Career Counseling Theory Case Study.
For this assignment, you will demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of career counseling theory by choosing a career counseling theory addressed in Units 1 or 2 and applying it to the case study provided below. Approach the case study from the perspective of your individual specialization (for example, mental health counseling, school counseling, et cetera). You can embellish the case scenario as needed to help you complete the assignment.
Scenario
Taneka, a 17-year-old African-American female, is a high school junior. She is the oldest of three siblings living with her single-parent mother. Her mother has worked for the past 15 years at a manufacturing plant. Her father has not been a part of Taneka’s life.
As the oldest child, Taneka has held major responsibilities throughout her life to support her working mother, such as caring for her younger siblings: Derrick, now age 14, and Kenya, age 12. These early duties reinforced development of her natural leadership skills. Taneka has been recognized from an early age for being mature, responsible, and dependable. As her siblings have grown, she has been able to have part-time jobs, most recently as a salesperson at a teen fashion store in the local mall. It was here that she first realized she had a knack for dealing with people, and they responded well to her—employers, co-workers, and customers alike. She was recently approached by her supervisor to consider participating in the company’s employee leadership training program.
This has caused Taneka to start thinking about post-secondary education possibilities. Previously she had thought college was out of her reach, due to the limited financial resources of her family and no history of anyone in her family ever attending college. As such, she had not previously given much importance to her grades. Rather than participating in extracurricular school activities, she focused on working. She is on track for graduating with her class next year and has a current grade point average of 2.05.
Taneka is now questioning her previous assumption about college or other post-secondary educational possibilities, but she does not have a clear idea of what she would like to pursue as a career. Choosing a career and a post-secondary program to prepare for it, seeking financial support, and navigating the admissions procedure all remain mysteries to her.
In your paper, address the following:
Argue for one relevant theory to be applied to the scenario. Note:Appropriate career counseling theories include, but are not limited to, Holland, Super, Krumboltz, Gottfredson, Social Cognitive Theory, and Person-Environment-Fit.
Identify the theory you chose and provide a rationale as to why you have selected this career theory.
Describe the key components of your chosen career counseling theoretical framework.
Analyze any challenges you might have applying this theory to the case.
Propose possible approaches for addressing the challenges you identified.
Be sure to include research findings that support your use of this theory (Get custom essay samples and course-specific study resources via course hero homework for you service – Include a minimum of one supporting reference not provided in this course).
Your assignment should be 4–5 pages in length and include at least three references, including your text. Be sure to indicate your specialization in your paper. Review the Career Counseling Theory Case Study Scoring Guide to understand the grading expectations for this assignment.
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Career Counseling Theory Case Study
For this career counseling theory case study, I will apply John Holland’s Theory to analyze Taneka’s situation and propose approaches to address her challenges in choosing a career and post-secondary path. As a school counselor, I will draw upon Holland’s Theory and research findings to help Taneka better understand her interests and abilities in relation to career options.
Holland’s Theory
Developed in the 1960s, John Holland’s Theory is one of the most widely used and extensively researched theories of careers and vocational choice (Nauta, 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer). At its core, Holland’s Theory proposes that most people can be categorized into one of six personality types – Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, or Conventional – based on their resemblance to these models (Holland, 1997). Each personality type is also attracted to certain work environments, or “vocational environments,” that are congruent with their skills and preferences (Nauta, 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer). When an individual’s personality type matches their career or educational environment, they will achieve higher satisfaction and performance (Holland, 1997).
Application to Case Study
Based on the information provided, Taneka appears to have characteristics of both the Social and Enterprising personality types. As the oldest child, she took on responsibilities caring for her siblings, demonstrating nurturing qualities associated with the Social type. More recently at her retail job, she realized a knack for dealing with people and leadership, traits of the Enterprising type. Her supervisor also recognized her potential and invited her to a leadership program. Research has found Social and Enterprising types are drawn to helping, informational, and business-oriented careers (Nauta, 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer).
Some challenges in applying Holland’s Theory to Taneka include her lack of exposure to career options and limited understanding of her interests and strengths due to family and financial constraints. Additionally, with a GPA of 2.05, she may not qualify for admission into some post-secondary programs without academic support. Her assumption that college was out of reach may also negatively impact her motivation and self-efficacy.
Proposed Approaches
As her school counselor, I would administer interest and skills assessments to help Taneka better understand how her personality relates to career options. The Strong Interest Inventory or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator could provide insight into her Social and Enterprising tendencies (Nauta, 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer). I would explore careers aligned with helping, business, and leadership consistent with her profile, such as human resources, social work, nursing, and entrepreneurship.
