CHAPTER 2    Understanding and Applying Theories of Career Development  63

Sverko, Babarovic, and Medugorac (2014) conducted a validation study of the Pictorial and
Descriptive Interest Inventory (PDII). The PDII is a new measure of RIASEC interest types with
photographs of people involved in typical job tasks, job titles, and short job descriptions. They
found that the PDII, available online at careerassessment.eu, is a reliable measure of RIASEC
types across the samples of middle school, high school, and university students they studied.
This brief compilation proves that Holland’s theory has generated more research than any
other career choice model, with much of the research supporting the theory (Holland, 1996; Spo-
kane, 1985; Spokane et al., 2002). Holland’s theory provides a clear link to practice: “The combi-
nation of empirical support and practical application accounts for the theory’s popularity among
the public as well as among professionals” (Spokane, 1996, p. 62). This being said, we believe that
more research into the validity of Holland’s method across cultural contexts is needed.

John Krumboltz’s Learning Theory

of Career Counseling
John Krumboltz (b. 1928) and his colleagues (especially Lynda Mitchell and G. Brian Jones)
developed a learning theory of career counseling comprising two distinct parts. The first focuses
on explaining the origins of career choice and is labeled the social learning theory of career decision
making (SLTCDM) (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996). The second focuses on career counseling and
is labeled the learning theory of career counseling (LTCC) (Krumboltz & Henderson, 2002; ­Mitchell
& Krumboltz, 1996). Because the SLTCDM identifies factors influencing the career decisions
people make (and is, therefore, subsumed under the LTCC part of the theory), and because the
LTCC explains what career counselors can do to help clients make effective career decisions,
Mitchell and Krumboltz labeled the entire theory the LTCC.
LTCC is based on the application of Bandura’s (1977, 1986) social learning theory to career
decision making. Bandura’s theory emphasizes the influence of reinforcement theory, cognitive
information processing, and classical behaviorism on human behavior. Social learning theory
“assumes that people’s personalities and behavioral repertoires can be explained most usefully on
the basis of their unique learning experiences while still acknowledging the role played by innate
and developmental processes” (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996, p. 234). Social learning theory also
assumes that “humans are intelligent, problem-solving individuals who strive at all times to
understand the reinforcement that surrounds them and who in turn control their environments
to suit their own purposes and needs” (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1984, p. 236). Bandura (1986)
described the interaction of environment, self-referent thought, and behavior as the “triadic
reciprocal interaction system” (p. 6).
Krumboltz and colleagues drew on these theoretical assumptions in developing LTCC. As
noted, SLTCDM describes the factors influencing people’s career decisions and LTCC describes
what counselors can do to help them make effective career choices.

Social Learning Theory of Career Decision Making

The SLTCDM identifies four factors that influence how people make career decisions:
1. Genetic endowment and special abilities. Genetic endowments are inherited qualities
such as sex, race, and physical appearance. Special abilities such as intelligence, athletic ability,
64 CHAPTER 2    Understanding and Applying Theories of Career Development

and musical and artistic talents result from the interaction of genetic factors and exposure to
selected environmental events.
2. Environmental conditions and events. Factors in this category are generally outside our
control and include a variety of cultural, social, political, and economic forces. For example,
government-sponsored job-training programs such as the Comprehensive Employment Training
Act and the Job Training Partnership Act provide opportunities for learning new skills and
increasing employability. Technological developments (computer technologies) create new jobs
and make others obsolete. Legislation affecting welfare policy, labor laws, and union policies
influences job availability and facilitates or restricts job entry. Natural disasters can dramatically
influence career opportunities and career paths. Family and cultural traditions, as well as neigh-
borhood and community resources, can also affect individuals’ career decisions. Job entry
requirements may persuade or deter us from considering specific occupational opportunities.
Where we live also influences the availability of job opportunities and how we choose among
them (climatic differences between Maine and Florida result in differences in job opportunities;
the availability of counseling jobs is greater in the United States than in countries where counsel-
ing is handled by spiritual leaders).
3. Instrumental and associative learning experiences. Instrumental learning experiences
involve antecedents, behaviors, and consequences. According to Mitchell and Krumboltz (1996):
Antecedents include the genetic endowments, special abilities, and environmental conditions and
events previously discussed as well as the characteristics of a particular task or problem. Behav-
ioral responses include cognitive and emotional responses as well as overt behavior. Conse-
quences include immediate and delayed effects produced by the behavior as well as “self-talk”
about those consequences. (p. 238)

Consider Jennifer, a master’s-degree student in counselor education. She is highly competent

socially (genetic endowment, special abilities, and skills) but feels anxious about taking a course
in planned environmental conditions because statistics and research design intimidate her. The
course is required; she must take it. The professor teaching the course, however, is well acquainted
with counselor education students and knows that many of them are as anxious as Jennifer.
Hence, the professor praises students when they master the material, and supports them when
they’re struggling. Jennifer decides to apply herself to master the course content (covert and overt
action). She gets a B on her first exam—better than she imagined (consequences). She begins to
think that research might be more fun than frightening and that she might become a competent
researcher (covert reactions to consequences). As the semester progresses, Jennifer begins to
tutor peers who are struggling in the course. In her second year, she serves as a graduate assistant
in the course and enjoys helping students who feel anxious about being able to succeed (impact
on significant others).
Associative learning experiences occur when a neutral stimulus is paired with a positive and/or
negative stimulus or consequence. For example, Juana’s school counselor encouraged her to attend
a job fair at her high school because Juana was undecided about her options. Juana agreed to attend
the fair. She had nothing solid in mind but decided she would browse to see what options seemed
interesting. At the fair, Juana met a news anchor for a local TV station who happened to be Latina.
Juana had never thought of TV journalism as a career (neutral stimulus) but enjoyed meeting the
newswoman (positive stimulus), who invited her to tour the studio and sit in on a live broadcast.
After taking the tour and observing the broadcast, Juana decided to enroll in the externship pro-
gram her high school had established with the TV station (positive consequences).
CHAPTER 2    Understanding and Applying Theories of Career Development  65

4. Task-approach skills. Juana will need to use many skills to determine whether journalism
is a good career for her. She must clarify her interests, values, and skills; gather occupational
information; and know how to integrate this information into her decision making. In this pro-
cess, Juana will consider her genetic characteristics, special abilities, and environmental influ-
ences (family support, training opportunities, financial resources, and occupational
opportunities)—task-approach skills she must use to choose a career. Task-approach skills also
include a person’s work habits, mental set, emotional responses, cognitive processes, and prob-
lem solving. Of course, if Juana decides to pursue the career of TV newswoman, she also will
need to develop journalism skills to achieve her goal. Thus, task-approach skills influence out-
comes and are themselves outcomes.
Following are four factors that influence our beliefs about ourselves (e.g., what we are good
at, what our interests are, what we value) and our beliefs about the world (e.g., hard work always
pays off, accountants are nerdy, counselors value altruism over economic reward):
1. Self-observation generalizations. Overt or covert statements evaluating our actual or
vicarious performance, or self-assessments of our interests and values, are defined as self-
observation generalizations (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996). Learning experiences lead us to
draw conclusions about ourselves. We compare our performance both to that of others and to
what we expect of ourselves, and we use these comparisons to draw conclusions about our
performance capabilities. We also draw conclusions about our interests and values from
learning experiences. In SLTCDM, interests link learning experiences with specific actions (as
when doing well in a research course leads to the decision to participate in research projects
and tutor others). Self-observations about values are, in essence, statements about the desir-
ability of specific outcomes, behaviors, and events (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996). The state-
ment “It is important that my job provide me ample time off to be with my family” is a
values-related self-observation generalization about desirable outcomes resulting from previ-
ous learning experiences.
2. World view generalizations. Likewise, generalizations about the nature and functioning
of the world (it’s not what you know, it’s who you know; it’s better to try and fail than to not try
at all) are formed from learning experiences. The accuracy of worldview generalizations is depen-
dent on the learning experiences shaping them.
3. Task-approach skills. Mitchell and Krumboltz (1996) define these outcomes as “cognitive
and performance abilities and emotional predispositions for coping with the environment, inter-
preting it in relation to self-observation generalizations, and making covert and overt predictions
about future events” (p. 246). As noted, task-approach skills influence career decision making
and are outcomes of learning experiences that shape a person’s career development. Task-
approach skills critical to career development are those involved in decision making, problem
solving, goal setting, information gathering, and values clarifying.
4. Actions. Learning experiences eventually lead people to take actions related to entering a
career. These actions include applying for a job, entering a training program, applying to college
and graduate school, changing jobs, and taking other steps to progress in one’s career.
The SLTCDM suggests that career decision making is “influenced by complex environmen-
tal factors, many of which are beyond the control of any single individual” (Krumboltz, Mitchell,
& Gelatt, 1976, p. 75). The theory also underscores “the interaction between innate predisposi-
tions and learning experiences within the intra-individual, family, social, educational and c­ ultural
66 CHAPTER 2    Understanding and Applying Theories of Career Development

context” (Krumboltz & Henderson, 2002, p. 43). Also, based on SLTCDM, Krumboltz (1994)
noted that people will prefer an occupation if:
1. They have succeeded at tasks they believe are similar to tasks performed by practitioners of
that occupation.
2. They have observed someone they admire being rewarded for performing activities similar
to those performed by practitioners of that occupation.
3. A valued friend or relative praised its advantages, and/or they have observed positive words
and images being associated with it. (p. 19)

Conversely, Krumboltz (1994) noted that people will avoid an occupation if:
1. They have failed at tasks they believe are similar to tasks performed by practitioners of that
occupation.
2. They have observed someone they admire suffering negative consequences for performing
activities similar to those performed by practitioners of that occupation.
3. A valued friend or relative stressed its disadvantages and/or they have observed negative
words and images being associated with it. (p. 19)

Learning Theory of Career Counseling

The strength of SLTCDM is that it provides a description of factors influencing career decision
making and identifies their outcomes. It is useful for understanding career paths retrospectively,
which is helpful in making current decisions and in formulating future goals.
When career concerns arise, they typically involve one or more of the following: (a) the
absence of a goal, or career indecision (Juana’s presenting concern); (b) an expressed concern
about high aspirations, or unrealism; and (c) a conflict between equally appropriate alterna-
tives, or multipotentiality (Krumboltz & Thoresen, 1969). Krumboltz developed the learning
theory of career counseling (LTCC) to guide counselors designing interventions addressing
these three concerns. Counselors use LTCC to help clients (a) acquire more accurate self-­
observation generalizations, (b) acquire more accurate worldview generalizations, (c) learn new
task-approach skills, and (d) take appropriate career-related actions. LTCC presumes counselor
readiness to help clients cope with four career-related trends (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996,
pp. 250–252):
1. People need to expand their capabilities and interests and not base decisions solely on exist-
ing characteristics. Interest inventories assess what we know and what we have experi-
enced. To maximize a client’s career choice options, counselors must encourage him or her
to explore new activities, develop new interests, and consider new options based on newly
formed interests and capabilities.
2. People need to prepare for changing work tasks and understand that occupations will not
remain stable. Because change is constant, career counselors must help clients identify new
skills and develop strategies for coping with the inherent stress.
3. People must be empowered to take action, not merely receive a diagnosis. For some clients,
implementing a career choice is more challenging than making the choice. Many clients
need ongoing assistance from their counselors as they attempt to adjust to the choice they
have made.
4. Career counselors need to play a major role in dealing with all career challenges, not just
selection. Many clients struggle with burnout, underemployment, low self-efficacy, con-
flicts with coworkers, and family members’ reactions to their career choices.
CHAPTER 2    Understanding and Applying Theories of Career Development  67

These trends pinpoint the importance of providing clients with learning experiences to (a)
correct faulty assumptions, (b) develop new skills and interests, (c) identify strategies for address-
ing problems emanating from work and other life-role conflicts, and (d) learn skills for coping
with changing work tasks. Career counselors may use assessments to help clients identify both
the characteristics (beliefs, skills, values, interests, personality) they have learned and opportuni-
ties for learning new ones. Thus, the career counselor’s mission is to promote clients’ learning
and their ability to create satisfying lives for themselves (Krumboltz, 1996).

