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6                      The Psychology of Guidance

 

Overview - psychology may be considered as a vital source of  theories related to vocational choice, human development and models of guidance.   It may offer explanations as to why people select certain jobs or life choices, which career choice selections are likely to be sources of happiness to them and what models of guidance are likely to prove effective.   It should be noted - and this will be considered - that psychology is not without its rivals in other disciplines.

 

          Psychology has been described as -  among other things - as the science of mental life, how people think and behave and the interactions between one individual and others.  This variation of definitions (by no means exhaustive) is at least in part a reflection of the different theories in psychology, to be described shortly.

 

          Psychology itself is a broad discipline.  Cognitive psychology, for example, covers areas such as memory and  perception, with impacts on everyday life in areas as diverse as the credibility of eyewitness testimony and the effects of advertising.   Other areas include occupational psychology (pertaining to the world of work and including careers counselling), educational psychology, social psychology (the behaviour of people in groups) and developmental psychology (the progress of adults as well as children).   At various points, these domains of psychology have a bearing on careers guidance: they investigate - amongst other things - the efficacy of careers interventions, effectiveness of different types of teaching, how social influences affect individuals and the likely predictive ability of different models of guidance.

 

          Before discussing models of guidance, it may be helpful to look briefly at different assumptions of the nature of human beings.  Each of the theories, it should be noted, is a different way of looking at the human condition; reality, of course, tends to resemble a blend of these.

 

 

Mainstream theories within psychology - there are three main traditions within psychology.  

 

          The psychodynamic tradition is most famously represented by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.   Freud represented the human mind as in perpetual conflict between three internal if figurative entities.  These are the  id (essentially, the biological being with its uncontrolled needs and desires), the superego (moral conscience) and the ego (the more calculating side of the mind, trying to reconcile the other two contenders). Such a way of interpreting thoughts and, more characteristically feelings, particularly concentrates upon factors such as guilt and the repression and rechannelling of uncomfortable desires.   Freud sees early relationships between an infant and its parents as crucial to future development;  love and hostility lead to stages through which a child may pass successfully or become 'fixated'.  These preoccupations become those which may become repressed (apparently pushed beneath consciousness) or rechannelled into other 'drives' such as competitiveness.    This way of thinking - which has been very briefly described here - led to attempts at psychoanalysis, where the patient is encouraged to bring to consciousness those factors which have become buried.

Psychotherapy and the interpretation of dreams were methods developed for this purpose.   Other psychodynamic thinkers include Jung, Adler, Bern (see bibliography) and Erikson (see developmental section).

 

 

          Behaviourism - as with psychodynamic theory, this tradition has more than one major thinker.  Perhaps the most influential, however, B. F. Skinner, suggested that theory should be ignored.  Essentially, behaviourism is a scientific perspective of psychology, relying on experimental results for its body of knowledge.   Although defining human behaviour as the combination of the biological organism and the environment, behaviourism takes the environment as the factor to concentrate on.

 

          One behaviourist, J. B. Watson, specified association  as the most influential environment.   People's attitudes to things and other individuals are coloured by their past experiences; if, for example, a child is fond of its father and his father displays racist attitudes, such attitudes are likely to be viewed in a positive way.  Such ideas are supported by the findings of the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who discovered that dogs would automatically salivate when hearing a bell which was normally accompanied by food; they learned by association.  The findings of Watson and Pavlov led to theories of conditioning. 

 

          Skinner, famous for his work with rats and other animals, developed a theory of reinforcement.  Essentially, behaviour becomes more frequent when reinforced by positive consequences.  It may also be reduced by unpleasant consequences or even a lack of consequences or attention.

 

          Watson agrees with Freud about the importance of early childhood on development, although concentrates on environmental stimuli (e.g. parenting) rather than conflicts within relationships.  Skinner also suggests that external   factors continue to influence people both in the immediate present and over accumulated experience ('the history of reinforcement').

 

         

Therapies arising from behaviourism include flooding, systematic desensitisation, behaviour modification and other means of tackling people by coping with behaviour.  A gradual melding with cognitive theories have led to a various highly effective therapies used - often in combination with drugs - to cope with depression, anxiety and other psychological problems (the work of Aaron Beck is of great relevance here).    

