This book is concerned with trainee professionals and their search for meaning through the determined and creative pursuit of a cross-cultural career transition. Adopting a qualitative research framework, the book describes the career experience of professional trainees from non-Western cultures who have chosen to develop their careers in the West. It examines the process of the initial consideration of change, the exploring of options (including whether to emigrate) and how the many issues and challenges of adapting to the socio-cultural environment of the host country were met. In addition it examines how the process provided the trainee professionals involved with greater self-understanding and how as a result they were able to further consider their future career plans. The book then highlights the implications of these experiences for theory, research and practice.

This book provides an original research study on the life-career development experiences of new and recent immigrant professionals to Canada. Literature addressing Canada's immigrant professionals has primarily focused on the negative aspects of migration and life-career transition, such as barriers, discrimination and underemployment. Surprisingly few studies have explored how, in spite of personal and environmental barriers, some new Canadians have flourished in their new country. The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of immigrant professionals who believe they have successfully transitioned in the life-career domains. While recognizing difficulties and roadblocks, the book presents a unique insight in the career development field. Twenty individuals were interviewed using a grounded theory approach. Analysis revealed that internal and external factors contributed or hindered their life-career trajectories. Meaning making, social support and behavioural coping emerged as primary coping strategies. Issues with language and accreditation emerged as significant barriers to life-career development. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

The intention of this book is to present an empirical research study which examines the role and function of anxiety, self-efficacy, and resource management strategies on academic achievement within the university student population. The present study extended previous research by incorporating and investigating a number of critical issues such as student beliefs, motivation, resource management skills, anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, self-efficacy, and achievement. Results of the study suggest that early intervention from counsellors and professors may help university students overcome debilitating anxiety, increase self-efficacy, strengthen resource management strategies and improve overall academic experience.

This book examines a research study that describes the critical interaction between ethnicity and career development in lives of Chinese-Canadian young adults. Through an empirical inquiry following a qualitative research framework, the book provides an in-depth foundation for the scarcely researched area of career development of Chinese-Canadians, engendering original new knowledge contributing to the interdisciplinary studies of vocational and career psychology and cross-cultural psychology. Drawn from several major career development theories and other pertinent literature, the research participants' dynamic and complex processes involved in career choice and decision-making are identified and analysed.

The book presents a research study that examined the retraining and career development experiences of new and professional immigrants in Canada. The study intended to provide an in-depth perspective into the influence of immigrants optimism and self-efficacy on their retraining and career development experiences. Using a qualitative methodology, in-depth interviews were conducted and a grounded theory approach was employed to analyze the data. Central themes within participant narratives emerged and key results were introduced. Participants experiences included a myriad of barriers and challenges, yet many viewed this experience as a positive opportunity for growth and development. The results explored differences between optimists and pessimists retraining and career development experiences, as well as the role of self-efficacy within immigrants career development. Results have implications for career and vocational psychology literature, practice, and career counselling, and include suggestions for future researchers.

This book aims to promote individuals' personal and vocational wellbeing through an increased awareness on the invaluable nature of the positive role interaction between work and family contexts. Built upon rich theoretical and empirical evidence in the existing literature, the book presents a research study focusing on the construct of work-family enrichment, one of several constructs representing the positive interdependencies of work and family roles. It illustrates vividly how the psychological process of enrichment takes place, demonstrating movements and correlations between various variables and dynamics in the process. Through a critical eye, findings of the current research contribute to greater understanding of the positive linkages between work and family role participation. The book concludes with a synopsis of the newly expanded, innovative, and comprehensive framework of worklife and family life enrichment, highlighting the implications for theory, research, and practice. Researchers, scholars, and practitioners in various walks of social sciences can benefit form this book, especially those who work in areas of vocational and career psychology, organizational and industrial psychology, health psychology, counselling psychology, human resource management and development, and other related fields. Nevertheless, readers do not have to be experts in these human services realms only. Lay workers across professions can enjoy the insights and intelligence from this book for their own work-family wellbeing.