Career Counseling Models

Appropriate Career Counseling Models for Children and Adolescents, Including Erik Erickson’s Model

Stage theorists such as Erik Erickson conceptualize career counseling from the developmental life stage that a particular client is navigating.  Between the ages of 6 to 11, for example, children are actively learning a variety of social, academic, and work related skills that will create a foundation for later more complex career development.  This stage of development is also associated with achievement of self-efficacy and an understanding of the importance of productivity.  Adolescents are actively working on the developmental task of achieving a group and individual identity and avoiding isolation.  Adolescents work hard to expand their social circles and distance themselves from their parents in an effort to achieve independence (Newman & Newman, 2012).  An overarching principal associated with Erickson’s stage model is that children or adolescents who fail to successfully achieve their developmental tasks may require special supports later in life (Zunker, 2016).  Career counseling from this stage model would consider this developmental information as the foundation from which to create a comprehensive career plan.

Other career counseling models appropriate for children and adolescents include Super’s self-concept theory, Krumboltz’s learning theory, and cognitive development theory.  Because elementary school students are busy forming their identity or self-concept through their childhood relationships, Super’s self-concept theory may be applied (Zunker, 2016).  Krumboltz’s learning theory looks at the way that children and adolescents utilize observation in learning new things, and are able to adapt their behavior based on this observational learning (Zunker, 2016).  Piaget’s cognitive development theory is also a stage theory in that it views children’s knowledge acquisition as developing in specific steps or levels through their environmental engagement.

References

Gysbers, N. C. (2013). Career-ready students: A goal of comprehensive school counseling programs. Career Development Quarterly, 61(3), 283-288. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2013.00057.x

Newman, B. M., & Newman, P. R. (2012). Development through life: A psychosocial approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Zunker, V. G. (2016). Career counseling: A holistic approach (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. ISBN 9781305087286.

Second peer posting

Newman & Newman (2012) stated that career identities are “a well-integrated part of [people’s] personal identities rather than as activities from which they are alienated or by which they are dominated” (p. 412). Career counseling across the lifespan has implications in all fields of counseling practices. As it pertains to mental health counseling, career counseling becomes