Module 2 Discussion
Chapter 3 Person-Environment Congruence (PEC) Theories: Frank Parsons, Theory of Work Adjustment, John Holland, and a Values-Based Approach
Things to Remember
Major historical events in the history of career development theorizing
The major tenets of TWA and Holland’s theory of vocational choice
Cultural values, their role in human behavior, and Brown’s values-based theory
Similarities and differences between the theory of work adjustment and Holland’s theory
O*NET applications of Holland’s and TWA theories
The theories presented in this chapter are traditional theories; they were once characterized as trait and factor theories, because needs, values, and personality types were derived via statistical techniques known as factor analysis.
Buford Stefflre, a counselor educator at Michigan State University for many years, is reputed to have coined the phrase, “There is nothing as practical as a good theory.” When this statement is conveyed to students, they are at best skeptical. Isn’t using theory and practical in the same sentence oxymoronic? Theories are obviously not fact, and what most students want are proven practices that they can use to help their clients. The problem is that many of our practices have not been investigated to a degree that will allow us to say unequivocally that they work. A good theory provides a framework for designing practices. I believe that Stefflre was right!
The Purposes and Evaluation of Theory
In Chapter 1, career development was defined as a lifelong process involving psychological, sociological, educational, economic, physical, and cultural factors that influence individuals’ selection of, adjustment to, and advancement in the occupations that collectively make up their careers. Career development is, to say the least, a complex process. Theories provide us with simplified pictures or, as Krumboltz (1994) prefers, road maps to the career development process.
There are “good” theories and “bad” theories. Krumboltz (1994) states: “Our psychological theories are as good as we know how to make them so far, but in all probability they are far short of being accurate” (p. 11). However, good theories have distinct characteristics—such as well-defined terms and constructs—that can easily be interpreted by practitioners and researchers. Just as importantly, the relationships among the constructs in the theory are clearly articulated. If the terms are clearly defined and logically interrelated, practitioners can use them as guides to practice, and researchers can generate research to test the assumptions of the theory. Moreover, good theories are comprehensive in that they explain the career development process for all groups, including men and women and individuals from various cultures and from all socioeconomic strata.
Well-constructed theories also serve other purposes. For example, they help us understand why people choose careers and then become dissatisfied with them. They also allow us to interpret data about career development that have been generated in the past, are being generated in the present, and will be generated in the future. Researchers and practitioners have long been aware that children and adults sex-type careers and that these stereotypes influence career choices. In Chapter 4, Gottfredson’s theory (1981, 2002) helps us understand why this occurs. Well-developed theories also help us account for all internal and external factors that influence career development, including cognitions about careers and affective responses to various career-related events (Brown & Brooks, 1996; Krumboltz, 1994; Savickas, 2013). Well-constructed theories are also parsimonious, which means that they are set forth in the simplest, most succinct fashion necessary to describe the phenomena involved. To summarize, theories of career choice and development serve three functions:
Facilitate the understanding of the forces that influence career choice and development
Stimulate research that will help to better clarify career choice and the development process
Provide a guide to practice in the absence of empirical guidelines
A History of Career Development Theorizing
One aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the history of theorizing about career choice and development. It is generally recognized that the forerunner of modern theories of career development appeared in 1909 in Choosing Your Vocation by Frank Parsons. Parsons’s tripartite model—understanding one’s self, understanding the requirements of the jobs available, and choosing one job based on true logic—underpinned career counseling and career development practice into the middle of the twentieth century.
Parson’s model had a number of problems given the time in which it was published. Perhaps the major issue confronting practitioners of the time was that there were no tools that could be used to measure the personal traits of their clients. Similarly, there was no single source of occupational information other than personal exploration to aid counselors and psychologists in helping their clients to find suitable occupations. Therefore, the matching process that Parsons envisioned was not well informed. It was not until World War I—when a committee of psychometricians headed by Ralph Yerkes developed the Army Alpha—that instruments that could be used to measure human traits such as intellect and personality began to become available. The Army Alpha test measured verbal ability and numerical ability (scholastic aptitude) as well as ability to follow directions and general knowledge. Yerkes and his committee’s work stimulated the testing industry, and after World War I literally dozens of psychometric instruments became available to practitioners. In 1938, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles—which emphasized blue collar jobs—was published by the Department of Labor. This closed Parson’s loop of (1) identifying personal characteristics and (2) matching them to jobs.
Today, we understand that the idea of using “true logic” to make choices to match personal characteristics to jobs is an unrealizable pipe dream, because the decision-making process is filtered through myriad factors, including self-confidence, role relationships, sex-role identity, values, and so forth. Perhaps because there were no other options, the person-environment congruence (PEC) model held sway until well past the middle of the twentieth century. Moreover, as we shall see, the trait and factor model is still very much a part of the contemporary career development scene.
However, in the 1950s and 1960s a period of intense theorizing about career development occurred, resulting in eight new theories of career choice and development, many of which are still viable today. From 1970 to 1984, six additional theories of career choice and development were advanced, three of which focused largely on women’s career development. Another intense period of theorizing began in 1991, and since 1991 five new theories of career choice and development have been presented. A chronological account of these events can be found in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1 A History of Career Development Theorizing
Year Event
1909 Parsons’s book, Choosing Your Vocation, is published posthumously.
1951 Ginzberg and associates publish Occupational Choice: An Approach to a General Theory, which outlines a developmental theory of career development.
1953 Super publishes “A Theory of Vocational Development“ in American Psychologist; his article outlines a second developmental theory of career development.
1956 Roe publishes The Psychology of Occupations, which contains her personality-based theory of career development.
1959 Holland publishes “A Theory of Vocational Choice“ in the Journal of Counseling Psychology; his article sets forth some of the propositions of his theory of vocational choice.
1963 Tiedeman and O’Hara publish Career Development: Choice and Adjustment, which contains a theory rooted in the idea that careers satisfy needs.
1963 Bordin and associates publish “An Articulated Framework for Vocational Development” in the Journal of Counseling Psychology; their article sets forth a psychodynamic framework for career development.
1967 Blau and Duncan publish The American Occupational Structure, which sets forth the premises of status attainment theory, a sociological theory of career development.
1969 Lofquist and Dawis publish Adjustment to Work, which outlines the premises of a trait-factor model of occupational selection and adjustment.
1976 Krumboltz and associates publish “A Social Learning Theory of Career Selection” in The Counseling Psychologist.
1981 Gottfredson publishes “Circumscription and Compromise: A Developmental Theory of Occupational Aspirations“ in the Journal of Counseling Psychology; her article focuses on how sex-role identification limits occupational aspirations.
1981 Hackett and Betz publish “A Self-Efficacy Approach to the Career-Development of Women“ in the Journal of Vocational Behavior.