After reading this week’s assigned material, write a 4-5 page paper reviewing at least three of the career counseling theories highlighted in Chapters 2 and 3 of the Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey (2012) text. Conduct further research on each of the theories you select (see the research criteria section below for clarification on appropriate resources). You will need to utilize at least five sources in addition to the course textbook. Address the following:
· What are the key elements of each theory?
· Are the theories universal or would they be more effective with specific populations?
· What would you identify as the strengths and weaknesses of each?
· Apply one of the theories to your own career development.
· What role do you see this theory playing in assisting clients with their unique career needs?
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Grading Criteria
Content CriteriaTotal: 4 Points |
Paper is a minimum of 4-5 pages in length, not including the title or reference page. |
Uses at least five sources in addition to the course textbook. |
Addresses each topic fully and clearly, drawing on specific information from the learning material. |
Includes introductory paragraph with a succinct thesis statement and a conclusion. |
Reflects on key concepts related to the assignment. |
Clearly analyzes key elements in each theory. |
Clearly applies at least one theory to a personal career development experience. |
Writing and Organization CriteriaTotal: 2 Points |
The central theme/purpose of the paper is clear. |
The structure is clear, logical, and easy to follow. |
The tone is appropriate to the content and assignment. |
The thoughts are clear and include appropriate beginning, development, and conclusion. |
Paragraph transitions are present, logical, and maintain the flow throughout the paper. |
Sentences are complete, clear, and concise. |
Sentences are well constructed, with consistently strong, varied sentences. |
Sentence transitions are present and maintain the flow of thought. |
Rules of grammar, usage, and punctuation are followed. |
The paper uses words and language that are inclusive, clear, and unambiguous. |
Spelling is correct. |
Research CriteriaTotal: 0.5 Points |
The paper includes a summary and analysis of research materials that are relevant to the assignment, e.g. scholarly journals, professional articles, legal documents, government documents, legal decisions, media clips, software, measurement instruments websites, personal communication, etc. |
Professional/scholarly journals are peer reviewed and focus on the profession/application of psychology (located on Proquest, EBSCOHost, PsycNET, etc.). Non-scholarly articles include newspapers, periodicals, secular magazines, etc, and are not peer reviewed. Websites not approved include wilkipedia.com and about.com. |
Research focuses on the most current information (past five to ten years) except when citing seminal works (e.g. Freud, Erickson, etc.). |
Paper includes the appropriate number of references required by the assignment. |
When appropriate, the paper addresses ethical considerations in research. |
Style CriteriaTotal: 0.5 Points |
The paper is in the appropriate APA format used by the institution/program (e.g. the 6th edition). |
The paper is double-spaced and in the appropriate length required by the assignment |
The paper includes an APA style cover page. |
The paper includes an Abstract that is formatted to support the appropriate version of APA Publication Manual (e.g. 6th edition). |
The paper properly uses headings, font styles, and white space as outlined in the appropriate version of APA Publication Manual (e.g. 6th edition). |
The paper includes an introductory paragraph with a succinct thesis statement. |
The paper addresses the topic of the paper with critical thought. |
The paper concludes with a restatement of the thesis and a conclusion paragraph. |
Citations of original works within the body of the paper follow the appropriate version of APA Publication Manual (e.g. 6th edition) guidelines. |
The paper includes a References Page that is completed according to the appropriate version of APA Publication Manual (e.g. 6th edition). |
Total Possible Points Total: 7 Points |
CHAPTER 2-THEORIES
Evaluating Super’s Theory
Super’s theory continues to stimulate career development research. For example, Lewis, Savickas, and Jones (1996) used the Career Development Inventory (Super, Thompson, Lindeman, Jordaan, & Myers, 1981) to predict success in medical school. Their results supported Super’s (1981) contention that having a future ori- entation and being planful are important ingredients for achieving career maturity and career adaptability.
