Brown S.D., Lent R. (Editors). Career development and counseling: putting theory and research to work

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that career counselors might use in working with such individuals. Further, the

stages of exploration and choice might be encountered anew during career adjust-

ment or change later in life.

Conceptualizing career assessments salient to these three stages highlights

two intriguing features of the field of vocational psychology and the practice of

career counseling. First, career counselors and vocational psychologists have fo-

cused on issues related to exploration and initial choice and have left much of

the later stages to other specialties, such as organizational behavior, industrial/

organizational psychology, management, and occupational psychology (Swanson,

1992, 2003). Moreover, organizational perspectives on career development (more

likely referred to as career management) are different from individual perspec-

tives proffered by career counseling and vocational psychology (see Griffin &

Hesketh, Chapter 20, this volume).

Second, the availability of career counseling services is uneven throughout the

life span (Swanson, 2003; Watts, 1996). However, if vocational choices are viewed

as a series of “good fit” decisions throughout the life span (Super, 1983), career

counseling services should be available at the times that individuals face deci-

sions. Services have most often been built into the system at natural transition

points, such as entering and exiting college or other training, yet transition points

may occur at any time in individuals’ lives.

AVEATS

Before addressing specific process-oriented and outcome constructs, we offer three

aveats about the material included in this chapter. These caveats are intended to

frame our decisions about what to cover, including the constructs and instru-

ments we selected and the psychometric variability of available instruments, as

well as the ultimate goal of integrating these constructs with the career choice

content represented by the Big Three.

Constructs versus Instruments Despite our use of life span stages to organize this

chapter, we remain construct driven in our discussion of the myriad constructs

and associated instruments available to career counseling practitioners. As a re-

sult, we discuss some instruments in more than one place in the chapter. For ex-

ample, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is perhaps the most frequently

used measure of personality in career counseling and thus is discussed in the

section on personality. However, it also may be used to discuss a client’s decision-

making style; thus, it is also mentioned in the section on decision making. Fur-

ther, some instruments contain a heterogeneous set of subscales spanning a

variety of constructs, such as the Career Beliefs Inventory; thus, they necessitate

discussion in multiple sections of this chapter.

A second consequence of being construct driven is that some instruments in-

cluded in other textbooks are not in this chapter. We began by identifying impor-

tant constructs—other than interests, abilities, needs/values—and then searched

for measures and methods of assessing these constructs. There are a plethora of

other instruments available, particularly as researchers and practitioners become

more interested in the process of career decision making and the process of ca-

reer counseling. However, we chose to focus on the constructs as an organizing

framework and thus have neglected some instruments that have been developed

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Beyond Interests, Needs/Values, and Abilities 357

to measure constructs that are not included in this chapter (e.g., My Vocational

Situation; Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980).

Formal versus Informal Assessment A third consequence of being construct driven

is reflected in the varying degrees of attention to psychometric development of

the instruments and measures discussed in this chapter. In the three previous

chapters, the primary inventories that measure interests, needs/values, and abil-

ities are well developed with appropriate reliability, validity, and normative data.

In contrast, measures of the constructs covered in this chapter often are less psy-

chometrically grounded, partly because attention to these constructs does not

have as long a history within career counseling as measures of the Big Three con-

structs. We discuss specific measures in this chapter only if there is adequate

liability and validity information available; then we discuss more informal

methods of assessing these constructs within counseling because the constructs

seem important to a thorough and integrated delivery of career counseling ser-

vices. In the hands of competent career counseling professionals, many of these

instruments and methods can raise important issues to discuss with clients in a

fashion similar to qualitative assessment such as card sorts (see Lent, Chapter 5,

this volume, for a description of one such card sort procedure).

Thus, the psychometric formality of the instruments described in this chapter

varies across constructs. For some measures, no normative data exist at all, or at

least not in a form that is readily available to the career counseling practitioner.

