The present study examined the relation of career calling to life satisfaction among a diverse sample of 553 working adults, with a specific focus on the distinction between perceiving a calling (sensing a calling to a career) and living a calling (actualizing one's calling in one's current career). As hypothesized, the relation of perceiving a…

Using data provided by the Self-Directed Search (SDS) on a sample of 1,519 participants comprising 3 subsamples containing high school students, university students, and working adults, the authors examine the structure of vocational interests in Romania. Three competing structural models of vocational interests (Holland's circumplex model and…

Research has suggested there is an important distinction between perceiving a calling and living a calling. With a sample of 542 working adults, the current study examined (a) the degree to which perceiving a calling and living a calling differed according to yearly income and level of educational attainment and (b) potential mediators that may…

This study examined Chinese university students' conceptualization of the meaning of work. One hundred and ninety students (93 male, 97 female) from Beijing, China, participated in the study. Prototype research methodology (J. Li, 2001) was used to explore the meaning of work and the associations among the identified meanings. Cluster analysis was…

The Career Decision-Making Profiles questionnaire (CDMP; Gati, Landman, Davidovitch, Asulin-Peretz, & Gadassi, 2010) uses a new model for characterizing the way individuals make decisions based on the simultaneous use of 11 dimensions. The present study investigated which pole of each dimension is more adaptive. Using the data of 383 young…

Scholarly interest in callings is growing, but researchers' understanding of how and when callings relate to career outcomes is incomplete. The present study investigated the possibility that the relationship of calling to work engagement is mediated by work meaningfulness, occupational identity, and occupational self-efficacy--and that this…

Armstrong and Vogel (2009) proposed that the differences between self-efficacy and interests are a matter of measurement artifact rather than substance. In tests of this hypothesis, they conceived of self-efficacy and interest as observed indicators of larger RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) types…

This study explored the work experiences of individuals who have started transitioning from their biological sex to a different gender expression through 18 interviews of transgender-identified individuals. Thirteen of the participants identified as male-to-female transsexuals, 2 participants identified as female-to-male transsexuals, 2…

The current article replies to comments made by Lent, Sheu, and Brown (2010) and Lubinski (2010) regarding the study "Interpreting the Interest-Efficacy Association From a RIASEC Perspective" (Armstrong & Vogel, 2009). The comments made by Lent et al. and Lubinski highlight a number of important theoretical and methodological issues, including the…

This qualitative study examined the perceived career options of 10 White adolescent young women who experienced social class privilege in their families of origin. The model of contextual privilege and career selection for adolescent White women emerged from the data, and it describes how social class privilege, gender, achievement expectations,…

Invited commentary on Armstrong and Vogel's (2009) article on interpreting the interest-efficacy association stimulated an appraisal from a broader perspective. Like empirical research, scale development, and theorizing emanating from social cognitive career theory (SCCT), their conclusion about the importance of assessing both interests and…

This study determined how youth (ages 17-21) and their parents jointly constructed and acted on goals and strategies pertinent to the transition to adulthood. Twenty parent-youth dyads were followed over an 8-month period using the qualitative action-project method. Data included their joint conversations, video recall of internal processes,…

The present study examined the relation between individual cognitive structure and several key career decision variables. Specifically, in a sample of college students enrolled in a career development class, the usage of the RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) circumplex (adherence) was examined as…

Used 2 (gender) x 2 (favorable versus unfavorable occupations) x 3 (positive versus negative versus mixed valence information) between-subjects factorial design to explore disliked occupations, negative occupational information, and vocational differentiation. Found negative information linked to higher vocational differentiation when subjects…

Theoretically analyzes career decisions under uncertainty, when career decision maker ranks options rather than choosing best one. Found that how decisions were framed affected ranking of options and quality of decisions. Analysis showed that the rank order of options in optimal ranking always coincided with the rank order of the options by their…