Reviewing literature pertaining to Super’s Work Importance Study led Niles and Goodnough (1996) to three conclusions. First, life-role salience and values must be viewed within specific developmental and cultural contexts. Second, in diverse set- tings, and with different groups, there are sex differences related to the relative im- portance of life roles and values. And, third, in order to facilitate their clients’ career development, counselors must attend to life-role salience and values issues in career counseling (see also Parasuraman, Purhoit, Godshalk, & Beutell, 1996).
Salomone (1996) provided a historical perspective by tracing the evolution of three key segments of Super’s theory over a 40-year period: (a) theoretical proposi- tions, (b) conceptualization of the career stages, and (c) definition of career. Salomone’s review led him to several conclusions. First, Super’s theoretical propositions have not changed substantially in 40 years. Second, there is the need for more research related to Super’s propositions and career stage model. Finally, Salomone noted that Super’s contributions represent an unparalleled legacy in developmental career theory. Ad- ditionally, Super’s theory segments provide a useful framework for helping clients clarify their life-role identities and the values they seek to express in their life roles. Moreover, Super’s theory provides a useful framework for researchers investigating the process of life-role identity development.
A number of journal articles provide examples of the systematic application of the C-DAC assessment instrument. For example, articles by Nevill and Kruse (1996) (Values Scale), Nevill and Calvert (1996) (Salience Inventory), Savickas and Hartung (1996) (Career Development Inventory), and Cairo, Kritis, and Myers (1996) (Adult Career Concerns Inventory) provide useful literature reviews, test descriptions, and information concerning the practical application of each assessment in career coun- seling practice. Hartung et al. (1998) describe strategies for appraising the client’s cultural identity in the initial stages of the C-DAC model and offer techniques for considering cultural factors throughout the C-DAC process, thereby making the model more applicable to clients representing diverse contexts.
Commenting on Super’s theory and the research it has generated, Osipow and Fitzgerald (1996) noted that Super’s theory “has the virtue of building upon aspects of the mainstream of developmental psychology and personality theory and has considerable utility for practice and research” (p. 143). They also noted that “most of the research reported on Super’s theory generally supports his model” (p. 143). Borgen (1991) noted that Super’s theory “has splendidly stood the test of time” (p. 278). Brown (1996) pointed out that Super’s theory “will forever be the segmental
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Niles, Spencer G. Career Development Interventions in the 21st Century, 4th Edition. Pearson, 20120228. VitalBook file.
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ANNE ROE’S PERSONALITY THEORY OF CAREER CHOICE
Anne Roe (1904–1991), a clinical psychologist, initially became interested in career behavior through her research investigating personality factors related to artists’ expression of creativity. Roe subsequently expanded her research to eminent scien- tists. From these investigations, Roe (1956, 1957) suggested that early childhood experiences influence career behavior. As Brown, Lum, and Voyle (1997) emphasize, however, from Roe’s perspective the relationship between early childhood experi- ences and subsequent career behavior is mediated by the “structure of psychological needs that develop due to the pattern of frustrations and satisfactions experienced in childhood” (p. 284). Specifically, the resultant need structure orients persons either toward people or not toward people. Drawing upon Maslow’s (1954) needs theory, Roe contended that needs not satisfied become important motivators in the occupa- tional choices people make.
The child-rearing environments to which children are exposed shape early childhood experiences. Roe identified three primary modes of child rearing or envi- ronments to which children are exposed: emotional concentration, avoidance, and acceptance. Emotional concentration on the child ranges from overprotection to overly demanding behaviors. While physical needs are met, psychological needs may be withheld as parents place conditions on their love and approval. Children exposed to overly protective environments learn that conforming elicits rewards and, thus, a dependence on others for approval and a positive sense of self-esteem is developed. Overly demanding environments result in the development of perfectionist tenden- cies as children learn to adhere to “all-or-nothing” standards. Avoidance of the child, according to Roe, ranges from neglecting the child’s physical needs to rejecting the child’s emotional needs. Acceptance of the child involves environments in which the child’s physical and psychological needs are met. Independence and self-reliance are encouraged in either an unconcerned, noninvolved way or an active, supportive one.
