A Context-Rich Perspective of Career Exploration Across the Life Roles

Building on the recent contributions of Donald Super (e.g., 1980), this article presents a broadened lens with which to view theory, research, and practice in career exploration. Super's contributions on career adaptability and the life-career rainbow (e.g., Super, 1990; Super & Knasel, 1981) were applied to current areas of ambiguity in the career exploration literature, yielding potentially useful ideas about the antecedents and consequences of career exploration. Based on an integrative analysis guided by Super's recent contributions and related conceptual innovations, a context-rich perspective is proposed to broaden the attentional focus of discourse about career exploration. The article discusses the theoretical implications of the context-rich view and provides suggestions for counseling practice.     

Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development—2004

This article reviews professional literature published in 2004 related to career counseling and career development. The literature is divided into 4 broad areas: professional issues, career theory and concepts, career interventions and practice, and career assessment and technology. The authors summarize and discuss the implications of the findings for career counseling practice and research.     

Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development—2005

This article reviews professional literature published in 2005 related to career counseling and career development. The literature is divided into 4 broad areas: professional issues, career theory and concepts, career interventions and practice, and career assessment and technology. The authors summarize and discuss the implications of the findings for career counseling practice and research.     

A Comparison of the Effect of Two Computer-Based Counseling Interventions on the Career Decidedness of Adults

This article describes two computer-based career counseling interventions provided for adults who are auto workers in career transition. It was found that these workers can increase their level of career decidedness and make progress in their commitment to occupational choice through the use of a computer-based career counseling program. Supporting previous research, this study indicated that computer-plus-counselor intervention is more effective in this type of career counseling than the computer-only intervention.     

Career Interventions for Gay and Lesbian Clients: A Synopsis of Practice Knowledge and Research Needs

This article provides a comprehensive review of the professional literature on career counseling interventions with gay and lesbian clients. It summarizes the practice knowledge gleaned from that literature and makes recommendations on what research needs to be conducted to establish the area of gay and lesbian career development in the published research literature.     

The Inseparability of “Career” and “Personal” Counseling

In this article it is argued that “career” and “personal” counseling should not be viewed as different types of counseling because: (a) the holistic philosophy of counseling emphasizes helping “whole” persons whose lives contain many important and meaningful roles; (b) recent research on the implications of gender and race for career development further demonstrates the inseparability of our career and “personal” lives; and (c) there are numerous commonalities in the “career” and “personal” counseling process.     

Variables Affecting Readiness to Benefit From Career Interventions

This article identifies and briefly describes the broad range of variables that may influence clients’ readiness to benefit from career interventions. The article also discusses consequences of low readiness for effective use of career interventions and addresses implications for practice as well as for future research. Variables contributing to low readiness for effective use of career interventions include personal characteristics and circumstances; knowledge of self, options, and decision making; and prior experience with career interventions. Consequences of low readiness for using career interventions include premature disengagement, negative perception of skills and interests, selective acquisition of incomplete information, premature choice foreclosure, protracted exploration, dependent decision‐making style, and poor evaluation of options.     

Career Counseling in a Volatile Job Market: Tiedeman's Perspective Revisited

This article explores implications of Tiedeman's original theory for career counselors. Some components of the theory seem to be compatible with existing volatile job market conditions. Notions of career path recycling, development in reverse, nonlinear progress, and parallel streams in career development are explored. Suggestions are made for counseling interventions and future research using this perspective.     

Individualized Career Counseling Outcome Assessment: A Case Study Using the Personal Questionnaire

Career counseling has evolved to include practices that attribute a central importance to context variables and meaning‐making processes. Accordingly, there is a need for client assessment tools that consider the subjectivity and cultural specificity of clients and the interface between their work and life concerns. The idiographic assessment of outcomes, which uses individualized measures that involve clients in the definition of person‐specific items, is a promising approach. This article explores the use of the Personal Questionnaire (PQ) as an individualized outcome measure that complements standardized outcome career measures. The authors identify the factors leading to the emergence of idiographic assessment in career counseling, review existing research relevant to the need for the PQ, and present a case study of career construction counseling that illustrates how the PQ helps counselors to obtain sensitive and contextualized assessments of career counseling outcomes, guides interventions, and facilitates meaning making.     

