Richard P. Douglass

University of Minnesota · Department of Psychology

This clinical case example illustrates the benefits of a feminist approach to therapy in addressing the unique experiences of gender questioning adolescents. We will illustrate the successful use of feminist therapy in our work with a biracial, bisexual, adolescent client who reported questioning his gender expression and gender identity. The clien...

Research among lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) individuals often distinguishes between distal (e.g., discrimination) and proximal (e.g., expectations of rejection, internalized homophobia, and concealment) stressors. There are few longitudinal studies, however, testing the causal distal-proximal link. The present study examined these proposed assoc...

The authors assess levels and within-person changes in psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms and life satisfaction) from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic for individuals in the United States, in general and by socioeconomic status (SES). The data is from 2 surveys of 1,143 adults from RAND Corporation's nationally representative...

Feminist and critical consciousness theories, that shaped the practice of feminist therapy, are unique in considering the impact of power and privilege on women’s well-being. We investigated tenets of these conceptualizations cross-sectionally by examining relations of critical consciousness, feminist collective action, personal empowerment, and su...

Introduction This study examined feminist identification and conformity to traditional gender norms as predictors of transphobic attitudes. Method Data was collected among an online, MTurk sample of 290 adult cisgender women and men. Results: Feminist beliefs and self-labeling were independently associated with decreased transphobia among cisgender...

Building from the psychology of working framework, we examined the moderating role of proactive personality in the attainment of decent work among a sample of racially and ethnically diverse employed adults in the United States ( N = 238). We tested our hypotheses using structural equation modeling and found experiences of marginalization and econo...

Half of college student attrition occurs in the first year of college, so identifying factors that contribute to student satisfaction is an important target for research. Knowledge and use of one’s strengths are two such variables associated with academic and life satisfaction, but studies establishing these relations have been largely cross-sectio...

Drawing from a psychology of working perspective, the current study examined links between decent work and health among a sample (N = 497) of employed adults with an annual household income under $50,000. A theory driven mediation model was tested positioning decent work as a predictor of mental and physical health via need satisfaction at work. De...

Scholars have recently started to examine how minority stressors are associated with wellbeing outcomes among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people. Such studies have examined mainly hedonic wellbeing, and those that have investigated eudaimonic wellbeing have tended to use composite measures. The present study draws from this literature to exami...

This study presents a qualitative exploration of nonbinary gender identities from a counseling framework. We studied 14 participants in an open-ended, online format, all of whom self-identified with nonbinary gender identities. Our analysis explored five primary themes: (a) identity development, (b) heterogenous identities, (c) the identity-express...

This study examines why people who believe in gender equality vary in their degree of activist participation. We conducted one study to assess whether US participants’ (N = 333) perceived behavioral or belief inconsistencies, or perceived knowledge deficits, predicted feminist self-identification and activism. Results demonstrated that the effect o...

The psychology of working theory (PWT; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016) provides a framework to understand predictors and outcomes of decent work. Given that basic need satisfaction is hypothesized to be a primary mediator in the link between decent work and well-being, it is essential to have valid and reliable scales that are consistent wi...

Several recent studies have examined the predictor portion of the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016), finding support for numerous propositions while also identifying limitations in the assessment of key variables: economic constraints, marginalization, and career adaptability. In the current manuscript we se...

Over the past decade, research on work as a calling has seen a rapid growth, with hundreds of empirical articles on the topic having been published. Until recently, however, there has been no comprehensive theoretical model of work as a calling to guide research. Duffy, Dik, Douglass, England, and Velez (2018) published the Work as Calling Theory (...

Perceiving work as a calling has been positioned as a key pathway to enhancing work-related well-being. However, no formal theory exists attempting to explain predictors and outcomes of living a calling at work. To address this important gap, this article introduces a theoretical, empirically testable model of work as a calling - the Work as Callin...

Research has found that bisexual stress is negatively associated with well-being outcomes, but little research has examined ameliorating factors in these links. The current study explored the relation between bisexual stress—specifically heterosexist discrimination, expectations of rejection, and internalized biphobia—and life meaning among 365 bis...

Grounded in the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016), the current study examined the relations of contextual variables - social status and work volition - to living a calling over time with a diverse sample of employed adults. Participants were surveyed at three time points over six months, with an initial samp...

The present study tested key tenets of the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT) in a sample of 526 racially and ethnically diverse employed adults. The authors investigated how economic resources and marginalization predicted decent work through experiences of work volition and career adaptability. Support for the hypotheses was mixed. There was a di...

The primary goal of this study was to examine the relations from counselors’ character strengths to burnout via the potential mediating effect of meaningful work. We also compared mean levels of counselors’ character strengths to population means and conducted regression analyses to examine which character strengths uniquely predicted meaningful wo...

The present study examined the link between discrimination and Diener’s (1984) three components of subjective well-being (positive and negative affect and life satisfaction) among a cisgender sample of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults. Specifically, we investigated internalized homonegativity and expectations of rejection as potential mediat...