 

          Humanism, instead of focusing on biological or environmental influences on individuals, stresses the ability of human beings to make their own choices and to take responsibility for their own lives.

 

          George Kelly (1955) for example, suggests that each of us has our own set of theories about the world, constructs.  Each human learns different lessons from life and construes the world in a particular way.   Individuals are encouraged to discover their way of thinking about the world as a way to challenge less effective ways of coping (Bern, 1974, brings a similar approach to bear in his consideration of people's adoption of scripts). 

 

          The more famous Carl Rogers, proponent of client-centred counselling, also stresses the ability of a person both to  construct reality and to make conscious and responsible decisions.   His approach centres on the emotional and the immediate; embodied within the approach are practical skills which are widely applied in guidance and in counselling.

 

          Rogerian techniques emphasise listening to the client with empathy, transparency/congruence (Rogers, 1961), and 'unconditional positive regard'.  Essentially, the therapist tries to understand the other person's viewpoint, act clearly and honestly and also behave acceptingly and warmly to the client in all circumstances.   (Masson, 1992, considers these to be irreconcilable attitudes.)    As with psychotherapeutic models, Rogers' approach, the origin of mainstream counselling, attempts to raise self-consciousness, using questioning and challenging techniques. Such technques have been developed in such 'process' models as Egan's 'skilled helper' (1998).

 

 

Human development - the awkward question.

 

          Although the three primary perspectives have direct influences on types of counselling and psychotherapy, the division may owe more to the history of psychology than to any fundamental, comprehensive or systematic coverage of the subject.  Although one may view psychoanalysis as primarily a study (albeit unscientific) of the biological human entity, behaviourism as an environmental focus and humanism as the pre-eminence of the human will, none of the proponents exclude the existence of the other factors.  George Kelly, for example, while concentrating on free will, remembers the poverty of the Oklahoma dustbowl in the Great Depression of the 1930s, which truly did blight lives and prevent progress.

 

          Similarly, various factors are omitted and questions concealed by a study of psychology split into such fragments.  Studies of personality types, for example, do not always make assumptions about the origin of traits or types.  Studies of human development are similarly not always preoccupied by the question of from whence but when and in what way.   Recent discoveries relating to the human genome have also informed us in different ways about the effects of heredity (nature as opposed to nurture).

 

          One such theory, best known by teachers, is Piaget's theory of development.  Putting it very tersely, Piaget suggests that children grow, almost like plants, in stages and spurts.  His studies of children's learning suggested that they would only be able to learn certain things when they at a stage of mental readiness for it.  A young child, for example, is unlikely to understand very abstract concepts.

 

          While Piaget is preoccupied by intellectual development, Erikson (an inheritor of the psychodynamic tradition) studies development in terms of emotional stages.   Although Piaget and Freud also describe stages of development, Erikson considers adulthood with as much gravity as child development. His analysis of life development provides food for thought for both counsellors and careers workers.

 

          Erikson (1959) describes eight stages of life, each providing a challenge (or crisis) to individuals, with positive and negative events each time leading to a range of consequences with implications for later stages.

 

1.  Sensory stage.  The infant is dependent in its first few months; this particular 'crisis' involves the learning of trust or suspicion.  In particular, the attitude of the mother may lead to a person mistrusting other people throughout life.

 

2.   Muscular development.  During toilet training, the crisis, based on successful or unsuccessful learning, leads to the development of confidence and independence, or shame and self-doubt.

 

3.  Locomotor control stage.  The child learns to move about the world, developing initiative and self-expression or becoming guilt-ridden.  It is suggested that this leads to the adult finding socially acceptable ways of expressing sexual needs or becoming guilt-obsessed.

 

4.  Latency stage, in the early school years. Self-discovery of competency or failure compared to peers lead to adult industriousness or a pervading sense of inferiority.

