Career psychology research challenges: a systems

theory response
Mary McMahon
School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
marylmcmahon@uq.edu.au
Mark Watson
Department of Psychology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa
International and South African debate on the future direction of career psychology has suggested
a movement towards qualitative, narrative and storied approaches that are informed by the constructivist worldview. The My System of Career Influences (MSCI) reflection process is a qualitative
career assessment tool developed in South Africa and Australia and derived from the constructivist
Systems Theory Framework (STF) of career development. As a technique, the MSCI demonstrates
versatility of application in one on one career counselling or in group settings such as classrooms.
More recently, its utility as an innovative research tool has been explored. We overview the STF and
the subsequent development of the qualitative career assessment tool, the My System of Career
Influences. We describe examples of empirical investigations that use the MSCI as a research tool.
The potential of this emerging body of research to address issues facing career development in the
postmodern era and in South Africa specifically is discussed.
Keywords: career assessment; career development; My System of Career Influences; MSCI;
narrative career counselling; qualitative research; Systems Theory Framework; STF
For most of its history, career development research has been dominated by a paradigm emanating
out of the modern era that is predominately quantitative in nature (Savickas, 2001). Such research
has served and continues to serve career psychology well in providing a detailed, measured understanding of career behaviour and development. Career theory and practice have also been dominated
by methods and approaches reflecting the logical-positivist tradition of the modern era. More
recently, there is evidence in theory and practice of a postmodern influence, especially the influence
of constructivism (e.g. Patton & McMahon, 2006a, 2006b; Savickas, 2005b). This is reflected in
theories that are more holistic and dynamic and in practices that embrace narrative and storied approaches.
To date, career development research has been slower to respond to the influence of constructivism (Savickas, 2001). Concerns have been expressed that exclusive use of traditional quantitative
research approaches could be limiting in terms of their capacity to respond to the increasingly
complex research topics that are emerging in the 21st century society (e.g. Blustein, Kenna, Murphy,
DeVoy, & DeWine, 2005; Lee, M itchell, & Sablynski, 1999). A further concern in career development research that is reflective of concerns in the broader field of psychology is that most psychological research is of limited relevance for practitioners because psychological practice is now more
reflective of postmodern constructs (Polkinghorne, 1992)
Traditionally, career development research has demonstrated a reliance on quantitative methodologies. However, in the postmodern era greater emphasis may be placed on qualitative methods
using narrative processes and discursive practices than on method centred empirical approaches
(Kvale, 1992). Blustein et al. (2005) claimed that qualitative research has much to offer career
development research, practice and assessment and that it has now assumed a more central rather
than marginal role in contemporary inquiry. Through narrative and discursive processes, qualitative
research becomes more of a two-way interactive process in which the researcher assumes a more
participative role (Blustein et al., 2005; Lee, et al., 1999; Shotter, 1992) and the local narratives or
Psychological Society of South Africa. All rights reserved.
ISSN 0081-2463

