counseling may concentrate on preparation for other roles, such as
those of parent, homemaker, or volunteer.
Assessing Career Adaptability. After situating the career concern
in the client’s life space, the counselor turns to assessing the client’s
adaptive fitness for coping with that concern. Generally, adaptabil-
ity assessment evaluates dispositions toward and competencies for
making educational and vocational choices (that is, crystallizing,
specifying, and actualizing) or implementing them (that is, stabiliz-
ing, consolidating, and advancing). Career adaptability can be effi-
ciently measured in high school students using the Career Maturity
Inventory(Crites & Savickas, 1996) and in college students using
theCareer Development Inventory(Savickas & Hartung, 1996).
Alternatively, counselors can assess career adaptability by using a
structured interview (Savickas, 1990). In such an interview, I use
four general categories of questions to elicit information about the
client’s dispositions and competencies. I start by asking clients how
often and what they think about their future. Then I assess their
career concern by listening for responses that show optimism, aware-
ness of imminent and future tasks, and involvement in actively
preparing to deal with these tasks. Second, I ask how they have
made important choices and negotiated transitions in the past.
Then I assess career control by listening for responses that indicate
the audience for their career story, self-determination beliefs, atti-
tudes of decisiveness and compromise, and decisional competence
for handling the developmental task, transition, or problem that
concerns them. Third, I ask about the alternative strategies they
have considered for coping with their career concern. Then I assess
career convictions by listening for responses that show a curious
attitude and information-seeking behavior, as well as reveal deci-
sional styles and strategies. I also ask clients to tell me what they
know about their preferred occupation and how it suits them. Then
I listen to the response to assess the fund of occupational informa-
tion and matching competence. Fourth, and finally, I ask clients to
describe how they solved an important problem they have faced.
A DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY OF VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR 187