he is engaged. He may, for example, see friends with whom he shared
his skateboarding interests move on to college, occupations, and
other pursuits. He may be experiencing the tension between a some-
what closed skateboarding subculture and the broader culture.
Belongingness and relationships are important themes that
emerge in the case of K. We see it in several aspects; for example,
he selected the option of going to college because of his friend’s
advice. Belonging comes up as an important value-goal in some of
the assessment data. It is also interesting to note that the case does
not mention relationship-oriented activities. There is a critical
statement about his admiration for his cousin, who is “someone to
do things with,” as well as the cousin’s initiation of activities. There
is no mention of a close or special friend or of a current group of
friends; there is no mention of friends in recollections or in his peak
experience. Yet paying for his friend’s car is something he would do
if he won the lottery. His parents are also mentioned as beneficia-
ries of his winning the lottery, but they have relatively little explicit
place in the rest of the case. As part of his concern with belonging,
he may be interpreting the message from his parents that occupa-
tional choice is strictly up to him as their lack of concern and
involvement. Thus we see belonging as quite important to K but
something that he does not appear to be able to realize. The issue of
belonging is also in contrast to his valuing of independence, indi-
cating that he may feel that belonging threatens independence or
that these cannot coexist.
Gender and cultural issues are embedded in this case. The fact
that he is interested in skateboarding is more reflective of male than
female gender in North America. Similarly, his declared interest in
math, achievement, and making money may be aspects that, for
him, provide gender identity and thus are part of his identity proj-
ect. The fact that he is Japanese-Chinese-American doesn’t seem
to enter explicitly into the case. The literature indicates that Asian
Americans have more specific career goals for their children than
Americans of European descent, but this doesn’t seem to be so in
this case. Depending on where K lives, the issue of belonging (or
242 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT