Application and Analysis of the Advantages and Disadvantages the Systems Theory Framework - Essay Example

?Running head: PSYCHOLOGY Cognitive Interventions: Systems Theories Tools for Human Service Workers 27 June 2011 Abstract The Systems Theory Framework (STF) is becoming the central instrument of dealing with career counseling dilemmas. Recent advances in counseling theory and practice place STF into the center of career theory. This paper provides a brief overview of three articles related to systems theory and its applications in career counseling. The concept and assumptions of STF are described. The concept and meaning of career counseling are discussed. The paper evaluates the role of culture in career counseling and advances knowledge of STF in relation to career counseling. How STF is implemented in career counseling practice is discussed. Implications for future research are included. Keywords: systems theory framework (STF), career counseling, multicultural. Cognitive Interventions: Systems Theories Tools for Human Service Workers Recent years have been marked with the growing popularity of constructivist approaches in counseling. Dozens of models were developed to enhance the provision of quality counseling services and meet the emerging demands of various industries. Career counseling exemplifies a separate but evolving field of career development. It is no longer limited to adolescents but covers a broad range of interventions and frameworks for all population groups. Career counselors are faced with numerous challenges, including the changing industry landscape and multiculturalism. The Systems Theory Framework presents unique career counseling opportunities. The STF is a flexible approach to managing career-related counseling interventions. “The use of the STF in career counseling allows incorporating cultural variables into the ongoing case planning and assessment of individual career practices by counselors” (McMahon & Watson, 2008). The Systems Theory Framework The Systems Theory Framework (STF) is becoming one of the most popular approaches to career counseling. In many instances, the rise in the STF popularity is justified by the fact that constructivism is assuming a bigger role in career theory and practical counseling. It should be noted, that constructivism is integrally linked to and promotes the recognition that individuals are directly responsible for their choices (McMahon & Watson, 2008). Built on this constructivist foundation is a collaborative process of the counselor-client relationship, in which the latter plays the role of an active agent, whereas the former works as a facilitator of storytelling, which eventually leads to the desired career choices (McMahon & Watson, 2008). However, how to apply constructivism in practice remains a serious challenge; for this reason, constructivist counseling approaches are being developed to enhance the quality of client-counselor relationships and facilitate the provision of quality counseling services (McMahon & Watson, 2008). The STF exemplifies a relevant response to theoretical and practical challenges of constructivism. According to McMahon and Watson (2008), the STF is one of the most significant innovations in career counseling, a metatheoretical holistic framework that incorporates and evaluates content and process influences on individual career choices. “The STF provides a map for understanding the origins of career counseling and the dilemma it is now facing” (Patton & McMahon, 2006, p.153). Content influences are those which include personal qualities, character features, and other characteristics that are intrinsic to individuals (McMahon & Watson, 2008). Content influences also incorporate the context, in which individuals live, develop, and operate. The STF organizes all content influences into a complex but comprehensive framework, “comprising the individual, social, and environmental-societal systems” (McMahon & Watson, 2008). Recursiveness, chance, and change over time represent process influences (McMahon & Watson, 2008). The STF recognizes the overall changeability of these content and process influences, and conceptualizes career development and choices as a complex, dynamic and open system (McMahon & Watson, 2008). The STF treats the individual as the central element of career development. The individual is always subjected to a variety of internal (personal characteristics) and external (society and culture) influences (McMahon & Watson, 2008). The STF relies on the premise that all these influences change over time. Career development is also presented as a dynamic process, which operates in an open system, and is affected by recursiveness and chance (Patton & McMahon, 2006). As a result, counselors and researchers rely on the STF in their analysis of individual career choices. Career Counseling Career counseling is a popular object of discussion in professional literature. Counselors realize the complexity of career choices, but understanding how the STF can be used by human services professionals is impossible without a brief description of career counseling. Actually, researchers tend to include a brief definition of the career counseling concept in their articles, to make the link between it and the STF clearer (McMahon & Watson, 2008; Arthur & McMahon, 2005; Patton & McMahon, 2006). However, the meaning and significance of career counseling