POCP lecture notes

Lecture 1
Theory 1: Planned happenstance
 Happenstance: much of what happens to our career is based on chance events
 Planned:
o Being able to seize chance events
o Being able to generate chance events
 Rephrasing indecisiveness as open-mindedness
o Undecided:
 Seen as weak
 Suggests you should make a decision now
o Open-minded:
 Sensible given the uncertainty of the future
 Exploring for the sake of exploring (not for the sake of decision making)
 Characterized by curiosity
o Determined
 Knowing clearly & in concrete terms what you want
 Insufficiently open to alternatives
 Planned Happenstance theory – 2 concepts
o Generating chance events: exploration generates chance opportunities
o Seizing chance events: skills enable people to seize opportunities – 5 skills
 Curiosity
 Persistence
 Flexibility
 Risk-taking
 Optimism
 4 steps (not sure for what?)
1. Understand how planned happenstance was part of your past
2. Transform curiosity into opportunities for learning (be open-minded)
3. Produce desirable chance events
4. Overcome barriers to actions
Theory 2: Ambivalence
 Feelings of ambivalence: conflicting feelings or cognitions about the same subject.
 Intracomponent ambivalence: when 2 feelings or cognitions are in conflict with each other
 Intercomponent ambivalence: when feelings are in conflict with cognitions
 Having positive and negative feelings or cognitions simultaneously can be uncomfortable,
particularly when:
o Both components are simultaneously accessible/active
o You have a high preference for consistency
o A decision needs to be made shortly
 Coping with internal conflict (felt ambivalence)
o Emotion focused coping
 Procrastination
 Denial of responsibility (‘It’s all a matter of chance anyway’)
o Problem focused coping
 Effortful coping: facing problems head-on by processing all relevant
information

,  Less effortful coping:
 Biased (selective) information processing
 Heuristic information processing

Theory 3: Social cognitive model
 Adaptive career behaviors: actions that people employ to help their own education & career
o Proactive: in anticipation of upcoming career choice moment
o Reactive: in response to an unexpected event
 Career stages:
o Exploration stage: exploring possible career paths, making career-relevant decisions
o Establishment stage: e.g. managing work-family life conflicts
o Maintenance stage: e.g. building job niche, specialist role
o Disengagement stage: preparing for retirement
 Self-efficacy: personal beliefs about your own ability to perform adaptive career behvaiors
o Task-specific self-efficacy (‘I am able to complete this bachelor’)
o Coping self-efficacy (‘I am able to cope with obstacles I may encounter’)
o Process self-efficacy (‘I am able to manage my career’)
 Outcome expectations: beliefs about he consequences of performing certain behaviors
o Outcomes here should be smaller things (not ‘a good job’) – because it’s all about the
journey (planned happenstance theory)
 You can influence self-efficacy and outcome expectations




Lecture 2
Theory 1: Model of layered purpose & theory 2: PiL diagram
(These are both also in the summary of the literature, look at them there)
 Vocation (from ‘vocare’): calling

The truth about what drives us
- Tasks that require more than mere production do not enhance with more reward
- Work becomes more productive when experienced as serving a higher purpose
- Contributing to the greater whole makes people happier
Self-determination theory
Autonomous motive: purpose driven (Approach) – from
elation/joy to depressed mood