Each of these climates affects the satisfaction of the child’s needs, which, in turn, subsequently influences the adult’s choice of occupational field. For example, adults working in service occupations are oriented toward people and thus were likely exposed to loving, overprotective early childhood environments. Adults in more scientific occupational fields are typically not oriented toward people and therefore were most likely exposed to rejecting and avoidant early childhood environments.
Roe developed an occupational classification system that contains eight fields based on arts and entertainment, and general culture. Service fields are generally more people-oriented occupations such as teaching, counseling, and social work. Business contact occupations involve interpersonal interactions of a persuasive nature, such as sales. Organizational occupations emphasize systems and manage- ment. Technology involves occupations such as engineering. Outdoor occupations focus on the application of scientific principles in outdoor occupations such as for- est management. Science includes occupations such as chemist and physicist. Arts
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SUPER’S LIFE-SPAN, LIFE-SPACE THEORY
The leading developmental approach is Donald Super’s “life-span, life-space” theory (Super, 1990; Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996). The life-span, life-space theory evolved over a 40-year time period, as Super and his colleagues worked to elabo- rate and refine the various aspects of the theory (Super et al., 1996). Although Super’s theory is primarily developmental in nature, he labeled it as a “differential- developmental-social-phenomenological career theory” (Super, 1969). This label communicates Super’s efforts at synthesizing and extending extant developmental and career theories. Super understood that describing a process as complex as career development requires synthesizing the work of scholars from various disciplines (e.g., psychology and sociology). For example, Super synthesized work by Buehler (1933), Havighurst (1951), Kelly (1955), Miller & Form (1951), and Rogers (1951) in conceptualizing various aspects of his theory of career development.
Super extended career theories by addressing shortcomings he perceived in the theories proposed by his predecessors and his contemporaries. For example, Super’s contemporaries, Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad, and Herma (1951), proposed a ca- reer theory asserting that career choice is a developmental process (rather than a single decision) in which compromises are made between the individual’s wishes and occupational possibilities. They viewed the developmental process as spanning three stages: (a) fantasy (birth to age 11), (b) tentative (age 11 to 17), and (c) realistic (age 17 to early twenties). They theorized that four factors (individual values, emotional factors, the amount and kind of education, and the effect of reality through environ- mental pressures) converged to shape the individual’s career decisions.
Super argued that the theory proposed by Ginzberg and his associates was defi- cient in that it (a) did not take into account research related to the role of interests in career decision making, (b) failed to operationally describe “choice,” (c) made a sharp distinction between choice and adjustment, and (d) lacked a clear articulation of the process of compromise as it relates to career choice. Responding to conditions such as these, Super developed his “differential-developmental-social-phenomenological career theory.”
Rather than developing a unified theory, however, Super developed his theory segmentally. In fact, Super noted that in one sense “there is no ‘Super’s theory’; there is just the assemblage of theories that I have sought to synthesize. In another sense, the synthesis is a theory” (1990, p. 199). The result is really a “segmental theory” describing three key aspects of career development: (a) life span, (b) life space, and (c) self-concept. The theory culminates in an intervention model labeled as the Career Development Assessment and Counseling (C-DAC) model (Super, Osborne, Walsh, Brown, & Niles, 1992). We provide an updated version of the C-DAC model in this chapter. The C-DAC model translates the three theory segments into career practice to help people articulate their career concerns, examine their life-role salience, and clarify their self-concepts.
