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Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Alayan, Alexandra J., author"

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    Meaning making and faith-work integration: a qualitative study of university students
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Alayan, Alexandra J., author; Dik, Bryan J., advisor; Anderson, Sharon, committee member; Crain, Tori, committee member
    Recent interest in the interface of religion, spirituality, and work has grown, with scholarly developments in the areas of the Faith at Work movement, workplace spirituality, and vocational psychology. Most research exploring religion/spirituality and work has focused on working adults. To date, research examining religion/spirituality and career choice and development has been sparse, despite calls for further research in this area. The current study used a meaning- making approach to explore religion/spirituality and work integration related to career development in an undergraduate student population. Written responses from 170 religiously- identifying students were coded and analyzed using a six-phase inductive qualitative thematic analysis approach. Several themes related to students' experiences of faith-work integration emerged, including support and comfort, calling/purpose, guidance and influence on ethics and values, path/plan, prosocial, separation/boundaries, lifestyle impact, work fact, personal fit and fulfillment, talents/strengths, and work ethic. Of note, many participant responses were coded into two or three themes. These findings indicate that for many undergraduate students who identify as highly religious, their religious belief systems do play a role in their career development process. Also, undergraduate students seek to integrate their religion/spirituality and their career development process in ways that do not neatly fit into single integration strategies, particularly during developmental stages characterized by discovery, exploration and crystallization. Future research should continue to explore formal integration typologies related to career development within undergraduate student populations to provide added insight in this area.
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    Vocational Discernment Through Faith Scale: development and validation
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Alayan, Alexandra J., author; Dik, Bryan J., advisor; Anderson, Sharon, committee member; Prince, Mark, committee member; Gibbons, Alyssa, committee member
    People who identify as religious/spiritual may pray for direction and then wait until a clear response is received, however, theologians have argued that God has historically guided career paths indirectly through one's utilization of resources aiding in self-reflection and career discernment. Practical career development recommendations have encouraged students who may identify as religious or spiritual to take active discernment approaches instead of passive discernment approaches within the career decision-making process. There is a paucity of research quantitatively exploring the role of religion/spirituality in one's career decision-making process. The current project involved two studies designed to comprehensively explore and investigate the validity and reliability of the Vocational Discernment Through Faith Scale, which quantitatively measured the constructs of passive discernment and active discernment approaches to the career decision-making process. Participants were undergraduate students at Colorado State University, a large Western (U.S.) public university, recruited from the population of students enrolled in introductory psychology courses. Results indicated initial evidence of psychometrically sound qualities of a condensed two-factor scale that showed adequate to good fit across factor analysis processes using both Exploratory Factor Analysis (Study One) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (Study Two). Results also suggested strong internal consistency reliability for the two dimensions of the scale, and promising test-retest reliability results. These results are promising, and point to the need for future research that continues to investigate the factor structure of the Vocational Discernment through Faith Scale.