Historical Overview

1. Frank Parsons – In 1909 wrote book called “Choosing a Vocation”.

2. 1911 Vocational Guidance Newsletter published.

3. 1912 Hugo Munsterberg “Psychology & Industrial Efficiency”.

4. 1917 Army Alpha & Army Beta used for assessing mental abilities.

5. 1927 Strong Vocational Interest Blank.

6. 1927 Elton Mayo & Harvard Study Hawethorne Works. Worker behavior study “Hawethorne Effect”

7. 1939 DOT Book “Dictionary of Occupational Titles”

8. 1941 Army Classification Test came along

9. 1942 Counseling and Psychotherapy by Carl Ransom Rogers.

10. 1957 Donald E Super “Psychology of Careers”.

11. 1963 Ordin/Nachman/Siegel (?) Psychodynamic Career Counseling

12. 1966 Krumboltz application of Skinnerian Principles in Career Counseling

13. 1973 John O Kreitz career maturity inventory.

Career Counseling Theories

An Overview by ROSENTHAl (2005)

You match the worker and the environment. Should have matching traits in each.  Ultimate job occurs when an individual’s traits match the requirements and the characteristics of the job environment.

1. Draw heavily on psychological testing “psychometric data”
2. Construed as a one time decision where the right person & job
3. Influenced and molded by the psychological testing movement.
4. Differential diagnosis key here (i.e. what makes job bad)
5. Studies indicate that different judges, form different opinions.

Key Figures

1. E.G. Williamson –  how diagnose career decision
   1. NO CHOICE FOR CAREER
   2. UNCERTAIN CHOICE
   3. UNWISE CHOICE
   4. DISCREPANCY BETWEEN INTERESTS & ATTITUDES
   Frank Parsons.
   1. Try to understand yourself in terms of interests, abilities, aptitudes, resources and other qualities.
   2. Know the requirement of various careers and conditions
   3. Use reason to determine compatability of the two.
   4. 1939 How to Counsel Students
   5. Some say, Minnesota Viewpoint is the only approach to general counseling
   6. 1941 Minnesota Occupational Rating Scales. Is a statistical tool to use to match students with jobs. Relied on probability that a certain match would be compatible.
   7. Emphasized vocational and educational concerns.
   8. Counselor is like a tutor, ultimate decision is left up to client.
   9. Critics – minimizes most important thing, client’s perception of self. This is ignoring.  Also ignores affective aspect

   An Overview by Sharf, (2006)

   1. In 1909, Frank Parsons described his concept of vocational guidance in his book Chosing a Vocation. Became the foundation for Trait and Factor Theory…..

      1. Trait refers to a characteristics of an individual that can be measured through testing (i.e. Myers Briggs)
      2. Factor refers to the assessment of characteristics of the person and the job they are interested in.

      When selecting an occupation the individual should ideally have the following information:

      1. A clear understanding of yourself
      2. A knowledge of the requirements and conditions of success, advantages and disadvantages, compensation, opportunities, and prospects in different lines of work.
      3. True reasoning on the relations of these two groups of facts.

      Parson’s…century-old concepts have been embellished by integrating tests and occupational information with his precepts, described as follows:

