Critical Analysis of Career Development Theories - Essay Example

Critical Analysis of Career Development Theories Critical Analysis of Career Development Theories Introduction Career choice and its development is one of the challenging tasks an individual faces in life. Some theories have been developed to illustrate and give guidelines on how to go about the career choosing and implementation. A critical analysis will be done to test the effectiveness of the two career and development theories on vocational choices; the Ginsberg’s theory and the Holland Theory on occupational choices (Brown, 2008). Thesis: The Ginsberg’s and the Holland’s theories on career development are suitable and arguably the best in illustrating the vocational choice and development. To argue out exhaustively on the above thesis a close analysis of the two theories will be done and the relevance test will be done. The theories’ merits and demerits will be studied and argued out, and conclusions on the basis of the above thesis will be made. Relevance of two main theories and their impacts would also be scrutinized. Ginsberg’s theory The Ginsbergs Theory is a developmental theory that was founded in 1951 by a team of experts. The team comprised of Ginsburg a psychiatrist, Ginsberg an economist, Herman a psychologist and Axelrad a sociologist. They came up with their theory of vocational choice and development as a result of other vocational ideas that were developed earlier such as the structural and traitor-factor theories. They developed their theory in order to give their reaction to the intellectual aspect of it. Ginsberg and his colleagues had accused their predecessors of developing their models with no well-established and guiding principles on their theoretical foundation. They said that their predecessor’s theory had lacked the useful and explicit theoretical constructs in vocational point of view (Sharf, 2010). They based their theory on the conscious and rational action of a person. According to them, individuals select occupation through the life-long phases or stages of development patterns that are irreversible but not through changes the earlier theory had argued. Ginsberg and his cohorts they gave a theory that the career choice and development is just a process that gives rise to the occupational choice in many at their early twenties. In their earlier works stated that the occupational choice was an irreversible developmental mechanism or process of many decisions being made. This statement meant that in every occupational decision that is made, it meant that other choices were eliminated (Theories of career development, 2008). The theory recognized three stages or phases that are involved for the duration of career choice and developing it. These states included; tentative stage, fantasy stage, and realistic stage. Fantasy stage The stage involved the period from birth to the age of eleven years. It is a stage of development which is associated with the individual having wishes and arbitrary choices. They argued the stage is characterized by the latency period where the young person is at the age of six to eleven years. As per Ginsberg, the critical feature of an individual at this stage is an arbitrary ways of making choices of the child and lack of orientation of reality. They tend to neglect their potentials, reality, and ability, or affording time to any of the three crucial ingredients of the vocational choice process. They argued that the kids in this period they made arbitrary choices, and they have no serious consideration of any vocational aspect (Sharf, 2010). They said that the environment surrounding the kids especially the parents and what the child can see influences their occupational dislikes and likes. Thus, they concluded and said that the child in this stage makes the vocational choice but without giving any serious considerations to the critical concerns. Tentative stage This stage occurs from the age of eleven to seventeen years, which is an advancement stage of the child. It was given its name tentative stage because as the children mature they realize that their vocational choices can change and that the choices of the vocational aspects are determined by some real life circumstances and experiences. At this stage, the child develops a great interest in the activities that they do and lose interest to those things they don’t like (Theories of career development, 2008). They argued that children at this stage of development were in the adolescent stage and like personal or subjective factors such as capacity, value, interest, and transition sub-stages. Interest sub-stage Occurs at the age of eleven and twelve years when they start recognizing the need to focus on a career direction (Sir John Holland (1603-1701) in the Convention of 1660, 2010). Their choice is based on the interest, but they are aware of the underlying truth that the ability is also necessary. Capacity sub-stage This stage occurs at the age of twelve to fourteen. At this stage, the individuals are beginning to be aware of the introduction of the realistic perspective in their choices they make. Since most adolescents are not mature, their decisions made at this stage are not complete (Theories of career development, 2008). Value sub-stage This stage is the period of from fifteen to sixteen years, where the individuals undergo remarkable changes in their vocational choice approach. Mostly the individuals at this stage they consider the value attached to the choice towards the society as the make choices. They probably do not make decision due to influence from other people. For instance, an individual may choose to be an instructor though it is a poor paying job just because they are motivated by the impact to the society. According to Ginsberg, there are two major developments that occur at this stage in their vocational process of thinking. These events are evident in the students’ realization, day-in day-out in their involvement in a certain occupation that evolves into their life pattern. At this stage, the students allow their system of value about life to dominate their considerations of their vocational aspects (Theories of career development, 2008). They also develop the aspect of being aware of the imminence commitment to their vocation. This awareness sometimes is accompanied by some form of restlessness due to the realization of the adolescents that they need their parents’ assistance for a little longer not as they had expected. The vital thing at this stage is that the values overshadow the abilities and interests. Transition sub-stage This stage forms the last sub-stage in the tentative period, which occurs at the age of fifteen to eighteen years. This stage is normally calmer than the other preceding stages (Osipow and Fitzgerald, 2008). The individuals at this stage begin to get the necessity to make concrete, immediate, and realistic decisions about their vocational futures