Bernadette Campbell

Research Interests

Careers and Early Career Transitions: Lately my students and I have been busy studying careers — including career exploration and decision making processes.We have been collecting data to explore the process of occupational engagement among recent university graduates and soon-to-be graduates. We are interested in what it means to be occupationally engaged, and what kinds of career exploration behaviours tend to lead to successful outcomes. In addition to job seekers’ use of traditional, proactive career exploration strategies, such as networking, we’ve found that the ability to capitalize on chance events in the job search process also predicts career success. We’ve been looking at the role played by anxiety in the career exploration process – both general and specific career anxiety. And finally, we are looking at one’s ability to clearly picture a Future Work Self as a key predictor of career satisfaction and success.

Work-Life Interface: Our lab group is studying careers as they relate to the intersection between work life and personal life. Some of these projects include taking a closer look at the experience of mid-career workers in general. We are looking closely at the ways that people balance work and life, including not just home and family life, but all the other aspects of a person’s non-work life such as community service, and the pursuit of hobbies and interests. In a similar vein, we are studying adult friendships as a potential buffer against the stress caused by work-family conflict.

Program Evaluation: I also have a long-standing interest in research on program evaluation. Program evaluation is widely used to ascertain the workings and effectiveness of social programs. Some of my work in this domain has focused on understanding and improving the practice of program evaluation in organizations. This line of research focuses on the unique ways in which social processes operate in evaluation contexts, as people conduct, participate in, and ‘consume’ program evaluations – social processes a such as organizational citizenship behaviours, negotiation and conflict resolution, and attitudes and behavior change.

Recent Projects, Collaborations & Publications 

Campbell, B. & Dreger-Smylie, C. (in progress). Getting by with a little help from our friends? The role of women’s friendships in perceptions of work-family conflict and role balance.

Campbell, B. Amirault, T. Li, Z., & Meyers, V. (2017). Recent graduates’ experiences with career exploration, planning, decision making and work. Presentation at the 2017 meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association.

Amirault, T. (2017) Anxiety in Canadian post-secondary students and its effects on the career decision-making process. Honours Thesis Project, Carleton University.

Li, Z. (2017). Taking charge and taking chances: Succeeding in the transition from university to work. Honours Thesis Project, Carleton University.

Meyers, V. (2017). Honours Occupational engagement among recent graduates: The role of personality, imagining a future work self, and managing chance. Honours Thesis Project, Carleton University.

Campbell, B., Dupre, K. , & Mantler, J. (2016). Midcareer disappointment or satisfaction?: The roles of individual, family, job, and organizational factors. Poster Presentation, Work and Family Research Network.

Bowker, A., Hill, P., Campbell, B., Mantler, J. (2015). Adjustment to university in the first year: The role of individual and environmental factors. Poster presented at the 7th biennal Conference of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood, Miami, FL.

Campbell, B. & Mark, M. M. (April 2014). How analogue research can advance descriptive evaluation theory: Understanding (and improving) stakeholder dialogue. American Journal of Evaluation, 1-17.

Campbell, B. & McGrath, A. L. (2011). Where the rubber hits the road: The development of usable middle-range evaluation theory. In M. M. Mark, S. I. Donaldson & B. Campbell (Eds.), Social Psychology and Evaluation. New York, NY: Guilford Publications.