APPLYING CAREER
DEVELOPMENT THEORIES
Though career development theories offer some valuable explanations of the process of career choice and development, these theories do not address career decisions and career commitment that may result from external factors such as family expectations, job availability, or even occupational prestige. Moreover, for people who do not have the luxury of choosing occupations based on their interests or self-efficacy— for example, women, parents, or immigrants—extant developmental theories may not provide an adequate model of the process of career development.
On the other hand, career development theories do offer some direction for career counselors. For example, Super suggested a counseling approach to apply his theory to practice. That approach includes assessments to help clients gain information about their level of career development, as well as information about their interests and values to identify potential careers. Krumboltz also provided suggestions for applying his theory, SLTCDM, to practice. Consistent with that theory’s emphasis on learning, he suggested that counselors help clients recognize salient career information they have learned in past jobs and reframe unexpected incidents into positive career opportunities. Finally, SCCT provides a framework for counselors to address clients’ career issues. At its core, career counseling modeled on SCCT assesses clients’ self efficacy for various activities and uses this information to suggest possible careers. Furthermore, counselors address perceived barriers to careers to give clients more options to pursue.
—Jo-Ida C. Hansen and Melanie E. Leuty
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