 

5.  Puberty stage.  Sexuality but also self identity.  The individual finds identity relating to sex, social interactions and plans for the future.  The individual must accept his or her identity or will become confused about who he/she is and about the nature of his/her role in life.

 

6.  Young adulthood.  The establishment of intimacy with another person, or failure leading to isolation.  (Marriage does not in itself mean an intimacy outcome - partners may remain psychologically isolated.)  

 

7. Adulthood.  The 'growth crisis' in the middle years determines the development of a productive useful human being or settling into a pattern of complacency and stagnation.

 

8.  Maturity is reached only by those who have successfully resolved the previous crises.  The person comes to terms with death: the person may face it with a feeling of self-worth or with despair, feeling that life has been a foolish waste.

 

          Erikson recommended 'triple book-keeping', regarding biology (determined), psychology (largely free will) and social context. His model of development, less deterministic than Freud or behaviourists, who saw  human development as largely dominated by biological and environmental control rather than free will, but little research has been undertaken to prove or disprove Erikson's ideas, which were based on his clinical work. 

 

a          As well as some similarities to Freud and Piaget, Erikson also bears a resemblance to a humanist theorist, Abraham Maslow.  Maslow suggests a Hierarchy of Needs in the progress of psychological growth. 

a= self actualisation

 

b= esteem

 

c= belongingness

 

d= safety

 

e= physiological

 
         

b
c
d
e
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Each level needs to be satisfied before the next need can be assuaged. First come physiological needs (food, drink, sex; the most primitive and obviously biological needs).  Then safety (shelter and security generally).  Belongingness; a sense of attachment to others.  Esteem: being valued and respected.  Self-actualisation: fulfilling one's potential.   This is a very popular way of analysing the self and also motivation at work. 

 

Objectivity is difficult because of Maslow's popularity at training sessions, in spite of very little research backing. The writer suggests to the reader, however, that some of these stages make little sense in their current order.   Belongingness to a group, for example, can manifest itself and indeed become strengthened by lack of safety.  Some individuals have fulfilled their potential in spite (or because) of immense deprivation; in any case, some of the biographies of great people studied by Maslow as examples of self-actualised people suggested people who were often neither likable nor personally very admirable.

 

 

         Perhaps a more meaningful study of human development, at least in terms of research backing, was conducted by Levinson in 1978, who called it The Seasons of a Man's Life. (N.b. a section on women's lives will be found later. Levinson studied 40 men between 35 and 45.  Four occupational groups were studied - biologists, industrial workers, executives and novelists - 10 from each group.   He and his colleagues interviewed them biographically, aiming to elicit life stories and then to generalise from them.   Analysing the biographies led to the researchers tending to support Levinson's views.   At the end of each era (containing the rough five year periods) comes a transition period in which the person tends to review what has gone before and to explore future possibilities.

 

 

 

early adulthood

Early adult transition

17-22 years

 

 

Entering the adult world

 

Age 30 Transition

28-33 years

 

Settling down

33-40 years

 

following a dream;

forming mentor relationships

 

developing and forming love relationships

middle adulthood

Midlife Transition

40-45 years

 

Entering middle adulthood

45-50 years

 

Age 50 Transition

50-55 years

 

Culmination of middle adulthood

55-60 years

review; revise; individuation

late adulthood

Late adult Transition

60-65 years

 

coming to terms with being old

 

 

 

 

The Dream

   An imagined possibility that provides inspiration and energy.  In Levinson's sample, the biologists' and novelists' 'dream' tended to be connected with work.  The executives' dreams tended to be more concerned with their families and social lives.  A number of the industrial workers had fantasies about exciting types of work and achievements, but depressingly, these had usually faded with the passage of time.

 

The Mentor

   The mentoring relationship is regarded by Levinson as one the most important in the early adulthood stage.  It is most frequently based in the work setting, where mentoring functions may be taken by a boss or senior colleague.  Formal or informal, with or without a position of power, the mentoring function may be as a teacher, a sponsor, a host and guide, or an exemplar for the person to emulate, or simply may offer advice and support.  The mentor is more often seen as an older brother or sister than as a parent figure; an important part of the relationship is that as the young person's skills increase, the relationship gradually becomes more equal.

 

    Edgar Schein, an American careers theorist, distinguishes between seven different types of mentoring role, giving different types of satisfaction: 

1. Teacher, coach or trainer;  teaches 'what goes on around here'

2. Positive role model;  'I learned a lot from watching them'; a good example

3. Developer of talent;  'gave me challenging work and stretched me'

4. Opener of doors;  ensures opportunities and growth-producing assignments; fights 'upstairs' for the younger person, whether or not the younger person is aware of it.

5.  Protector (mother hen); 'watched over me and protected me while I learned; I could make mistakes and learn without risking my job!)

6.  Sponsor; makes their protege 'visible', makes sure they have a 'good press' and are given exposure to higher-level people so that they will be remembered when new opportunities come along, with or without the awareness of the younger person.

7.  Successful leader; this means that his or her supporters may 'ride along on his or her coat-tails', bringing them along.

 

     The leading researcher in the area of mentoring is Kathy Kram, who considers the above roles as being divided between career  functions  -   sponsorship,   coaching, protection, exposure,  challenging work - and psychosocial functions -  role modeling,  counselling,  acceptance, confirmation, friendship.   Research suggests that a combination of the instrumental and the intimate relationship (not that intimate!) is most effective.

 

Reviewing: the develop of more appropriate aspirations and expectations; Levinson calls this process disillusionment.

 

Modifying life structure: may involve external factors such as job change, change in pattern of leisure activities, separation or divorce; or solely internal, such as a gradual change in attitudes to work or to relationships.

 

Individuation:  this follows on from one of Freud's other disciples, Jung, and is about 'confronting and integrating'  'polarities or oppositional tendencies within our being'.  Tis a wonderful thing, psychodynamic psychology!   Essentially, there are said to be polarities, feelings with opposing pulls, between being young and old, masculine and feminine, destructive and creative, and attachment and separateness.  Individuals come to terms with the paradox [apparently contradictory statement] of feeling both of each set of impulses or sensations.

 

It has been suggested in recent career development literature that one major function of the later stages of a person's working life could be devoted to the mentoring of others in the workplace.

 

Donald Super also adopts a stage theory, derived from the work of Erikson.  Individuals match their self-concepts against their pictures of known occupations within stages of Growth (0-14 years), Exploration (15-24), Establishment (25-44), Maintenance (45-64) and Decline (65+).  In his 'Life-Career Rainbow', Super attempts to bring in the variety of roles assumed by individuals in their lifetimes, as well as a variety of personal and situational determinants.  Such complexity is unlikely to be of practical use (Yost & Corbishley, 1987).  Super's self-concept theory also appears to be of greater applicability to able young people than to others less fortunate.

 

 

PUBLIC HEALTH WARNING:

STAGE THEORIES MAY BE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH.

   Whilst there may be a 'social clock' telling you that you are behind time, ahead, or about right in your career, you should not take these stages too seriously.   Otherwise, you will  make these theories correct just by paying too much attention to them.

 

           Having criticised stage theories, there are some interesting ‘stage’ analyses of phases within careers which remain independent of chronological stages.

 

 

  One example of career patterns is that of Driver (1988).

Ÿ          One type is the ‘steady state’ career, where a person selects an occupation early in life and follows it consistently; typical of professional and skilled workers.

Ÿ            Another is the ‘linear’ pattern, where a person progresses upwards in a chosen field; corporate manager s are typical here.

Ÿ          ‘Transitory’: frequent changes of employment, without stability; the pattern is found most commonly in semi-skilled and clerical occupations.

Ÿ          The ‘spiral’ career pattern is followed where a career moves from one field to another, related or otherwise.  Consultants and writer fit this pattern in particular.

 

           Another distinction is between ‘orderly’ and ‘disorderly’ careers (Wilensky, 1961).

 

           Watts (1981) gives a more specific typology of job changing.

Sequential:   previous experience or training leads to more responsible positions (e.g. worker to junior manager).

Lateral:  sideways moves, for example teaching in a similar position but in a school in another area.

