The Contribution of the Life-Span Developmental Approach to the Study of Young Adult’s Identity Construction

Abstract

The concepts of micro-, meso- and macro- system and of (notably dyadic) interactions are central in the Vondracek’s approach to career development. These concepts combined with those of fields and habitus (Bourdieu, 1979), of “modes of relating to self” (Foucault, 1984) and of social representations (Moscovici, 1988) permit to describe the construction’s processes of the flexible identities that are required in liquid modernity. In the first part of this chapter, we examine these sociological based approaches to show that social interactions allow the sharing of the social world with the individual and manifest the individual agency and his/her abilities of be a social actor as well. Social interactions contribute fully to the evolving shape of the individual-context relationships and to identity construction. These psychosocial and social theories represent distinct perspectives that are increasingly compatible with one another and with approaches enlightening career development processes. In a second part of the chapter, we seek to underline that such concepts’ combination could also serve as a basis for self designing interventions. Indeed on the basis of these different approaches, the making oneself model (Guichard, 2009) can be seen as a theoretical framework for counseling dialogues for young people which permits them to develop a self reflection on their main social interactions and activities in their daily life. This approach will be presented and discussed in its ability to increase new perspectives for their future life. The third part of this chapter intends notably to give some illustrations showing the importance of mesosystem transitions in these processes. Several examples concerning young adults in different kind of situations of training in a French context (apprentices, vocational high school pupils, doctoral students) will be proposed to enlighten the role of counseling situations to empower young adults identity construction.