unit 4 psychological foundations (2nd ed.)

Fall, 2008 WED 466 – Unit 4 1

WED 466: Unit 4

Psychological Foundationsof Workforce Education

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General Objective

Understands the psychological foundations of workforce education.

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Career Development

“… is a lifelong process involving psychological, sociological, economic, and cultural factors that influence individuals’ selection of, adjustment to, and advancement in the occupations that collectively make up their careers.”

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Good vs. Bad Theories

• Good theories have well-defined terms and easily interpreted constructs.

• Good theories explain the career development process for all groups.

• Good theories explain why people choose careers and become dissatisfied with them.

• Good theories are parsimonious.

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Early Theories

• Have limited applicability to special groups – women, European men and women.

• Are culturally oppressive because they are rooted in Eurocentric beliefs

• Reflect independent, not dependent career decision making.

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Theories with Major Impact on Research and Practice

• Holland (1997)

• Super (1990)

• Lofquist & Dawis (1996, 1991)

• Lent, Brown, & Hackett (1995, 1996, 2002)

• Gottfredson (1981, 1996)

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“The Western European worldview is that people should act independently when they make career decisions… Many

Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanics believe that the welfare of the

group should be placed ahead of the concerns of individuals.”

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Career Choice and Development Categories

• Trait and Factor Theories

• Developmental Theories

• Theories Based in Learning Theory

• Socioeconomic Theories

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Philosophical Assumptions

• Positivist (modernist)

– Trait-and-factor theories– Developmental theories– Theories rooted in learning theory

• Post Modern (phenomenological/ constructivist)

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Trait-and-Factor Theories

• Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice

• Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA)

• Brown’s Value-Based Theory

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Holland’s Theory ofVocational Choice

• Individual personality is the primary factor in vocational choice.

• Interest inventories are personality inventories.• Daydreams about occupations are precursors to

occupational choice.• Identify is related to a small number of focused

vocational goals.• Career success and satisfaction is related to

choosing an occupation that is congruent with one’s personality.

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Holland’s Six Personality Types

• Realistic

• Investigative

• Artistic

• Social

• Enterprising

• Conventional

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Holland’s Six Work Environments

• Realistic Environment

• Investigative Environment

• Artistic Environment

• Social Environment

• Enterprising Environment

• Conventional Environment

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Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA)

• People have two types of needs.– Biological (survival)– Psychological (social acceptance)

• These needs give rise to drive states.• Work environments have requirements

that are analogous to individual needs.• Workers select jobs because of the

perception that the job will satisfy their needs.

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Predicting Worker Success

(i.e., worker adjustment)

• Skills– Job-related skills

• Aptitudes– Potential to develop job-related skills

• Personality– Combination of skills and aptitudes

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Values-Based Theory of Occupational Choice

• Values– Human nature– Person-nature relationship– Time orientation– Activity– Self-control– Social relationships– Collateral– allocentrism

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How Values Develop

– Enculturation is the process by which individuals incorporate the beliefs and values of their cultural group and form a values system

– Most individuals are monocultural– Acculturation involves the enculturation of

beliefs from a culture different from one’s own.

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Propositions of Brown’s Values-Based Theory

1. Highly prioritized work values are the most important determinant of career choice from people who value individualism.

2. Individuals who hold collective social values and come from families who hold the same values defer to the wishes of the family in occupational decision-making.

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Propositions of Brown’s Values-Based Theory (continued)

3. When taken individually, cultural values regarding activity do not constrain the occupational decision-making process.

4. Males, females, and people from differing cultural groups enter occupations at varying rates.

5. The process of choosing an occupation value involves a series of estimates.

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Propositions of Brown’s Values-Based Theory (continued)

6. Occupational success is related to job-related skills acquired in formal and informal educational settings, job-related aptitudes and skills, SES, preparation in the work role, and the extent to which discrimination is experienced.

7. Occupational tenure os partially the result of the match between the cultural and work values of worker, supervisors, and colleagues.

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Developmental Theories

• Super’s Life Span, Life Space Theory

• Gottfredson’s Theory of Circumscription and Compromise

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Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space Theory

1. People differ in their abilities, personalities, needs, values, interests, traits, and self-concepts.

2. People are qualified, by virtue of these characteristics, each for a number of occupations.

3. Each occupation requires a characteristic pattern of abilities and personality traits.

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Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space Theory (continued)

4. Vocational preferences and competencies change with time and experience.

5. The process of change is a series of life stages.

– Growth Stage– Exploratory Stage– Establishment Stage– Maintenance Stage– Decline Stage

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6. The nature of the career pattern is determined by the individual’s parental socioeconomic level, mental ability, education, skills, personality characteristics, career maturity, and the opportunity to which he/she is exposed.

7. Success in coping with environmental demands depends on the readiness of the individual to cope (career maturity).

8. Career maturity is a hypothetical construct.

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9. Life stage development can be guided partly by the maturing of abilities and interests and partly by aiding in reality testing and in the development of self concepts.

10. The process of career development is developing and implementing occupational self-concepts.

11. Several factors influence the process of synthesis of or compromise between individual and social factors.

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12. Work satisfaction and life satisfactions depend on the extent to which the individuals find adequate outlets for abilities, needs, values, interests, personality traits, and self-concepts.

13. The degree of satisfaction people attain from work is proportional to the degree to which they have been able to implement self-concepts.

14. Work and occupation provide a focus for personality organization.

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Gottfredson’s Theory of Circumscription and Compromise

• Four assumptions regarding how career aspirations develop…

1. Begin in childhood

2. Are attempts to implement one’s self-concept

3. Depend on the degree to which the career is congruent with self-perceptions

4. Are guided by occupational stereotypes

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Cognitive Maps of Occupations

• Are organized along the dimensions of– Masculinity/femininity of the occupation– Fields of work

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Gottfredson’s Developmental Stages

• Ages 3-5: Orientation to size and power

• Ages 6-8: Orientation to sex roles

• Ages 9-13: Orientation to social valuation

• Ages 14+: Choices explored

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Summary

• Theories of career choice and development provide guides to this complex phenomenon.

• All theories (except Brown’s) are predicated on the belief that the individual holds an independence social value and will chose his/her own occupation.

• Indiscriminate application of a theory is inappropriate and unethical.

unit 4 psychological foundations (2nd ed.)

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