Process Variables: Maturity, Identity, Decision Making, and Adjustment

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the four main process variables of career maturity, vocational identity, career decision making, and career adjustment. Process variables are complex, multi-faceted constructs, which capture underlying cognitions, behaviours, and affect related to career development. For example, career maturity reflects age-appropriate competencies related to self-understanding, understanding of the world of work, career decision making, and career planning. Process variables have long been influential in the career development area as they reflect critical constructs in mainstream career development theories. Being multi-faceted, a considerable number of measures have been devised to assess the constructs, or aspects of the constructs, and we identify the main assessment tools for each, and comment on their applicability for use in the career counseling process.