Comprehensive Exam Review

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Career andLifestyle

DevelopmentPart 2

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Issues and Factors In Career Development

This section builds on understanding of career development theories and decision-making models in the previous section.

Some career development theories are more explicit than others about the interactions among work, family, and other life roles.

One approach is to view work as one element of a larger system that also includes leisure and family (defined in the broadest terms).

In this model, psychological adjustment is enhanced by achieving a healthy balance among work, leisure, and family.

For many, it is difficult to balance life roles because work consumes so much time.

One role of the counselor is to help clients become more aware of the need for balance and assume more responsibility for intentionally acting to better integrate work, leisure, and family.

While many understand the importance of family interaction, many others underestimate the importance of leisure in psychological adjustment.

Outcomes of effective leisure include that:

Leisure can provide physical exercise, diversion, and opportunity to receive feedback and demonstrate competence as a way to deal with work and family stress.

Leisure provides opportunities to satisfy values, engage in interests, and demonstrate skills not associated with employment.

Leisure provides opportunities for interaction with family members, helping individuals to make more efficient use of time.

Two specific family career development issues include dual-career problems and family relocation.

A dual-worker couple is comprised of two wage earners, while a dual-career couple also has a greater likelihood of holding professional positions, continuous employment, and increased importance placed on the value of work.

Dual career couples are more likely to experience problems associated with competition and frustration over unequal distribution of family responsibilities.

A blend of career and marriage counseling often is needed to help couples deal appropriately with competition and renegotiate family roles and responsibilities to reduce tension in the family.

Family relocation occurs when a family moves from one geographic location to another as a result of a change in employment.

Relocation issues may include employment of the spouse, selection of and moving to a new place of residence, education of children, or care for aging parents.

Relocation services, including self-help resources, workshops, and counseling, increasingly are being used to reduce stress and maximize employee productivity during family relocations.

While there has been debate concerning need for population-specific career theory (such as unique career theories for women as opposed to applying general theories to various groups), it is generally agreed that counselors need to be aware of career development issues and typical interventions for specific populations.

Any of the following group characteristics may impact the career development of individuals: age, gender, disability, immigration status, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

While being a member of one or more of the preceding groups can have a positive impact, such as providing networking opportunities, most of the impact is adverse as a result of stereotyping and discrimination.

Stereotyping involves the perception of knowledge about an individual based on group membership, rather than knowledge based on specific experience with an individual.

Stereotyping is a common problem for all of the groups previously identified.

Stereotypes can be positive or negative.

A negative stereotype assumes that an individual cannot do something competently because of his or her group membership.

A positive stereotype assumes that an individual can do something competently because of his or her group membership.

Both negative and positive stereotypes can result in a negative impact on individuals.

In both cases, the assumption of either limitation or capacity may be incorrect and a restricted range of options may result.

Also, individuals may be denied valid feedback on their performance.

Discrimination involves an action taken by one person or group that limits the range of oppor-tunities available to another person or group.

Discrimination can occur by not allowing individuals to apply for employment or educational opportunities.

Discrimination also can be subtle by systematically not providing individuals with opportunities for mentoring or gaining knowledge and skills necessary for advancement, by or selecting individuals for employment or education on the basis of group membership.

Career and Educational Placement, Follow-up, and

Evaluation

Career and employment decision making share both similarities and differences.

Both types of decisions involve knowledge of self, knowledge of occupations, application of decision-making skills, and cognitive processes that influence decision making.

Both types of decisions tend to occur over a period of time, as opposed to all at once.

However, differences do exist between career and employment decision making.

Career decision making tends to be future- oriented (long-term), while employment decision making tends to be immediate in focus (short-term).

Employment decision making may be more anxiety provoking due to the immediate consequences of failure, whereas career decision making is more future oriented and potential for failure is typically more remote.

Career decision making typically involves the consideration of occupational, educational, and training alternatives, while employment decision making typically involves the consideration of industry, employer, position, and job-offer alternatives.

Placement in employment involves helping individuals to obtain paid and nonpaid work options that are appropriate for their aspirations and capabilities.

Counselors can be involved in helping individuals clarify self and employment knowledge, expand and narrow their options, select the most appropriate option, and learn job search skills.

Placement in education typically involves helping individuals locate education and training options that are appropriate for their aspirations and their capabilities.

Counselors can help individuals assess their skills realistically, determine whether remedial or new skill education is appropriate, and then select the education options that best meet their needs.

Numerous specialized information resources exist that counselors and clients can use to facilitate appropriate employment decisions.

Computer-assisted job banks (position openings) and talent banks (potential applicants) can help individuals and employers identify potentially appropriate matches.

Job banks and talent banks can operate on an institutional, state, or national basis.

