEM participation (i.e., by promoting favorable self-efficacy and outcome
expectations).

Promoting Work Participation of Survivors of Domestic Violence

and Criminal Offenders
The vocational needs of two groups that have previously been understudied by vocational
researchers—survivors of domestic violence and criminal offenders—received long overdue at-
tention during the period this review examined.
Domestic abuse can have a significant impact on the economic well-being of survivors and
their families via lost hours and wages, underemployment and unemployment, and hindered ed-
ucational attainment (Chronister et al. 2012). Several qualitative studies documented the barriers
to occupational and educational attainment experienced by domestic abuse survivors (e.g., Brown
et al. 2009, Chronister et al. 2008), and one intervention showed promising results. The Advanc-
ing Career Counseling and Employment Support for Survivors of Domestic Violence (ACCESS)
program has been found to relate to gains in career search self-efficacy and critical consciousness
beliefs (Chronister & McWhirter 2006, Davidson et al. 2012) and reductions in career barriers,
anxiety, and depression (Davidson et al. 2012). Chronister & McWhirter (2006) suggested that it is
essential to help domestic abuse survivors develop a critical understanding of the power dynamics
in their lives and a renewed sense of control and responsibility (critical consciousness), although
the hypothesis has not received direct testing in career intervention research. Chronister et al.
(2012) described how the ACCESS program was incorporated into a comprehensive, collabora-
tive partnership with a domestic abuse service agency. Further research is needed to assess the
employment outcomes of ACCESS participants.
A number of factors have been identified that place criminal offenders at high risk for recidi-
vism, including employment problems associated with a lack of job skills, experience, and networks;
limited education; substance abuse history; and employers’ attitudes and willingness to hire ex-
offenders (Brown 2011). One study (Fitzgerald et al. 2013) tested the effectiveness of a modified
version of ACCESS (Chronister & McWhirter 2006) versus a treatment-as-usual control with a
sample of male inmates who were within six months of release. Compared with controls, ACCESS
participants showed greater increases in career search self-efficacy and perceived problem-solving
01 abilities at post-treatment and one-month follow-up. No follow-up data on recidivism or em-
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Isabel Lores
ployment rates were reported. Varghese (2013) proposed an integrative framework for directing
interventions aimed at job attainment and stability needs. Research is needed on the efficacy of
this model in promoting occupational outcomes as well as reducing recidivism.
WELL-BEING: POSITIVE ADAPTATION TO SCHOOL

AND WORK SETTINGS
Vocational psychology has long been concerned with factors that promote well-being in educa-
tional and work settings. In this section, we focus on two different perspectives on well-being.
The hedonic perspective defines well-being in terms of the presence of positive affect (e.g., hap-
piness, satisfaction) and the absence of negative affect (e.g., sadness). The eudaimonic perspective
equates well-being with living a good or meaningful life. Our discussion of the hedonic perspec-
tive focuses on educational and job satisfaction as well as the relationships of academic and job
satisfaction to life satisfaction. Our coverage of the eudaimonic perspective includes research on
selected variables that may index personal growth, meaning, and healthy engagement in work.
Hedonic Well-Being: Job, Academic, and Life Satisfaction

A number of studies over the period of this review were derived from Lent & Brown’s (2006,
2008) SCCT model of work satisfaction, an adaptation of SCCT aimed at explaining the ways in
554 Brown · Lent

