Learning Theory of Career Counseling

Consider your personal career trajectory. Using the definitions described in your
textbooks and in the PowerPoint, complete this worksheet by describing personal factors
that have influenced your career development and decision-making up to now.

Be sure to review the entire document and address all questions.

Factors that influence career development:

Genetic endowment & special abilities:

White, ergo massively privileged in my environment.

Female, beneficial for my current career.
Physically abled and “attractive” by current standards, again very beneficial in my
current field.
Well spoken, which for all intents and purposes equals intelligence.
Environmental conditions and events

I moved to a country that enforces higher education for those with means. My means
were sufficient due to this move.
Raleigh is experiencing positive job creation and population expansion, which results in
restaurant jobs being available.
Temperate environment means that there is a year long restaurant season, unlike my
friends in Florida, Costa Rica etc.
Online graduate degrees are available and competitive in this country at this time, making
career changes like mine an option with those who have means (or access to means,
which my citizenship status has granted me i.e. federal aid).
Counseling careers are resulting in employment post-graduation due to current trends in
mental health awareness.

Instrumental and associative learning experiences

Instrumental: I am successful interpersonally due to my genetic endowments and abilities

(antecedent) but feel anxious sometimes and have self-doubt regarding learning new
skills and applying myself in areas outside of my known skills (behaviors). Sometimes I
do not act on wants/wishes and hesitate to take opportunities even if I can objectively see
that they might benefit me (consequences).
Instrumental: I often receive positive feedback on my work (antecedent) which makes me
feel more confident, albeit surprised, (behavior) and I share my experience with others
and use it as a way to encourage those that I see struggling similarly (consequence)
Associative: I took an education course in my undergrad that I enjoyed and succeeded in.
Having no interest in other fields post-graduation I intended to explore teaching as an
option after moving to a new state (neutral stimulus). I found it was impossible to meet
any of the requirements for certification in this state due to neither having an education
related undergrad or any contacts at non-public schools (negative stimulus). I abandoned
the idea of teaching and took work in a restaurant, supplemented by private tutoring,
which was not as a rewarding as what I imagined teaching would be (negative
consequence).
Associative: I started this program intending to pursue school counseling. I was
interested in learning more about the specializations that support school counseling but
did not have any overt desire to specialize elsewhere, such as substance abuse and
addiction counseling (neutral stimulus). Due to a pseudo-family member suffering from
addiction, last year I had to start Nar-anon. Through this group therapy, I began to
understand how addiction permeates other areas of life, not just the career I was planning
on leaving. The group helped me understand things that my family member and I
experienced as children, opening my eyes to the pervasiveness of the disease and the
benefits of substance abuse and addiction counseling at all age levels (positive stimulus).
Due to my personal experiences, I was able to connect two areas (career counseling and
SAA counseling) that both interest me and benefit the two population I intend to work
with, adolescents and service industry professionals (positive consequences).
Task approach skills

I am excellent at making strategies and setting goals, but not so good at following
through.
I am more likely to work hard if I can integrate greater meaning and purpose into my
work.
I find that working to help others feels like half the work.
In choosing to change my career I also took the time to solidify my values, beliefs, and
interests.

Outcomes of the factors influencing career decision making:

Self-observation generalizations

I am a successful communicator on paper and in person, and would be most successful in

a career where this skill was paramount.
I am not very good a self-motivating if I am not invested in the work.
I am a poor mathematician and a poorer coder.
I am analytically minded and enjoy tasks that require a degree of investigating.

Worldview generalizations

People with a talent or a calling are lucky.

It almost always comes down to where you were born.
Everyone you meet knows more than you about something.
Task approach skills (cognitive and performance abilities and emotional predispositions
for coping with the environment, interpreting it in relation to self-observation
generalizations, and making covert and overt predictions about future events)

I learned to see my tendency to procrastinate as a product of low self-worth and am now

able to use appropriate strategies to combat the problem.
I consider myself a novice until I am an expert, there is no in-between for me (an
automatic thought that I am getting better at combating)
I am able to prioritize and am comfortable saying “no” to things that compromise my
priorities.
Actions (e.g., applying for job, entering a training program, applying to college, changing
jobs, taking steps to make progress in career)

Finding employment in restaurants everywhere I go.

Took entry level positions in multiple fields.
Applied for graduate school.
Chose a career path.

Identify ways Krumboltz reframes indecision as open-mindedness. Be sure to

include what you found to be effective and what you found to be less effective in
the counseling demonstration video.

Using Happenstance theory, Krumboltz was able to show Caroline that her hesitancy was
not a matter of confidence but was intrinsically tied up in the idea that she had to have a
life long plan figured out to achieve happiness. He communicated that this approach was
limiting her chances of finding a great fit, and that her indecision was actually the best
path for her achieve fulfillment. Asking the client to fantasize the ideal job was an
effective tool because it allowed Caroline to identify some choices she could make now
to achieve what she believes is important right now. Krumboltz was then able to help
Caroline imagine how those choices expanded her options, not limit them. This was a key
moment in relieving some of her decision anxiety. I also think that self-disclosure was
used effectively in this example. However, the fact that both participants in the
conversation were members of the same field may have skewed the potency of that
exchange.