Career Counselling: Theories and Ethical Responsibilities

Running head: CARRIER COUNSELLING
Carrier Counselling
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

CARRIER COUNSELLING
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From the case study of John, it is reported that, he is a 44 years old man associated
with the teaching profession for last 15 years or more. However, John feels that he is
underrated for his work and he may receive more appreciation for his occupation. Recently
he is facing issues with her wife and along with this, the health condition of John’s son is not
well at all. His son is 17 years old and he was diagnosed with a Personality disorders recently
in Institute of Mental Health. Moreover, John thinks that, he has not adequate response to his
purpose of life and he is doing something that he does not enjoy at all. In this essay, the
relevant counselling theories applicable for John are discussed. Along with this, the ethical
and professional responsibility of the counsellor are also depicted. Moreover , the purposes
of objective assessments, considerations of objective testing and required tests for John are
discussed in a brief manner.
There are various theories associated with the career counselling of a person. Among
them Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory and Learning theory of Career counselling can be
applied in case of John. According to the Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory there are three
primary components of this theory and they are self-efficacy, outcome expectations and
personal goals of the individuals. The issue of self efficacy is associated with a few sources
such as personal performance of the individuals, verbal persuasion that is verbal
discouragements or encouragements, physiological and emotional factors that is perception of
stress reacti0on in the body and vicarious Experience. It is reported that, self efficacy play a
crucial role in cognitive regulation including regulation of motivation levels in the
individuals (Bandura, 2014). The issue of self-efficacy is associated with the issue of
motivation regulation as it is reported that, people can regulate their levels of motivation
according to their expectations from that task and as per their expectations they spend their
effort. So, it is very crucial to identify the level of expectations from a particular work.
According the Social Cognitive Theory, self efficacy will allow a people to take a particular

CARRIER COUNSELLING
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task if they think that they will have success. On the other hand, it is also evident that, the low
self efficacy level can cause restriction in the growth and expansion of one’s skills
(Schwarzer,2014). In case of John it is reported that he is not happy with his work and he
feels unappreciated for his work as well. So from the Social Cognitive Theory, it can be said
that John may have poor level of self efficacy and that may restrict the growth in the skills of
John. That may be the reason that, after 15 years of teaching he is still unhappy with his
work. Moreover, it can be said that, John also may has lack of motivation for his current
work as it is reported that, the people with less amount of self efficacy generally has lack of
motivation towards their work as well. Therefore, in various studies, it is also reported that,
the person who has lower amount of self efficacy, in most of the cases, he or she has less
amount of confidence regarding the job or work. Such kind of condition is can promote stress
among those people and they thinks the work is more harder and they will not be able to
perform it in a right way. In case of John, it is can be also reported that, the due to low
amount of self efficacy (Schwarzer,2014), John may think that, the teaching process is very
tough and he would not has any success in this profession as well. After 15 years of his
profession, he thought that he was unappreciated totally. As a part of this low self efficacy
people also lose control over their life and they starts to think that they has not achieve
anything in their life from their profession. Hence, it can be said that this social cognitive
theory is also applicable for John as he is also very sad and thinks that, he has also failed to
achieve the goals of his life and he is not at all enjoying his work at all. On the other hand
another theory that can be applicable for John’s case is Learning Theory of Career
Counselling. According to this Learning Theory of Career Counselling, there are four factors
that can help an individual to choose their career. These four factors are environmental
conditions and events, learning experiences, special abilities and task approach skills (Meijers
& Lengelle, 2015). The main idea of that Learning Theory of Career Counselling is that the