Preface
In the final phases of the preparation of this edition of Career Choice
and Development,I was talking to an old friend, Tom Harrington,
about it. One thing he said to me was, “Make sure you make a strong
statement that career development is about change—something
that some people seem to overlook.” He is right. Career develop-
ment theories are explanations of how people develop certain traits,
personalities, and self-precepts and how these developments influ-
ence decision making. These theories are also about the contexts in
which people live and how the variables in those contexts interact
with personal characteristics to influence development and decision
making. In sum, career choice and development theories are about
dynamic, ever-changing phenomena. Career counseling, like all
forms of counseling, becomes necessary when something goes awry
in the natural process of development. Judging by the surveys the
Gallup organization has conducted for the National Career Devel-
opment Association, the course of development gets off-course
fairly often.
In Chapter Five, Mark Savickas observes that there is great vari-
ation in the theories of career choice and development. He attrib-
utes this to the fact that various theorists choose to “explain”
different aspects of the developmental process. Few have the courage
of Don Super, who tried to explain all facets of the career develop-
ment process. In the second edition of this book, however, he
XI