Green Guidance

Abstract

A number of well-known career development theories are focused on the individual's career. Examples of this include Super's life-span theory (Super, 1957), illustrated later by the career rainbow which goes up and down on an individual basis (Super, 1980). Holland (1997) used the metaphor of the hexagon to illustrate his highly influential person-environment fit theory: another individualistic approach. Gottfredson (2002), in her theory of circumscription and compromise, also focused on the individual career. So did Gelatt (1989) in introducing the concept positive uncertainty and Krumboltz, Levin, and Mitchell (1999) and Krumboltz and Levin (2004) with theft equally bipolar and dialogical ideas of planned happenstance. What these North American mainly middle-class-based theories have in common is that they reflect a mainstream, individualistic culture, a Westemized culture. Even constructivist approaches have this bias when addressing moral and ethical issues in career development: "Every worry and trouble, big and small, that a person can experience has an ethical-moral dimension. To ask: what kind of career is best and possible for me is to ask: How should I live my life?" (Peavy, 2002, p. 12). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)(chapter)