Career development history

If individuals canunderstand theirstrengths and weaknesses, suchknowledge can beused to choosevocational opportunities

What is a career?

A career is an individual's journey through learning, work and other aspects of life

Career is defined as a person's "course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)". In this definition career is understood to relate to a range of aspects of an individual's life, learning and work. Career is also frequently understood to relate to the working aspects of an individuals life e.g. as in career woman. A third way in which the term career is used to describe an occupation or a profession that usually involves special training or formal education, and is considered to be a person’s lifework. In this case "a career" is seen as a sequence of related jobs usually pursued within a single industry or sector e.g. "a career in law" or "a career in the building trade".

The etymology of the term comes from the French word carriere (16 c.) ("road, racecourse") which, in turn, comes from the Latin word "(via) cararia" (track for wheeled vehicles) which originated from the Latin word carrus" which means "wagon".

The modern concept of career is the product of the industrial age. Duringthe industrial age, most individuals were employed by large organizationswhose primary purpose was producing a tangible product.

These organizations provided much of the structure for people’s lives.

The vertically integrated hierarchical organizations provided the opportunity for advancement through promotion up the ‘corporate ladder.

During the industrial age, work was concentrated in employment, learning was concentrated in education, and education preceded employment.

The role of career counseling was to facilitate the passage from one system (education) to the next (employment). This is why most careercounseling takes place in educational institutions.

Although the origins of career thought could be traced to thefifteenth century, andearlier, organized career counselinghad no clear beginning.

Some of the conditions from which career counseling evolved were

Economic (industrialism and growing division of labour) Social (urbanization, child labour, and immigration) Scientific (the emergence of the social sciences and the advent of

mental testing)

These conditions are critical to understanding the historical developmentof career counseling.

Career counseling and career development theory was the productof a particular social and economic environment and was developed in the context of that environment.

The beginning of the formulation of career development theories arrivedwith Frank Parsons in the earlytwentieth century. FrankParsons began his work at theVocational Bureau in Boston in1908. He is credited with first using the term ‘vocationalguidance’ to describe the methods that he used with young people. Parson urged that vocational guidance becomea part of the public schoolprogram with experts to conduct it. Although Parsons never developed a formal theoryof career development, mostcareer theories credit his work asbeing the framework upon whichcareer theory has developed.

The long-range impact and importance of Parsons’ work was not understood until many years later when it was recognized in the MinnesotaEmployment Stabilization Institute during the 1930s when E.G. Williamsonat the University of Minnesota developed the first career counseling theoryTrait Factor theory , a modification and operationalizing of Parsons’ work.This became known as the Minnesota Model.

The Minnesota Vocational Test for Clerical Workers has been used extensively at the University of Minnesota Employment Stabilization Research Institute in thestudy and guidance of workers and in the differentiation of groups of employed and unemployed workers in various occupations. It has been demonstrated that the clerical test differentiates clerical workers from workers in the generalpopulation better than an academic ability test, and that it discriminates somewhat less successfully various classes of clerical workers, such as stenographers, from general clerical workers. Another investigator also has reported significant differences in clerical test scores between men office clerksand garage mechanics, and between women office clerks and retail saleswomen. Other findings have shown the Minnesota Clerical Test to be not only a reliable and valid measuring instrument but one which seems to measure an aptitude relatively independent of clerical training and experience . To show, however, that a given aptitude test measures clerical

There were others who were influential in the beginning of what becameknown as guidance counseling. Such as Jesse Davis, who, in 1898, wasinitiating guidance activities in high school in Detroit.

Jesse Buttrick Davis (1871-1955): Pioneer of Vocational Guidance in the Schools

Jesse Buttrick Davis is considered to be the 1st school counselor in the United States because he was the 1st to implement a systematic guidance program in the schools. Through his work in the Michigan public schools, he became an important leader in the development of vocational guidance in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His pioneering work in the Detroit and Grand Rapids public schools laid the foundation for the counseling specialties of career counseling and school counseling. He was also 1 of the founders of the National Vocational Guidance Association (now National Career Development Association) and National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Eli Weaver was conducting vocational placement services at a boy’shigh school in Brooklyn

The first American journal developed to vocational guidance, The VocationalGuidance Newsletter, was published in 1911and was the predecessor to the Vocational Guidance Magazine, and whenthe Personnel and Guidance Association was established in1951, to Occupations and later to Personal and Guidance Journal.

