Super's self concept theory of career development

Career Counseling: A Holistic Approach

Theories of Career Development

Part III

Developmental Theories

Primary assumption is that career development is a process that takes place over the life span.
Developmental Theories

The Life-Span, Life-Space Approach to Careers
Donald Super (1972)

Career development was viewed as a continuous process.

Self-concept theory is a vital part of Super’s approach to vocational behavior.

Developmental Theories
Super’s Self-Concept

Research has indicated that the vocational self-concept develops through:
physical and mental growth

observations of work

identification with working adults

general environment

and general experiences.

Developmental Theories
Super’s Self-Concept

Although the vocational self-concept is only part of the total self-concept, it is the driving force that establishes a career pattern one will follow throughout life.
Thus, individuals implement their self-concepts into careers that will provide the most efficient means of self-expression.
Developmental Theories
Super’s Self-Concept

Self-concept developmental process is multidimensional.
Clients have a better chance of making optimal decisions when they are most aware of the work world and themselves.
Super’s Vocational Stages

Another of Super’s important contributions has been his formalization of vocational developmental stages:
Growth (birth to age 14 or 15)

Exploratory (ages 15-24)

Establishment (ages 25-44)

Maintenance (ages 45-64)

Decline (ages 65+)

Five developmental tasks are delineated by typical age ranges, but tasks can occur at other age levels.

Super’s Vocational Developmental Tasks

Vocational Developmental Tasks

Ages

General Characteristics

Crystallization

14-18

A cognitive process period of formulating a general vocational goal through awareness of resources, contingencies, interests, values, and planning for the preferred occupation.

Specification

18-21

A period of moving from tentative vocational preferences toward a specific vocation preference.

Implementation

21-24

A period of completing training for vocational preference and entering employment.

Stabilization

24-35

A period of confirming a preferred career by actual work experience and use of talents to demonstrate career choice as an appropriate one.

Consolidation

35+

A period of establishment in a career by advancement, status, and seniority.

Super’s Developmental Stages

Super (1990) modified the developmental tasks through the life span as shown on next slide and uses the terms cycling and recycling.
The Cycling and Recycling of Developmental Tasks Through the Life Span

Age

Life Stage

Adolescence (14-25)

Early Adulthood (25-45)

Middle Adulthood (45-65)

Late Adulthood (over 65)

Decline

Giving less time to hobbies

Reducing sports participation

Focusing on essential activities

Reducing working hours

Maintenance

Verifying current occupational choice

Making occupational position secure

Holding own against competition

Keeping up what is still enjoyed

Establishment

Getting started in a chosen field

Settling down in a permanent position

Developing new skills

Doing things one has always wanted to do

Exploration

Learning more about more opportunities

Finding opportunity to do desired work

Identifying new problems to work on

Finding a good retirement spot

Growth

Developing a realistic self-concept

Learning to relate to others

Accepting one’s limitations

Developing nonoccupational roles

Super – Career Maturity

One of Super’s best-known studies, launched in 1951, followed the vocational development of ninth-grade boys in Middletown, NY (Super & Overstreet, 1960).
The career maturity concepts developed by Super have far-reaching implications for career education and career counseling programs.
Implications of Super’s Approach

The critical phases of career maturity development provide points of reference.
The delineation of desired attitudes and competencies affords the specification of objectives for instructional and counseling projects.
Implications of Super’s Approach

Super (1974) identified six dimensions that he thought were relevant and appropriate for adolescents:
Orientation to vocational choice

Information and planning

Consistency of vocational preferences

Crystallization of traits

Vocational independence

Wisdom of vocational preferences

Implications of Super’s Approach

Example of how this information can be used.
The dimensions of career maturity support the concept that education and counseling can provide the stimulus for career development.
Super’s is most comprehensive of all developmental theories.
Implications of Super’s Approach

Two major tenets of his theory give credence to developmental theories in general.
Career development is a lifelong process occurring through defined developmental periods.

The self-concept is being shaped as each phase of life exerts its influence on human behavior.

Super (1990) illustrated a life-stage model by using a “life rainbow” as shown in Figure 2-4.
The life-career rainbow: Six life roles in schematic life space

Implications of Super’s Approach

This model leads to some interesting observations:
Success in one role facilitates success in another.

All roles affect one another in the various theaters.

Super’s Archway Model

Super also created an “archway model” to delineate the changing diversity of life roles experienced by individuals over the life span.
A segmental model

of career development

Super’s Archway Model

The relationship of the model’s segments highlights the interaction of influences in the career development process.
In a publication after Super’s death in 1994, his theory was labeled “the life-span life-space approach to careers.”
In this broad-based approach, gender and cultural differences are also addressed.
Super - Practical Applications

Super and his colleagues developed numerous assessment instruments designed to measure developmental tasks over the life span.
Career Development Assessment and Counseling model (C-DAC) was developed to measure constructs from the life-span, life-space theory in four phases.
Focus on client’s life structure and work-role salience.

Measure client’s perception of the work role, referred to as the client’s career stage, and career concerns.

Measures of abilities, interests, and values.

Assessment of self-concepts and life themes.

Super - Practical Applications

After assessment, counselor interprets data to client.
Counselor assists client to develop accurate picture of her/his self and life roles.
Counseling procedures pertinent to career development tasks are recommended.
Counseling may use coaching, educating, mentoring, modifying, or restructuring during an interview.
Developmental Theories – Gottfredson

Circumscription, Compromise, and Self-Creation: A Developmental Theory of Occupational Aspirations
Developmental Theories – Gottfredson

The main theme of Gottfredson’s (1981) theory is the development of occupational aspirations.
Her theory describes how people become attracted to certain occupations.
Developmental Theories – Gottfredson

Self-concept in vocational development is a key factor to career selection because people want jobs that are compatible with their self-images.
Key determinants of self-concept development are one’s social class, level of intelligence, and experiences with sex-typing.