Applying LTCC
Krumboltz (1996) divides career development interventions into two categories: (a) develop-
mental/preventive and (b) targeted/remedial. Developmental and preventive interventions
include career education programs, school-to-work initiatives, job club programs, study materi-
als, and simulations. They facilitate the acquisition of accurate occupational self-information and
its deployment in the career decision-making process, and emphasize learning through active
on-the-job participation (job shadowing, internships, and work-site observation).
Although many clients, including Juana, could benefit from these activities, clients must first
receive targeted and remedial interventions, which include goal clarification, cognitive restruc-
turing, cognitive rehearsal, narrative analysis, role playing, desensitization, paradoxical inten-
tion, and humor (Krumboltz, 1996). LTCC also emphasizes the importance of teaching
decision-making skills to clients. Learning how to make career decisions helps clients resolve
current career concerns and equips them with a powerful task-approach skill for coping with
future changes in work and personal conditions (Krumboltz, 1976).
To help counselors identify problematic client beliefs associated with career problem catego-
ries (indecision, unrealism, and multipotentiality), Krumboltz (1988) developed the Career
Beliefs Inventory (CBI). The CBI is based on the rationale that people make career decisions
according to what they believe about themselves and the world of work. As Krumboltz (1994)
wrote, “If their beliefs are accurate and constructive, they will act in ways that are likely to help
them achieve their goals. If their beliefs are inaccurate and self-defeating, they will act in a way
that makes sense to them but may not help them achieve their goals” (p. 424). The CBI helps
counselors understand their clients’ career beliefs and assumptions, and it is most useful when
administered at the start of counseling. The CBI comprises 25 scales divided into five categories:
My Current Career Situation, What Seems Necessary for My Happiness, Factors That Influence
My Decisions, Changes I Am Willing to Make, and Efforts I Am Willing to Initiate. These catego-
ries, labeled in positive terms, are cognates of negative mental states that block people from tak-
ing action. As Krumboltz and Henderson (2002) remind us, meaningful journeys, including
career journeys, pose obstacles that we must confront and surmount. Some clients allow dis-
couragement and other problematic conditions to thwart their efforts to act. The CBI measures
self-defeating beliefs that clients must address if they are to move forward. Cognitive restructur-
ing and reframing are useful strategies for helping clients address these issues.
In career counseling, clients often refer to significant events in ways that suggest they had
little or nothing to do with them. A client may say, “Oh, I just got lucky” or “I just happened to
be in the right place at the right time.” Krumboltz and his associates (Mitchell et al., 1999) assert
that career counseling involves helping such clients acknowledge and exploit chance encounters,
noting that “unplanned events are not only inevitable, they are desirable” (p. 118) and labeling
this phenomenon “planned happenstance” (p. 115). Career counselors can foment planned
68 CHAPTER 2    Understanding and Applying Theories of Career Development

­ appenstance by teaching clients “to generate, recognize, and incorporate chance events into the
h
process of their career development” (Krumboltz & Henderson, 2002, p. 49). They may ask cli-
ents questions such as “How have unplanned events influenced your career in the past? How did
you enable each event to influence your career development? How do you feel about encounter-
ing unplanned events in the future?” (2002, p. 50). Counseling interactions that intentionally
address the role of chance in career development help normalize such occurrences, help clients
see how serendipitous encounters can influence their careers, and help clients grow increasingly
open to noticing and acting on unplanned events in the future. In essence, an internal locus of
control and increased sense of personal self-efficacy are fostered.
Mitchell et al. (1999) focus on the skills that clients must develop to exploit unplanned
events as they build their careers. Among them are developing and maintaining curiosity, persis-
tence, flexibility, optimism, and a willingness to take risks.