For other measures, the amount of psychometric data rivals that of instruments to

measure the Big Three constructs. In all cases, however, we chose to include these

instruments because they focus on important process and outcome variables and

may yield insight that would be missed by an exclusive focus on the Big Three. In

other words, these instruments are worthy of further consideration even though

they may not have yet received desired psychometric investigation.

Traditional views of validity emphasize the relation of inventory scores to the

constructs they are intended to measure. Thus, for example, showing that a new

measure of artistic interests correlates highly with another more well-established

measure of artistic interests provides evidence of the validity of the former. Sim-

ilarly, showing that the new measure correlates as it should with choice of, or sat-

isfaction with, artistic pursuits also is critical to establishing whether artistic

nterests are being measured with the new scale. Two additional views of valid-

ity—consequential validity and exploration validity—may be particularly impor-

tant within the context of career counseling. Consequential validity requires an

evaluation of the consequences of inventory use, including both the intended and

unintended consequences of test interpretation and test use (Messick, 1995) and

both positive and negative consequences. For example, Fouad (1999) noted that pos-

itive consequences of interest inventories may include greater exploration of

op-

tions, whereas negative consequences may include inappropriate restriction of

options for a particular group of individuals. Exploration validity refers to the power

of an inventory to facilitate career exploration activities, including instrumental

behaviors such as talking to professionals and seeking occupational information

(Randahl, Hansen, & Haverkamp, 1993; Tittle, 1978). Primary reasons for using

assessment in career counseling are to enhance clients’ self-knowledge and stim-

ulate exploration, so these two types of validity are important because they re-

flect whether clients act on that newly gained knowledge.

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Integrating These Constructs with the Big Three The purpose of this chapter is to dis-

cuss assessment of constructs other than the Big Three (interests, needs/values,

abilities). However, our ultimate goal is to encourage the systematic and integrated

assessment of constructs relevant to every client’s concerns. In other words, career

assessment should, for most clients, encompass all or most of the constructs dis-

cussed in this and the preceding three chapters. Further, competent career coun-

selors attend to the themes and discrepancies revealed in clients’ assessment and

interview data. Several authors have outlined how counselors might generate and

test hypotheses based on clients’ assessment results, with particular attention to

points of convergence and divergence across domains (Lowman, 1991; Swanson &

Fouad, 1999).

ASSESSMENT OF PROCESS-ORIENTED CONSTRUCTS

Examining the process surrounding career decisions explicitly acknowledges the

unique styles and circumstances that clients bring to career counseling. Attention

to these process constructs complements attention to the content and outcome of

career counseling, allowing a richer and more complete career counseling e

xperi-

ence. Important process constructs include career maturity and career adaptability,

career salience, career beliefs and thoughts, career decision making, personality,

perceived barriers, interpersonal supports, self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expecta-

tions, and circumscription and compromise.

AREER

ATURITY AND

AREER

DAPTABILITY

The concept of career maturity has been used to describe both the process by which

individuals make career choices appropriate to their age and stage of development

and their ability to successfully resolve and transition through the specific tasks of

each of these stages. In considering career maturity during career exploration, it

is important to attend to the multidimensionality of the concept. Crites (1976)

described career maturity as having attitudinal and cognitive dimensions. The for-

mer refers to individuals’ attitudes and feelings about making an effective voca-

tional choice and whether they continue to pursue their career choice as they enter

the workforce. On the other hand, the cognitive dimension usually refers to clients’

awareness of a need to make a career decision and to their understanding about

their vocational preferences. Cognitive competencies needed to make a good career

decision include adequate knowledge about the world of work and personal abili-

ties and skills. Moreover, Savickas (2002) argues that the cognitive dimension is im-

portant to assess because it is cognitive competencies that lead a client into action.

