Theoretical background
Cognitive information processing from the point of view of career development starts
from the following fundamental premises (cf. Peterson, Sampson and Reardon, 1991):
Premises Explanations- Career choice is the result of
the interaction between the
cognitive and the affective
processes
CIP stresses the cognitive domain in career-oriented decision-
making, but also takes into account the role of the emotional
component as information source in the process. To sum up,
engaging in career-oriented actions involves the interaction of
affective and cognitive processes.- Career choice is an activity of
“problem solving” type
People learn solve problems related to their career (choosing
an occupation) in the same way they solve other matters. The
essential difference between the two situations is the
complexity and ambiguity of stimuli and the high level of
incertitude with respect to the solutions found.- One’s problem solving ability
depends on how operational
his/her cognitive functions are, as
well as the information one has
The ability to solve problems related to career is linked to the
process of self-knowledge and to the information one holds
on occupations, also to the results of cognitive operations that
connect the respective fields.- Career-oriented problem
solving is a task making recourse
to memory functions
The fields of self-knowledge and the world of work are
highly complex. Their adjoining requires deeply use of one’s
memory.- Motivation Motivation to better solve career-related problems builds on
the desire to make satisfactory choices, starting from the
understanding of self and of the world of occupations. - Career development involves
repeated increase and changes in
knowledge structures
Self-knowledge and information on occupations consist in
sets of organized memory structures, which are operations
throughout one’s lifetime. Since the world of occupations and
people themselves are continually changing, permanent
adjustments of these structures are necessary.- Career identity is dependent on
self-knowledge
Career identity depends on the complexity, the integration
mechanisms, and the stability of the structure making up the
domain of self-knowledge.- Maturity to choose a career
depends on the ability to solve
problems
The maturity to choose a career is defined as the ability to
make decisions independently and responsibly on the basis of
correlating the available information about self and the world
of occupations.- The purpose of career
counselling is attained through
facilitating the development of
information processing
The purpose of career counselling is to create those
conditions of learning to facilitate the development of
memory structures, and cognitive abilities that can raise the
client’s capacity to process information.- The objective of career
counselling is increasing career-
related problem solving and
decision-making abilities
The objective of career counselling is increasing the client’s
ability of making career-related decisions by developing
information the processing abilities.