Life-span, life-space theory builds upon key assumptions proposed by Super (1953, 1933, 1990; Super & Bachrach, 1957). These assumptions contend that people differ in their important self-characteristics and self-concepts; that their respective self-characteristics make them eligible for a number of occupations; that
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LINDA GOTTFREDSON’S THEORY OF CIRCUMSCRIPTION, COMPROMISE, AND SELF-CREATION
One theory that describes the process leading to the formulation of occupational aspirations in childhood and adolescence is Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription, compromise, and self-creation (Gottfredson, 2002, 2005). Gottfredson developed her theory, in part, to address the following question: “Why do children seem to re- create the social inequalities of their elders long before they themselves experience any barriers to pursuing their dreams?” (Gottfredson, 2002, p. 85). She addresses the compromises that people make in their career aspirations, particularly as these compromises relate to sex-typed learning and experiences. Specifically, compromise involves the process of modifying career choices due to limiting factors, such as prestige, sex type, and field of interest (Gottfredson, 1981). Gottfredson’s theory emphasizes the view that “career choice is an attempt to place oneself in the broader social order” (1996, p. 181). Thus, she offers a developmental and sociological per- spective of career development.
Gottfredson (2002) notes that people distinguish occupations according to the dimensions of: “masculinity-femininity, occupational prestige, and field of work” (p. 88). Gottfredson (2005) further suggests that occupational prestige is positively correlated with the degree of intellectual capacity required for job performance. The person’s self-concept interacts with the person’s occu- pational stereotypes when making decisions about the perceived compatibility of different occupations. Compatibility, or the suitability of any occupation, is determined when the individual considers factors such as the perceived gender
(Niles 64)
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JOHN HOLLAND’S THEORY OF TYPES AND PERSON-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS
Holland’s (1959, 1966, 1973, 1985a, 1997) theory belongs to a long tradition of theoretical perspectives seeking to describe individual differences in personality types (e.g., Murray, 1938; Spranger, 1928). Holland’s theory has been described as structural-interactive “because it provides an explicit link between various personal- ity characteristics and corresponding job titles and because it organizes the massive data about people and jobs” (Weinrach, 1984, p. 63). The theory is based on four basic assumptions:
1. In our culture, most persons can be categorized as one of six types: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, or conventional.
2. There are six kinds of environments: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enter- prising, and conventional.
3. People search for environments that will let them exercise their skills and abili- ties, express their attitudes and values, and take on agreeable problems and roles. 4. A person’s behavior is determined by an interaction between personality and the
characteristics of the environment. (Holland, 1973, pp. 2–4)
From these assumptions it is clear that a key to understanding and using Holland’s theory is in understanding his typology. A good starting point for this is to consider how personality types develop. To a large degree, “types produce types” (Holland, 1973, p. 11). That is, personality types are both genetically and environ- mentally based:
A child’s special heredity and experience first lead to preferences for some kinds of activi- ties and aversions to others. Later, these preferences become well-defined interests from which the person gains self-satisfaction as well as reward from others. Still later, the pur- suit of these interests leads to the development of more specialized competencies as well as to the neglect of other potential competencies. At the same time, a person’s differentia- tion of interests with age is accompanied by a crystallization of correlated values. These events—an increasing differentiation of preferred activities, interests, competencies, and values—create a characteristic disposition or personality type that is predisposed to ex- hibit characteristic behavior and to develop characteristic personality traits. (Holland, 1973, p. 12)
Holland contends that, to a large degree, career interests are an expression of the individual’s personality (Holland, 1959, 1966, 1973, 1985a, 1992). As Spokane (1996) elaborated, “Interests, however, are complex measures that reflect personality as well as preferences, values, self-efficacy and so on. Types, then, are complex theoretical groupings based upon personality and interests” (p. 40). Personality traits are identified by preferences for leisure activities, school subjects, avocational interests, and work. To varying degrees, each individual resem- bles one of six basic personality types. The more one resembles any particular
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CHAPTER-3 Theories
LENT, BROWN, AND HACKETT’S SOCIAL COGNITIVE CAREER THEORY
The social cognitive career theory (SCCT) (Brown & Lent, 1996; Lent, 2005; Lent & Brown, 2002; Lent & Brown, 2006; Lent et al., 1996, 2002) provides a conceptual framework for understanding how people develop career-related interests, make (and remake) occupational choices, and achieve career success and stability. SCCT builds upon the assumption that cognitive factors play an important role in career development and career decision making. SCCT is closely linked to Krumboltz’s learning theory of career counseling, or LTCC (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996). Lent et al. (1996) noted, however, that SCCT differs from Krumboltz’s theory in several ways. For example, in comparison to LTCC, SCCT “is more concerned with the spe- cific cognitive mediators through which learning experiences guide career behavior; with the manner in which variables such as interests, abilities, and values interrelate; and with the specific paths by which person and contextual factors influence career outcomes. It also emphasizes the means by which individuals emphasize personal agency” (p. 377). Lent (2005) views SCCT as a model that is complementary to trait-factor and developmental models of career behavior.
