A new psychodynamic conceptualization of career adjustment: Validation of the DCS (Dynamic Career Scale) and experimental evaluation of the PICS (Psychodynamic Intervention for Career Strategies) program

Overall, this work contributes to broad a clinical psychological perspective in work and career fields by means of the operationalization of psychodynamic constructs pertaining to unconscious processes affecting career, the development of a psychological intervention model for favoring career adjustment across different stages of professional growth and, ultimately, the evaluation of its potential effectiveness. Specifically, Chapter 1 provides a psychodynamic conceptualization of career adjustment grounded on Klein’s object relations theory and a rigorous empirical evaluation of its potential validity. For this purpose, the Dynamic Career Scale (DCS) was developed for the measurement of four main constructs (mania, envy, manic reparation, and true reparation), as different modes of functioning in facing career failures and challenges which can provide new insights about unconscious processes potentially affecting career decisions, strategies and adjustment. Two studies were conducted on adult working participants (N = 260, Study 1) and newly-qualified psychologists (N=196, Study 2), which contributed to the validation of the DCS dimensions. Chapter 2 aims at proposing the PICS (Psychodynamic Intervention for Career Strategies) program, consisting in a five-session group career counseling intervention, inspired by the Kleinian psychoanalytic theory, in order to contribute to the advancement of studies in psychodynamic-oriented career counselling practices. In the light of a critical analysis of current research in career and work psychology, this conceptualization could provide new insights about not only vocational choices but more widely unconscious processes potentially affecting career decisions, strategies and adjustment. In detail, the manuscripts deals with the conceptual model of the intervention and its technical aspects, including career counseling objectives, the structure of the intervention, and the description of career sessions to clearly present the main methodological aspects involved. As well, further information about the counselor’s function, strategies and procedures, and monitoring and assessment is provided. Ultimately, potentialities and limitations of this group career intervention are discussed. Chapter 3 aims at extending the research into the effectiveness of psychodynamic-oriented career interventions for improving career adjustment. This was by testing the short and long term effects of the PICS (Psychodynamic Intervention for Career Strategies) program through a RCT conducted on a sample of psychology professionals entering the labor market. It was hypothesized that after completing the program – at posttest and at 6-month follow-up - participants would have higher scores on measures of career adaptability (assumed as primary outcome) and other secondary career-related outcomes, such as search for work self-efficacy, work self-efficacy, career adjustment dynamics, affective investment at work, job search intensity, job search effort, career satisfaction, job relations satisfaction, job relations satisfaction and job self-promotion.