Doctoral Candidate Brochure: Logan Vess

Doctoral Dissertation Defense
of
Logan Vess

For the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
Counselor Education and Supervision

My Career Story Workbook Efficacy with College Students: A Randomized Trial

January 20, 2026
10:00 a.m.
308D White Hall

My Career Story Workbook Efficacy with College Students: A Randomized Trial

The purpose of these two experimental studies was to evaluate the My Career Story (MCS; Savickas & Hartung, 2012) workbook as a narrative career intervention supporting self-authorship and reflection among college students in emerging adulthood. Grounded in Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 2005) and the self-authorship framework (Baxter Magolda, 2001), the first study examined whether completing the MCS—with or without orientation and debriefing videos—enhanced scores on the Self-Authorship Scale (SAS; Creamer et al., 2010). The second explored changes in participants’ Future Career Autobiographies (FCA; Rehfuss, 2009) using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2015) to measure reflection, positivity, and future orientation.

Quantitative results indicated that students who completed the MCS independently demonstrated the highest gains in Early Self-Authorship, suggesting that self-directed engagement may promote greater autonomy than externally guided formats. In the FCA study, participants showed significant increases in word count, insight, and future-focused language, indicating more elaborate and reflective narratives. Together, these findings highlight the MCS’s ability to enhance narrative depth, self-reflection, and future orientation.

Collectively, results support the MCS as a low-cost, scalable intervention that fosters career adaptability and identity development during emerging adulthood. Both studies demonstrate that linguistic and developmental indicators can meaningfully capture narrative change, offering implications for integrating the MCS into counseling and career education contexts.