To address academic challenges, I would connect Taneka with tutoring resources and encourage taking advantage of summer bridge programs (Austin et al., 2017). We could also research scholarship opportunities like Pell Grants designed for low-income students and work-study programs. Raising awareness of supports available may help shift her mindset that college is unattainable. Overall, applying Holland’s Theory in a culturally-sensitive manner can empower Taneka to make informed career and educational decisions aligned with her strengths.
Conclusion
In summary, John Holland’s Theory provides a useful framework for conceptualizing Taneka’s career interests and abilities. By learning more about her Social and Enterprising tendencies through assessments, we can explore congruent career paths and post-secondary programs. Addressing challenges like academic preparedness and financial barriers through available supports may help Taneka achieve her potential. Overall, applying a theoretical lens and research findings can effectively guide her career counseling process.
Career Counseling Theory and Relationship Strategies
COUN5279 – Life Plng & Career Development
Abstract
The case study chosen is a Taneka, a 17-year-old African American female. She is a high school junior the oldest of three siblings living with her single-parent mother. As the oldest child, Taneka has held major responsibilities throughout her life to support her working mother, such as carrying for her younger siblings, Derrick, now age 14, and Kenya, age 12. Krumboltz Learning Theory of Careers Choice and Counseling (LTCC) would be the best approach for Taneka, since her environmental conditions is interfering with her ability to make a career decision without abandoning her mother and siblings.
The Learning Theory of Career Choice and Counseling (LTCC) was developed by John D. Krumboltz. Career decisions are the product of countless numbers of learning experiences made possible by encounters with the people, institutions and events in a person’s particular environment. People choose their careers based on what they have learned. Krumboltz proposed that there are four main factors that influence career choice, which are genetic influences, environmental conditions and events, learning experiences and task approach skills (e.g., self-observation, goal setting and information seeking) (Mitchell & Krumbolt, 1996). The consequences of these factors and most particularly learning experiences lead people to develop beliefs about the nature of careers and their role in life (self-observational generalizations). These beliefs, whether realistic or not, influence career choices and work related behavior.
Unit 3 – Career Counseling Theory and Relationship Strategies
Career counseling has been regarded as a personal emotional type counseling ( Osipow & Walsh 1990). However, clients attempting to choose careers need more than solutions to their emotional problems. Counselors must be prepared to choose for a client, who is considering a career choice intervention that is appropriate. Taneka needs a career counselor who will be supportive. Supportive therapy helps the client to deal with his or her problem, and provides the client with an understanding and accepting counselor.
The Learning Theory of Career Choice and Counseling helps the client by identifying the origin of his career choices and assist with creating a guide to challenge career related problems. The counselor starts with understanding how a client came to their career related view of themselves and the world and what is limiting or problematic about this view. Once this has been established, the counselor and client can identify what career relevant learning experiences, modeling or skill building will help them redirect their view (Mitchell & Krumbolt, 1996).
The basic tenets of LTCC involve cooperation between client and counselor. They include: (1) Clients need to expand their capabilities and interests with the help of the counselor to explore new activities (2) Clients need to prepare for changing work tasks and, with the counselor help, learn to cope with the stress of learning new skills throughout their careers (3) Clients need to be set free from fear and set free to courageously take responsibility for directing their own career path and making tough career decisions, and (4) Though the counselor is crucial in helping clients attain the first three tenets, the counselor is most needed to provide ongoing counseling where career and personal counseling is blended to help the client deal with all career related concerns including “burnout, underemployment, relationships with co-workers” (Niles & Harris-Bowlesby, 2009) and any other life issues.
Career counselors need to use assessment results of abilities, interest, viewpoint, principles and personality types to search for potential areas for development and to create additional learning experiences (Bimrose, 2004). The intended goal for the career practitioner is to help their clients “to create satisfying lives for themselves” (Niles & Harris-Bowlesby, 2009, p. 79) both now and for the future (Feller, Honaker, Zagzebski, 2001). Krumboltz stated that the way a person thinks ultimately controls his or her actions, including career choices. If a person is unsure on what path they want to take, then it could possibly lead them in the wrong direction. (Krumboltz, 1994).
References
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Kirschenbaum, H., & Jourdan, A. (2005). The current status of Carl Rogers and the person
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http://www.guidance-research.org/EG/impprac/ImpP2/traditional/learning-theory/
Feller, R. W., Honaker, S. L., & Zagzebski, L. M. (2001). Theoretical voices directing the career
development journey: Holland, Harris-Bowlsbey, and Krumboltz. Career Development
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Krumboltz, J. D. (March 01, 1994). The career beliefs inventory. Journal of Counseling &
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Niles, S. G., & Harris-Bowlsbey, J. A. (2009). Career development interventions in the 21st
century. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill/Pearson.
Osipow, S. H., & Walsh, W. B. ( 1990). Career counseling: Contempora1y topics in vocational
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Mitchell, L.K. & Krumbolt, J.D. (1996) Krumboltz’s Learning Theory of Career Choice and
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