Title: Theories organize data, compare events against reality and predict the future. Theories are conceptu
1- Theories organize data, compare events
against reality and predict the future.
Theories are conceptual modelsformal
definition views theories as a cluster of
relevant assumptions (based on empirical or
rational information) that are systematically
related to each otherthey contain reality and
belief - Kenneth Matheny
- The Function of Theory
2 Shertzer and Stone (1980) identify four
functions of theories appropriate to our
discussion. They point out, first, that theory
summarizes and generalizes a body of information
second, that theory facilitates understanding and
explanation of complex phenomena third, that
theory serves as a predictive
- function by helping one to estimate what will
happen under certain conditions and finally,
that theory stimulates further research and fact
finding. All these functions are necessary for
the professional practitioner.
3- Unfortunately, many people have neither taken
the time nor made the efforts to logically think
through and plan their career development. An
abundance of research (Fredrickson, 1982
Isaacson, 1987 Zunker, 1986) indicates that the
socioeconomic chance or accident theory is
the single best descriptor of most peoples
career development.
4Formal attributes of a good theory...
1. A good theory is clear Easily understood,
not self-contradicting and consistent with
facts. 2. A good theory is comprehensive
Explains the most data or behavior for the most
part. 3. A good theory is explicit Precise and
not vague statements that a reasonable person can
understand.
- 4. A good theory is parsimonious Explains as
simply and clearly as possible. - 5. A good theory generates research Tests its
concepts in formal and public ways and makes
those tests public. - Joseph Schoelben
5General Classifications of Career Development
Theories
- 1. Trait and factor theory
- 2. Personality-based theories
- 3. Development theories
- 4. Social learning theory
- 5. Economic and sociological theories
6- Two major assumptions of trait and
- factor theory are (1) that individuals and
- job traits can be matched, and (2) that close
matches are positively correlated with job
success and satisfaction. These ideas are still
part of our career development models today,
e.g., see Nehaus, et. al text.
7- Early development of the trait and factor
approach is attributed to Frank Parsons
(1909)discover relationships between sets of
data like attitudes, abilities, interests and
requirements and conditions in various lines of
work.
8- Trait and factor career development theory
seeks to identify the pattern of worker traits
and match that pattern against the known
requirements of successful job performance. The
crucial component of this approach is the joining
of the concepts of individual differences and job
analysis.
Issacson, 1999
9- D.G. Patterson and the Minnesota Employment
Stabilization Research institute developed tests
and job factorslater expanded by E.G.
Williamsonfive assumptions basic to trait and
factor theory - 1. Vocational development is largely a cognitive
process in which individuals use reasoning to
arrive at decisions. - 2. Occupational choice is a single event.
- 3. There is a single right goal for everyone
making decisions about work. - 4. A single type of person works in each job.
- 5. There is an occupational choice available to
each individual
10- Roe (a clinical psychologist) studied artists
and scientists to create basis of theoryKey
propositions include - 1. Genetic inheritance sets limits of career
development, e.g., not everyone can be an NBA
star. - 2. Avenue and degree of development is affected
by experiences such as cultural background and
socioeconomic position, e.g., difficult for
ghetto child to be a doctor. - 3. Aptitudes, interests and other career related
personal variables are determined by individual
experiences which involuntarily focuses attention
of direction, e.g., junior achievement creates
budding business person.
11Contd
- 4. Needs (a la Maslow) that are not satisfied
become key motivator (time between arousal and
satisfaction). - 5. Psychological energy and attention
directedness as determined of career interests. - 6. Parental attention is key environmental
factor in career interests. - 7. Parental relationship of emotional
concentration, acceptance or avoidance
predisposes individual job involvement.
