Career Choice andDevelopment

Fourth Edition

Duane Brown and Associates

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Career Choice and Development

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Career Choice andDevelopment

Fourth Edition

Duane Brown and Associates

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Published by

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Duane.Career choice and development / Duane Brown and associates.—4th ed.

p. cm.—(The Jossey-Bass business & management series)Rev. ed. of: Career choice and development / Duane Brown, Linda Brooks,and associates. 3rd ed. c1996.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-7879-5741-0 (alk. paper)1. Career development. 2. Vocational guidance. I. Career choice anddevelopment. II. Title. III. Series.HF5381 .C265143 2002331.7'02—dc212002005599

FOURTH EDITION

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Contents

Preface xi

About the Authors xv

Part One: Introduction and Cases

1. Introduction to Theories of Career Development and Choice: Origins, Evolution, and Current Efforts 3Duane Brown

2. Case Studies 24Duane Brown

Part Two: Sociological Perspective

3. Career Choice and Development from a Sociological Perspective 37Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson, Jeylan T. Mortimer

Part Three: Developmental and Postmodern Theories

4. Gottfredson’s Theory of Circumscription, Compromise, and Self-Creation 85Linda S. Gottfredson

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X CONTENTS

5. Career Construction: A Developmental Theory of Vocational Behavior 149Mark L. Savickas

6. A Contextualist Explanation of Career 206Richard A. Young, Ladislav Valach, Audrey Collin

Part Four: Career Development Theories Anchored in Learning Theory

7. Social Cognitive Career Theory 255Robert W. Lent, Steven D. Brown, Gail Hackett

8. A Cognitive Information Processing Approach to Career Problem Solving and Decision Making 312Gary W. Peterson, James P. Sampson Jr., Janet G. Lenz, Robert C. Reardon

Part Five: Trait-Factor Theories and Summation

9. Holland’s Theory of Personalities in Work Environments 373Arnold R. Spokane, Erik J. Luchetta, Matthew H. Richwine

10. Person-Environment-Correspondence Theory 427Rene V. Dawis

11. The Role of Work Values and Cultural Values in Occupational Choice, Satisfaction, and Success: A Theoretical Statement 465Duane Brown

12. Status of Theories of Career Choice and Development 510Duane Brown

Name Index 517

Subject Index 529

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Preface

In the final phases of the preparation of this edition of Career Choiceand Development, I was talking to an old friend, Tom Harrington,about it. One thing he said to me was, “Make sure you make a strongstatement that career development is about change—somethingthat some people seem to overlook.” He is right. Career develop-ment theories are explanations of how people develop certain traits,personalities, and self-precepts and how these developments influ-ence decision making. These theories are also about the contexts inwhich people live and how the variables in those contexts interactwith personal characteristics to influence development and decisionmaking. In sum, career choice and development theories are aboutdynamic, ever-changing phenomena. Career counseling, like allforms of counseling, becomes necessary when something goes awryin the natural process of development. Judging by the surveys theGallup organization has conducted for the National Career Devel-opment Association, the course of development gets off-coursefairly often.

In Chapter Five, Mark Savickas observes that there is great vari-ation in the theories of career choice and development. He attrib-utes this to the fact that various theorists choose to “explain”different aspects of the developmental process. Few have the courageof Don Super, who tried to explain all facets of the career develop-ment process. In the second edition of this book, however, he

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XII PREFACE

admitted that the daunting task he had undertaken was not com-plete and that the “glue” that might hold the segments of his the-ory together would have to be applied by someone else.

Another approach to theorizing has emerged in the last twodecades. This approach simply states that the complexities of theinteractions that occur within and among the intrapersonal traits andinterpersonal interactions are simply too complicated to understandand, therefore, we should stop trying to do it, except on an individ-ual basis. These people are the constructivists, and their writings havegiven rise to an oxymoron—constructivist counseling—whether itrefers to career counseling or some other type. I call constructivistcounseling an oxymoron because I eschew the concept of cause-and-effect relationships. People who get “stuck” in their career devel-opment often seek help from career counselors, hoping that thecounseling process will result in (cause) changes in their develop-ment. However, the constructivists have already had one favorableimpact on the career choice and development theory and practice.Their criticisms have forced most of us to consider more carefullythe economic, social, and cultural context of the individuals we tryto understand and help. Some writers have taken this increasedrecognition of the importance of context as a move toward an inte-gration of the two camps—modern and postmodern. When “dustbowl” empiricists such as John Holland agree that cause-and-effectrelationships are unimportant and data collected about large groupsof people do not generalize to others, integration is on the way.Until then, integration of these points of view is little more than agleam in the would-be integrationists’ eyes.

Alternative points of view, such as those taken by the modernand postmodern theorists in this book, can be very helpful if readerscarefully consider the points of view of the theorists as they read theirmaterial. It may be useful to recall that theories are neither true norfalse. It may also be useful to examine one’s own beliefs about humanbeings and how they develop and change. If these core beliefs can becombined with one’s beliefs about counseling in general and turnedinto a “What I believe at this time” statement, the reader’s journey

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through this volume will undoubtedly be enriched and, I hope, mademore meaningful.

Linda Brooks and I started this project in 1982, and I owe her adebt of gratitude that I will never be able to repay. Her own careerdevelopment has taken her into retirement. I also owe a debt ofgratitude to the many authors who have given of their time and tal-ent to make the four editions possible. Our original vision was toprompt theorists to review their work from time to time and toprompt theory revision and development. We accomplished thefirst goal, but it is impossible to tell whether this book stimulatedany of the new theories that have emerged since the publication ofthe edition in 1984, with one exception. My work with the authorsof the first three editions prompted me to put down my own beliefsabout occupational choice. I hope others will be prompted to takea similar path.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Duane BrownMay 2002

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About the Authors

Duane Brown is professor of education at the University of NorthCarolina-Chapel Hill. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degreesfrom Purdue University.

His scholarship specialties are career development and consul-tation. Brown has authored or coauthored twenty-four books andmanuals and one hundred research studies, articles, and book chap-ters. He edited Counselor Education and Supervision for three yearsand has served on the editorial boards of three other journals.

Brown has served on numerous state, regional, and nationalcommittees. He has also served as president of the North CarolinaCareer Development Association, the North Carolina Associa-tion of Counselor Educators and Supervisors, the North CarolinaCounseling Association, and the National Career DevelopmentAssociation. He is currently serving on the board of the NationalCareer Development Association as trustee-at-large. He has twicereceived the North Carolina Career Development Association’sRoy N. Anderson Award for outstanding contributions to careerdevelopment. He also received the North Carolina CounselingAssociation’s highest award—the Ella Stephens Barrett LeadershipAward—as well as their Distinguished Service Award. He hasreceived numerous other awards for his professional contributions,including the Association of Counselor Education’s President’s

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Award. In 1998, the University of British Columbia selected himto serve in their Noted Scholar’s Program.

Brown is a licensed professional counselor in North Carolinaand maintains a small private practice. In 2002, he was among the first to become a fellow in the National Career DevelopmentAssociation.

Steven D. Brown is a professor in the Department of Leadership,Foundations, and Counseling Psychology at Loyola University inChicago. He received a B.A. degree in psychology from MuskingumCollege in 1969, a master’s in experimental psychology from theUniversity of Virginia in 1972, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychol-ogy from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1977.

Brown is also a licensed clinical psychologist in Illinois, spe-cializing in career counseling and consulting. His research focusesprimarily on topics of vocational psychology and applied psycho-logical measurement.

Brown was the 1995 recipient of the John L. Holland award foroutstanding contributions to career and personality research from theDivision of Counseling Psychology of the American PsychologicalAssociation. In addition to his collaborations with Robert Lent andGail Hackett on social cognitive career theory, Brown and Lent arecoeditors of three editions of the Handbook of Counseling Psychology(Wiley). Brown serves on the editorial boards of vocational, social,and personality psychology journals and is a fellow of the AmericanPsychological Association, American Psychological Society, and theAmerican Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology.

Audrey Collin is professor emeritus of career studies at DeMonfort Uni-versity, Leicester, U.K. Her interests are in interpretative approachesto career research, mentoring, and the role of organizations in theconstruction of career. Her publications, including two edited books(with Richard Young), have argued for new approaches to the under-standing of career. Her most recent book is The Future of Career(Cambridge University Press, 2000).

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Rene V. Dawis is professor emeritus in the Department of Psychol-ogy, University of Minnesota, where he was director of the Coun-seling Psychology Program from 1975 to 1985. Previously, he hadtaught at the University of the Philippines. Among his major pub-lications are A Psychological Theory of Work Adjustment (with LloydH. Lofquist, 1984) and Psychology: Realizing Human Potential (withRosemary T. Fruehling, 1996). His research has been on individualdifferences and their application in psychology.

Linda S. Gottfredson is professor of education and affiliate faculty ofthe Undergraduate Honors Program at the University of Delaware.She earned her B.A. degree (1969) in psychology at the Universityof California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D degree (1977) in sociology atJohns Hopkins University.

Her research has focused on individual differences in careerdevelopment and mental abilities and their relation to social inequal-ity. She has also written about the professional challenges that indi-vidual and group differences in stable career-relevant traits create forcounselors, personnel selection practitioners, social policymakers, andresearchers. She has edited or coedited three special journal issuesdevoted to intelligence and public life, including the validity and fair-ness of mental tests in employee selection and the social policy impli-cations of individual and group differences in IQ.

Gottfredson is a fellow of the American Psychological Associa-tion, the American Psychological Society, and the Society for Indus-trial and Organizational Psychology. She also serves as codirector ofthe Delaware-Johns Hopkins Project for the Study of Intelligenceand Society.

Gail Hackett received her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Pennsylva-nia State University. She served on the faculty at the Ohio StateUniversity and the University of California, Santa Barbara, and isnow professor of counseling psychology in the Division of Psychol-ogy in Education at Arizona State, where she is also vice provost foracademic personnel.

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Her research interests include career self-efficacy theory, socialcognitive applications to career counseling and development, gen-der and ethnicity in career counseling and career development, andfeminist approaches to counseling and therapy. She has served asassociate editor of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, vice presi-dent for Division E of the American Educational Research Associ-ation, and vice president for scientific affairs of Division 17 of theAmerican Psychological Association. She is a fellow of Divisions17 and 35 of the American Psychological Association.

Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson is a postdoctoral fellow in the CarolinaPopulation Center at the University of North Carolina-ChapelHill. She received her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Min-nesota in 1999. Her research interests include family and work,social stratification, and the life course. She is particularly interestedin the social and psychological antecedents and consequences ofwork experiences and adult attainment. Johnson’s current researchfocuses on changes in job values during the transition to adulthood,the consequences of adolescent employment, and the dynamic rela-tionship between values and educational attainment.

Robert W. Lent is a professor of counseling psychology in the Depart-ment of Counseling and Personnel Services, University of Mary-land. He received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from theOhio State University in 1979.

Lent has published extensively on applications of social cogni-tive theory to academic and career behavior. His other researchinterests include counselor training and development, psychologi-cal wellness, relationship adjustment processes, and promotion ofhealth behaviors. Lent is a fellow of Division 17 (Counseling Psy-chology) of the American Psychological Association and a recipi-ent of the John L. Holland Award for Outstanding Achievement inCareer and Personality Research. He is coeditor, with S. D. Brown,of the Handbook of Counseling Psychology. Along with M. L. Sav-ickas, he also coedited Convergence in Career Development Theories:

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Implications for Science and Practice (1994). He serves as associateeditor of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology and is on theeditorial boards of the Journal of Counseling Psychology and the Jour-nal of Vocational Behavior.

Janet G. Lenz is the associate director for career advising, counsel-ing, and programming in the Career Center at Florida State Uni-versity and a senior research associate in the FSU Center for theStudy of Technology in Counseling and Career Development.

Lenz has been a practicing professional in the career servicesarea since 1976. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociologyfrom Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her master’sdegree in student personnel administration in 1977 and her Ph.D.in counseling and human systems in 1990, both from Florida StateUniversity.

In addition to her experience at Florida State University, Lenzhas worked as the arts and sciences placement coordinator andcareer counselor in the Career Center at the University of Texas atAustin and as the assistant director in the Career Planning andPlacement Center at the University of North Carolina at Greens-boro. She is a nationally certified counselor and career counselor.

Erik J. Luchetta is a Ph.D. student in counseling psychology at theUniversity of Houston. He received his M.Ed. in counseling fromLehigh University. His primary research interest involves applica-tions of social cognitive career theory to the vocational develop-ment of adolescents.

Jeylan T. Mortimer is professor of sociology at the University of Min-nesota and director of the Life Course Center. She received herB.A. degree from Tufts University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degreesfrom the University of Michigan.

Her research focus is the social psychology of work, includingstudies of occupational choice, vocational development in the fam-ily and work settings, psychological change in response to work, job

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satisfaction, work involvement, and the links between work andfamily life. She is now assessing the effects of adolescent work onthe timing and patterning of markers of transition to adulthood.Her recent book, Arenas of Comfort in Adolescence: A Study ofAdjustment in Context (with Kathleen Thiede Call) examines ado-lescent development in relation to family, school, peer, and workcontexts.

Gary W. Peterson received his B.A. degree from Humboldt StateUniversity and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University.He is now professor and training director for the academic programtitled Psychological Services in Education, in the College of Edu-cation, Florida State University. He is also senior research associatein the Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and CareerDevelopment. He teaches courses in personality assessment, researchmethods, and consultation and organizational development. Hisresearch interests include career problem solving and decision mak-ing, career assessment, and test construction. He is a licensed psy-chologist in Florida.

Robert C. Reardon received his B.S. degree from Texas LutheranCollege and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Florida State Univer-sity. He has held full-time counseling and teaching positions atFlorida State University since 1966, when he was first employed inthe Counseling Center. Today he is a faculty member in the Di-vision of Student Affairs, and his current position is director of in-struction, research, and evaluation in the Career Center. He is aprofessor in the Department of Human Services and Studies andcodirects (with Jim Sampson) the Center for the Study of Tech-nology in Counseling and Career Development.

Matthew H. Richwine is currently an academic professional at Dick-inson College. He received his M.Ed. in counseling from LehighUniversity. He is currently working on research involving motiva-tion in athletes.

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James P. Sampson Jr. is currently a professor in the Department ofHuman Services and Studies at Florida State University, where hehas taught courses in career development and computer applica-tions in counseling since 1982. Since 1986 he has served as codi-rector of the Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling andCareer Development, a research center established at FSU toimprove the design and use of computer applications in counselingand guidance. He writes and speaks on the appropriate use of com-puter technology in counseling and on the use of cognitive strate-gies in the improvement of career counseling and guidance services.

Prior to joining the faculty at Florida State University, he was asenior counselor and the coordinator of the Career Planning Cen-ter at the Student Counseling and Career Planning Center, Geor-gia Institute of Technology. He is a nationally certified counselorand a nationally certified career counselor. He received his Ph.D. incounselor education from the University of Florida in 1977.

Mark L. Savickas is professor and chair in the Behavioral SciencesDepartment at the Northeastern Ohio University College of Medi-cine and adjunct professor of counselor education at Kent State Uni-versity. He has served as editor for the Career Development Quarterly(1991–1998) and is currently editor of the Journal of VocationalBehavior. In 1994, he received the John L. Holland Award for Out-standing Achievement in Career and Personality Research from theCounseling Psychology Division (17) of the American Psychologi-cal Association. In 1996, he received the Eminent Career Awardfrom the National Career Development Association.

