CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Career Development

Career Development

This paper is based on the topic of career development. This paper is divided into two parts. The first part is based on the elaboration of a selected career development theory. The second part of this paper is based on personal experience related to the selected theory. For this paper, I have selected Super's theory.

Part 1

Super's Theory

Donald Super recognized the changes that people go through as they mature. Career patterns are influenced by many personal characteristics, economic factors, psychological factors, and physical abilities, as well as chance factors. Super theorized that people seek satisfaction through work roles in which they can develop their self-concept (Super, 2006). In fact, Super asserted, “the process of vocational development is essentially that of developing and implementing a self concept.” Career maturity, a primary concept of Super's theory, is manifested in the successful achievement of age and stage development tasks across the life span (Super, 2006). This developmental theory has five major stages. During the Growth stage (birth to age 14 or 15), the child forms his or her self-concept, which is associated with the development of abilities, attitudes, interests, and needs. The child also forms a general understanding of the world of work. In the Exploratory stage (ages 15 to 24), the individual makes a tentative career choice with related skill development. The Establishment stage (ages 25 to 44) is characterized by work experience. From ages 45 to 64, the Maintenance stage, the person experiences a continual adjustment process to improve the working situation. The final stage is named Decline (65+), during which there is reduced work output and eventual retirement (Super, 2008). Super's theory has been refined and expanded over the years. For example, although Super originally presented the stages and tasks in a sequential manner, he later added that we cycle and recycle through the stage throughout our life span.

Super identified six factors in vocational maturity: (1) awareness of the need to plan ahead, (2) decisionmaking skills, (3) knowledge and use of information resources, (4) general career information, (5) general world-of-work information, and (6) detailed information about preferred occupations. Super also examined the various roles that we play during our lifetimes and how the relative importance of those roles changes over time. Super's theory has increasingly been viewed as the most comprehensive of the developmental approaches (Super, 2006).

His career development assessment and counseling model integrates several useful assessment instruments to ...