Regressive: returning to a less responsible job in the same profession.

Augmenting:  experience and skills from previous work are used in a different occupation.

Recycling:  previous experience and training are more or less abandoned when starting a new occupation.

 

   Nicholson (1987) describes a ‘transition cycle’ within career tasks.  

           The first phase is preparation for a particular position.  An anticipatory socialisation takes place, where a person becomes psychologically acclimatised to the idea of the new job.  Expectations, desires and resources may be unrealistic.

           The next phase is encounter, where the individual copes and makes sense of a new situation.

           Adjustment may mean the person changing to fit the role (or, with some individuals, a moulding of the job to fit the individual), reducing lack of fit between the person and the environment (an important concept, to be discussed later).

           Stabilisation involves increasing commitment to the organisation, development of a role and influence.  This then leads back (recursion) to the preparation phase.

 

   Cycles may be interrupted by each other; and experience within one stage may have a profound effect on other stages.  Each stage may have very distinctive features.

 

 

           Schein (1978) sees the adjustment stage as one of ‘mutual discovery’ between organisation and employee.   The ‘occupational concept’ may become more focused (people, for example, who see themselves as careers advisers or counsellors may start to identify themselves with the Careers Service or a college or another specific organisation or sub-profession). 

 

   The person develops a psychological self-concept, a career anchor.  This is based on self-perceived talents and abilities based on work experiences; self-perceived motives and needs based on feedback, tests and reflection;  self-perceived attitudes and values from the norms and values developed within organisations.

 

           Schein studied business graduates and  suggested the existence of  5 career anchors:

technical-functional competence:  individuals organising their careers around this career anchor make moves by making the most of challenging opportunities.  They may often resist going into general management, preferring the acquisition of particular skills.

managerial competence:  Schein’s professional subjects of study saw this within three sub-competences: analytical competence, interpersonal competence and emotional competence. They felt most successful when taking a lot of responsibility.

security and stability:  preoccupation with stability tended to lead to regular employment in an organisation or geographical area.  They tended to allow the organisation to define how they could contribute most effectively.

creativity:  career decisions were made around the need to create a particular product, company or service.   Such individuals would like to leave their mark on whatever they did.  Leading edge, they would move on to a new task, rather than perform ‘maintenance’ functions.

autonomy and independence:  finding through experience that they could not work for large organisations, people would become autonomous as university teachers or freelance workers. They would choose and maintain specific lifestyles and the manner in which they worked.

 

 

 


A brief discussion of women's career development.

 

  Levinson's 'The Seasons of a Man's Life'  only covered men.  To be fair, he is intending to publish an account of studies into women's development;  the joke around the ivory towers is that he is going to give it the imaginative title of 'The Seasons of a Woman's Life'.

 

   In contrasting women with men in this area, we need to make an important distinction about what we are looking at: between your biological life, your working life, and your career.   The middle of your life is obviously not the same as the middle of your working life;  you may also change direction in your working life and have more than one career. 

 

   As an example, my own age (as of December, 1999) is 42.  I'm between a third and half way through my working life (assuming working from late teens to a bit under 70).  I've finished my career as a residential worker, have also had a brief career as a lecturer, and am in an early stage of a third career as an occupational psychologist, careers adviser and guidance tutor. (PS: 2008: researcher and software developer of a career test for career choice.)

 

   In this case, we can see some complexities emerging already.  The lecturing position was  based upon my previous career and also had a ‘knock-on’ effect on my third career.   (Is this the ‘spiral pattern’ career?)

 

   You may be asking, well, what's that got to do with women?   Well, there may well be different patterns of development for men and women, and the distinction between biological life, working life, and career may allow us to analyse the difference.

 

 

   As a background, I should just point out that in all but a few areas (e.g. nursing and social work), women only entered the labour market in traditionally male jobs during the world wars; this was particularly pronounced in 1939-45 because of the demands of what became a 'total war' between the Allies and the forces of the Axis (Hitler's Nazi Germany, Japan, and Fascist Italy).  On the return to peacetime, there was still pressure - even if not overt - to give way to the men returning from the war.