Evaluating Career Development Interventions

Counselors usually evaluate the success of career development interventions by determining
whether clients experience a reduction in career indecision. Krumboltz (1994) recommends that
counselors consider revising these criteria. For example, counselors using LTCC view indecision
as desirable for motivating clients to engage in new learning activities. Hence, Krumboltz recom-
mends reframing indecision as open-mindedness.
Krumboltz (1994) also suggests that people striving for congruence between their work and
work environments may be restricting themselves unnecessarily because proverbial birds of a
feather do not always flock together; there is, after all, intra-occupational variability among
­people: an extroverted woman and a shy man can both be successful attorneys—especially if
she’s a personal injury litigator and he specializes in tax law. Krumboltz (1996) also argues that
the congruence criterion is less useful today because it is based on stagnant definitions of occu-
pational environments: “Heterogeneity, not homogeneity, within occupations is now more highly
valued” (p. 242).
Krumboltz recommends measuring changes in client characteristics such as skills, values,
beliefs, interests, and work habits. Counselors may ask themselves whether their interventions
have stimulated their clients to engage in new learning activities. Process measures can focus on
assessing the degree to which clients have made efforts to create more satisfying lives (have they
explored options or sought information?).

Evaluating LTCC
There hasn’t been much research into the efficacy of LTCC. There is, however, extensive research
supporting the general social learning theory (Hackett, Lent, & Greenhaus, 1991). In addition,
Krumboltz (1996) cites several studies supporting SLTCDM hypotheses related to development
of educational and occupational preferences, task-approach skills, and action. Kim et al. (2014)
conducted a validation study of the Planned Happenstance Career Inventory (PHCI) and were
able to reduce the PHCI from 130 to 25 items across five factors (optimism, flexibility, persis-
tence, curiosity, and risk taking). They also found a significant negative correlation between
career stress and planned happenstance. People with higher levels of planned happenstance
skills feel less stress and anxiety about their professional future. Career decision-making
CHAPTER 2    Understanding and Applying Theories of Career Development  69

s­ elf-efficacy had significantly positive correlations with optimism, persistence, curiosity, and risk
taking. The construct validity demonstrated in this study supports using the PHCI in career
development interventions.
A strength of LTCC is that it addresses both environmental and intra-individual variables in
career development. It is compatible with Super’s (1990) Archway model of career development
and offers a bit more in terms of specific ways that environmental and personal variables influ-
ence decision making. LTCC also can be used as a framework for understanding the develop-
ment of interests leading to one’s personal modal orientation as described by Holland’s theory
(1996). Finally, the development of the CBI and subsequent application of strategies such as
cognitive restructuring and reframing provide useful applications of the theory to career develop-
ment interventions.

MyCounselingLab®

Start with Topic 3—Career Development of Career Behavior and Choice.

Watch the video 21st Century Application of Holland’s Theory.

Summary
The theories discussed in this chapter form the foun-
dation for how leading theorists and practitioners
have conceptualized the career development process
for more than 50 years. The theories converge in
some ways and diverge in others. They offer perspec-
tives for conceptualizing how careers develop and
how career choices are made. There is no one theory
that adequately addresses all factors potentially
influencing career development and all client career
concerns, but they do provide a foundation upon
which to expand our thinking about the career
development process and interventions. An area ripe
for expansion is how careers develop for a wider
range of people, as most early theories of career
development were based on the experiences of White
men and often lack applicability to women and
members of diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic,
and religious groups. Another area for expansion is
the content and process of career counseling. Most
early theories of career development emphasize pro-
cess rather than interventions. More treatment-out-
come research into which interventions work for
which clients is needed.
These theories provide an important stimulus in
the evolution of theory development. As they c­ ontinue
to evolve and new theories emerge, we hope that theo-
rists will continue to provide fuller, more detailed, and
more comprehensive descriptions of the career devel-
opment process so counselors can provide effective
interventions to a wide range of people.
In the next chapter, we will discuss emerging
theories providing evidence of such progress.

Student Activities
1. Review the Holland types. Which types do you resources and support would help you cope ef-
most resemble? How do your activities reflect fectively with them?
these types?
3. Review Gottfredson’s theory. In what ways has
2. Review Super’s career development tasks. Which sex-role stereotyping affected your career?
tasks are you most concerned with now? What