A Context-Rich

Perspective of Career
Exploration Across the
Life Roles

David L. Blustein

Building on the recent contributions of Donald Super (e.g., 19801, this article
presents a broadened lens with which to view theory, research, and practice in
career exploration. Super’s contributions on career adaptability and the life-
career rainbow (e.g., Super, 1990; Super & Knasel, 1981) were applied to
current areas of ambiguity in the career exploration literature, yielding poten-
tially useful ideas about the antecedents and consequences of career explora-
tion. Based on a n integrative analysis guided by Super’s recent contributions
and related conceptual innovations, a context-rich perspective is proposed to
broaden the attentional focus of discourse about career exploration. The ar-
ticle discusses the theoretical implications of the context-rich view and pro-
vides suggestions for counseling practice.

Perhaps the best way to honor Donald Super’s many significant

contributions to the field of career development is to follow his lead
in thinking about ways to adapt the knowledge base to changing
realities. That the nature of work is evolving rapidly is no doubt
becoming obvious (and painfully so) to workers in the Western world
(Marshall & Tucker, 1992; Reich, 1991). In my view, Super’s more
recent contributions (e.g., 1980, 1990, 1994) offer a highly useful
theoretical framework t o support the shifts in theory and practice
that are essential in developing a viable career development per-
spective for the 21st century. In this article, I propose a means by
which Super’s life-career rainbow and adaptability models (Super,
1980; Super & Knasel, 1981)may offer a framework for the necessary
expansion of current thinking about career exploration. In addition,
I hope to establish the utility of Super’s notions about exploration in

David L. Blustein is a n associate professor i n the Department of

Counseling Psychology at the University a t Albany, SUNY, New
York.A version of this article waspresented at a symposium at the
annual convention of the American Psychological Association, New
York,August 1995. Correspondence regarding this article should
be addressed to David L. Blustein, Department of Counseling Psy-
chology, University at Albany, SUNY, Education-220, Albany, NY
12222.

260 THE CAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY / MARCH 1997/ VOL. 45

relation to the wider spectrum of life roles t h a t counselors are in-
creasingly acknowledging and affirming in their research and prac-
tice (Blustein & Spengler, 1995; Richardson, 1993; Savickas, 1995).

THE DEFINITIONAL LANDSCAPE OF CAREER

EXPLORATION
Although exploration has long been considered to be integral in career
choice and development theory, Donald Super and his colleagues,
most notably Jean Pierre Jordaan (e.g., Super, Starishevsky, Matlin,
& Jordaan, 1963), are to be credited with identifying the inherent
complexity and fascination that is evident in a psychologically in-
formed study of exploration. In Super’s early theoretical statements
(e.g., 1957), a number of innovative ideas about the nature of explo-
ration were detailed, most of which are still central in the thinking
of career development theorists and practitioners. In addition, these
theoretical notions were examined empirically in Super’s landmark
longitudinal research project known as the Career Pattern Study
(e.g., Jordaan & Heyde, 1979; Super & Overstreet, 1960). Explora-
tion formed a core element in Super’s early contributions; however,
his 1963 volume titled Self-Concept Theory (Super e t al., 19631,
which included the now legendary chapter by Jordaan, essentially
defined the research agenda on career exploration for the rest of the
20th century. In this chapter, Jordaan expanded the definitional
boundaries of career exploration by observing that exploration “may
occur in any life stage, and particularly during the period preceding
and following entry into a new life stage” (Super et al., 1963, p. 51).
One of the implications of the Jordaan (1963) contribution, and the
subsequent work t h a t his chapter evoked, is the development of a
comprehensive and conceptually rich definition of career explora-
tion. In contrast to the rather dry terrain of reviewing occupational
information, career exploration currently is viewed “as encompass-
ing those activities, directed toward enhancing knowledge of the
self and the external environment, that a n individual engages in to
foster progress in career development”(Blustein, 1992,p. 175).Thanks
in large measure to the creative input of Super, Jordaan, and oth-
ers, the study of career exploration now involves some of the more
compelling aspects of contemporary psychology. Thus, by consider-
ing the antecedents, characteristics, and outcomes of exploration, a
broad array of issues is examined, such as how self-knowledge is
obtained, how motivation to engage in self-enhancing activities oc-
curs, how information is processed, and how the context influences
nearly every aspect of psychological and social functioning.

EXPLORATION AND THE LIFE-CAREER

RAINBOW
One of the more compelling (and often underappreciated) aspects of
Super’s work was his commitment to revising his thinking in ac-
cordance with the changes suggested by his empirical data and the

THECAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY/ MARCH 1997/ VOL.45 261

broader shifts occurring within the social context. Thus, the revi-
sions articulated in Super’s work beginning with the life-span, life-
space model (1980)presented a far more dynamic and context-rich
perspective of vocational behavior than was evident in his earlier
contributions. In moving from a life-stage, maturity model to a so-
cial and context-based life-career rainbow model, Super (e.g., 1980)
has developed ideas that have immediate relevance to the needs of
individuals in an era characterized by rapid change and uncertainty.
Super’s commitment to revising his theoretical framework is perhaps
one of the more admirable qualities of his scientific contributions.
In Super’s (1980)article on the life-span, life-space approach, as
well as in more recent publications (e.g., Super 1990,1994;Super &
Knasel, 1981),he has articulated a model that has expanded the
horizons of career development inquiry and discourse.
In relation to the much maligned life stages, Super (1990)was
clear in suggesting that the stages are not biologically determined,
but are clearly influenced by social and psychological factors. As
Super and Knasel(1981)suggested, “the new approach places greater
emphasis on the competencies and attitudes of the individual rather
than on some abstract and hypothetical construct of the individual’s
‘level of maturity’” (p. 199).In relation to the maturity model, the
adaptability model was conceived, in part, as a response to social
and economic changes, which evoke what Super and Knasel referred
to as “novel, non-maturational problems” (p. 199).As reflected in
current theory and research (e.g., Gelatt, 1989;Marshall & Tucker,
1992;Savickas, 1993),the advent of such “novel, non-maturational
problems” such as downsizing, rightsizing, layoffs,job dislocations,
and structural unemployment have certainly changed the nature of
the playing field of career development theory and practice.
In addition to moving away from a biologically informed to a more
context-rich perspective of life stages, Super shifted his thinking
away from a rafher circumscribed focus on the work role to a per-
spective that embraces the natural array of life roles that interact
with one’s career experiences (Super, 1980,1990).One of the most
encouraging changes in applied psychology in recent years is the
growing acceptance of what most developmentally oriented career
counselors have known all along; that is, work and nonwork roles
are closely and inextricably intertwined (e.g., Blustein & Spengler,
1995;Richardson, 1993;Savickas, 1993).The life-career rainbow
model, when considered in light of an adaptability model (as opposed
to a maturity model), furnishes a powerful heuristic in which to
consider how various social roles may intersect throughout the life
span.
In revising his notions about the life stages, Super noted that indi-
viduals, in their attempts to adaptively resolve various social, psy-
chological, and economic challenges, will recycle through the life
stages. To foster this striving for adaptive resolutions of “novel, non-
maturational problems,” individuals will often rely on the develop-
mental tasks of planning, exploring, and deciding(Phillips & Blustein,
1994;Super, 1990).As is detailed in the following sections of this
article, the life-career rainbow and adaptability models may be in-

262 THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY / MARCH 1997 / VOL. 45

strumental in developing a context-rich perspective of career explo-
ration, which I believe will be particularly informative in the theory,
research, and practice agendas of the 21st century.

ANTECEDENT CONDITIONS OF CAREER

EXPLORATION: A CONTEXT-RICH VIEW
One of the questions raised in the career exploration literature pertains
to identifying the most optimal antecedent conditions that promote
exploratory activity (Blustein, 1990;Jepsen, 1984). To summarize
briefly a rather extensive literature, a host of factors have been
identified via the social learning perspective (e.g., Krumboltz &
Schroeder, 1965;Krumboltz & Thoresen, 1964).Many of these studies,
which were conducted by Krumboltz and his colleagues in the 1960s
and 1970s, revealed that career exploration is associated with mod-
eling and vicarious learning. More recent research has revealed the
importance of numerous individual difference factors, such as self-
appraised problem solving (Heppner & Kreishok, 19831, self-esteem
(Ellis & Taylor, 1983),and motivational orientations (Blustein, 1988).
However, the amount of variance explained by these studies has
been quite modest, thereby suggesting that other factors also are
associated with exploratory activity.
A careful look at the aforementioned literature may suggest that
exploratory activity may be such a n onerous and unpleasant task
that one needs to have direct access to specific reinforcements or a
particularly robust array of individual difference characteristics to
be able to explore effectively. Yet one may also suggest that learning
about oneself and how one may fit into the world represents a com-
plex and fascinating process that forms the essence of many highly
charged and productive counseling sessions, very successful self-
help books, a rich fictional literature, and inspiring music and art.
Moreover, scholars outside of career development have presented
some compelling evidence indicating that the motive to explore may
in fact be intrinsic (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 1985) and is very likely not at
all distasteful, providing t h a t one is well equipped for the journey.
This perspective, which has emerged from motivational psychology
(e.g., Deci & Ryan, 1985), humanistic psychology (e.g., Howard &
Conway, 1986; Lazarick, Fishbein, Loiello, & Howard, 1988), and
attachment theory (e.g., Bowlby, 1982),has suggested that the stri-
ving to explore may represent a way in which individuals manifest
their natural curiosity. Moreover, empirical research using various
paradigms has indicated that selected aspects of career exploration
are related to intrinsic motivational factors (e.g., Blustein, 1988;
Lazarick et al., 1988). The motivational psychology literature, par-
ticularly the self-determination perspective (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 19851,
has encouraged researchers and theorists to consider career explo-
ration as a subset of human exploration, which naturally manifests
itself in a variety of psychological and social contexts.
Applying the life-career rainbow perspective to the career explora-
tion literature reveals other potential antecedent conditions. The

