The noted career development theorist, Donald Super, holds the following general tenets regarding the development of careers over a person's life span:
1. People differ in their abilities, interests, and personalities.
2. Each person is qualified for a number of occupations.
3. Each occupation requires characteristic patterns of abilities, interests, and personality traits (wide tolerance).
4. Vocational preferences and competencies change as person’s self-concept changes with time and experience, making career choice and adjustment a continuous process.
5. Vocational choices and adjustments may be summed up in terms of career life stages.
6. The nature of career patterns are determined by socioeconomic level, mental ability, personality, and opportunities.
7. Development through life/career stages
can be guided by facilitating the maturation of
abilities and interests,
reality testing, and the development of self-concept.
8. The process of vocational development is essentially that of developing and implementing the self-concept. It is a compromise process between inherited characteristics, opportunities, and feedback on roles.
9. The process of compromise between individual and social factors and between self- concept and reality is one of
role playing in the form of fantasy, part-time, or temporary jobs.
10. Work satisfaction depends
on the extent to which an individual finds adequate
out- lets for interests, abilities,
personality traits, and values. It depends on getting established in a type of work, work situations, and lifestyle
in which a worker can play the
kinds of roles she/he considers congenial and appropriate.
External links on Donald Super's
Career Development Theory: http://192.197.77.131/eng/lrncentr/online/career/theorists.htm http://www.careernet.state.md.us/careertheory.htm http://192.197.77.131/eng/lrncentr/online/career/discovering.html |