Career Development Theories: Holland and Super

This essay elaborates on generating an in-depth analysis of careers, considering the two popular career theories of John Holland and Donald Super. While evaluating the Holland’s and Super’s career theories in effective manner, this essay would carry on discussing the foundations of these theories along with relevant researches concerning to them.

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Career development is regarded to be one of facet of the general development of an
individual. It refers to the stream of development of events that comprise of the occupational
life of a person. In this contemporary world, careers are rapidly altering and they are
adjusting to the fast paced world of work. There is a significant change in this world of job
because the businesses have become global now. With this change, there is also a consensus
on the direction of that change. It is really strange that the modern definitions of career might
seem to lend themselves to different approaches and some of the authors like Topkaya (2016)
have argued that the traditional methods is stilling prevailing in this modern world. It is also
to note that succession planning has gradually become an important part of plans for career
development for the ones who are facing the issues of twenty first century. Beginning of a
new millennium has brought in a rapidly changing world of work which has brought a need
for all the new workers to re-evaluate their careers and to create different opportunities for
jobs which would be irrespective of any particular company. Researchers such as Ward
(2016) have claimed that the climbing up corporate ladders is no longer the reality for many
of the youths and workers today. Most of the youths today change their jobs every three and
half years. However, this essay is going to elaborate on generating an in-depth analysis of
careers, considering the two popular career theories of John Holland and Donald Super.
While evaluating the Holland’s and Super’s career theories in effective manner, this essay
would carry on discussing the foundations of these theories along with relevant researches
concerning to them.
John Holland’s theory of work environment and vocational personalities is the key
structural theory behind the modern career paths and modern counselling. In the year 1992,
he had expanded the trait factory theory of his by means of putting individuals in a total of six
types of personalities or work environments and they were- the realistic, conventional,

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artistic, social, enterprising and investigative. As per the theory, in human culture, most of the
individuals belong to one of these six personality types (Sampson et al., 2013). The people of
the common type of personalities working together develops a working environment which
matches their type. For instance, when two artistic individuals work together, they often
creates a working environment which rewards creative behaviour and creative thinking, i.e.,
an artistic environment. Also, according to this theory, individuals who work in a working
environment similar to the type of personality that they belong to are more possibly to be
satisfied and successful (Sampson et al., 2013). For instance, artistic persons are more
possibly to be satisfied and successful if they opt for works or jobs that have artistic working
environment such as choosing a career of dance teacher in dancing academies or institutions-
an environment that is dominated by artistic individuals and where creative expressions and
abilities are greatly valued. He has defined this theory by making use of hexagon model in
order to help in defining these different categories. Holland has described the concept of
biological, environmental and social factors influencing the preferences of the people for
specific activities (Swanson & Nadya, 2014). All these preferred activities gradually becomes
interests and they soon develop into several different competencies. However, to sum up this
theory, it states that one is most likely to select a satisfying job if he or she choose to do
something that best fits their type of personality. It is also to state that the focus of his
findings is that the persons who have common personalities have same kind of opportunities
for employment.
The theory of Holland has been under survey and inspection for many of the
researchers. As per Lent, Brown and Hackett (2015), this theory laid focus on the accuracy of
career information and self-knowledge that are required for the career decision making. It has
a significant influence on the career counselling and interest assessment processes. There are

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several modern inventories who showcase results by making use of the classification format
of Holland. Taylor and Betz (2013) have put forwards some of the key concepts of this theory
stating that it could be better understood by a total of four different indicators- congruence,
consistency, differentiation and identity. Congruence refers to the degree to match or to fit in
between the personality of a person and the type of working environment he or she is
presently in or is anticipating to enter. Consistency on the other hand refers to the estimation
of internal coherence of the type score of an individual. Furthermore, differentiation refers to
the measure of crystallization of the interests and it supplies information regarding the
respective definition of the types in the profile of a person. Lastly, identity refers to the
measures of the level of lucidity of the picture of a person’s interests, talents and goals.
However, there are several academics who have researched the Holland’s theory in critical
manner and have also evaluated different criticisms. Furthermore, Swanson and Fouad (2014)
in this context have stated that the theory of Holland lacks deep insight into the different
variables which could influence the preferences of a person. There are different variables like
the educational awareness and the socio-economic status that can influence the career choice
of a person. It is to note that career choice refers to the process of linkage or relationships in
between a person’s affecting traits and variables (Cai et al., 2015). There are not much
attention given to the time period as well as the reasons behind the choice of careers. His
theory is often seem to be working on the psychological schemas and is also very popular in
the career counselling phases because of its intuitive nature and is pocket friendly.
Furthermore, as per Endsley (2017), this theory lacks attention that should be given to the
complication of the individual differences in most of the professions. Furthermore, Schneider
and Newman (2015), have mentioned that the Holland’s theory does not take into
consideration women, cultural, racial, ethnicity and the other groups. As per the study done
by Sassen in the year 2016, there are several cultures, particularly in the developing nations