THE CAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLYI MARCH 1997/ VOL.45 263

life-career rainbow has portrayed occupational life as one particular
role of human behavior nested within a framework of other life roles
that are mutually influential (Super, 1980). One source of such a
conceptual overlap between life roles is evident in the considerable
research and theory that has detailed the relationships between the
ego identity formation and the career development processes in late
adolescence (e.g., Blustein, 1994; Grotevant & Cooper, 1988; Raskin,
1989; Savickas, 1985). The ego identity formation process repre-
sents the major developmental task of late adolescence, wherein in-
dividuals explore themselves and their environments to answer the
question of who they are. This identity formation process, which
was initially articulated by Erikson (e.g., 1968) and later expanded
on by many creative adolescent-development scholars (e.g., Grotevant,
1987; Marcia, 19661, entails a process of exploration and commit-
ment to those beliefs, attitudes, and values that characterize one’s
sense of continuity and wholeness (e.g., Erikson, 1968; Waterman,
1982). The evident overlap in the career development and identity
formation processes has attracted the attention of Erikson as well
as other scholars (e.g., Raskin, 1989; Savickas, 1985);for example,
the exploration inherent in adaptive identity formation has been
associated empirically and conceptually with effective career explo-
ration (e.g., Blustein, Devenis, & Kidney, 1989; Grotevant & Coo-
per, 1988). In addition, the identity formation literature has demon-
strated the importance of the family and other close relationships
as facilitative factors in promoting exploration.
Given the current focus on the wealth of Super’s contributions, it
would be inaccurate to give exclusive credit to the identity formation
theorists for pointing out the importance of the family in promoting
progress in career development. Super’s early work (e.g., 1957) ad-
dressed the role of the family, as did that of other prominent theo-
rists in our field including Bordin (e.g., 1990) and Luckey (1974). In
relation to the exploratory activity domain, a compelling view is
emerging in which the experience of a safe and secure set of rela-
tionships within one’s family is seen as an important antecedent of
exploratory activity. Emerging from the creative work of Bowlby
(e.g., 1982) and others in attachment theory (e.g., Ainsworth, 1989),
exploration is conceived of as one of the behavioral systems that is
linked to a secure sense of attachment to significant parental-type
figures early in one’s life. In a recent application of the attachment
literature to the career development domain, Blustein, Prezioso, and
Schultheiss ( 1995) hypothesized that “the experience of felt security
that is characteristic of individuals with secure attachment rela-
tionships promotes exploration of the self and the educational and
vocational environment” (p. 425). Although the empirical support
for this proposition is modest a t this point, the logic of the proposi-
tion coupled with the promising findings from the identity forma-
tion and career development literature (e.g., Grotevant & Cooper,
1985; O’Brien & Fassinger, 1993) suggests that this notion merits
further work.
Other studies using a narrative and qualitative approach to in-
quiry have also identified the importance of family relationship fac-

264 THECAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY / MARCH 1997/ VOL.45

tors in facilitating career exploration (e.g., Young, 1994; Young,
Friesen, & Borycki, 1994). When considering these studies in light
of Super’s recent contributions (e.g., 19901, the role of the family in
supporting the explorer both emotionally and instrumentally emerges
as an important antecedent condition of exploration.
In addition to the proximal contextual factors emerging from one’s
family, other more distal contextual factors have been implicated in
the career exploration process. A recent study by Silbereisen, Vondra-
cek, and Berg (in press) identified predictable differences in career
exploration and choice behavior among adolescents from East Ger-
many and West Germany (before unification). This investigation
compared samples of young people facing decision-making events
that were defined and constrained by various social and political
forces. Silbereisen et al. studied cohorts of adolescents from East
and West Germany and found that those individuals from the West
tended to engage in a “more advanced identity search” (p. 191, in
part due to the complex and pervasive impact of their more flexible
social and economic contexts as compared with the more planned
and less flexible context of East Germany. This finding underscores
the importance of broader social factors in influencing the nature
and extent of exploratory activity.
Thus, as this brief review suggests, it is virtually impossible to
consider the factors that promote exploration without including ex-
plicit attention to the broad array of relevant life roles. In the next
section of this article, I examine the question of identifying the out-
comes of exploration using the conceptual lens provided by Super’s
life-career rainbow and adaptability models.

OUTCOMES OF CAREER EXPLORATION:

A CONTEXT-RICH VIEW

I t is surprising t h a t the effort to determine if career exploration

actually works has not yielded such favorable results (e.g., Blustein,
1990; Jepsen, 19841, particularly to those of us who are unabashed
fans and supporters of exploratory activity. Many unresolved issues
exist in this literature, including concerns about the means of mea-
suring exploration and the observation that it is impossible to infer
that simply gaining more information is necessarily better (Myers,
1986). In considering the outcome literature on career exploration,
in light of Super’s recent work, another perspective can be inferred
that may help to explain some of the inconclusive findings noted to
date.
One possible implication of a n application of the life-career rain-
bow model to the domain of career exploration is the likely possibil-
ity that individuals actually explore in a rather seamless fashion
across the various life roles. In fact, it is difficult to imagine that
individuals who learn some new information about their values,
interests, or abilities would apply this new knowledge exclusively to
one particular life role. As such, I a m proposing that some of the
inconclusive findings and very modest effect sizes identified in the