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13- Roe bases her theory of career choice on
Maslows hierarchy of needsthe theory suggests
lower level needs are so strong that higher order
ones will not impact career development until
lower level ones are met - Maslow lists eight basic needs, arranged in
order from lowest to highest as follows - 1. Physiological needs
- 2. Safety needs
- 3. Need for belongingness and love
14Contd
- 4. Need for importance, respect, self-esteem, and
independence - 5. Need for self-actualization
- 6. Need for information
- 7. Need for understanding
- 8. Need for beauty
15Roes Circular Model
I Service, II Business Contact, III
Organization, IV Technology V Outdoor, VI
Science, VII General Culture, and VIII Arts
and Entertainment
16Supers Life Span Approach
- A broad based segmented theory of related
proportions. - Within each person are traits or abilities so
pronounced that often these are used to
caricature the individual. The uniqueness of the
person is apparent in the individualized
combination of strengths and weaknesses. - The range of abilities, personality
characteristics, and other traits is so wide that
every person has within his or her makeup the
requisites for success in many occupations. The
lack of a certain skill, or its presence in
minute quantities, excludes the person from an
occupation only if that skill is important in
meeting the demands of that occupation.
17Vocational Development
- Crystallization. A stage that occurs between
the ages of fourteen and eighteen, during which
people develop overall self-concepts and
occupational self-concepts that determine the
general direction of their future careers. - Specification. A stage that occurs between the
ages of eighteen and twenty-one, during which
peoples broad occupational goals are more
narrowly focused toward their eventual life work.
18Vocational Development (Contd)
- Implementation. A stage that occurs between the
ages of twenty-one and twenty-four, during which
workers take steps to learn and enter a trade. - Stabilization. A stage that occurs between the
ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, during which
workers attempt to demonstrate mastery of their
trades. - Consolidation. A stage that occurs between the
age of thirty-five and retirement, during which
workers seek the professional recognition and
security commensurate with their ability and
seniority.
Super, 1964
19Supers Life Span Approach (Contd)
- For each ability or trait required in the
performance of a particular occupation, one might
expect to find a modal quantity that best fits
the nature of the work. On either side of this
amount, however, is a band or range of this
characteristic that will meet satisfactorily the
demands of the work. - As individuals exercise certain skills or
proficiencies, they may increase or expand them
to a higher level. As these higher-level skills
develop, workers may be drawn to occupational
outlets that provide opportunities to use them.
As the individuals self-concept changes, they
may also find that the once satisfactory job is
no longer so.
20Supers Life Span Approach (Contd)
- Either of these changes may result in the
worker seeking a new work situation or attempting
to adjust the position held in some way so it
will again be comfortable and satisfying. - Super identifies career maturity as a group of
physical, psychological, and social
characteristics that represent the individuals
readiness and ability to deal with the
development problems and challenges that face
him. - Individuals can be helped to move toward a
satisfying vocational choice in two ways 1) by
helping them to develop abilities and interests
and 2) by helping them to acquire an
understanding of their strengths and weaknesses
so they can make satisfying choices.
21- Super and Thompson (1979)
identified six factors in vocational
maturity (1) awareness of the need to plan
ahead, (2) decision-making skills, (3) knowledge
and use of informational resources, (4) general
career information, (5) general world of work
information, and (6) detailed information about
occupations of preference.
22- Crites (1981) suggest that there are at least
three major outcomes of career development -
making a choice, acquiring decision making
skills, and enhancing general adjustment.
Knowledge gained from theories can be helpful in
dealing with each of these outcomes. - Decision making theory can be helpful in
promoting a persons general adjustment.
Tiedeman and OHaras model examines the
processes that lead up to choice as well as what
happens once a person is on the job. Tiedeman
and OHara use such terms as induction,
reformation, and integration to describe the
phases a worker may go through as he/she deals
with job adjustment and advancement. Similarly,
the concept of life career roles and role
conflict can be useful to help explain and remedy
life and job adjustment problems and issues.
