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Abstract
Career Counseling has evolved to include new theories and practices aimed at viewing the client not only as a career challenge but as a full person where a career is only a single aspect. The early days of career counseling focused on how a person’s career influenced his or her daily life but paid less attention to how personal struggles influenced a person’s career choices. Today, as clinicians take into account social constructs, prejudices, economic needs, and even uncertainties about the future, a new picture evolves that implies that it is a circular pattern.
Career Counseling: A Social Cognitive Perspective
Career development and career counseling is an essential aspect of the human lifecycle. As children, people learn to expand their horizons and how to interact with other people in their environment. As the child enters adolescence, he or she begins to learn the hierarchy and social structures needed to become productive members of society. Youth and young adulthood provide an opportunity to explore essential life choices related to education, work, and family. However, young adults are not the only populations embedded in the workforce and not the single population needing career counseling. Also, the workforce is changing rapidly, and old processes like office environments replaced with shared workspaces and work-at-home solutions. Technology advancements make some older working generations feel antiquated and raise concerns that they will soon fall to the wayside. Economic restrictions for some members of the retiring workforce have to seek other employment opportunities to supplement income.
Social cognitive career therapy [SCCT] asserts five segmental constructs that aim to understand better career interests, choices, performance, self-management, and satisfaction (Ezeofor, & Lent, 2014). An underlying assumption of SCCT is that five main segmented models of an individual’s career development are influenced by social cognitive, environmental, and individual personality factors (Ezefor, & Lent, 2014). Taking from the social cognitive theory developed by Albert Bandura in 1986, which asserted that an individual’s behavior, cognition, and environment work together to determine how people function, as opposed to any single aspect being the dominant factor (Nolan, 2018). Social cognitive career theory links variables like individual beliefs, goals, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations as the basic building blocks of the method (Iresearchnet. 2016).
Building Blocks of Social Cognitive Career Theory
The assumption is that an individual’s beliefs about inevitable consequences or outcomes of specific behaviors dictate the choices people make about activities and how strongly they pursue those activities. A good example is how an individual chooses to engage in a particular work activity or preference based on outcome expectations, self-efficacy, attractive conditions, tangible rewards, and self and social approval. Outcome expectations also assert that an individual will put more effort into engaging in specific tasks or activities is the perceived success as partly determined by the individual’s self-efficacy beliefs combined with their outcome expectations (Ezefor, & Lent, 2014; Iresearchnet, 2016).
Individuals may experience doubt about some career choices based on past experiences, social expectations, recent accomplishments, or emotional and physiological states. The self-efficacy belief factor asserts that both successes and failures offer reliable sources of self-efficacy that interact and influenced by social constructs and physiological states a person experiences while performing various tasks (Ezefor, & Lent, 2014). Finally, individuals are assumed to engage in multiple courses of actions or behaviors based on different goals. Goals are broken down into purposes related to choices or decisions that drive specific activities, or goals related to performance that dictates the level of performance an individual wishes to achieve (Ezefor, & Lent, 2014).
Assessment Tests
There are several tests commonly used in career counseling. This paper will focus on the Strong Inventory Assessment and the Work Importance Profiler. The advantage of administering these tests is that they provide valuable insight into a client’s interests, values, and awareness or his or her personality as it relates to career choices. However, these tests are not infallible. In both cases, the client can manipulate the test results by carefully planning his or her answers to distort the outcomes. One might assume that most, if not all, clients seeking career counseling do so openly, hence not purposely attempting to skew the results of any administered assessments. Considering these assessments are commonly used in social cognitive career counseling, the benefit of conducting both tests would correlate with the goals related to the therapeutic approach.
Strong Interest Inventory Assessment.
Strong’s assessment is designed to provide a comprehensive insight into the client’s interests, which in turn helps the client explore different career options, educational path, and preferred work environment by identifying their work personality. The test facilitates the exploration of the client’s artistic, conventional, enterprising, investigative, and realistic interests. Doing this helps define the client’s style preferences for risk-taking, team orientation, learning environment, work, and leadership styles (The Meyers Briggs Company, n.d.).
