Date of Award

Summer 2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling & Human Services

Program/Concentration

Educ Leadership/Counseling

Committee Director

Nina Brown

Committee Member

Steven Myran

Committee Member

Alan Schwitzer

Abstract

This study implemented a phenomenological approach to the inquiry of the career decisions of racial/ethnic minorities leading to selection of art therapy as a career. Gottfredson’s Career Theory was used to design interview questions to elicit the perspectives of ten racial/ethnic minority members about their career choice of art therapy. This study used post-intentional phenomenological qualitative coding of data to understand the decisions and contributing factors to racial/ethnic minorities selecting a career in art therapy. The findings suggest factors including: personal characteristics, interests, personal and professional beliefs, cultural beliefs, influential people, social contexts, experiences, and encounters contributed to racial/ethnic minority participants choices of selecting art therapy as a career. Participants shared experiences through the life stages of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Overall, the career choice experiences and perceptions of racial/ethnic minority art therapists were like literature about white art therapists. Factors differing from the majority were the personal characteristic of determination and some cultural beliefs.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/aqfv-pw95

ISBN

9780438574786

ORCID

0000-0001-7628-3850

Download
COinS