The purpose of this chapter is to add further legitimacy to the growing number of career counselors who wish to engage clients in an in-depth exploration of their families influence on their career choice. Until recently, information about the influence of the family of origin on career decision making has not had much impact in the career…

Educating career counselors and other practitioners in the career development field on at least the basics of financial planning concepts will enable them to provide clients with a more comprehensive approach to career decisions. A client with an understanding of financial planning basics will be better prepared as an informed, engaged, and…

It has been suggested that self-efficacy expectations may have a cognitive influence on career decision making (CDM) and vocational achievement (e.g., range of career options and persistence in career exploration). Personal self-efficacy expectations may influence the CDM process and career motivation. This study explored the role of self-efficacy…

Career certainty refers to the degree to which individuals feel confident, or decided, about their occupational plans. Since Parsons first classified people into career-decided and career-undecided groups, counseling researchers and practitioners have worked to formally assess career choice status. These efforts have yielded two generations of…

This digest addresses some of the special career planning needs of gifted and talented students and offers intervention guidelines for the elementary, junior high, senior high, college, and adult levels. Indications that students are having difficulty coping with the multipotentiality of their talents may be evidenced by early difficulty in making…

Labor market information (LMI) describes the interaction between occupations and employers. Three major components make up LMI: economic or labor force information, occupational information, and demographic information. Various agencies, including federal departments and state employment security agencies, compile LMI. A guide to the information…

This compilation of three papers investigates theoretical and practical facets of career development, focusing on cognitive theory and decision-making theory and their roles in the formation of computerized career development systems. In the first paper ("Cognitive-Behavioral Theory and Its Application to Career Development"), Gerald…

Career exploration is a developmental stage identified by career development theorists and occurs typically during adolescents when boys and girls try out various work roles in part time work, volunteer work, or in school/community activities. This digest focuses on gender differences in the role of assessment in the exploration process. Girls…

To assist career education and career development practitioners in helping students use occupational information, this Practitioner File begins by discussing the role of occupational information in career decision making. The next section addresses considerations and concerns in using online information such as user proficiency, quality of…

Family influence is an important force in preparing youth for their roles as workers. Family background factors found to be associated with career development include parents' socioeconomic status, their educational level, biogenetic factors, and family income. Family processes of interaction, communication, and behavior influence what the child…

Markus and Nurius (1986) are credited with developing the concept of possible selves, which represents individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they fear becoming. It has been applied in research and practice with adolescents exploring career choices; adults in transition; and older adults envisioning…

This monograph provides an overview of the National Career Development Guidelines developed by the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee and presents competency-based career development strategies related to the National Guidelines. The strategies were identified through an analysis of career development abstracts included in…

How to locate information that can be used in career decision making is the subject of this digest. The first section lists the career/occupational information collections generally found in public libraries, including printed resources, information about associations, information about local sources of job information, information on specific…