23Stages of a Mans Life (Daniel Levinson)
- Studied manufacturing and communications
companies - hourly wage, executive, academic, novelist
- Season conceptimplies cycle, stable but not
static, moves through four primary seasons - Childhood and Adolescence
- Early Adulthood
- Middle Adulthood
- Late Adulthood
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25Levinsons Seasons (contd)
- Pre-Adulthood
- Childhood, Adolescence and Transition
- Differentiate from Parents
- From center of universe to personality
- Transition requires choosing a career, completing
education, choosing a mate and becoming and
independent adult - Early Adulthood
- Peak of capacity, e.g., strength, health, sex,
intelligence - Major decisions, e.g., marriage, children,
career, projects - Middle Adulthood
- Middle aged characteristics, e.g., baldness,
paunches, reduced physical capacity - Freer to express feminine side
- Acceptance of morality
- Relaxing of attitudes to work, status
26Levinsons Seasons (contd)
- Late Adulthood
- Continuing physical (and often mental) decline
- More likely to experience severe illness (death
of near ones) - Possible retirement, slowing down
- Coming to peace with ones self
- Late, late Adulthood
- Feelings of aging, death, dying
- More focused on self (closed circle)
- Think about meaning of life
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28Passages (Gail Sheehy)
- Predictable Crises of Adult Life interviewed 115
men and women - Passages
- Late Teens, e.g., sever home ties, become
independent, conflict in wanting to see
world/prepare for it - The (Trying) Twenties, e.g., careers,
relationships, settling down - Early Thirties, e.g., (Catch-30) dealing with
shoulds, changing lifestyles (divorce) 30
somethings, true settling down, parenting,
strong focus on career - Late 30s to mid-40s, e.g., (The Deadline Decade)
no longer beautiful/handsome, re-establish goals,
move from do to want - Mid 40s to 50s (Renewal or Resignation, e.g.,
letting go of parental resentment, warmth and
mellowing or resign self to job, marriage,
relationships
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30Bolles Paradigm
- In What Color Is Your Parachute?, Bolles writes
about the importance of knowing your mission,
what is your purpose in life. He addresses how
various life roles fit into the bigger life/work
picture. He says that we need to challenge all
assumptions, paying careful attention on two
levels the human level and the spiritual level.
He speaks to the fulfillment of our psychological
needs as well as the importance of addressing
spiritual issues. In essence, there is both the
trait and factor approach and the developmental
schema in his process.
31Social Learning Theory (Krumboltz)
- 1. Genetic endowment and special abilities,
e.g., intelligence, artistic ability, physical
coordination, gender, race, physical appearance. - 2. Environmental conditions and events
(synthetic or natural, e.g., wars, natural
resources, training opportunities, social
policies, labor laws, educational systems. - 3. Learning experiences (instrumental and
associative), e.g., classroom learning, computer
learning, modeling, parental conditioning. - 4. Task approach skills (skills in coping with
new problems or tasks), e.g., values, work
habits, cognitive processes, symbolic rehearsing,
attending.
32- Krumboltz sees individuals encountering new
learning experiences, followed by rewards or
punishments that shape the uniqueness of the
individual. This leads to - self-observation generalizations (self statement
that evaluates ones actual or vicarious
performance in a work task) - task-approach skills (like work habits, mental
sets, thought processes) - actions (implementations of behaviors such
as applying for a job, tackling a new
work requirement)
33- In summary, an individual is born into the
world with certain genetic characteristics
race, gender, physique, and special abilities or
disabilities. As time passes, the individual
encounters environmental, economic, social, and
cultural events and conditions. The individual
learns from these encounters, building
self-observations and task approach skills that
are applied to new events and encounters. The
successes and failures that accrue in these
encounters influence the individual in choosing
courses of action in subsequent learning
experiences, increasing the likelihood of making
choices similar to previous ones that led to
success and of avoiding choices similar to those
that led to failure.
34Brain Function...
35Schlossbergs Models of Adult Career Development
- Schlossberg (1985) has identified four major
models of adult development. Each of these
models has a different perspective on
developmental stages. Cultural Perspective
This theory accepts the basic assumption that
given a particular environment, individual life
stories will be predictable and similar.
According to this perspective, it is the
structure of the work system and the resulting
environment that are largely responsible for the
behaviors people engage in, both at the work
place and in their personal lives. According to
this theory, for example most school teachers
behave in similar ways, both in the classroom and
in their homes.
