Thursday, October 30, 2008

Questions to consider in facing a career change

1. How would you describe your career path so far?
2. How has a company change affected you? How did it make you feel?
3. Have you experienced any failure in your career? If so, what did it lead to?
4. What were your childhood goals and ambition for life? Which have you been able to fulfill?
5. Who are two people you know who seem to have accomplished their dreams? What do you remember about their accomplishments?
6. What do you imagine your retirement will be like?

If you are facing a career change, I recommend this excellent book by Dan Miller (Miller 2007).

Handling a Crisis

A crisis can be a very scary thing. As many of us are aware, the present social climate of uncertainty can lead to fear and apprehension in addition to whatever unique problems we might each be facing.

There is a clever, but mistakenly contrived idea that a crisis = danger + opportunity and that there is a Chinese character that represents just that idea. This is simply not true. Either the "fact" of the Chinese character or the idea that we should consider a crisis to be an opportunity.

On count one, please visit this excellent webpage on the Chinese language.

On count two, a crisis begins when the unexpected leads to fear and apprehension. Now it could begin a lot sooner that that. However, we may not have any control over the beginnings of a crisis. What we do have some measure of control over is how we handle the crisis and whether we let fear and apprehension drag us down.

Crisis does not equal danger plus opportunity. In fact, a crisis, and how we handle a crisis, can prevent us from benefiting from the opportunities that are always there.

The First Century Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” Life is not easy. If life has been easy for you, you may be caught by surprise when a true crisis arises. As Viktor Frankl said, the courage to live comes from finding meaning in your suffering.

Seneca also said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

The first step in handling a crisis is to realize that you are in danger. Ask yourself, "What is at stake here?"

Consider the statement, "All progress requires change, but not all change is progress."

Progress happens when we face our struggles and suffering with a sense of purpose, and more precisely, with a plan. Do not let fear and apprehension prevent you from having hope for tomorrow.

For those who are experiencing change and especially for those who are facing a crisis, the discouragement, frustration, and resentment you may feel can put an obstacle in the way of embracing what is truly important to you. Getting stuck in these feelings is a result of looking backwards, at something that has already occured.

As soon as we create a clear, meaningful plan for the future, those feelings dissolve and are replaced with enthusiasm, optimism, and hope.

It has been proven that negative thoughts and feelings have no power against a sense of purpose and a clear plan for the future. Look boldly at whatever you are facing and create a plan of action that will turn hopelessness and "bad luck" into meaningful action.

Again, opportunity is always there, but is difficult to benefit from it without preparation and a sense of purpose.

CAREER CRISES AFFECTING CULTURALLY DIVERSE POPULATIONS

Discrimination is well documented as a major problem for members of minority groups in their career development

When discrimination occurs, person is more likely to face a crisis
Atkinson, Morten, and Sue’s model can be applied here.

Atkinson, Morten, and Sue’s Identity Development Model

Conformity

Dissonance

Resistance and immersion

Introspection

Synergetic articulation and awareness

CAREER CRISES AFFECTING WOMEN

Three general types of career crises more likely to affect women than men

1. Experiencing discrimination – usually unanticipated and involuntary
2. Making decisions based on child-raising and family issues –
most times anticipated and voluntary, but not always
3. Facing sexual harassment – dramatic, unanticipated, and involuntary

Temporary Re-entry into and Leave-taking from the Labor Force
Women may follow a large variety of patterns in going in and out of the labor force (e.g. maternity leave, marriage, divorce, death of a husband)
Sometimes can be traumatic, particularly if because of divorce or death of husband


Sexual Harassment
May be an unanticipated, involuntary crisis that threatens one’s career and psychological health
Definition: form of sexual discrimination that includes sexual threats, sexual bribery, sexual jokes or comments, or touching that interferes with a person doing her job.

