AGCAS Scotland training session 24 October 2017 delivered by Emma Bolger, Lecturer in Career Guidance and Development at the University of the West of Scotland.

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AGCAS Training Session, October 2017
Hybrids and metatheories: are new career development
theories overcomplicating things?
Emma Bolger
Lecturer
Career Guidance and Development MSc,
University of the West of Scotland

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Session content
We will focus on the following questions:
• What are the risks and benefits of new career development theories?
• Is there really anything ‘new’ about the new theories?
• What is the impact of theoretical opportunism or picking and choosing
theory to suit circumstances?
• Are we moving towards truly eclectic application, offering an all-
encompassing holistic interaction for every client?
Discussion: implications for practice
Followed by time for networking

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Disclaimer: my approach and research
Research Areas:
• Career development theory
• Equality of opportunity in career
choice
• Inclusive practice in career
guidance
PhD:
• Gendered career decision making
• Contribution to theoretical and
practical approaches to mitigating
gender bias in career choice
• Gender tolerances and broader
inclusivity of career development
theory

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Update on career development theory

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We have convergence and conflict
A shift towards…
• Hybrids
• Metatheories
While…
• We are working in a sector
based on a small academic
discipline, noted for its
“developmental infancy”
with inadequacies and gaps
in relation to “its failure to
account for diversity”
(Patton and McMahon,
2006, p.7)

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Well-known distinct psychological
‘versus’ sociological typologies
Matching, trait and factor,
person-environment fit
(Parsons, Holland, Dawis
and Lofquist)
Developmental (Super,
Ginzberg, Gottfredson)
Psychodynamic (Roe,
Bordin)
Cognitive (Social Cognitive
Career Theory, Lent,
Brown, Hackett, Betz)
By no means an exhaustive list,
however small our discipline is

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How and why the typologies have
developed into hybrids
• Hybrids
– consider both the psychologic and sociological
• We work in an interdisciplinary area
– it is natural that postulations arise that combine sociological and psychological elements
• Arguable that modern hybrids are most popular with practitioners as
they are informed by practice
– constructivist and narrative theories informed by constructivist and narrative guidance
tool, techniques, frameworks and models
• There is nothing particularly contemporary about hybrids
– Social Learning Theory of Career Decision making (Krumboltz, 1979) considers inherited
abilities, genetics and environmental conditions

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Theoretical challenges
• Constructivist counselling: rooted in an individual’s perception of
self
– Do practitioners (without philosophical training) always share the
same worldview as their client? (i.e. issues of ontology, epistemology)
– Can a theory explain the decisions of the many while simultaneously
propose that all decision processes are unique (i.e. homogeneity and
heterogeneity)?
• Storytelling extended over a life span still owes much to the work of
Super – e.g. “The life design framework” (Savickas et al., 2009)
– We are still using older theory to shape contemporary theory

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Metatheories
• Are metatheories the answer?
– McMahon and Patton’s Systems Theory Framework “values the contribution
of all theories” (2006, p.95).
– If it works, is the implication that no single career development theory
adequately explains the career-decision making of all individuals?
– How does this relate to practitioners who favour one or a limited number of
theories and believe them to be universally applicable?
– Are theorists (academics and scholars, on a global scale) just creating more
theories, and bespoke theories, which do not adequately explain career-
decision making for all?

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Bespoke theories
Specific career development theories exist for specific groups, usually those
under-represented in the labour market
– based for example on gender, race and ethnicity
Do we need more bespoke theories?
– this is not a new argument.
– On gender, Swanson and Fouad question “whether separate theories
are necessary or desirable” (1999, p.156)

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The problem(?)with bespoke theories
• Separate theories over-emphasise
differences
• Moderate approaches are merely
“aware”
• Both extremes will omit some
psychological or sociological
influences on career choice
• Can be time-bound
Bimrose’s work on gender highlights the challenges. If a
separate theory is needed to effectively explain women’s
career decision making then separate theories may be needed
for all under-represented groups (Bimrose, 2001, p.91) yet
delivery of career support needs to be tailored to women to
“meet their individual needs” (Bimrose, 2014, p.86).
• What “norm” are the theories
comparing to?
• Implications for “rational” and
“pragmatic” career decisions
• Limited room for intersectionality
• Provide leverage
• Provide justification for advocacy

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It’s about what we take to and interpret in
practice, but how do we practice?
• Do we want an increasingly complex hybrid theoretical landscape?
• Do we already take a metatheoretical approach?
• Is referring to what we do as “eclecticism” a pleasant way of describing ourselves as
opportunists who pick and choose theory to suit the client in front of us?
– Are there ethical implications to doing this? What might be sacrificed?
• Do we even consider career development theory in our practice?
• Do we prefer simplicity?
– Why is Krumboltz’s Happenstance Learning Theory (2009) so popular?
• It attempts to formalise “chance”
• It is simple to understand
• It attempts to sit in the space between guidance models and CDT, engaging
frontline practitioners because they feel included
• If we are working in metatheories then maybe we need to revisit the theories that “never
made it” – an MSc topic?

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A metatheoretical approach:
Discussion
• In the age of precision medicine are we also
approaching the age of precision career
development?
• Do we yet have the ability to create a
customised all-encompassing profile of every
individual based on bespoke and accurate
predictions?

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References
Bimrose, J. (2001) Girls and women: challenges for careers guidance practice, British Journal of Guidance &
Counselling, 29 (1).
Bimrose, J., Watson, M., McMahon, M., Haasler, S., Tomassini, M. and Suzanne, P.A. (2014) The problem with
women? Challenges posed by gender for career guidance practice, The International Journal for Educational
and Vocational Guidance, 14, 7–88.
Krumboltz, J. (2009) ‘The Happenstance Learning Theory’, Journal of Career Assessment, 17(2), 135-152.
Patton, W. and McMahon, M. (2006) Career Development and Systems Theory: Connecting Theory and Practice
(2nd edition) Rotterdam: Sense Publications.
Savickas, M., L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J., Duarte, M. E., Guichard, J., Soresi, S., Van Esbroeck, R, van
Vianen, A. E. M (2009) ‘Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century’, Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 75, 239–250.
Swanson, J. L. and Fouad, N. (1999) Career theory and practice: Learning through case studies London: SAGE.
Contact details
Emma Bolger
emma.bolger@uws.ac.uk
www.emmabolger.co.uk
Twitter: @bolger_emma and @UWS_CGD