Week 11 Blog: Chapter 15

        I thought the debate we had last class on college is for everyone versus college is only for some was very enlightening.  I can see pros and cons to both sides.  I enjoyed talking about the Fundamental Attribution Error.  This is how when something wrong happens to someone else then it is due to a dispositional factor but when something wrong happens to you then it is due to a situational factor.  This relates to the debate because if a person does not get a college degree then that person is a loser, which is a dispositional factor.

        I found coming up with a definition of success to be helpful.  I think it is important to think about what success means for the client but it is also important to think about what success means for the therapist or counselor.  The client might define success as not yelling at his family for a week and the therapist needs to support that definition by trying to help the client achieve that success.  However, the therapist also has a definition of success that could be to help every client that he/she works with.  The therapist needs to be aware of what his/her definition of success is in order to achieve it or work on achieving it.  The therapist needs to make sure that his/her definition of success does not prevent him/her from helping each client or does not cause harm to any client.

        In chapter 15, Brown (2012) discusses career development programming in business organizations.  Career development programs in businesses began in order to provide equal employment opportunity (Brown, 2012, p. 332).  However, this is not equal employment opportunity.  A person needs to be hired by the company and then the career development programs can be used.  People who are already working for the company get hired for other positions in that company before any outside people are hired.  This does not sound like equal opportunity.  It sounds like it is extremely difficult to get hired in any company but once you are employed in a company then it is an equal opportunity to get hired in other positions in that company.

        Career development programming in businesses need to have a manager who develops the program (Brown, 2012, p. 334).  A manager should not be in charge of a career development program.  A career counselor needs to be in charge of the program.  It is discussed that the manager would need to know about career development, testing, and career counseling (Brown, 2012, p. 334).  However, a career counselor goes to school to get trained in those areas.  Therefore, a career counselor would be the best to be in charge of a career development program.  A manager would also need to run his/her business and would therefore, not be able to keep his/her full attention on the career development of his/her employees.  A career counselor would be fully focused on the career development needs of the employees.  A manager would be biased towards his/her business and would probably persuade his/her employees to keep careers in that business.  However, those employees might benefit by obtaining careers in another field.  However, a career counselor would be non-biased and non-judgmental by helping the employees find the best careers for them no matter what company or career it is.

Reference

Brown, D.  (2012).  Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed.).  New York: Pearson Education, Inc.