Work Importance Profiler.
This particular test is a two-phase, computer-generated self-administered process that helps the client to focus on what he or she values as most important in a profession. The test outcomes should provide the client with a personalized profile that allows them to develop self-knowledge related to their work values, and foster or strengthen his or her career awareness (American Job Center Network, n.d.). The first phase of the test begins by comparing and ranking twenty-one work-related statements by the level of importance. The second phase compels the client to compare and rank work-related needs by indicating if the demand is essential or independent of the answers in step one (American Job Network, n.d.).
Challenges in Career Choices
Working in career counseling requires therapists to expand their horizons and world views of what a career entails. Contrary to many beliefs, most young people do not honestly know what they want to be when they grow up, and parental expectations do not always coincide with the desires and goals of their children. Additionally, various external pressures play a crucial role in the choices individuals make about careers. While some people are fortunate to attend college and graduate with a professional degree, others may not have this ability for a variety of reasons. In some parts of the country, in particular, areas with larger marginalized communities, the desire to obtain the skills needed for a career are simply out of reach (Arthur, & Memahon, 2005). Many young people face challenges related to cultural expectations were taking time to gain a proper education and set future career goals takes second place to get a job to help support the family (Ezeofor, & Lent, 2014), and others exposed to violent neighborhood environments may not even live long enough to recognize their dreams.
Cultural Awareness
Another area of importance is recognizing the cultural differences that influence career choices and challenges. Cultural competence is necessary for any counselor to be successful when working with clients from different backgrounds (Sue & Sue, 2016). It is crucial to recognize that world views or perceptions are significant characteristics of different cultural groups. Some cultures value an individualistic approach while others place more value on collectiveness of their culture (Kerka, 2003). The culturally competent counselor will recognize these and other cultural differences when working with clients seeking career counseling. Understanding specific cultural nuances like the conventional approach of Hispanic families that drive a client to place gaining employment to help provide for the family collective or the parental pressures a young Asian client may have to choose a specific career that he or she may not hold interest.
Younger Populations
Those who do plan career goals and have an optimistic outlook on the future might experience other troubles in making those goals a reality. An uncertain economic outcome, interference or exclusion of marginalized employees accessing needed to advance (Fabio, & Palazzeschi, 3026), or the overburden of excessive school loan debt, or inability to secure school loans may force people into putting some goals on hold. For others, education in an over-saturated career field might make finding employment seemingly impossible. People from low-income situations also find that accessing resources, obtaining adequate job training, and the need to place the family’s financial obligations before a career choice are a matter of survival (Ibrahimovic, & Potter, 2013).
Career counselors can influence younger clients that seek clarity on their future in the working world. Since most children and adolescents do not have a concrete plan for a career, entering the final years of high school can become a stressful time. The student needs to start making decisions on his or her future. What college to go to and what to major in. Even then, many young adults have not decided within their first or even second year of college. Mounting pressure from family members, watching friends move on to their recognized goals, and the uncertainty of a future adds considerable stress on decision making
LGBT Populations
LGBT people face multiple forms of marginalization. Even though many states enacted anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people, federal laws do not provide any protection from workplace discrimination. Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender people are subject to degrading comments about their gender or sexual identity, overlooked for promotions, make less than their counterparts, and in some states, even denied the same spousal benefits as heterosexual employees (Chan, 2019). Also, Donald J. Trump signed ordered the dismissal of over 13,000 active American transgender armed forces (Anderson, 2019), and declared opposition (McBride, 2019) to the United States 116th Congress House Resolution 5 – Equality Act (U.S.House, 2019). The Human Rights Campaign estimates that approximately forty-six percent of American LGBT workers remain closeted in the workplace. One in five LGBT workers gets harassed by coworkers for their appearance. Forty-three percent overhear degrading jokes or comments about LGBT people from coworkers, and thirty-one percent express unhappiness and depression resulting from their workplace (Kozuch, 2018).
