In our last blog, Jeff described how Mark Savickas explains identity from a constructivist perspective, within which the individual uses their cognitive linguistic abilities together with information from the societal/cultural context to arrive at a constructed vocational identity. Adherents to this approach suggest that the connections between internal psychological dynamics and the messages and demands of society interact to give rise to identity.  In this blog, I (John) will briefly discuss another approach to identity formation known as the structural stage approach and point out components of this perspective that contribute to vocational identity formation.

The structural stage approach focuses on intrapsychic configurations that change over time.  At each particular stage of development, this configuration (typically the ego) enables the individual to interpret and make sense of their social/cultural world.  Structural development follows a particular and sequential pattern over time. Each successive configuration helps the person to have an increasingly complex way of making sense of their experiences.   To describe this process of change, the structural stage approach uses Piaget’s idea of accommodation. When new information can no longer be integrated into existing structures or cognitive schemas, the schema are changed. 

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