The general principles underlying developmental approaches to careers guidance are that: ●● individual development is a continuous process;
●● the developmental process is irreversible;
●● these processes can be differentiated into patterns called stages in the life span; ●● and that the result of normal development is increasing maturity
The names most closely associated with this theory of vocational choice are Eli Ginzberg and Donald Super.
2. Eli Ginzberg
Ginzberg et al. (1951) proposed three life stages which broadly corresponded with chronological age ●● First came the fantasy stage which lasted up until eleven years old;
●● second, the tentative stage, lasting from ages eleven to seventeen, with the three substages of …show more content…
Donald Super
Super was a doctoral student of Ginzberg’s and developed many of Ginzberg’s ideas. He thought Ginzberg’s work had weaknesses, one of which was the failure to take into account the very significant existing body of information about educational and vocational development
(Osipow & Fitzgerald, 1996, p.111). Super (1957) and Super et al. (1961) extended
Ginzberg’s three life stages to five (with slightly different sub-stages), arguing that occupa15
Effective Career Guidance tional preferences and competencies, individual’s life situations (and hence their self-concepts) all change with time and experience. He also developed the concept of vocational maturity, which may or may not correspond to chronological age. Super (1957) extended
Ginzberg’s three life stages to five, with slightly different substages. He also developed the concept of vocational maturity, which may or may not correspond to chronological age. Super’s five stages were:
●● growth, which lasted from birth to fourteen;
●● exploration lasting from age fifteen to twenty four with the substages of crystallization, specification and implementation;
●● establishment from twenty five to forty four, with substages of stabilization, consolidation and