Although there were others who were beginning to work on the idea of career development , Frank Parsons is usually referred to as the ‘fatherof vocational guidance’ because the roots of career development theorydid not emerge until Parsons developed a schema for successful careerdecisions making in 1909. Parsons proposed three broad factors in careerchoice: Understanding oneself, having a specific knowledge of the world of work, and Understanding the relationship between the two

Parsons believed that a person should actively choose his or her careeror vocation rather than allowing chance alone to operate in the careerdecision process. By doing this, Parsons believed that personal job satisfaction would be enhanced, employers’ cost would decrease, and employees’ efficiency would increase. Whatever approach to career counseling is taken, one must deal with Parsons’ central components when choosing a vocation.

For much of the twentieth century, career counselors focused on the second of Parsons’ triad, increasing people understanding of the world ofwork. This began to change when the stock market crash of 1929 wasfollowed by drastic deterioration of every aspect of the economy. Large-scale unemployment led the United States Employment Service to providetesting, counseling, and placement services to workers. The World Warsand the Depression increased the need to classify people in a meaningfulway and fit them into jobs that they could perform satisfactorily.

The role of tests increased significantly during this time. The Army General Aptitude Test Battery were developed to enhance the selection and placement concerns that arose at the beginning of the Second WorldWar when manpower problems became acute. It was during this period,marked by the World Wars and The Great Depression that the role of career counselors expanded tremendously. It was also during this time thatParsons’ theory was given a new name; “trait and factor” theory.

This theory dominated the 1920s and 1930s. Carl Rogers challenged thisperspective in his books on client-centered counseling, which questionedthe directive approach that trait and factor theorists used.

This trait-factor approach was also challenged by theorists such as Ginsberg. Career development began to be seen as a lifelong developmental process that is filled with compromise.

Super further expanded uponthese ideas with his developmental theories of career decision.

Other such as Roe focused on psychological theories of personality, givingattention to the early childhood experiences that predisposed individuals toenter certain occupations.

Holland developed a morecomprehensive trait-orientedtheory of career development andchoice. This approach has been the most researched and the mostinfluential approach to careerchoice theory and has perhapsprovided the most pragmatic application for the career counselor

These ever-newer theoretical approacheshave included different aspects of the developmental processes and addedpsychological and sociological understandingto the career choices that individuals make.Many of the differing theoretical approachesare in fact, looking at differing aspects ofthe complex process of career choice, adjustment ,and development.

Several major trends have culminated in the different approaches to careerchoice and adjustment. The primary theme in the history of career counseling has been the Personal focus on the individual, the occupation,and the relationship between the two.

This model is the cornerstone of the trait and factor approach to careercounseling with its emphasis on tests and occupational information.Combined with this is the view that career counseling has been the recognition that the choice of a career is a life long developmental process

There has also been a shift toward examining cognitive variable and processes in studying career choice and adjustment. This has influencednot only the modification of existing career development theories, but hasbeen the impetus for emerging theories.

These trends have produced different schemas for classifying differingtheories. Any attempt to classify models of behavior runs the risk of oversimplification and models can be classified in different ways. Yet someattempt at classification can be useful in understanding the history and the state of career development theory.

Trait-Factor Theories

The oldest theoretical approachto career counseling has itsantecedents in the theories of individual differences in behaviorand the identification of thesedifferences through tests and measurements. The term trait andfactor refer principally to abilities,interests, and personality characteristics. This system assumes that the matching of individual’s abilities and interestwith the available career opportunities can be accomplished,and once accomplished, solves theproblems of career choice for thatindividual.