T H E C A R E E R DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY I MARCH 1997/ VOL. 45 265

career exploration literature may be a result of a n overly circum-
scribed means of conceptualizing and measuring exploration. I sug-
gest, more specifically, that the exploration process very likely cuts
across life roles and yields benefits that may not be limited to the
domain that one, in fact, explored.
One of common trends in the outcome literature on career explora-
tion is the reliance on highly circumscribed means of defining ca-
reer exploration and a similarly narrow definition of relevant out-
come variables. A noteworthy exception to this trend is the study by
Roeding (1989) wherein environmental exploration was found to be
associated with increases in self-concept crystallization. Other stu-
dies have identified predictable relationships between exploration in
the career domain and outcomes in the ego identity domain (e.g.,
Blustein e t al., 1989). In addition, studies on adolescent develop-
ment have revealed that as individuals explore the various domains
of their identities, they tend to report gains in selected aspects of
their school-related roles as well as their interpersonal roles (e.g.,
Bosma, 1992; Mortimer & Shanahan, 1994; Vondracek, 1994).
In addition to the evidence derived from the ego identity literature
is the emerging suggestion from narratives of individuals as they
describe their exploratory experiences. The use of narratives has
recently attracted considerable attention from career development
scholars (see, for example, Young & Collin, 1992), although here
again, Super’s early contributions (e.g., Super, 1954) used a narra-
tive and qualitative methodology long before the current interest in
this approach to scholarly inquiry. In a project devoted to explicat-
ing the school-to-work transition (Blustein, Phillips, Jobin-Davis,
Finkelberg, & Roarke, in press), we asked 60 individuals who had
made the transition from school to work to tell us about their expe-
riences in different ways, yielding both quantitative and qualitative
data. In relation to questions about exploration, we observed many
participants who described that exploration in a given domain had
also influenced their lives in other domains. One participant, when
asked “What sorts of experiences have helped you to get a n idea of
who you are-that is what it is you like, what it is you don’t like. . .
what you enjoy?” (Blustein, Phillips, Jobin-Davis, Finkelberg, &
Roarke, 1994), responded with the following:

I considereverything I experience relates to who I a m and what I like . . . To

think about who you are and what you are. I mean every experience is
who you are. I guess I don’t know. Life! Life has done that for me! (Blustein
et al., 1994)

This brief vignette also provides a glimpse into a process t h a t is

not separated by the lines that theorists and scholars tend to draw
around people and within people. Although these observations clearly
need to be treated a s tentative, they offer a glimpse into the nature
of human experience t h a t essentially confirms Super’s (1980) im-
pressions about the inextricably intertwined nature of life roles.
In relation to the question of assessing the outcomes of career ex-
ploration, it is possible t h a t career development researchers have

266 THE CAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY I MARCH 1997/ VOL.45

been asking questions in a n overly narrow fashion. Perhaps if we
ask people about their exploratory experiences, broadly conceived to
encompass the rich diversity of relevant life roles, while also ex-
panding the field of possible outcomes, we may learn more about
how exploration actually functions in our highly complex lives. My
expectation is that by widening our visual field of the relevant do-
mains and outcomes of exploratory activity, we will learn that ex-
ploration is useful in preparing for many of the developmental tran-
sitions that we encounter.

A CONTEXT-RICH VIEW OF EXPLORATION:

A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PERSPECTIVE OF
CAREER EXPLORATION
A significant consequence of applying Super’s more recent contribu-
tions (e.g., Super, 1980,1990, 1994) to some of the existing contro-
versies on the antecedents and consequences of career exploration
domain is that the perspective with which exploration is viewed has
been effectively broadened and enriched. One way of understanding
the life-career rainbow and adaptability models is to think of them
as offering a way of incorporating context more explicitly into our
understanding of career exploration. Although some of the recent
definitions of context (e.g., Blustein, 1994; Vondracek, Lerner, &
Schulenberg, 1986; Young & Collin, 1992) that have been articu-
lated in the field may not be entirely consistent with the view devel-
oped by Super, one can argue that the overall message is very simi-
lar. Drawing from Super’s work and other context-rich perspectives
in career development (e.g., Blustein, 1994; Young & Collin, 1992),
the context-rich perspective used in this article proposes that to
understand the rich human experience of clients and research par-
ticipants, researchers and practitioners need to look a t the ground
with the same attentional focus and intensity that is used in study-
ing the figure (Cushman, 1995; Savickas, 1995). More precisely, the
context-rich perspective seeks to attend to relevant historical and
cultural factors as well as those factors emerging from one’s educa-
tional, vocational, relational, and psychological world that influence
the antecedents, process, and outcomes of career exploration.
One important element of the context-rich perspective is the em-
bedded nature of exploration across the life roles. J u s t as explora-
tion for the career roles has been promoted as a means of optimizing
one’s choices, exploratory activity would very likely be just as ad-
vantageous for individuals considering new roles in the other life
domains. Thus, one can imagine that a n individual interested in
becoming politically involved in her or his community may find it
useful to explore the various options t h a t may be available. This
process of exploration would very likely entail a n introspective self-
appraisal as well as a search for information from pertinent envi-
ronmental domains. Moreover, exploring various aspects of our lei-
sure, citizen, homemaker, worker, and student roles very likely
engenders a recursive process in which the gains obtained via explo-