which social, cognitive, trait, and behavioral variables contribute to affective outcomes in academic
and work settings. Tests of the full model have generally reported that it provided good overall
fit to the data, but support for specific paths in the model has been less consistent. For example,
self-efficacy has been found to relate to academic satisfaction directly in some studies (e.g., Flores
et al. 2014, Lent et al. 2012) or only indirectly via goal progress in others (e.g., Hui et al. 2013,
Singley et al. 2010). Environmental supports (e.g., perceived organizational support, goal or role
support; Buyukgoze-Kavas et al. 2014, Lent et al. 2011b, Singley et al. 2010) and positive affectivity
(Buyukgoze-Kavas et al. 2014, Lent et al. 2011b) have also been linked consistently to academic
or job satisfaction in model tests.
Findings have largely supported the hypothesized relationship between academic/work and life
satisfaction (Ojeda et al. 2011, Lent et al. 2011b, Sheu et al. 2014). However, one longitudinal study
found that the relationship between domain and life satisfaction was largely unidirectional (from
academic to life satisfaction; Lent et al. 2012) rather than reciprocal, as had been hypothesized.
These findings suggest that domain satisfaction may be an important source of life satisfaction for
many persons and that interventions designed to promote satisfaction in career-relevant domains
may have valuable implications for overall life satisfaction.
As noted previously, work volition has also received attention in the job and life satisfaction
literatures. This research has shown that work volition may have a direct relation to the job
satisfaction of employed workers (Duffy et al. 2013c) and the life satisfaction of unemployed
workers (Duffy et al. 2013b). The research has also identified some interesting moderator effects
of volition. Duffy et al. (2013b) found that perceived organizational support was more strongly
related to job satisfaction among those with lower versus higher volition. Dik & Hansen (2011)
also demonstrated that a volition-like variable (perceived control over the work environment)
moderated the relationship between P-E congruence and job satisfaction. However, the moderator
relationship was opposite to what might be expected on the basis of the psychology of working
framework—the relationship was stronger under conditions of low perceived work control than
under conditions of high control. Thus, P-E fit may be more, rather than less, important to the
job satisfaction of those with low work volition, who may perceive that they have fewer alternative
work options if things do not work out as planned.
Eudaimonic Well-Being: Calling, Meaning, Commitment, and Engagement

A number of studies have also focused on elements of eudaimonic well-being in the context of
educational and vocational functioning. Such research emphasizes school and work as contexts for
actualizing personal potential or growth, seeking life meaning and purpose, or doing good (e.g.,
helping others) versus feeling good. In many cases, research has focused on eudaimonic variables
in relation to hedonic or other, more distal outcomes rather than as ends in themselves.
Calling: Definitions and measures. A good deal of recent eudaimonic research in vocational
psychology has involved the concept of vocational calling, which Dik & Duffy (2009) defined as
“ . . . a transcendent summons, experienced as originating beyond the self, to approach a particular
life role in a manner oriented toward demonstrating or deriving a sense of purpose or meaningfulness
and that holds other-oriented values and goals as primary sources of motivation” (p. 427; italics added
for emphasis). This is a complex definition that contains three relatively distinct elements: (a) the
sense that one has been compelled by external forces, such as a supreme being, to select a particular
life role (usually considered as a vocational path); (b) the expectation that one derives purpose or
meaning from engaging in this role; and (c) the added requirement that the role involves service
to others. Although the prior literature contains numerous variables that resemble the latter two

