Blog 3

One thing that I really liked doing this week was actually applying one of the theories that we read about in Brown chapter 4 to a case. The theory I chose to apply Karen’s case to was Gottfredson's theory of Circumscription and Compromise. I really liked this theory because I think this is something that needs to be looked at more often. Gottfredson suggests that her theory has two uses- as career development program design and as a guide to career counseling. I agree that career counseling needs to be used early on in a child life to prevent that sex-roll perception. I liked that Brown provided readers with an example when talking about the developmental stages. In the stage 9-13: orientation to social valuation, J's counseling report was that after listening to some things J was interested in, the counselor suggested the occupation of becoming a nurse. After that suggestion was made, J jumped out of his seat saying, "you have got to be kidding me. My friends would crucify me." It is perceived that being a nurse is only for females and not males. If earlier on in their lives, they explored a full range of occupations, and there were limited sex-roll stereotypes, this could have prevented this. Brown says, the strength of the theory itself is that it provides career counselors with a way to conceptualize how occupations may be limited by sex-role perceptions (pg. 83).

Another topic from this week that I enjoyed reading and discussion was spirituality and career development. Duffy's article, Spirituality, Religion, and Career Development: Current Status and Future Directions gave a really neat insight on spirituality and career development and how they can affect each other. It is great to see that spirituality and career development can build off of each other because I think in most schools, spirituality is something that is not talked about as much as it should be. I think if schools and career counselors see that spirituality can be served as a positive predictor in career decision, then it might be talked about more often.

The article provided us with four holistic theoretical models and in Miller-Tiedeman's Lifecareer Model there was something that stuck out to me. Miller-Tiedeman proposed that the focus of life should not be about finding the right career but finding the right life, with a career serving as a complement and not as a primary goal. Work is very important, however, there is a life outside of work. When I read this, I though of Karen’s case. Karen had a husband and children. She let her career take over, which ultimately lead to her divorce and she moved away not seeing her kids. I am not saying this is wrong, however, her life revolved around her career and I believe it is important to have a life outside of work. Her husband and kids were a big part of her life, but she was not happy with her career. I believe if she had done more research on career's earlier on in her life, she could have found a great balance of her occupation and her family. 

Brown, D. (2016). Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Devlopment (11th ed.). New York: Pearson.

Duffy, R. D. (2006, September). Spirituality, Religion, and Career Development: Current Status and Future Directions. National Career Development Association,55, 52-63.