Unit 4 Exploring the Problem—Understanding the Self

Commentary

Introduction

In Unit 3 we talked about the beginning stages of career counselling: developing the relationship and defining the problem. In Units 4 and 5 we move into the middle phase of counselling: exploring person and context. Many clients do the bulk of their work in the exploration stage. At this point, clients have defined the problem and have identified the information that they need to make a decision or move ahead in career planning. In both Units 4 and 5 we’ll examine strategies and resources that can be used in exploration. Unit 4 will focus on exploration of the self, and Unit 5 will focus on exploration of context, including the labour market and educational opportunities. Numerous strategies and career resources are available to help with exploration of self and context. Chapter 5 from the Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey (2009) text gives information about assessments and career information. The DVD segments from the Merrill Education Media Series (2005) are examples of counsellors working with clients during the exploration phase of career planning.

Exploring the Problem: An Introduction

How the counsellor and client proceed in the exploration stage depends largely on how the problem has been defined. In one sense, exploration has been ongoing since the counsellor and client first met, but after the client and counsellor agree on a clear problem definition, exploration becomes much more targeted. If the problem has been expressed as a constraint statement, then the focus becomes removing the constraint. For example, if the constraint statement is “I don’t know which major to declare because I am interested in so many areas of study,” then exploration would likely begin by examining the client’s interests, and then link those interests to educational and occupational possibilities. As exploration of self and context moves along, the client and counsellor may refine the problem definition or re-define the issue entirely. For example, the client who has too many interests and can’t decide on a major may discover through exploration that the actual constraint is her values. Suppose she came into counselling interested in various options, including creative writing, art history, and education. After taking an assessment and talking with the counsellor, however, she realizes that while her interests vary, she feels that the only worthy career choice is education, as this is a helping profession that is valued in her family. She has never examined her own values or thought critically about the messages she has received about career choices, so the problem definition now changes to “I don’t know which major to declare because I don’t know what my values are and how they relate to my educational and career possibilities.” Now, the client and counsellor shift their exploratory efforts to examining her values. Exploration can take many different paths as counsellor and client work through a problem together.

Counselling can begin with either exploration of self or context, although it more commonly begins by focusing on the individual (exploration of the self). This is partly due to the emphasis placed on the self in Western culture (i.e., career decisions are considered an individual choice) and partly because people often come to counselling without an awareness of personal factors that contribute to career development. Nonetheless, exploration can just as easily begin with contextual aspects. The counsellor’s ability to view a career problem with an external lens helps to bring into focus those elements that are important in defining one’s career but that are often minimized or ignored in our individualistic culture (e.g., family, culture, geography, labour market). We’ll discuss these further in Unit 5.

In exploration, it is important that both counsellor and client agree on the focus and that the client is engaged in the process. Without agreement and engagement, the working alliance (WA) will suffer, which greatly reduces the possibility that the process will be successful. All exploratory strategies and resources used should be presented to the client in a framework that allows him or her to understand the purpose of the information and how exploratory efforts relate to the expressed goal (i.e., defined problem). The career wheel in Chapter 4 of your textbook provides such a framework (Fig. 4.1, Amundson Harris-Bowlsbey & Niles, 2009). It gives clients a clear picture of the internal and external aspects that contribute to career goals, and it functions as a guide to help them navigate the exploration process. The career counselling DVD uses the career wheel (e.g., Program 1: Clients 1 and 2) to great effect (Merrill Education Media Series, 2005). Such a framework allows clients to see where their efforts are headed and educates them about the various components that contribute to the development of career goals. Another way of helping clients make sense of the information they are exploring is the Archway of Determinants presented in Super’s developmental theory (Fig. 3.1, Amundson et al., 2009). This arch represents the various factors that contribute to career decision making and could also be used to guide exploratory efforts in career counselling. While the choice of framework is immaterial, it is important that the counsellor use a framework to help clients think through problems thematically and to help clients relate the activities and resources used in counselling to their individual needs. As discussed in Unit 3, counsellors who work thematically are more likely to improve their working alliances (Kivlighan & Schmitz, 1992) and thus more likely to have successful outcomes (Horvath & Symonds, 1991). Logically, clients who understand what they are doing and why are more likely to “buy into” the process, become actively engaged in exploration, and achieve better outcomes.

The next section of the commentary offers some general points on career resources followed by a discussion of different strategies and tools that can be used in exploration of the self.

Career Resources

During the exploration stage, the counsellor will likely use career resources. In this course, we define career resources as sources of information that relate to career development other than that which comes from the client or the career development practitioner. This intentionally broad definition represents the wide scope of potential resources, including websites, books, personal assessments, newspapers, videos, the client’s significant others, and workers in various occupations.

Resources can be consulted for any career development need. Apart from aiding in exploration of various aspects of self and context, resources can be used to help consolidate information, make decisions following exploration, aid in job search activities, and help an individual maintain and enhance a current career direction. The readings in this course give you numerous examples of career resources that can be used for various client needs. A career resource should always be chosen to meet the need of the client.

Practitioners and clients can use the following general questions to evaluate the appropriateness and quality of career resources:

1.      Where is the client situated in his/her career development? The following general framework may be helpful for considering types of career needs:

a.       educational and employment readiness (i.e., the client’s readiness to seek and maintain school or work options; barriers to employment, such as addictions, health concerns, childcare challenges, etc., should be considered; if a barrier is apparent that the career practitioner cannot address, the client should be referred to an appropriate service prior to beginning career counselling)

b.      exploration of self

c.       exploration of the world of work: labour market and education

d.      job search

e.       career management

2.      Within this framework, which client need motivates the search for a resource at this stage in the counselling process?

3.      What resources could potentially meet this need?

4.      For each resource, ask the following questions:

a.       What is the purpose of the resource? Does this purpose match the need of the client?

b.      What is the content of the resource (i.e., what is the resource about)? Does this match the need of the client?

c.       What is the content level of the resource? Is it appropriate for the client? (i.e., consider appropriateness of language level and relevance of examples and metaphors)

d.      What is the medium/format of the resource? Is this format an appropriate way to present information to this client? (e.g., some clients are more comfortable using online tools, others are more comfortable with printed materials, while others would rather learn through a hands-on activity or by talking to a person in the field)

e.       What is the tone and style of the resource? Is it appropriate for this client? (e.g., the tone and style of a resource created for high school students would likely be very different than the tone/style of a resource created to help an executive manage his/her career development). The tone and style can be determined by looking at such things as the language, graphics, and style of print used.

f.       Is the resource inclusive, and is the client’s demographic represented in the resource?

g.      What is the cost of the resource? Is this cost affordable for the person/organization who will be paying? (Sometimes the buyer is not the same as the client; e.g., a school district might pay for resources that students will use)

The above questions apply to any resource being considered. What is important is that the decision to use a career resource is motivated by the need of the client, the resource is appropriate for the client, and the client agrees to use that resource. Additional factors to consider when using different types of resources will be discussed later in this unit and in Unit 5.

Exploring the Problem: Understanding the Self

There are many different ways of approaching exploration of the self. As discussed in the previous section, the career wheel (Fig. 4.1, Amundson et al., 2009) identifies values, interests, personal style, and skills as important aspects of the self to consider in career planning. Other factors to explore may include intelligence, aptitude, career constructs, career beliefs, life themes, and personal narratives. Which aspects of the self the counsellor and client explore depends largely on the problem definition and the counsellor’s guiding career theory. How the problem has been defined will be a primary deciding factor. If the person has a very good sense of self, then self-exploration may be focused on the area in which the person feels that s/he needs information. If self-exploration is new for the client, it will probably be worthwhile to examine a variety of personal factors, so the scope of exploration will be broader. A second factor is the career theory that the counsellor uses to guide his or her practice. For example, a counsellor partial to Holland’s Theory of Type will likely frame clients’ career problems in terms of congruence and will focus on exploration of personal type and interests. Once these factors have been clarified, the counsellor will help move clients towards occupations that are a good match for their types. In contrast, a counsellor working from a postmodern narrative approach will focus self-exploration on themes that are evident in a client’s career story. The theory (or theories) that the counsellor ascribes to defines the lens through which they view problems. This is why it is important for helping professionals to consider the theories that resonate for them, as these ideas will shape their work with clients.

Assessments

Resources used to explore various facets of the self are called assessments. Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey define assessments as “the use of any formal or informal technique or instrument to collect data about a client” (2009, p. 160). Although assessments can be used at various stages of the career planning process, they are most commonly used at the exploration stage.

As with other resources, assessments should be viewed as one tool in the career planning process. Assessments “should not be used unless there is a specific reason for doing so, a reason that both the client and counselor understand” (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2009, p. 163). Clients commonly believe that a career counsellor can give them a test that can indicate definitively what direction they should pursue in their working life. This is a myth. It is easy for a counsellor to offer clients what they say they want, and offer a plethora of assessments. Unfortunately, without putting information into context and helping clients make sense of and apply the data they gather from these tools, the assessment results are often not very useful, which can leave clients feeling disappointed with the results. Unfortunately, this experience with career counselling is not uncommon. It is essential that counsellors and clients understand the uses and limitations of assessment strategies and tools and that choosing assessments and interpreting the results are both collaborative processes.

When assessments are used well they can contribute tremendously to the career counselling process. Clients are generally very interested in talking and learning about themselves, and often are not aware of and/or have not considered all of the areas of the self that play a part in career decision making. There are three reasons to use assessments (Amundson et al., 2009; Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2009):

1.      Assessments can help the counsellor learn more about the needs of a client or student.

2.      Assessments can help clients learn more about themselves, and the counsellor can help them use this information to further their career goals.

3.      Assessments can be used to measure change or progress over time with regards to career variables (e.g., career maturity), which can be useful for evaluative purposes.

It is the responsibility of the counsellor or practitioner to be competent in using a given assessment tool. Not only are these competencies essential for helping clients to get the most out of assessments, but using assessment tools inappropriately can be harmful to clients, making assessment competencies an ethical matter (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2009). Make sure you review the section that addresses assessment competency in the Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey reading. Take note of what the counsellor must know and do to make good use of these career tools during the exploration stage.

There are two broad categories of assessments: formal assessments (also known as standardized assessments), and informal assessments (also known as non-standardized). Chapter 6 of the Amundson et al. (2009) text seems to imply that structured assessments and standardized assessments are the same thing, which is incorrect. Standardized assessments are always structured, but structured assessments don’t have to be standardized. It is possible to have non-standardized/informal assessments that are also structured.

Formal assessments are measures that “have been subjected to scientific rigor; [the] authors and publishers . . . have performed research on the instrument in an effort to assure quality and to be able to know the properties that the instrument possesses” (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2009, p. 176, italics in original). Formal assessments can be further classified into inventories or tests. Inventories assess “content areas in which there are no right or wrong answers,” while in tests, “the items do have right or wrong answers” (p. 176). A formal assessment is generally distributed with a technical manual that gives information about its development and properties such as validity, reliability, and characteristics of the norm group (if norm-referenced). Research about the usefulness and limitations of a formal assessment instrument should be available either in peer-reviewed journals or other publications. The readings for this unit give numerous examples of formal assessments that can be used to provide information about any number of career-related variables. Some formal assessments require that the professional using the measure have special training to ensure that it is administered, scored, and interpreted correctly. Factors to consider when choosing a formal assessment are listed on pages 186-187 of the Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey (2009) reading and should be considered in addition to those mentioned earlier in the commentary.

The DVD segment “Student’s Future Plans” (Program 2: Client Four, Merrill Education Media Series, 2005) gives an example of a counsellor administering Holland’s Self-Directed Search (1994) to a client (Jeff) who is exploring how his interest areas relate to different types of work. This formal assessment is straightforward to administer and can be self-interpreted, so the counsellor’s role is to provide some context for the assessment (so the client knows what it is measuring) and to facilitate the interpretation. Notice that lots of leeway is given for Jeff to make sense of the results, with the counsellor asking questions and summarizing his responses to make sure she has understood correctly. This clip looks at the set-up and interpretation of this assessment rather briefly; the conversation about results could be further developed if they had more time. Because this assessment is based on Holland’s theory (as described in Unit 2 of this course), it is easy for the client to compare his personal type to occupations with matching characteristics, as this work has already been done by the test developers.

Informal assessments are defined in contrast to formal assessments. Unlike formal assessments, informal assessments have not been subjected to scientific rigour, and their properties are unknown. Clients cannot compare their results to the results of others or connect results to various occupations, and there is no standardized way of interpreting the results (interpretation is up to the counsellor) (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2009). Informal assessments can be either structured or unstructured. With unstructured assessments, the counsellor has discretion over how the assessment is completed, although suggested guidelines may be provided. With structured assessments, the process and questions are set and are related to an underlying theory or model of career development (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2009).

The textbook provides numerous examples of informal assessments that can be used to help clients elucidate different aspects of the self. Some examples include card sorts, checklists, lines of questioning that encourage storytelling, and the use of metaphors. The assigned DVD segments for this unit also provide examples of counsellors using informal assessments during the self-exploration stage with clients (Merrill Education Media Series, 2005). Program 1 (Client One) gives an example of the counsellor first using an informal unstructured activity to find out about her client’s interests (“Career Direction”). In the second segment, “Structured Activities,” the same counsellor and client work together on an informal structured activity (filling in the sections of the career wheel) to get a fuller picture of the aspects of the self that influence the client’s career development. With Client Two (Program 1), the counsellor first asks her to list her interests apart from work and then uses a variation of the Pattern Identification Exercise (Amundson et al., 2009, Chapter 6) to broaden her perspective of occupational possibilities. In the final segment with Client Two, “Use of Metaphor,” the counsellor and client work together to develop a metaphor to gain new insight into what the client needs for the journey ahead. Notice how both clients one and two want to jump right into talking about work, while the counsellors encourage them to take a more holistic view of their lives and discuss non-work related hobbies and interests that have relevance to their career concerns.

The readings for this unit discuss the relative merits and limitations of informal and formal assessments. Different practitioners prefer different assessment measures, depending on their training, theoretical orientation, and the type of client problems they often encounter in their practice. Ideally, counsellors are aware of and able to use a variety of assessment types. Knowledge of a range of tools makes a counsellor more likely to be able to find assessments that suit the needs of their clients.

In the next unit we will continue discussing the exploration stage, but will focus on context and career information. Before proceeding to Unit 5, check your understanding of the concepts covered in Unit 4 by answering the study questions and completing the application assignment.

1.      How does an organizing framework help in the exploration stage? Give two examples of organizing frameworks that could be used with clients.

2.      Explain how a counsellor would determine the usefulness of a particular resource for a specific client.

3.       

a.       What is an assessment?

An assessment is the use of any kind of informal or formal technique or instrument to collect data about a client. The tests are there to assist people at any point to identify their current interests and skills so they may identify the next educational or occupational choice in the sequence that makes up career development.

b.      What are some of the facets of self that assessment measures focus on?

4.      Why is it important for the counsellor and client to work together to choose an assessment and to analyze its results?

5.       

a.       What are the three reasons to use assessments?

b.      For each reason, give an example of a scenario and an assessment measure that could be used to fulfill the need.

6.      Explain the difference between a test and an inventory, and give an example of each.

7.      Explain the difference between a structured and an unstructured assessment, and give two examples of each.

8.      What are advantages and disadvantages of using a) formal assessments, and b) informal assessments with clients?

9.      List two different assessment tools (informal or formal) that could be used for each of the four segments of the career wheel (Fig. 4.1, Amundson et al., 2009) that relate to self exploration (i.e., skills, interests, values, personal style).