This thesis explores the stories of three women. They are different stories connected by experiences of first or second generation migration, ambiguous identities, belonging and otherness. I also connect the stories as I am one of the women, my cousin is another and the third is my friend. My interest is both personal and professional as this research serves both my personal interest in our lives and careers, and my professional concern as a practitioner about the development of career counselling practice to meet the needs of clients. The search for and interpretation of meaning (Bruner,1990) informed the methodology and analysis of this work. I do not seek a ‘truthful account’ of our stories, accurate in their telling, but a ‘truth seeking’ narrative, what memories and stories mean to the teller. The methodology is auto/biographical. I began the research where my thoughts and questions began, with my own story. This is neither autobiographical nor biographical research, it is an interplay between the two. The ‘/’ both connects and divides my story and those of my participants (Merrill and West, 2009). I reflected upon images, memories, collage and discussion about my own life and career. The stories of my co-participants, gathered through loosely structured interview and using artefacts, poems and family histories, are rich in themselves but their intersection with my own story is also part of the heuristic nature of the methodology. The interviews, lasting one to two hours, were recorded and fully transcribed, and those transcripts shared with my co-participants for accuracy. A second interview, after a period of reflection on the transcription was conducted with one participant. In this follow-up interview, questions were shaped by events and elements in the story that were of particular interest and were then able to be explored further. With the other participant a full weekend of discussion followed the interview, which brought in other family members, reflections and stories. The analysis of the material is holistic and considers the ethnography, process and Gestalt of our interactions (Merrill and West, 2009). The meaning in these lives and careers is a co-construction from themes within each story and also the shared meaning between them. The three stories present windows into very different lives and careers, but also into recognisable and shared struggles and resolutions. Although personal agency is at the heart of each story, this is set within and shaped by the family, history and communities in which each of us grew. The work of Jung (1938), Adler (1923), Frosh (1991) and later of Savickas (2011) provided some theoretical ‘heavy lifting’ in understanding the relationship between personal identities and career. Each is invited into the thesis to comment upon and to illuminate the processes at work in this shared space. They help to understand the relationship between the threads and themes in these stories and how they create a tapestry of meaning for the teller. Insights into the three stories offer a critique of the dominant models of professional practice in career counselling. Such critique follows a now well established paradigm shift in career theory in response to the changing nature of work and of social structures (Bauman, 2000; 2005: Frosh, 1991) and an increased interest in contextualism in career counselling (Richardson, 2002). Social constructionist theories and models include Savickas’ (2011) Career Construction Theory in which he identified the significance of pre-occupations as threads that accompany us through career and life, connecting the plots, characters and scripts into a story that in the telling has meaning and purpose. Pre-occupations in our three stories were identified from themes in the interviews and in other material and the pre-occupation that united us was the clarification and construction of our identities. Sometimes it was a clear and painful roar and sometimes a quiet question hidden within micronarratives that were re-membered in our conversations. Career provided us with a stage whereon identity was more or less resolved and reconstructed. The significance of the relationship between personal and career identity emerges as the key argument of this thesis and a counter narrative for career counselling. It provides an alternative to neoliberal, individualistic, outcome driven practice (Irving, 2013), and has at its heart an acknowledgement of the relationship between who we believe ourselves to be and what we do in our lives. I conclude that such a counter narrative must be illustrated first within the development of the curriculum for the training and education of careers practitioners. It must also be reflected in the development of models of career theory and counselling. In this way it will be secured within the practice of careers professionals for future generations. On a broader level there is much that the exploration into the relationship between personal and career identity can illuminate outside the specific context of career counselling. Social and political concerns about radicalisation and the construction of identity in migrant communities may be illuminated by the insights offered by this thesis. Moreover as identities become more mixed and complex in ‘liquid modern’ worlds (Bauman, 2000) this thesis offers a further understanding of the scaffolding that is needed for identity construction and life planning, when traditional structures are hard to find.