elements (e.g., altruistic work values), the transcendent summons element is, arguably, the core
and most distinctive aspect of calling.
Dik et al. (2012) developed a set of measures, the Calling and Vocation Questionnaire (CVQ)
and the Brief Calling Scale (BCS), to capture the three elements of calling, both in terms of whether
they are experienced as present in people’s work lives and whether they are actively seeking them.
These investigators reported that the transcendent summons, purposeful work, and prosocial
orientation features constitute relatively distinct calling dimensions. The CVQ combines them
into two 12-item scales reflecting, respectively, the presence of, and search for, calling. The BCS
consists of two 2-item scales that measure an overall sense of calling that one has either attained
(e.g., “I have a calling to a particular kind of work”) or that one is seeking (e.g., “I am trying
to figure out my calling in my career”). The presence and search scales of the CVQ and BCS
scales were shown to interrelate strongly and to correlate, to varying degrees, with a variety of
vocational (e.g., work hope) and nonvocational (e.g., meaning in life) criteria. Their relations to
life satisfaction were nonsignificant.
Duffy et al. (2012a) also assessed calling in terms of the degree to which persons are “living
a calling” in their current work (i.e., the work one does is congruent with one’s calling). This
measure produced stronger relations with job satisfaction than did the BCS presence of calling
scale. Alternative calling measures have been developed that tap aspects of calling that are similar
to (e.g., transcendent guiding force, service to others) and somewhat distinct from (e.g., sense
of P-E fit, passion for one’s work) those on the Dik-Duffy measures (Hagmaier & Abele 2012,
Praskova et al. 2014). These measures offer a variety of ways to index calling, and their additional
elements raise interesting questions about the essence of the construct. In particular, must one
perceive a transcendent summons to have a calling? Or is the essential feature engagement in
work for which one feels a strong sense of passion, P-E fit, or fulfillment of altruistic values?
If the latter, then what is gained by defining calling in terms of externally impelled work
behavior?
Calling in relation to work meaning, commitment, and other outcomes. Most of the recent
research on calling in vocational psychology has involved the measures developed by Dik, Duffy,
and their colleagues. In a review, Duffy & Dik (2013) concluded that calling, particularly when
measured as lived calling, has been related to greater levels of career maturity, career commitment,
work meaning, and job satisfaction as well as to more general outcomes (e.g., global life meaning,
life satisfaction). Beyond establishing bivariate relations, researchers have been exploring medi-
ators and moderators of calling-criterion relations. For example, Duffy et al. (2011a) found that
the relation of calling to academic satisfaction in college students was mediated by career decision
self-efficacy and work hope. Other cross-sectional studies have found that the relation of calling
to job satisfaction in employed adults was mediated by career commitment (Duffy et al. 2011b)
or by both career commitment and work meaning (Duffy et al. 2012a, 2013a). A few studies have
examined calling-criterion relations longitudinally and have found that the predominant temporal
paths tend to be from other variables—such as life meaning (Duffy et al. 2011c) or career commit-
ment, work meaning, and job satisfaction (Duffy et al. 2014a)—to calling, though some reciprocal
paths from calling to criterion variables (e.g., work and life meaning) have also been found (Duffy
et al. 2014a,c).
Work meaning as an alternative to calling. The above findings suggest that the perception of
calling is associated with a greater sense of work meaning and career commitment and that these
latter variables may either be antecedents of calling or may mediate the relation of calling to more
distal (e.g., job satisfaction) outcomes. It may, therefore, be useful to study such variables in their
556 Brown · Lent

own right. Steger et al. (2012) developed a measure of work meaning (the Work and Meaning
Inventory) that taps the extent to which one sees one’s work as meaningful (e.g., offering the
experience self-understanding, purpose, personal growth, and benefit to the greater good). This
measure correlated strongly with measures of calling as well as with career commitment and job
satisfaction. It was also found to predict job and life satisfaction and work absences beyond the
effects of calling.
Steger et al. (2013) found that work meaning correlated strongly with work engagement and
modestly with (trait) positive affect. They also reported that work meaning moderated the relation
of positive affect to work engagement: When work was perceived as less meaningful, workers with
high versus low levels of positive affect were more strongly engaged in their work. However, when
work was seen as more meaningful, those with high and low levels of positive affect did not differ in
work engagement. Thus, work meaning may compensate for low positive affect as a source of work
engagement. Adopting a psychology of working perspective, Allan et al. (2014) found a small but
significant relation between work meaning and social class, with persons of higher (versus lower)
social class reporting more work meaning. This link was mediated by work volition and financial
constraints, suggesting that the control and resources conferred by social class may differentially
promote (or constrain) the pursuit of personally meaningful work.
In sum, research on eudaimonic variables has been a fertile topic of career inquiry in recent
years. Findings suggest that the relation of calling to criterion variables, such as job satisfaction and
work engagement, is typically mediated by (and, in some instances, may be a reflection of ) work
meaning and other variables (e.g., career commitment). Whether calling offers unique predictive
value, therefore, remains an open empirical question. The response to this question may require
further conceptual clarity regarding what calling is (and is not) and added research on the in-
cremental validity of transcendent summons relative to work meaning, passion, virtuous motives,
P-E fit perceptions, and other variables that are sometimes considered a part of (and sometimes
apart from) calling. The issue is not whether some persons view their work in spiritual terms but
rather how this perception translates into work-relevant outcomes.
Work meaning represents another potentially fruitful path for research on eudaimonic well-
being, either in combination with or apart from calling. Yet it, too, may raise some interesting, and
potentially controversial, issues. For example, to what extent is work meaning (and other aspects
of eudaimonic well-being, such as personal growth and self-actualization) enabled by social class,
volition, or work conditions that favor self-expression or goal choice? Must meaningful work
serve the greater good? Or does it simply lie in the eye of the beholder; for example, can the
self-absorbed and antisocial also find meaning in their work? In other words, what does it mean
to have work meaning, and who gets to have it?
SUMMARY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

