A.

TITLE

CAREER-RELATED THEORIES

B. SUMMARY

Career development is the lifelong process of managing learning, work, leisure, and

transitions in order to move toward a personally determined and evolving preferred future.

In educational development, career development provides a person, often a student, focus

for selecting a career or subject(s) to undertake in the future. Often educational institutions provide

career counsellors to assist students with their educational development.

Future guidance counselor can be guided by various career development and career

counseling theories, develop their counseling techniques, and apply such in dealing with students

as regards the latter’s inclination to a particular field of career or expertise.

The major theories presented can be classified into career development and career

satisfaction, though some of the theories contain both development and satisfaction.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

1. NEED THEORY/PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY

at the root of career directions and satisfaction. In this theory, parental styles provide an emotional

climate and affect the need hierarchy, such that emotional climates, general cultural background,

socio-economic status of one’s family and individual experiences lead to voluntary attention in

particular directions which primarily determines the patter of development of interests, attitudes,

and personality variables of students.

Likewise, the needs have a strong bearing on personal interests, self-concept and personal

orientation. To determine that interest of the student, the counselor must be attentive and focused

on what direction or career the student wants to pursue.

Students are guided on types of occupation or career, which can be classified in two ways”

the Person-Oriented careers, such as service, business contact, managerial, general culture, arts

and entertainment, and the Non-person oriented careers, which refers to working with ideas and

things independently, such as technology, outdoor and science.

2. LIFE SPACE, LIFE SPAN THEORY/SELF-CONCEPT THEORY

Donald Super, the proponent of this theory is of the view that the process of career

development involves developing and implementing occupational self-concepts through synthesis

and compromise.
 Under this theory, each individual is unique, and that abilities and characteristics are so

immense that everyone has the necessary qualifications to become successful in many occupations.

It is likewise said that vocational preferences and competencies, the situations and conditions in

which people live and work, and consequently, self-concepts change with time and experience.

Self-concept becomes increasingly stable from late adolescence onwards, and thus provides some

continuity in choice and adjustment

3. DEVELOPMENT THEORY

The proponent of the theory, Eli, Ginzberg, provided for the four factors which influence

career development, and stages of career development.

The following are the four factors that influence career development: Reality pertains to

the ability to handle pressures and constraints in a chosen career path, and to respond to the

negative and positive challenges in the workplace. Education process is the proper educational

preparation to succeed in the desired career. Emotional factor is the emotional security that serves

as basis for determining satisfaction, and Individual values are things that are cherished and

esteemed that must be satisfied and smoothly settled for one to be happy.

Under this theory, each individual goes through developmental stages in his/her career

development, the Fantasy stage, Tentative, and Realistic period. In the Fantasy stage, an individual

enjoys and sees one’s self in an adult role without risks and limitations and gathers thoughts and

ideas about possible careers in the process; Tentative period could be classified into Interest,
Capacity, Value and Transition. The Realistic period provides for three categories, Exploration,

Crystallization and Specification.

4. LEARNING APPROACH TO CAREER DEVELOPMENT

John Krumboltz has introduced this theory which states that an individual enters a certain

environment with a certain genetic endowment, and that an individual applies what has been

learned through action. The interaction between receiving stimuli (learning experience) and the

reaction to the produced consequences will shape the individual to a unique person.

5. THE GENERATION TEMPLATE THEORY

This theory introduced by Alexa P. Abrenica provides that when one joins the work force,

he/she spends most of his/her waking hours on the job. It is likewise under this theory that

socialization, positive experience, and availability of successful models in one’s family are

important ingredients in choosing a career. The career or occupation of the parents or other

significant individuals are well observed at close range, thus, the child is able to develop mental

schemata that are well imprinted in the mind, allowing for greater appreciation, understanding and

imitation of actions or behaviors.

Under this theory, counselors can employ the following steps: assess client’s abilities and

competencies; collect information about the client’s personality; surface information about

immediate family environments and consider these in broadening career choices; provide
information about career requirements and opportunities; and integrate the data so that choices can

be narrowed down.

CAREER SATISFACTION THEORIES

1. TRAIT-AND-FACTOR THEORY

In this theory, Frank Parsons is of the view that vocational development is a cognitive

process and decisions are reached by reasoning, and that an occupational choice is a single event.

Occupations are composed of factors required in successful job performance which can also be

profiled according to “amounts” of individual traits required.

Under this theory, counseling steps involve: clear understanding of self, attitudes, abilities,

interests, ambitions, resources, limitations and their causes; knowledge of the requirements and

conditions of success, advantages and disadvantages, compensation, opportunities, prospects in

different lines of work; and true reasoning in the relations of these two groups of facts.

2. PERSONALITY TYPES AND WORK ENVIRONMENT THEORY

John Holland, who authored the said theory, stated that there are six types of work

environment and there are six types of personalities, namely: realistic; investigative; artistic;

social; enterprising; and conventional. It is likewise provided that most people have one dominant

type and one or two types of some importance, e.g. social person may be enterprising, too, and
work as events coordinator. Personality is the result of an interaction between inherited

characteristics, which may explain the development of specific interests, and the activities to which

the individual is exposed. Exposure to different environment can trigger interests that expand the

personality types.

3. THEORY OF WORK ADJUSTMENT

In this theory by Rene Dawis, work adjustment is a result of the interaction between a

person and his/her work environment. Tenure is the result of satisfaction and satisfactoriness and

is the principal indicator of work adjustment.

Likewise, style correspondence moderates the prediction of satisfaction and

satisfactoriness. The better the style correspondence, the greater the satisfaction and

satisfactoriness.

4. VALUES-BASED HOLISTIC APPROACH TO CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Duane Brown, the proponent of this theory, is of the belief that human functioning is

greatly influenced and molded by an individual’s value orientation which becomes the basis for

evaluating one’s own actions and the action of others, particularly in terms of how he/she and

others must function.

from the environment interacting with the inherited characteristics of the individual. Since cultural

background, gender, and socioeconomic level of influence social interactions and opportunities,

priorities placed on values by people from various multicultural grouping will vary and influence

the choice of careers and other life roles.

C. REFLECTION

The abovementioned theories on career development are beneficial for future guidance

counselors in dealing with all types and classes of students who will be needing assistance in

choosing the right career/path, according to his/her own strengths and weaknesses. Said theories,

who are authored by well-known experts in the field of counseling, are a great tool, in achieving

the purpose of future guidance counselors, which is to effectively and efficiently provide advice

on students on what career path to take, and which will determine the success of the students in

the near future.

As a future guidance counselor, the aforementioned theories can be applied during career

counseling sessions to enhance one’s counseling skills, such as attending behavior, questioning

reflection, reinforcement and testing, depending on the validated strengths, weaknesses and

characteristics of students, after a comprehensive screening process. By applying these principles

and theories in a holistic approach, the guidance counselor can integrate developmental stages, life

roles, biological characteristics and the self-concept to create a path of career factors.