A Model of Radical Career Change in the Context of Psychosocial Development

The goal of this study was to gain an understanding of the process of radical career change as experienced in the context of an individual's life history and personal development. Lifespan interviews were conducted with five men and five women who had undergone a significant change of career. The constant comparative method of data analysis was employed to generate an emerging theory grounded in the data. A preliminary model of psychosocial development emerged, integrating the career change phenomenon with broader patterns of growth and development across the lifespan. Most of the participants utilized career change as an opportunity to integrate emerging and previously excluded aspects of their personalities into their lives. The study, among other things, examines internal and external factors resisting change and adaptive mechanisms empowering it.