We reviewed the recent literature in vocational psychology (2007–2014) within the three over-
arching themes of agency, equity, and well-being. Although these themes do not reflect the only
ways in which the literature could have been organized, they do convey a sense of the field’s re-
newed vitality and commitment to promoting optimal educational and work functioning, even in
the midst of uncertain or unfavorable environmental conditions. We think the findings reviewed
herein offer several useful insights and directions for future research, both within and across the
three themes.
The research reviewed under the agency and equity themes highlights the critical role of ed-
ucational achievement in the occupational expectations and attainments of college-bound and
non-college-bound youth. Educational achievement was also shown to be a critical mediating

pathway that explained, in part, the positive link between SES and occupational expectations
and attainment. The research also suggests some pathways that might promote greater academic
achievement of poor youth and youth of color, or that may operate in concert with academic per-
formance to promote increased levels of occupational expectations and attainment. For instance,
research on the SCCT academic performance model suggests two variables that are important
to academic achievement—academic ability/past performance and self-efficacy beliefs. Academic
ability was found to relate to performance both directly and indirectly by informing students’
academic self-efficacy beliefs. Thus, efforts to promote self-efficacy beliefs that are optimistic yet
commensurate with students’ academic talents may foster increased academic performance.
Other variables were also found to be predictive of academic achievement either directly or
via indirect pathways. These included parental expectations and support. Parent educational ex-
pectations were important predictors of student occupational expectations and, in one case, actual
occupational attainment via their relations to students’ educational expectations and achievement.
Parent support seemed to operate primarily as a source of efficacy information. SPD also showed
promise as a means of promoting occupational expectations and attainments of poor youth of color
via its relation to educational expectations and school performance. One intriguing finding sug-
gested that engaging in career development activities may have a positive bearing on educational
performance via greater school engagement. Many of these predictors of academic achievement
are, theoretically, relatively malleable. The next step is to translate them into empirically testable
interventions.
The findings regarding STEM interests and choice intentions also point to the role of con-
textual factors and learning experiences (e.g., achievement opportunities, models) that can inform
the design of interventions to attract more women and students of color to, and encourage their
persistence within, STEM fields. These findings also suggest the mechanisms through which such
interventions may operate. For example, providing social encouragement, exposure to relevant
models, assistance in interpreting performance feedback, or barrier-coping methods (e.g., social
coping) may promote STEM participation and persistence, at least in part by nurturing favorable
self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations.
Research on educational and job satisfaction in the vocational psychology literature did not
appear to substantially advance what was already known about the relations of perceived organiza-
tional support, goal progress, and positive affectivity to the experience of satisfaction in academic
and work settings. However, research using the SCCT satisfaction model suggested how these
variables may operate together and, in particular, how goal progress might be facilitated (e.g.,
via promotion of task and goal-related self-efficacy beliefs and supports). Such variables provide
potential targets for efforts to enhance academic and work satisfaction. An understudied part of
the SCCT model is the hypothesis that work-role salience, or importance, may moderate the
relation of job and life satisfaction. That is, the path from job to life satisfaction may be stronger
to the extent that work is perceived as a central feature of one’s personal identity. This suggests
that efforts to promote job satisfaction may carry over into enhanced life satisfaction for persons
with greater psychological investment in the work role, provided of course that future research
supports the moderator hypothesis.
Several new or updated vocational constructs, including career adaptability, work volition,
and calling, have potentially important implications for efforts to facilitate agency, equity, and
well-being. These constructs have generated impressive amounts of research over a short period,
no doubt aided by the availability of new measures for assessing them. At this stage, research on
these constructs might benefit from more precise theoretical overlays. For example, adaptability
research might be aided by the provision of more specific hypotheses about the criterion variables
with which adaptability should (and should not) relate and about the mediators and moderators of
558 Brown · Lent