 

 

   Towards the 1970s and 1980s, there was an apparent change of climate.  The rise of feminism meant at least lip-service to equal opportunities for women; although there may have been general concern about equality,. concern may also have arisen out of  politicians desire to placate 50% of the electorate!    An increase in the proportion of women in the British workforce was accompanied by the Equal Pay Act of 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975.   Recent studies have even suggested that employers may now prefer female employees; this may because of the current trend towards part-timers as more flexible and cheaper to employ.

 

   Why is there this correlation between part-time work and gender?   Clearly, many women find this a way of combining work\career with domestic commitments.   This difference, both in terms of  full- and part-time work, and related to a continued child care expectation, may lead to a different career pattern for many women.

 

 The fact of pregnancy is crucial for many women, with a profound effect on career development.  Being a part-timer in itself may mean that a person is not considered seriously as someone with a career.   In order to achieve the straightforward 'linear' career path, many women have to give up the possibility of childbearing.

 

   The other alternative is the break in career, which seems more acceptable in women than in men (in the view of some employers).  Current research suggests that either women stop to raise children in their mid 20s and resume their careers in their mid 30s; others typically build up their careers in their 20s and take their career breaks in their mid 30s.

 

   It can thus be seen that men and women may have rather different career patterns.  One researcher, Super sees career stages, periods of growth (0-14), exploration (15-24), establishment (25-44), maintenance (45-64), and decline (65+).   This may be the case for men, but women may have to explore more than once (i.e. a second career, or the beginning of a 'new work-life'), establish themselves all over again.  The good news, according to one survey, is that while senior female executives may rise more slowly, they tend to 'burn slowly', i.e. stay at the top for longer (the number of very senior female managers is very low, however).   The bad news is unequal pay.

    

   Ornstein  and Isabella in 1990 produced a survey of women's attitudes to their careers which was supportive of Levinson's stage-based approach but not Super's stages (exploration, establishment, maintenance and decline).  They suggested that Super's model was not representative of women's non-linear careers (not travelling in a straight line).

 

   One researcher into women's careers is Joan Gallos.  Gallos considers that women may tend to have a different set of  values.    Attachments are more significant to women than to men.  Men are more likely to lack close working relationships or may consider it more reasonable to have a linear single-minded approach to careers.

 

   The settling down period of the second adult phase (age 30 to 40) is a time for investing more heavily in  work by men.  'Becoming one's own woman requires more than this, as the biological clock ticks loudly.   Careers may go on hold. 

 

     Middle adulthood (age 40 to 50) is a traditional time  of increased assertiveness for women, who now have social permission to work.  They may also have the edge over their male counterparts in terms of physical health,  well-being and prospects for the future.

 

   Age 50 and over: acknowledging mortality, enjoying the time left, and preparing for death.  For women, it may also be a time for significant career accomplishment, being less likely to feel obliged to foster a spouse's career (who may have suffered a heart attack, retired or died).

 

   Sekaran and Hall in 1989 discussed 'asynchronism' in career and lifestyle 'timetables'.  Superimposing the different male and female development patterns, as discussed by Gallos (above), they noted sequential and simultaneous types of family adjustment.  The sequential pattern may mean motherhood-follows-employment, or employment follows motherhood.  The simultaneous model includes four stages:

 

   The pre-launching stage: women may here feel greatest mastery.

 

   The young parenthood stage: children under six and the parents feel the greatest strain.  The parent curtailing (cutting short) their career may do so because of the organisation frowning on males 'not taking their career seriously', or other gender issues; or which employer is most flexible, or which person is less psychologically involved in their job, or who earns less money.  The slower career gets out of sync with the organisation's timetable and the partner's career.

 

   Mature parenthood: roles may start to reverse, as the home-keeper gets more career-oriented, whilst careerist starts to value domesticity more.  May feel out of sync with each other.

 

   The empty nest stage:  the old home-keeper may feel more energetic, as freed from old obligations; the career may be late but not slow.  The other may be in a period of career maintenance or decline.  "Women become more independent, more aggressive, less sentimental, and more car eer-oriented at this life stage."

