Revista Colombiana de Psicología

THIS ARTICLE offers an approach to the vocational phenomenon from cultural psychology. From this perspective, the vocational phenomenon is understood as an identity process of a narrative nature in continuous progression supported for its operation on the symbolic resources available in the socio-cultural contexts within which people interact. Based on these resources, individuals build stories about themselves in the occupational realm.

The thesis that gave rise to this reflection, as well as to the empirical research that accompanied it ¹ , starts from an important premise, namely. That the conventional approaches adopted to understand and intervene vocationality within the framework of career choice have turned out to be insufficient to achieve its mission. Two reasons support this statement. On the one hand, the dynamic nature of vocation is unknown. Vocationality must be understood as a permanent process of construction of meaning. A process, present in those who are preparing to make decisions of an occupational nature, as part of their transition to working life. On the other hand, the changing conditions of a world of work marked by many uncertainties are not considered. For example, the new ways of organizing work, the short-term nature of labor relations, and the blurring of the boundaries recognized between different professions. Concerning this, the legitimate performance roles that can be assumed in each of the professions, among many others.

For the development of this analysis we did a brief review of the main approaches taken in vocational psychology throughout its existence as a field of reflection and intervention. Subsequently, we introduced theoretical elements to clarify the notion of self and identity, delving into the latter concept from a socio-cultural perspective. Next, we retaken the dominant perspectives in the study of vocational identity to finally integrate conceptual elements of cultural psychology that serve to rethink this construct. Finally, we redefined vocational identity as a set of meanings in which people link self-referential information with occupational experiences.

Vocational Psychology as a Starting Point

Today, vocational psychology is recognized as an applied specialty, focused on deepening the understanding of vocational behavior to improve career interventions (any treatment or effort aimed at enhancing an individual’s professional development or enabling them to make better career-related decisions) and inform public employment policies (Jackson & Verdino, 2012). From this conceptual horizon, it has been assumed that vocational behavior emerges when individuals pursue goals of an occupational nature. These objectives include the development of values, interests, and aspirations that will shape a person’s working life (Vondracek et al., 2014). In other words, vocational psychologists would seek to understand the way in which some characteristics of individuals contribute to make favorable occupational options visible. Its function is to assist individuals in the process of choosing and preparing for a job that suits their personal goals and competencies.

However, it should be noted that vocational psychology in its development has also been nourished by different theoretical perspectives on human behavior. These perspectives have heterogeneously informed the way in how both the phenomena under study and the methods used to approach them are conceived, as detailed below.

Identity from a Socio-Cultural Perspective

As mentioned, the complexity of the contemporary occupational world demands the adoption of approaches that give greater weight to an understanding of psychosocial dynamics that are sensitive to the contextual realities of individuals. Because of this, it is necessary to emphasize the relevance of reformulating the premises that have historically explained vocational behavior, reorienting them towards constructs as identity, intentionality, and narrative (Gülşen et al., 2021; Savickas & Pouyaud, 2016 ; Wen et al., 2022). It is in this epistemological scenario that the notion of identity takes on special meaning, since, as will be explained below, it would make it possible to link the construction of people’s vocation to their life scenarios (McMahon & Patton, 2018).

In this regard, some authors state that identity represents the link between the self and society (Hammack, 2008 ; Ozer & Schwartz, 2020). In convergence with the above, D. Holland & Lachicotte (2007) defend the socio-genetic formation of identity and assume that individuals construct personal versions of themselves based on the social realities in which they develop, thus configuring their identities. Accordingly, they assert that identity represents a way of organizing relevant and related feelings, understandings, and knowledge with a personally valued and culturally imagined social position. These identities formed on personal grounds would mediate the individual’s ability to organize and carry out the intent of the activity in the settings and occupations of the socio-cultural worlds (D. Holland & Lachicotte, 2007; Lachicotte, 2012). However, the ability for an individual to organize himself or herself in the name of identity would initially develop as an interactive transaction with others. Only then could people apply this cultural resource (identity) to their own actions (D. Holland & Lachicotte, 2007; Lachicotte, 2012).

