Career Construction Theory: Life Portraits of Attachment, Adaptability, and Identity

Career Construction Theory explains the interpretive and interpersonal processes by which individuals organize their behavioral dispositions, impose direction on their vocational behavior, and make meaning of their vocational development. This book presents an updated exposition of the theory and demonstrates its application in a longitudinal study of four men’s careers from the ninth grade through retirement. The first chapter presents a definitive explication of the theory’s premises and propositions. The remaining chapters report the results of the multiple-case study concentrated on how the men constructed their careers. Each of four chapters presents a case study that examines a participant’s self-making and career constructing from the perspective of Career Construction Theory. The report of each case study begins with a “life portrait” that recounts a character sketch of a participant, drawing upon his own statements for illustration whenever appropriate. Following the life portrait, the second half of the chapter considers the participant’s career construction in terms of his experience as a self-organizing social actor, self-regulating motivated agent, and self-conceiving autobiographical actor. The final chapter takes a collective perspective on the four cases to revisit the premises and propositions in Career Construction Theory. The four case studies are considered as a group to compare and further understand the processes and patterns that each participant’s career trajectory represents.