Module 2 Discussion

Chapter 5 Learning Theory–Based and Socioeconomic Theories of Career Choice and Development and Their Applications

Things to Remember

The major propositions of Krumboltz’s Theory of Happenstance

The importance of self-efficacy and outcome expectations in decision making

The steps in the CIP model of career counseling

Chapter 5, like Chapters 3 and 4, is devoted to career development theory and its applications. I hope you have accepted the hypothesis that there is nothing as practical as a good theory. I also hope you have identified your own beliefs about human behavior and the process of career choice and development. That discussion will be taken up more fully in Chapter 8.

The career development theories based on learning theory presented in this chapter, particularly the social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2002), have become increasingly popular. As you read this section, try to guess why the cognitive perspective is receiving increased attention. Keeping in mind that about 30 percent of your potential clients are likely to be from minority groups, which theory best provides an explanation of their choice-making processes and the means of helping them?

In Chapters 3 and 4, five theories of career choice and development were discussed and examples of how they could be applied were presented. In this chapter, a diverse set of models and theories is presented. The final section in this chapter deals with socioeconomic theories of career attainment.

Career Choice Theories Based in Learning Theory

Krumboltz’s Theory of Happenstance and Decision Making

Later in this section, I will ask you to think about happenstance events, defined here as unplanned and unexpected events that have influenced the course of your life. I will begin by sharing two happenstance events that changed my life in very dramatic ways.

I was a rising senior in a small high school, happily on my way to graduation and a life as a career military enlistee, factory worker, or share cropper. The school principal called me aside for the following two minute “counseling session.”

Have you ever thought about going to college?

No.

You should. You can do the work.

I was finishing my master’s degree in vocational education. I needed an “inside minor,” which was scheduled to be education leadership. The courses I needed were unavailable. I went to my advisor, who scanned the course listing and said:

Why don’t you enroll in two school-counseling courses [one of which was occupational and vocational guidance]?

What is school counseling?

I don’t know, but the courses will help your teaching.

In 1979 and several times thereafter, Krumboltz (e.g., 1996) introduced a theory rooted in instrumental conditioning and the first iteration of Bandura’s (1977) theory, which Krumboltz labeled associative learning. Of these two types of learning, associative learning and its cognitive component was given a preeminent place in the theory. Later, Bandura’s (1986) ideas about the acquisition of behavior and the importance of self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations changed. Krumboltz (2010) did not alter his theory any significant way until 2008, when his changes were published online, followed by a print version in 2009. The foundation of Krumboltz’s theorizing has not changed. However, the decision-making model in Happenstance Learning Theory varies greatly from the one he posed in 1979 when he suggested a fully rational model of career decision making. However, Krumboltz’s thinking about the importance of dealing with happenstance seems to have begun much earlier (Krumboltz, 1998).

Krumboltz (1979) identified four factors that influence individual development and ultimately the career decision–making process and choice:

Genetic endowment and special abilities. Krumboltz recognizes that certain inherited characteristics can be facilitative, and restrictive influences on the individual’s functioning genotype or inheritance, at least in part, may set limits on intellectual development and various special abilities, such as eye–hand coordination, musical and artistic ability, and physical coordination. Krumboltz (2009) does not include the influence of inheritance on the development of interests, values, and personality traits such as introversion, although research supports the point of view that inheritance plays a major role in the development of personality traits (Betsworth et al., 1994; Jang, Livesly, & Vernon, 1996).

Environmental conditions and events. This factor includes those cultural and sociological influences that may lie outside of the control of individuals but that bear on them through the environment in which they exist. Some influences may be synthetic in the broadest sense; others may be a result of natural forces. These human or natural elements may cause events to occur that also bear on the individual in the educational and career decision process. Examples of influences of this type include the existence of job and training opportunities, social policies and procedures for selecting trainees or workers, wages for various occupations, labor and union laws and regulations, physical events such as earthquakes and floods, the existence of natural resources such as oil and gas, technological developments, changes in social organizations, family training experiences and resources, educational systems, and neighborhood and community influences.

Learning experiences. All previous learning experiences influence the individual’s educational and career decision making. Recognizing the extreme complexity of the learning process, Krumboltz identifies two types of learning as examples: instrumental learning experiences and associative learning experiences. He describes instrumental learning experiences as those situations in which the individual acts on the environment to produce certain consequences. Associative learning experiences are described as situations in which the individual learns by reacting to external stimuli, by observing real or fictitious models, or by pairing two events in time or location.

Task approach skills (TAS). These skills include performance standards and values. The individual applies task approach skills to each new task or problem. Examples of TAS include work habits and perceptual and cognitive processes, such as attending, selecting, symbolic rehearsing, coding, and so on. The application of these skills affects the outcome of each task or problem, and, in turn, the TAS is modified by the results.

Krumboltz sees the individual as constantly encountering learning experiences, each of which is followed by rewards or punishments that in turn produce the uniqueness of each person. This continuous interaction with learning experiences produces three types of consequences, which Krumboltz labels as (1) self-observation generalizations (SOG), (2) task approach skills (TAS), and (3) actions. A self-observation generalization is an overt or covert self-statement that is an evaluation of one’s own actual or vicarious performance in relation to learned standards. The generalizations that result may or may not be accurate, just as one’s self-concept may or may not coincide with the perceptions others have of an individual. Task approach skills are thought to be used by the person to project future self-observation generalizations and make predictions about future events (I am interested in math; therefore, I should major in engineering). As noted previously, TAS include work habits (I am reliable), mental sets (I respond quickly to expectations), perceptual and thought processes (I can visualize and build), performance standards and values (I am a skillful teacher and I can use my skills to teach art), and the like. Actions are implementations of behavior, such as applying for a job or changing a major field of study. Actions (behavior) produce certain consequences (self- or extrinsic reinforcement or punishment) that affect future behavior.

In summary, an individual is born into the world with certain genetic characteristics: race, gender, physique, and special abilities or disabilities. As time passes, the individual encounters environmental, economic, social, and cultural events and conditions. The individual learns from these encounters, building self-observations and task approach skills that are applied to new events and encounters. The successes and failures that accrue in these encounters influence the individual in choosing courses of action in subsequent learning experiences, increasing the likelihood of making choices similar to previous ones that led to success and of avoiding choices similar to those that led to failure. The process is complicated by aspects of instability, because the individual changes as a result of the continuous series of learning experiences; the situation also changes because environmental, cultural, and social conditions are dynamic (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1990, 1996).

In Happenstance Learning Theory (HLT), Krumboltz (2010; Krumboltz, Foley, & Cotter, 2013) extends his concept of learning experiences to include unplanned (happenstance) events, which is a departure from his earlier thinking, which was quite rational. For example, examine his earlier decision-making model and contrast it with Happenstance Learning Theory (Table 5.1).

Status and Use of Krumboltz’s Theory.

Krumboltz’s early theoretical statement (Krumboltz, 1996; Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996) attracted only a modicum of attention from