Arnold R. Spokane is professor of education and psychology at LehighUniversity. He received his B.A. degree from Ohio University, hisM.S. degree from the University of Kentucky, and his Ph.D. degreefrom the Ohio State University. He received the John HollandAward for Oustanding Achievement in Career and Personality Re-search from the Division of Counseling Psychology of the AmericanPsychological Association in 1987 and the American Association of

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Counseling Development Research Award in 1989. His publicationsinclude more than forty articles and fifteen books and book chapters.He has served on the editorial boards of four professional journals aswell as on numerous committees and commissions.Ladislav Valach, a psychologist, is currently at the Division of Psy-chopathology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zurich, Switzer-land. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Berne in 1984 andhas worked at various institutes of the university and at the Univer-sity Hospital, the Therapy Centre for Victims of Torture of the SwissRed Cross, and the Rehabilitation Centre of the Medical Clinic,Buerger Hospital, Solothurn, Switzerland. He has pursued the appli-cation of action theory in areas such as occupational career, unem-ployment, coping with illness and the illness career, utilization ofmedical services, drug abuse, suicide, stroke rehabilitation, healthpromotion, and the patient-physician encounter. Valach is the coau-thor of Action Theory: A Primer for Applied Research in the Social Sci-ences (Praeger, 2002).

Richard A. Young is professor of counseling psychology at the Uni-versity of British Columbia. A fellow of the Canadian PsychologicalAssociation, his interests include career theory, parent-adolescentinteraction, and health psychology. With W. A. Borgen, he editedMethodological Approaches to the Study of Career (Praeger, 1990) and(with A. Collin) Interpreting Career: Hermeneutical Studies of Livesin Context (Praeger, 1992) and The Future of Career (CambridgeUniversity Press, 2000). He is the coauthor (with L. Valach and M. J. Lynam) of Action Theory: A Primer for Applied Research in theSocial Sciences (Praeger, 2002).

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Career Choice and Development

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PART ONE

Introduction and Cases

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1Introduction to Theories of Career Development and Choice

Origins, Evolution, and Current Efforts

Duane Brown

“In the wise choice of a vocation there are three broad factors:(1) a clear understanding of yourself, your aptitudes, abilities, in-terests, ambitions, resources, limitations, and knowledge of theircauses; (2) a knowledge of the requirements, conditions of success,advantages and disadvantages, compensation, opportunities, andprospects in different lines of work; (3) true reasoning on the rela-tions of these two groups of facts” (Parsons, 1909, p. 5).

Historical Perspective

Efforts to help people identify appropriate careers can be traced tothe fifteenth century, and by the nineteenth century at least sixty-five books had been published on the topic (Zytowski, 1972). Thefirst vocational guidance program emerged in this country in SanFrancisco in 1888—in Cogswell High School—and subsequently inhigh schools in Detroit in 1897 (Brewer, 1942). However, the rootsof career development theory did not emerge until Frank Parsons

3

Linda Brooks contributed to this chapter during the preparation of the third edition.

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4 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT

advanced the three-step “formula” quoted at the beginning of thechapter. Parsons’s schema for successfully choosing a career cannotbe called a theory in the strict sense, but it was the first conceptualframework for career decision making and became the first guide forcareer counselors.

Psychologically Based Theories

Parsons (1909) believed that if people actively engage in choosingtheir vocations rather than allow chance to operate in the hunt fora job, they are more satisfied with their careers, employers’ costsdecrease, and employees’ efficiency increases. These rather simpleideas are still at the core of most modern theories of career choiceand development. Holland (1985, 1997) and, to an even greaterdegree, Dawis and Lofquist (1984) have made them the corner-stones of their theories.

During the first part of the twentieth century, career counsel-ing practitioners focused on step two of Parsons’s tripartite model:increasing people’s understanding of the workplace. However, WorldWar I, the Great Depression of the thirties, and World War II pro-duced a great need to classify people in some meaningful way andplace them into occupations in which they could perform satisfac-torily. The use of tests to measure intellectual functioning began dur-ing World War I, accelerated and expanded to include interests,specific aptitudes, and personality in the twenties; it continues tothis day. This explosion of technology also provided a new name forParsons’s model: trait-and-factor theory. Trait-and-factor theorydominated the twenties and thirties and went unchallenged untilCarl Rogers (1942, 1951) published his books on client-centeredcounseling and therapy, in which he questioned the directiveapproaches advocated by E. G. Williamson (1939). Rogers’s chal-lenge turned out to be a modest one and did little to lessen the gripof trait-and-factor thinking on the practice of career counseling.

In 1951, Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad, and Herma set forth aradically new, psychologically based theory of career development

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