WED 466: Unit 4

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WED 466 Unit 4

• Psychological Foundationsof Workforce Education

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General Objective

• Understands the psychological foundations of
  workforce education.

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Career Development

• is a lifelong process involving psychological,
  sociological, economic, and cultural factors that
  influence individuals selection of, adjustment
  to, and advancement in the occupations that
  collectively make up their careers.

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Good vs. Bad Theories

• Good theories have well-defined terms and easily
  interpreted constructs.
• Good theories explain the career development
  process for all groups.
• Good theories explain why people choose careers
  and become dissatisfied with them.
• Good theories are parsimonious.

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Early Theories

• Have limited applicability to special groups
  women, European men and women.
• Are culturally oppressive because they are rooted
  in Eurocentric beliefs
• Reflect independent, not dependent career
  decision making.

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Theories with Major Impact on Research and
Practice

• Holland (1997)
• Super (1990)
• Lofquist Dawis (1996, 1991)
• Lent, Brown, Hackett (1995, 1996, 2002)
• Gottfredson (1981, 1996)

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The Western European worldview is that people
should act independently when they make career
decisions Many Native Americans, Asian
Americans, and Hispanics believe that the welfare
of the group should be placed ahead of the
concerns of individuals.
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Career Choice and Development Categories

• Trait and Factor Theories
• Developmental Theories
• Theories Based in Learning Theory
• Socioeconomic Theories

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Philosophical Assumptions

• Positivist (modernist)
• Trait-and-factor theories
• Developmental theories
• Theories rooted in learning theory
• Post Modern (phenomenological/ constructivist)

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Trait-and-Factor Theories

• Hollands Theory of Vocational Choice
• Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA)
• Browns Value-Based Theory

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Hollands Theory ofVocational Choice

• Individual personality is the primary factor in
  vocational choice.
• Interest inventories are personality inventories.
• Daydreams about occupations are precursors to
  occupational choice.
• Identify is related to a small number of focused
  vocational goals.
• Career success and satisfaction is related to
  choosing an occupation that is congruent with
  ones personality.

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Hollands Six Personality Types

• Realistic
• Investigative
• Artistic
• Social
• Enterprising
• Conventional

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Hollands Six Work Environments

• Realistic Environment
• Investigative Environment
• Artistic Environment
• Social Environment
• Enterprising Environment
• Conventional Environment

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Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA)

• People have two types of needs.
• Biological (survival)
• Psychological (social acceptance)
• These needs give rise to drive states.
• Work environments have requirements that are
  analogous to individual needs.
• Workers select jobs because of the perception
  that the job will satisfy their needs.

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Predicting Worker Success

• (i.e., worker adjustment)
• Skills
• Job-related skills
• Aptitudes
• Potential to develop job-related skills
• Personality
• Combination of skills and aptitudes

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Values-Based Theory of Occupational Choice

• Values
• Human nature
• Person-nature relationship
• Time orientation
• Activity
• Self-control
• Social relationships
• Collateral
• allocentrism

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How Values Develop

• Enculturation is the process by which individuals
  incorporate the beliefs and values of their
  cultural group and form a values system
• Most individuals are monocultural
• Acculturation involves the enculturation of
  beliefs from a culture different from ones own.

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Propositions of Browns Values-Based Theory

• Highly prioritized work values are the most
  important determinant of career choice from
  people who value individualism.
• Individuals who hold collective social values and
  come from families who hold the same values defer
  to the wishes of the family in occupational
  decision-making.

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Propositions of Browns Values-Based Theory
(continued)

• When taken individually, cultural values
  regarding activity do not constrain the
  occupational decision-making process.
• Males, females, and people from differing
  cultural groups enter occupations at varying
  rates.
• The process of choosing an occupation value
  involves a series of estimates.

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Propositions of Browns Values-Based Theory
(continued)

• Occupational success is related to job-related
  skills acquired in formal and informal
  educational settings, job-related aptitudes and
  skills, SES, preparation in the work role, and
  the extent to which discrimination is
  experienced.
• Occupational tenure os partially the result of
  the match between the cultural and work values of
  worker, supervisors, and colleagues.

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Developmental Theories

• Supers Life Span, Life Space Theory
• Gottfredsons Theory of Circumscription and
  Compromise

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Supers Life-Span, Life-Space Theory

• People differ in their abilities, personalities,
  needs, values, interests, traits, and
  self-concepts.
• People are qualified, by virtue of these
  characteristics, each for a number of
  occupations.
• Each occupation requires a characteristic pattern
  of abilities and personality traits.

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Supers Life-Span, Life-Space Theory (continued)

• Vocational preferences and competencies change
  with time and experience.
• The process of change is a series of life stages.
• Growth Stage
• Exploratory Stage
• Establishment Stage
• Maintenance Stage
• Decline Stage

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Supers Life-Span, Life-Space Theory (continued)

• The nature of the career pattern is determined by
  the individuals parental socioeconomic level,
  mental ability, education, skills, personality
  characteristics, career maturity, and the
  opportunity to which he/she is exposed.
• Success in coping with environmental demands
  depends on the readiness of the individual to
  cope (career maturity).
• Career maturity is a hypothetical construct.

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Supers Life-Span, Life-Space Theory (continued)

• Life stage development can be guided partly by
  the maturing of abilities and interests and
  partly by aiding in reality testing and in the
  development of self concepts.
• The process of career development is developing
  and implementing occupational self-concepts.
• Several factors influence the process of
  synthesis of or compromise between individual and
  social factors.

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Supers Life-Span, Life-Space Theory (continued)

• Work satisfaction and life satisfactions depend
  on the extent to which the individuals find
  adequate outlets for abilities, needs, values,
  interests, personality traits, and self-concepts.
• The degree of satisfaction people attain from
  work is proportional to the degree to which they
  have been able to implement self-concepts.
• Work and occupation provide a focus for
  personality organization.

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Gottfredsons Theory of Circumscription and
Compromise

• Four assumptions regarding how career aspirations
  develop
• Begin in childhood
• Are attempts to implement ones self-concept
• Depend on the degree to which the career is
  congruent with self-perceptions
• Are guided by occupational stereotypes

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Cognitive Maps of Occupations

• Are organized along the dimensions of
• Masculinity/femininity of the occupation
• Fields of work

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Gottfredsons Developmental Stages

• Ages 3-5 Orientation to size and power
• Ages 6-8 Orientation to sex roles
• Ages 9-13 Orientation to social valuation
• Ages 14 Choices explored

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Summary

• Theories of career choice and development provide
  guides to this complex phenomenon.
• All theories (except Browns) are predicated on
  the belief that the individual holds an
  independence social value and will chose his/her
  own occupation.
• Indiscriminate application of a theory is
  inappropriate and unethical.