Counselors also can assist individuals to gain the knowledge they need to make a successful transition and adjustment to work.

For example, counselors may teach individ-uals employability skills or work behaviors appropriate for initial stages of employment.

Counselors also may become involved in follow-up and evaluation efforts.

Follow-up data provide useful information about the outcomes of completing various education or training programs.

Both follow-up and evaluation efforts can help provide the accountability typically necessary for the continued provision of funds.

Assessment, Career Planning, and Decision

Making

The purposes of assessment in career planning and decision making are to clarify individuals' self-knowledge and stimulate career exploration.

Using assessment to clarify self-knowledge helps individuals know what to pay attention to when reviewing career information and to narrow alternatives based on important personal characteristics.

Using assessment to stimulate career explora-tion helps individuals consider alternatives that they may not have considered previously.

A problem in using assessment in the delivery of career services is that many clients expect assessment to provide quick answers for their career problems.

Public-relations efforts, informed-consent forms, and assessment-orientation efforts can help minimize this problem.

While much assessment is delivered via standardized instruments, other valid and useful assessment options exist, including:

structured interviews administered by acounselor or on a computer,

unstructured interviews administered by acounselor, or

projective measures, such as published orcounselor-developed card sorts.

The career counselor is responsible for selecting quality instruments that are used appropriately.

Both counselor-mediated and self-assessment instruments are used widely in career counseling.

It is important to communicate that any self-assessment used in the delivery of career services has been validated for use without input from a counselor.

Providing clients with unsupervised access to counselor-mediated assessments is inappropriate at best and harmful at worst.

It is important to communicate clearly with clients regarding the meaning of various assessment constructs by providing easy-to- understand definitions.

Specific assessment instruments are available to measure a large variety of constructs.

In career centers, interest, value, skill, and personality measures are the most common assessments available.

In schools and rehabilitation settings, aptitude, intelligence, and achievement measures are used in addition to interest, value, skill, and personality measures.

Some career assessments are theory-based, and one obvious option for applying career theory to assessment is to select assessments with a theory base that fits the counselor's theoretical orientation.

Computer-Based Career Development

Computer-based career development applications evolved from computer-assisted career guidance (CACG) systems.

CACG systems include interrelated assessment, generation of options, and information dissemination subsystems, often coupled with counseling interventions and various print and media-based support resources, that are used to assist individuals in making career decisions.

Some CACG systems include state-specific information and are referred to as career information delivery systems (CIDS).

Typical components of a CACG system include:

1. Needs assessment and recommended useUser needs assessment and subsequentrecommendations for system use;

2. AssessmentAssessment of psychological constructs,such as values, interests, and skills, andlabor market constructs, such aspreference for indoor work;

3. Search for optionsGeneration of occupational, educational, financial aid, andemployment options;

4. Information deliveryDelivery of occupational, educational,financial aid, and employmentinformation;

5. InstructionInstruction in effective career,educational, and employment decisionmaking; and

6. Action planningDevelopment of an action plan forimplementing a career choice.

Examples of other computer-based career development applications include assessments; career, educational, training, financial aid, and employment information databases; resume writers; and talent banks delivered on personal computers or over the Internet.

Computer-based career development applications are designed to stimulate career exploration and aid individuals in solving career problems and making career decisions.

Computer-based career development applications can be delivered as a component of self-help, brief staff-assisted, or individual case-managed interventions.

A basic, three-step model can be used in brief staff-assisted and individual case-managed interventions to help individuals make effective use of computer-based career development applications.

Screening is intended to ensure that system use is appropriate for the needs of the individual.

The three steps of the model are screening, orientation, and follow-up.

Orientation is intended to ensure that individuals make effective use of system capabilities by promoting a realistic understanding of the potential benefits, limitations, and functions of the system in relation to their needs.

Follow-up is intended to ensure that individuals have used used CACG features appropriately to meet their previously identified needs and have a plan for future action.

Career Counseling Techniques

The career counseling process is shaped by several factors, the first being the career theory used.

Career theory shapes the counseling process by helping counselors and clients know which factors to pay attention to in clarifying the nature of the client's problem and in developing a strategy for problem solving and decision making.

Career theory also may contribute to the counseling process through the use of theory-specific assessment instruments, information and instructional resources, and counseling procedures.

The career counseling process also is shaped by the general practice of counseling in regard to development of the counseling relationship; understanding of developmental, social, and cultural factors; assessment; group procedures; evaluation; and ethics.

Finally, the career counseling process is shaped by the integration of career counseling and mental health counseling.

Given the substantial proportion of time most individuals spend working, employment is both a substantial source of stress and an opportunity for therapeutic change.

