Hello everyone.
In this article, I will introduce a paper I read for the English seminar and share my thoughts on it.
Paper Title: Linking Career Exploration, Self-Reflection, CareerCalling, Career Adaptability and Subjective Well-Being: A Self-Regulation Theory Perspective
Authors: Jingliang Ran, Huiyue Liu, Yue Yuan, Xuan Yu & Tiantian Dong
Pages: 2805-2817
Year of Publication: 2023
Journal: Psychology Research and Behavior Management
Research Background and Objectives
In the modern era, students are required to have the ability to adapt to a rapidly changing job market.
This paper presents an approach to addressing the following two key challenges in career support for students:
1. Fostering Career Adaptability: The ability to flexibly respond to changes and build one’s own career.
2. Fostering Subjective Well-Being: A comprehensive sense of happiness regarding one’s life as a whole, indicating life satisfaction.
The objective of this study is to analyze how five key variables related to career development—”career exploration,” “self-reflection,” “career calling,” “career adaptability,” and “subjective well-being”—are interrelated using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Theoretical Foundation: Integration of Self-Determination Theory and Career Development Theory
Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is adopted as a powerful theoretical framework for understanding the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional mechanisms in an individual’s career development. In this paper, the respective career development variables are positioned within the SDT framework as follows:
1. Self-Observation: The process of collecting and recognizing information about one’s own behavior, its outcomes, and the situation.
→ Career Exploration: The act of gathering information about one’s interests and abilities, as well as the external occupational environment.
2. Self-Judgment: The process of evaluating the obtained information based on standards, goals, and comparisons with others.
→ Self-Reflection: Cognitive activities that evaluate past experiences and current situations to find meaning.
3. Self-Reaction: Emotional and behavioral responses, motivation, etc., that arise based on the results of self-judgment.
→ Career Adaptability and Subjective Well-Being: Internal experiences and adaptive behaviors that occur as a result of self-observation and self-judgment.
4. Career Calling: Finding deep meaning and value in one’s work or life and having strong internal motivation.
→ The reflective processes of career exploration and self-reflection serve as “antecedents” that enhance the sense of career calling, which in turn may indirectly influence career adaptability and subjective well-being.
Key Hypotheses
Based on the theoretical framework above, the following hypotheses were established:
1. Career exploration positively predicts career adaptability because it enhances career curiosity and interest and clarifies goals. Additionally, self-reflection positively predicts career adaptability because it strengthens self-awareness and promotes self-regulation by evaluating one’s own thoughts and actions.
2. The process of career exploration brings a sense of achievement and satisfaction, enhancing subjective well-being. Self-reflection increases the sense of meaning in life, leading to a higher level of subjective well-being.
3. Career exploration and self-reflection indirectly influence career adaptability and subjective well-being by enhancing career calling.
Research Methodology
This paper adopted a quantitative approach combining data collection at three points over three weeks with structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine complex causal relationships.
The subjects were 1,077 university students in China. Response data were collected at three points over three weeks, and the analysis confirmed that the impact of bias was not significant.
Existing scales (Chinese versions) whose reliability and validity were confirmed in previous studies were used to measure each construct (exploration, reflection, calling, adaptability, well-being), and the alpha coefficients indicating the reliability of each scale met high standards (0.88–0.97).
Research Results and Discussion: Exploration and Reflection Lead to Outcomes Through Career Calling
The goodness-of-fit indices for the proposed five-factor model were χ2/Df = 2.92, CFI = 0.95,
TLI = 0.94, and RMSEA = 0.04, which met the criteria for a good fit. Based on this, the verification of the established hypotheses proceeded.
1. Career Exploration and Self-Reflection → Career Adaptability
2. Career Exploration and Self-Reflection → Subjective Well-Being
In the above, there were significant direct effects. This indicates that the act of exploring one’s characteristics and the external environment, as well as the act of evaluating one’s experiences and finding meaning, directly contribute to students’ career adaptability and life satisfaction.
3. Career Exploration and Self-Reflection → Career Calling
Career Calling → Career Adaptability and Subjective Well-Being
These results demonstrate the clear existence of a mediating process in which career exploration and self-reflection enhance career calling, which in turn improves career adaptability and subjective well-being. In other words, it is argued here that students acquiring strong internal motivation—career calling—through reflective processes is the key to adapting to a rapidly changing society and living a satisfying life.
Research Limitations and Future Prospects
While this paper provided important insights into students’ career construction, the authors note that there are several limitations.
・Exclusion of external environmental factors: This study focused on the internal processes of individual students and did not consider the influence of external environmental factors such as social support or parental career behavior.
・Influence of cultural background: The subjects were Chinese university students, and the context of Chinese culture, which has long valued the spirit of introspection and reflection, may have influenced the results.
Therefore, it is suggested that future research should incorporate external factors such as social support into the model and conduct cross-cultural comparative studies targeting students in different cultural spheres.
The following are my thoughts after reading this paper.
I read this paper because I had questions in my own research about how career-related behaviors, such as career exploration and reflection, and internal qualities or states, such as career adaptability and well-being, might mutually influence each other.
From my perspective, I had been focusing on how internal resources like career adaptability lead to specific behaviors like exploration and reflection. Therefore, being able to confirm the direction of influence where “behavior enhances career adaptability and well-being” in this study provided me with very good insights. I think it is possible to consider future scenarios where these factors mutually influence each other or promote career self-regulation like a cycle within the learner.
Also, the method of integrating career-related items with “Self-Determination Theory” and capturing career development through behavioral, cognitive, and emotional mechanisms was helpful. In particular, the result that career development is mediated by the strong internal motivation of “career calling” was interesting.
On the other hand, I had questions about the evaluation method. Regarding the integration of Self-Determination Theory and career development, career adaptability is positioned as an “emotional and behavioral self-reaction.” However, this is a psychological resource related to a career, and I feel there is room for debate as to whether it can be considered an actual behavior when integrated with Self-Determination Theory.
Moving forward, using the results of this study as a reference, I would like to think about research designs that incorporate behavioral data and qualitative approaches to determine what kind of interventions and learning environment designs can support learners’ career development.
Author: Kohei Ozaki
