Development and validation of the Dynamic Career Scale (DCS): a psychodynamic conceptualization of career adjustment

The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a new instrument, the Dynamic Career Scale (DCS), which measures four different modes of functioning in facing career failures and challenges (mania, envy, manic reparation, and true reparation) according to Klein’s object relations theory. Two studies were respectively conducted on adult working participants (N = 260, Study 1) and newly-qualified psychologists enrolled in a career research program (N = 196, Study 2), to assess reliability, factorial validity and convergent evidence of validity. Overall, findings suggest adequate psychometric properties of the DCS and its potential usefulness to grasp unconscious processes affecting career adjustment.