Psychologically, there is a similar explanation of unexpected behaviours on the part of
people who, for instance, have never up to that point proved career planning antecedents
or predisposition, nor related features such as organization, ambition, goal orientation.
Aronson (2004) uses the associated terms “external justification ” and “internal
justification”.
The external justification is the pressure put by the group or the situation and
consequently one complies with the course imposed, often without any devotion to the
cause (e.g. “if my friends feel the same way about the recruitment policy of the employer
I wish to apply for a position with, they will bombard me with examples and conclusions
I cannot fight, because I have no counter-examples, only the hope that my case will be
different”).
The internal justification is the process by which one is in a situation to change his/her
standpoint or declare the contrary of what he/she usually says for apparently no reason
(e.g. “I have so far thought that a respectable position in the firm will make me liked by
my collaborators; now I am saying that my position only ensures me a good income and I
should have not expected unconditioned friendship my from workmates”). Later on, in
order to maintain credibility, one finds arguments to support the new standpoint and turns
into a passionate defender of it. Personal project may not be everyone’s dream, but once
the premises have been created, it is difficult to be a simple bystander in other people’s
projects.
The conceptual framework for the project activity is career planning. The complementary
terms to define the semantic territory of counselling are: strategy, tactics, logistics.
According to Egan (1998), strategy is a practical plan to attain goals. Tactics is the art to
adapt the strategy to the concrete situation (including changing the plan on the spot and
deal with unexpected complications), and logistics is the art to ensure all necessary
resources when needed. We can safely say that the project includes aspects of all three
categories mentioned above and confers unity, direction, and personal representation to
each.
Method presentation
The personal project is not a method originally belonging to counselling. Comparable to
the case study and the experiment in natural sciences – but differing by being neither
empirical nor hermeneutical, and involving construction – the project has been introduced
in the curriculum with the professionalisation of occupations.
Knoll’s study reveals two historic models of applying the project method, still valid today
in refined forms: the first (represented by Woodward, 1887) is that pupils learn during
school the skills and knowledge they then use independently and creatively in practical
projects; the second (represented by Richards, 1900) does not precede but integrates the
project, according to the idea that if we aim valuable interests and acquisitions, we must
follow the “natural wholes”.