was best described by Patton & McMahon (2006). Patton and McMahon (2006) write that career counselor always lagged behind other approaches to making career choices, including the trait and factor approach. However, only career counseling can meet the changing demands of business and career development and ensure that career choices keep pace with the society’s industrial and business progress (Patton & McMahon, 2006). In its current state, career counseling fits perfectly well in the changing role of constructivism, which emphasizes self-organizing, independence, and proactive decision-making. Postmodern career counseling is essentially about managing individual anxieties, personalities, perceptions, and competencies, which covers a range of interventions and aims at dealing with behavioral and emotional disorders that impede effective career choice (Patton & McMahon, 2006). Career Counseling and Culture Globalization and elimination of geographical borders impose new demands on career counselors. Culture is becoming an essential variable affecting career choices. This is probably why researchers pay particular attention to the role and place of culture in career counseling and the benefits from using the STF to enhance the quality of multicultural counseling among human services professionals. The place of culture in the STF was described by Arthur and McMahon (2005): the researchers believe that, “as populations change from homogenous groups to a mosaic of people with diverse customs and cultures, career counselor must shift their perspectives from monoculturalism to multiculturalism (p.208). The STF is just one out of the myriad of career counseling approaches but it best fits in the changing conditions of cultural performance. Certainly, previous theories of career development were not entirely blind to cultural variables, but culture was traditionally considered as a static variable that is identified and relevant within one particular cultural group (Arthur & McMahon, 2005). However, as cultures change, so do career choices. That the STF creates a dynamic vision of career development through open systems means that it can also reflect and incorporate cultural changes and their effects on career choices. The STF helps to explain and evaluate a complex interplay between cultural, societal, environmental, and individual influences (Arthur & McMahon, 2005). The STF and Career Counseling How does the STF work in career counseling? Patton and McMahon (2006) offer their vision of the STF-career counseling relationship. The researchers claim that the use of the STF requires that career counselors shift the emphasis from the traditional view of the world and assume a different, flexible counseling perspective. Any application of the STF in career counseling entails the use of traditional counseling approaches which are reconsidered and re-shaped in circular instead of linear terms (Patton & McMahon, 2006). The use of circular feedback and the conceptualization of the client-counselor relationship as that between an independent agent and facilitator are integral to the use of the STF in career counseling (Patton & McMahon, 2006). The STF must be used in ways that help to maintain a strong boundary between client and counselor systems. The researchers write that, through the prism of the STF, career counseling is a meeting (or even collision) of the two systems – that of the client and that of the counselor; and successful career counseling will always transform both systems and form a new system of therapeutic relationship (Patton & McMahon, 2006). Here, narrations are used as the dominant instrument of counseling. Culture is an essential component of career counseling. The essence of the STF resides within the framework that acknowledges the influences of culture on the individual and broader social systems (Arthur & McMahon, 2005). The STF creates a comprehensive and holistic view of one’s cultural identity and helps to assess the changes in cultural influences over time (Arthur & McMahon, 2005). Unfortunately, the current body of empirical research related to the use of STF in career counseling is very scarce. However, it is possible to assume that the STF is becoming an extremely important approach to career counseling. First, the STF was used as the basis for development a complex integrated career assessment instrument, which gives individuals an opportunity to properly assess various influences on their career development and create meaningful career stories (McMahon & Watson, 2008). Second, the STF is believed to help individuals in the creation of stories and narratives that lead them to the desired career outcome: counselors use a set of diagrams, “including The Thinking About Who I Am diagram, the Thinking About Society and the Environment diagram, and the Thinking About My Past, Present and Future diagram to understand what exactly fosters or impedes achieving the best career development results” (McMahon & Watson, 2008). The use of the STF in career counseling must be governed by four important assumptions. First, human services professionals must realize and recognize that all aspects of the world are closely connected, and it is never possible to separate people from their environments (Patton & McMahon, 2006). Second, no laws or principles can explain the relationship between various causes, influences, and career choices by