      1. STEP ONE: GAINING SELF-UNDERSTANDING (attitudes, abilities, interests, ambitions, resources limitations and causes).
         1. Parson’s Interview on Self-Understanding – In parson’s time relied primarily on interviews and client discussion:
            1. Asked client what they enjoyed doing (interests)
            2. How well they did it (aptitude & achievement)
            3. As clients talked about aspects of their life that were important to them (personal values)
            4. The counselor then observed the client’s personality traits.
            Five basic traits and factors can be assessed by testing and interviewing are aptitudes, achievements, interests, values and personality.
            1. ACHIEVEMENT TESTS– real how much the person has learned (NESA testing)
               1. Include academic accomplishments ….
               2. Supervisory ratings of tasks completed.
               3. Certification for entry into a job.
               ABILITY TESTING– measures the maximum performance and a person’s level of present ability on a specific set of tasks. APTITUDE TEST– person’s future probable level of ability to perform a test. (SAT/ACT/ASVAB)…. INTERESTS– often the most important trait used in occupational selection. Important to note, however that interests and abilities do not always correlate.
               1. KUDER Career Search –
               2. Strong Interest Inventory
               3. California Occupational Survey
               VALUES – Most often neglected. Should consider general values and work-related values. PERSONALITY– MMPI / MEYERS BRIGGS / 16 FACTORS… STEP TWO: OBTAINING KNOWLEDGE REQUIREMENTS AND CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS…
               1. OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION– 2^ndIngredient of Trait and Factor Theory.Three Aspects of Information Important to Consider:
                  1. Description of occupation, Work Conditions & Salary
                  2. Classification Systems of Occupations.
                  3. Know the trait and factor requirements for each occupation that a person is seriously considering.
                  TYPES OF OCCUPATIONAL INFORMAITON –to gather information that describes occupations, the work conditions, and salary.
                  1. Booklets by trade associations.
                  2. Computer-based Information Systems / Websites
                  3. Occupational Outlook Handbook.
                  4. National Career Development Association
                  CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS– to organize information available on various occupation types.
                  1. Holland’s Classification of occupations has six categories.
                  2. Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) 12,741 occupations
                  3. ONET – Occupational Information Network – 1,170 occupations
                     1. Worker Characteristics
                     2. Worker Requirements
                     3. Experience Requirements
                     4. Occupational Requirements
                        1. General work activities
                        2. Organizational contexts
                        3. Work contexts
                        Occupational Specific Requirements – skills, knowledge, duties, machines, tools, and equipment. Occupational Characteristics – job opportunities and payscale…. TRAIT & FACTOR REQUIREMENTS– occupational information related to client’s traits. Information on aptitudes, achievements, interests, values and personality is vital to consider….
                        1. Strong Interest Inventory….
                        2. ASVAB / SAT = Etc…
                        STEP THREE: INTEGRATING INFORMATION ABOUT ONE’S SELF AND THE WORLD OF WORK…
                        1. Integrating information about oneself and occupations is a major goal of career counseling. The match between self and occupation is built into the first two steps of trait and factor theory.
                           1. Firstly abilities/interests etc suggest occupations
                           2. Secondly, researching occupations suggest optimal traits
                           Inventories combining this information include SIG Plus and DISCOVER. Allow opportunity to measure interests, values, and self-reported competencies. Provide occupations that match this information.

                           Rogers never directly theorized this. These techniques focus on the client’s inner self and this opposes the trait-factor theory which deals with the outer self. (Rosenthal, 2005).  

                           1. DIAGNOSIS – is unnecessary here and detriment here oftentimes.
                           2. The problem is lack of congruence between self and experience.
                           3. When occupational used only when client asks for it. Not volunteered.

                           “The function of the counselor is to provide the core conditions; the function of the client is to engage in self-exploration” (Freedman, 1990)

                           1. THERAPIST’S ROLE:  “There are some basic core conditions for any kind of counseling or psychotherapy…First, you must understand your client. We call that empathic understanding…Second, you have to have respect for your client, not as someone who is poor and helpless, or just as someone who is an inadequate individual…The third element is genuineness…and there is a fourth element. That is, concreteness or specificity rather than generality. Specificity is important because one thing that many counselors tend to do is generalize. They tend to interpret, for example. Interpretation is a generalization on a higher level. In counseling and therapy you need to stick to the actual specific ideas and behaviors that the client has communicated and not try to classify them and give them high sounding psychological terms or psychological textbook names.” (Freedman, 1990)

                           2. CLIENT’S ROLE – “In career counseling, it is important that clients do engage in self-exploration, in a spontaneous way, at their own rate, in their own way, without being constricted and forced to limit or explain themselves in the words of the counselor….the clients themselves involved in obtaining the information, because it is more meaningful if they have to work at it than if someone just lays it on them.”(Freedman, 1990)

                           career choice reflects an implementation of life-style; itinvolves putting the life-style into practice via one’s career (Watkins, 1984a).It is saying, &dquo;This is who I am,&dquo; &dquo;This is how I see myselfvis-a-vis others,&dquo;&dquo;This is how I see myself vis-a-vis the world at large.&dquo; For example, theperson whose life-style is oriented around helping and assisting othersmight gravitate toward such jobs as counseling, nursing, or some otherhelping profession.Thus, in coming to understand an individual’s life-style, we come tounderstand his or her life goal, attitudes toward self, others, and the worldat large, and how the life goal and attitudes actually get implemented.

                           Anne Rowe

                           
                           One’s job serves as a major source of unconscious needs satisfaction. (psychoanalytic)Unconscious need resulted from early parent/child interaction Families are either person or non-person centered. This influences the careers we choose.  Anne Rowe describes two types of job categories…....   read more