South African Journal of Psychology, 39(2), pp. 184-194

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185

stories of the participants assume greater importance than theory (Kvale, 1992). Thus, emphasis is
placed on the study of individuals, new methods of inquiry are possible and new topics and questions
of research may be considered. In this regard, qualitative research serves a different function from
traditional research in that it enables different questions to be asked and answered and it is well
suited to studies seeking description, interpretation and explanation (Lee et al., 1999).
W hile the use of qualitative research in career psychology is not new (Blustein et al., 2005),
it has received increasing attention because of its potential to address concerns expressed about
career development research. In this regard, Savickas (2001) proposed eight objectives for
vocational psychology in order to address these concerns. These included closing the gap between
research and practice, diversifying research methodologies, and widening the research lens.
In the South African context, there has been an ongoing debate in recent decades that career
theory, practice and assessment has been inappropriately dominated by adopted western, individualised approaches and models (e.g. Kuit & W atson, 2005; Naicker, 1994; Nicholas, Naidoo, &
Pretorius, 2006; W atson & Kuit, 2007). This has led to several suggestions for the future direction
of career psychology in South Africa, one of which has been the call for the development of indigenous career models or the practical use of contextually sensitive approaches (e.g. Mkhize &
Frizelle, 2000; Stead & W atson, 2006; W atson, 2006). In recent times, the use of qualitative narrative storied approaches has been advocated as more sensitive to the diverse contexts in which
South African career development takes place (e.g. Eloff, 2002; Fritz & Beekman, 2007; Maree,
2007; Maree & Molepo, 2006). Recent career psychology research (Bojuwoye & Mbanjwe, 2006)
has used a systems theory perspective to investigate the contextual factors influencing the career
choices of South African tertiary students. In general, the debate in South African career psychology
and the suggestions offered for a way forward are consistent with the international trend to develop
theories, practices and research that are informed by the constructivist worldview.
Reflecting Savickass (2001) objectives as well as concerns about career research in South
Africa, the constructivist Systems Theory Framework (STF) (McM ahon & Patton, 1995; Patton &
McM ahon, 1999, 2006a) of career development and its derivative, the My System of Career Influences (M SCI) (M cMahon, Patton, & W atson, 2005a, 2005b) qualitative career assessment process is
discussed. One of the strengths of the STF and the M SCI is their easy translation into practice and
research. Such research typifies the characteristics of qualititative research outlined by Lee et al.
(1999) in that it is conducted in natural settings, derives data from the participants perspectives, is
reflexive, is designed to suit the research situation and uses non-standard instrumentation, methods
and analyses. The emerging body of research based on the STF and the MSCI (e.g. Kuit, 2005;
McIlveen, Ford, & Dun, 2005; McIlveen, MacGregor-Bayne, Alcock, & Hjertum, 2003; McM ahon,
W atson, Foxcroft, & Dullabh, 2008) is based on qualitative processes, as well as multileveled and
multilayered recursiveness (i.e. interaction), discursiveness (i.e. dialogue), and relational (i.e. collaborative) approaches that position participants as active agents constructing their careers.
The application of the STF and of the MSCI to research is responsive to issues identified as
limiting career development research in the 21st century such as the need for a relationship between
theory, research and practice, diverse research paradigms that are responsive to the complex society
of the 21st century, and embedding data in the context and culture of the research participant (McMahon & W atson, 2008a; Savickas, 2001). In addition, the STF has been proposed as an analytical
framework through which career development research can be viewed (McMahon & Watson, 2007a)
and through which career development researchers may position themselves in the context of their
research.
In the present article we describe career development research that is theoretically grounded
in the constructivist STF (McMahon & Patton, 1995; Patton & McMahon, 1999, 2006a) of career
development and that uses the MSCI as a research tool. In particular, it overviews the STF and the
subsequent development of the qualitative career assessment tool, the M SCI (M cMahon, Patton, &
W atson, 2005a, 2005b), both of which have demonstrated their applicability across countries and

