Super 1 – Transcript
Slide 1
Classic career theory part two…..
This PowerPoint presentation will introduce you to Donald Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space theory of career development.
Once again, the words in the title are significant – they show Super’s interest in what goes on in our life-space at any one time, and how our careers develop over the time of our Life-span – as such, Super is interested in, and draws our attention to career development, i.e. he is interested in far more than career decision-making.
Slide 2
So, following our work on Holland, it is appropriate at this point to proceed to the work of Super.
In so doing, the following observation by Larry Cochran serves as a pertinent introduction:
Slide 3
‘Very probably a combination of Holland’s synchronic structure with Super’s diachronic structure will eventually offer a reasonably comprehensive framework for career psychology.’
Here Cochran highlights two time dimensions – synchronic time (i.e. looking at career at a particular point in time), and diachronic time (i.e. looking at career over and through time)
Cochran’s viewpoint is interesting not least because he is a leading figure in narrative approaches to career. We will cover Cochran’s work at another time – suffice it to say that Cochran flags-up the considerable influence of Super’s work. Super has informed career theorists of various persuasions over the years. Indeed, it is important to acknowledge that his work developed over the course of his life-span – he first published in the 1950’s and continued to his death in the mid-1990’s. Super’s work was a massive achievement – he was a true polymath and drew from a wide range of disciplines to produce the most comprehensive account of career to be found in the literature. He is, however, underestimated, and indeed, unfairly criticised as being out of step with contemporary careers. In what follows, it will be argued that these criticisms are unfounded.
Slide 4
Let us begin with the key characteristics of Super’s theory…..
Ten propositions underpinned Super’s original theory of vocational development, first formulated in the early 1950’s.
By 1990, these were extended to number fourteen in all.
We will now explore the first five propositions as an introduction to Super’s work.
Propositions 1 - 3 outline his position on individual and occupational differences:
Slide 5
First, people differ in their abilities and personalities, needs, values, interests, traits, and self-concepts. It is important to note straight away that Super declared and interest in values – we may recall that values are not addressed in Holland’s work. Super also uses the words: ‘self-concept’ – self-concept is a major plank of his theoretical framework and will be addressed in a separate presentation.
Second, people are qualified, by virtue of these characteristics, each for a number of occupations. Here Super acknowledgedthe possibility of multiple careers – he was ahead of his time in the sense that this proposition pre-dates the contemporary concept of the ‘portfolio career’.
Third, each occupation requires a characteristic pattern of abilities and personality traits, with tolerances wide enough to allow some variety of occupations for each individual as well as some variety of individuals in each occupation. Here, Super moves away from a ‘matching’ approach to career – implicit in this proposition is the prospect of diversity and change – both people and occupations are seen to be dynamic, rather than static.
Slide 6
As such, the three propositions indicate Super’s concern with the process of career development - that career choice is not a once in a lifetime event.
In proposition 4, Super consolidated his position on process by emphasising that both individuals and situations change over time:
Slide 7
Vocational preferences and competencies, the situations in which people live and work, and hence their self-concepts change with time and experience, although self-concepts as a product of social learning are increasingly stable from late adolescence until late maturity, providing some continuity in choice and adjustment.
Here once again Super uses the words ‘self-concept’ – he acknowledges that our sense of self changes over time and are the product of social learning. This acknowledgement of the social world is significant and once again demonstrates the comprehensiveness of Super’s theorising. Many career theorists are indebted to Super for taking vocational psychology in the direction of social psychology – we will return to this later.
It is also important to note that Super suggests that self-concepts become relatively stable over time – again, this important claim will be returned to.
Slide 8
Super regarded the individual’s conceptions of self in a variety of social roles to be the ‘culminating products of the interaction of the person and of the environment’. Here, Super brings together the personal and subjective world of career, with the public and objective world – he utilises a sociological notion of social role as the means of doing this. He is suggesting that social roles (e.g. the occupational role of ‘teacher’) lies at the interface of the personal and social worlds – i.e. in performing any social role we have a subjective, personal experience of being in that role. At the same time, we are seen by others (indeed, judged by others) as performing in that role in the public, objective world. Here, Super opens the door for all careers to be seen as potential social roles – in so doing, Super is drawing significantly from the social psychology of George Herbert Mead, and Erving Goffman.
In Super’s theory, social roles are combined with the notion of life-stages - life-stages represent the sequence of developmental tasks undertaken by the individual during the course of the life-span. Here, Super’s developmental psychology emphasises tasks rather than stages, in the sense that tasks can be re-visited at various stages through the life-span. Once again, we will return to this later.
