Research on the Strategy of Improving College Students’ Career Adaptability in Application-oriented Colleges and Universities

Application-oriented colleges and universities have become the main force in the popularization of higher education in China, and their school running orientation is to cultivate application-oriented talents to adapt to social development. Career adaptability is a hot topic in the field of career psychology abroad. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out the education of improving college students’ career adaptability in Application-oriented Colleges and universities, summarize college students’ career adaptability, analyze the necessity of improving college students’ career adaptability at this stage, and put forward the strategies of improving college students’ career adaptability in Application-oriented Colleges and universities, so as to enable students to achieve real job matching in the process of employment.

Cross-Cultural Career Psychology from a Critical Psychology Perspective

In this chapter, cross-cultural career psychology’s assumptions, methodologies, terminologies, and constructs are examined from a critical psychology perspective. The purpose of this chapter is to utilise critical psychology to challenge cross-cultural career psychology’s implicit and explicit assumptions and its approaches and methodologies to conducting research. Some of cross-cultural career psychology’s terminologies and constructs are examined through a critical psychology lens. Cross-cultural career psychology is also contrasted with cultural psychology. Four critiques of critical psychology toward cross-cultural career psychology are addressed: the serviceable other, epistemology, universality, and individualism/collectivism. Each critique focuses on problems that are found in cross-cultural career psychology. Topics current to cross-cultural career psychology research are reflected on, such as work/family, immigrants, refugees, and their intersections. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future directions of the field.

Applying career human agency theory to practice

This article elaborates the emerging career human agency theory and its applicability to career psychology practice. Using Bandura’s human agency theory as a foundation, career human agency theory is a meta-theory that integrates key tenets from major theories in vocational and career psychology. It presents an endeavour of theoretical integration to conceive and understand career issues and vocational behaviours. The article provides a brief overview of career human agency theory, indicating its postmodern constructivist and constructionist worldview in conceptualizing life-career phenomena, while integrating life and career experiences into a dynamic and coherent whole. To this end, the four pillar theoretical principles and constructs of career human agency theory are reviewed, namely, career intentionality, career forethought, career self-reactiveness, and career self-reflectiveness. Furthermore, the article considers and explains the usefulness of the four constructs as they are applied to professional helping and self-helping processes that improve and enhance the vocational wellness of individuals, connecting career human agency theory to practice. In doing so, the article concludes with a case study illustration to demonstrate how these career human agency theory constructs and their related tenets and ideas can inform and guide career development practice and career counselling interventions, utilizing and strengthening agentic functioning in individuals’ worklife wellbeing.

Careerography: Application of Psychobiography to Career Development

The present article introduces the topic and research area of careerography, an adaptation of psychobiography to the field of career psychology. A brief historical overview of psychobiography is provided, and the reciprocal value of linking psychobiographical research methods to theory development in career psychology is emphasized. Best practices in psychobiography are highlighted, and a six-step sequential guide to conducting careerography is presented inclusive of (1) selecting one’s historical subject, (2) ethical considerations and bracketing bias, (3) identifying initial research questions, (4) choosing anchoring career theories, (5) engaging the iterative research process, and (6) writing the careerography report.

Careerography: Introducing a New Tool for Research, Theory Development, Practice, and Training in Career Psychology

This article introduces the special section on careerography, which is positioned as a valuable tool for research, theory development, training, and practice in career psychology. Anchored in the long-established field and methodology of psychobiography, careerography profiles the lives of historically significant individuals throughout history through the lens of established theories of career development. A brief overview of psychobiography is presented and the three articles comprising this special section are outlined.