Career maturity is considered to be a particularly important variable to assess

during career exploration with adolescents because, at this life stage, they often

have to make important career decisions that they are not developmentally ready

to make. Many adolescents fail to integrate their interests, skills, and abilities and

are unable to focus toward a particular career goal, which is the main task of the

exploration stage in Super’s (1980) theory of career development. Therefore, as-

sessing the obstacles that have hindered adolescents’ development and helping

them establish ways to overcome those obstacles may be an important initial goal

of career counseling with individuals at this stage of development (i.e., explo-

ration). However, career maturity may also be useful to consider at stages other

than exploration. As noted in the definition, career maturity implies that the

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Beyond Interests, Needs/Values, and Abilities 359

client is able to accomplish tasks that are appropriate for his or her age and stage

of development. Therefore, career maturity can also be assessed with all career

counseling clients (Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996).

Even though career maturity has been researched for more than 40 years and

many measures have been developed to assess this variable, there has been much

controversy about its definition and exactly what career maturity inventories

measure. It has been argued that many of the measures of career maturity assess

clients’ intellectual ability and not necessarily their readiness to negotiate the

tasks and transitions in their particular developmental stage (Chartrand & Camp,

1991; Seligman, 1994). To address this argument, Super (1983) suggested that a

more appropriate term to refer to career maturity after adolescence is career adapt-

ability. According to Super, career adaptability includes five elements:

The ability to learn from experiences and anticipate the future (i.e., plan-

fulness).

2. The ability to ask questions and collect information and the ability to inter-

act in the community, at school, and with family members (i.e., exploration).

3. The ability to gather information about the world of work (i.e., information

gathering).

4. The ability to make choices based on knowledge of career decision-making

principles (i.e., decision making).

5. The ability to develop self-awareness, self-knowledge, and establish realis-

tic options that are consistent with preferences (i.e., reality orientation).

Savickas (2002) suggested that after assessing the career concerns in the client’s

particular stage of development, the counselor may use a structured interview to

assess career adaptability. He suggests that four categories of questions be in-

cluded in this interview:

1. The client’s career salience (i.e., importance of the work role vis-à-vis other

life roles) and readiness for career counseling.

2. Experiences with decision-making strategies and career control (e.g., self-

determination beliefs, decisiveness and compromise, decisional competence).

Coping strategies for career concerns, career convictions, and decisional style.

4. Assessment of the client’s problem-solving skills and career confidence.

Some instruments have also been developed to assess clients’ career maturity/

adaptability. Unfortunately, many of the psychometric properties of these mea-

sures are problematic, and a few others are no longer commercially available

(Chartrand & Camp, 1991). However, we mention two instruments that are still

available and may be useful tools in the career counseling process because they

facilitate communication between counselors and clients: the Career Maturity In-

ventory (CMI; Crites, 1973; Crites & Savickas, 1995) and the Adult Career Con-

cerns Inventory (ACCI; Super, Thompson, & Lindeman, 1984).

AREER

ALIENCE

Savickas (2002) described career salience as one of the major components of career

adaptability. The concept of career salience has received significant attention in

the career literature, particularly in the career development of women. Career

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salience has been defined as the value and preference that an individual places on

his or her career and work roles in comparison to other life roles. Moreover, the

value and preference for each role may change over time (Greenhaus, 1971). This

construct has been primarily incorporated into career counseling with clients

who have already made a career choice but are having trouble committing to their

chosen occupation. Career salience has also been examined to a lesser extent

with women who are struggling to manage dual roles of family and work. It is

often used to assess the relative importance that these women place on each of

these roles to help them make relevant decisions.

As with the measures of career maturity, the instruments developed to mea-

sure career salience do not have well-established psychometric properties. How-

ever, counselors can assess clients’ career salience by asking questions related to:

•Perceived importance of work and career in their lives.

• Commitment and values in different roles (i.e., studying, working, commu-

nity service, home, and family).

•Actual time that clients spend in each of these roles relative to their values

and preferences.

•Attitudes, thoughts, and degree of planning toward career and other voca-

tionally relevant roles.