36- Developmental Perspective
- From this perspective, adult behavior is
explained in terms of ages and sequential
stages of development. A list of stages
might include - Leaving the family (late adolescence to mid-20s)
- moving into the adult world (early to late 20s)
- settling down (early 30s to early 40s)
- becoming ones own person (ages 35-39)
- making a midlife transition (early 40s) and
- restabilizing and beginning middle adulthood
(middle and late 40s).
37- Life Span Perspective Continuity and Change.
This perspective considers the continuous
aspects of the adult experience including
changes over the life span, variations in how
groups experience adulthood, and socioeconomic,
racial and ethnic differences among individuals.
From this perspective, the developmental span has
no chronological age categories. Most
importantly, the stages are not unidirectional,
hierarchical, sequenced in time, cumulative or
irreversible. The life course is fluid and is
marked by many role transitions with varying
timetables for entries and exits that are not
always age-related or predictable.
38- Transitional Perspective nearly all cultures
celebrate rites of passage marking birth,
puberty, marriage, death and other major life
events. This perspective on adult development
sees these adult experiences as major
transitions. For example, proponents of this
perspective might believe that a young man should
be well into his career development by the time
he marries. This perspective points to cultural
norms as the dictators of age and stage
appropriate behavior, rather than emphasizing the
biological ages and stages of the adult. This is
a sociological perspective of transitions, or
rites of passage.
39The Impact of Transitions
- Schlossberg defines transitions to include
both anticipated and unanticipated changes.
Anticipated transitions are those that have a
likelihood of occurrence and can be rehearsed,
such as an expected promotion or a scheduled
retirement. Unanticipated transitions involve
a crisis, such as being laid off, becoming
disabled or getting divorced. - It is necessary to look beyond the actual
transition and focus on the impact of the
event. Schlossberg then identifies factors that
ease the assimilation of the transition by the
individual.
40The Impact of Transitions (Contd)
- The reader is cautioned against the natural
tendency to glorify or dramatize one stage of
adult development over another. A case in point
is the frequent emphasis on the midlife crisis.
Crisis can occur at any time in ones life, and
each person responds differently to the same
stimulus. The setting and historical context of
the transitions should always be considered, as
well as the particular changes an individual
experiences.
41Economic and/or sociological theories...
- tend to view the world of work and career
development from a conglomerate view, seeing
relationships in terms of large groups such as
industries, societies, countries, etc. primary
focus on the laws of supply and demandassuming
skills, education, licensure, and other
qualifying characteristics, employers will offer
only enough pay to attract required number of
workers and retain them for tasks required.
42Hollands theory of Vocational Choice...
- Holland assumes that a person expresses his/her
personality through a career choice and how they
react to their organizationhe assumes that each
person holds a stereotyped view of - various careers that creates a
characteristic with personal environment in
these must be a compatibility between
view and organization.
43- Holland believes people can be generally
classified into a limited set of career
(personality) types and that work environments
can be similarly classified. Types include - 1. Realistic people/environments objective,
concrete, physical manipulation, e.g.,
agriculture, technical, engineering,
skilled-trade. - 2. Investigative people/environments deals
with world through use of intelligence,
manipulating, work via intelligence, words,
symbols, e.g., science, scholarly, language
skills. - 3. Artistic people/environments focus on
creating art forms and products, e.g., actor,
writer, artist.
44Contd.
- 4. Social people/environments need social
interactions, working with others, e.g.,
education, therapeutic, community service. - 5. Enterprising people/environments
persuasive, verbal, extroverted, self-confident,
e.g., sales, entrepreneurship, leadership. - 6. Conventional people/environments
stereotyped, correct, conservative, e.g.,
clerical accounting, business, post-office.
45- Holland argues that people are attracted to
(or modify their) work settings that have an
atmosphere (press) similar to dominant features
created by individuals who control the
organization. Examples are realistic types in an
auto shop, conventional types working in a bank
and an enterprising type at a political party.
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47- Individuals are rarely a pure prototype. Most
people have a predominant characteristic
supplemented by a lesser similarity to other
groups. Generally, these are compatible or
consistent. - Hollands Hexagonal Relationship of Occupational
Classes
Realistic
Investigative
Conventional
Artistic
Enterprising
Social