Psychological, Educational and Sociological Perspectives on Success and Well-being in Career Development

This collection covers how success and well-being relate to each other in early career development in the domains of employment and education. It gives a conceptual overview of success and well-being as established in the psychological research tradition, complemented by educational and sociological approaches. The volume presents articles on success and well-being in applied contexts, such as well-being as an individual resource during school-to-work transition, or well-being and success at the workplace. Work psychologists, social psychologists, educational researchers, and sociologists will find this book valuable, as it provides unique insights into social and psychological processes afforded by the combination of disciplines, concepts, and a diversity of approaches.

Anita C. Keller, Dr., is a postdoc researcher at the University of Bern (Department of Psychology). She graduated in Psychology from the University of Bern and worked as a researcher at TREE (Transition from Education to Employment Project, University of Basel) and the University Hospital Basel before she joined the University of Bern. Currently she manages a Swiss Science Foundation project (entitled Individual Trajectories of Working Life in Switzerland) and projects with Health Promotion Switzerland aiming at preventing stress at work. Her main research interests relate to work design, stress at work, success at work, attitudes, well-being, and the self. A special interest lies on the interplay of work characteristics, well-being, and the self over longer time spans and the meaning of changes in working conditions for employees.

Robin Samuel, Dr., is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge (Department of Sociology), an Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (School of Social and Political Science), and an affiliated researcher at the University of Basel (Social Research and Methodology Group). From 2012 to 2013, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University (Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality). He graduated in sociology, sustainable development, and modern history from the University of Basel in 2008, worked as a researcher with Prof. Dr. M. M. Bergman at the Chair of Social Research and Methodology (University of Basel) 2009 to 2012, and obtained a PhD in sociology in 2012. His current research addresses (i) the role of cognitive and noncognitive characteristics for labor market outcomes and social mobility, (ii) over- and underwork against the backdrop of shifts in skill supply and demand, (iii) the gendered interplay between success and well-being, (iv) how habitual factors affect individual energy consumption patterns, and (v) the application of Bayesian statistics to fallacies.

Manfred Max Bergman, PhD, is Professor of Social Research and Methodology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He obtained a BA from the University of California, a Diplome d'etudes superieures from the University of Geneva, and a PhD from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge, England. Concurrent to his chair at the University of Basel, he holds a fellowship at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) as well as the African Doctoral Academy at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He is currently working on sustainable development in association with education, employment, and organizations.

Norbert K. Semmer, PhD, is Professor emeritus of the Psychology of Work and Organizations at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He studied psychology in Regensburg (Germany), Groningen (The Netherlands), and Berlin (Germany). His major areas of interest relate to (1) stress at work, (2) efficiency in work behavior, and (3) human error and its implications for quality and safety. He is Co-Principal Investigator of a large longitudinal study on the transition of young people from vocational training to work (Work Experience and Quality of Life in Switzerland: work, Stress, and Personality Development; AQUAS”. Semmer has recently developed a concept that focuses on Stress as Offense to Self.