Postmodern+(Constructivist)+Philosophical+Theories

=__**Postmodern (Constructivist) Philosophical Theories**__=


 * Relatively new to career development
 * These theories assume that human behavior can NOT be measured in an artificial laboratory setting
 * Cause and effect relationships can NOT be determined
 * It is impossible for researchers to remain completely objective
 * Thus the researchers SHOULD put their own objective views into the research
 * Narratives of the clients are legitimate sources of information
 * Research is goal free
 * Counselors should focus on the narratives of the clients and then help clients find a career that fits the context of the narrative and the uniqueness of the clients


 * __Differences from modern theories__**
 * Modern: counselor and client take on different roles
 * Postmodern: the client and counselor are involved in joint actions


 * Creating Narratives (Class PowerPoint) **
 * Career counseling from the narrative approach emphasizes understanding and articulating the main character to be lived out in a specific career plot.
 * This articulation uses the process of composing a narrative as the primary vehicle for defining character and plot.
 * Howard (1989) noted that people tell stories that infuse parts of their lives with great meaning and deemphasize other parts


 * Ways in Which Narratives Help Clients **
 * A narrative is a temporal organization with a beginning, middle, and end.
 * A story is a synthetic structure that organizes many pieces into a whole.
 * The plot of a narrative specifies what has been accomplished.
 * The structure of a narrative communicates a problem, attempts at resolving it, and a resolution


 * Ways to Use a Narrative Approach in Career Counseling **
 * Elaborate a career problem.
 * Compose a life history.
 * Build a future narrative.
 * Construct reality.
 * Change a life structure.
 * Enact a role.
 * Crystallize a decision


 * __Categories of theories that fall under the Postmodern (Constructivist) Philosophical theoretical tree ....__**
 * (1) Postmodern Theories
 * Young, Valach & Collins's Contextualist Theory of Career
 * Actions are caused by past and present events
 * Understanding of an event starts by understanding the client’s view of it
 * 3 step processes
 * Observable aspects of the event
 * Unobservable aspects of the event
 * Individual view of the event
 * Essential part of career counseling: Interpretation [making sense of the client's experiences and enable clients to identify consructs that are related to his or her career choices]
 * Become aware of the clients' worldviews
 * Help clients become aware of their conceptualizations and how these are workable within the life space
 * Support clients' applications of their constructs
 * Help maintain client's constructions of self and not abandon them in favor of more scientific ideas
 * Savickas' Career Construction
 * More __subjective__ and individualistic
 * Incorporates the prior work of Holland and Super
 * Individuals construct self-narratives that guide actions (literary context)
 * Emphasizes __role models__ and early attachments as having a profound impact on an individual's perceptions until __agency__ comes into play
 * __Experiences__ play a key role in construction of self
 * 3 ways to conceptualize self
 * Self as object: can be compared to others
 * Self as subject: more unique and individualized
 * Self as project: careers involve transitions and changes
 * Careers over a time span
 * Adaptational issues: individuals will face these, and must develop appropriate methods of navigating them
 * Tasks
 * Transitions
 * Traumas
 * Savickas' 5-Step Model
 * Construction: Why is the client receiving counseling? What __themes__ are present in the client's life?
 * Deconstruction: Exploring basis of negative __self-narratives__ and inconsistencies
 * Reconstruction: Preparing to make a change, facilitation by counselor to invoke a sense of reflection in client
 * Coconstruction: Counselor offers observations, prompts the client's curiosity
 * Action: Counselor supports client in setting goals, as well as setting the stage to do something different
 * Savickas' Model of Time in CD (Class Powerpoint)
 * Three Organizing Concepts:
 * Time Perspective
 * How individuals “view and orient themselves to time...time imagery related to achievement motivation” (Savickas, 1990, p.5)
 * Time Differentiation
 * The density and extension of events within time zones tends to define which time zone is more real for the client
 * § Interventions: “helping people create, articulate, and enact their dreams.” (Savickas, p.10)
 * Time Integration
 * Sense of connectedness among events across time zone
 *  Interventions: attention to planning attitudes, competencies, contingency planning, purposeful actions
 * Chaos Theory
 * Interdependent relationships and nonlinear dynamics
 * Attempts to explain the “randomness” and “messiness” in life through the examination of eleven characteristics of complex adaptive entities as applied to career development - 1.) autopiesis; 2.) open exchange; 3.) participation in networks; 4.) fractals; 5.) phase transitions between order and chaos; 6.) fitness peaks; 7.) nonlinear dynamics; 8.) sensitive dependence (small changes to bring about large effects); 9.) attractors; 10.) strange attractors in emergence; 11.) spirituality


 * (2) Socioeconomic Theories
 * More sociologically- and/or economically-based than psychologically-based
 * Increased focus on external factors that affect development
 * Theories that fall into this category include
 * Status Attainment Theory
 * Family status and cognitive variables combine through social-psychological processes to influence educational attainment, which in turn impacts occupational attainment and earnings
 * This theory has been criticized for being too generic and simplistic
 * Dual Labor Market Theory
 * There are two types of businesses in our labor market: core and peripheral
 * Core firms have internal labor markets that have well-developed career paths and offer opportunities for upward mobility
 * Peripheral firms make no long-term commitments and have little chance of upward mobility
 * Race, Gender, and Career
 * These theories focus on research that shows the impact of race and gender on career development
 * African Americans earn less than whites
 * Women earn less than males
 * Workplaces and schools are often socially segregated
 * (3) Theories of Decision Making
 * Gives included attention on the process behind making a decision
 * Theories that fall into this category include


 * __Use of these theories__**
 * These theories are more inclined to focus on sociopolitical factors
 * It should be noted that the individual is still the main focus because how events affect one person does not reflect how it will affect other people in a similar group

References Brown, D. (2016). //Career information, career counseling, and career development// (11th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.

Savickas, M.L (1995). Constructivist counseling for career indecision. //Career Development Quarterly, 43//(1), 363-373.