Assignment: Career Learning Theory
Assignment: Career Learning Theory
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Assignment: Career Choice Theories Based in Learning Theory
Krumboltz
Theory of Happenstance
Unplanned and unexpected events that have influenced the course of your life
Krumboltz’s approach to career counseling has considerable merit, particularly for disenfranchised and marginalized groups in our society.
Krumboltz identified 4 factors that influence individual development and ultimately the career decision-making process and choice:
Genetic endowment and special abilities
Environmental conditions and events
Learning experiences
Task approach skills
HAPPENSTANCE LEARNING THEORY
FUNDAMENTAL GOALS FOR CAREER COUNSELING
1. To help clients learn to take actions to achieve more satisfying and career and personal lives – not to make one decision.
2. Career assessments are used to stimulate learning, not to match traits with occupational characteristics.
3. Clients learn to engage in exploratory actions to develop beneficial unplanned events.
4. Counseling goals are measured by the client’s accomplishments outside the counseling session.
APPLYING HAPPENSTANCE LEARNING
THEORY TO CAREER COUNSELING
Skills needed to deal with opportunities that arise by chance:
Curiosity – Explore opportunities resulting from chance events
Persistence – Learn when there are setbacks
Flexibility – Change attitude to deal with chance events
Optimism – Pursue new events; find that actions can pay off
Risk taking – Responding to new events
APPLYING HAPPENSTANCE LEARNING
THEORY TO CAREER COUNSELING
Four counseling steps:
1. Normalize planned happenstance in client’s background.
2. Help transform curiosity into learning and exploration opportunities.
3. Teach clients to produce desirable chance events.
4. Teach clients to overcome blocks to action.
Social Cognitive Perspective on Careers
Based in the sociocognitive theory of Albert Bandura
Central propositions of Social Cognitive Theory:
Interactions between people and their environments is highly dynamic
Career-related interests and behavior are influenced by several aspects of the person: gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabilities, behavior, self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, goals and genetically determined characteristics.
Self-efficacy beliefs and expectations of outcomes interact directly to influence interest development.
Gender, race, physical health, disabilities, and environmental variables influence self-efficacy development, as well as expectations of outcomes and ultimately goals and performance.
Actual career choice and implementation are influence by a number of direct and indirect variables.
Performance in educational activities and occupations is the result of the interactions among ability, self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations and the goals that have been established.
Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) was first published by Lent, Brown and Hackett in 1994.
The results of reviews and research studies suggest that SCCT-based career counseling is useful with a variety of client groups ranging from adolescents to the disabled.
Self-efficacy and interests are linked and that interests can be developed or strengthened using modeling, encouragement and most powerfully performance enactments.
Lent and colleagues (2002) recommend 2 career counseling applications of SCCT.
The first begins with gathering traditional test data regarding needs, values and aptitudes similar to that proposed by Dawis (1996)
The second application involves the use of a modified vocational card sorting of occupations representative of the occupational structure.
Career Information Processing (CIP)Model of Career Choice
(Peterson and colleagues)
First presented in 1991
Revised in 2002
Relied on branch of learning theory that focuses on information processing
Understanding CIP Theory
Development of self knowledge involves the interpretation of past events and a cognitive reconstruction of those events.
The decision making process (deciding) can be subsumed under the acronym CASVE—communication, analysis, synthesis, valuing and execution.
Of greatest concern to career counselors and counseling psychologists is the client who is not a good decision maker. The Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI) was developed to diagnose various aspects of decision-making problems.
CTI has items relating to each compartment included in a pyramid:
Apex: Thinking About My Decisions
Mid-Level: Knowing How I Make Decisions
Base of Pyramid: Knowing Myself and Knowing My Options
Peterson and colleagues outline a 7 step model for career counseling
Conduct initial interview
Conduct preliminary assessment
Mutually define problem and analyze causes
Formulate goals
Develop individual learning plan
Implement individual learning plan
Evaluate goal attainment