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across cultures inclusive of South Africa (Arthur & M cMahon, 2005; M cMahon & W atson, 2007a,
2007b; Patton, McMahon & W atson, 2006). The potential of this emergent body of research to
address issues facing career psychology research in the postmodern era and in South Africa is then
discussed.
The theoretical base of the research
The STF provides the theoretical base for the research discussed in this article. First published as
a metatheoretical framework in 1995 (McM ahon & Patton), the STF was a response to the convergence debate of the early 1990s (e.g. Savickas & Lent, 1994). Described as one of four significant
innovations in career theory (Amundson, 2005), the holistic STF (see Figure 1) accommodates both
the content influences and the process influences of an individuals career development. Content
influences include personal qualities and characteristics intrinsic to individuals, as well as influences
from the context in which they live including the people and organizations with whom they interact,
society and the environment. Content influences are not static and also interact in the process of
career development, thus the STF may be described as a dynamic open system. The dynamism of
the STF is reflected in its process influences, specifically recursiveness (the interaction between
influences), change over time and chance. The content influences are organized in the STF as a
series of three interconnecting systems of influence on career development, termed the individual
system, the social system, and the environmental-societal system. These three systems are set within
the context of past, present and future thus recognizing the process of career development over time.
The individual system comprises a range of intrapersonal influences such as gender, interests,
age, personality, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The intrapersonal influences represent the
subsystems of the individual system. Individuals are both a system and a subsystem. As subsystems,
individuals do not exist in isolation, but rather interact with the influences of a much larger
contextual system which comprises the social system and the environmental-societal system. The
social system refers to influences such as family, educational institutions, peers and the media. The
individual and the social systems occur within the environmental-societal system which includes
influences such as geographic location, socioeconomic circumstances, political decisions and globalization.
The process influences of recursiveness, change over time and chance illustrate the dynamic
nature of career development. Recursiveness refers to multidirectional and nonlinear interaction
within and between influences and systems. The nature of these influences and their degree of influence change over time. Chance refers to unexpected events such as accidents or natural disasters
that may influence career development in ways that are not planned or predictable. All of the process
and content influences are set within the broader system of time. The past influences the present,
and together, past and present influence the future. More extensive descriptions of the STF can be
found in the literature (e.g. McM ahon & Patton, 1995; Patton & McM ahon, 1999, 2006a).
Moving from theory to practice
A major challenge levelled at constructivist theories such as the STF is that of how they may be
applied to practice (Patton & McM ahon, 2006b; Reid, 2006). Indeed, in the developmental history
of the STF much attention has been focused on developing practical applications for diverse client
groups and settings (McM ahon & W atson, 2008a; Patton & McM ahon, 1997; Patton, McM ahon,
& W atson, 2006; W atson & McMahon, 2006). Such applications enable clients to contextualize
their career decisions. The STF has been applied to career counselling (e.g. McMahon, 2005;
McMahon & Patton, 2006; McMahon, Patton, & W atson, 2004; McMahon & W atson, 2008b;
Miller 2004, 2006), multicultural career counselling (e.g. Arthur & McM ahon, 2005; Patton,
McM ahon, & W atson, 2006; M cM ahon & W atson, 2008a), career education (Watson & McM ahon,
2006), and career assessment (e.g. McIlveen et al., 2005; McIlveen et al., 2003; McM ahon, Patton,
& W atson, 2005a,

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Figure 1. Systems Theory Framework of career development

( Patton & McMahon, 1999)
2005b; McMahon, W atson, & Patton, in press a, b). W hile some of these applications have been
developed predominantly at a conceptual level, others (e.g. Arthur & McM ahon, 2005), including
the MSCI, have been developed through rigorous research processes (see McM ahon, W atson, and
Patton (2005) for a description of the development of the MSCI).
The development of the MSCI may be viewed as a response to the challenge of applying
constructivist theory to practice in that it bridges theory and practice (McM ahon, W atson, & Patton,
2005). In this regard, Savickas (2005a) observed that the MSCI represents the translation of a
sophisticated theoretical model into a straightforward counselling method accompanied by coherent
counselling materials (p. iii). The rigorous development process conducted in South Africa and
Australia followed published guidelines for the development of qualitative career assessment instruments (McMahon, Patton, & W atson, 2003) and spanned a three-year period. More recently, an
adult version of the MSCI has been developed and trialled in South Africa, Australia and England
(McM ahon, Watson, & Patton, in press a, b). In essence, the systems of influence of the STF have
been translated into a series of steps in the guided reflection process of the MSCI. Table 1 depicts
a comparison of the elements of the STF and the MSCI. By completing the steps of the guided

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reflection process, individuals visually represent, elaborate, and reflect on their own system of career
influences and create their own career stories (M cMahon, Patton, & W atson, 2004). Through this
sequential process, they come to better understand the uniqueness, wholeness and interconnectedness
of career development. Each step of the MSCI will now be briefly described.