Working within the LGBT community poses numerous challenges. Unlike,e other marginalized communities, the LGBT community spans all walks of life, all cultures, and all belief systems, but not afforded the same level of federal protections from discrimination. Many states and the United States Federal Government openly oppose protections in the workplace for LGBT people, which makes career challenges and choices very difficult. Some states and localities may provide protections to LGBT employees, but they still encounter situations that make going to work or school extremely stressful. These stressors exacerbate already high levels of anxiety and depression, sometimes to the extent that the employee has to leave his or her employment for health reasons. A therapist working with this population should take care to understand the history of the community, the discrimination and hate LGBT people face daily, and provide a safe and comforting therapeutic environment where the client can be open about his or her experiences.
Disabled Populations
People with disabilities face challenges that many other people do not. People using a wheelchair or assisted walking device to require proper access and accommodations for mobility. Individuals that have difficulty seeing or hearing need adequate materials designed to help them in performing daily work-related tasks. People with illness, both physical and mental, require additional personal time to seek medical attention (United States Department of Justice, 2010). An essential tool for any counselor working with clients with special needs is the National Career Development Association’s web page on Disabilities located at https://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/OLDER_interests_disabilities. This resource provides a plethora of resources that both the counselor and client can use when addressing career choices and challenges. The counselor must show empathy for the client and his or her experiences, acknowledge the client’s concerns or complaints and ensure they know you, as the therapist is there to help them navigate the emotions and thoughts he or she may have about current or future career choices. Be direct and remain emotionally-uncharged and pay close attention to phrases that could depict an offensive light on the client’s disability (Rowe, 2015).
Ethical Practice
At the core of every therapeutic practice lies a set of codes of conduct from various associations and states. California Board of Behavioral Sciences is the licensing body for all professional clinical counselors, educational psychology, clinical social work, and marriage and family therapy. However, additional code of ethics resides with the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, The American Psychological Association, and in the case of career counseling, the National Career Development Association. Although these many different codes of ethics may seem overwhelming to some, a closer glance at the documentation relays a constant and theme of practical guidelines developed to protect the client and therapist.
Working as a therapist requires that one know, understand, and acknowledge that ethical guidelines are in place to ensure the therapist has checks and balances, but to defend and protect the integrity of the industry. Working with clients in career counseling employs various assessments that a therapist must evaluate in a non-bias manner and qualified manner. Failure to do so poses tremendous harm to the outcome of the therapeutic alliance and client outcomes. Additionally, social cognitive career counseling, just like any other form of therapy requires the therapist only to provide services he or she is qualified. Maintaining therapeutic records, including therapy notes, session details, and assessments, is another area of practice that a career counselor or any therapist must take every precaution to secure at every level. Avoiding dual relationships is vital to ensure the client and therapist do not engage in any activities outside the therapeutic relationship that could result as unethical or harmful to the client or place the therapist in question. A counselor must always acknowledge his or her biases and be willing to engage in a process to address them as not to bring harm to the client.
Career counselors should be aware that the individual is not just a career. The client is a complete package that includes personal successes and failures, relationships, potential physical and mental dysfunctions, feelings of happiness and sadness that combined provide a comprehensive picture of why the client is seeking help. Failure to recognize this component and treat only the career aspects of the client’s life only leads to the client experiencing more harm, and the dissolution of any hope of a strong therapeutic alliance. The client’s autonomy is critical. The therapist should strive always to foster the client’s right to control his or her life by making thoughtful decisions (National Career Development Association, 2015). Therapists are not there to provide answers or manage the client’s decisions. The therapist is to help the client find his or her solutions to the presenting problems in an objective manner, and work for the better good of the client (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, 2011).
