The hegemonic psychological discourse and its implications for career counselling and psychological intervention

ABSTRACT

We examine a focus group with eight Portuguese psychologists (four career counsellors) on two quantitative studies' results focused on the psychosocial consequences of unemployment/precarity/uncertainty, exploring how do they: give meaning to the results, perceive their professional role, and think that socio-political issues influence their practice. Data were analysed through thematic social-constructionist and critical discourse analyses. Two themes (the construction of the “employable individual” and the limits of psychology), and two discourses (the hegemonic psychological discourse reflecting neoliberal discourses and adaptation to the labour market and “the social context is an aggressor” highlighting socio-political/economic roots of psychological ailments) were identified. We aim to foster a reflection on socially-just practices within career counselling, and to promote people’s agency/conscientisation/emancipation and career development.

KEYWORDS:

• Hegemonic psychological discourse
• career counselling
• psychological intervention
• social justice
• conscientisation
• emancipation

Acknowledgements

We are immensely grateful to the participants of this study, as well as to the participants of the quantitative studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We focus on empowerment not as the access to psychological resources (that would lead to feeling empowered) and thus, not an individualised form of empowerment, but on how psychology can contribute for people to regain actual power (as access to material resources in social circumstances that enable individual and collective agency) – not a merely individual form of empowerment (which would result in further forms of responsibilisation and psychologisation) but a collective and communitarian one (Prilleltensky, 1994; Rutherford, 2018), assuming a role in class struggle (Arfken, 2018; Harvey, 2005).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT – Portuguese national funding agency for science, research and technology) within the first author’s doctoral research - Ref. PD/BD: 128212/2016.

Notes on contributors

M. Lucas Casanova

Lucas Casanova, M. PhD, is a Psychologist in Portugal whose specialisation is in Clinical and Health Psychology, Education Psychology, and Vocational Psychology and Career Development. Her research interests lie within historical and social dimensions of psychological uncertainty in its relationship with work and the labour market, with socioeconomic and cultural constraints of contemporary societies and psychological development, focusing on the psychological experiences of vulnerable individuals and groups.

Patrício Costa

Patrício Costa, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the School of Medicine of the University of Minho and at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto, Portugal. His expertise is in data analysis in natural and social sciences as well as in contemporary political processes.

Rebecca Lawthom

Rebecca Lawthom, PhD, is a Full Professor and Head of the School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. Her research interests are in the areas of community psychology, disability and feminism, and she has undertaken research projects which take experiences of marginalisation seriously and has worked in participatory ways with others to achieve social change.

Joaquim Luís Coimbra

Joaquim Luís Coimbra, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto, Portugal. He is a Member (previously Director) of the Centre for Career Development and Lifelong Learning, Director of the Master’s in Education and Adult Training, and Member of the Ethical Commission and Scientific Commission of the Doctoral Program in Psychology. His research interests lie within developmental psychology, vocational/professional development, the experience of work and unemployment, the impact of social contexts on these matters through critical and integrative approaches.