A research agenda for the vocational psychology of agriculture

Abstract

The Vocational Psychology of Agriculture – Farming Food and Fibre is advanced in this article. It is argued that vocational psychology can and should provide a substantive contribution to agriculture by solving problems associated with labour supply and the quality of work, particularly the problems of poverty and hunger that blight the world. Despite its scientific and professional capability, the immediate problem is that vocational psychology lacks an epistemology and knowledge base on which to advance its contribution to agriculture. The Vocational Psychology of Agriculture – Farming Food and Fibre is motivated by the ethical vision of the psychology of working perspective. The Systems Theory Framework of Career is used as a prism to render a research agenda for the Vocational Psychology of Agriculture – Farming Food and Fibre. The Systems Theory Framework enables the integration of conceptually different vocational psychology theories. When coherently organised by the Systems Theory Framework, these theories will furnish novel research questions that may populate the research agenda and, ultimately, foster research and development that enhance agriculture’s capacity to feed and clothe the world.