Narrative construction of vocational identity in university students: The role of influential experiences and significant others in the framework of cultural psychology

Abstract

This study sought to understand the process of construction of the vocational identity of university students. Assuming cultural psychology as a theoretical reference, a qualitative methodology was adopted, with a narrative perspective. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 participants, male and female engineering, and psychology students from two universities in Colombia about their exploration process, choice, commitment, and reconsideration to the career. In the findings the vocational identity emerges as a product of the negotiation of meanings between the personal dimension and the social dimension of individuals, which allows them to intentionally orient their actions towards the achievement of their life goals. In turn, the negotiation between these two dimensions occurs through psychosocial processes derived from the influential experiences and interactions with significant others. These processes facilitate the appropriation of the folk psychology of a socio-cultural context, a background of meanings about occupational and/or educational practices on which the vocational identity is configured. It is concluded that vocational identity is a process in constant formation shaped by a social scaffolding mechanism; namely, support structures that provided by the relational resource in the context of everyday interactions and that assist in the configuration of vocational identity of young people. It has an important organizing function of experiences, emotions, cognitions, and actions in the occupational and educational spheres. The conceptual model validated by the findings allows understanding the process of negotiation of identity meanings and the construction of possible vocational worlds.