ESSAY

Career Decision-Making Theories

Career Decision-Making Theories

Introduction

According to O'Hare (1987) one of the most common problems faced by students and young professionals is their inability to take the right career decision for themselves. This results in them spending great amount of time with their career and guidance counsellors to make an appropriate decision. In order to assist them, the counsellors take help of different career decision-making theories or career decision-making models. These theories or models are conceptual frameworks that assist the decision maker to process information in such a manner in order to arrive at an appropriate conclusion. In addition, these theories and models propose or lay down the procedure(s) for an individual to follow and be able to make an optimal career decision.

Similarly, this paper aims to discuss about the influence that career decision-making theories have upon the career choice of different individuals. Along with, how these theories could aid an individual with their approach to career management and choice.

Discussion

This section of the paper highlights certain career decision-making theories along with highlighting how these a theories, in general, impact the decision making process related to the career choice of an individual.

Career Decision-Making Theories

According to Brown (2002) career development theories provide explanation for how individuals develop certain personality traits and self-perception, and how these characteristic developments influence their decision making. Such theories also highlight the context in which individuals live and how their personal characteristics interact with their environmental variables to form their decision making process. In this respect, it could be ascertained that career decision-making theories are dynamic in nature and an ever-changing phenomena. Similarly, Hodkinson (2008) opines that there exists a wide excess of competing theories in the career decision-making and development guidance field. These theories could be used in manner of two: as tools for thinking and as a set of statements informing about something new. However, these theories can be considered more helpful, if they are comprehended as means of helping individuals to think about and understand career.

In the UK, much emphasis of policy related to career guidance and practice is underpinned by the career or the career-ship theory (Hodkinson, 2008). This theory argues that the career progression and decision-making has three overlapping dimensions. These dimensions are composed of the following:

Individual position and disposition

The background or context of taking an decision ( for example for education or career purposes)

The desired future career goals

Conversely, Lent et.al, (2000) highlights the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), which helps to understand the processes, by which individuals make choices, develop interests and achieve success in their occupational and educational endeavours. This theory focuses upon how several cognitive-individual linked variables such as self-efficacy, goals and expectations interact with other aspects of the individual environment, for example an individual's social support or barriers, gender and ethnicity. By analyzing the relationship and influence of these variables on one another helps shape their course of career development. In this regard, the SSCT could be said to be similar with that of the career-ship theory ...