supervisors. Implementation of vocational self-concepts
in work roles involves a synthesis and compromise between
individual and social factors. It evolves from role playing and
learning from feedback, whether the role is played in fantasy,
in the counseling interview, or in real-life activities such as
hobbies, classes, clubs, part-time work, and entry jobs.- Although vocational self-concepts become increasingly stable
from late adolescence forward, thus providing some continuity
in choice and adjustment, self-concepts and vocational pref-
erences do change with time and experience as the situations
in which people live and work change. - The process of vocational change may be characterized by a
maxicycle of career stages characterized as progressing through
periods of growth, exploration, establishment, management,
and disengagement. The five stages are subdivided into peri-
ods marked by vocational development tasks that individuals
experience as social expectations. - A minicycle of growth, exploration, establishment, manage-
ment, and disengagement occurs during transitions from one
career stage to the next, as well as each time an individual’s
career is destabilized by socioeconomic and personal events
such as illness and injury, plant closings and company layoffs,
and job redesign and automation. - Vocational maturity is a psychosocial construct that denotes
an individual’s degree of vocational development along the
continuum of career stages from growth through disengage-
ment. From a societal perspective, an individual’s vocational
maturity can be operationally defined by comparing the devel-
opmental tasks being encountered to those expected, based
on chronological age. - Career adaptability is a psychological construct that denotes
an individual’s readiness and resources for coping with current
and anticipated tasks of vocational development. The adap-
156 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT