Much of the vocational counseling being done is geared to the first type-aiding a client with a specific decision. The client is provided information about his interests and abilities with the use of tests, as well as information about the world of work from the counselor's experience and occupational information sources; then the decision is made by matching man and job. This type of counseling is most often the focus of our present training programs which stress courses in testing and occupational information. The client is helped with his decision, but he may need to return to the counselor when he is again confronted by a difficult choice situation. This focus, while appropriate where short-term crisis counseling of a vocational nature is needed, may be of value only in the short-run situation. The following example is illustrative of Type 1 counseling.
Steve, a college freshman, came to the counseling center because he was not sure whether he was "in the right field." Since all freshmen were required to declare a major, he had chosen history because this had been one of his best courses in high school. The counselor administered and interpreted interest tests to Steve, and encouraged him to seek information from the occupational information files and to talk with faculty members in the areas of his highest interest. In addition, the counselor provided Steve with information about the results of his entrance examination scores. On the basis of the interest test and the information he obtained about specific areas, Steve decided to change his major to business.
Type 2
Counseling of the second type focuses on teaching the skills needed for making a decision, with the objective of providing the client with the ability to make the decision at hand as well as future decisions. It is evident that a decision involves much more than merely having relevant and accurate educational and occupational information; such an approach focuses on factors external to the individual and ignores the processes within the individual. As Thoresen and Mehrens (1967) point out, the individual needs much more than the facts to make a wise decision; he needs assistance in acquiring an effective way to approach decision-making problems. They propose that some of the key concepts from decision theory provide an excellent framework for analyzing, organizing, and synthesizing information in order to make good decisions. Two such concepts are (1) the utility value or desirability of the outcome of the alternatives and (2) the probabilities of these outcomes.
Thus, Type 2 counseling should focus on helping the client understand the factors involved in making a choice or decision. Before the individual can approach a decision, he must first clearly understand the range of alternatives available to him. He must then think through and understand what each of the various alternatives would offer him. He must also make some judgments about the utility value or the desirability of these outcomes for him. In addition, he must be concerned about his chances of success if he chooses a particular direction. This may be further complicated by possible discrepancies between what the individual himself thinks and feels his chances of success are (subjective probabilities) and the predictions of success which emanate from tests and expectancy tables (objective probabilities). Thus, vocational counseling of Type 2 will focus on much more than merely providing information. It will focus on important variables in the decision-making process with the objective of teaching decision-making skills.
The case of Dorothy provides an example of Type 2 counseling. She was a college junior who was one of a few women admitted to a difficult medical program. She came for counseling because she was not sure she wanted to continue. She valued the profession toward which the program led, had publicly committed herself to it, and felt that she could complete the program. All objective information available (tests, grades, etc.) indicated that it was most likely that she could successfully complete the required coursework. Yet, she felt that the work demanded so much of her that she was becoming defeminized and deprived of a social life.
The focus of counseling was to help Dorothy understand the variables involved in her decision and to consider the alternatives open to her and the desirability of the prospective outcomes. She had to struggle with her personal interest and public commitment to the program versus the negative effects she felt it was having on some important areas of her life and development. She was able to deal with her personal feelings about the program and decided to leave the medical program and take up an academic major in an allied field. The counseling helped her work through this specific decision while teaching her how to focus on the important variables in making any such decision that may arise in the future.
Type 3
Type 3 counseling recognizes the tentativeness of any decision and views the process of career development as a series of choices, not a single vocational choice. Thus, the focus changes from the objective of making the correct choice to the process of making a continual series of choices. The individual is viewed as a growing, changing, developing person who must continually evaluate old choices and make new ones. A decision is not an end in itself, but must be viewed in relationship to the alternatives it makes possible or eliminates for the future. This focus differs from Type 2 counseling in that the emphasis is on the developmental attitude or outlook required to make decisions throughout life, rather than simply on the decision-making process itself. This following case is an example.
Ron, about to finish his freshman year, could not decide whether to change his major or drop out of school and go into the service-he was dissatisfied with his school experience to date. An aggressive person and an athlete, he did not normally have difficulty making decisions. But he did view his choices as irrevocable decisions which would fix his life course. The counseling effort focused first on the factors in his decision-what seemed to be really important to him then, and what the probabilities were of getting what he wanted. Then the focus shifted to examining this choice point in the perspective of his educational and vocational career. He quickly understood that what he was deciding need not be the last word in setting a direction. He later changed majors from mathematics to chemical engineering with the thought that he might go into the service a year later if he were still dissatisfied with school. He could finish his education afterward.
Type 4
The term career process has been suggested as a more adequate concept than vocational choice. Career process is defined as the continuing process through which a person engages in the developmental tasks necessary for personal growth in occupational life (Ivey and Morrill, 1968).
In career process counseling, the psychologist or counselor is concerned with identifying the individual's developmental competencies and inadequacies and helping him select and work through appropriate tasks leading to greater self-direction. The focus of career process counseling thus becomes not only making the individual capable of a series of choices but also creating in the individual the ability to utilize his own strengths to achieve self-determined objectives and to profit and grow personally from vocational experience. Type 3 counseling recognizes that the individual is engaged in a developing process, but there the focus is on adjustive or adaptive responses through intelligent decision-making. Type 4, however, focuses on the individual as an active agent engaged in developmental tasks and having an impact on, as well as reaction to, his vocational experience. Many people approach life with a view of themselves as pawns, powerless to effect their future and the nature of the choices and alternatives open to them. Their efforts are to adjust and accommodate rather than to effect and influence. They see themselves as being acted upon by their environment rather than acting upon it.
Recent work on an innovative approach to vocational counseling places emphasis on personal responsibility in the individual's mediation of occupational facts or data. A related concept which is important in career development is that of commitment. Segal (1967), in developing a broad definition of work, defines commitment as an ability or attitude that allows a person to utilize his personal attributes toward self-determined objectives. It is related to Erikson's (1963) developmental tasks of autonomy, initiative, industry, and identity. Traditional vocational counseling deals with the concept of commitment by exploring the attributes of the individual which are utilized in commitment, such as capabilities, needs, and interests, and then relating these to a specific goal. However, commitment is not something that is achieved or completed. As Tiedeman (1967) points out, development requires commitment with tentativeness. Career process counseling recognizes both commitment and change as being central for the individual who is to profit and grow personally from vocational experience, and who is to be the key force in determining his future. The focus is to provide the individual with the view of himself as having the "power" to make a commitment and to influence and create his future.
