Have you ever wondered how the choices you make about your career path affect your identity and emotional health? A Northcentral University Psychology Ph.D. candidate is inviting volunteers to participate in a study entitled The Influence of Adolescent Aspiration and Adult Occupation Congruence on Scores of Ego Status, Distress, and Satisfaction.
The study involves participating in an online anonymous survey which asks about your earlier career ideas and your present thoughts and feelings on a variety of topics. The survey will take about 15-20 minutes to complete. Volunteers must be native-born current residents of the United States and be at least age 22. Results from this study will help us understand more about identity development and adult well-being. If you would like to participate in the study, please click the following link:
I wish there had been a narrative box to explain some of my answers - generally speaking I am satisfied with many of my choices but lately things have gotten very, very bad at work for a variety of reasons.
I agree with Zsofia–narrative boxes would have been nice for many of the questions.
And what about those of us who changed career objectives many times between the ages of 18 and 22? Or who had much more general goals–like, do something that lets you travel a lot, or do something that helps other people in concrete ways–that we couldn’t articulate or really frame as clear career choices?
I ended up putting down one of the goals I’d had at 18 but that I changed later on. By the time I was 22, the career interests I had were very different from those I’d started out with.
Thanks for the survey Sparklelilly. I would note that I am on my third completely distinct career, so at times the questions were difficult to answer. The survey seems to assume that your present career is the only one you’ve had, which actually is extremely unlikely in American society anymore.
(I don’t mean I’m on my third job. I mean my third totally unrelated career field).
Thanks for the feedback. And thanks so much for taking the survey!
I am not ignoring the questions, but I am going to refrain from commentary until the survey is closed, likely the end of this week. ::fingers crossed for 50-75 more completers over age 22::
No prob, I understand. Hope you get lots of data! When you are ready to answer questions, I have another one, which is, by what measure do you determine if a childhood goal and a current job are similar?
For example, if the goal was, say “veterinarian” do you consider “ultrasound technician” similar because it’s also in the medical professions? Do you consider"dog trainer" similar because it’s also animal work? Do you consider “accountant” similar if the vet and the CPA are both solo practioners running their own business…? Or do you consider Ultrasound technician, Dog trainer, and CPA to be totally dissimilar from a stated goal of being a veterinarian?
You might get a lot of responses if you post this on MTurk, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. There are a ton of surveys for dissertations on there. Just make sure you post it for a reasonable rate of pay compared to how long it might take to finish. Turkers aren’t too keen on doing surveys for less than minimum wage.
Tomorrow is 3 weeks from the date of launch, and I will be closing the survey as originally planned, unless my chair disagrees. So, if you want to participate, please do so, esp if born in 1947 or earlier or between the years of 1987 and 1991. Otherwise, I will answer all the questions tomorrow once it is closed.
And thanks so much for taking the survey!
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