Ambition, in vocational psychology dictionary

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Dictionary of Vocational Psychology

Ambition

The desire to achieve some great goal, typically one deemed worthy by many others. Ambition is a relatively neglected topic in vocational psychology, and especially in theories of career development. For example, in The Psychology of Careers, Super (1957) mentioned it only in the index, as "Ambition, see Aspirations" (p. 355). But in its folk psychology use, an ambition is not the same as an aspiration. Ambition conveys a steely resolve for great achievement. (And among major constructs in the field, ambition is perhaps most similar to the concept of achievement motivation.) Ambition also connotes a form of strong evaluation, in that the nature of an ambition--its goodness or badness, its worthiness or unworthiness--cannot in the end be separated from an understanding of the quality of character of the person. To have an ambition speaks of consequential choices consciously and conscientiously made.

People can share an ambition. One of the requirements for a great group is that the members of the group share some overarching worthy ambition, such as to create a new form of art, or weapon, or government initiative.

A psychology of vocational ambition would need to take account of those features of goal- and aspiration-related behavior that under certain circumstances can crystallize into a desire to achieve great and worthy things. Such a study might, in addition to examining effective ambition among those who in fact do ultimately achieve their goals, also attend to the characteristics and behavior of individuals who either fail to develop sufficient ambition (despite having clear access to resources that might support ambitious behavior), or who exhibit excessive or unreasonable ambition.

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