CAREER DECISION-MAKING APPROACHES

Two categories of decision making models

Two categories of decision making models

• Descriptive Theories - describe or explain the choices that an individual makes when deciding on career choices; usually based on adolescent or adult decision making.

• Example: spiritual

approach – life and career are related

• Prescriptive Theories - focus on the ideal approach to decision making; originate with psychological decision making theory or observations of cognitive decision making processes

• Example: Peterson et al.’s cognitive information processing approach

Personal and Common Realities

• Reality concerns the awareness of one’s career decision-making

– Personal reality - an individual’s sense of what is right

– Common reality - what others say the individual should do

A SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE IN DECISION MAKING

• Spirit – an essential principle that gives life to physical being

• See work as a place where one’s spirit can be nourished and person can develop self

Spirituality

• When individuals experience the wholeness of living; spirituality develops

Lifecareer Theory (Miller-Tiedeman)

• Sees each person as his own theory maker

• You are not looking for a career, you have one¼life is our career

• By trusting inner wisdom that comes from your intellectual ability, previous experiences, and intuition into past experiences, you can experience your career

• Lifecareer is the dynamic lived-in-the-moment process defined by each person in individual moments

• The client decides what works and what doesn’t, not the counselor

Seven themes that people can use to better understand their lives and the career decisions

that are a part of their lives• Change - when change occurs by chance, it is called synchronocity; can be internal or

external; many feelings and emotions

• Balance - seek balance; it is natural to maintain balance between work, play, and other activities

• Energy - needed in order to bring about change and balance in one’s life; many sources of energy (from others, from self, etc.)

• Community - 3 types: (1) communities of companionship – immediate and extended family, close friends, (2) communities of culture – neighbors, classmates, coworkers, (3) cosmic community – those which concern large ideas, such as environment, poor, etc.

• Calling - finding one’s ideal work

• Harmony - finding the work that will bring about a true sense of appreciation and understanding

• Unity - to believe in unity is to trust the universe

A Holistic Approach to Life Planning - Hansen

• Task 1: Finding Work that Needs Doing in a Changing Global Context

• Task 2: Weaving our Lives into a Meaningful Whole

• Task 3: Connecting Family and Work

• Task 4: Valuing Pluralism in Individuality

• Task 5: Managing Personal Transitions and Organizational Change

• Task 6: Exploring Spirituality and Life Purpose

COUNSELOR ISSUES

• Spiritual approach - Focus on internal decision-making process

• Be aware of different approach to decision-making fo counselor and client

• Avoid “shoulds”, attend to client’s personal reality

A COGNITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH

• Peterson et al. – tried to help individuals understand the way that they think and how that influences their career decision making

Prescriptive point of view

• - prescribe or suggest ways that individuals can think about career decision making that will improve their ability to make good career decisions

Four assumptions:

• 1. Both affect and cognitive processing are important components of career decision making.

• 2. Individuals not only need to know about themselves and the world of work, but also information about thinking and how it affects decision making.

• 3. Information about self and the world of work is constantly changing.

• 4. By improving one’s information processing capabilities, clients can improve their career problem-solving abilities.

The Pyramid of Information Processing

• Based on Sternberg’s approach to understanding human intelligence; Three basic components:

• knowledge domain (knowing oneself and knowing about world of work),

• decision-making skills domain (learn how to make decisions),

• and the executive processing domain (become aware of how their thoughts influence their decisions)

Decision-Making Skills• The capabilities that enable people to process information about themselves and

occupations. Also known as CASVE:• Communication – when people get input from within themselves or from

the environment, the communication process begins

• Analysis – examining the self-knowledge and occupational knowledge domain

• Synthesis – when information is analyzed, then people can pursue courses of action; synthesizing information through elaborating or crystallizing what they have analyzed

• Valuing – the client evaluates or values possible actions or career directions

• Execution – once choices have been evaluated or have undergone the valuing process, then a plan or strategy can be formulated to implement the choice

The Executive Processing Domain – top section of

pyramid; refers to higher order functions• Three major ways of decision making

– Self-Talk - internal messages that we give ourselves about career choice and other issues; can be positive or negative

– Self-Awareness - individuals can be more effective problem solvers when they are aware of what they are doing and why they are doing it

– Monitoring and Control - people can monitor the way in which they go through the CASVE process and control how much time they give to each of these stages or phases

The Career Thoughts Inventory

• Three scales• Decision-Making Confusion - indicates the difficulty that

individuals have in initiating or sustaining career decision making; relates to difficulties involved in CAS steps of CASVE

• External Conflict - difficulty in balancing one’s own views of information about self and occupations with the views of others; relates to V in CASVE

• Commitment Anxiety - fear or anxiety that comes with the difficulty in implementing a career choice and addressing problems in moving from the valuing stage to the execution stage

Seven-Step Service Delivery Sequence

• Represents a structured model of career counseling that is more organized than most

• 1. Initial Interview – information is gathered about client’s career problem; rapport; CASVE explained

• 2. Preliminary Assessment – screening instrument (e.g. Career Thoughts Inventory) is given and readiness for counseling is assessed.

• 3. Define Problem and Analyze Causes – problem is clarified and defined so that goals can be developed

• 4. Formulate Goals – together form goals; Goals become basis for Individual Learning Plan (ILP)

•5. Develop Individual Learning Plan – together develop an ILP that lists the activities that are to be completed by the client in order to achieve her goals

• 6. Execute Individual Learning Plan – with counselor’s help, clients follow through on the ILP which is integrated with the CASVE cycle

• 7. Summarize Review and Generalization – after client has completed ILP, together discuss progress towards reaching goals

COUNSELOR ISSUES

• Cognitive Information Processing Theory

• Avoid too much structure

• Consider seven step delivery model

• Decide whether or not to assess career readiness