Till’s 5 levels of sexual harassment:
• Level 1: Gender Harassment – verbal remarks or non-touching behaviors that are sexual in nature
• Level 2: Seductive Behavior – inappropriate sexual advances
• Level 3: Sexual Bribery – request for sexual activity in turn for some kind of reward
• Level 4: Sexual Coercion – individual is coerced into sexual activity by threat of punishment
• Level 5: Sexual Assault – forceful attempts to touch, grab, fondle

Adult women who are sexually harassed – 16% to 90%; other studies – 25% to 50%, most cases are the least severe level

How do victims respond? Fitzgerald and Ormerod summarize reaction into 2 major categories:
Internally focused strategies
• Minimizing a behavior or denying it is really offensive
• Putting up with harassment
• Excusing the offender
• Taking responsibility for the incident

Externally focused strategies
• Avoiding or placating the harasser
• Confronting the harasser and telling him the behavior is unwanted
• Getting support from the institution
• Getting social support from friends and family


Gutek and Koss’ 4 stages of reacting to sexual harassment

• Confusion and Self-Blame – individual assumes responsibility
• Fear and Anxiety – fear for career and safety
• Depression and Anger – when a woman realizes she is not responsible for harassment, she may become more angry
• Disillusionment – even if she charges harasser, process is long and arduous and may not always have a successful outcome

ADULT CAREER CRISES AND TRANSITIONS

Transition – from a stage point of view, it is the movement from one stage to another, may be smooth

Crisis – more negative term, a situation in which a person has to develop new methods of dealing with a problem that has arisen rather suddenly and may be disorienting

TYPES OF TRANSITIONS

Schlossberg’s 4 types of transitions:
_ Anticipated -happens in the lifespan of most people
e.g. graduation, marriage, starting a job, retirement
_ Unanticipated - unexpected events, such as death of a family member, being fired or transferred
_ “Chronic hassles” - situations such as a long commute to work, an unreasonable supervisor
_ Nonevents (events that don’t happen) - an event that someone wishes to happen, but never occurs e.g. a promotion that never happens; for women: not being able to leave or enter the workforce easily

Hopson and Adams class of transitions:
voluntary - e.g. quitting one job to do another
involuntary - e.g. being fired or laid off


CATEGORIES OF CAREER TRANSITIONS
Career events are classified into three areas (Schlossberg):

1. Normative role transitions
Anticipated and voluntary (e.g. starting your first full-time job)
Occurs in Super’s exploration stage
Become crises when not anticipated

Louis’s 5 categories of normative transitions that people experience in work roles similar to Marvis and Hall’s “boundaryless” careers:
• Entering or reentering a labor pool
• Taking on a different role in an organization
• Moving from one organization to another
• Changing professions
• Leaving the labor pool

Career Transitions Inventory – to assess how well people believe they have made career transitions; 5 subscales:
• Readiness – how motivated you are to make a career transition
• Confidence – one’s sense of self-efficacy in being able to make a successful transition
• Control – degree to which people feel they can make their own decisions
• Perceived Support – how much support people feel they get from their friends and family
• Decision Independence – the extent to which people make decisions based primarily on their own needs or whether or not they are considering the needs and desires of others

2. Nonnormative career events

Far more likely to become crises than normative transitions
Most common – loss of a job (being fired or laid off), can be devastating unless
the work role is not a salient one
Other examples – promotion, transfer, or demotion to another job

3. Persistent occupational problems
career problems that persist for a long period of time, causing a cumulative effect that can lead to a transition crisis
examples – unpleasant work environment, pressures on the job, relations with colleagues and superiors


MODELS OF TRANSITIONS AND CRISES
Reaction to crises takes place over a period of time

Two basic phases of transitions.
_ Dealing with and decreasing stress
_ Attending towards details of the crisis so that one can return to normal life

Individuals respond to job loss with depression, anxiety and reduced self-esteem

Positive change and growth can occur with involuntary work changes.

Outplacement counselors can help with these severe reactions (e.g. shock and negative emotional impact)
_ Help people access their current situations, abilities, values, and interests
_ Help clients set career goals and develop strategies for job search
_ Teach resume writing, interviewing, and locating job or educational opportunities.


HOPSON AND ADAM’S MODEL OF ADULT TRANSITIONS

Immobilization
Example: initial shock when you find out you’ve been fired
Overwhelmed, unable to make plans, possibly unable to verbally respond
Few moments to few monthshow long it lasts depends on situation and psychological makeup of person

Minimization
Desire to make the change appear smaller than it is
Often, person will deny that change is even taking place or will tell herself that event doesn’t matter

Self-Doubt
Doubting oneself and one’s ability to provide for oneself and for one’s dependents
Common reactions are anxiety due to not knowing what will happen, fear of the future, sadness, and anger

Letting Go
Individual lets go of angry, tense, frustrated, or other feelings
Accepts what is really happening to her
Detaches herself from original situation and starts to look at future

Testing Out
May develop a burst of energy, a sense of “now I can do it”
Sometimes people will describe the way things should be, may have advice for others in the same situation
May have ideas of how they will move forward

Search for Meaning
Seeks to understand how events are different and why
Cognitive process in which people try to understand not only the feelings of others, but also their own

Internalization
Change in both values and lifestyle
May have developed new coping skills and has grown emotionally, spiritually, or cognitively as a result of going through difficult crisis


COUNSELOR ISSUES

Counselor’s experience with her own crises and transitions
Problems when the counselor is in crisis

Super's Life-Career Rainbow

LATE ADOLESCENT AND ADULT CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Super’s two major concepts – life role and life stage (values are also important)

ROLE SALIENCE

People have differences in terms of the importance of work to them
Importance of work can also vary depending on their state in life
Salience Inventory – measures 3 aspects of life roles: commitment, participation, and value expectations
Super’s rainbow illustrates life roles
Life roles measured by Salience Inventory listed below:

Life Roles
Studying
Includes a number of activities: during school years – courses, school, studying at library or home
Many people continue their education at some point in their life for pleasure or to enhance their job advancement or success

Working
May start in childhood (e.g. babysitting, mowing lawn, etc.)
Adolescents usually get part-time work
Adults work at one or more jobs at various times in their lives
At retirement, jobs for pay or profit may be for fewer hours than when individuals were younger

Community Service
Includes broad range of voluntary service groups (e.g. social, political, or religious)

Home and Family
Varies greatly depending on age of individual
As adults enter later years, their responsibility for home and family may increase or decrease markedly

Leisure Activities
Nature and importance of leisure varies considerably throughout life
Particularly important for children and adolescents
Lifetime sports – sports that are less physically demanding and require fewer participants, so they are easier for adults to participate in at various times in their lives

For adults, leisure activities become more sophisticated and intellectual (i.e. theatre, books, stocks and bonds, etc.)
Liptak’s Leisure Theory of Career Development: leisure is a substitute for work as a way of trying out new activities, importance of play throughout the lifespan, shows significance of leisure in a variety of life stages, leisure plays a more important role in career development than work (especially in beginning and end of lifespan)

• Early childhood – parents are important influence in development of play and curiosity
• 6 to 12 – school and after-school activities allow for cognitive and motor skill development through play or leisure activity
• Adolescence – team and individual activities (i.e. sports, clubs, and hobbies) helps refine interests and abilities
• 19 to 25 – leisure related to work or education
• Adulthood – leisure related to work or family related activities,

Indicators of the Salience of Life Roles

Nature of involvement changes throughout a person’s life
Involvement is measured in terms of:
• Participation - measures actual behavior of a person
• Commitment - future plans, a desire to be active
• Knowledge - information about a role from experiencing the role or by observing it
• Value Expectations - opportunity for various roles to meet a variety of needs; values measured by

Value Expectation Scale of the Salience Inventory; includes 14 value expectations*:
Ability utilization – using one’s skills and knowledge
Achievement – feeling that one has produced good results
Aesthetics – finding beauty in the role one chooses
Altruism – helping others with problems
Autonomy – independent and working on your own
Creativity – discovering or designing new things
Economic Rewards – to have a have a high standard of living and material things
Lifestyle – plan one’s own activities and live the way you want to
Physical activity – being physically active
Prestige – opportunity for individuals to be acknowledged for what they accomplish
Risk – dangerous or exciting challenges
Social Interaction – being with other people and working in a group
Variety – being able to change work activities
Working Conditions

*The Values Scale also includes authority, personal development, social relations, cultural identity, physical prowess, economic security


ADULT LIFE STAGES

Both age-related (there are typical times when people go through the stages) and NOT age-related (also possible to experience each stage at almost any time during their lifetime)

One can be involved in several stages at once

MAXICYCLE – five major life stages

MINICYCLE – describes the growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and disengagement that can occur within any of the stages in the maxicycle


Basic Stages of Career Development
Exploration – 15 to 25 years old, the efforts that individuals make to get a better idea of occupational information, choose career alternatives, decide on occupations, and start to work.
Crystallizing – clarify what they want to do, learn about entry-level jobs, typically high school students, narrow choices
Specifying - college graduates, early 20’s, high school students who go straight to work, must choose their first full-time job, specify their preferences so they may find an employer
Implementing - last phase prior to working, making plans to fulfill their career objectives, start to network, talking to university counselor