SCCT also draws heavily from Albert Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory. Specifically, SCCT incorporates Bandura’s triadic reciprocal model of causality, which assumes that personal attributes, the environment, and overt behaviors “oper- ate as interlocking mechanisms that affect one another bidirectionally” (Lent et al., 1996, p. 379). Within this triadic reciprocal model, SCCT highlights self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and personal goals. Thus, SCCT also incorporates research, applying self-efficacy theory to the career domain (Hackett & Betz, 1981; Lent & Brown, 2002; Lent & Hackett, 1987).
Bandura defines self-efficacy beliefs as “people’s judgments of their capabili- ties to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types
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SAVICKAS’ CAREER CONSTRUCTION THEORY
Career construction theory incorporates three perspectives: differential, develop- mental, and dynamic. It incorporates a differential perspective by addressing what different people prefer to do in their work (Savickas, 2005, 2009). The developmen- tal perspective in career construction theory emphasizes the various ways in which people cope with career development tasks and transitions. The dynamic perspective attends to the dynamics by which people use life themes to develop meaning in their career behavior as they fit work into their lives. As Savickas noted, “career construc- tion theory asserts that individuals construct their careers by imposing meaning on their vocational behavior and occupational experiences . . . Career imposes personal meaning on past memories, present experiences, and future aspirations by weaving them into a life theme that patterns the individual’s work life” (2005, p. 43). Thus, career counselors using career construction theory replace an individual’s assess- ment scores with an individual’s personal stories. Assessment scores focus on the “psychology of possession” while personal stories emphasize a “psychology of use.” The assumption here is that it is how you use what you possess relative to abilities, interests, values, personality, and so on, that matters relative to career behavior. A person’s subjective career emerges from this active meaning-making process in which experiences are woven into a pattern that portrays a life theme. In career counseling, clients are helped to increase their awareness and understanding of the life projects embedded within their life themes and their life stories. Career construction counsel- ing also helps clients understand the ways in which their life projects revealed in their life themes are important to them and to others.
Within career construction, career-related “traits” such as interests, abilities, values, and so on, are viewed as strategies for adapting to and connecting with the environment. Put another way, they are verbs rather than nouns (Savickas, 2005). Long-practiced traits (like playing football for Ronald) do coalesce into tested styles.
Career adaptability is the third component of career construction theory. Life themes guide personality expression in work but their expression is managed by the career adaptation process (Savickas, 2005). Transitions (e.g., from school to work, from job to job, from job to school) require adaptation, which is characterized by the following behaviors: orientation, exploration, establishment, management, and dis- engagement (Savickas). These behaviors form the cycle of adaptation. For example, Ronald is considering disengaging from football (his previous career goal) due to his poor performance. He is hoping to find new options to consider as he becomes
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Chaos Theory of Careers
Acknowledging the uncertainty and unpredictability of career development in the 21st century, Pryor and Bright (2011) offer a theory that responds to “new reali- ties” such as the speed of communication, the reshaping of organizations, the speed and extent of change, the need for lifelong learning, globalization, the emergence of contingent and contractually based work, and the rapidity of technological innova- tion. These new realities result in career challenges that are influenced by greater complexity, more chance events, and greater change than people experienced in the last century.
