Improving Careers Science: Ten Recommendations to Enhance the Credibility of Vocational Behavior Research

With the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, careers science has “come of age.” From time-to-time, as a science matures, it is important to take stock of its approach to answering empirical questions—to ask whether or not “how we know what we know” is well founded and would lead one to conclude a firm grounding in rigorous, robust, and reproducible science. Over the past ten years, the field of psychology as a whole has experienced what some have called a “credibility revolution.” That is, there is an increased focus on the way in which psychological research is conceptualized, conducted, reported, and applied. In the present article, I lay the groundwork for extending this credibility revolution to careers science. To inspire such a revolution, I provide ten recommendations, which serve as a means toward increasing the credibility of careers science and vocational behavior research. These ten recommendations reflect features of the research process which, if adopted universally, would bolster the credibility of careers science. The aim of this work is to offer guidance for moving the next 50 years of vocational behavior research forward in a way that inspires greater confidence in what our science offers, both theoretically and practically, to careers researchers and practitioners, and to the impact that this field has on society as a whole.

An Introduction to Cognitive Information Processing Theory, Research, and Practice

The primary purpose of this paper is to introduce essential elements of cognitive information processing (CIP) theory, research, and practice as they existed at the time of this writing. The introduction that follows describes the nature of career choices and career interventions, and the integration of theory, research, and practice. After the introduction, the paper continues with three main sections that include CIP theory related to vocational behavior, research related to vocational behavior and career intervention, and CIP theory related to career interventions. The first main section describes CIP theory, including the evolution of CIP theory, the nature of career problems, theoretical assumptions, the pyramid of information processing domains, the CASVE Cycle, and the use of the pyramid and CASVE cycle. The second main section describes CIP theory-based research in examining vocational behavior and establishing evidence-based practice for CIP theory-based career interventions. The third main section describes CIP theory related to career intervention practice, including theoretical assumptions, readiness for career decision making, readiness for career intervention, the differentiated service delivery model, and critical ingredients of career interventions. The paper concludes with regularly updated sources of information on CIP theory.