In this section the discussion moves away from career theory to introduce other relevant theoretical perspectives, beginning with social influences on health. It is necessary to acknowledge that most contemporary career theory focuses on relational issues: the individual in their local social context. This trend can be traced to Law’s (1981) description of local community influences on career choice, and is salient in Collin’s (2000) use of contextualism. However, the ideas in this section have origins outside of career theory, so are treated separately.
There are reasons to consider social contexts seriously. Strong connections between social relationships and health, particularly mental health, are to be found in many diverse sources. For example, O’Donovan and Hughes (2006) note that there is strong epidemiological evidence for an association between poor social support, mortality and morbidity, particularly in relation to coronary heart disease.
“Social relationships have a powerful effect on happiness and the other aspects of well-being, and are perhaps the greatest single cause… The general
explanation of these effects is that positive affect is caused by companionship in pleasant activities, and the exchange of positive non-verbal signals, mental health by close relationships buffering stress, and health by the emotional activation of biological systems and by better health behaviour. Extraverts and those with good social skills benefit the most from social relationships. Social support is central to some of these effects, but it can incur costs to both giver and receiver, and it should take the form of emotional support, companionship or problem solving rather than ruminating.” (Argyle, 2001:71 & 88).
A study of the impact of major life events on happiness using data from the British household survey found that:
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“…what matters the most in people’s lives in Britain is to have good dynamic interpersonal relationships and to be respected at work with that respect being constantly renewed.” (Ballas & Dorling, 2007:1244).
Cantor & Sanderson (1999) explore the importance of taking part in everyday life for well-being, and draw on both the social capital and the evolutionary psychology literature to support the view. They point out that depression is closely associated with alienation & isolation. The work of Cacioppo has demonstrated the link between loneliness (subjective isolation) and detriments to physical and mental health, exploring the underlying physiology and causal mechanisms (e.g. Cacioppo et al., 2002; Cacioppo et al., 2006; Cacioppo et al., 2008; Ernst & Cacioppo, 1999; Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2003; Cacioppo,
Hawkley & Bernstein, 2003). Conversely, social support is often characterized as a protection against stress and a source of resilience. This is often
described as a ‘buffering’ effect of social support (e.g. Argyle, 2001).
Social factors are believed to be relevant to health, not just at an individual level, but also at higher levels of analysis:
“Social support has a wide spectrum of action on health, from influencing mortality at one end, through physical morbidity to psychological morbidity at the other end. Social support is a very personal matter and yet research shows that it is influenced by social structural imperatives and becomes more than the sum of the individual links of networks in terms of social cohesion. At the level of society, social cohesion can have a powerful effect on health which
transcends that available from individual social relationships.” (Stansfeld, 2006: 166).
The range of overlapping concepts used to describe social involvement is confusing. They include social networks (defined by number and frequency of contacts; density of network), social support (classified as emotional,
informational, instrumental or practical), and social cohesion (relating to connectedness and solidarity between groups). Space precludes a
comprehensive discussion of these ideas, so just one approach is presented here, chosen as it has become influential. In a discussion of the social
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determinants of mental health and well-being, the WHO (2004b) uses social capital as the central concept. Social capital is a term that has begun to be used widely in the social sciences to refer to social networks and the benefits associated with them. It was popularized by Putnam’s (2000) influential discussion of declining community ties in America. The concept is still not precisely defined:
“The definition and measurement of social capital are still evolving. It is generally used to refer to the collective value of all formal and informal networks.” (Bowling, 2005a: 103).
Its overlap with the concerns of career theory becomes clearer in the following formulation. Social capital is a way of describing participation in work, learning and other activities:
“Social capital is a sub-set of social cohesion, and refers to the extent to which communities offer members opportunities, through active involvement in social activities, voluntary work, group membership, leisure and recreation facilities, political activism, and educational facilities, to increase their personal
resources…” (Bowling, 2005a: 6).
These notions do not rule out the possibility that social groups could have negative consequences for participants or the wider community (e.g. criminal gangs), but the overwhelming thrust of the evidence suggests that higher levels of social capital are associated with trust, better health outcomes and self- reported quality of life. The link to careers is explicit here:
“The core idea here is very simple: social networks have value. They have value to the people in the networks – ‘networking’ is demonstrably a good career strategy, for example.” (Helliwell & Putnam, 2005:438).
There have been attempts to measure the effect of social capital on health (e.g. Morgan & Swann, 2004). Helliwell & Putnam (2005) use data from large
surveys: the World Values Survey; the European Values Survey; the Social Capital Benchmark Survey from USA. They also draw on Helliwell’s earlier
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work on suicide rates. They acknowledge methodological problems in linking social capital to well-being: their data are cross-sectional not longitudinal, and there are difficulties in confidently attributing causality. However they argue that the patterns they observe in the data are strong and pervasive, suggesting it:
“…confirms that social capital is strongly linked to subjective well-being through many independent channels and in several different forms.” (Helliwell &
Putnam, 2005: 455).
This is backed up by a systematic review from De Silva et al. (2005), which concluded that there appears to be a negative association between an
individual’s (behavioural and cognitive) social capital and their level of mental health symptoms. However they pour cold water on enthusiasts for this perspective, arguing there is insufficient evidence to justify their influence on mental health policy makers. There is a paucity of evidence relating to causal mechanisms, indeed reverse causality is possible: social withdrawal could explain low network participation. Also evidence at an ecological level is more equivocal than at the individual level.
There are isolated examples of the concept of social capital as applied to the study of careers in the organizational literature (e.g. Tempest, McKinlay & Starkey, 2004). Social capital has been linked to careers success by Seibert, Kraimer & Liden (2001). They found that access to organizational information, access to resources and career sponsorship (i.e. support from a senior
colleague, mentoring, selection for challenging assignments) were three mechanisms by which social capital contributed to career success.
Clearly the social capital and well-being relationship is strong, but there are some problems. Firstly, there is little standardization of measures used in research. Secondly, there are no clear prescriptions as to how to avoid the negative consequences of group membership. Thirdly, there is ambiguity
between two different implicit views of social capital: a macro view which sees it as a ‘community stock’ which cascades benefits down, or a more bottom up approach which sees it as an aggregate of individual networks (Boardman,
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2010a). Finally, the implications of social capital for careers, or more importantly vice versa, have not been fully explored in the literature.
Whether or not social capital is the concept used, it is becoming clear that the way in which a person is embedded in a social network has profound
implications for health and well-being. Fowler & Christakis (2008) provided powerful new evidence that happiness is transmitted in social networks. The implications of this important finding are not yet understood. It follows logically that negative contagion is also possible, a point illustrated by this perspective:
“…we regard job loss as a network event, rather than as a loss with
consequences only for the individual. For example we expect that family ties, friendship networks, and other aspects of the job loser’s social network are critically implicated in the job loss and its consequences. Job loss and the many other events it triggers reverberate through the social network and family relationships of the person, sometimes producing a cascade of subsequent strains in personal and family relationships.” (Price, Friedland & Vinokur,1998: 303, their italics).10
2.3.2 Theory derived from positive psychology
Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi (2000) describe positive psychology as an
approach that seeks to redress the imbalance created by the pathology-oriented approach that has dominated the discipline. It could perhaps best be
understood as an influential movement in health psychology, arising from the study of happiness; it is not a sub-discipline in its own right.
The first approach considered here focuses on hedonic well-being; although not obvious, plausible links to careers can be postulated. Fredrickson (2005)
describes her ‘broaden and build’ theory of positive emotion, and its supporting research base. She suggests that negative emotion is associated with a
10
Westman, Etzion & Horowitz (2004) in a study of working couples in Israel, found bidirectional crossover of anxiety between partners when one was unemployed, a finding consistent with this position.
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specific action tendency e.g. fear with avoidance and escape, whereas positive emotions:
“1. broaden people’s attention and thinking; 2. undo lingering negative emotional arousal; 3. fuel psychological resilience; 4. build consequential personal resources; 5. trigger upward spirals towards greater well-being in the future; and 6. seed human flourishing.” (Fredrickson, 2005: 233).
This approach challenges the view that positive emotion is an end in itself, but rather seeing it as something which promotes divergent behaviours such as play and exploration, which in turn promote a virtuous circle of learning and growth, leading to more positive emotion. This viewpoint is interesting given the increasing recognition of exploration as a desirable goal for career guidance interventions (e.g. Krumboltz, 1996; McCash, 2006; Taviera & Moreno, 2003). . Although eudaimonic well-being has more obvious links to work and careers, it seems that to completely ignore hedonic well-being would be inappropriate:
“Overall the available data indicate that the causal pathway between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being is bi-directional. Positive feelings can produce positive functionings and positive functionings can produce positive feelings.” (Huppert, 2005: 321).
Another idea emerging from positive psychology relates directly to the study of interests discussed earlier, so presents more obvious links to the study of careers. This is the concept of ‘flow’. The term is used by Csikszentmihalyi (2002) to describe the experience of being absorbed in an activity to an extent that all sense of time is lost and self-consciousness is no longer present. He acknowledges the influence of Maslow’s ideas on self-actualisation, and also Eastern systems of thought where loss of the self through absorption in an activity is advocated (e.g. Zen, Sufi, and Yoga). Becoming absorbed in an activity and finding increasing complexity in it, is seen by Csikszentmihalyi as a source of well-being both during the activity and in its influence on the rest of the life-space. From this viewpoint, work does have an important role in generating happiness:
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“Work can be prime time for flow because unlike leisure, it builds many of the conditions of flow into itself. There are usually clear goals and rules of
performance. There is frequent feedback about how well or poorly we are doing. Work usually encourages concentration and minimises distraction, and in many cases it matches the difficulties to your talents and even your
strengths. As a result people often feel more engaged at work than they do at home.” (Seligman 2002a: 175)
Csikszentmihalyi describes being absorbed in an activity as an ‘autotelic’ state. He suggests that some individuals achieve this more easily than others: the ‘autotelic personality’ finds absorbing activity even in an impoverished
environment. He also suggests some kinds of work provide more opportunities than others for achieving an autotelic state. Here some parallels can be found between his work and P-E fit concepts of work stress. Nelson & Simmons (2002) suggest that the consideration of work stress be enhanced by
consideration of the complementary concept of eustress (an idea they attribute to Hans Seyle). This refers to the positive aspects of the stress response: being engaged, being hopeful, meaningfulness and manageability (i.e. resources perceived as adequate to cope). They suggest there is tentative evidence of a link between eustress and positive health, and advocate its promotion in the workplace.
Positive psychology is not without critics, among them Lazarus (2003), who describes it as an ideological movement in danger of becoming a fad. His central argument is that you can't separate positive and negative feelings, and still make good sense; emotional states can involve a complex blend of both. He also detects a ‘panglossian’ perspective, a complaint that positive
psychologists reject: they claim to be rebalancing psychology by introducing the study of positive emotion, not neglecting the study of psychopathology. van Deurzen (2009) provides a more balanced critique of positive psychology from the perspective of an existential therapist, recognising its contribution, whilst still questioning the moral and philosophical basis for an excessive focus on happiness. She argues that experiencing and integrating negative emotions is a healthy process, and they should neither be avoided nor equated with pathology.
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Another commonly raised concern about positive psychology is that it is culturally American and that it does not cross over well to other cultures, in particular British society, where demonstrative expression of positivity is not the norm. Positive psychologists occasionally make explicit reference to the
inalienable right of ‘the pursuit of happiness’ outlined in the American Declaration of Independence (Jefferson, 1776). Evidence is produced that individualistic cultures with democratic governments produce the happiest citizens and that family-oriented, hard working religious participating people enjoy the highest levels of life satisfaction. This appears to be a validation of mainstream American culture, or at least the ‘puritan’ version of it (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006).
This viewpoint could be challenged by pointing to the empirical evidence from cross-cultural studies which is used to demonstrate the universality of well- being constructs. However, Diener & Seligman (2004) and Diener (2008), accept the comparative international evidence base is not yet strong enough to support policy prescriptions.