Proposition 5 introduces the nature of these developmental tasks:
Slide 9
According to Super, the process of change and development may be summed up in a series of life stages (a ‘maxi-cycle) characterized as a sequence of Growth, Exploration, Establishment, Maintenance, and Disengagement, and these stages may in turn be subdivided into periods characterized by developmental tasks.
The next seven slides will describe in detail Super’s Exploration stage, together with the developmental tasks associated to this stage.
Some immediate implications for practice will also be identified
Slide 10
‘According to Super, the Exploration stage ranges from about 15-25 years of age. This stage includes the efforts that individuals make to get a better idea of occupational information, choose career alternatives, decide on occupations, and start to work. This stage includes three sub stages: crystallizing, specifying, and implementing’
So, to the first sub stage, or more accurately, developmental task: crystallization…..
Slide 11
‘Crystallizing is the stage in which people clarify what they want to do. They learn about entry-level jobs that may be appropriate for them, and they learn what skills are required by the jobs that interest them……(including) the realization of abilities, interests, and values….’
Crystallization can be seen to be the stage when one’s future career begins to take shape. As the quote above indicates, a realization of values is an important part of this developmental process. Furthermore, as with all of Super’s developmental tasks, if crystallization is not engaged with, then subsequent development may be problematic.
Slide 12
Specifying involves stating a preference for a particular occupation – this may also involve trying out a particular occupation in practice in order to confirm or disconfirm one’s preferences (e.g. via work shadowing, work experience, voluntary work, part-time work).
Here, the idea of trialling, experimentation and role-playing is highlighted as an important part of the developmental process.
Slide 13
Moving on to the final task of the Exploration stage – implementing…
‘Implementing is the last stage before working. At this point, people are making plans to fulfil their career objectives. They may be starting to network by meeting people who can help them get a job. …People may be writing résumés, having job interviews, or deciding between potential employers.’
Here, the familiar activities of CV writing and interview techniques come into play. The significance of networking is also highlighted as part of implementing one’s search for a job.
Slide 14
To summarise – the Exploration stage is made up of three developmental tasks: crystallization, specification, and implementation. These are sequential tasks, the implication being that by undertaking them out of order, or indeed missing a task, may be problematic in career development terms.
For example, an individual who moves too quickly to specification, by pre-empting the crystallization stage, may subsequently experience dissatisfaction in their career.This suggests that careers work may be usefully directed at helping individuals to go back a stage – to engage with the process of crystallization in order to become aware of their values and how these might relate to career.
A metaphor may be helpful here….
Slide 15
For example – a metaphor for growth and development can be found in children’s shoes – we know that putting young children’s feet into tight shoes can restrict growth and harm their future development. An alternative, such as the ‘Padda Shoe’ is soft and flexible – providing support and protection whilst allowing for growth and development to take place. I remember my own daughter learning to walk in Padda shoes such as these.
Slide 16
The practical significance of Super’s developmental theory begins to become apparent here.
First, by mapping out the early stages and tasks of career development, he provides a set of principles and ordinances for careers guidance – a guidance practitioner can work with a client at the appropriate stage, and with appropriate tasks. As we have seen, this might involve helping the client to become sensitive to their values as part of crystallizing career ideas. It might involve helping the client to trial career ideas through role play, or reviewing work experiences as part of specifying career preferences. It might involve helping clients to implement their career plans by introducing them to networks of people, supporting CV building, or interview preparation.
Slide 17
This, in turn, articulates a careers curriculum for learning organisations.
Super’s work suggests that cohorts of learners would benefit from a curriculum of progressive and incremental stages and tasks – helping them to crystallize, specify, and implement career ideas.
It is noted that Super has been tremendously influential in the development of careers education – the famous DOTS model has its origins in Super’s work.
Slide 18
We will now move on to Super’s further claims about the nature of life-stages….
According to Super, a small (mini) cycle takes place during career transitions from one stage to the next or each time an individual’s career is destabilized by illness or injury, employer’s reduction in force, social changes in human resource needs, or other socioeconomic or personal events. It is important to emphasise this aspect of Super’s theoretical framework – here he acknowledges that people experience transitions in their lives – that careers do not unfold in a predictable and unproblematic manner.
According to Super, such unstable or multiple-trial careers involve the recycling of new growth, re-exploration, and re-establishment.’ – here he acknowledges that people may need to re-visit earlier stages of development at times of transition. More on this later.
Slide 19
So, the five propositions outlined thus far demonstrate that Super’s theory of life-span, life-space development seeks to incorporate both a synchronic dimension (life-space roles) and a diachronic dimension (life-span stages).