and bear the responsibility for the consequences of the choices they make. The key feature of this state is the combination of the capabilities, interests, and values and their use in the career process of making a decision. Realistic stage Mr. Ginsberg and his colleagues argued that this was the last phase in the process of decision making of the choice of the vocational future and development. Stage occurs at the age of seventeen years up to the age of twenty-two and up to twenty-four (Theories of career development, 2008). This age range is understood to be more flexible than any other stage of development. The individuals explore, crystallize a unique occupational choice and commands in an actual choice of occupation within the framework of the psychology of realistic thinking. This stage is characterized by other sub-stages of crystallization, exploration, and specification. John Holland’s Theory The other career development theory to be criticized is the John Holland’s theory; this gives explicit attention to the style of behavior or personality types as the key factors that affect the vocational choice and development. This theory described the career choice and development as a structurally interactive (Sir John Holland (1603-1701) in the Convention of 1660, 2010). The theory stated that the occupation choice was a personality expression and not a random aspect. It theorized that members who belong to a certain occupational group possessed similar features and characteristics. Moreover, the theory indicates that the group responds to the circumstantial problems in a similar way. Stability, occupational achievement, and satisfaction depend on the congruence between job and personality environment. The theory argues that the choice can be influenced by the trait of an individual; these attributes include. Realistic The individuals with this perspective possess the following characteristics; practical, active, adventurous, intellectual, masculine, stable and sensitive. It was argued that the individuals of this category get to the occupational careers of farming, architecture, main carrier, truck driving and construction (Sharf, 2010). Investigative The individuals of the category are thoughtful, explorers, knowledgeable, anti-social and critical. They argued to be intellectual, powerful, sensitive, critical, and scholarly and have many ideas (Sharf, 2010). These individuals fit in the careers of biologist, dentist, chemist, program leaders and veterinarian. Artistic The individuals are musical, emotional, creative, expressive, social, open, and efficient. They are argued to be powerful, artistic, masculine, orderly, and social. The theory says that they also possess traits of being conventional, sensitive, and spontaneous (Osipow and Fitzgerald, 2008). Their career choices involve musician, artist, interior designer, poet, and singer. Social They train, help, educate, support, and emphatic. Their traits vary from cooperative, humanistic, friendly, creative and ambitious (Osipow and Fitzgerald, 2008). The careers such individuals they fall in are social work, police officer, and counselor. Enterprising They are persuasive, verbally skilled, dominant, and direct and have leadership skills. They also possess the traits of being adventurous, ambitious and energetic (Sharf, 2010). They end up in careers like business, lawyer, politician, and TV producer. Conventional The individuals follow rules and routines; have excellent self-control, respects status, and power, they provide direction and order of events (Sharf, 2010). The individual have traits such as creativity, adventurous, efficient, controlled, and stable. They end up choosing the careers of clerk typist, bank teller, and cashier. Critically looking at the two theories, the following can be observed; in the Ginsberg theory possesses essential features of a good theory. The concept of the main theory is explicitly comprehensive. Again they clearly fit into the framework of the existing knowledge on human development. The comprehensiveness of the Ginsberg theory makes it applicable and resilient. The Ginsberg theory has some of its concepts being empirically tested and proved its validity has been ascertained. This aspect makes a theory have the very vital ingredient of a reliable theory. The fact that some of the concepts can be tested is the strength of the theory (Theories of career development, 2008). The Ginsberg theory gives some blueprint for giving advice to students at various stages of development. This theory outlines the type of counseling that one needs at various stages of development. The other strength of Ginsberg theory is that it encouraged and stimulated the interest in the theory; this makes it the most practical attempt base on the theoretical framework. Finally on the Ginsberg theory, it gives the counselor normative information on career development. On the John Holland’s theory, the types of vocational ventures are quite appealing, and the students can easily share those (Theories of career development, 2008). The theory also provides reliable and helpful way to comprehend varied work environments. However, the Ginsberg theory can be criticized for lack of data coverage for the years past twenty-five. Though the theory possesses rich implication for the intervention of career, it does not give the specific counseling to the clients. On the side of John Holland’s theory, it can be criticized that it does not give insights into what ways one can develop a guidance or type when working with students. Conclusion The two theories depict a career as a vocational future that is influenced by the individual’s interest and the traits; which is very practical. There is no much doubt that the Ginsberg theory was adequately researched and gives a vital contribution to vocational guidance and career choice research and more general to the counseling. The Holland’s contribution cannot be underestimated, since make individuals make a choice of their careers under the influence of their traits. Holland’s theory applies to all the ages that make it also unique since counseling will not be limited to any stage of development. The two theories give practical insights into a probable way of improving the quality of career and making the relevant intervention practices. References Brown, D. (2008). Career choice and development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Lent, R. and Worthington, R. (2009). Applying Career Development Theories to the School-to-Work Transition Process. The Career Development Quarterly, 47(4), pp.291-296. Osipow, S. and Fitzgerald, L. (2008). Theories of career development. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Sharf, R. (2010). Applying career development theory to counseling. Sir John Holland (1603-1701) in the Convention of 1660. (2010). Historical Research, 29(80), pp.244-252. Theories of career development. (2008). Behavior Therapy, 5(1), p.145. Read More