Consequently, identities are understood as psychosocial processes through which people construct the self in action, learning (through the mediation of cultural resources) to order self-referential meanings and to organize their actions according to their socio-cultural worlds (Vågan, 2011). In short, identities will be personally meaningful and actively internalized. They are formed as a function of broader socio-cultural constructions that allow for the collective production of socially constructed worlds of interpretation and action (Lachicotte, 2012). In other words, identities are constituted as means through which individuals link the self to social roles and assign subjective meaning to these roles (Burke & Reitzes, 1991).

Based on the above, it is possible to appreciate the importance of studying vocation through the notion of identity. Doing so will make it possible to integrate under a psychosocial construct, both the subjective experience of culture and the contextual reality surrounding its configuration. Thus, it will be recognized that both the content and the functioning of the processes underlying identity are eminently socio-cultural and therefore represent a historically delimited, socially transmitted, and culturally regulated phenomenon (Esteban-Guitart et al., 2013).

For all these reasons, identity is a notion that makes it possible to understand career construction as a fluid process, socially configured, culturally derived from language, and adaptable to the interactions inherent to the contexts. Hence the importance of taking up this notion in contemporary conceptualizations of vocational psychology. In this way, this applied specialty departs from the static and essentialist conceptions of personality, that are still dominant (Stead, 2007).

It is necessary to emphasize that, from this comprehensive perspective, identity is seen as interwoven with power relations and ideologies, making it susceptible to ethnic, gender, generational, and social class socio-cultural discourses. Identity, thus assumed, will link the self with behavior, since it constitutes means through which people organize self-defining meanings in relation to the social realities they inhabit. This will make it possible to structure actions based on the self-referential information available (McMahon & Patton, 2018). In this way, the identity will give the behavior an intentional character. To the extent that identity orders the actions of individuals around a set of meanings about themselves (constructed in the daily experiences in each of the interactive scenarios where people participate), it will promote a sense of agency, of responsibility for one’s own life course (Skhirtladze et al., 2019).

Thus, identity should be recognized as having directive functions in the actions and decisions of people in different spheres of life (Vignoles et al., 2011). These competencies are derived from the internalization or appropriation of interactive cultural resources implemented in social exchanges, symbolic instruments that, when mastered by individuals, enable them to exercise control over their actions or intentional behaviors (Lachicotte, 2012). To continue advancing in the proposed conceptualization, it is convenient to specify the reiterated mention of the self to allude to identity, for this reason a brief distinction between these two notions is presented below.

Cultural Psychology and the Construction of Identity as a Basis for Understanding Vocationality

Cultural psychology represents a set of theoretical orientations that converge in highlighting the importance of socio-cultural contexts for the functioning of individuals and the way in how these two components mutually constitute each other (Esteban-Guitart et al., 2013). In this panorama, the shared goal assumed from the different aspects of Cultural Psychology will be to understand the way in how the processes of human development take place in culture (Santamaría et al., 2019).

Accordingly, Shweder (1999) points out that cultural psychology deals with the study of the intentional or symbolic states of individuals, their intentional actions or behaviors. These volitional manifestations would be part of broader socio-cultural conceptions that were acquired through people’s participation in discourses, laws, and collective practices that are common in the communities where they interact. Likewise, Penuel & Wertsch (1995) emphasize that a socio-cultural approach to psychology implies assuming the irreducible tension between the individual functioning of human beings and the historical, social, and cultural components that surround them, accepting them as an inherent aspect of their daily actions.

Among the different conceptions that coexist within cultural psychology, we chose the one represented by the American psychologist Jerome (Bruner, 2005, 2008). This theorist considers that culture constitutes a mediating component of the actions of human beings in the world. Accordingly, he proposes that culture would be a sort of toolkit, techniques, and procedures that would allow people to understand and manage the world through human conventions represented in signs (Bruner, 1996).

Notwithstanding, it is also imperative to point out that, just as culture shapes human functioning and opens some possibilities, it also imposes some limits on the way in how people operate. Thus, it will be understood that the actions of individuals will be defined based on the toolkit of the culture in which they live. Therefore, the sense of reality that people attribute to the worlds they inhabit will always have a construction character and will be the product of the knowledge and experiences gestated from the use of the cultural toolkit that generation after generation inhabited.

