1976). The growth and development of occupational knowledge
schemata takes place through two basic processes: (1) schema spe-
cializationand (2) schema generalization(Rummelhart & Ortony,
1976). Schema specialization may be thought of as a top-down
process in which an abstract concept such as “teacher” annexes more
detailed and subordinate concepts through new learning. For exam-
ple, an individual may acquire additional occupational knowledge
about teachers through reading about and observing their work,
thereby learning that teachers prepare performance objectives, as-
sign learning tasks, provide feedback to students, and evaluate and
report the results of learning. Schema generalization, however, is a
bottom-up process in which concepts such as “elementary teacher,”
“social worker,” and “counselor” are tied together through a higher-
order, more abstract concept such as “nurturant occupations.” These
two processes provide the principal means by which counselors facil-
itate the acquisition of occupational knowledge.
Development of Decision-Making Skills. Information from the
respective knowledge domains at the base of the pyramid is trans-
formed in the decision skills domain from problem recognition to the
implementation of a solution. These skills, referred to as generic infor-
mation processing skills (Peterson & Rumsey, 1981; Peterson &
Swain, 1978; Peterson & Watkins, 1979; Warren, 1976), may be con-
figured in the form of a cycle (see Figure 8.2) and are known as the
CASVE (communication, analysis, synthesis, valuing, execution)
cycle (pronounced kasah’vy). They are called generic (Woditsh, 1977)
because these are the same skills used in solving a variety of real-life
problems in addition to career problems. The phases in this cycle, each
involving a different set of skills and subskills, serve as a heuristic in
the career decision-making process.
Career decision making involves the following process: (1) com-
munication, (2) analysis, (3) synthesis, (4) valuing, and (5) execution.
1.Communication. In the communication (C) phase, informa-
tion is received by the sense organs and interpreted in the cerebral
A COGNITIVE INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH 323