A diagrammatic representation of this developmental structure is given in the form of the ‘Life – Career Rainbow’ which Super designed to depict not only time and space, but also the situational (i.e. the objective, contextual, and public)and personal (i.e. subjective) determinants of career.
According to Super’s theory, the individual ‘lives in the intersection of the two dimensions’, the subjective experience of which is integrated by role self concepts. It is important to reiterate this point - that role is used as a vehicle to bring together, to encapsulate, the personal and the public, the subjective and the objective dimensions of career.
Let’s now look at Super’s Life-Career Rainbow…..
Slide 20
In this slide we will look at the key characteristics of Super’s Life-Career Rainbow. It is important to acknowledge that what you are about to see is one person’s life-career rainbow.
Let’s look at the key characteristics of the Rainbow model….
First – Super uses the outer two bands of the rainbow to map-out age and life-span stages. Here, as you can see, ‘Exploration’ takes place between ages 10-15, ‘Establishment’ from the early to mid twenties, etc.
Second – Super uses the inner bands of the Rainbow to map-out the life-space. Here, a range of life-space roles appear: Homemaker, Worker, Citizen, Leisurite, Student, Child. In addition, following Goffman’s notion of the dramatisation of the self, Super refers to these role categories as ‘theatres’ within which many roles are enacted (e.g. in the theatre of ‘Worker’ all occupations are dramatic roles in-waiting).
Third – each inner band is used to illustrate the salience of roles that inhabit the life space. Look closely at the diagram and you can see that the bands have different thicknesses. Indeed, on occasions, there are gaps in the bands. For example, for this person, at around the age of 45 he or she stops work for what looks like about one year. At the same time the role of student re-appears – presumably this person enrolled on a course of some kind at this time. The role of Homemaker also gains salience and significance at this time– in comparison to ‘Leisurite’ and ‘Citizen’ which remain constant. We might imagine that whilst between jobs, this person dedicates more time to DIY projects than was possible before, whilst at the same time continuing to go to the gym and sitting on the governing board of their child’s school. Here, Super is flagging up that we inhabit multiple roles in our lives, and at any one time, these roles have a particular salience, i.e. depending on the situation one is in, some roles will be more significant than others. This is demonstrated particularly by the role of child in this person’s Rainbow – here, their role as child becomes significant once more from the age of around fifty to 65. It may be that this person became increasingly involved in looking after their elderly parents during this time, and, in so doing, fulfilling the role of child once more.
Finally, we can see that the Rainbow has two overarching and fundamental aspects: ‘situational determinants’ which represent the objective, public, and social world of career; and, ‘personal determinants’, which represent the subjective, private, and personal world of career. Here, Super draws our attention to the historical and socioeconomic aspects of the social world – in so doing, he flags-up the influence of tradition and culture on how roles are defined by society, and how individual psychological and biological differences influence the ways in which roles are taken up, interpreted, and played out. Once again, more of this later.
The following slides will look in more detail at Super’s life-space roles, and life-span stages.
Slide 21
First, let’s remind ourselves of Super’s life-space….
Within the Life-Career Rainbow the life-space segment is expressed in the form of the social roles that the individual is likely to occupy:
‘...life space provides the contextual dimension of the theory, denoting the constellation of social positions occupied and the roles enacted by an individual.’
Slide 22
This proposition attempts to objectify both vocational and avocational views of ‘career’. The word avocational is significant here as Super is acknowledging that career is more than occupation – this proposition has had a significant impact on subsequent career theorising.
In so doing, Super suggested that the multiple roles of ‘homemaker’, ‘worker’, ‘citizen’, ‘leisurite’, ‘student’, and ‘child’ constitute a person’s life space, and that these roles ‘interact to reciprocally shape each other’. The reciprocal relationship between social roles is more than ‘I had a bad day at the office and ended up being grumpy with the kids’. It acknowledges that in performing different roles in our lives, these roles inform each other, e.g. ‘by having to learn to be patient as a parent I found that I could manage people better at work’.
As already indicated, according to Super, these roles combine to form an individual’s life structure, whereby some roles have core significance and others have peripheral significance.
As such, it is assumed that the multiple roles that constitute the life-structure will have varying degrees of importance, or salience, over time –as we have seen, the notion of role salience is represented by the shaded bands within the Life-Career Rainbow.
Slide 23
Moving on to Life-Span…..
The life-span segment of the theory is expressed in the form of a sequence of life stages which in turn represent a series of developmental tasks. The Rainbow model provides evidence of Super’s attempt to objectify career in both developmental and chronological terms……