Then, it should be noted that one of the most important tools for the construction of reality is narrative. The narrative represents a discursive resource through which individuals have the possibility of creating a version of the world and a place in it. It constructs the lives of those who narrate (Bruner, 1990). Narrative conceived by those means will give rise to a way of thinking and will become an instrument at the service of the creation of meanings, this will facilitate the organization of knowledge coming from daily experiences related to human intentions and actions (Bruner, 1990). The above, within the framework of the vicissitudes and consequences that trace the evolution of the different actions of the person as those related to vocational choice.

Thus, narration constitutes an instrument that will shape the cognitive mode through which the present, past, and possible human condition are built. A sense of self is gestated which, according to Bruner (1997), will be nothing more than a textual construction of how individuals situate themselves about others and to the realities they inhabit. Thus, it can be affirmed that the genesis and formation of the self takes place while human beings enter a given culture. After this, people gain access to narratives or stories linked to an specific tradition composed of a series of orthodox characters, scenarios in which they act, and actions that become comprehensible to them. In other words, these culture-specific stories represent a guide to the roles and possible worlds where action, thought, and definition of the self are permissible and desirable. All this, under a set of deontic rules that will regulate the self-referential construction (Bruner, 1997).

In fact, a vehicle through which culture transmits the epistemological and deontic contents about the self is given by folk psychology. This notion alludes to a set of normative and interdependent descriptions that regulate the functioning of human beings, their cognitions, emotions, and actions prescribe what modes of life are possible and how commits can be made within those modes of life (Bruner, 1990). The appropriation (internalization) of folk psychology by the people will occur to the extent that they master the language and intensify their interpersonal transactions within the framework of community life (Esteban-Guitart, 2012; Penuel & Wertsch, 1995 ).

Following the above, it is assumed that identity is structured through narrativized conceptions of folk psychology. In this way, people experience themselves and others based on categories established as conventional, transmitted through collective conceptions, promulgated by institutions and devices that culture has forged for this purpose. This is the case of laws, education, and the family (Bruner, 1990).

Like cultural reality, identity is a social construction, negotiated, distributed, and situated. A narrative configuration that provides people with a sense of autonomy and volition. But, at the same time, identity places the individual concerning the collective, making explicit his commitments to others and reminding him that his autonomy is limited by the symbolic, historical, and social system to which he belongs. Narrative as a cultural resource for communicating and creating realities facilitates the construction of a fully meaningful and meaningful personal world. The construction of a self, in constant revision, capable of integrating the experiences that people face daily. Similarly, the narrative provides the identity models available in society in an autobiographical format.

Thanks to the narrative a sequential structure emerges where people’s experiences acquire meaning based on a central argument that justifies the underlying intentions of a past action. This structure will also provide a margin in the outcome that allows for the integration of new experiences while facilitating the foreseeing of possible alternatives for action. In this sequential structure, three referents and temporalities are linked in a plausibly, the past world of the individuals, the present they experience, and the future they imagine, maintaining their self-referential meaning throughout the process. In this way, narrative conceptualization will stand out as the means through which individuals can produce a meaningful whole from their life events. The above, after identifying those events as part of a plot or theme under which it brings together and signifies the performances and experiences (Ricoeur, 2006). A history of themselves, that will provide them with unity and personal identity (Polkinghorne, 1991).

In synthesis, identity represents a narrative construction that will depend both on intra-subjective experience, composed of memories, emotions, ideas, beliefs, and external sources, given by social interactions and the expectations that culture delineates on those who appropriate and exercise its conventions. Individuals assume (tacit) identity models that objectify what they should be and offer prescriptions that delimit the configuration of themselves in society (Bruner, 1997). Up to this point, the most relevant conceptual coordinates have been presented to preliminarily delimit the notion of identity in general, but that also apply to the vocational sphere. Next, other details that gave rise to the adoption of vocational identity as the axis of the research carried out will be specified. An overview of the dominant approaches to their study is also presented.

Genesis and Variants of the Vocational Identity Construct

Vocational identity as a construct is the result of the preponderance of the person-environment fit and vocational development models in psychology. This construct made it possible to respond to the need to generate concepts that associate personal characteristics with work environments. Thus, the requirement for notions representing the self in terms of differentiation and consistency of preferences associated with a personality type was satisfied (Skorikov & Vondracek, 2011). This conception is based on implicit assumptions of stability of both occupations and personality traits. Although vocational identity occupied an important place in theoretical models (Hirschi, 2011b), its function was limited to accounting for an evolutionary path by being translated into an indicator of progress within the broader process of career development (Skorikov & Vondracek, 2011). Vocational identity could account for this trajectory, thanks to its timely measurement.

So far, studies on vocational identity have been conducted from two conceptualizations that, with different theoretical logics, have developed instruments for its measurement. First, there is the theory of vocational personality types and work environments, that sought to obtain a clear and stable picture of what a person might have as his or her goals, interests, and talents (J. J. Holland et al., 1980). In this perspective, the Vocational Identity Scale was developed, a test that evaluates the general level of this construct, assuming it as a product, without considering its formation process.

The second theorization of vocational identity (Porfeli et al., 2011) was traced from the lens of states. A perspective initially formulated by (Marcia, 1966), that sought to operationalize the process of identity construction based on two components: a) exploration (period of reflection and testing of various roles and life plans) and b) commitment (degree of personal investment or adherence to a specific set of goals or values, expressed in a course of action or belief). Thus, by assessing exploration and commitment in individuals, four statuses in identity development could be identified: a) achievement identity, b) foreclosure, c) moratorium, and d) diffusion. Subsequently, some refinements were introduced that nuanced or extended the four states originally proposed (Kroger & Marcia, 2011).

It should be noted that the status approach seeks to consider the identity formation process by basing its evaluation on the sub-processes that make it possible. However, the original emphasis of this perspective was more focused on the current conception of these processes (Kroger & Marcia, 2011). This meant that, in the end, this approach omitted the way in how people participate in the exploration and the way in how they acquire the respective commitments (McLean & Pasupathi, 2012).

However, and beyond the mentioned limitations, the two conceptualizations have originated important findings that today strengthen vocational identity as a theoretical construct within psychology. Thus, the two conceptualizations have made possible the statistical association of vocational identity with significant rates of progress in the career development of adolescents and young adults. In this regard, different research can be consulted (Creed et al., 2020; Hirschi, 2011c; Kvasková et al., 2022; B. Lee et al., 2020; Y. Lee et al., 2022; Li et al., 2019; Meijers et al., 2013; Pizzolitto, 2021; Porfeli & Savickas, 2012; Savickas & Porfeli, 2011), whose results show the relevance of the construct in mediating the integration of the self with occupational knowledge and therefore, of influencing vocational behavior (Jara-Castro, 2010; Y. Lee et al., 2022).

Another theoretical and empirical association that has been made of vocational identity is with some constructs as psychological well-being, purpose, satisfaction, and meaning in life (di Palma et al., 2021; Green, 2020; Hirschi, 2011a , 2012a, 2012b; Hirschi & Herrmann, 2012 ; Kvasková et al., 2022 ; Strauser et al., 2008). These constructs constitute manifestations of a protean career orientation (Hall, 2004), a notion to which vocational identity has also been related (Hirschi et al., 2017; Steiner et al., 2019). Protean career orientation refers to the motivation of individuals to take responsibility for their professional development, focusing their careers on continuous learning and the achievement of their values to reach subjective or psychological success. Evidence suggests that protean career orientation is a facilitator of a clear vocational identity.

All the results presented in the research studies consulted provide evidence of the way how vocational identity provides people with a sense of direction and meaning in life. This is to the extent that vocational identity organizes and summarizes self-referential information based on what human beings direct their actions in the occupational sphere (Christiansen, 1999; Meijers, 1998 ; Skorikov & Vondracek, 2011). Identity endows the actions of individuals with intentionality while strengthening their sense of agency by adapting their actions to a set of meanings about themselves.

Having clarified the origin of vocational identity, we will now develop a conceptualization based on the assumptions of social constructivism and cultural psychology, both theoretical coordinates already addressed in a previous part of this text. Based on these conceptual positions, some elements are introduced that seek to overcome the limitations pointed out in the dominant paradigms and allow for a deeper understanding of the vocational phenomenon.

