- Enter counseling for help with decision making
- Seek confirmation about a choice they have already made
Although there are no hard data on the strategies that work best
for these different client types (primarily because career choice inter-
vention research has typically treated all clients as having the same
needs), we would tend to tailor our approach somewhat differently
for these four types. From the data presented, we suspect that K may
need help in generating and evaluating potentially satisfying career
options, whereas E’s concern is one of reducing confusion by nar-
rowing the wide range of possibilities that were generated for her by
her career class. Of course, we would want to check these hypothe-
ses out directly with our clients.
Finally, as scientifically oriented career counselors, we use
SCCT as an integrative framework for drawing together other the-
oretical viewpoints and hypotheses that have generated support in
the career literature. For example, research suggests the importance
of helping clients to identify occupational possibilities that are con-
gruent with their interests (Holland, 1997) and that correspond to
their values and abilities (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984). Recent research
also suggests the utility of considering clients’ “core requirements”
for occupations (Gati, Garty, & Fassa, 1996). Thus, in addition to
more traditional assessment dimensions, we would help both K and
E identify what they most want from a career and to analyze occu-
pational possibilities for the degree to which they can satisfy these
core requirements. From SCCT’s perspective, such an approach can
ensure that these clients base their ultimate decisions on relatively
complete and accurate outcome expectations.
We next consider in more detail how we would incorporate our
theoretical and empirical position into our work with K and E.
The Case of K
K comes to counseling with a set of definite strengths as well as
some areas of potential concern. On the positive side, he is very
bright, as evidenced by his SAT scores, and has a personality profile
296 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT