12

Status of Theories of Career

Choice and Development

Duane Brown

In Chapter One, I provided some background regarding the history
of theorizing about career choice and development. This brief intro-
duction was followed by the presentations of a number of theories
of career choice and development. In the third edition of this book,
the theories were divided into two categories: (1) established and
(2) emerging. That format was not used in this edition because
most of the so-called emerging theories have become established.
This is particularly true of the social cognitive theory of Lent,
Brown, and Hackett, which was presented in Chapter Seven. This
theory has stimulated a great deal of research (for example, Donnay
& Borgen, 1999; Luzzo & Taylor, 1994) and has been translated into
practice in the form of instruments that are used as companions to
the Strong Interest Inventory (Skills Confidence Inventory; Betz,
Borgen, & Harmon, 1996) and the Kuder Occupational Interest
Survey (Kuder Task Self-Efficacy Scale; Lucas, Wanberg, & Zytowski,
1997). The cognitive information processing model discussed in
Chapter Eight by Peterson, Sampson, Reardon, and Lenz has gained
attention to some degree, and the publication of the Career Thoughts
Inventory (Sampson et al., 1996) may stimulate additional research,
as well as application of the theory to practice. Postmodern ap-
proaches such as the one authored by Young, Valach, and Collin
seem to have gained some adherents. Articles by Brott (2001) and
Thorgren and Feit (2001) address the issue of assessment from post-

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