Journal of Career Assessment

Subjective well-being has often been studied as a context-free construct, reflecting overall life satisfaction and characteristic levels of positive affect and negative affect. But there has also been much interest in domain-specific aspects of subjective well-being, such as job satisfaction. The authors provide a brief overview of the two primary conceptual approaches to the study of well-being in psychology and consider job satisfaction in relation to one of them (the hedonic approach). They then describe a newly developed social cognitive model that is designed to capture the interplay among multiple (e.g., affective, cognitive, behavioral, social) sources of job satisfaction. The model's potential implications for career assessment and intervention are also considered.

This article extends recent work on the relationship between personality and career self-efficacy by examining relationships across two new inventories with scales for identifying human strengths. The Healthy Personality Inventory (HPI) has 17 content scales tapping an array of positive personality measures. The CAPA Confidence Inventory (CCI) has 6 broad, 27 basic, and 6 engagement styles measures of career self-efficacy. In a sample of college students, hypothesized correlations between personality and self-efficacy were generally confirmed. A number of unexpected relationships also were found, such as the HPI Creative scale predicting social and enterprising confidence. These inventories show promise for continued research, theory development, and assessment practice.

Most people have positive views of their general happiness or subjective well-being (SWB). Furthermore, SWB tends to be stable and rebound to prior levels following events or circumstances that might be expected to change its level. The authors speculate about ways a theory of person–environment transactions—Holland's theory of vocational personalities and work environments—may help individuals understand some of the observed features of SWB. Testable hypotheses are offered as suggestions for advancing research on both the theory and SWB.

This article argues that vocational psychology is, and has been, positive psychology. It provides an overview of the theory of work adjustment (TWA), one of the most robust and best validated theories in vocational psychology. It also provides an introduction to person-environment-correspondence (PEC) counseling, an extension of the TWA concepts and dynamics into the realm of general counseling. Linkages are made between the extensive TWA literature and current conceptualizations regarding well-being. In particular, TWA is related to the work of Moos, Ryan and Deci, and Walsh. Although PEC has yet to generate the research base of TWA, it is argued that, given the similarities between TWA and PEC, one might reasonably expect that many of the connections between TWA and well-being would also generalize to PEC. In addition, it is argued that PEC offers a counseling model that is in keeping with the broader philosophical orientation of positive psychology.

Experienced happiness and reported life contentment represent cardinal elements of subjective well-being (SWB). Achieving happiness and contentment with work and other domains, such as love, play, and community, constitute fundamental life goals. Career construction offers a developmental theory of vocational behavior and a career assessment and counseling model counselors can use to promote client SWB. As an intervention model, career construction assists individuals with using work to foster self-completion and derive meaning, satisfaction, and happiness as they design their lives. Career construction counseling promotes SWB because its aims are consistent with increasing both immediate life satisfaction and overall life contentment. The present analysis describes the basic principles and practice of career construction and explains the career style interview as an assessment and counseling method useful for assisting individuals to identify and pursue self-selected goals and projects, endeavors that contribute to SWB.

This article describes the relationship between interests and well-being by conceptualizing interest as both an emotional state and a stable disposition. First, interest is explored as a distinct emotion or affective state, itself a form of well-being that also leads to other forms of well-being by facilitating the development of diverse life experiences and competencies. Next, the theoretical linkage between affective interest and stable, enduring interests (or what interest inventories measure) is summarized. Finally, evidence suggesting that interests predict well-being in the domains of work and leisure is reviewed. Part of living the good life, the authors conclude, means living the interested life.

Past research has demonstrated a relationship between happiness and workplace success. For example, compared with their less happy peers, happy people earn more money, display superior performance, and perform more helpful acts. Researchers have often assumed that an employee is happy and satisfied because he or she is successful. In this article, the authors review evidence in support of an alternative hypothesis—namely, that happiness is a source of why particular employees are more successful than others. To this end, the authors consider evidence from three types of studies—cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental—that relate happiness to various work outcomes. Taken together, the evidence suggests that happiness is not only correlated with workplace success but that happiness often precedes measures of success and that induction of positive affect leads to improved workplace outcomes.

Research has clearly shown the relationship between subjective well-being and work performance, even though there is debate over the causality of that relationship (i.e., does subjective well-being cause higher work performance or does greater work performance lead to subjective well-being?). Regardless, researchers and practitioners would agree that having employees who are productive and have high subjective well-being is valuable. The purpose of this article is to review research in this area and to discuss strategies for promoting well-being at the workplace.