Does Practice Enhance Adaptability? The Role of Personality Trait, Supervisor Behavior, and Career Development Training.

Mei Mei,Fu Yang,Mingfeng Tang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.594791

Abstract

Drawing upon career construction theory, we examined the mediating effect of deliberate practice (DP) on career adaptability (CA) and the effects of learning goal orientation (LGO) and supervisor incompetence accusations (SIA) as well as career development training (CDT) on DP. Using data collected from 204 Chinese PhD students in three waves over a period of 2 months, we found that individuals who were inclined to learn new skills and obtain new knowledge were more likely to deliberately practice professional activities in their fields. When a PhD student’s professional competence was questioned by his or her supervisor, the student was more prone to negative emotions and would reduce his or her effort in the development of expertise. CDT – contrary to expectations – negatively predicted DP of professional activities. One possible reason is that the participants in this study have strong autonomy so that those who really struggling are participating in training and seeking help and those who with strong professional abilities are not accessing training programs. Moreover, results showed that DP of professional activities significantly promoted PhD students to adapt to their academic circumstances. Implications for career-related practice within the academic domain are provided.

Highlights

Career adaptability (CA), a central construct of career construction theory (Savickas, 2002; Savickas et al, 2009), represents individuals’ psychosocial resources that help one to fit environmental change (Savickas, 1997)
In order to explore the role of individual characteristics in predicting one’s adaptability, we focus on learning goal orientation (LGO), a relatively stable personality trait that refers to the tendency to develop competence and master new ideas (Dweck, 1986; Tolentino et al, 2014)
We focus on career development training (CDT), as a key predictor of deliberate practice (DP), referring to the experience in participating in multiple career activities including career interventions, career courses, and career counseling

Summary

Introduction

Career adaptability (CA), a central construct of career construction theory (Savickas, 2002; Savickas et al, 2009), represents individuals’ psychosocial resources that help one to fit environmental change (Savickas, 1997). The increased workloads and continuous change in academic research make universities increasingly stressful environments, resulting in a number of reports of mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety among PhD students (Levecque et al, 2017). CA is considered as an effective human capital that enables individuals to reduce work stress (Johnston et al, 2013) and to form successful adaptation (Negru-Subtirica and Pop, 2016). In this respect, we emphasize the importance of CA in the academic context and focus on exploring the antecedents and underlying mechanisms of the development of CA

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion