Chapter 3: Career choice and Counselling

Introduction:
 Career choice= decisions you make about your work and career
 Career counsellors guide you when making decisions
 Primary focus= help clients make career decisions and deal with issues
 Career development theories offer a framework for career counsellors to examine=
explain career behaviour
 Each offers a specific map to career development and choice
 Counsellors need to be well conversant with existing and new career theories and
how to apply them

Trait-and-factor / Person-environment-fit theories

 These theories evolved from the measurement movement that focusses on the
person + job.
 Trait = characteristic of individual
 Factor = characteristic that is required for successful job performance
 Underpinning assumption is that people have unique traits and abilities matched
with their different types of jobs

1. Theories underpinned by the Trait-and-factor / Person-

environment-fit Paradigm:

A. Parson’s Trait-and-factor theory

 Parson’s developed a three-pronged approach to help young people make wise
career decisions and become successfully employed:
  Characteristics measured for vocational guidance:
 Mental abilities
 Personality characteristics
 Interests
 Values
 Limitations using instruments developed around this approach:
 Effectiveness of approach depends on reliability of used tests
 Professional expertise + orientation of those applying the approach
 They prevent interaction + rapport between client and counsellor
 It’s a mechanic approach where human is seen as passive, not actively
functioning
 Theory is regarded as a static rather than developmental theory
 Theory ignores how achievements, interests, personalities and aptitudes
grow

B. Holland’s Theory of Personality and Occupational Types (RIASEC

Model):
 Underlying premise (main assumption) was that individuals choose situations and
environments that satisfy their personality orientations.
 People search for environments that will help them use their skills and abilities,
express their attitude and values, and take on agreeable challenges and roles.
 The theory classifies people into six personality types:

 The six modal-personal orientations are in line with the six-modal-occupational

orientations. It is based on the belief that people will enter and stay in work that is
like their personality type.
  Limitations of the theory:
 Although the theory presents a complex theory of the relationships and
interactions between individuals’ personality and work environments, the
greatest weakness is the results may be misused due to the simplicity of its
application.
 Less experienced counsellors may use the results to recommend clients to a
limited number of career choices.
 Personality-environment-fit approaches may not always be applicable to
the availability of jobs in the existing job market.

C. Dawis and Lofquist’s Theory of Person-environment

Correspondence (PEC) Theory:
 Originally referred to as the theory of work adjustment.
 Focuses primarily on the adjustment to work, while the person-environment
correspondence theory (PEC) focuses on the “fit” of a person for a particular work
environment.
 The PEC theory posits that career development process is the unfolding of the
individual’s abilities and requirements, in the interaction with the individual’s
various environments (i.e. home, school, work and play).
 It is assumed that optimal correspondence will lead to success and satisfaction.
D. Jung’s Theory of Personality Types:
Main assumption:
 Psychological type is a major construct by which personality can be understood.
 Psychological type is like personality type - refers to a personality pattern that
involves certain psychological processes that determine an individual’s orientation to
life.
 The theory has been the foundation for two instruments namely, the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Jung Personality Questionnaire (JPQ).
  The psychological types include 2 attitudes and 4 psychological functions.
 The 2 attitudes are:
 Extraversion – the individual focus on the world outside themselves
 Introversion – the individual focus on their own inner world
 The 4 psychological functions are:
 Sensing – involves an orientation to experience that which is present, visible
or concrete
 Intuition – involves knowing something without knowing the reason why
 Thinking – trying to understand things and link their ideas to by means of a
concept
 Feeling – accepting or rejecting things or ideas because of the pleasant or
unpleasant feelings they evoke

2. Lifespan Development Theories

 Choosing a career and managing one’s career development involves a continuous
process that carries on through life
 These theories use concepts from developmental psychology such as developmental
stages and tasks and career maturity, to explain the process of career development.
 The theory of Donald Super is most associated with the developmental approach to
careers.

A. Super’s career development theory

 Career development comprises of the formation and implementation of self-
concepts in the workplace. There needs to be synthesis or compromise between
the individual’s self-concepts and aspects of reality (such as social, economic and
cultural factors).
 Self-concepts are individuals’ own view of their personal characteristics. These are
developed through their interaction with the environment. They see themselves in
certain roles (student, worker, friend or family member). It may also change over
time as social, economic, cultural factors, occupations and technology change. Such
change influences the process of synthesis between the individual and reality.
  Synthesis is a learning process in which role playing plays a part. Individuals can
play out a role in fantasy or reality, in work or non-work situations, which may
contribute to career adjustment.
 Adjustment refers to the outcomes of behaviour in career development. Self-
concepts can be modified in the process of adjustment.
 Related to career adjustment is career maturity - it refers to readiness to make
career decisions and to cope with developmental tasks of particular life stages.
 Super’s Life Stage:

3. Cognitive Behavioural Theories and Approaches

 These theories arose out of behavioural psychology.
 They emphasise:
 a change-focused problem-solving approach and
  processes through which people monitor their career behaviour
 Theories include:

A. Krumbolt’s career decision-making theory

 The theory posits a theory of career choice that is an application of social learning
theory.
 The assumption is that:
 Learning experiences, together with genetic factors, environmental factors
and abilities (called task approach skills), are determinants of the decision-
making process.
 The interaction of these determinants results in certain outcomes, including
actions regarding career decisions.
B. Lent and Brown’s Social Cognitive Model of Career self-
management:
 This model focuses on the processes underlying the adaptive career behaviours
people employ to adjust and thrive in diverse contexts across the lifespan.
 It assumes individuals have some personal control and agency in their career
development.
 It outlines proximal and distal mechanisms of adaptive career behaviours within the
career self-management process:
 Proximal mechanism-
 Distal mechanisms-
C. Mitchell, Levin and Krumboltz’s Happenstance Approach Theory:
 Primary assumption is that unpredictable social factors, environmental conditions
and chance events over the life span must be recognized as important influences in
the client’s life.
 This approach suggests that the career counsellor assists the client to respond to
conditions and events in a positive manner.
 5 critical client skills, namely:

D. Hackett and Betz’s Theory of Self-efficacy

 The theory is based on the work of Bandura and Krumholtz, Mitchell and Jones.
 Self-efficacy is highlighted as the key concept in career decisions.
  Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s sense of having some control over events that
affect their lives.
 They postulated women and men differ with regard to expectations of self-efficacy.
Women have low expectations of self-efficacy resulting in them not fully realizing
their potential; assuming lower paying and lower-status jobs; low representation in
professional fields like engineering, law; and low representation in management and
administration positions.

Psychodynamic Approaches
 These theories focus on issues of ego-identity, life scripts and life themes.
 These approaches are based on internal structures of motivation and the constructs
of identity, lifestyle, the self and family systems.
 These theories include:

1. Bordin’s Theory of Personality Development

• Childhood experiences are seen as basic to the relation between personality
and work.
 This relation is rooted in the urge to play. Play is intrinsically satisfying activity
that gives the individual a sense of wholeness and joy. In work, it involves the
search for a self-satisfying career.
 In childhood, play is initially spontaneous but as it becomes linked with effort,
it becomes more directed, intense and complex.
  Closely related to effort is compulsion. An individual’s experience of
compulsion and effort determines the degree to which play and work fuse.
 Compulsion may become extreme to the extent that effort becomes
compulsion e.g. playing piano may change from being a self-satisfying activity
to an enforced (self-alienating) activity if the individual is no longer provided
with intrinsic satisfaction. If intrinsic aspects are part of work life, work
becomes a self-fulfilling vocation instead of a being a mere necessity for
survival.

2. Tiedeman, O’ Hara and Miller-Tiedeman’s Life-career Decision-

making Theory
 This theory aims at providing a model for describing the inner experience in
decision-making.
 It is based on Erikson’s view that ego-identity develops over stages in the
lifespan.
 Ego-identity, in this theory, is viewed as a self-organising system that
develops through the mechanisms of differentiation and reintegration.
- Differentiation
- Reintegration

Differentiation and reintegration constitute a decision-making process where

new knowledge and experiences are constantly formed, reformed and
integrated into ego-identity.

 A decision-making process can be divided into two phases, each involving

different steps of decision behaviour, namely, anticipation and
implementation.
 Anticipation consists of 4 steps: Exploration, Crystallisation, Choice,
Clarification
 Implementation consists of 3 steps: Induction, Reformation, Reintegration
 An expansion of the theory includes an incorporation of two types of realities
to the decision-making process.
The two realities are:
– personal reality
– common reality

 In advancing their careers, individuals must become aware of the differences

between the realities and must realise the importance of their personal
reality in decision-making.
  Life-career is seen as the dynamic, live-in-the-moment process defined by
each person in individual moments.

Relational Approaches to Career Development

These approaches concentrate on the involvement of parents and families in the career
decision-making of children, adolescents and adults.

Roe’s Theory of Parent-child Relationship

 Roe’s theory of parent-child relations uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a
framework for understanding the relevance of needs to occupational behaviour.
 Work can satisfy needs in different ways.
 The relative strength of needs and mode of satisfying them is determined by the
parent-child relations. These relations involve satisfactions and frustrations that
determine which needs will become the strongest motivators.
 Roe conceptualised three parental behaviours in the parent-child relationship
resulting in basic orientations, namely:
– emotional concentration
– avoidance of the child and
– acceptance of the child
 To explain the above:
- Love and overprotecting or overdemanding result in a basic orientation towards
people and the choice of an occupation in which this orientation can be expressed
and satisfied, such as service and entertainment occupations.
- Rejecting, neglecting and casual acceptance result in a basic orientation away from
people and the choice of an occupation involving, for example, technological,
scientific or outdoor activities.

Person-in-environment perspectives
 This perspective views career and career development as embedded in the larger
context of social and environmental interaction and relationship.
 The focus is on contextual interaction over the lifespan. An individual’s career
development is thought to be influenced and constructed within several
environmental systems such as family, neighbours, school, friends, workplace,
community, culture, customs.
 Career counselling procedures attempt to uncover both internal and external
variables that contribute to career development.
 1. Cook, Hepner and O’Brien’s Race/Gender ecological Theory
 The model uses a race/gender ecological approach to career development.
 It states that human behaviour results from the ongoing dynamic interaction
between the person and the environment.
 Vocational or career behaviour is an “act-in-context” where the context is
important to the explanation and meaningfulness of the individual’s
behaviour.
 Four systems that make up the environment, namely:
 microsystem
 mesosystem
 exosystem
 macrosystem
 Career behaviour is thought to be determined by the interrelationship
between the four subsystems in a larger ecosystem.
 Career counsellor is on changing the individual’s interactions with the
environment.

2. Brown’s Theory of Values

 This model of career development stresses the importance of values in career
decision-making.
 Values incorporate cognitive, affective and behavioural components and
serve as standards by which individuals evaluate their own actions and that
of others.
 The central argument is that individuals function holistically, therefore the
career counsellor needs to incorporate the interactions of various life role in
the whole life space.
 The model is based on six propositions, namely…..

Post-modern Perspectives
 Post-modern perspectives believe that individuals construct or perceive their own
reality or truth and that there is no fixed truth (constructivism).
 The focus is on the subjective experience of the individual’s career development and
individuals are seen as the agents who construct their careers. In other words,
individuals create their own views of events and relationships in their lives.
 Career counsellors using this perspective focus on both the meaning that their
clients give to their problems and help them see problems as meaningful options
that are no longer helpful.
 1. Savickas’ Career Construction Theory for Life Designing
 This theory argues that individuals construct their careers by attaching
meaning to their vocational behaviour and occupational experiences.
 Career represents a subjective construction that imposes personal meaning
on memories, present experiences, and future aspirations by using a life
theme that patterns the individual’s work life.
 Career counsellors who use this theory to listen to clients’ narratives for:
 life structure issues (the assemblage of work and other roles that
constitute a person’s life)
 vocational personality style (personality traits such as abilities, needs,
values, interests)
 career adaptability (coping mechanisms used by individuals to
negotiate developmental tasks and environmental changes)
 life theme stories (the motivation and driving forces that pattern
lives).

