Methodological Avenues for the Study of Career Pathways

The timing of joint career and family transitions is the focus of two studies, based on national surveys of young adults (20–29) conducted in Germany in 1991 and 1996 that address these issues by using two different analytic strategies based on Magnusson's (1985) “person” approach to studying developmental phenomena. In the first study correspondence analysis was employed not only to visualize connections between persons and the measures used to describe them, but also to identify the underlying dimensions that organize a common map of persons and measures. In the second study configural frequency analysis was employed to identify groups (within the overall sample) that were special (statistically speaking) by containing either more or fewer members than expected. Findings of the two studies are discussed by highlighting differences between the “variable approach” and the “person approach” and by pointing to the important role of person-oriented nonlinear methods in the study of complex developmental-contextual phenomena such as career development.