THE CAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY / MARCH 1997/ VOL. 45 267

ration are mutually beneficial across the life-space. Given my propo-
sition about the seamless quality of exploration, I believe that the
positive benefits of exploration create a synergistic process wherein
one’s learning may affect collateral life roles.
The context-rich view of exploration also fits well with Super’s
recent work on adaptability (e.g., Super & Knasel, 1981). In moving
away from t h e notion of vocational maturity to the more fluid and
less dogmatic construct of adaptability, Super has attempted to un-
derstand those aspects of a n individual’s attitudes and behaviors
that allow for agentic and self-determined behavior. As the role of
exploration is considered, it becomes clear that maintaining an ex-
ploratory attitude in life may help individuals prepare for the un-
knowns of the 21st century. One of the more tired cliches of the
recent political discourse is that individuals need to be far more
flexible in their careers to survive in a rapidly changing and unpre-
dictable service-oriented labor market. Often this recommendation
is repeated when the discussion focuses on the need for investments
in education and training. In my view, the application of Super’s
adaptability model would help to underscore an often overlooked set
of skills that also will be necessary as individuals grapple with the
many “novel, non-maturational problems” of the post-modern era
(Savickas, 1993). In particular, the coping responses of planning,
exploration, and decision-making would probably be useful tools in
preparing for unexpected shifts in the workplace and in other social
and familial settings.
A fully contextualized view of career exploration also ought to in-
corporate some of the more innovative and contemporary conceptual
frameworks emerging from social constructionist a.nd postmodern
thought, which are reshaping some of the fundamental assump-
tions about psychology (e.g., Cushman, 1991,1995)and career de-
velopment (e.g., Richardson, 1993; Savickas, 1995). In brief, the so-
cial constructionist argument is that truth about a psychological or
social phenomenon is not necessarily universal and transhistorical
(Cushman, 1995). As social science theory has been applied to other
cultures and historical periods, considerable uncertainty has arisen
as the cultural assumptions embedded in psychological knowledge
have become far more apparent (Cushman, 1991; Savickas, 1995).
The social constructionist perspective also delineates the powerful
ways in which cultural and historical influences affect the nature of
knowledge and truth (see Cushman, 1995, and Richardson, 1993 for
overviews of this perspective).
When considering the social constructionist perspective of context
in relation to Super’s thinking about the life career rainbow, a more
dynamic view of career exploration may be construed. One applica-
tion of the social constructionist view is that career exploration may
take on different forms and functions in various cultures and time
periods. For example, whereas seeking out a definitive and stable
self-definition h a s been a viable objective in most career develop-
ment theories (Blustein, 19941, in some cultures and time periods a
more relativistic self-definition may be more useful. A social con-
structionist view also would help to explain the shift in the career

268 THECAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY I MARCH 19971VOL. 45

exploration field away from the historical focus on occupational
knowledge to the broader view that encompasses self-exploration
and the development of lifelong exploratory attitudes, which seem
more relevant in a n environment that rapidly reorders priorities
and assumptions.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND RESEARCH

Considering career exploration from the perspective offered by Super‘s
life-career rainbow yields a number of possible implications for re-
search, theory, and practice. When the conceptual reach is expanded
to encompass the various roles that define our lives, it becomes clear
that career exploration represents an aspect of the very human ten-
dency to seek out novel experiences, enhance self-knowledge, and
learn about the world. This observation suggests that important
theoretical advances may be obtained by applying the knowledge
base on human exploration to the more circumscribed inquiry within
career development. In actuality, my suggestion simply echoes a
method of theory development that has characterized one of the cre-
ative methods used by both Super and Jordaan; however, with the
growing trend toward academic specialization, it seems that this
point is worth repeating.
Additionally, as the rich array of factors that promote exploration
are increasingly understood, it may be possible to develop notions
about motivating individuals to explore in ways that are based on
their own unique social and psychological experiences. Attention to
context also includes a n awareness that individual differences are
related to intrapersonal or intrapsychic factors as well as culturally
based factors. Thus, exploration research and theory need to incor-
porate the growing knowledge on such individual differences as in-
formation processing biases, motivational orientations, tolerance for
novel stimuli and the like. A focus on individual differences that
delineates the meaning of these distinctions given existing cultural
and historical influences would be even more useful.
As indicated earlier, another asset of a context-rich perspective is
that it encourages us to consider how living in a particular culture
within a specific historical period influences the very nature of ca-
reer exploration (Cushman, 199 1, 1995; Savickas, 1993). Super’s
(1980) inclusion of the social structure, historical changes, and so-
cioeconomic factors as explicit components of the life-career rain-
bow certainly underscores the reality that individual lives exist in a
complex web of social and cultural influences. The impact of these
contextual factors has not been well understood in relation to explo-
ration. By applying a social constructionist perspective to the explo-
ration domain, it may be possible to delineate the cultural assumptions
that are embedded in current theory and practice, thereby fostering
more relevant and culturally sensitive theoretical statements.
A context-rich perspective also encourages a clear appreciation of
how poverty and lack of access to the opportunity structure can
hamper nearly every facet of one’s exploratory experiences. Without
access to educational systems that are culturally affirming, yet rig-

THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY / MARCH 1997/ VOL. 45 269

orous, a growing proportion of students are emerging who lack op-
portunities to experience their own competence (Marshall & Tucker,
1992).Moreover, when individuals are exposed to pervasive poverty
and racism, many of the assumptions about the antecedents and
outcomes of career exploration may need to be revisited. A context-
rich perspective would suggest t h a t the goal is to design theories
that are based on local realities and not on universal myths about
how people ought to behave (Cushman, 1995; Savickas, 1995). Such
a context-rich perspective may also lead to some coherent ideas about
how exploration can be engendered in people who feel locked out of
the opportunity structure. By developing theoretical notions about
career exploration that incorporate cultural and social influences, it
may be possible to consider antecedent factors that had not been
previously contemplated. For example, when one introduces an aware-
ness of gender and culture into one’s considerations of career explo-
ration, the role of relationships as important facilitative factors may
become even more apparent (Cushman, 1995; Richardson, 1993).
Thus, within those cultures t h a t affirm close family connections
throughout the life span, parental and familial relationships may
emerge as primary ingredients in the development of effective ex-
ploratory attitudes and behaviors.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Integrating the adaptability model with Super’s life-career rainbow
offers many constructive ideas that may be particularly relevant to
practice. One of the clear assets of the adaptability construct is the
notion that activities such as exploration represent useful coping
skills that may be relevant at any point in the life span and in any
life space. Developing a capacity to explore one’s environment and
one’s own internal psychological experiences may offer a unique
advantage in an era of rapid social and economic changes. Some of
the skills that have been identified as having utility in career explo-
ration, such as developing competence in environmental and self-
exploration and learning how to process information more objec-
tively (e.g., Blustein, 19921, also may be useful in exploring other
life roles. Moreover, helping individuals to develop the capacity to
tolerate ambiguity would very likely be beneficial as one explores
life role options that have become increasingly more numerous and
complex.
In addition to developing actual skills in exploration, I suggest
that counselors work on ways of helping people to develop a n explor-
atory attitude in relation to their overall life experiences. An explor-
atory attitude represents an open and nonrigid way of relating to
the world such that one is able to approach the vast number of new
situations and changes t h a t individuals face in a manner that en-
courages growth and further self-definition. By incorporating some
of the findings in exploration research and theory from other life
roles (Bowlby, 1982;Deci & Ryan, 19851,psychoeducational programs
and counseling interventions can be developed that equip individu-
als to learn from new experiences and relate them to other life roles.

270 THECAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY/ MARCH 1997/ VOL.45

 An integrative view of life roles, such as Super’s life career rain-
bow and the context-rich perspective offered in this article, also may
be useful in supporting those efforts to bridge the artificial bound-
aries that have been established around various career and psycho-
logical interventions (e.g., Blustein & Spengler, 1995;Savickas, 1995).
If exploration is in fact implemented naturally across the life roles
and throughout the life span, interventions designed to foster gen-
eralizable exploratory attitudes and skills may be presented in an
integrative fashion. As people cycle in and out of various work roles,
the demands across other life roles may become similarly complex,
thereby necessitating exploratory activities that can be useful in a
number of life roles. For example, an individual facing an unplanned
job loss may need to explore and adjust to shifting family responsi-
bilities as other members of a family enhance the salience of their
work roles. Providing that clients are comfortable in exploring their
non-work roles in tandem with issues emerging from their work
roles, the use of a n integrative treatment approach may be optimal.
Such integrative counseling interventions may be tailored to ad-
dress a circumscribed number of overlapping life roles or may be
reflected in a counseling approach that is sensitive to and affirming
of various domains of client experience (Blustein & Spengler, 1995).

CONCLUSION
In closing, the context-rich perspective that has been offered in this
article seeks to expand the conceptual field and the attentional
focus of scholars and practitioners who are interested in career ex-
ploration. By expanding the horizons of one’s inquiry, it may be
possible to view career exploration as having a richer source of in-
fluences, shapes, and outcomes. When considering these influences
in relation to the existing questions about the antecedents and out-
comes of exploration, potentially new sources of knowledge may be
inferred, which may be particularly relevant in a world that con-
tinually reshapes life roles.
Consistent with Super’s ideas about adaptability, exploration can
be viewed as a means by which a n individual can become “a respon-
sible agent acting within a dynamic environmental setting“ (Super
& Knasel, 1981, p. 199). When considering Super’s notions about
adaptability in light of the context-rich perspective t h a t I am pro-
posing, a view emerges of exploration as a means by which individu-
als can manifest their strivings for competence in various social
settings. As individuals develop exploratory skills and attitudes, they
may be able to more effectively negotiate the rapid changes that are
becoming the norm within Western cultures. Although I clearly do
not want to offer exploration as the panacea for those workers, stu-
dents, and citizens who anxiously face a myriad of problems in their
various life roles, developing exploration skills and an exploratory
attitude to life seems to be a useful adaptive mechanism. Of course,
one of the outcomes of exploration may be the acknowledgment that
life is not predictable and that one must become somewhat accli-
mated to what Gelatt (1989) has called “positive uncertainty” (p.