Nettle (2005) suggests that positive psychologists occasionally slip into prescriptive writing on how people ought to live based on moral judgments of what a good life is, rather than evidence. Furthermore, Seligman (2002a) explicitly suggests that positive psychology needs to link to spirituality, a position that could be viewed as problematic given the diverse and potentially incompatible views about what constitutes the good life in different spiritual systems. Indeed, some of the positive psychology literature, particularly popular texts intended for a non-academic audience (e.g. Seligman, 2002a; Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2008; Biswas-Diener & Dean, 2007), come over in passages as rather evangelical or grandiose in their claims.
More specifically attempts to apply positive psychology to careers have been limited, often relying too heavily on the notion of seeking a calling in life. This represents a prescription to find destiny and a non-financial purpose through work. A calling is contrasted with a job (for money), or a career (for
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advancement). Examples of this include Steger & Dik (2009) and Harzer & Rich (2012). When this is turned into a prescription for career coaching by Biswas-Diener & Dean (2007) the result is an approach that is unlikely to survive a sociological critique: many people’s careers are constrained by economic or structural factors to the extent that finding higher meaning in work is unattainable. More promising may be the application of positive psychology to work related coaching as described by Linley & Harrington (2007). They argue that positive psychology and coaching are natural partners, with the former providing a research evidence base to underpin the latter. Certainly coaching approaches are now influencing guidance in the UK (e.g. Yates, 2011), and the use of strengths assessment tools (e.g. Linley & Harrington, 2006; Park & Peterson, 2007; Lopes & Edwards, 2008) may fit comfortably into a guidance setting.
2.3.3 Psychological theories of unemployment
The foundations of the psychology of unemployment lie in the innovative work of Marie Jahoda and Paul Lazarsfeld done in the Austrian village known as Marienthal in the inter-war depression, and their contemporary Bakke in the USA (Jahoda, Lazarsfeld & Zeisl, 1933; Fryer,1992a). Jahoda’s (1982) theoretical contribution was highly influential. In this approach the more obvious, or manifest benefits of earning a living, are contrasted with less obvious, or latent benefits of work:
- Imposition of time structure on the working day
- Regular shared social contact outside of the nuclear family - Links to goals and purposes that transcend their own - Defining personal status and identity
- Enforced activity
Warr’s vitamin model (1987, 2007) represents a sophisticated development of Jahoda’s conception, providing a detailed description of the relevant psycho-
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social factors. His approach is grounded in a cautious interpretation of an extensive empirical occupational psychology evidence base, and avoids the hyperbole that some positive psychology is prone to. Warr (1987) proposed that work offered a number of benefits to individuals, (their absence
representing disbenefit) using the analogy of vitamins. These are:
1. Opportunity for control 2. Opportunity for skill use 3. Externally generated goals 4. Variety
5. Environmental clarity 6. Availability of money
7. Physical security
8. Opportunity for interpersonal contact 9. Valued social position
10. Supportive supervision 11. Career outlook
12. Equity
Factors 10 – 12 do not appear in the 1987 statement of the theory, representing later additions to the model that are specific to the workplace environment. There are two other important later elaborations of this model (Warr, 2007). Firstly, he places emphasis on the non-linearity of the relationship between these variables and well-being. Just as vitamin C is toxic if taken to excess, so it is possible with some of these environmental factors to be harmful to mental well-being at too high a level. For example, too high level of control could be associated with anxiety about personal responsibility for possible negative consequences. Another possibility is that some variables may have effects on well-being up to a threshold level and beyond that have little effect. Money is an example, it may have an important impact on well-being at low to medium level; at high levels it may have diminishing or neutral effects. Warr (2007) provides evidence to support the possibility that:
- Variables 1-6 exhibit ‘additional decrement’ i.e. curvilinear relationships with well-being
- Variables 7-12 exhibit ‘constant effects beyond a threshold’.
An alternative way of describing non-linearity is that the generally positive correlation between each variable and well-being varies with the level of the variable (Warr, 2007).
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Secondly, Warr suggests that the vitamin analogy represents a general
psychological model applicable across a wide range of environments, not just formal employment. This is of considerable interest given the concern of guidance with education, training and other alternatives to work. The vitamin model is quite explicitly an analogy. It provides a good way of organising a