دهه بعدی در روانشناسی حرفه ای : ماموریت و هدف

Each author in this special issue, entitled “Vocational Psychology in the Next Decade” has provided an insightful and invigorating analysis of the discipline’s current strengths and weaknesses as well as a sagacious appraisal of its future opportunities and threats. Although written from different perspectives, the articles converge in viewing vocational psychology’s mission as advancing scientific knowledge about vocational behavior and furnishing information that can be used to shape career interventions and inform public policy about work. In the diverse analyses of the weaknesses and threats faced by vocational psychology, one common problem stood out. Many of the authors concluded that the science of vocational psychology, lacking a disciplinary home, has become insular. It has become an island because researchers have circumscribed the topics they study and restricted the theoretical models they use. Actually, it might be more precise to liken vocational psychology to two islands. Inhabitants of the two islands share an interest in vocational behavior but at different points in the life cycle. Inhabitants on the island off the coast of counseling psychology investigate educational and vocational choice while inhabitants on the island off the coast of industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology investigate work adjustment. Rarely do members of the two cultures visit the other island or even write to eachother. In addition to not communicating with each other, island inhabitants do not communicate frequently with their respective mainlands. They seem to be on the periphery of their home specialties. This appears to be particularly frustrating to researchers who study vocational choice because, having once been at the center of counseling psychology, they nowfind themselves on the margins. As their numbers dwindle, concern grows that the discipline could lose its distinct identity or even disappear. While there seemed to be some consensus in identifying the problem, the authors differed in suggesting how it could be resolved. Some suggested that vocational psychologists move to a new home. One proposal suggested that vocational choice researchers join with I/O researchers interested in organizational careers and become more active in the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, leaving the Counseling Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association (APA) as the home base for career counselors. Another suggestion would have vocational psychologists join with developmental psychologists, which would better situate them to contribute significantly to life-span psychology. Although not mentioned, another possibility would be to unify all those interested in vocational behavior research into a new APA division or an academic society. It is doubtful that any of these resolutions will be enacted, so it is critical that vocational psychologists who remain on their islands do a better job of integrating their work with mainstream psychology. The authors identified prevailing topics in motivational, personality, and social psychology that should be incorporated into studies of vocational behavior and fed back to the field at large. While linking to mainstream psychology, it is also import to extend research boundaries beyond their current concentration on college students and individuals who work in management and the professions. It would be useful as well to attend more to vocational behavior at the beginning and end of the life course by studying children and older adults. Incorporating the study of vocational behavior into prevailing currents in developmental, I/O, and mainstream psychology will build bridges that invite collaboration and entice graduate students. It has become increasingly difficult for vocational psychologists to identify and recruit Investigative scientists from among the Social and Enterprising practitioners attracted to counseling and I/O psychology. Taking all this into consideration, there seems to be an emerging vision of and commitment to vocational psychology’s mission for the next decade.

To achieve the objectives outlined herein, vocational psychologists, through their professional organizations and collaborative networks, must construct and implement a strategic plan. The Journal of Vocational Behavior editorial board will play its part by forming a strategic plan that enables the Journal to prompt and ease movement toward these goals. As an interdisciplinary journal, Journal of Vocational Behavior can do more to forge linkages with colleagues in other specialties who produce research on vocational behavior and to initiate relationships with researchers in the mainstream of psychology. Of course, the Journal of Vocational Behavior will continue to play a key role in facilitating and publishing research on vocational behavior and in encouraging the work of graduate students and new professionals. It will redouble its efforts to prompt studies that use diverse methodologies and widen the research lens. The Journal of Vocational Behavior will actively seek articles that report innovative theorizing about and research into the changing world of work and its social context. And finally, it will initiate strategies to bridge the divide between scientists and practitioners as well as improve curricula and training in vocational psychology. The authors of this 30th anniversary issue have already begun to identify, either implicitly or explicitly, strategies that the Journal of Vocational Behavior can use to realize these objectives, including publishing review articles that provide research updates written by colleagues in other specialties and special issues that address topics such as technology and careers, training vocational psychologists, models for research dissemination and application, and research on occupational and lifestyle information. In the end, however, it is you, the reader, who will shape the next decade of vocational psychology. We look forward to your future contributions.