Establishment - 25 to 45, getting established in one’s work by starting in a job that is likely to mean the start of working life, work in an occupation that will probably be steady for many years, for semi- and unskilled workers, it refers to the person who works for much of his or her lifetime.
Stabilizing - settling down in a job and being able to meet those job requirements that will ensure that a person can stay in the field in which he started, apprehensive about whether he has the skills necessary to stay with the work
Consolidating - starts to become more comfortable with work and wants to be a dependable producer, competent, and reliable
Advancing - occurs any time in the establishing stage, moving ahead into a position of more responsibility with higher pay

Maintenance - 45 to 65, not advancing, but maintaining their status in work. Find out how their work will change in the future
Holding - some level of success has been attained, concerned with holding onto the position that they have
Updating - updating workers on changes in their field, learning new things
Innovating - making progress in one’s profession, develop new skills

Disengagement - continue to use their mental capacities for growth and at the same time disengage from various activities (e.g. work)
Deceleration - slowing down one’s work responsibility (i.e. finding easier ways to do work or spending less time at work)
Retirement Planning - financial planning and planning activities to do when retired, individuals return to crystallization stage
Retirement Living - late 60’s, leisure, home and family, and community service becomes more important than work

Recycling - Not everyone follows stages in a neat orderly outline, may reenter any stage at any time


SUPER’S LIFE STAGES OF WOMEN

Seven career patterns for women:
_ Stable homemaking career pattern - get married soon after school and do not work
_ Conventional career pattern - enter work after high school or college, but after marrying, they are full-time homemakers
_ Stable career working pattern - after school, work continuously
_ Double-track career pattern - combine work and homemaking
_ Interrupted career pattern - enter work, then marry and full-time homemaking, then go back to work after children are older
_ Unstable career pattern - drop out of workforce, return, drop out, return.
_ Multiple-trial career pattern - works, but never really establishes career, has a number of unrelated jobs in her career
Others suggest ways to manage careers, such as making decisions decision with partner

Bardwick - Bardwick described typical experiences of women at various points in their adult life
_ Many women between 30 to 40 who have been involved in a career are concerned with not wanting to delay having children any longer
Many women are concerned with balancing their professional role and their feminine role
_ Between 40 to 50, women start to develop more autonomy and to become more independent. Women got back to work after children have gotten older, not a time of maintenance, but of career accomplishments
_ Bardwick is contrasted with Super by her notion that marriage and family are important to women’s career decision making and planning
_ Ecological perspective focuses on relationship between women and their environment


LIFE STAGES OF CULTURALLY DIVERSE ADULTS

Minority Identity Development (Atkinson, et al.)

_ Conformity - prefer majority culture
_ Dissonance - through information and experience, encounter conflict and confusion between values of own culture and majority’s
_ Resistance and immersion - rejects dominant culture and embraces minority culture
_ Introspection - begins to question total acceptance of minority culture
_ Synergetic articulation and awareness - incorporates cultural values of both the dominant group and other minorities

COUNSELOR ISSUES

Be aware of life stages of counselor in contrast with the client.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Adolescent Career Development

Educational commitments to career choices are made during adolescence.
This chapter describes how cognitive and emotional factors bear on career decisions of adolescents.

FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOLESCENT CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
Formal thought, the ability to think abstractly, ability to use logic (apt to be quite idealistic, expecting their world to be logical, when it isn’t). May be cause for conflict because adolescents start to believe that they are right and others are wrong.
Erikson says that adolescence is a time of identity and role confusion, which leads them to question the world.

GINZBERG’S TENTATIVE STAGE OF ADOLESCENT CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Three periods in the choice process
Fantasy stage (up to age 11): play and imagination in thinking about future work
Tentative stage: recognition of one’s interests, abilities, and values, as well as one’s knowledge of work
_ Development of interests
_ Development of capacities
_ Development of values
_ Transition period
Realistic stage (after age 17): specifying and crystallizing occupational choice

Development of Interests:
At about 11, children stop fantasizing and begin to make choices based on interests
Young boys’ choices were related to their fathers’ careers
Ability to judge competencies is limited and unimportant to them
Interests are the major factor in the selection and rejection of career choices during childhood

Development of Capacities:
Ages 13 – 14 (middle school)
More likely to asess their own abilities
Educational process becomes more important in preparation for work
More realistic view of themselves and their future