Vocational Identity, Cultural Psychology, and Possible Vocational Worlds

This section presents a conceptual model of vocational identity, proposed as an alternative for approaching the phenomenon of vocationality in psychology. This proposal is mainly based on theoretical approaches (some of them have already been mentioned) and empirical results generated by research carried out by the authors of this proposal (to be published by the authors themselves in another article). Theoretical approaches include Bruner’s cultural psychology (1990, 1996, 1997, 2005, 2008), as previously indicated. Also, the approaches to identity from the socio-cultural perspective worked by D. Holland & Lachicotte (2007; Lachicotte, 2012). The notion of vocation elaborated by Billett (2011), and the notions of vocational identity enunciated by Meijers (1998), and Skorikov & Vondracek (2011), that served as basic notions for the theoretical proposal. The sub-components identified by Porfeli et al., (2011), based on Marcia’s classic approaches (1966), were also taken up as fundamental to operationalize vocational identity as a construct. Finally, the empirical results derived from qualitative research on the construction of vocational identity in young university students in the city of Medellin, Colombia (to be published by the same authors in another article), served as a basis for identifying other components of the model. These components were the two dimensions that make up vocational identity (personal and socio-cultural) and the mechanisms that guarantee the interaction between these two dimensions (practical and interactive experiences). The proposed theoretical model is formulated and explained below.

According to Billett (2011), vocation refers to experiences with satisfactory and meaningful occupational practices for the individual, whose exercise provides him/her with a sense of self, i. e. identity. Vocations would be central to people’s life purposes and would describe activities that have social value and provide lasting personal meaning. Accordingly, from the perspective of cultural psychology, it could be argued that vocational identity constitutes a structure in constant formation, made up of a changing set of meanings through which individuals link their motivations, interests, and competencies with acceptable career roles (Meijers, 1998; Skorikov & Vondracek, 2011). That is, meanings of self that could be related to occupational practices.

From the above perspective, vocational identity, rather than a product, would constitute a process in which people negotiate and integrate meanings of themselves with the norms and activities related to an occupation. Vocational identity, therefore, represents the synthesis resulting from the interaction between individuals’ perception of the occupational world and their perception of themselves (Klotz et al., 2014). The way these different components and dimensions are integrated is illustrated in Figure 1.

As a structure of meanings in permanent construction, vocational identity will allow organizing in a narrative format, feelings, understandings, and knowledge related to a personally valued and socio-culturally available occupational position (D. Holland & Lachicotte, 2007 ; Lachicotte, 2012). This structure will operate as a mediator of the vocational behavior of individuals, and as such, will order their actions in the occupational sphere, giving them an intentional character according to their vital scenarios and their biographical and socio-cultural worlds.

Figure 1 : Conceptualization of Vocational Identity from the Perspective of Cultural Psychology (Own elaboration)

Accordingly, the sub-processes that are traditionally recognized as constituting vocational identity, namely career exploration and commitment to a career, represent actions derived from the set of emerging meanings that make up this construct (Porfeli et al., 2011). In this way, vocational identity will be expressed and materialized in actions as exploration, choice, and commitment to a particular occupational field; behaviors organized according to a self-referential concept. On the other hand, the immersion of individuals in concrete educational and work experiences, as well as the interaction with significant social references, will promote a constant reformulation of vocational identity.

This reformulation process will be facilitated by a narrative configuration that will shape it. The narrative configuration will make possible the continuous incorporation of new information into the plot of a vocational life that gives meaning to new experiences, without prejudice to previous ones. All this will favor the projection of new lines of action by individuals in the occupational area. Thus, vocational identity will make possible vocational worlds visible. Possible vocational worlds are occupational or educational environments, scenarios for the exercise of activities that individuals recognize as meaningful and satisfactory for their life purposes and goals (Billett, 2011). In this way, access to possible vocational worlds will stimulate career exploration and commitment, giving processual functionality to vocational identity.

In terms of its construction, as illustrated in Figure 1, vocational identity is configured based on two dimensions, one personal and the other sociocultural. The first would be given by the idiosyncratic world of individuals, a component derived from their life stories and constituted by beliefs, desires, values, aspirations, goals, intentions, hopes, and commitments; meanings of self, that express interests and needs, and which require the socio-cultural dimension to be fully manifested. In contrast, the socio-cultural dimension will be determined by the dominant folk psychology in the developmental contexts where people participate. This dimension represents a normative framework that informs individuals about the canonical vocational models to be considered for their identity defined in terms of occupation. That is, the admissible and desirable ways to build a life project based on a profession.

