CHOICE AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT – VARIETY OF PERSPECTIVES

Anna Paszkowska-Rogacz

Career counsellor questions

• Why do people choose particular educationaland vocational path?

• Why do they change it?

• Why do vocational preferences change atdifferent stages of human life?

Predispositionschoice

of vocational

Psychological subjectivedeterminants

Indirect situationaldeterminants

Direct situationaldeterminants

Biological subjectivedeterminants

• Environmental, social, cultural, politicaland economical factors

Number and type of employmentpossibilities

Employment procedure

Educational system

Number and type of training possibilities

Social politicy and procedures of guidingpeople to trainings

Proportion of education costs to itseffects

Labour law, trade union law and socialrights

Technological development

• Natural environmental factorsNatural calamities - earthquakes, droughts, floods, hurricanes

Availability or lack of natural resources

Indirect situationaldeterminants

• Family and its resourcesEducationAspirationsTransmission betweengenerationsParental attitudesFinancial situation

• School and its resourcesEducation and upbringingPeers

• Neighbourhood and localcommunity

Preferred models of lifeTraditionSupport

Indirectsituational

determinants

• Sex

• Race

• Temper

• Looks and physicalimpairment

• Health condition

• Intelligence

• Artistic talents

• Motor coordination

Biological subjectivedeterminants

• Self-awareness

• Attitudes

• Interests

• Needs – values

• Achievements• General and specific skills

• Learning and gainingexperience

• Task-oriented skills

Psychologicalsubjective

determinants

Task-oriented skills

• These are cognitive and executive skills and emotionalcapacity that enable an individual to cope withenvironmental influences, to interpret them on the basisof generalised observations

• These skills help an individual to aptly foresee and plan the future

Task oriented skills - types

• Values’ classification• Setting goals• Foreseeing• Generating alternatives• Searching for information• Evaluation• Planning• Generalising

Generalising self-observation

It is a result of interaction between four factors. Anindividual forms an opinion about himself/herselfevaluationg his/her actions in respect to learnedstandards.

Types of inappropriate generalisation

• Erroneous generalisations – ”Only I can’t do it”

• Comparing oneself with unattainable standard

• Exaggeration in the evaluation of emotional effects of an event – ”I can’t stand it”

• False cause and effect relationships• Ignorance of facts

• Paying too much attention to the events that arenot likely to happen

Problems resulting frominaproppriate generalisation

• Not noticing obvious solutions to the problem

• Difficulties in making a decision

• Eliminating good alternatives

• Generating bad alternatives

• Generating self-contradictory solutions

Use of knowledge on career developmentpredisposition in the process of professionalcareer decision making

• Explains motivational effects of external and internal sources ofreinforcing an individual

• Creates a basis for the process of making decisions during the wholelife where personal changes and the changes of the surrounding aretaken into consideration

• Opens the possibility for an external intervention aimed to help thecounsellor in the decision making process, giving the possibility ofsupplying an individual with new experiences of learning

• By reaching to the causes and effects of the behaviour, it can be easily studied empirically and is opened to modifications

• Helps people who want to be employed in modifying cognitivestructures improper or inhibiting adaptation, relating to one’s ownimage, other people and life events

• Helps people who look for a job in the analysis of irrational beliefson one’s own skills, values, vocational possibilities and inreformulating problems concerning planning one’s own career

Bibliography• Krumboltz, J. D. (1994). Improving Career Development Theory from

a Social Learning Perspective. W: M. L. Savickas, R. W. Lent (red.), Convergence in Career Development Theories (s. 9 – 31). Palo Alto, California: CPP Books.

• Krumboltz, J. D., Mitchell, L. K. (1984). Social Learning Approach to Career Decision Making: Krumboltz’s Theory. W: D. Brown, L. Brooks, (red.), Career Choice and Development (s. 61-93). San Francisco, Washington, London: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

• Krumboltz, J. D. (1996). A Learning Theory of Career Counseling. W: M. L. Savickas, W. B. Walsh (red.), Handbook of Career Counseling Theory and Practice (s. 55- 80). Palo Alto, California: Davies-Black Publishing.

• Super, D. E. (1984). Career and Life Development. W. D. Brown, L. Brooks (red.), Career Choice and Development (s. 192-234). San Francisco, Washington, London: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

• Super, D. E. (1994). A life Span, Life Space. Perspective on Convergence. W: M. L. Savickas, R. W. Lent (red.), Convergence in Career Development Theories (s. 63-74). Palo Alto, California: CPP BOOKS.

Thank you for your attention!