•Job involvement (e.g., work as a life interest, active job participation, work

performance as it relates to self-esteem and self-concept).

AREER

ELIEFS AND

HOUGHTS

Zunker (2002) presents “unearthing career beliefs” as one of eight goals of assess-

ment in career counseling and defines them as “clients’ beliefs about careers,

decision-making styles, identity issues, maladaptive behaviors, degrees of anxi-

ety, fear of failure, and reasons why people are undecided” (p. 212). Krumboltz, in

his Social Learning Theory of career development (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996),

further suggested that career beliefs are, in essence, faulty assumptions or ideas

that interfere with career decision making and later career progress. For example,

a client may believe that her choices today entail a lifelong commitment to a spe-

cific career path, putting undue (and perhaps debilitating) pressure on her to

make the “right” decision. Krumboltz identified ways in which career counselors

can identify, assess, and counter career beliefs or faulty assumptions:

1. Examining the origin of the content of clients’ self-observation and general-

ization ideas.

2. Providing and reinforcing problem-solving tasks.

3. Using traditional cognitive restructuring techniques to modify the dysfunc-

tional or generalization beliefs.

4. Identifying assumptions that have been previously established by clients

that block them from achieving their own career goals.

AREER

ECISION

AKING

Research on career decision making is also extensive in the vocational psychology

literature. Career decision making, the process by which individuals make career

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Beyond Interests, Needs/Values, and Abilities 361

and educational decisions, has been described by some authors as the main as-

sessment task of career counseling (Crites, 1974; Savickas, 2000; Super, 1983). More

specifi

cally, it examines how people make career decisions (decision-making style);

the precursors that may influence or impede career choice (career indecision); and,

more recently, individuals’ beliefs that they can successfully accomplish behav-

iors that will lead to desired outcomes (decision-making self-efficacy beliefs). In the

following paragraphs, these constructs are discussed in more detail, as well as the

most common ways of assessing each of them.

Career decision making is an important variable to assess in the career coun-

seling process because not all clients are similarly skilled at, or confident about,

making a career choice even after exploring their interests, skills/abilities, and

values. It is the process of arriving at an occupational or educational choice that

some clients find difficult (Savickas, 2002). This is not to say that making a career

or educational choice should be the bottom-line outcome of all career counseling.

What this does suggest, however, is that counselors need to attend particularly to

decision-making issues with clients who are still struggling, or seem more con-

fused, after the content-oriented constructs have been explored. Counseling may

then involve helping these clients develop the skills and confidence to make ca-

reer decisions in addition to making a specific career choice.

Career decision-making style is a cognitive construct, which, as described earlier,

is the process by which individuals regularly make career decisions. Decision-

making styles have been most frequently categorized as:

1. Rational—decisions are made intentionally and logically.

2. Intuitive—decisions are made based on feelings and emotional responses.

3. Dependent—decisions are made by others’ opinions (Harren, 1979).

In addition, Harren (1979) proposed that the most useful style for career decision

making was the rational style although research has been inconclusive on this

proposition (e.g., Blustein & Phillips, 1990; Mau, 1995) and the dependent style

has frequently been found to be the least adaptive of the three. Harren’s Assess-

ment of Career Decision-Making inventory (ACDM; Harren, 1979) was developed

to assess the degree to which clients adhere to these three styles. Another taxon-

omy also has been commonly used in career counseling to assess clients’ decision-

making style; that is, Jung’s four dimensions represented in the Myers-Briggs

Type Indicator (MBTI), which, in addition to being a personality measure, is used

in career counseling for the purpose of helping clients understand their own

decision-making style.