This thesis empirically examines the career orientations inventory (COI) as a measure of career anchors and then, using this measure, it goes on to investigate the relationship between career anchor congruence and work related outcomes, specifically job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The psychometric properties of the 40 item COI (presented by Igbaria and Baroudi, 1993) were explored by the administration of the measure to a sample of 658 individuals from 27 organisations in the UK. Through factor analysis an eight factor structure was demonstrated in line with that proposed by Schein (1993). The factor structure was replicated with a second sample. The COI demonstrated good levels of internal consistency (.59-.83) and test retest reliability (.68-.90). Similarly it was deemed to have acceptable levels of face validity and construct validity when compared to Mantech’s (1983) Work Values Questionnaire (WVQ). An analysis of the prevalence of career anchors and the demographic differences within the current sample was undertaken. This analysis provided evidence to suggest that certain career anchors may be increasing in prevalence while others are decreasing. These findings are in line with current research on the way in which workplace changes are impacting upon careers (Baruch, 2004). Evidence was found that indicated gender differences in scores on the COI subscales. Specifically women were found to score higher on the lifestyle anchor and men to score higher on the general management anchor. Differences were also found between the age groups considered in this study in the general management, creativity, pure challenge and lifestyle anchors. Interaction effects for age and gender were found for the general management and sense of service anchors. The COI was then used to develop a commensurate measure of job career anchors. This job career anchor measure discriminated between jobs within one police organisation. The measure was then used to explore the relationship between career anchors, career anchor congruence (congruence between individual and job career anchors), job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Evidence was found to suggest that career anchors and career anchor congruence have a direct effect on job satisfaction (predicting 10% and 4% of the variance respectively). The analysis also showed support for the role of career anchor congruence as a moderator to the relationship between career anchors and job satisfaction. This thesis makes full consideration of the academic contributions and practical implications of the research presented whilst also considering its limitations. A number of suggestions for the direction of future research have been made.

Η εξελικτική πορεία του μαθητικού πληθυσμού της χώρας όσον αφορά στην επαγγελματική του ανάπτυξη βρίσκεται σε ένα κομβικό σημείο στην ηλικία των 14 περίπου χρόνων καθώς το αμέσως επόμενο χρονικό διάστημα ο μαθητής καλείται να λάβει αποφάσεις για την εκπαιδευτική και επαγγελματική του πορεία. Η «επαγγελματική ωριμότητα» περιγράφει και προσδιορίζει το βαθμό της επαγγελματικής ανάπτυξης του ατόμου και έχουν διερευνηθεί, σε διεθνές κυρίως επίπεδο, παράγοντες οι οποίοι τη διαμορφώνουν. Η παρούσα ερευνητική εργασία έχει ως στόχο τη διερεύνηση της σχέσης της επαγγελματικής ωριμότητας με τη σχολική επίδοση μαθητών της Γ’ Γυμνασίου καθώς και με την κοινωνικοοικονομική κατάσταση των γονέων τους, δυο παράγοντες οι οποίοι αφενός δεν έχουν διερευνηθεί επαρκώς και αφετέρου τα ευρήματα προηγούμενων ερευνών είναι αντικρουόμενα. Το δείγμα αποτελείται από 189 μαθητές και μαθήτριες της Γ’ Γυμνασίου και τα δεδομένα της έρευνας συλλέχθηκαν με χρήση της Κλίμακας Επαγγελματικής Εξέλιξης (ΚΕΕ) σε συνδυασμό με κάποιες, δημογραφικού τύπου, ερωτήσεις. Με τη βοήθεια του συντελεστή συσχέτισης ρ-Spearman έγιναν οι αναλύσεις. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν συνάφεια ορισμένων διαστάσεων της επαγγελματικής ωριμότητας κυρίως με τη σχολική επίδοση των μαθητών. Η εργασιακή κατάσταση των γονέων αφήνει ανεπηρέαστη την επαγγελματική ωριμότητα, ενώ το μορφωτικό επίπεδό τους φαίνεται να συσχετίζεται ελάχιστα, αλλά στατιστικώς σημαντικά, τόσο με την κλίμακα «πληροφόρηση» όσο και την κλίμακα «αναζήτηση πληροφοριών» της ΚΕΕ. / Vocational development of Greek pupil population is in a nodal point at the age of 14, after which the students have to make crucial decisions regarding their educational and vocational future. The term “Vocational maturity” is used to describe and determine the degree of vocational development of an individual, and its formative factors have been investigated, mostly in international level. This study investigates the relation between the vocational maturity of students at the 3rd class of secondary school in Greece (Gymnasio) and their school performance, as well as the socioeconomic level of their parents. This study focuses on those two formative factors of vocational maturity for two reasons: firstly because they have not been investigated adequately so far, and secondly because the existing findings from previous studies are conflicting. The sample used in this study consists of 189 students of the 3 rd class of “Gymnasio” and the data were collected using the Scale of Vocational Development in combination with some demographic questions. For the analysis, the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (Spearman’s ρ) was used. The results indicated that there is a moderate correlation between some dimensions of vocational maturity and the school performance of the questioned students. On the contrary, their vocational maturity appears unaffected by their parents’ professional status, while their parents’ educational level correlates slightly with the dimensions “pliroforisi” (the equivalent of dimension World of Work Information-WW of Supers’ CDI-s form) and “anazitisi plirophorion” (the equivalent of dimension Career Exploration-CE of Supers’ CDI-s form) of the Scale of Vocational Development.

