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Career Counseling and Possible Selves: A Case Study
Author(s) -
Hill Alison L.,
Spokane Arnold R.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
the career development quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.846
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 2161-0045
pISSN - 0889-4019
DOI - 10.1002/j.2161-0045.1995.tb00862.x
Subject(s) - psychology , anxiety , intervention (counseling) , session (web analytics) , checklist , psychological intervention , career counseling , clinical psychology , applied psychology , psychiatry , world wide web , computer science , cognitive psychology
Process‐oriented case analyses, which are the natural next step in understanding career interventions, are beginning to reveal subtle process changes across sessions. In this case, a 37‐year‐old physical therapist, who expressed dissatisfaction with her current position, participated in 8 sessions of individual career counseling with an experienced doctoral‐level career psychologist. The Possible Selves Questionnaire (PSQ; Markus, 1987), the Symptom 90‐R Checklist (Derogatis, 1983), and the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, 1987) were administered at pretesting, after 4 sessions, and at posttesting. Four client‐ and 2 counselor‐process measures were also administered following each session. Results revealed expected changes in traditional outcome measures, and an increase followed by a decrease in future possible selves. Anxiety and vocational information seeking followed a sine‐shaped pattern, and sleep disturbance increased at midcounseling and posttesting. Session depth and smoothness were highest when anxiety and information seeking were lowest. These findings, which coincide with other case study results, were integrated using an activation theory model of career intervention in which moderate anxiety serves as a motivator for constructive behavior change.