Career Development:
Chapters 1 & 2
Katherine Helm, PhD
Career Counseling: Why is it Important?
• Allows counselors to serve an important area of our clients/students
(C/S) lives
• Allows counselors to maximize C/S talents, skills
• Allows counselors to support C/S in their personal & professional journey
into the world of work
• Allows counselors to help C/S contribute to self-esteem, self-concept, &
identity
• Allows counselors to participate in C/S life-long journey of career
development & career maturity
• Today’s career counselor focuses on: C/S values, interests, abilities,
skills, & work-life experiences & their role on career choice
Chapter 1: Historical Development & Basic
Issues
• 6 Historical factors:
• (1)urbanization & industrialization (1890-1919)
• (2) growth of educational guidance in elementary & high schools (1920-1939)
• (3) time of significant growth of guidance needs in colleges & the training of
counselors (1940-1959)
• (4) organizational career development; work b/c viewed as a significant life
role 1960-1979)
• (5) period of significant transitions brought on by Information Technology & the
beginning of career counseling in private practice & outpatient services (1980-
1989)
• (6) changing demographics; recognition of multicultural counseling; continued
changes in technology; focus on school-to-work transitions
Terms
• Career – activities, positions in vocations, occupations, & jobs; activities
associated w/ an individual’s lifetime work (& role flexibility)
• Career development – total constellation of psych, sociological, physical,
economic & chance factors influencing nature & significance of work in
one’s lifespan
• Career counseling – guidance in all activities assoc w/ career choice over
a life span
• Career guidance – coordinated counseling efforts by individuals &
institutions to facilitate career development (programs, etc.)
• Career Intervention – any activity designed to enhance a person’s career
development
• Vocation – one’s life work; mission; purpose found through work
History of Career Counseling
• Focused on strengths & weaknesses
• Originally utilized a trait-and-factor perspective (measurement)
• Moved to a career-life perspective (Donald Super)
• Began to recognize importance of human development, self-
awareness, & career development as a life long journey
• Began to incorporate a holistic perspective (including personal
concerns, life roles, multicultural influences)
• Incorporation of worldview of globalization, impact of technology,
ever-changing nature of the world of work
Chapter 2: Career Development Theories
• Theories provide context, role of counselor, interventions
• Trait-oriented theories: Frank Parson’s (early 20th century); work
adjustment & job satisfaction
• Trait-and-factor approach: matching C/S traits with the
requirements of a specific occupation; a step-by-step procedure
• Person-Environment-Correspondence (PEC): was the Theory of
Work Adjustment (TWA): individuals seek to achieve & maintain
positive relationship w/ their work environments, congruence &
work adjustment; occupational reinforcers
• Holland’s Typology (RIASEC); congruence; modal personality style
Career Theories Continued
Holland’s Typology (hexagon)
• Realistic – works w/ animals/tools/machines (avoids social spaces)
• Investigative – likes to study, solves problems (avoids leadership or sales)
• Artistic – likes creative activities, crafts/art/dance (avoids ordered or
repetitive activities)
• Social – likes helping people (avoids machines/tools)
• Enterprising – likes to lead/persuade people; selling (avoids actiites
requiring careful observation or scientific/analytical thinking)
• Conventional – likes working with #’s/records/machines; is orderly
(avoids ambiguous, unstructured activites)
Social Learning & Cognitive Theories
• Krumboltz’s Learning Theory of Career Counseling: (4) factors:
genetic endowments & special abilities; environmental conditions
& events; learning experiences; task approach skills
• Happenstance Approach Theory – 5 critical elements: curiosity,
persistence, flexibility, optimism, & risk taking
• Looks at chance events impact on career development
• Career Development from a Cognitive Information Processing
Perspective (CIP)
• Interaction of cognitive & affective processes; prob-solv activity; examines
cognitive operations & knowledge; memory; motivation; growth of info-
processing skills; enhance career decision-making skills
Career Development from Social Cognitive
Perspective
• Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) by Lent, Brown, Hackett
• Key constructs: self-efficacy, outcome expectations, personal goals
• Explores learning experiences, interests, attitudes, values, gender,
choice & performance models
• Donald Super’s Life-Span/Life-Space Approach to careers:
• Viewed in terms of human developmental stages (growth, exploratory,
establishment, decline)
• Importance of self-concept & vocational developmental tasks
• Career maturity
• Life-stage rainbow model & archway models
Circumscription, Compromise, & Self-Creation: A
Developmental Theory of Occupational Aspirations
• Gottfredson’s Theory (1981): biosocial developmental model
exploring how people become attracted to certain occupations
• Self-concept invocational development is a key factor
• Stages/key concepts: orientation to size & power; sex roles;
social valuation (self-in-situation); the internal unique self
• Person-In-Environment Perspective: focuses attention on
contextual interaction over the life span; C/S viewed as products
of the environment; career development is influenced &
constructed w/in multiple environments (systems)