The roots of this approach go back to parsons and are based on the pragmatic consideration of assisting individuals in choosing the best careerbased on their abilities, interest, and personality characteristics. This system has been the foundation for the vocational testing movement, producing interest inventories and aptitude test.

Philosophically, this approach focuses on the uniqueness of the individualand differential psychology.

Largely, trait-factor systems area theoretical. The primary proponent of this approach is JohnHolland. He put forth a model with the following assumptions: In our culture, most people canbe categorized as one of six types;Realistic, Investigative, Artistic,Social, Enterprising, or Conventional. Six model environments correspond to the six personality

types. People search for environments that will allow them to exercise theirskills and abilities, express their attitudes and values, and take on agreeable problems and roles. Behavior is determined by interaction between personality and environment.

Holland furthered his theoretical conceptswith the development of the hexagon as a heuristic for understanding the nature ofinterest. This development led to the exploration of other important concepts in Holland’s developing theory. Four diagnostic/theoretical indicators are used as interpretative constructs.

1. Congruence, which is the degree of fit between an individual’s personality and the type of work environment the person is currently in or anticipates entering.2. Consistency, which is the measure of internal coherence of an individual’s type score.3.Differntiation, which is the measure of crystallization of interests and provides information about the relative definition of types in an individual’sprofile.4. Identity, which is the measure of the degree of clarity of the picture ofone’s goals, interests, and talents.

Sociological Models of Career DevelopmentOften referred to as “accidental theories” or situational theories of careerdevelopment, sociological theories have as their central tanant the ideathat circumstances beyond the control of the individual play a pivotal role in career decisions. These circumstances include the economic and social development of the society in which career decisions are made as well as the individual’s social status and experiences. This approach to career development emphasizes the need for the individual to develop the skills and coping mechanisms to deal effectively with environment.

Most of the emphasis of the sociological approach is based on the recognition thatcareer choices reflect a compromise between and individual’s inclinations and those possibilities that the culture opens to the individual. Career counseling approaches differ from sociological approaches in important ways. Most of the differences are found in the fact that counseling theories gives at least moderate weigh to the individual’s choice-making process in spite of the external obstacles and conditionswhile sociological theories assign much more weight to the institutional and impersonal market forces and significantly limit individual decision making and career aspirations.

According to Hotchkiss and Borrow, the most prominent sociological theories StatusAttainment Theory that postulates that the social status of ones parents effect the level of schooling achieved, which in turn affects the occupational level that one attains. This basic model is expanded upon by what is known as the “Wisconsin model”, which adds an intervening variable of ability to the relationship between parental social status and level of schooling.

Human Capital theories states that the individual invests in activities sucheducation, health care, and migration with an expectation of return. These theories predict that any form of discrimination in the job market will disappear over time as a result of competitive pressure.

Sociology of Labour Markets theory states that the Social Attainment Model is incomplete because it does not account for how social structuressuch as rules of access to jobs, salary schedules, job security, and performance standards interact with individual characteristics to influencethe outcome of career attainment. This theory also argues against the microeconomic theories that focus on “human capital”. Sociology of LabourMarkets theorists, or structuralist, believes that institutionalized inequalities are pervasive persistent. This theoretical approach dominates most of the sociological research about determinates of occupational status.

Developmental Self-Concept

A third approach to careerdevelopment is the self-conceptapproach that weaves two models into one. This system combines the development and the self-concept models. The basic tenants of this approach hold that ;1. individuals form more clearlydefined self-concepts as theygrow older.2. people develop images of theworld of work that they compareto their self-image; and3. the adequacy of careerdecisions are based on the similarity between an individual’s self-concept and vocational concept.

This approach has expanded with the life-span, life-space approach of Super, which addresses life span and social-role psychology. The graphical presentation of this theoretical approach is captured in the Life-Career Rainbow, which has two dimension depicts the social settingin which the roles take place. This approach attempts to portray the multiple-role careers and their determinants and interactions.

The time dimension adds a developmental approach that focuses on how people change and make transitions. Super’s developmental theory has attempted to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the complexities of career behavior. It has evolved over time and has been influenced by constructivistic thought and by the cognitive processing theories