VOCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
CALLED! SPU’s Online Field Guide
While this page is labeled vocational psychology, it often
feels impossible to disaggregate our projects into discrete categories.
For example, examining calling in a sample of students engaged in global
service learning and examining the career development needs of
repatriated missionary kids include strong global elements.
From an applied/program development perspective, the creation of SPU’s
Online Field Guide (described below) was, in part, motivated by as well
as the creation of a sustainable system to disseminate a career
intervention (OFG). Further, the GCA-ships were created to be mutually
beneficial to the insitution (e.g., more career counselors, better
integration of graduate students into the campus culture) and doctoral
students (e.g., training, clinical experience, funding).
The projects describe below highlight Dr. Bikos’ love of vocational
psychology (e.g., superivising the GCAs, teaching career development)
and technology (e.g., creating the Canvas course).
The Bikos RVT implements the campus-wide vocational intervention,
CALLED! SPU’s Online Field Guide (the OFG). The OFG was
born out of a 3-year, campus-wide, task force that sought to meet the
career development needs of the undergraduate students. The task force
created a passport-sized, paper, Field
Guide; the BikosRVT translated it into Canvas.
Each year, undergraduate students are presented with 6-10 activities
(we avoid calling them “assignments”) that assist them with adjusting to
campus/college, self-exploration, exploring the world-of-work, job
search skills, and discernment. The OFG remains available to the student
after graduation.
In support of the OFG, nearly every Bikos RVT member is an interventionist, analyst, or both.
- Interventionists are assigned to a cohort of SPU students, providing feedback on OFG activities and responses to questions.
- Analysts are crunching numbers from a random clinical trial that preceded the campus-wide implementation.
- Quarterly checkpoints are designed into the OFG and the suite of measures that follows a student (for up to five years) are selected for each incoming cohort of students. These provide an infinite well of longitudinal data around emerging adulthood for dissertations and MRPs.
Image of the cover of the paper version of the Field Guide.
Graduate Career Advisors (GCAs)
SPU’s Center for
Career and Calling hire Graduate Career Advisors (usually working 6
to 16 hours per week) who provide career counseling and instruction
(workshops, teaching career planning courses) to SPU students and
alumni. While these are competitive GAships, they often come from the
Bikos RVT and Dr. Bikos provides clinical supervision and training in
vocational psychology.
All RVT members benefit from the BikosRVT/Center or Career & Calling partnership. The two groups partner several times a year for training in the theory, research, and practice of career development/vocational psychology.
Recent Pubs
- Campanario, S., Bikos, L. H., & Kendall, D. (2020). Ignatian spirituality and career development: New evidence for age old practices. Journal of Career Development. Online first https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.spu.edu/doi/10.1177/0894845320957086
- Bikos, L. H., Rodney, H., Gowen, M., Yamamoto, Y., & Dykhouse, E. C. (2015). Effects of searching, faith, and time on the presence of calling in international service learning returnees. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 34(4), 325-339.
- De Paul Chism, N., & Bikos, L. H. (2015). Perceived organizational support: A meaningful contributor to expatriate development professionals’ psychological well-being International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 49, 25-32. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.06.004
- Bikos, L. H., Haney, D., Edwards, R.W., North, M. A., Quint, M., & McLellan, J. (2014). Missionary Kid career development: A CQR investigation through a social cognitive lens. The Career Development Quarterly, 62(2), 156-174. doi:10.1080/21635781.2013.835241
- Bikos, L. H., Dykhouse, E. C., Boutin, S. K., Gowen, M. J., & Rodney, H. E. (2013). Annual Review: Practice and research in career counseling and development – 2012. The Career Development Quarterly, 61(4), 290-329. doi: 0.1002/j.2161-0045.2013.00058.x
Recent Presentations
Image of the a poster evaluating the random clinical trial associated with the OFG.
Image of the a poster from the OFG random clinical trial evaluating the additive component of discernment.
Image of the a poster evaluating mediated and moderated models of calling in international immersion learning returnees.
Image of the a poster reporting results of a qualitative investigation into the career development experiences of repatriation missionary kids.
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