California Business and Professions Code
Section §4980 defines the practice of marriage and family therapy as services provided by a licensed marriage and family therapist unless said person is specifically exempt from that requirement. A person may not advertise as performing the services of a licensed therapist or use titles including L.M.F.T, M.F.T, or M.F.C.C. or any other reference to deliver functions he or she is not licensed (California Board of Behavioral Sciences, 2019). Section §4980.02 asserts the principles and methods applied to the practice of marriage and family therapy. These principles and techniques include providing services of applied therapeutic methods by an individual with integrated coursework and training as defined in Sections §4980.36, §4980.37, and §4980.41 (California Board of Behavioral Services, 2019).
National Career Development Association
The national career development association code of ethics provide ethical guidelines on general principles, ethical guidelines, the therapeutic relationship, standards for study, measurement, research, and evaluation. Also, there is an extensive section focused on multi-cultural career counseling to ensure therapists require the appropriate training to develop competencies needed to practice ethically (National Career Development Association, 2015). The code of ethics provided by the NCDA helps define the professional behavior of therapists and strives to add protection for the public, the profession, and those who practice. In short, the code of ethics is a resource and a guide for therapists choosing to enter the field of career counseling and provides therapists with a broad range of principles to suit various situations and settings (National Career Development Association, 2015).
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Because career counselors get initially licensed as marriage and family therapists or professional clinical counselors, the code of ethics from CAMFT applies heavily. Concerning the field, the CAMFT defines the practice of marriage and family therapy as an art and a science that varies in approach, modality, and process of delivery. The code of ethics provides a comprehensive set of guidelines developed to ensure therapists adhere to ethics and principles that complement the profession and protect the client and practitioner. These ethical codes assert that ethical behavior defines a set of recognized norms that must satisfy the therapist and his or her peers (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, 2011).
Conclusion
The art of career counseling does incorporate specific theories developed to satisfy this specialized field. However, not all presenting issues a career counselor will encounter align with career counseling theory. When one looks at issues like a retired person needing a part-time job to supplement income, or to feel useful, or a person moving to a new location because his or her spouse or life-partner received an offer that was too good to pass up, it is easy to see that traditional methods apply. Working with clients experiencing career-related difficulties requires the same dedication to ethical practice, empathy, and the building of the therapeutic alliance, just like any other. Cultural competence and understanding of marginalized and disabled populations are crucial to the practice. If career counseling is the chosen field, apply the ethical guidelines and professional codes needed to be a successful therapist because the person you help today, most likely seeks to decide on what to do for the rest of their life.
References
American Job Network. (n.d.). Work Importance Profiler. Retrieved from https://informationanthology.net/CareerMentor/Discovery/Ability-Profiler/WIP.html
Anderson, D. (2019, April 08). What You Need to Know: President Trump’s Ban on Transgender Service Members. Retrieved from https://www.glaad.org/blog/what-you-need-know-president-trumps-ban-transgender-service-members
Arthur, N., & Mcmahon, M. (2005). Multicultural Career Counseling: Theoretical Applications of the Systems Theory Framework. The Career Development Quarterly,53(3), 208-222. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2005.tb00991.x
California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. (2011). Code of Ethics.
https://www.camft.org/images/PDFs/CodeOfEthics.pdf
California Board of Behavioral Sciences. (2019). Statutes And Regulations Relating To The Practice Of: Professional Clinical Counseling, Marriage And Family Therapy, Educational Psychology, Clinical Social Work[PDF].
https://www.bbs.ca.gov/pdf/publications/lawsregs.pdf
Chan, C. D. (2019). BROADENING THE SCOPE OF AFFIRMATIVE PRACTICES FOR LGBTQ COMMUNITIES IN CAREER SERVICES: APPLICATIONS FROM A SYSTEMS THEORY FRAMEWORK. Career Development Network Journal,(35), 1st ser., 6-21. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=ssf&AN=136556988&site=eds-live
