Blog 7

          For this week, I chose to write about an article I found while researching for the mock career workshop project entitled Positive Psychology Interventions- Evidence-based Resources for Students’ Career Development by Ioana Raluca Panc (2015). The author begins the article by speaking about many of the career theories that we have already learned about through this class. Over the years, these theories have sought to explain individuals’ occupational choices and work adjustment and have evolved accordingly. Although these theories still prove useful in matching students to work places and developing a career, the constant changes in global society “raise a new challenge for career models that seek to explain how individuals can negotiate a lifetime of job changes without losing their sense of self and social identity” (Panc, 2015).

Panc (2015) indicates that education has been slowly changing to address the challenges of the 21^st century. At its core, the new trends in education attempt to develop the whole student through social, emotional, intellectual, and more development. The author gives a quote from Yates (2007) which argues that “education is increasingly important for its role in assisting young people to develop capacities and skills that will enable them to live well and that will enhance social cohesion.” According to Panc (2015), in the context of exploring paths to career success, providing support through transition periods such as the one students explore and assisting the student in their development as a whole, the research in positive psychology provides promising results that should be explored.

For the purpose of this article, the term wellbeing is defined as “not only the absence of mental disorder but also the presence of positive psychological resources, including positive affect, life satisfaction, and happiness, as well as self-acceptance, positive relations, autonomy, and purpose in life” (Panc, 2015). In the author’s findings, a consistent frame of research supported the relationship between heightened wellbeing and numerous outcomes qualified to describe a successful career, which include satisfaction in the job, increased income, appreciation by superiors, positive relations with colleagues, and increased independence and creativity (Panc, 2015). To help develop this sense of wellbeing, positive psychology interventions (PPI) can be utilized. PPI’s involve simple, self-administered behavioral strategies that are designed to mimic the thoughts and behaviors of naturally happy people and, as a result, improve the happiness of the person that is performing them. Most consist of “intentional activities that aim to cultivate the positive aspects of personality, positive emotions, positive cognitions, and positive behaviors (Panc, 2015). Some of those activities include doing acts of kindness, writing about positive experiences, practicing gratitude by counting one’s blessings, and goal-directed and solution-focused thinking (Panc, 2015).

I can see how this could be useful when working with school-aged clients, specifically high schoolers in the case of my group’s career workshop. Developing a positive mindset in the beginning can lead to a lifelong, overall, sense of happiness. Using activities with high school students such as the one’s Panc (2015) recommended can begin to increase their wellbeing. The goal-directed and solution-focused thinking, specifically, relates back to concepts we have discussed in this course and other courses in this program. It is interesting to see that, although, career interventions can differ greatly, there are, also, many common themes and qualities to them. The use of PPI’s will certainly be considered to use through this mock career workshop.

 Reference:

Panc, I. R. (2015). Positive psychology interventions - evidence-based resources for students' career development. Journal of Educational Sciences & Psychology, 5(2), 51-61.