Research Paper on Career Counseling

The Definition of Career and Discussion of Feldman, Hall, and Mirvas' Perception of Career

Career is defined as positions and activities involved in occupations, jobs, and vocations as well as those activities that are linked to a person's lifetime of work. Mirvas and Hal suggest a career should reflect a more recent role of flexibility needed for modern workers. They suggest that "protean career" entails idiosyncratic and flexible career course, exhibiting occasional valleys and peaks, left turns, and moves from a single line of work to the next (Zunker, 2016).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

On the other hand, Feldman notes that most blue-collar and poor workers view their environment to be constrained, which has very limited potential for acquiring a job. Feldman pinpoints that a counselor provides encouragement as well as offering enlightenment on self-development perspective through the acquisition of trades' new skills as well as advancement basic skills.

Meaning of Career Coaching by Zunker Text

Career coaching refers to consultants who help workers to make optimal choices related to their careers to be in line with current dynamic corporate structures. It is imperative to note that workers who are in search of better career opportunities, experience job insecurity, or have had job loss seek the services of career coaches for help. Career coaching entails informing workers of appropriate job searching strategies as well as skill-building opportunities for a satisfactory career. The skills and opportunities may include team training, technological skills, and self-assessment techniques. Some organizations hire career coaches to help in mentoring promising prospects. Also, career coaches help promising prospects to select the best training opportunity to facilitate their career growth and development.

Career Counseling Basic Issues that Challenge Counseling Profession

Zunker (2016) observes that there are pertinent issues that challenge the counseling profession today. These issues include career life perspective, lifelong learning, economic restructuring and globalization, personal counseling and integrating career, career choice, the 21st century working, effective utilization of career information, and counseling in a society that is culturally diverse.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Trait/Factor Approach to Career Counseling

Advantages

The trait-and-factor theory specializes in the identification of individual factors and traits. This implies that a client benefits from the dialogue aimed at continually developing personal traits as well as how the evolution affects a person's career decision making. Also, this theory stresses on standardized occupational analysis and assessment procedures which impacts positively on career development.

Disadvantages

The theory has the disadvantage of failing to account for how aptitudes, personalities, values, interests, and achievements develop and change. Moreover, certain assumptions of this theory raise concern about the applicability of this theory. For instance, the theory assumes that everyone has a single career goal and that measured abilities determine career decisions. It is therefore evident that these assumptions confine the range of factors taken into account in the career development process.

Life-Space, Super's Life-Span, and Holland's Typology Approach Basic Assumptions

Life-Space / Super's Life-Span Theory postulate that humans are static while personal change is continuous. This theory is based on the assumption that each person exhibits potential in terms of talents and skills development. This makes every individual capable of performing numerous tasks as well as undertaking numerous occupations. Another assumption is that a person expresses self-concept in making a decision regarding a vocational choice. Moreover, according Zunker (2016), career development is regarded as a lifelong activity that takes place in five basic life phases: "Growth, Exploration, establishment, maintenance, and Disengagement." These stages are chronological as people must undergo through them in their career transitions. The last assumption for this theory is that each person plays a distinct role throughout an individual's lifespan.

Contrary to assumptions of Super's Life-Span, Holland's Career Topology emphasizes on occupational and individual characteristics. This theory classifies personalities in 6 categories of "realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional." This is usually abbreviated as RIASEC. Furthermore, certain jobs attract given personalities which reflects in the work environment. Holland further assumes that a problem-solving perspective is used to match personalities with similar work environment combinations. A greater job satisfaction results from when there is a close personality match.

How Counselors Determine Appropriate Learning Needs of Their Clients and Examples of Intervention Strategies

Determination of the learning needs of clients and the subsequent intervention strategies to meet these needs take place in a series of steps. The first step is through an interview in which a counselor establishes a strong and trusting relationship with clients. The second step entails assessment in which the counselor provides links related to the best learning interventions. The assessment needs to be subjective so as to attain the required coherence and accuracy. Under this stage, behaviors and beliefs that are responsible for the client's learning process are identified so as to provide the best strategic interventions. The next step involves generation of activities that are tailored towards enhancing the client's learning outcomes. The fourth step encompasses information collection in which review of intervention strategies takes place. Also, discussion of the individual goals of clients takes place as well as the newly developed ones are taken into consideration. The subsequent step involves consequence estimation and information sharing. A re-evaluation step then follows in both the client and the counselor hold talks regarding the possibility of success when various intervention strategies are used. The last step involves the implementation of actual learning intervention strategies. Examples of intervention strategies include resume preparation, interview training, and so on.

Questions, Hypotheses, and Strategies for Addressing the Client from a "Whole Person" Perspective

Hypothesis

It is imperative to inquire about the widow's support systems such as the role culture plays in her life.

Questions

There is the need to ask the client existential questions.

How do you interpret your husband's death?

Do you experience feelings of unresolved questioning or anger?

Do you possess the desire to introspect why you are undertaking counseling session?

Strategies

To help the client, it is important to inquire through the use of both non-standard and standard methods of assessments about skills, values, and interests. It is also worthy to reflect on the widow's emotions about losing her husband, the need to go back to work, and making life adjustments as a single mother. Furthermore, it is paramount to listen for unpleasant self-talk from the widowed so as to employ cognitive reframing exercises. Negative self-talks include experiences with sexism, racism, and ageism among others.

Client Problems in Each of the Four Domains

Career Domain

Deficiencies related to basic skills, poor work identity, work maladjustment, work identity loss, career maturity issues, adjustment to retirement, and job loss among others.

Affective Domain

This domain encompasses emotional instability, panic attacks, feelings of inferiority, lethargy, helplessness, fatigue, anger, poor personal relationships, depressed moods, and so on.

Cognitive-Behavioral Domain

This domain includes faulty thinking, self-destructive behavior, decision-making problems, inappropriate behavior, negative experience overgeneralization, maladaptive behavior, poor processing of information, and faulty beliefs among others.

Culture Domain

Cultural domain entails collectivist worldview, restrictive emotions, deficiencies in basic skills and the English language, cultural shock, difficulty in adapting the new lifestyle, detrimental effects of oppression and discrimination, and so on.

The Rationale for a Whole Person Approach to the Intake Interview

The rationale of holistic or whole person approach is an inclusive methodology that involves identification of both personal and career concerns of clients in an interview in order to establish the connections that exist between the two concerns. It involves identification of personal information, problem presentation, current status information, cultural/social issues, family information, and strengths and wellness.

Definition of Validity and Reliability and why they are Important Factors

Reliability refers to the extent to which a given test score is consistent and dependable. On the other hand, validity is usefulness and meaningfulness of given inferences regarding a test score that is derived from a test under consideration. Validity and reliability are important as they aid in the making of high-stake decisions, for instance, special program placement.

Implications of Using Computers in Career Counseling

The use of computers has enabled interactive capability that has, in turn, encouraged people to be actively involved in career counseling process by enabling people to obtain more information about career guidance process. Moreover, computers have made it possible for people to obtain instant feedback on the counseling process, thus sustaining user motivation. It is also prudent to note that the use of computers has made it possible for the individualization of the career counseling exploration process. The ramification for this has been increased opportunities as far as strategies for personalized career searches are concerned.

Six Stage Model for Counseling Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Individuals

Stage 1

This involves pre-counseling preparation in which a counselor evaluates the awareness of a person regarding sexual minority cultures and worldviews. The counselor challenges his or her own assumptions about the sexual orientation of a client. The basic assumptions that a counselor can make include not associating being gay, lesbian, or bisexual with a pathological condition. Moreover, a counselor should assume that sexual orientation origin is unknown, the sexual minorities lead a satisfying and a fulfilling life, and a person needs not to be forced into changing his or her sexual orientation.

Stage 2

This stage entails establishing a trusting relationship that is affirmative and requires more effort and time beyond the normal single counseling session. As a matter of fact, sexual-minority clients will be unwilling to express themselves until a trusting relationship is created and maintained with them. Establishing an affirmative relationship involves becoming knowledgeable on matters that relate to sexual-minority issues, homophobic attitudes influence, and career choice limitations.

Stage 3

This stage encompasses identification of identity issues of clients. This entails categorization of a client's development place on Cass's six stages HIF model. This helps in evaluation of a client's readiness to make important career decisions. This also acts a reference for making career counseling interventions of psychotherapy or personal counseling. For example, some clients require further assistance in order to develop identities prior to career counseling.

Stage 4

This stage entails identification of variables that may deter the career choices that a person makes. Stage 4 also encompasses making suggestions concerning stereotyping, discrimina...