Il y a consensus sur la structure bidimensionnelle du jugement social. Cette thèse avait pour but de montrer que les concepts d'agentisme et de compétence sont deux registres distincts au sein de la dimension verticale du jugement. L'agentisme ferait référence à l'avancement du soi alors que la compétence ferait référence à un ensemble de ressources instrumentales. Une première implication concerne la relation entre les deux dimensions du jugement. Nous observons que la sociabilité est liée négativement à l'agentisme alors qu'elle reste indépendante de la compétence.Une autre implication concerne la perception du statut social. Nos données montrent l'agentisme est spécifiquement associé aux personnes de haut statut alors que la compétence peut être associée à des personnes de haut ou de bas statut. Les registres d'agentisme et de compétence ne jouent donc pas le même rôle dans le jugement social. / There is a consensus about the bidimensionnal structure of social judgment. The aim of this thesis was to show that the concepts of agency and competence are two distinct registers within the vertical dimension of social judgment. Agency reflects a motive to advance the self where as competence refers to a set of instrumental resources. The first implication of this distinction deals with the relationship between the two dimensions of social judgment. We found that sociability and agency were negatively correlated while sociability and competence were orthogonal. Another implication deals with social status perception. Results showed that agency is specifically associated with high status individuals whereas competence can be associated with high status individuals and relatively low status individuals. These findings suggest that these two registers do not play the same role in social judgment.

This research aims to attain insight into the role a person's processing style (process) have on decision-making from a career developmental and gestalt perspective because it appears as if the adolescent's proses with regard to career choice is not being acknowledged. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data from which coded themes were identified. These coded themes served as the core research of this study. The subjective experience of respondents' career development are presented, supported by a literature control. From this research it is clear that the adolescent's process is dynamic with regard to field and phenomenology and that structures such as family and school plays an important career developmental role as environmental influences. Intra psychic constructs such as introjects, assimilation and process play an important role in decision-making. / Sociology / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)

This research aims to attain insight into the role a person's processing style (process) have on decision-making from a career developmental and gestalt perspective because it appears as if the adolescent's proses with regard to career choice is not being acknowledged. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate data from which coded themes were identified. These coded themes served as the core research of this study. The subjective experience of respondents' career development are presented, supported by a literature control. From this research it is clear that the adolescent's process is dynamic with regard to field and phenomenology and that structures such as family and school plays an important career developmental role as environmental influences. Intra psychic constructs such as introjects, assimilation and process play an important role in decision-making. / Sociology / M. Diac. (Play Therapy)