these relations. For example, do more highly career-adaptable persons engage in more activities
designed to prepare for untoward work events, and are they more resilient in bouncing back
when such events occur? Likewise, research on calling may profit from theoretical efforts to
differentiate it from conceptually similar or overlapping constructs. For example, is transcendent
summons necessary to define calling? If so, what is its unique predictive value (and for whom)?
If not, then how does calling differ from such concepts as work meaning, work passion, altruistic
value fulfillment, or perceptions of ideal P-E fit?
Research on work volition to this point calls into question the assumption that extant voca-
tional theories may be less relevant to, or predictive of, important career outcomes among poor
and marginalized persons (Blustein 2006). The psychology of working perspective suggests that
persons who feel little control over their work lives (e.g., due to prevailing social and economic
conditions) will consequently feel constrained in the occupational choice process. However, the
limited research that is available suggests that persons who feel little volition in their work lives
may benefit more than those with greater volition from efforts to help them find good-fitting work
environments. This may be due, in part, to the limited alternative job options perceived by those
with low volition. Thus, contrary to assumptions, the well-being of those with low rather than
high volition might be particularly aided by efforts to promote P-E fit and access to supportive
work organizations. It is possible that, paradoxically, such activities may be less useful for people
who perceive greater flexibility to change jobs when things do not work out as expected.
Though still in its early stages, vocational psychology research on survivors of domestic vio-
lence and criminal offenders has yielded some promising findings and warrants additional research
attention. Such research may profitably focus on whether theory-based interventions are associ-
ated with improved employment rates and other indices of employment success (job satisfaction,
life satisfaction, income, and tenure). Follow-up recidivism rates also need to be examined in
intervention research with offenders/ex-offenders.
In sum, this has been a ripe period in the history of vocational psychology, with research moving
beyond the field’s traditional comfort zone and, increasingly, into topics that reflect wider concerns
with social justice, diversity, and promotion of optimal functioning under nonoptimal conditions.
Further inquiry on these topics will be aided by conceptual statements that more clearly specify the
nature and function of particular constructs. In addition, the translation of findings into practice
will require more design and testing of theory-based interventions. Newer approaches, such as
career construction theory and the psychology of working perspective, offer added possibilities for
studying variables and conditions that both allow and constrain the exercise of agency in school
and work contexts. We anticipate that agency, equity, and well-being will receive sustained inquiry
from vocational researchers in the years ahead, and that this inquiry will ultimately equip career
practitioners with new and refined tools for serving a wider range of students and clients.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The authors are not aware of any affiliations, memberships, funding, or financial holdings that
might be perceived as affecting the objectivity of this review.
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PS67-FrontMatter ARI 23 November 2015 19:6
Annual Review of
Contents
Psychology
Volume 67, 2016

In Pursuit of Three Theories: Authoritarianism, Relative Deprivation,
and Intergroup Contact
Thomas F. Pettigrew p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 1
Drug Addiction: Updating Actions to Habits to Compulsions
Ten Years On
Barry J. Everitt and Trevor W. Robbins p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p23
Remembering Preservation in Hippocampal Amnesia
Ian A. Clark and Eleanor A. Maguire p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p51