Development of Values:
Ages 15 – 16
Able to take their goals and values into consideration when making career decisions
May not know how to weigh their interests, capacities, and values, but they have the necessary building blocks for choice
Becoming aware that they have to make choices to fit into the complex world
They may consider making contributions to society and the world
Issues of marriage and life plans may emerge


Transition Period:
Ages 17 – 18 (last year of high school)
Decisions about college and majors
Aware of job availability
Career guidance usually includes an asessment of interests, capacities, and values

Comparison of Super and Ginzberg’s Stages
In general, the adolescent life stages of both theorists are very similar
Super does not include values in his overview because they are developed in several stages. Except for values, both theories place interests before capacities
Differences:
Super emphasizes recycling of stages, so time guidelines are not as important
Super believes that adolescents’ attitudes toward career and their knowledge of careers is important
Super thinks that adolescents enter stages about two years earlier than Ginzberg believes

CAREER MATURITY

Five major components (Super)
1. Orientation to vocational choice, using occupational information
2. Information and planning about an occupation
3. Consistency of vocational preference
4. Crystallization of traits
5. The wisdom of vocational preference

Super’s Conception of Career Maturity
Career Development Inventory, five Subscales:

Career Planning
This scale measures how much thought people have given to a variety of information-seeking activities and how much they feel they know about various aspects of work
Amount of planning is critical
Career planning – how much a student feels that he knows about these activities, not how much he actually knows

Career Exploration
Willingness to explore and look for information
How much information the student has acquired from the source

Decision Making
The ability to use knowledge and thought in career plans

World-of-Work Information
Knowledge of important developmental tasks
Knowledge of job duties in a few selected occupations, as well as job application behaviors

Knowledge of the Preferred Occupational Group - Choose from 20 groups


Realism (not tested)
Mixed affective and cognitive entity best assessed by combining personal, self-report, and objective data as in comparing the aptitudes of the individual with the aptitudes typical of the people in the occupation.
Is the career choice realistic?

Career Orientation Total
General term encompassing the previous concepts
Score gives a summary of the first 4 scales (excludes knowledge of preferred occupational group and realism)

IDENTITY AND CONTEXT

Based on Erikson’s work on identity and developed by Marcia and Vondracek
Vocational Identity, 4 developmental stages:
_ Diffusion – having few clear ideas of what one wants and not being concerned about the future
_ Moratorium – a time, often more than several months, in which one explores options while wanting a direction, but not having one
_ Foreclosure – making a choice, often based on family tradition, without exploring other options
_ Achievement – knowing what one wants and making plans to attain an occupational goal

Vondracek combines identity with attention to the context of the development

THE ROLE OF OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION

Psychtalk - statements used to describe aptitudes, interests, and other characteristics of one’s self
Occtalk - statements about occupations

THE ROLE OF ASSESSMENT

CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF ADOLESCENTS FORM DIVERSE CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS

Applicability of career maturity studied for adolescents of different cultural backgrounds
Vocational aspirations differs for Latino, Latinas, Mexican Americans, and African Americans

GENDER ISSUES IN ADOLESCENCE

Females more interested in traditionally male careers than males were in female careers
Traditional pattern of females choosing clerical jobs, males choosing craft and labor positions
Females: lower and higher level prestige, males: mid-level prestige
Females tend to score higher than males on Career Development Inventory

COUNSELOR ISSUES

Dealing with adolescents’ egocentricity
Patience with adolescent search for identity
Adolescents may have a limited time perspective

Career Development in Childhood

Career-related issues that affect child until age of 12

SUPER’S MODEL OF THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN

Curiosity:
Desire for knowledge or something new or unusual
Most basic of all needs and drives
Curiosity may develop when there are changes in an individual’s physical or social needs
May be prompted by hunger, thirst, loneliness, and other stimuli
Boredom, wish for excitement, or a desire for stimulation produces curiosity
Curiosity and fantasizing in young children should be encouraged
Exploration:
Act of searching or examining
Is a behavior
Curiosity leads to children exploring their environment
Information:
Piaget: major periods of cognitive development
_ Sensorimotor (birth – 2): infants attend to objects and events around them and then respond to these objects and events
Attending – sensory acts of touching, seeing, smelling, etc.
Responding – motor acts such as biting, hitting, screaming, etc.
_ Preoperational (2 – 7): learn to add and subtract, egocentric, young children cannot tell fantasy from reality
_ Concrete operational (7 – 11): Children think in concrete terms, they do not have to see an object to imagine manipulating it, but they must be aware that it exists
_ Formal operational (12 – beyond): think abstractly