Accordingly, the first dimension will be mediated by the interests and needs of the personal world of individuals that, in turn, will find expression in the socio-cultural worlds of which they are a part. The two components mentioned above, the personal and the sociocultural, will maintain a constant dynamic of negotiation that takes place thanks to two mechanisms. On the one hand, the contact of individuals through direct experiences with occupational and/or educational practices. On the other hand, through interaction with significant social referents who, with their actions, stories, or forms of social support, exemplify, encourage, or empower people to choose or discard possible vocational alternatives. As a result of this negotiation process, the vocational identity would emerge.

People will appropriate the meanings underlying the conventional occupational practices exercised in their daily contexts and based on this, they will begin to configure or reconfigure their vocational identity. In this way, the set of mutual expectations, communal representations, and meanings embodied in the culture end up shaping the vocational identity. The culture embodied in the popular psychology of family, school, or peer contexts, in addition to shaping identity, will also impose limits on the way in how individuals can operate. This is because culture mediates and delimits the scope of the actions of individuals in the different spheres in which they choose to work.

Thus, it is possible to affirm that even though the personal dimension requires the mediation of the socio-cultural dimension for an individual to commit to an occupational or educational alternative and recognize it as his or her vocation, the experiences with that particular option must be personally meaningful and of value to him or her. Commitment implies the choice of an occupational path and a clear identification with this choice. In other words, the establishment of a personal link with the career decision made by the individual is required, allowing the development of a subjective connection or link that reflects the individual’s trust and attachment to the chosen occupational field. The social dimension contextualizes and shapes the configuration of vocational identity, but it is the personal dimension that justifies the commitments that people make to a given career alternative.

It should be noted that even if people engage in a variety of career, occupational or educational practices, not all will be evaluated as fundamental for maintaining and consolidating a sense of self. The recognition of a professional field as a vocation will depend on the one hand, on the meaning that an occupational practice may have for a person in terms of the contribution it makes to his or her identity. On the other hand, the resources in terms of occupational or educational practices and discourses, available in the different development scenarios and which will serve as a basis for constructing possible vocational worlds in different career fields.

Therefore, in its configuration process, the vocational identity will be distributed among the developmental contexts of individuals. That is, among the scenarios of collectively shared meaning where collective scaffolding dynamics take place, materialized in support structures or assistance in the framework of the daily interactions that significant others routinely provide. This scaffolding will facilitate the appropriation of the dominant meanings in the social interactions of each of the socio-cultural environments where people live. From this perspective, the value of the narrative approach to the vocation will be highlighted, as it will allow individuals to integrate different experiences with occupational and educational activities into an autobiographical account. The plot or central argument of these autobiographical stories will be linked to the construction of a possible vocational world based on a career.

Whether or not people can see themselves performing work related to an occupational environment, it will depend on whether it is in harmony with the interests and needs that make up the personal dimension of their lives. In addition, these occupational tasks must be in line with the canonical requirements of the social environments in which individuals act daily. The latter will become the cornerstone for the configuration of possible vocational worlds.

Conclusion

The historical and conceptual journey made in this article showed that in epistemological terms, vocational psychology transited from a mechanistic paradigm represented by a person-environment fit model (emphasis on traits) to an organicist vision. This organicist vision was based on developmental premises and became a model anchored in evolutionary stages, that later gave rise to what was called vocational development. Currently, a contextualist approach has emerged, based on cultural psychology and the use of narrative as a discursive tool. With its functional characteristics, narrative equips individuals with the reflective skills necessary to take responsibility for their own occupational and educational trajectory. The latter option is positioned as the most pertinent and viable in contemporary times, given the profound changes that have taken place in current labor structures and dynamics. In this new scenario, vocational identity emerges as a key construct to approach the study of vocational behavior. This is because vocational identity considers the socio-cultural dynamics that contextualize it and shape the actions of individuals in a constantly changing work and academic environment.