Developmental Theories – Gottfredson

According to Gottfredson, individual development progresses through four stages:
1. Orientation to size and power (ages 3-5)

2. Orientation to sex roles (ages 6-8)

3. Orientation to social valuation (ages 9-13)

4. Orientation to the internal, unique self (beginning at age 14)

Developmental Theories – Gottfredson

A major determinant of occupational preferences is the progressive circumscription of aspirations during self-concept development.
Gottfredson suggested that socioeconomic background and intellectual level greatly influence individuals’ self-concept in the dominant society.
As people project into the work world, they choose occupations that are appropriate to their “social space,” intellectual level, and sex-typing.
Developmental Theories – Gottfredson

Gottfredson suggested that people compromise their occupational choices because of accessibility or even give up vocational interests to take a job that has an appropriate level of prestige and sex-type.
This theory has a strong sociological perspective.
Gottfredson is concerned with the external barriers that limit individual goals and opportunities.

The theory’s premise is that career choice is a process of eliminating options, thus narrowing one’s choices.
Developmental Theories – Gottfredson

Major Concepts of Gottfredson’s Theory
Self-Concept

Images of Occupations

Cognitive Maps of Occupations

Social Space

Circumscription

Compromise

Gottfredson

The scope of the theory was expanded greatly in Gottfredson (2002).
She stressed that career development is to be viewed as a nature-nurture partnership.

Genetically distinct individuals create different environments, and each individual’s genetic uniqueness shapes their experiences.

Gottfredson

This position differs from socialization theory (which suggests we are passive learners from our environmental experiences) and supports the view that we are active participants in creating self-directed experiences.
Both genes and environment contribute to one’s unique development.
Gottfredson

The nature-nurture partnership approach therefore adheres to an inner compass from which one may circumscribe and compromise life choices.
Gottfredson’s theory is distinguished from others by her emphasis on inherited genetic propensities that shape individual traits.
Gottfredson

The implications for career counseling include a perspective on individual differences that focuses on the influence of genetic individuality.
Most important to recognize the interplay of genetic and environmental factors.
Gottfredson

Individuals and their environments are involved in a continuous state of dynamic interaction.
Counselors are to respect the individuality of all clients and make no assumptions about a client’s vocational interests, attitudes, and abilities.
Counselors should encourage clients to be as realistic as possible.
Gottfredson – Practical Applications

She recommends five developmental criteria to aid the counselee in dealing with reality.
The counselee is able to name one or more occupational alternatives.

The counselee’s interests and abilities are adequate for occupations chosen.

The counselee is satisfied with the alternatives s/he has identified.

The counselee has not unnecessarily restricted her/his alternatives.

The counselee is aware of opportunities and is realistic about obstacles for implementing the chosen occupation.

Gottfredson – Practical Applications

She adds a biosocial perspective to the career development of the very young.
She strongly suggests that more attention be given to the development of individuals in their young years.
Gottfredson – Practical Applications

Of her key concepts, circumscription and compromise are the most dynamic.
Her theory has been criticized because it is limited to children and leaves much to be said about adult development.
Development Theories - Summary

Concept of vocational maturity illuminates the proposition that some clients simply are not prepared to make an optimal career decision.
Counselors are to assess a client’s orientation to work, planning skills, and reality of occupational preferences to determine readiness for career choice.
There are developmental tasks and stages in career development that provide windows of opportunity for counseling interventions.
Development Theories - Summary

Self-concept is the driving force that establishes a career pattern.
The assumption that clients are involved in several life roles simultaneously, and success in one life role facilitates success in another, underscores the important perspective of life-span development.
Development Theories - Summary

Gottfredson’s research underscores a well-known position that career educations should begin with the very young.
Counselors need to make every effort to empower children to learn more about he work world and promote the proposition that each child should feel free to choose any career.
Development Theories - Summary

Each client’s unique development should be the focus of the intake interview.
Developmental theories point out that each individuals development is unique, multifaceted, and multidimensional.
Counselors must recognize that client concerns can emerge from internal and external factors or a combination of both.
The Cycling and Recycling of Developmental Tasks Through the Life Span

Age

Life Stage

Adolescence

(14-25)

Early

Adulthood

(25-45)

Middle

Adulthood

(45-65)

Late

Adulthood

(over 65)

Decline Giving less

time to

hobbies

Reducing

sports

participation

Focusing on

essential

activities

Reducing

working hours

Maintenance Verifying

current

occupational

choice

Making

occupational

position

secure

Holding own

against

competition

Keeping up

what is still

enjoyed

Establishment Getting

started in a

chosen field

Settling down

in a

permanent

position

Developing

new skills

Doing things

one has always

wanted to do

Exploration Learning

more about

more

opportunities

Finding

opportunity to

do desired

work

Identifying

new

problems to

work on

Finding a good

retirement spot

Growth Developing a

realistic self-

concept

Learning to

relate to

others

Accepting

one’s

limitations

Developing

nonoccupational

roles

Super’s Vocational Developmental Tasks

Vocational

Developmental

Tasks

Ages General Characteristics

Crystallization 14-18 A cognitive process period of formulating a

general vocational goal through awareness

of resources, contingencies, interests,

values, and planning for the preferred

occupation.

Specification 18-21 A period of moving from tentative vocational

preferences toward a specific vocation

preference.

Implementation 21-24 A period of completing training for vocational

preference and entering em ployment.

Stabilization 24-35 A period of confirming a preferred career by

actual work experience and use of talents to

demonstrate career choice as an

appropriate one.

Consolidation 35+ A period of establishment in a career by

advancement, status, and s eniority.