A number of researchers have examined the construct of career indecision,

most recently in explicating its connection to other core constructs in career de-

velopment. Kelly and Lee (2002), for example, noted the lack of attention to ca-

reer indecision within contemporary career development theories. They

conducted a factor analysis of assessment instruments that measure career in-

decision with the dual purpose of clarifying the different domains of the con-

struct and identifying its internal structure. Seven unique factors emerged from

their analysis:

1. Trait indecision, defined as a “pervasive and enduring form of indecision

that does not abate as information is acquired” (p. 307).

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2. Lack of information, reflecting lack of knowledge about the career decision-

making process, lack of knowledge about self, and lack of knowledge about

career information.

3. Choice anxiety, reflecting emotional distress related to having to make a ca-

reer decision.

4. Identity diffusion, defined as “an inability to adequately crystallize one’s

career relevant characteristics or to see how one’s personal characteristics

can be implemented in careers” (p. 319).

5. Disagreement with others, reflecting problems that emerge after a career

decision has been reached due to objections from significant others.

6. Positive choice conflict, representing the indecision of choosing one career

from a number of attractive alternatives.

Need for information, reflecting similar deficits to those in the “lack of infor-

mation” factor but also not recognizing the necessity of seeking information.

Based on these seven factors, Kelly and Lee (2002) proposed that career indeci-

sion (i.e., the inability to specify an educational or occupational choice) may be

due to three specific problems:

1. Problems occurring before decision making, such as information deficit and

identity diffusion.

2. The cognitive experience of trait indecision or the affective experience of

choice anxiety.

Disagreements with others that inhibit the implementation of a career

choice.

The seven factors and three client types that Kelly and Lee (2002) found should

help counselors better understand why their clients are seeking career help and

even aid in tailoring interventions to clients’ unique needs. For example, indeci-

sive and/or anxious clients may need more intensive and individualized counsel-

ing than those with primarily informational needs, while those experiencing

external conflicts may need help in negotiating with significant others (see also

S. D. Brown & McPartland, in press). Some instruments that may be used to facil-

itate assessment of career indecision include the Career Decision Scale (Osipow,

Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1987), the Career Factors Inventory (Char-

trand & Robbins, 1997), and the Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire (Gati,

Osipow, Krausz, & Saka, 2000).

The last component of career decision making is career decision-making self-

efficacy beliefs. Taylor and Betz (1983) adapted Bandura’s (1977) construct of self-

efficacy specifically to refer to an individual’s confidence in his or her ability to

effectively complete career decision-making tasks. They developed the Career

Decision Making Self Efficacy Scale (CDMSE), which is also available in a short

form (CDMSE-SF; Betz & Taylor, 1994). The measure can be used to assess clients’

feelings of competency in their abilities to self-appraise, gather occupational in-

formation, select career goals, engage in career planning, and problem solve when

difficulties are encountered, although this five-factor (i.e., subscale) structure of

the CDMSE has not been completely supported by research (Betz, Klein, & Tay-

lor, 1996).

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Beyond Interests, Needs/Values, and Abilities 363

ERSONALITY

Personalit y is included in this section on process-oriented constructs because it

seems relevant to how clients make career decisions; however, it also could be

con

ceptualized as a construct relevant to the content of career counseling (in ad-

dition to the Big Three). Personality influences the way an individual behaves

across many situations and across time and, thus, plays a pervasive role in career

choice and development.

The role of personality in career development and career counseling presents an

interesting paradox. On one hand, personality plays a central role in many career

development theories, and the links between personality and other career vari-

ables such as vocational interests have captured the attention of researchers (see

Hansen, Chapter 12, this volume). However, within the context of career counsel-

ing, the assessment of personality often plays a lesser role than other types of

sessment. As noted by Zunker and Osborn (2002), counselors could use person-

ality inventories to measure clients’ social traits, motivational drives and needs,

attitudes, and adjustment—all of which are important to career exploration and

choice. Yet, Zunker (2002) also noted that while the case for using personality in-

ventories in career counseling is well established, there is little evidence that such

inventories are widely used.

