Career Development Theory 2022

Running head: CAREER DEVELOPMENT THEORY
CAREER DEVELOPMENT THEORY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

CAREER DEVELOPMENT THEORY1
Changes in Career development theory over time
Over the period of the last 75 years career development theory has seen some
significant changes. Chronologically, it can be classified into four distinct categories:
1. The trait factor: the matching between personal traits and occupational decision
making (Frank Parsons in the 1920s)
The Trait and Factor Theory by Frank Parsons was developed in 1908 and was
sincerely followed in the 1920s and 1930s. Here Parsons identifies three different
achievement by individuals that propels them towards occupational decision making (Patton
& McMahon 2014; O’Brien 2001):
a. The individual has understood accurately, their personal aptitudes, interests and
abilities.
b. The individual has understood the job and labour market sufficiently.
c. The individual has made rational and objective judgement about the relationship they
share with their individual traits and the current job market.
2. Developmental theory: Concept of self over life span (Donald Super in the 1950s)
Donald Super’s Developmental Self-concept theory focuses on the aspect of
vocational development as the process of developing and implementing a concept of the self.
He asserts that vocational choice and behaviour in correspondence with careers is directly
proportional to the realisation and stability of self-concept (Vondracek, Ford & Porfeli 2014).
Developmental self-concept theory is more focused on the development of the
concept of self over the period of an individual’s life, starting from the very early phase of
life till the age of retirement and is characterised by the initial idealisations of a particular
dream career and the subsequent stages that help an individual realise his dream.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT THEORY2
3. Decisional: Situational or sociological self-efficacy (Albert Bandura, in the 1970s)
The focal point of Bandura’s Social Cognitive theory is the concept of self-efficacy
(Bandura 2010). The self-efficacy enables the individuals to evaluate his/her control over the
actions and environment. The level of self-efficacy is helpful in determining whether in a
career space, certain coping mechanisms will be implemented or not, if yes, how much effort
needs to be put in and how long the effort will last in order to achieve the desired outcome
(Lent & Brown 2013).
4. Psychological: matching of personality types with work environment. (John
Holland in the 1980s)
Holland’s theory of vocational types is the most influential in current context of
career development. It provides detailed attention to the style of behaviour or personality type
as the major influencers in career choice development (Holland 1959). It expands that in the
context of a career or a particular occupation, the choice is not random but an extrapolation of
the personality. It also states that in a particular occupational group, members have the same
personality type and will provide similar response to a problem (Brown 2002).
They key establishment of this theory is that the more congruent one’s personality is
with the job environment, more stability, satisfaction and career achievement is entailed.
Over the period of the last one hundred years, what we can notice is that the core
concept of career has remained more or less relevant, however the approaches to career
development has changed. The early 20th century was more job centric and contemporary
theories revolved around identifying personal traits that fit the job well. Therefrom we moved
to a situation of compromise in the 1950s to the 1970s where emphasis on self-identity was
improving significantly and there was a need to identify a balance between self-efficacy and
the job entailments. Further as we advance into the 1980’s we see a significant shift in the
career development field where more emphasis was being provided to finding jobs that fit the