According to Pryor and Bright (2011), the complexity of the factors influencing career development highlights the need to avoid traditional approaches that attempt to explain career behavior in terms of one factor influencing another factor. To illustrate this point, Pryor and Bright note research conducted by Morrison (1994), who found that study participants with similar Holland codes diverged in their career paths over time in ways that were not predictable from descriptions of their Holland types. Pryor and Bright also point to their own research regarding complexity in career development. Specifically, Bright, Pryor, Wilkenfield, and Earl (2005) found that 70% of their research participants reported that their career development was influenced by unplanned events ranging from unplanned meetings, to illness, to mes- sages from God. Given such complexity, it is more reasonable to focus on patterns in career development rather than attempting to use stable and isolated variables to predict career outcomes. Thus, Pryor and Bright view approaches such as Savickas’ Career Style Interview to be useful in career counseling. Although Pryor and Bright acknowledge that it is not possible to know fully what influences people or how they will respond in the future to the myriad influences they encounter in life, they suggest that by examining patterns across time, career counselors can help clients identify their emergent patterns of behavior.
The chaos theory of careers also highlights nonlinearity in career develop- ment. In nonlinear systems such as career behavior, small or seemingly trivial and unplanned events can have significant career implications. For example, on the day that Ron experienced his injury playing football, it had rained early in the morning. Although the sun was shining at the start of the game, the early morning rain resulted in the field being slightly slick for the game. The lack of sure footing caused Ron to slip during a rather routine run downfield. When he slipped, he also tore ligaments in his knee. Ron never returned to his pre-injury performance level and it was that lackluster performance that led him to question (and consider) his future goals. Had the game started later in the day or, better yet, had it not rained at all, Ron’s future might have been very different. In this way, the chaos theory of career development resonates with Krumboltz’s planned happenstance concept. In fact, the same rec- ommendations made by Krumboltz for addressing planned happenstance in career counseling can be applied to helping clients cope successfully with nonlinearity as described in chaos theory and discussed by Pryor and Bright (2011).
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HANSEN’S INTEGRATIVE LIFE PLANNING
Of all the theories discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, Hansen’s integrative life planning model (ILP) (Hansen, 1997) is unique in that, rather than offering a theory that can be translated into individual counseling, Hansen contends that ILP is a new world- view for addressing career development. As such, ILP centrally addresses diversity issues related to ethnicity, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and spirituality. The “integrative” aspect of ILP relates to the emphasis on integrating the mind, body, and spirit. The “life planning” concept acknowledges, in a fashion similar to Super’s (1980) life-space theory, that multiple aspects of life are interrelated. “Planning” is included in the title because, despite recent discussions about the value of planning in a time of uncertainty, it connotes a sense of personal agency in the career devel- opment process (Hansen, 2002). The ILP framework also draws upon psychology, sociology, economics, multiculturalism, and constructivism and takes a holistic ap- proach by encouraging people to connect various aspects of life. Rather than a life- span model, ILP focuses on adult career development and is based on the following assumptions (Hansen, 2002):
1. Changes in the nature of knowledge support the addition of new ways of know- ing to career development theory, research, and practice.
2. Career professionals need to help students, clients, and employees develop skills of integrative thinking—seeing connections in their lives and in their local and global communities.
3. Broader kinds of self-knowledge (beyond interests, abilities, and values) and so- cietal knowledge (beyond occupational and educational information) are critical to an expanded view of career, including multiple roles, identities, and critical life tasks in diverse cultures.
4. Career counseling needs to focus on career professionals as change agents, help- ing clients to achieve more holistic lives and becoming advocates and agents for positive societal change through the choices they have and decisions they make.
Hansen (1997) uses these four broad assumptions to identify six career development tasks confronting adults today. The six tasks reflect Hansen’s emphasis on social
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