Beyond the Self: External Influences in the Career Development Process.

The purpose of this article is to explore the wide spectrum of external influences that affect career decision making across the life span and, in particular, how these factors may directly or indirectly alter one's career trajectory and the extent of one's work volition. Career development practitioners are encouraged to respect externally oriented frameworks, explore the social influence of career choice alternatives faced by clients, encourage clients to voice their emotional responses to external constraints, and use career decision-making strategies that seek an optimal balance of internal and external influences. Within the field of vocational psychology, several major theories have emerged to explain the process by which individuals make career choices. According to some of these theories, person-environment fit is most critical, whereby an individual's unique interests, values, and skills are ideally matched with a certain job setting (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984; Holland, 1997). Other theories view individuals as being in a constant state of development, in which the optimal career is one that best facilitates the implementation of a person's current self-concept (Savickas, 2002; Super, 1990). Theories that emphasize social learning and cognition have also been advanced. According to these theories, an individual's learning experiences about work and perceived ability to perform particular tasks necessary to succeed in a certain career are vital to decision making (Krumboltz, 1996; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Although these theories differ in substantive ways, all focus primarily on the influence of an individual's internal goals, needs, and pursuit of satisfaction in career decision making. This commonality carries an implicit assumption that individuals making career decisions have the volition to do so and are primarily seeking their own satisfaction. However, recent work throughout the social sciences has demonstrated that these assumptions may be unfounded, because decisions are often made with limited options or in a collectivist context (e.g., BIustein, McWhirter, & Perry, 2005; Jackson, Colquitt, Wesson, & Zapata- Phelan, 2006; Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002). Recently, the conceptual and theoretical work of BIustein and colleagues (e.g., BIustein, 2006; BIustein et al., 2005) has highlighted the need to better understand the role of volition in the career development process, with a particular focus on the negative influence of an individual's life circumstances on freedom of choice. The concept of volition is not new to the field of psychology, and most commonly refers to an individual's ability to have freedom in life choices (Lazarick, Fishbein, & Loiello, 1988). In a counseling context, research has demonstrated that therapists tend to view clients as having free will to make their own decisions (Chen, 2006; Slife & Fisher, 2000) and often view shifting the responsibility of choice away from clients as harmful (Kernes & McWhirter, 2001). However, although viewing individuals as absolute agents may be convenient, it is evident that life experiences and circumstances can significantly affect the degree to which each decision is volitional. From a career development perspective, work volition refers to an individual's ability to freely make career choices, including the initial job choice when first entering the work world and any subsequent career decisions. Although volition has primarily been an underlying assumption of career choice theories, rather than a variable that has been investigated empirically, research has found that employed individuals who feel freedom in their job tasks report more positive work outcomes, including job satisfaction, meaning, and involvement (Bond & Bunce, 2003; Henderson, 2000; Muhonen & Torkelson, 2004; von Rosenstiel, Kehr, & Maier, 2000). This same principle could likely be extended to die career choice process, in which a higher degree of satisfaction may be found with individuals who believe they have high levels of control over their career paths. …