THE CAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY/ MARCH 1997/ VOL. 45 271

252). Yet by making the unknown slightly more known, we, as indi-
viduals, may be able to reduce some of the stress that accompanies
change, and thereby equip ourselves, as much as possible, for the
rather dramatic turns t h a t may exist in travels through the life-
career rainbow.

REFERENCES
Ainsworth, M. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American Psychologist,
44, 709-716.
Blustein, D. L. (1988). The relationship between motivational processes and
career exploration. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 32, 345-357.
Blustein, D. L. (1990, April). Explorations of the career exploration literature:
Current status and future directions. Paper presented a t the annual meet-
ing of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, MA.
Blustein, D. L. (1992). Applying current theory and research in career explora-
tion to practice. The Career Development Quarterly, 41, 174-184.
Blustein, D. L. (1994). “Who am I?”: The question of self and identity i n career
development. In M. L. Savickas & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Convergence in career
development theories: Zmplications for science and practice (pp. 139-1541,
Palo Alto, CA: CPP Books.
Blustein, D. L., Devenis, L. E., & Kidney, B. A. (1989). Relationships between
the identity formation process and career development. Journal of Coun-
seling Psychology, 36, 196-202.
Blustein, D. L., Phillips, S. D., Jobin-Davis, K., Finkelberg, S. L., & Roarke,
A. E. (1994). [School-to-work data set]. Unpublished raw data.
Blustein, D. L., Phillips, S. D., Jobin-Davis, K., Finkelberg, S. L., & Roarke,
A. E. (in press). A theory-building investigation of the school-to-work tran-
sition. The Counseling Psychologist.
Blustein, D. L., Prezioso, M. S., & Schultheiss, D. P. (1995). Attachment theory
and career development: Current s t a t u s and future directions. The Coun-
seling Psychologist, 23, 416-432.
Blustein, D. L., & Spengler, P. M. (1995). Personal adjustment: Career coun-
seling and psychotherapy. I n W. B. Walsh & S. H. Osipow (Eds.), Handbook
of vocational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 295-329). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bordin, E. S. (1990). Psychodynamic models of career choice and satisfaction.
In D. Brown & L. Brooks (Eds.), Career choice and development: Applying
contemporary theories to practice (2nd ed., pp. 102-144). S a n Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Bosma, H. A. (1992). Identity i n adolescence: Managing commitments. In G . R.
Adams, T. P. Gullotta, & R. Montemayor (Eds.), Adolescent identity forma-
tion (pp. 91-121). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Bowlby, J . (1982). Attachment and loss. Vol 1: Attachment (2nd ed.). New York:
Basic Books.
Cushman, P. (1991).Ideology obscured: Political uses of the self i n Daniel Stern’s
infant. American Psychologist, 46, 206-219.
Cushman, P. (1995). Constructing the self, constructing America: A cultural
history of psychotherapy. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination
in human development. New York: Plenum.
Ellis, R. A,, & Taylor, M. S. (1983). Role of self-esteem within the job-search
process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68, 632-640.
Erikson, E. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York: Norton.
Gelatt, H. B. ( 1989). Positive uncertainty: A new decision-making framework
for counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 36, 252-256.