Table 1. Comparison of elements of the STF and MSCI

STF
Content Influences
Individual system of influences
Social system
Environmental-societal system
Past, present, future

Process Influences
Recursiveness, change over time, chance

MSCI
Thinking about who I am
Thinking about the people around me
Thinking about society and the environment
Thinking about my past, present and future
Representing my system of career influences
My System of Career Influences 1
Reflecting on my system of career influences
My action plan
My System of Career Influences 2

The MSCI is a booklet of 12 pages, each of which provides brief information, instructions and
examples, as well as places where reflections can be recorded. The booklet consists of three sections.
In the first section on a page titled my present career situation is a series of open-ended questions
inviting individuals to reflect on topics such as occupational aspirations, work experience, life roles,
previous decision-making and support networks. The next section of the booklet mirrors the
construction of the STF as shown in Table 1. Throughout this section individuals identify, prioritize
and diagrammatically represent their influences on pages titled thinking about who I am (the
individual system), thinking about the people around me (the social system), thinking about society
and the environment (the environmental-societal system), and thinking about my past, present and
future (the context of time). On each page examples of career influences are provided from which
individuals may select or to which they can add their own influences, following which they prioritize
the influences they have selected. Individuals are guided in a summation of their influences by a
page titled representing my system of career influences. The summation of influences is then diagrammatically represented on a chart titled my system of career influences.
In the third section of the MSCI, on a page titled reflecting on my system of career influences,
a series of open-ended guided reflection questions invites individuals to reflect on their system of
career influences and the insights gained through the process of completing the MSCI. On a subsequent page, individuals complete my action plan. There is provision in the MSCI for individuals to
subsequently return to it, complete it for a second time, compare their two systems of career influences and develop a second action plan.
The MSCI demonstrates versatility as a technique that may be used in one on one career
counselling (McM ahon & W atson, 2008a, 2008b; Patton, McM ahon, & W atson, 2006) or in group
settings such as classrooms (Watson & M cMahon, 2006). Its use is described in a Facilitators Guide
(McM ahon, Patton, & W atson, 2005b) which contains a range of supplementary activities and also
considers the role of the career counsellor or career education teacher as a facilitator of a reflective
process. A comprehensive description of the development of the M SCI is available in the literature
(e.g. Patton & McM ahon, 2006a; McMahon, Patton, & W atson, 2005a, 2005b; McM ahon, W atson,
& Patton, 2005).

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Applying theory and practice in research

The theoretically based MSCI was developed through a rigorous research process conducted across
two countries (M cMahon, W atson, & Patton, 2005), applied in practice and is now being used to
stimulate a body of research that McM ahon and W atson (2006) concluded is responsive to the
challenges of career development research in the postmodern era. The MSCI has been used as a
research instrument in both group (e.g. career education lessons) and individual (e.g. career counselling) settings. Two recent studies conducted in South Africa and described in this section illustrate
the recursive relationship between theory and practice and research through the use of the MSCI
with diverse research participants. McM ahon, W atson, Foxcroft, and Dullabh, (2008) described the
use of the MSCI in individual counselling sessions in order to research the career development of
adolescents who were in institutional care from an early developmental age. Their sample of 16
English-speaking adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 years had all experienced early deprivational experiences resulting in developmental and adjustment problems that impacted on various
spheres of their lives including their career development. The adolescents had been placed under
care as children because their parents were either deceased, suffered from alcohol or drug abuse,
incarcerated, or the parents whereabouts were unknown. The procedure of administering the MSCI
essentially followed the process suggested in the Facilitators Guide, specifically conducting a
preliminary activity to develop systemic thinking, completing the MSCI, and then reflecting on the
MSCI diagram.
Kuit (2005) trained career education teachers in two single-sex schools in the use of the MSCI
as a career education process for Grade 11 guidance classes. His sample consisted of 70 Grade 11
middle socioeconomic status, English-speaking boys (n = 35) and girls (n = 35) who were 16 or 17
years of age. As in McM ahon et al.s research, the procedure followed the process suggested in the
Facilitators Guide. In a second phase to his research, Kuit conducted follow-up individual career
counselling sessions with one Grade 11 girl. These sessions were based on the participants completed MSCI and followed what Kuit termed a systemic narrative career counselling process. As
such, the sessions provided the participant with an opportunity to evaluate her MSCI and to reconstruct her career decision-making process within a systemic framework, thus identifying
influential systems in that process.
The results of both studies demonstrated that the MSCI is a useful career education and career
counselling tool, and that core aspects of the STF theory on which it is based were evident in the
participants responses. McM ahon et al.s (in press) research demonstrated that the unique macro
and micro environmental systems within which their sample of disadvantaged adolescents lived
presented contextual influences that differed from those of a normative family system. These adolescents placed a major emphasis on the environmental and societal system in reflecting on their
personal diagram of systemic influences. In particular, the need for financial support was prioritized
by most of these adolescents. The influence of family was described in terms of significant others
in the adolescents lives such as the role of designated house parents within the institutional system.
Kuits (2005) research also endorsed the utility of the MSCI in group and individual contexts.
Besides the qualitative feedback from the career educators that the MSCI was useful in providing
scaffolding within which participants could position the complex system of both macro and micro
career influences on their career development, there was a notable emphasis on environmentalsocietal influences on the adolescents career development. Financial costs of further education as
well as the availability of future work emerged as important areas of reflection in both samples. In
the female sample there were additional themes that included the desire to work overseas and the
geographic location of their future training and education. In terms of the MSCIs conceptualization
of past, present and future, only the influence of future considerations (such as anticipated lifestyle
and the possible combining of work and family roles) emerged in both samples.
In addition, the career educators reported that working through the MSCI booklet had encouraged a greater awareness in the participants of the impact of the environmental-societal influences they had identified on their career decision making process. Similarly, Kuit (2005) themed a

