Themes of Adult Career Development

Recommended Prerequisites

Social Sciences, Developmental Psychology,  Research Methodology.

Teaching Methods

1. Oral presentation

2.Text discussion

3. Analysis and discussion of case studies and of applied exercises
4 .Participation (optional) in a pilot study through circumscribed tasks of data analysis and statistical treatments appropriate to the goals and hypotheses.

Learning Outcomes

1.Identify theoretical perspectives on the definition of and methods of psychology and other social sciences applied to the study of vocational behavior and career

2. Define and relate theoretical concepts and operational constructs in work / career domain, within a given perspective, with goals and results of research and intervention.

3. Ability to exercise active and critical review and knowledge appraisal obtained from didactic texts on topics relating to different metaphors of career, and to communicate orally and in writing the current knowledge encompassed under the main conceptual categories

4. Developing Skills for literature search and survey, in particular, analyzing current research on specific topics, and review and discuss methods and findings on the subject.

5. Opportunity to develop skills in empirical research through circumscribed tasks of data collection, data analysis, processing, and discussion, if students adhere to a pilot study.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Historical and sociopsychological views on the career concept.

2. Integrative Perspectives on the study of career: Systems view; Development in Context; complexity and chaotic processes; Learning.

3 .Understanding career ( through different metaphors (Inkson, 2007): a. Person-Environment Fit; b. Cycles and developmental processes in the lifespan; c. Inheritance or structural influences by gender, ethnicity, and class;

d.Roles: role expectations, transitions, innovation, conflict.

e.Action: subjective success orientations; sociopsychological and career construction theories.

f.Journeys: types of career moves and frontiers, contextual forces, typologies of careers

g.Relations: networks and communities

h. Story: narrative and biography; public stories; rhetoric; impression management.

i.Resources: human resources management and self management.

4.Borderless and Protean Careers

5.Career development: Management (Callahan & Greenhaus, 2010); Creativity (CareerCraft)

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria São João Castilho Breda

Assessment Methods

Periodic
For the Individual assignment there are three alternative tasks: synthesis work (literature review of research papers), project work (organization of a learning resource for career education), or a research report of defined tasks in a pilot study (8 / 20): 40.0%
a synthesis report written assignment (6 / 20), a problem solving report (analysis of a case and doing a specific exercise) (4 / 20), and oral discussion of a synthesis assignment in group (review) (2 / 20): 60.0%

Final
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

Inkson, K. (2007). Understanding Careers. The metaphors of working lives. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Collin, A & Young, R.A. (2000) (Eds.), The future of career. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Patton, W. and McMahon, M.L. (2006). Career development and systems theory: Connecting theory and practice 2nd ed. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2006

Greenhaus, J.H., Callanan, G.A. & Godshalk, V.M. (2010). Career Management (4th ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Arnold, J. (2006/1997). Managing careers into the 21st century. London: Paul Chapman.

Brown, S.D. & Lent, S.W. (2005). Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work. Hoboken, NJ.: John Wiley and Sons. (complementar)

Niles, S. G. (Ed.)(2002).Adult career development: Concepts, issues, and practices. Alexandria, VA: The NCD Ass.

Taveira, M.C., Coelho, H., Oliveira, H. & Leonardo, J. (2004) (Eds), Desenvolvimento Vocacional ao Longo da Vida: fundamentos, princípios e orientações. Coimbra: Almedina.