ABSTRACT
Vocational psychology, a specialty within applied psychology, is the scientific enterprise that conducts research to advance knowledge about vocational behavior, improve career interventions, and inform social policy about work issues (Savickas, 2001). In this third edition of the Handbook of Vocational Psychology, we once again survey the current status of the discipline and seek to chart its future advances by presenting the research and reflection of leading scholars in the field. The authors in this volume address the central topics that comprise the cutting edge of the discipline, with regard to both innovations in career theory and research and improvement in counseling practice. Their chapters are organized into four sections to ensure that this survey of the discipline is broad in scope and comprehensive in content. The three chapters in the first section of the Handbook consider the current status and future possibilities for vocational psychology and its theories of career development. The authors, in turn, examine the field and its theories from the perspectives of historical processes, cultural studies, and women’s studies. Following the opening section, which deals with vocational psychology as a field, are two sections that address in turn the two major domains of vocational psychology. These two subject matters are constituted by using occupational entry as a criterion for differentiating the two broad classes of vocational behavior: choice and adjustment (Crites, 1969). The four chapters in the second section of the Handbook deal with research on vocational choice, whereas the four chapters in the third section deal with research on work adjustment. The three chapters in
the final section of the Handbook examine the practice of vocational psychology, emphasizing career counseling.