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that do not promote freedom, to that extent in the careers of women. While concerning
culture, it is to state that Cruza-Guet and Spokane (2015) have reasoned stating “definitive
conclusions maybe some years away” (page.34). On the other hand, Foutch et al. (2014) have
stated that the Holland’s theory of career effectively matches the individuals to different
occupations but it does not have a deep insights into the challenges within career
development, while the life gradually changes that. Also, as according to Holland (1987),
“the reciprocal interactions of persons and successive jobs usually leads to a series of success
and satisfaction cycles” (page. 26).
Moreover, the career theory presented by Donald Super is also one of the popular
career development theories in contemporary world. This theory focuses on the building and
development of the career during an individual’s life (Swanson & Nadya, 2014). This theory
is based on the belief that the self-concepts of an individual changes with the change in time
and it develops as the results of his or her experiences. As such, the development of career is
a lifelong process in human life (Athanasou, 2017). Donald Super have argued that the
occupation competencies and preferences with the life preferences of an individual, all gets
changes with experience and time. He has developed the concept of vocational maturity as
well. As per him, man cycles through each of these stages when he or she goes through any
sort of career transitions- growth (age- 4-14), exploration (age 15-24), establishment (age 25-
44), maintenance (age 45-64) and decline (above 65).
According to the theorists like Patton and McMahon (2014), Super’s career
development theory is the most commonly known life-span view of the career development.
His theory has been criticised and praised by other individuals and him as well. Chan et al.

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(2015) have regarded his theory as being well organised, practically supported, systematic,
applicable and clear. It is a good reminder which reminds that the life situation of a person
changes with the change in time and according to his or her experiences while nothing is
related to the biological age. It is also to note that as per Lee et al. (2016), Super’s career
development theory has generated vast amount of investigation and research. Many of the
adults undergo different concerns at a specific time, notwithstanding of their career stage.
With the regard to the universality and cross cultural application, Robertson (2015) have
criticised saying that this theory is still questionable. The concept of Donald’s about recycling
by means of different phases could also be cross-examined. This is because the order to these
stages changes as the exploration takes place after the establishment (Patton & McMahon,
2014). Also, establishment is being reduced because many of the individuals settle down later
in their life. Hence, as per them, all the transitions cannot comprise of the phases of
establishment.
With the increasingly competitive contemporary job market, there is a high need to
provide guidance and assistance to people in order to help them in dealing with different
professional challenges in their life. There is a huge change in this world of job because the
businesses have become global now. Due to this everyone is fighting towards having a
competitive edge and this has brought in a significant change in the careers of the individuals.
With this change, there is also an emergence of different theories such as the social cognitive
career theory, the Hansen’s integrative career theory etc. The need for career counselling has
been emerged in recent years and with the same, facilitation of career decision making and
self-affirmation has become the important components as compared to the past approaches
that depended on the psychometrics. Holland’s theory is in synchronise with the Super’s
career theory. Both these theorists have presented much to the occupational domain of

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psychology. Although, both have defects of their own, these two theories are still the most
popular ones. As per Athanasou (2017), Donald Super’s career development theory occupies
a central stage along with the thought and thinking of Holland’s. In this contemporary world,
career focus more on the personal gains instead of monetary gains. Work has become one of
the important component that a person imagine of his or her career.
These theories are defining the career paths in segments that are only affected by life-
roles and age. As I belong from Asian culture, there are many variables which affect my
choices of career. The Holland’s and the Super’s theories has given me a clear insight into the
career opportunities that are possible for me. However, like many other theories, they have
their own drawbacks. However, it is also to mention that these two theories have given rise to
many new concepts and critiques. The new and modern theories related to modern career
paths development seem to describe the modern career paths of present days’ because the
destinations of career path have changed completely. The career opportunities in today’s
world attract and motivates everyone towards the employment by providing them full
freedom of choosing from several jobs, projects and tasks. In contrast to the traditional career
development theories, Holland’s and Super’s theories allow pliability and they cater to
individuals with different disorders like telecommunicating or working from home. Today’s
people have more power than ever before, to showcase their thoughts, opinions and most
importantly, themselves. They shape their career on the basis of their interests and values.
Hence, it is to state that no single theory on career development could encompass all the
components from different theories for analysing what fits to them the best.

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