The soul of work: Using case studies in the teaching of vocational psychology

Working from a paradigm that considers work issues as either central or contextual requires a shift in the way many counseling psychologists think about the world. Perhaps the easiest time to implement such a paradigm is while students are in training, when they are confronted daily with new ways to think of the world. The purpose of this article is to examine how the use of case studies during training can serve to locate vocational psychology within counseling psychology, with one result being the enhancement of trainees' ability and willingness to consider the whole person (when vocational issues are primary) and to consider work as a major contextual issue (when it is not the presenting concern). To accomplish this goal, the authors' approach is threefold: (a) to offer support for the use of case studies in teaching, (b) to provide a brief discussion of reasons that students struggle with the location of vocational psychology within counseling psychology and how the use of case studies helps address this struggle, and (c) to describe specific ways to integrate cases into courses (vocational as well as nonvocational), including ethical issues in handling cases.