Nonetheless, personality assessment has a place in career counseling, particu-

larly to supplement information gathered from ability, need, and interest assess-

ments (Costa, McCrae, & Kay, 1995; McCaulley & Martin, 1995). For example,

Costa et al. (1995) suggest that personality information can help in understand-

ing the client’s strengths and weaknesses and result in more appropriate and re-

alistic career choices. For example, a client with a high level of extraversion may

do well to consider career options that encourage and value verbal skill and gre-

gariousness. Several personality inventories are available in interpretive packages

with other career-related instruments (e.g., the Strong Interest Inventory and the

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) or have interpretive report options that address ca-

reer issues (e.g., the 16 PF or the NEO-PI).

Personality assessment when used in career counseling typically focuses on

“normal” personality traits rather than maladaptive or pathological traits. The

most frequently used framework to conceptualize normal personality is the Big

Five or five-factor model of personality (Digman, 1990), which suggests that normal

personality can be comprehensively understood by five broad human traits: extra-

version (quantity and intensity of interpersonal interaction), emotional stability

(emotional adjustment and self-confidence), openness to experience (willingness

to entertain new ideas and values), agreeableness (cooperation and interpersonal

warmth), and conscientiousness (planning, organizing, and carrying out tasks).

he Big Five model has been used extensively to examine job performance and

other work behavior (see Saks, Chapter 7, this volume; Fritzsche & Parrish, Chap-

ter 8, this volume; Russell, Chapter 9, this volume). Accumulated research indi-

cates that conscientiousness and emotional stability are the dimensions most

predictive of overall job performance across occupations (Hurtz & Donovan, 2000;

Russell, Chapter 9, this volume; Salgado, 1997), while emotional stability also pre-

dicts job satisfaction (Fritzsche & Parrish, Chapter 8, this volume). Both conscien-

tiousness and extraversion have been implicated as important predictors of job

search success (Saks, Chapter 7, this volume). Other dimensions predict specific

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types of career-

relevant constructs or other adjustment criteria, such as extraver-

sion with leadership behavior, conscientiousness and emotional stability with per-

formance motivation and career success (Judge, Bono, Ilies, & Gerhardt, 2002;

Judge, Heller, & Mount, 2002; Judge, Higgins, Thoresen, & Barrick, 1999; Judge &

Ilies, 2002).

In addition to the Big Five, other personality characteristics have demonstrated

associations with career-related behavior, such as achievement orientation, locus

of control, instrumentality, expressiveness, anxiety, optimism, risk-taking, collec-

tivism, and shyness (Lowman, 1991; Tokar, Fischer, & Subich, 1998). These per-

sonality characteristics are relevant to the process and content of individuals’

career decisions but are rarely formally assessed in career counseling. Rather,

counselors are likely to infer clients’ standing on these characteristics via other

information as reported by clients or observed in counseling.

Recent work has focused on the overlap of the Big Five personality dimensions

with vocational interests. A number of studies, now summarized via meta-analyses,

suggest that the link between personality and interests is stronger for some di-

mensions than for others. Namely, substantial connections exist between artistic

and investigative interests and openness to experience, between enterprising and

social interests and extraversion, and between social interests and agreeableness.

Realistic interests do not appear to overlap directly with any aspects of personal-

ity (Barrick, Mount, & Gupta, 2003; Hansen, Chapter 12, this volume; Larson, Rot-

tinghaus, & Borgen, 2002).

The most typical methods of personality assessment are well-established, for-

mal instruments, including the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), the

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule

(EPPS), and the 16PF. In contrast to other constructs, personality is not likely to

be assessed via informal methods, although as noted earlier, it may be inferred

from other aspects of clients’ behavior and self-report.