2. Frankl’s Theory of Existential Guidance (Logotherapy)

 Existential guidance (based on the principles of logotherapy) help individuals
recognise the role of the human spirit in finding meaning in life.
 The approach is useful in today’s workplace, characterised by economic
uncertainty that results in people feeling despondent, anxious or frustrated
by their employment circumstances.
 By applying logotherapeutic techniques, career counsellors guide individuals
to find meaning in their lives and efforts.
 Career counsellors who assist others in their life journeys by sharing some
understanding of logotherapy, guide them to advance their human dignity
and discover their life’s meaning and purpose.

Career Theories in Practice

Career theories can be applied in various ways to facilitate career interventions that will
enable clients to exercise meaningful choices to derive meaning from their career journeys
in the modern workplace

The Diagnostic Framework for Career Services

 The framework depicts the coherence between the services and the various career
theories.
 A career intervention would typically draw up more than one service at a time.
 The career services include:
  Career counselling: helps facilitate self-reflection and cognitive restructuring in
clients who need to develop career motivation, career agility, career adaptability
and career self-efficacy.
 Career guidance: helps individuals who are undecided to articulate their behavioural
repertoire and then translate it into vocational choices.
 Career placement: assists individuals who have chosen an occupational field to
secure a position in that occupation. Clients are helped to gather information, write
resumes, search for employment and prepare for interviews.
 Career therapy: assists individuals who have trouble developing a clear and stable
vocational identity to examine what it is that they need to feel secure.
 Career education: assists individuals who encounter difficulties in enacting their
subjective career intentions and goals (the career self) through their objective
vocational behaviour (vocational self).
 Career coaching: assists individuals who encounter problems adjusting to
occupational positions, to learn better adaptive skills and to become more career
resilient and develop career agility and career adaptability.

Ethical Considerations
 In SA, as in many countries, the practices of psychologists and career counsellors are
controlled by legislation and controlling bodies, such as the Health Professions Council of
South Africa (HPCSA).
 The Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) and its various institutes and interest
groups, promote the interests of clients and psychologists by means of conference, training,
publications, newsletters and marketing action.
 The Ethical Codes for Psychologists (managed by PsySSA) prescribes values and norms for
psychologists with respect to professional actions, such as testing, therapy and research,
personal actions and behaviour towards colleagues and especially clients.
 Psychological practices are based on the recognition of the worth and dignity of the
individual, irrespective of race, creed, sex, status, language and other personal data.
 Psychologists and professional career counsellors should maintain high standards by
reflecting their qualifications and experience accurately, keeping up to date in their methods
of practice and performing tasks professionally and in a planned and responsible way.
 Moral and legal standards compel psychologists and career counsellors to be aware of and
sensitive to standards and issues and not to act or use methods in a way that will offend or
not be in the best interest of their clients.
 Confidentiality and informed consent should be honoured. Confidentiality implies that any
information about any client will be respected as private and can only be divulged with the
client’s consent. Informed consent refers to the client’s autonomy and freedom of choice in
anything that will take place and the client’s right to be informed about any overt or covert
procedures.
 Clients should not be subjected physical or mental discomfort. No action, procedure or type
of relationship must harm the integrity of the professional contract between
psychologist/counsellor and client.
 Psychologists and career counsellors are required by law (i.e. Protection of Personal
Information (POPI) Act 4 of 2013) to treat personal information, including the collection,
usage, storage, dissemination, modification or destruction (be it automated or not) with
respect and ethically.