Research has found heterosexist discrimination negatively relates to vocational outcomes among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people, but no known study has examined how heterosexist discrimination relates to the attainment of decent work. Building from the Psychology of Working Theory, which proposes that specific forms of marginalization couple...

Decent work is positioned as the centerpiece of the recently developed Psychology of Working Theory (PWT; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016). However, to date, no instrument exists which assesses all 5 components of decent work from a psychological perspective. In the current study, we developed the Decent Work Scale (DWS) and demonstrated sev...

Research has found perceived discrimination to be a risk factor for mental health concerns among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people, but less clarity exists linking perceived discrimination with well-being outcomes. Building from Meyer’s (2003) minority stress model, the present study examined the links between perceived discrimination and the...

Building from the Psychology of Working Theory, we explore relations between subjective social status, work volition, and career adaptability over time in a sample of 267 undergraduate students. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing study variables in three waves over a period of six months. Structural equation modeling was used to exami...

The current study examined moderator variables that may accentuate the effect of perceiving a calling on well-being amongst a large and diverse sample of working adults (N = 746). Drawing from Self Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) and the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT: Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016), perceiving a calling w...

The present studies examined the potential dark side of perceiving and living a calling with diverse samples of employed adults. In Study 1, living a calling and life meaning were found to suppress the relation between perceiving a calling and life satisfaction, resulting in these variables being significantly, negatively related. This suggests tha...

The current study examined how aspects of vocational privilege directly – and indirectly via work meaning and career commitment – related to living a calling. With an economically diverse sample of 361 employed adults, both social class and work volition were found to moderately to strongly correlate with work meaning, career commitment, and living...

According to Gallup polls, more than 40 percent of Americans report having had a profound religious experience or awakening that changed the direction of their lives. What are the potential mental, spiritual, and even physical benefits of following the call to take a particular path in life? This standout book addresses the full range of calling ex...

Abstract The present study examined how the four components of career adaptability (concern, confidence, control, curiosity; Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) related to life satisfaction and the degree to which life meaning and work volition mediated these relations. In Study 1, scores from the Work Volition Scale–Student Version was validated with a sam...

The present study examined the relations between work stress and both the presence of and search for meaning in life. Three components of meaningful work—positive meaning, meaning-making, and greater good motivations—were investigated as potential moderators. As hypothesized, work stress had a significant, negative relation with the presence of mea...

The present article examined predictors of work volition, or the perception of control in one’s future career decision making, with two samples of undergraduate students. Building from the Psychology of Working Framework, in Study 1, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted examining four classes of potential predictors: demographic charact...

The present study examined the relation between the four components of career adaptability - concern, control, curiosity, and confidence (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) - and academic satisfaction. Drawing from a diverse sample of 412 undergraduate students, all four components moderately correlated with academic satisfaction. In an effort to explain th...

The present study examined correlates of work volition—the perceived capacity to make occupational choices despite constraints—with a diverse sample of 213 U.S. veterans. Veterans with higher levels of formal education, higher yearly incomes, were married, and were employed, endorsed greater work volition. Those who experienced lower posttraumatic...

The present study examined the differences in the experience of a calling among working adults in the Unites States and India. First, we examined group differences in perceiving a calling and living a calling between Americans and Indians, with Indians being more likely to endorse perceiving and living out a calling than Americans. Second, we teste...

The present study examined the relation of calling and career adaptability with a sample of 330 undergraduate students. The presence of a calling weakly to moderately correlated with the four components of adaptability — concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. A moderated, multiple mediation model was used to test the potential mediating effec...

This study examined linear and nonlinear relations between age and the presence and search for meaning in life and examined if these relations were moderated by the presence of meaning in work. Age did not significantly relate to the presence of meaning in life, but age had a significant, negative linear relation with the search for meaning in life...

The current study examined predictors and outcomes of a career calling among 292 undergraduate students at two time points over a three-month period. Using structural equation modeling, a model was tested that examined the extent to which calling, life meaning, the search for life meaning, vocational clarity, and personal growth at Time 1 would pre...

The current study examined the link between living a calling and career commitment, work meaning, and job satisfaction with a diverse group of working adults at 3 time points over a 6-month period. Using structural equation modeling, 3 models were tested that hypothesized that living a calling would predict career commitment, work meaning, and job...

This manuscript examined mediators and moderators that may explain the link between strengths use and life satisfaction with a sample of 224 undergraduate students. A mediation model was tested hypothesizing that self-esteem would partially mediate the strengths use-life satisfaction link. Additionally, a moderated mediation model was tested examin...

This study examined the utility of five popular assessments of work as a calling. A large and diverse group of working adults completed the Calling Paragraph, Brief Calling Scale (BCS), Calling and Vocation Questionnaire (CVQ), Calling Scale (CS), and Multidimensional Calling Measure (MCM) at two time points, along with a face valid measure of havi...