The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) is available

in two forms: a 60-item version that provides scores on the Big Five personality

traits (extraversion, emotional stability, openness, agreeableness, conscientious-

ness), as well as a 240-item version that adds scores on 30 facet scales (six facets

per Big Five dimension; Costa et al., 1995). One of the available scoring options is a

Professional Development Report that may be particularly useful for personality

assessment related to career adjustment or change because it includes interpretive

nformation about problem-solving skills; planning, organizing, and implementa-

tion skills; style of relating to others; personal style; and a summary of an indi-

vidual’s “most distinctive characteristics.”

The MBTI (Myers, McCaulley, Quenk, & Hammer, 1998) presents scores on

four dimensions derived from Jung’s types: extroversion-introversion, sensing-

intuition, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceiving. As noted earlier, the MBTI is

available in a package with the Strong Interest Inventory (see Hansen, Chapter 12,

this volume), and a career report is available for the MBTI alone or in combination

with Strong. In addition, a work styles report is available for the MBTI, which in-

cludes interpretive information on clients’ communication, information-gathering,

decision-making, and project management styles. The MBTI has many potential

applications in career counseling, including serving as a framework for analyzing

job/career activities, increasing self-understanding, integrating other assessment

data, understanding decision-making styles, structuring information-gathering

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Beyond Interests, Needs/Values, and Abilities 365

activities, engaging the client in planning and taking action, and enhancing the

client-counselor relationship and the process of career counseling (McCaulley &

Martin, 1995).

Other measures may provide useful information but are not as widely used,

such as the EPPS and the 16PF. The EPPS (Edwards, 1959) measures 15 personality

vari

ables based on the manifest needs proposed by Murray (1938): achievement,

deference, order, exhibition, autonomy, affiliation, intraception, succorance, domi-

nance,

abasement, nurturance, change, endurance, heterosexuality, and aggres-

sion. The

Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF; Cattell, 1989) includes

bipolar scales

measuring warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, dominance, live-

liness, rule-

consciousness, social boldness, sensitivity, vigilance, abstractedness,

privateness, apprehension, openness to change, self-reliance, perfectionism, and

tension. In addition, scores are available on five global factor scales that correspond

to the Big Five personality factors. Although early work on the 16PF focused on vo-

cational personality patterns, current versions of the instrument do not contain ex-

plicit information related to vocational choice. However, a Personal Career

Development Profile report is available that relates the 16PF characteristics to a

wide variety of work-related issues.

Personality assessment during initial career exploration is most likely to be

used to enhance client self-understanding and to examine the match between an

individual’s strengths and career options. As with any type of assessment, exam-

ining personality characteristics may serve as a springboard for discussion be-

tween counselor and client. For example, a client who is uncomfortable with

highly structured environments would benefit from considering how this prefer-

ence might impact a career choice. Personality assessment, thus, may be included

as part of a thorough, integrated assessment package, including interests, person-

ality, values, and skills. During career choice and entry, personality assessment

also may be used as a screening device for entry into specific careers or placement

within organizations. A human resources department may use results of person-

ality assessment such as the MBTI to address fit of individual employees with the

existing styles of different operational units. In terms of career adjustment, assess-

ent of personality may be used when individuals are dissatisfied with their

career/job choice, are performing at less-than-satisfactory levels, or have been

terminated from employment (Pickman, 1994). An individual’s strong need for

dominance, for example, may contribute to maladjustment or dissatisfaction

within a specific organizational setting.

ERCEIVED

ARRIERS

Discussion of barriers to making and implementing career choices originated in

the literature related to the career psychology of women as a way to explain the

gap between women’s abilities and their achievements (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987;

Fitzgerald & Crites, 1980). Attention to perceived career barriers has increased

substantially in the past decade, particularly in light of the development of Social

Cognitive Career Theory

(SCCT; Lent et al., 1994; Lent, Brown, & Hackett 2000;

Lent,

Chapter 5, this volume). Perceived barriers and interpersonal supports are

intertwined and may be best considered as a pair of related constructs to assess in

counseling. These constructs are widely viewed as important to address in career

counseling, yet the instruments available to assess the constructs are more

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