Career Development
What this domain tests
Career development theories, the constructs that distinguish them, and the appropriate use of interest and values inventories in decision-making.
Core theories
- Trait-and-factor (Parsons, Williamson): match person traits to occupational requirements.
- Holland's RIASEC hexagon: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional. Consistency = closeness of the two highest codes on the hexagon (adjacent = high, opposite such as R-S or A-C = low). Differentiation = how sharply peaked the profile is. Congruence = fit between the person's code and the work environment. Identity = clarity of one's goals and interests.
- Super's life-span, life-space theory: growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, disengagement; career is the implementation of self-concept; life roles (child, student, worker, citizen, homemaker, leisurite) appear in the career rainbow.
- Gottfredson's circumscription and compromise: children narrow options by size and power, then sex-role norms, then social class and prestige. In compromise, people give up prestige first, then sex type, then field/interest.
- Krumboltz's social learning theory and planned happenstance; Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, Brown, Hackett): self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals; CIP/CASVE cycle (Peterson, Sampson, Reardon).
- Tools: Strong Interest Inventory, Self-Directed Search, O*NET (which replaced the DOT).
Worked example
A client's top code is Artistic, but her family pressures her toward medicine. Reasoning: use Gottfredson to name the compromise she is facing, use Holland to check differentiation and consistency, and explore values rather than overriding her data with prestige.
Traps that cost marks
- Using consistency, differentiation, and congruence interchangeably.
- Treating interest inventories as ability or aptitude measures.
- Confusing Super's stages with Holland's constructs.
- Forgetting O*NET superseded the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.