Negative career thoughts

A third aim of the research was to conceptualize negative career thoughts as a theoretical construct and this has been addressed in the literature review in Chapter 4. Career thoughts arise out of a combination of factors such as beliefs, assumptions, feelings, expectations, and knowledge regarding the world of work and one’s place in it. Dysfunctional thoughts have been associated with negative outcomes. The dysfunctional thoughts specific to career exploration also have been found to have negative outcomes as evidenced by increased decision-making confusion, greater anxiety around committing to a career, and increased conflict with significant others. Addressing and reducing negative career thinking is a vital part of successfully navigating career exploration.

Negative career thoughts were measured by the CTI in a group of non-student adults prior to a career exploration program. These descriptive data show scores that are somewhat higher than those provided in the normative studies for adults in the CTI manual (Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, & Saunders, 1996), where for all of CTI total, decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict mean T-scores were 50 with a standard deviation of 10. This is to be expected given that the majority of adults in the normative sample were employed or not seeking employment (87%) in contrast to the 0% employed in the current sample. They also differed from the present sample in that most (78%) had completed some post-secondary education.

Sampson et al. (1996) also provide data for a client group not used in the normative study “in order to provide a point of reference on the differences between the normative respondents and actual clients…” (p. 45). These clients were seeking career services, were generally of college age, and most had completed some post-secondary education. The means and standard deviations for these clients receiving services (n = 376) are as follows: CTI total mean = 60, sd = 7 to 8; decision-making conflict mean = 60, sd = 10; commitment anxiety mean = 62, sd = 7 to 8; and external conflict mean = 58; sd = 10. (Note: Because scores in the manual are reported as raw scores, translation into standard T-scores is approximate.) Despite the differences in age and education, the data in this study coincide more closely with the sample receiving career services as reported in the CTI manual.

In other studies where the CTI has been used as a measure, the participants have generally been university students not in a career-exploration program. The descriptive data produced in this study add to the limited information available for a non-student adult population and emphasize the need for norms that are appropriate for this population.

Negative career thoughts were also measured at the conclusion of a career exploration program. As before, meaningful comparisons with other research are difficult since pre-post measures have been carried out with samples of university students not demographically similar to the current sample of adults. In addition, the data here show that the internal consistency reliability of the CTI maintains high values both in its initial administration and also upon conclusion of the career exploration program. This adds to the evidence that the CTI is a useful instrument in evaluating an individual’s level of negative career thinking.

Negative career thoughts change was observed in this study. The effect sizes were large for total CTI as well as decision-making confusion and commitment anxiety scores, and medium for external conflict. Since no control group was included, causation is not an appropriate interpretation with a correlational research design, but speculation is allowed. It is possible that the process of career exploration in which clients systematically investigate themselves and the labour market, make decisions regarding options, and formulate a plan of action, helps to reduce negative career thinking. This finding adds to the literature regarding the possible effectiveness of career exploration programs and their justification for use in an adult unemployed population.

While there was a general trend for those with less education to have more negative career thoughts, level of education was not significantly associated with negative career thoughts measured pre- or post-program. This suggests that more education does not necessarily give individuals a significant edge in dealing with the stresses of career exploration. In addition, there were no significant correlations of education with negative career thoughts change.

One would expect those who are already further down the education path to feel they have more choices. This was not seen to be the case in the current study.

Sampson et al. (1996) suggested that further research using the CTI needed to investigate the relationship between age and dysfunctional career thinking (p. 63). At this point a decade

and a half later, research about this relationship is still limited. This research provides one more data set regarding the change in negative career thinking across the lifespan. In the current study, age was significantly and inversely associated with level of expressed commitment anxiety before the program began (small to medium effect size). The older the individual, the less likely he or she is to experience anxiety around commitment to a plan of action. Commitment anxiety reflects the difficulty committing to a particular career choice among several or many alternatives, and the resulting tension regarding the outcome of decision-making (Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, & Saunders, 1996). At an intuitive level the results obtained in this study make sense – younger people with less work history will likely experience higher anxiety about which direction to take, especially if they do not have the requisite skills and knowledge about self and the labour market. Strauser, Lustig, and Ciftci (2008) found that commitment anxiety seemed, paradoxically, to be directly associated with one’s level of motivation for personal growth, openness to new experiences, and maximizing potential. It may be that younger individuals with less life experience are more motivated and therefore more likely to admit to more commitment anxiety. Perhaps individuals with more life experience have more similar contexts with which to compare and are better able to put this particular emotion into perspective than a younger person.

Age was inversely but non-significantly correlated with all aspects of negative career thinking change, but significantly so for decision-making confusion and commitment anxiety, indicating that younger individuals acknowledged more of a positive shift than older participants. So even when the sample was restricted in age by removing the younger (and presumably more indefinite with respect to career choice) individuals, age was still a factor associated with negative career thoughts change. Part of this result may be attributed to regression to the mean. On the other hand, younger individuals who may not know themselves as well may benefit more from learning both about themselves and the choices within the world of work. Older individuals with more life experiences do not appear to experience the same decrease in negative career thoughts.

8.2.4 Integration of cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career