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large number of the participants reflections as focusing on the extent of the influences they had
identified on their career development. Participants reported being surprised by or becoming newly
aware of how much the various systems of influence in the MSCI had played a role in their careerrelated experiences. Several adolescents reported that the MSCI had allowed them to consider how
their career development had been shaped and constructed by prominent influences and how their
career development might be otherwise.
Kuits (2005) results from the second phase of his research, the follow-up individual career
counselling sessions using the MSCI as a framework, demonstrated how the participant developed
a more agentive identity as a consequence of reflecting on the influences in her career development.
First, the participant was encouraged to reflect on her career situation using her answers to a set of
open-ended questions contained in the first section of the MSCI. Second, following a step-by-step
process, the participant engaged in a counselling session based on her system of influences diagram
constructed in the classroom setting. In the career counselling process, the participant reflected on
the pressures that identified systemic social and environmental-societal influences had on her career
decision making process, resulting in the decision to recursively engage with her parents and other
significant individuals about her career future and the need for more time to properly explore her
career options. W ith the assistance of the career counsellor, the participant then developed an action
plan to assist her with her career decision making.
As reflected in this research example, the MSCI assists individuals to identify concrete steps
in their action plans. Clients may enact their action plans themselves, as with Kuits (2005) client.
Alternatively, there may be a role for career counsellors to assist clients in enacting their action plans
through systemic interventions such as parent interviews or advocacy on their behalf (e.g. with an
employer). As a result of group processes using the MSCI, facilitators or career education teachers
may identify topics that could be best dealt with in a whole group situation, for example, resume
writing or coping with transition.
Responding to issues in career development research
As illustrated in the previous discussion of preliminary South African research using the STF and
MSCI, future research grounded in the STF and M SCI could respond to issues in career development research by diversifying samples, capitalising on the metatheoretical capabilities of the STF,
broadening the evidence base of STF derived practices, and the further development of tools and
counselling approaches. For instance, the nature of recursiveness within research utilizing an STF
framework and the MSCI is demonstrated in both studies. The researchers and their participants are
in multi-leveled and multi-layered recursive roles as career counsellors and students, career counsellor and client, as well as a mentor of career education teachers. Kuit (2005) and McM ahon et al.s
(in press) research also demonstrates the relationship between theory and research in their use of the
STF as a metatheoretical framework for integrating diverse theoretical and counselling models. Kuit
integrates narrative therapy and discursive analysis within a counselling model that is guided by the
MSCI, while McMahon et al. consider several career theories of childhood career development within the guiding framework of the STF in conceptualizing their research participants. Thus, both
research studies provide clear evidence of a multi-layer and multi-level recursiveness between
theory, research and practice.
There is also evidence that both studies have used the STF and the MSCI in order to research
within the context and culture of the research participants. McM ahon et al. (in press) have used the
MSCI successfully with a group of socially disadvantaged adolescents, while Kuit (2005) has
studied the systemic influences on the career development of socially advantaged adolescents. Further, there are recursive implications in the research findings themselves. For instance, the identification and prioritization of certain systemic influences on the career development of adolescents
(whether advantaged or disadvantaged) suggests that career education programmes should be
informed by student needs, for example, the prevalent identified need to travel and work overseas.
Thus, recursiveness can be seen to function at two levels: the macro level of theory, research and