Beyond Words: How Humans Communicate Through Sound
Nina Kraus and Jessica Slater p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p83
Episodic Memory and Beyond: The Hippocampus and Neocortex
in Transformation
Morris Moscovitch, Roberto Cabeza, Gordon Winocur, and Lynn Nadel p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 105
Counterfactual Thought
Ruth M.J. Byrne p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 135
Psychological Reasoning in Infancy
Renée Baillargeon, Rose M. Scott, and Lin Bian p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 159
Socioemotional, Personality, and Biological Development: Illustrations
from a Multilevel Developmental Psychopathology Perspective
on Child Maltreatment
Dante Cicchetti p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 187
The Affective Neuroscience of Aging
Mara Mather p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 213
Gene × Environment Determinants of Stress- and Anxiety-Related
Disorders
Sumeet Sharma, Abigail Powers, Bekh Bradley, and Kerry J. Ressler p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 239
Automaticity: Componential, Causal, and Mechanistic Explanations
Agnes Moors p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 263
Psychology of Habit
Wendy Wood and Dennis Rünger p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 289
Media Effects: Theory and Research
Patti M. Valkenburg, Jochen Peter, and Joseph B. Walther p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 315
vi
PS67-FrontMatter ARI 23 November 2015 19:6
Changing Norms to Change Behavior

Dale T. Miller and Deborah A. Prentice p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 339
Consistency Versus Licensing Effects of Past Moral Behavior
Elizabeth Mullen and Benoı̂t Monin p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 363
Justice and Negotiation
Daniel Druckman and Lynn M. Wagner p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 387
Stereotype Threat
Steven J. Spencer, Christine Logel, and Paul G. Davies p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 415
Toward a Social Psychology of Race and Race Relations for the
Twenty-First Century
Jennifer A. Richeson and Samuel R. Sommers p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 439
Theodiversity
Ara Norenzayan p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 465
Materialistic Values and Goals
Tim Kasser p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 489
Beyond Work-Life “Integration”
Joan C. Williams, Jennifer L. Berdahl, and Joseph A. Vandello p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 515
Vocational Psychology: Agency, Equity, and Well-Being
Steven D. Brown and Robert W. Lent p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 541
Causal Inference in Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
(DOHaD) Research
Suzanne H. Gage, Marcus R. Munafò, and George Davey Smith p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 567
From Brain Maps to Cognitive Ontologies: Informatics and the Search
for Mental Structure
Russell A. Poldrack and Tal Yarkoni p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 587
Modular Brain Networks
Olaf Sporns and Richard F. Betzel p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 613
Sequential Sampling Models in Cognitive Neuroscience: Advantages,
Applications, and Extensions
B.U. Forstmann, R. Ratcliff, and E.-J. Wagenmakers p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 641
Evidence-Based Practice: The Psychology of EBP Implementation
Denise M. Rousseau and Brian C. Gunia p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 667
Scientific Misconduct
Charles Gross p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 693
The Council of Psychological Advisers
Cass R. Sunstein p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 713
Contents vii
Annotations
Vocational Psychology: Agency, Equity, and Well-Being

Brown, Steven D.; Lent, Robert W.
01 Isabel Lores Page 14

12/3/2018 11:00
Bienestar y adaptación positiva

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PS67CH22-Brown ARI 13 November 2015 20:22

Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2016. 67:541–65 Keywords

WELL-BEING: POSITIVE ADAPTATION TO SCHOOL

542 Brown · Lent

AGENCY: MECHANISMS OF SELF-DIRECTION

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 543

544 Brown · Lent

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 545

546 Brown · Lent

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 547

EQUITY: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Educational and Occupational Attainment and Success of Underserved Youth

548 Brown · Lent

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 549

Race/ethnicity and occupational attainment. The educational and occupational aspirations

550 Brown · Lent

STEM Entry and Retention of Women and People of Color

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 551

552 Brown · Lent

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 553

Promoting Work Participation of Survivors of Domestic Violence

WELL-BEING: POSITIVE ADAPTATION TO SCHOOL

Hedonic Well-Being: Job, Academic, and Life Satisfaction

554 Brown · Lent

Eudaimonic Well-Being: Calling, Meaning, Commitment, and Engagement

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 555

556 Brown · Lent

SUMMARY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 557

558 Brown · Lent

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 559

560 Brown · Lent

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 561

562 Brown · Lent

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 563

564 Brown · Lent

www.annualreviews.org • Vocational Psychology 565

Volume 67, 2016

Ian A. Clark and Eleanor A. Maguire p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p51

Changing Norms to Change Behavior

Vocational Psychology: Agency, Equity, and Well-Being

01 Isabel Lores Page 14

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