Strategies for dealing with anxiety, depression, interpersonal conflict, and traumatic events are particularly important in dealing with issues such as dual-career conflict, job dissatisfaction, retirement, sexual harassment and violence in the workplace, unemployment, work adjustment, and work addiction.

A generic process for career counseling can be described as follows.

First, the counselor assesses the readiness of the client for career decision making.

Readiness assessment may be as simple as clarifying the client's presenting problem.

If the counselor judges a high degree of readiness on the client's part, then a self-help intervention may be appropriate.

If this first interaction indicates that a more substantial problem exists, the counselor may use a readiness screening measure to determine if it is best to recommend a brief, staff-assisted intervention (moderate readiness) or individual, case-managed intervention (low readiness).

After clarifying with the client the nature of his or her career problem, the counselor and client collaborate on establishing goals for career counseling.

The counselor then creates a written plan to recommend a sequence of resources (assessment, information, and instructional) and services (individual counseling, career courses, group counseling, and workshops) designed to assist in reaching client goals.

The counselor further reinforces a collaborative relationship by seeking and using client input about the selection of resources and services where appropriate.

The client then follows through with the agreed-upon plan for using career resources and services, with termination occurring when the client's goals have been achieved or when a referral is made due to lack of progress or other circumstances.

The career counseling process can and should be modified to meet the needs of specific populations, such as those relating to age, gender, disability, immigration status, race/ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

Population-specific career interventions are developed on the basis of knowledge plus supervision.

Knowledge should include the typical life experiences and successful coping strategies of specific populations, as well as typical counseling strategies.

Regular supervisory contact with a professional experienced in delivering counseling services to specific populations can help the career counselor to better monitor and improve the quality of services for various populations.

Considerable evidence exists that within-group differences are greater than between-group differences.

Therefore, it is important for counselors to avoid stereotyping clients in an attempt to be sensitive to diversity.

Career counselors can aid clients in dealing with stereotyping and discrimination by helping them confront these barriers where appropriate and cope where possible.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical issues in career counseling are similar to ethical issues in the general practice of counseling and other counseling specialties.

However, several ethical problems, including imposition of counselor values, confidentiality of counseling records, and counselor competence, are more frequently problematic in career counseling.

Counselors may be unaware that they are imposing their values on their clients in terms of career choice and are therefore limiting career exploration.

For example, a counselor may be careful not to impose personal values on his or her clients in regard to relationship issues, but may unintentionally (verbally or nonverb-ally) indicate that a particular career is an “inappropriate” choice.

In some cases there is confusion about who the client is in relation to the release of counseling records.

For example, if an employer is paying for career counseling for an employee, it is important to clarify at the beginning of the counseling process who will have access to the counseling records.

The same requirement is true for parents or guardians of minor children.

For example, some counselors may erroneously believe that assessment results in career counseling are less "sensitive" data in comparison with assessment results in "personal" counseling, and are less subject to restrictions on disclosure to third parties.

Assessment data from any type of counseling should be released only with the permission of the client or client's parent/guardian.

Some poorly trained counselors may be unaware of the specific skills required for effective career counseling.

This is especially true for counselors who erroneously believe that career counseling is composed mostly of giving assessments and interpreting the results (often referred to as "test-and-tell" career counseling).

The knowledge and skills described in this presentation are recognized as essential for the competent practice of career counseling.

Counselors practicing in any specialty area need to be competent in the general practice of counseling as well as the counseling specialty, as stated in national ethical, credentialing, and accreditation standards.

Finally, career counselors may deliver poor quality services by using invalid assessment measures or as a result of providing invalid occupational, educational, training, or employment information.

As a result, clients may restrict their occupational exploration unnecessarily or make inappropriate decisions on the basis of bad information.

One common strategy to deal with these ethical problems involves use of informed- consent forms that are signed and witnessed by the client and counselor at the start of counseling.

Informed consent deals proactively with issues such as confidentiality of records and counselor qualifications.

Another common strategy is to increase counselor awareness of potential problems through preservice and inservice counselor training.

A variety of standards exist to guide the ethical practice of career counseling.

The National Career Development Association (NCDA) "Ethical Standards" build upon ethical standards developed by the National Board for Certified Counselors and the American Counseling Association by adding content specific to the delivery of career counseling and other career services.

The NCDA "Career Counseling Competencies" are designed to help counselors evaluate their knowledge and skills in relation to the competencies expected of an effective and successful career counselor.

The NCDA "Guidelines for the Use of the Internet for the Provision of Career Information and Planning Services" help counselors use the Internet as a resource in delivering career services and develop valid Internet-based, self-help, or counselor-assisted career resources.

This concludes Part 2 of the presentation on

CAREER AND LIFESTYLE

DEVELOPMENT