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191

practice (i.e. theoretical relationship between practice and research), as well as the micro level of
the individual (i.e. interaction between individuals and their systems of influence) and the reflective
process inherent in the MSCI.
The centrality of the individual is a particular feature of constructivist theory, the STF and the
practice and research it has stimulated. Narrative and storied approaches and meaning provide a
foundation for the qualitative career assessment processes derived from the STF (i.e. the MSCI)
(McM ahon, Patton, & W atson, 2005a, 2005b; McIlveen et al., 2005; McIlveen et al., 2003) and also
add to the emergent body of research using the STF and the MSCI. The raised profile of narrative,
story and meaning is related to the centrality of the individual in the STF and the MSCI and the individuals relationship with each of the influences and systems of influence.
It is not so much the identification of influences that is important in research using the MSCI,
but rather the priority afforded to influences by research participants and the meaning ascribed to
and stories told about influences. For example, one talented musician may prioritize exceptional
talent in music and construct a story involving music as a future occupational pathway because of
their passion for it regardless of the uncertainty of employment, whereas another may not prioritize
exceptional talent in music at all and construct a story about music as a future hobby because they
find the constant need to practice a burden and the uncertainty of employment a concern. This example describes a particular feature of qualitative assessment and research instruments such as the
MSCI, specifically their capacity through in-depth reflection to facilitate clients and counsellors
unpacking and transforming the intertwined contextual factors that shape our working lives
(Blustein et al. 2005, p. 367).
Fundamental to the previous examples is the STF construct of recursiveness and its ability to
examine the relational aspects of career development. Indeed, McMahon and W atson (2007a,
2007b) suggested that the construct of recursiveness provides a means to understand issues facing
career development research, and that it also represents a strength of research based on the STF and
MSCI that is critical to the future expansion of STF research. For example, the multi-leveled and
multi-layered nature of recursiveness was highlighted by the MSCI research examples being recursively embedded into the practices of career education and career counselling, the research
participants also being clients and students, and the researchers being career counsellors. In addition,
the research was recursively embedded in the context and culture of the participants. Thus a multileveled and multi-layered recursive relationship was demonstrated between theory, practice and
research. Specifically, as the research procedures were also career development interventions, the
participants experienced direct benefits from their participation in the research rather than simply
providing research data for the researchers, as is the case in some more traditional research paradigms. In this regard, results may be viewed in terms of personal benefits to participants and in terms
of research findings presented and analysed by the researchers. McMahon and W atson (2007a,
2007b) regard recursiveness as a fundamental construct in research examining the effects of career
practice on individuals, the relationship between individuals and their social and environmentalsocietal influences, and the relationship between theory, practice and research.
CONCLUSION
Research based on the STF and its qualitative career assessment tool, the MSCI, is embryonic. However, there are signs that this innovative qualitative career assessment tool is generating new methods
of inquiry that are responsive to identified issues in the field of career development research both
internationally and in South Africa. W hile there is much more future research to be undertaken using
the STF and the MSCI, what has emerged at this early stage as a strength of this body of research
is the recursive relationship it has demonstrated between career theory, research and practice. Thus
the STF and MSCI have the potential to address key concerns facing career development research
in the postmodern era and in South Africa.

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