Career Choice Theories.

- Ishara .S. Saranapala

Career……..

The progress and actions taken by a person throughout a lifetime, especially those related to that person’s occupation.

A person's "course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)- Oxford dictionary.

A profession / occupation chosen as one’s life’s work. – Collin’s English dictionary

Career choice:

Career choice:

Career choice: Selecting a suitable career path.

"A career choice is important because it determines your success in the next stages of your life.“-Psychological Dictionary.

Impotents of career choice:

- Individual development.

- Organizational development.

- Economical development.

- Reduce wastages………………. Etc.,

Career choice theories:

Theory of work adjustment (TWA)

Holland’s theory for vocational personalities & work environment)

Self concept theory of career development.

Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription & compromise.

Social –cognitive career theory (SCCT)

Parson’s theory.

Krumboltz’s theory.

TWA persist a relationship between person-environmental fit, job satisfaction and tenure.)

A person (P) looks for work organization’s environment (E) that would match his/ her requirements. Then ‘P’ is satisfying with ‘E’. Organization (employer) is turns for individual’s who have the capabilities to match the organization.

To ‘P’, the most central requirements to meet from ‘E’ are his / her needs. To ‘E’, the most central requirements are abilities, skills, attitudes. Knowledge…….etc.,

Overall, the degree of ‘P’ ’s satisfaction & ‘E’ ‘s satisfaction would jointly predict ‘P’ ‘s tenure in work environment.

Vocational interests is an expression of one’s personality.

This interests can conceptualize in to 06 categories.

- Realistic (R) - Artistic (A)

- Enterprising (E) - Investigative (I)

- Social (S) - Conventional (C)

Using this interest types can generate 03 letter words (Ex: RIA, SIA………etc.,). First letter show’s person’s primary / major interest type & second , third letters shows secondary interest themes. Therefore they would play lesser but role for career choice.

One of most important theory of career choice.

Career choice & development is essentially a process of developing and implementing a person’s self-concept.

Super (1990) proposed life stage developmental framework with the following stages, Growth, Explorations, Establishment, Maintenance (or Management) & Disengagement.

Each stage is important and have to manage it properly. 15- 24 age period plays important role for one’s education and career path. Skills, Values, Interests are important to make future decisions.

Stages of life.

Most recent contribution to ‘Career choice’ knowledge.

Genetic characteristics plays a crucial role in shaping & basic characteristics of a person, such as interests, intelligence, skills, values …etc.,

Environment also plays a important role for shaping person’s characteristics.

Gottfredson categorized the age of a person as,

03- 05 years :Orientation to size and power : (Child take adult’s career as an example)

06-08 :Sex orientation role ( Child identify the gender diferensiation)

09-13: Orientation to social valuation ( Getting some idea about social class and social values)

14 & above : (Start identifying skills, self-concept, values, interests…..etc.,)

Gottfredson’s

stages of

Circumscription

Explains internal and external reasons influence on one’s career choice.

Also explain about

- Development of academic & vocational interests.

- How individual make educational and career choices.

- Educational and career performance and stability.

Personal performance accomplishments, various knowledge, social persuasion & psychological types powerfully influence on self-efficiency.

Self efficiency, outcome and personal goals served as core variables of interest, choice and performance models of SCCT.

SCCT also offers a comprehensive framework to understand the development of career interests, career choice and performance.

Conceptual framework for SCCT

Parson developed talent- matching approach which are later developed to ‘Trial & Factor theory’ for career choice.

Parson explained the occupational decision making occurs, when people have achieved,

- Understanding of their individual trails.

- Knowledge about job & the labor market.

- Relationship between individual trails and labor market.

Parson suggests that when individuals involve the jobs suits for their abilities , then they can perform best and their productivity is also high.

This theory specifically address the need for people to deal with rapidly changing's of labor market and current globalize work environment.

Core of this theory is unpredictable social factors, chance events & environmental factors are influence on employees life.

Krumboltz explained counselor's role is to help & guide clients employees) and in particularly counselors foster in their clients,

- Explain & explore learning opportunities

- Persistence to deal with obstacles.

- Flexibility to address a variety of circumstance and events.

- Optimism to maximize from unplanned events.

There has many barriers to further develop this theories such as tangible, social, cultural, political, geographical……..etc.

But…..this theories helps to

improve and make advance career guidance knowledge.