272 THECAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLYI MARCH 19971 VOL. 45

Grotevant, H. D. (1987). Toward a process model of identity formation. Jour-
nal of Adolescent Research, 2, 203-222.
Grotevant, H. D., & Cooper, C. R. (1985). Patterns of interaction in family re-
lationships and the development of identity and role-taking skill in adoles-
cence. Child Development, 56, 415-428.
Grotevant, H. D., & Cooper, C. R. (1988). The role of family experience in ca-
reer exploration: A life-span perspective. In P. Baltes, R. H. Lerner, & D.
Featherman (Eds.), Life-span deuelopment and behavior (Vol. 8, pp. 231-
258), Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Heppner, P. P., & Kreishok, T. S. (1983). Problem-solving appraisal, vocational
identity, and career service requests, utilization, and subsequent evaluations.
Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 32, 240-249.
Howard, G. S., & Conway, C. G. (1986). Can there be a n empirical science of
volitional action? American Psychologist, 41, 124 1-1251.
Jepsen, D. A. (1984). The developmental perspective on vocational behavior: A
review of theory and research. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Hand-
book of counseling psychology (pp. 178-215). New York: Wiley.
Jordaan, J. P. (1963). Exploratory behavior: The formation of self and occupa-
tional concepts. In D. E. Super (Ed.), Career deuelopment: Self-concept theory
(pp. 42-78). New York: College Entrance Examination Board.
Jordaan, J. P., & Heyde, M. (1979). Vocational maturity during the high school
years. New York: Teachers College Press.
Krumboltz, J. D., & Schreder, W. W. (1965). Promoting career planning through
reinforcement. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 44, 19-26.
Krumboltz, J . D., & Thoresen, C. E. (1964). The effect of behavioral counseling
in group and individual settings on information-seeking behavior. Journal
of Counseling Psychology, 11, 324-333.
Lazarick, D. L., Fishbein, S. S., Loiello, M. A., & Howard, G. S. (1988). Practical
investigations of volition. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 35, 15-26.
Luckey, E. B. (1974). The family: Perspectives on its role in development and
choice. In E. L. Herr (Ed.), Vocational guidance and human deuelopment
(pp. 203-231). Boston: Houghton Mimin.
Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Jour-
nal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551-558.
Marshall, R., & Tucker, M. (1992). Thinking for a liuing: Education and the
wealth of nations. New York: Basic Books.
Mortimer, J. T., & Shanahan, M. J . (1994). Adolescent work experience and
family relationships. Work and Occupations, 21, 369-384.
Myers, R. A. (1986). Research on educational and vocational counseling. In S.
L. Garfield & A. E. Bergin (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior
change: An empirical analysis (3rd ed., pp. 715-738). New York: Wiley.
O’Brien, K. M., & Fassinger, R. E. (1993). A causal model of the career orien-
tation and career choice of women. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 40,
456-469.
Phillips, S. D., & Blustein, D. L. (1994). Readiness for career choices: Planning,
exploring, and deciding. The Career Development Quarterly, 43, 63-73.
Raskin, P. M. (1989). Identity status research: Implications for career counsel-
ing. Journal of Adolescence, 12, 375-388.
Reich, R. B. (1991). The work of nations. New York: Vintage Books.
Richardson, M. S. (1993). Work in people’s lives: A location for counseling psy-
chologists. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 40, 425-433.
Roeding, G. M. (1989). Differential contributions of self- and enuironment-
based vocational exploration. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University
a t Albany, SUNY.
Savickas, M. L. (1985). Identity in vocational development. Journal of Voca-
tional Behauior, 27, 329-337.

THE CAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLYI MARCH 1997/ VOL. 45 273

Savickas, M. L. (1993). Career counseling in the post-modern era. Journal of
Cognitive Psychotherapy: A n International Quarterly, 7, 205-215.
Savickas, M. L. (1995). Current theoretical issues in vocational psychology: Con-
vergence, divergence, and schism. In W. B. Walsh & S. H. Osipow (Eds.),
Handbook of vocational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 1-34). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Silbereisen, R. K., Vondracek, F. W., & Berg, L. A. (in press). Differential tim-
ing of initial vocational choice: The influence of early childhood family rela-
tions and parental support behaviors in two cultures. Journal of Vocational
Behavior.
Super, D. E. (1954). Career patterns a s a basis for vocational counseling. Jour-
nal of Counseling Psychology, 1, 12-20.
Super, D. E. (1957). The psychology of careers. New York: Harper & Row.
Super, D. E. (1980). A life-span, life-space approach to career development.
Journal o f Vocational Behavior, 16, 282-298.
Super, D. E. (1990). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. In
D. Brown, L. Brooks, & Associates (Eds.), Career choice and development
(pp. 197-261). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Super, D. E. (1994). A life-span, life-space perspective on convergence. In M. L.
Savickas & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Convergence i n career development theories:
Implications for science and practice (pp. 63-74). Palo Alto, CA: CPP Books.
Super, D. E., & Knasel, E. G. (1981). Career development in adulthood: Some
theoretical problems and a possible solution. British Journal of Guidance
and Counseling, 9, 194-201.
Super, D. E., & Overstreet, P. L. (1960). The vocational maturity of ninth-grade
boys. New York: Teachers College Press.
Super, D. E., Starishevsky, R., Matlin, N., & Jordaan, J. P. (1963). Career de-
velopment: Self-concept theory. New York: College Entrance Examination
Board.
Vondracek, F. W. (1994). Vocational identity development in adolescence. In R.
K. Silbereisen & E. Todt (Eds.),Adolescence in context: The interplay of family,
school, peers, and work in adjustment (pp. 284-303). New York: Springer-
Verlag.
Vondracek, F. W., Lerner, R. M., & Schulenberg, J. E. (1986). Career deuelop-
ment: A life-span, developmental approach. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Waterman, A. S. (1982). Identity development from adolescence to adulthood:
An extension of theory and a review of research, Developmental Psychol-
ogy, 18, 341-358.
Young, R. A. (1994). Helping adolescents with career development: The active
role of parents. The Career Development Quarterly, 42, 195-203.
Young, R. A., & Collin, A. (Eds.), (1992). Interpreting career: Hermeneutical
studies of lives in context. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Young, R., Friesen, J. D., & Borycki, B. (1994). Narrative structure and paren-
tal influence in career development. Journal of Adolescence, 17, 173-191.

274 THECAREER DEVELOPMENTQUARTERLY / MARCH 1997/ VOL.45