meaningful forms of information. Executive control operations en-
gage and sequence appropriate lower-order programs to yield a de-
sired outcome. Through these analogous components in humans
(databases, information transformation algorithms, and executive
control operations), career problems are recognized, defined, and
analyzed; alternative solutions are formulated and evaluated; and
solution strategies are selected, sequenced, and implemented.
Third,career development involves continual growth and change in
knowledge structures(Peterson, 1998). Self-knowledge and occupa-
tional knowledge consist of networks of memory structures called
schemata (the singular is schema) that evolve over the lifespan.
Because both the occupational world and individuals are ever-
changing, the need to develop and integrate these domains never
ceases.
And fourth, the goal of career counseling is the enhancement of infor-
mation processing skills.From a CIP perspective, career counseling
involves providing the conditions of learning that enhance the acqui-
sition of self and occupational knowledge, as well as the development
of career problem-solving skills that transform information into sat-
isfying and meaningful career decisions. The continued development
of these capabilities is necessary for individuals to manage the in-
evitable occurrences of career problems that arise throughout the
course of a lifetime.
Operations
Two fundamental learning processes form the building blocks of
CIP are (1) the development of self-knowledge and occupational
knowledge structures that form the contents undergirding career
problem solving and decision making and (2) the development of
information transformation skills that take one from the recogni-
tion of a career problem (a gap) to the implementation of a deci-
sion to reduce or eliminate it. From an adaptation of the works of
Sternberg (1980, 1985), these capabilities may be envisioned as
forming a pyramid of information processing domains with three
A COGNITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH 319