Key Figures:
Adults are important role models
Parents, teachers, public figures are examples
Significant method of learning for children is imitation
Internal versus External Control:
Children begin to experience a feeling of control over their own surroundings
they begin to develop a feeling of autonomy and of being in control of future events
Development of Interests:
Fantasies of occupations are affected by information about the world, and they become interests.
Encouraging children’s emerging interests is helpful in the development of their career maturity.
Time Perspective:
Developing a sense of future
Unrealistic to ask children (especially below 4th grade) to think about planning future vocational training
Self-concept and Planfulness:
Sense of self begins to emerge in late childhood or early adolescence



USING SUPER’S MODEL IN COUNSELING CHILDREN

Typical elementary school guidance problems
_ Lack of academic progress
_ Dyslexia
_ Lack of reading achievement
_ Problems with sight, hearing, or ability

Typical family problems
_ Child abuse
_ Child neglect
_ Issues arising from single parent families
_ Divorce
_ Unwed parents
_ Stepfamilies
_ Working parents

GOTTFREDSON’S THEORY OF CIRCUMSCRIPTION, COMPROMISE, AND SELF-CREATION

A life-stage theory of career development in childhood and adolescence that emphasizes the importance of gender and prestige in making decisions (this gender and prestige emphasis is generally not in any other theories).

Socialization theory - biological factors become less and less important as individuals age.

Modern nature-nurture partnership theory - both biological and environmental factors influence each other and continue to do so throughout the life of the individual.

Niches - life settings and roles that individuals occupy.

Similar to other theorists, Gottfredson’s theory includes intelligence, vocational interest, competencies, and values.

Circumscription - The idea that various factors limit career choices at different ages.
The progressive elimination of unacceptable alternatives, leaving acceptable alternatives
The prediction that gender will influence occupational preferences from the age of 6 and up and prestige will influence preferences at 9 and up
Choices are circumscribed or limited

Four stages of cognitive development (provides a way for one to look at themselves in the world)

1. 3 – 5 years old: orientation to size and power
Children grasp the idea of becoming an adult by orienting themselves to the size difference between themselves and adults

2. 6 – 8 years old: orientation to gender roles
Become aware of the different gender roles of men and women
Their careers choices are influenced by their view of gender roles
3. 9 – 13 years old: affected by abstract ideas of social class
Prestige becomes an important factor in career choice

4. 14 years old and older: orientation to the Internal Unique Self;
Adolescents become more introspective and develop greater self-awareness and perceptiveness toward others
Develop a more insightful view of vocational aspirations as they are affected by the view of themselves, gender roles, and prestige

Gender-stereotyping
Children develop tolerable gender-type boundaries, beliefs that tell them that certain jobs are appropriate for a specific sex
Persuasive gender-stereotyping is found in schools

Compromise: the necessity of an individual to modify his or her career choices because of the reality of limiting environmental factors such as a competitive job market or not having sufficient academic performance to enter an academic program
May have to accept less attractive careers
Concerns the prediction that the earlier a stage occurs, the more resistant it will be to change and the less willing an individual will be to compromise on issues related to that stage
Gender type, prestige, and interest will be compromised (or sacrificed) in such a way that, when making a change in career choice, individuals will give up their interests first, then prestige, and then gender type.
This hypothesis deals with why women have a hard time considering non-traditional careers.

Implications of Gottfredson’s Theory for Super’s Theory
Super’s model does NOT deal with gender bias.

Gottfredson is consistent with the importance of career exploration unrestricted by gender-role stereotyping.
Thus, children should be able to EXPLORE.
Schools should provide non-gender –stereotyping material so that children can gather INFORMATION.
Schools are more likely then to provide an atmosphere that promotes a variety of INTERESTS.
If exploration and information are not gender-biased, the selection of KEY FIGURES is also more likely to be unbiased.
These concepts will eventually affect the child’s SELF-CONCEPT and ability to make career choices.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR CHILDREN OF CULTURALLY DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS

Research suggests that African American and Hispanic children may be impeded in their exposure to exploratory activities in finding information that would enhance their development.

Counselors should provide the same opportunities for all children.




THE ROLE OF OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION

School-to-Work – provision of occupational information through the educational system.
1. Infusion of occupational information into the classroom through films, oral reports on occupations, or development of interest centers in class
2. Less formal approach includes group activities such as skits using terms from the world of work, crossword puzzles with work terms, comparing lists of interests, abilities, and achievements with requirements of occupations
3. Community involvement, field trips

Experiential Career Guidance Model
Activities designed for preschool children
Sensitive to children’s limited time perspective
Activities focus on the family and home, such as a play store or library

THE ROLE OF ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS

A few inventories for children, such as Holland’s Self-Directed Search (Form E), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Children’s Personality Questionnaire

COUNSELOR ISSUES

Great gap between the developmental stage of children and that of counselors.

Myers-Briggs Theory

Not designed to be a theory of career development, but a theory of personality

The two most basic concepts are perception-judgment and extraversion-introversion.

PERCEIVING AND JUDGING
Two ways of PERCEIVING
Sensing:
· Taking in information through visual and auditory proceses along with smell, taste, and touch (direct perception)
· Prefer to observe, primarily through hearing, vision, and touch
· Focus on events immediately around them
Intuition:
· Concerns the use of the unconscious, indirect and adds ideas to external perceptions
· Perceive meanings in relation to events
· Takes intuition and goes beyond senes
· Focused on future event, not current

The Two Ways of JUDGING (After an Idea is Perceived, a Judgment is Made)
Thinking:
_ Analyzing and being objective about an observed idea or event
_ Concerned with logic or analysis
_ Tries to be objective
_ Concerned with judging fairly
Feeling:
_ Subjective reaction, often related to one’s values
_ Concerned with the impact of the judgment
_ Interested in human as opposed to technical problems

Combinations of Perceiving and Judging
Sensing and Thinking:
_ Likely to focus on collecting facts that can be verified by their observations
_ Want to see and hear what has happened
_ Choose occupations that demand analysis of facts
_ Law, business management, accounting, production, etc.
_ Practical and pragmatic
_ Rational decision-making process based on information from literature or people
Sensing and Feeling
_ Aware of the importance of feelings to themselves and others when making decisions
_ More interested in observations about people than objects
_ Medical, social work, teaching
_ Will focus more on information about people and occupations, being aware of how they’d feel in these jobs
Intuition and Feeling
_ Personal, warm, and inspired
_ Apt to take a creative approach to meeting human needs and be less concerned about objects
_ Clergy, teaching at college or high school level, advertising
_ Likely to use hunches based on what’s best for them
_ Emphasis on feeling about observations rather than weighing the observations themselves
Intuition and Thinking
_ Make decisions based on analysis
_ Enjoy solving problems, especially those that are theoretical
_ Research, computing, development of new projects
_ Likely to project themselves into the future, thinking about what types of work would provide particular opportunities
_ Clear and logical decision making for them

The Preference for Perception or Judgment
Some people prefer to make decisions based on relatively few facts (judgment), while others prefer to weigh many facts before reaching a judgment (perception).
People who have perceiving attitudes continue to take information in and do not decide.
People who have judging attitude tend to stop perceiving and make a judgment without including anymore evidence.
Judging people tend to have a sense of order in their lives, whereas perceiving people just live their lives.

EXTRAVERSION AND INTROVERSION
Introversion:
_ Making perceptions and judgments based on one’s interests in his or her inner world
_ Concepts and ideas in inner world are important
_ Enjoy thinking
_ Like to work out problems or think for a long time before acting
_ More quiet, not necessarily due to shyness
_ Activities where there is time for concentration
_ Science, accounting
Extraversion:
_ Based on outer world
_ People and objects in outer world
_ Like to take action
_ Want to work with people or things by talking and interacting
_ Speak directly to an individual
_ Verbal and physically active
_ Activities that provide contact with people
_ Sales and business, social service

THE 16 TYPE COMBINATIONS

Descriptions provide an overview of the characteristics of people who fit into the 16 types.

DOMINANT AND AUXILIARY PROCESS - COMPLEX CONCEPTS


USING THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPOLOGY IN COUNSELING

There are frequent occupational choices that are made by people in each type.

THE ROLE OF OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION

Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the counselor can match the client’s Myers-Briggs type with the Myers-Briggs types of occupations.

THE ROLE OF ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS

The MBTI is crucial in the use of the theory. Several report forms exist.

APPLYING THE THEORY TO WOMEN AND CULTURALLY DIVERSE POPULATIONS

The MBTI has been translated into many languages. Studies have been done on gender and cultural differences.

COUNSELOR ISSUES

Myers suggests that counselors need to adjust their style when dealing with people who are different MBTI types.