Contextual Action Theory

Contextual Action Theory "is based on the notion that people's behaviours can be understood as goal-directed actions" (University of British Columbia, 2023). Developed in the 1990s by Ladislav Valach who is in private practice in Berne,Switzerland, and Richard Young from the Canadian University of British Columbia. 

CAT links our actions, a particular project and perhaps our career. Each element of which should contain goal-oriented actions which are intentional. Together the three elements - over our life span - form our 'Life Design' (Young & Valach, 2016). The action element refers to specific goal-oriented behaviours that occur sequentially, that we plan to deliver within a reasonably short time-frame. So perhaps we might be talking about doing the coding for an aspect of an App we are developing. Then each project contains a larger group of actions which collectively have a common goal, occurring often intermittently over a longer period of time. For example, we might be getting our App ready for market. Lastly, the career element contains the series of projects strung together with a common long-term meaning. An example of this may be all the products we produce in our entrepreneurial coding business. Thus, everything we do individually as our actions, accumulate into projects, which agglomerates into our career (University of British Columbia, 2023; Valach & Young, 2002).

Termed "a joint systemic goal-directed activity" (Young & Valach, 2016, p. 32), CAT is a "manifest, subjective, social, verbal and non-verbal, conscious and unconscious, and short-, medium-, and long-term process" (p. 33). As a theory, it works well with people who already have a clear sense of career identity, who are now ready to move onto making decisions about where their next steps will take them. From this point, each of the behaviours we decide to engage in implies an activity that we are going to undertake, which in turn implies a goal - or goals - we are aiming to achieve... which in turn lead towards a project... and to a fulfilling career.

There is deliberateness, or intentionality in this process: this is not happenstance (Krumboltz, 2009), but purposefulness (University of British Columbia, 2023; Valach & Young, 2002). We set out to achieve goals, and we work at them until we achieve them. Then we step onto the next item in our planned path.

Deliberately.

Sam

References:

Krumboltz, J. D. (2009). The happenstance learning theory. Journal of Career Assessment, 17(2), 135-154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072708328861

Psychology. (2023). Action Theory. https://psychology.iresearchnet.com/counseling-psychology/counseling-theories/action-theory-counseling/

Truyens, M. (2023). Contextual Action Theory (CAT). Marcr. https://marcr.net/marcr-for-career-professionals/career-theory/career-theories-and-theorists/contextual-action-theory-cat/

University of British Columbia. (2023). Contextual Action Theory. https://actiontheory.research.educ.ubc.ca/

Valach, L. (1990). A theory of goal-directed action in career analysis. In R. A. Young & W. A. Borgen (Eds.), Methodological approaches to the study of career (pp. 107-126). Praeger.

Valach, L., & Young, R. A. (2002). Contextual Action Theory in Career Counselling: Some Misunderstood Issues. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 36(2), 97-112. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ648430.pdf 

Young, R. A., & Valach, L. (2016). Action and language: Contextual action theory in counselling. Psychologie Française, 61(1), 31-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psfr.2013.03.001