individuals; each individual is unique and how individuals and the environment are connected can be decided only on a case-to-case basis (Patton & McMahon, 2006). Third, “no human behavior can be understood separately from the context in which it occurs” (Patton & McMahon, 2006). Fourth, the subjective frame of reference is the only way to understand what individuals want to achieve and what forces affect their choices. The STF does not rely on traditional assessments, which are considered outdated; rather, narrative approaches render personal stories about career development reliable and effective. Simultaneously, the future research must focus on the empirical analysis of the STF and its effectiveness in career counseling. McMahon and Watson (2008) described a case study of an adolescent male, who wants to become a community worker but is confused by the variety of factors influencing his decision. The adolescent was invited to attend a counseling session, to let him take the most relevant career decision. During the final counseling session, Thomas finally realized that his family exerted serious influences on his career decisions, whereas his girlfriend had little influence on his career development (McMahon & Watson, 2008). Also, Thomas understood that his parents’ financial support was crucial to his future plans (McMahon & Watson, 2008). Eventually, the adolescent decided to communicate the results of STF assessment to his parents and take a gap year, to decide what exactly he wanted to do; prior to the counseling session, his parents had pushed him to replace his lifetime interest in music with an interest in community work. It was agreed that Thomas would repeat the counseling session six months later, to identify and assess possible changes in his career incentives (McMahon & Watson, 2008). The current state of research does not provide any definite answer to the question of the STF effectiveness in career development and counseling. Despite the growing popularity of the STF and its relevance within the constructivist frameworks, whether or not it can benefit clients remains unclear. The lack of appropriate literature and empirical findings is justified by the fact that the STF is a relatively new approach, and the career counseling profession always lagged behind more traditional approaches to career development (Patton & McMahon, 2006). Certainly, the STF can benefit human services professionals and their clients. That the STF treats individuals as the central agents of career choices means that human services professionals will need to be particularly attentive to individual anxieties, concerns, and perceptions about their careers. In its current state, the STF can work as the source of legitimate knowledge about the world and empower individuals to tae relevant career decisions. Simultaneously, empirical research will help to identify the major strength and weaknesses of the approach and help to improve the quality of career counseling and human services workers’ understanding of career development. Conclusion Career counselors are faced with numerous challenges, including the changing industry landscape and multiculturalism. The Systems Theory Framework presents unique career counseling opportunities. The STF is a flexible approach to managing career-related counseling interventions. Unfortunately, the current research does not provide any definite answer to the question of the STF effectiveness in career development and counseling. Despite the growing popularity of the STF and its relevance within the constructivist frameworks, whether or not it can benefit clients remains unclear. The future research must focus on the empirical analysis of the STF and its effectiveness in career counseling. References/ Annotated Bibliography Arthur, N. & McMahon, M. (2005). Multicultural career counseling: Theoretical applications of the systems theory framework. The Career Development Quarterly, 53(3), 208-222. Cultural influences on career development have to be recognized. The article presents a new vision of culturally-conscious career counseling through the Systems Theory Framework. The article provides a rationale for the use of constructivist systems approaches in career counseling and familiarizes readers with the basic theoretical assumptions of the STF. McMahon, M.L. & Watson, M.B. (2008). Systemic influences on career development: Assisting clients to tell their career stories. The Career Development Quarterly, 56(3), 280-288. Constructivism is becoming the definitive feature of postmodern career counseling, but how to apply it in practice is the major challenge. The article describes a case study of an adolescent and career counseling interventions based on the Systems Theory Framework. A brief overview of the STF and how it is applied in career counseling is included. Patton, W. & McMahon, M. (2006). The system theory framework of career development and counseling: Connecting theory and practice. International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling, 28(2), 153-166. Systems theory is believed to offer a better alternative to traditional approaches in career counseling. The article extends the current knowledge of systems theories to create a metatheoretical framework to be used in career counseling. The researchers shed light on the basic theoretical tenets of the STF and its implications for career development. Read More