From Colonialism to Ultranationalism: History and Development of Career Counseling in Malaysia

This article documents the development of career counseling in Malaysia from 1957—when the British colonizers departed—to 2000. Although counseling, psychology, and psychiatry had their roots in mental health and medical environments, career counseling had its origins in the system of schooling and has now spread widely to business and industry. This article presents information on the historic and economic context of the development of career counseling, an exploration of the educational system from which career counseling was born, the cultural elements that have formed career counseling in the Malaysian context, and the application of M. Pope's (1995, 2000) stage development model to the development of career counseling in the Malaysian context.     

Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development—2003

This annual review of the research and practice literature related to career counseling and development published during 2003 is presented in 6 major areas: professional issues, career assessment, career development, career theory, career interventions, and technology. The authors discuss the implications of the findings in this literature for career counseling practice.     

Annual Review: Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development, 1988

This review of the 1988 literature on career development and counseling addresses career development theories and their application, career intervention, career exploration motives and constraints, and problems in career decision making. Emphasis was given to conceptual contributions that offered new perspectives on career choice and development, research reports that stated specific implications for practice, and articles that described counseling methods or other career services.     

Practice and Research in Career Counseling and Development—2001

This article is a summary of the literature published in 2001 related to career counseling and career development. The review is designed to provide information to both career practitioners and researchers, with the focus on integration of practice and research. This summary of literature is organized around 5 primary areas: (a) career development, (b) career and vocational theories, (c) career interventions, (d) career assessment, and (e) professional issues. Within the framework of this review, attention is also given to contextual factors including gender, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, and nationality.     

Toward a More Complex View of Career Exploration

This article examines the concept of career exploration in adult populations. In contrast to the prevailing positive view of career exploration, the authors present a more complex and balanced perspective of this process, addressing some of the barriers to career exploration and the applicability of this concept to different populations. They examine differences between voluntary exploration and forced or chance exploration, discuss how relationships may be barriers to exploration, consider various outcomes of career explorations, and call for a more holistic view of the individual in career counseling.     

The Legacy of Parsons: Career Counselors and Vocational Psychologists as Agents of Social Change

The commitment to social change demonstrated by the founder of vocational psychology, Frank Parsons, continues in several areas of vocational psychology today, including individual career counseling, guidance work in the schools, career interventions with special populations, and vocational research. This article highlights ways in which career counselors and vocational psychologists have focused and can continue to focus their practice and research to improve the condition of society and to provide interventions that enhance the ability of all individuals to love and to work in a meaningful way.     

Culturally Appropriate Career Counseling With Gay and Lesbian Clients

This article details the current knowledge regarding the provision of culturally appropriate career services to gay and lesbian clients. It is divided into 5 parts: history and context for the delivery of career counseling services to gay and lesbian clients, counselor self‐preparation for working with gay and lesbian clients, client‐focused interventions useful for counseling with gay and lesbian clients, program‐focused interventions useful for addressing the special issues that this group presents, and appropriate advocacy or social action interventions. Issues of multiple cultural identities and the intersection of lesbian and gay issues with race and ethnicity are also addressed.     

The college student-athlete: psychological considerations and interventions

This article reviews the literature dealing with problems brought by student-athletes to college counseling and mental health centers. Among the issues discussed are fear of success; identity conflict; social isolation; poor athletic performance; academic problems; and career or vocational concerns. In addition, the authors examine the paradox that although athletes experience as much or more psychological distress as nonathletes, research indicates that athletes use professional services less often than nonathletes. Finally, the authors review approaches to psychological intervention, including short-term psychotherapy, very brief interventions, cognitive behavioral therapy, and career/vocational counseling, and discuss special considerations for conducting therapy with athletes.     

Mindfulness and Decision‐Making Style: Predicting Career Thoughts and Vocational Identity

Mindfulness has been a focus of psychological research and practice in recent decades. Yet, there is limited research on the relationship between mindfulness and vocational decision‐making. This study’s purpose was to examine the role of mindfulness in a career context by investigating the relationships among mindfulness, decision‐making style, negative career thoughts, and vocational identity. The sample included 258 undergraduate students (204 women, 54 men) at a large southeastern U.S. university. Mindfulness was significantly (p < .01) associated with fewer negative career thoughts, external and thinking‐based decision‐making styles, and higher vocational identity. Multiple regression procedures found that mindfulness, coupled with decision‐making style, accounted for 31% of the variance in negative career thoughts and 22% of the variance in vocational identity. These findings suggest that more holistic career counseling interventions could incorporate mindfulness techniques to help reduce anxiety and negative thoughts while increasing self‐clarity and problem‐solving skills. Future research could include more diverse samples, additional constructs (e.g., choice volition, self‐efficacy), and a pretest–posttest design to examine the efficacy of mindfulness‐based career interventions.