The Gibson (2005) article was interesting to see the link between the life career development definition that was given and how to perhaps properly for a conscious career plan through genograms as a start. The article provided that life career development is the “self-development over a person’s life span through the integration of the roles, settings, and events in a person’s life” (Gibson 2005). I agree in part with this definition because a person’s life roles, settings, and events impact their career development. I think that this definition ties into what we talked about in class and the role of social justice in career development. Some of the conclusions that we reached in class is that people may not find meaningful jobs because society has taken away the meaningfulness in some lines of work or belittling the meaning of work that could prove to be meaningful to some individuals. Life roles, setting, and events influence career development and leads to what was discussed in the Gibson (2005) article.
Gibson (2005) first made an interesting point that parental expectations and role models influence career aspirations and educational decisions. She emphasized that by examining family dynamics are important and that is the reason to start genograms or family trees early, as early as elementary school. I think that starting a simple family tree in elementary school is important because children already have certain interests that are key and known that will most likely be part of their future careers. It is also important to see how the family dynamics are set up in the child’s life and the family tree serves as an activity that could warrant parental help and participation, which is important because Gibson (2005) suggested that role models and parental expectations influence career aspirations. However, I work with a child that has a traumatic past and is now with an adoptive family. I think that doing a family tree with the child that I work with may be complicated and bring about uncertainty of who the child is and where they belong. I like that Gibson (2005) mentioned this difficulty but I wish it would have been expanded upon further. I like that the article suggested starting a family tree in elementary school. Then to continue and expand the family tree into a genogram that is more involved in middle and high school. I wish that when I was younger I created a family tree and genogram to better organize my career aspirations and if they were influenced by my family members in some way.
After reading chapter 2 I have a better understanding of the reasons for genograms in career development and the foundations of some of the career development theories. When reading Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice I was interested in his “pure” personality types of realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional (Brown, 2012, p. 30). I found myself falling within a few of his personality types and then other personality types where I was the complete opposite. I found myself fitting into the investigative, but only come aspects, the artistic type, social type, and the conventional type. I can see the characteristics expressed in Holland’s personality that I fell under expressed in my hobbies, interests, and work.
References
Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development
(10th ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
Gibson, D. (2005). The use of genograms in career counseling with elementary,
middle and high school students. The Career Development Quarterly, 53,
353-362.
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