 

   Sekaran and Hall suggest that the couple should be the unit of study rather than the career of the individual, and that we should view 'success' more widely than merely in terms of hierarchical advancement (the 'career ladder')

 

   The Industrial Relations Unit of Warwick University in the early 1990s produced the following observations.

 

1. About 2.2 million of the 3 million rise in employment between March 1983 and June 1990 was accounted for by the growth of the female workforce.

 

2. This development was bound up with the shift from full-time to part-time employment.  In 1981, 42% of female workers were part-timers, whereas only 6% of male employees worked part time. By 1992 the figures were 46% and 11% respectively.

 

3. The rise in the proportion of employment provided by part-time jobs raises several issues.  What are the consequences for career structures, systems and expectations? And are the consequences of part-time employment likely to prove economically dysfunctional for society as a whole?  (Many part time jobs will be below the threshold for national insurance and tax.)

 

4. The 1993 Labour Force Survey showed that occupational differences between men and women persist.  Women constituted the bulk of employees in clerical occupations, personal services and sales, but men dominated all other occupations.

 

 

5.  By 2001, women are expected to comprise 45% of the labour force (Employment Gazette, 1992).

 

6.  Between 1991 and 2000, 1.7 million extra managerial, professional and associate professional and technical jobs are expected to be created.  Of these, more than a million are expected to be taken up by women (Institute of Employment Research, Warwick).

 

 

 Do we need separate careers theories for women?   Joan Gallos comments that 'theories provide the lenses that focus our perceptions and understandings of the world around us and frame the things we see and choose not to see'.  A theory originally developed with mainly one gender in mind is bound to blinker our view.

 

 

Bibliography relating to human development.

 

Arthur, M.B., Hall, D.T. and Lawrence, B.S. (1989) Handbook of Career Theory.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Berne, E. (1964) Games People Play.  London: Penguin.

 

Berne, E. (1974) What Do You Say After You Say Hello? London: Corgi.  

 

Driver, M.J.(1988) Careers: A review of personal and organizational research.  In C.L. Cooper and I. Robertson (eds.) International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.  London: Wiley.

 

Erikson, E.A. (1959) Identity and the life-cycle.  Psychological Issues, 1, 1-171.

 

Gallos, J.V. (1989)  Exploring women's development: implications for career theory, practice and research.  In Arthur et al.

 

Hall, D.T. and Associates (1988)  Career Development in Organizations.  London: Jossey-Bass.

 

Kelly, G.A. (1955) A Theory of Personality. London: Norton.

 

Levinson, D.J., Darrow, D.N., Klein, E.B., Levinson, M.H. and McKee, B. (1978).  The Seasons of a Man's Life.  New York: A.A. Knopf.

 

Kram, K.E. (1988) Mentoring in the Workplace. In Hall.

 

Masson, J. (1992) Against Therapy.  London: Harper-Collins.

 

Nicholson, N. (1987) Work role transitions.  In P.B. Warr (ed.) Psychology at Work (3rd edition). Harmondsworth: Penguin.

 

Ornstein, S. and Isabella, L. (1990)  Age vs stage models of career attitudes of women: a partial replication and extension.  Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 36, 1-19.

 

Rogers, C. (1961) On Becoming a Person.  London: Constable.

 

Schein, E.H. (1978)  Career Dynamics: Matching Individual And Organizational Needs.  London: Addison-Wesley.  

 

Sekaran, U. and Hall, D.T. (1989)  Asynchronism in dual-career and family linkages.  In Arthur et al.

 

Super, D.E. (1981) Approaches to occupational choice and career development.  In A.G. Watts (1981).

 

Watts, A.G., Super, D.E. and Kidd, J.M.(1981) Career Development in Britain.  Cambridge: Hobsons Press.

 

Wilensky, H.L. (1961) Orderly careers and social participation: the impact of work history on social integration in the middle mass.  American Sociological Review, 26.

 

Yost, E.B. & Corbishley, M.A. (1987)  Career Counseling: A Psychological Approach.   San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

 


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