Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) PerspectiveCognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective&&

Constructivism in Career CounselingConstructivism in Career Counseling

CNS 743 – Career Development and Counseling

Dr. Mark B. Scholl, Wake Forest UniversityFebruary 2014

Cognitive Information-Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective Processing (CIP) Perspective The CIP career theory is based on cognitive

information processing and was developed by Peterson, Sampson, and Reardon (1991). CIP career theory looks at how an individual makes a career decision and uses information in career problem solving and decision making.

The CIP approach can be understood as one that emphasizes not only decision making, but also how the client and counselor “think about decision making.”

Cognitive Information-Processing Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective (CIP) Perspective

The approach can also be represented by the pyramid below:

Question: Why do you think “Thinking About Decision-making” is at the top of the pyramid?

Decision-making

Information Processing: Thinking

about Decision-making

Self – knowledge (e.g., values, skills,

interests)

Knowledge of Occupations or Career Options

Cognitive Information-Processing Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective (CIP) Perspective The “Information-Processing – Thinking

About Decision Making” is the aspect that deals with metacognitions. It’s a layer that has been added over and above Parsons’s three-part decision-making model.

“Thinking About Decision Making” is a higher executive function.

Important Implication of the Model: A client could have pages and pages of good information on occupations, and excellent self-knowledge, but lack a sound decision making model, and remain stuck.

So, Sampson and Associates developed the CASVE cycle to address this need for a decision making model.

Cognitive Information-Processing Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Higher Executive (CIP) Perspective: Higher Executive Functions Functions

Question: What are some examples of cognitive functions that represent Information Processing or higher executive functions?

Decision-making

Information Processing: Thinking

about Decision-making

Self – knowledge (e.g., values, skills,

interests)

Knowledge of Occupations or Career Options

Cognitive Information-Processing Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Higher (CIP) Perspective: Higher Executive Functions Executive Functions Examples of Cognitive Processes in Information Processing (metacognitive processes) include:Describing or communicating one’s career concernDefining a threshold representing realistic options – e.g., how hard you want to work, how much pay you require as minimum, # of years you are willing to go to school, etc.Synthesizing values, skills, interests into an original occupational roleValuing some job aspects more than othersPlanning – develop and follow a timeline for achieving certain tasks in decision making process

Cognitive Information-Processing Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to Mental Health Mental Health

Question: How might client functioning in the top tier (Information Processing) be closely related to a client’s degree of mental health?

Decision-making

Information Processing: Thinking

about Decision-making

Self – knowledge (e.g., values, skills,

interests)

Knowledge of Occupations or Career Options

Cognitive Information-Processing Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to Mental HealthMental Health

Mental health dimensions such as “positive vs. negative self-talk,” “clarity vs. confusion,” and “pessimism vs. optimism” can powerfully influence “thinking about” career decision-making.

Decision making

Information Processing: Thinking

about Decision making

Self – knowledge (e.g., values, skills,

interests)

Knowledge of Occupations or Career Options

Cognitive Information-Processing Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to Mental HealthMental HealthCareer Thoughts Inventory (Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon & Saunders, 1996):

Purpose: Identify the type(s) of dysfunctional thinking (e.g., confusion, negativism, external conflicts) that are posing barriers to decision making.

Global Index: Negative Thinking

4 Subscales: 1. Decision Making

2. Confusion

3. Commitment Anxiety

4. External Conflict

Cognitive Information-Processing Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: CASVE cycle(CIP) Perspective: CASVE cycleThe CASVE cycle represents a problem solving model (see top level of CIP pyramid diagram) that Sampson, Reardon, Peterson, and Lenz (2004) developed as a model for effective decision making. They recommend clients employ a sequential process of thinking about career decisions in the following order:

1. Communication (identifying and sharing a need)

2. Analysis (interrelating problem components)

3. Synthesis (creating likely alternatives)

4. Valuing (prioritizing alternatives)

5. Execution (forming means-ends strategies for attaining one or more alternatives; e.g., a 5 to 7 year plan)

Constructivism and Career Constructivism and Career CounselingCounseling

The Constructivist Resume: The Constructivist Resume: Promoting the Promoting the

Career Adaptability of Career Adaptability of Graduate Students in Counseling Graduate Students in Counseling

ProgramsPrograms

Rationale for the ApproachRationale for the Approach

Students in counseling programs frequently have a grade orientation emphasizing GPA over individuality.

It is important for students to invest in their individuality and develop their unique professional identity.

ObjectivesBecome familiar with the four-session

Constructivist Resume approach (in our case it has been adapted to one “session” and a homework assignment).

Develop your own Constructivist Resume.

Develop a one page essay describing your Action Plan for making your Constructivist Resume a reality.

Objectives (cont.)Learn about feedback from a

graduate student based upon a case application

Receive recommendations for effectively implementing the approach

DefinitionsDefinitions

Postmodern perspective – views human knowing as a process of subjective meaning making in which knowledge is constructed by the individual.

Constructivism - a relatively new theoretical counseling perspective; posits that individuals create meaning in their own lives.

DefinitionsDefinitions

Important to distinguish between Constructivism and Social Constructivism.

Social Constructivism – a perspective that views meaning as being constructed collaboratively by groups of two or more individuals; an example of this is the process by which mental health professionals have developed descriptions of mental health “disorders” in the editions of the DSM. The term “disorder” has been socially constructed by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.

The term Constructivism by contrast emphasizes an individual’s capacity for independent meaning making.

Constructing IdentitiesConstructing Identities

Peavy’s (1998) SocioDynamic Counseling Model – views the self as a project that is perpetually being constructed by the individual.

A student can possess a Vague, incomplete or a Clear, complete sense of professional identity.

Question: How is the principle of constructivism illustrated in the movie ‘October Sky’?

Super’s Exploration StageSuper’s Exploration Stage Employers prefer applicants with

a clear, complete sense of their professional identity including their unique attributes.

In Super’s Life-Span, Life Space Model, adolescents and young adults pass through the Exploration Stage (Ages 14 to 24 years) of career development.

Super’s Exploration StageSuper’s Exploration Stage (cont.)(cont.)

Exploration Stage (14 – 24 yrs) – a tentative stage in which choices are narrowed but not finalized.

Implementation (21-24 yrs) – a period of completing training for a vocational preference and beginning one’s first position.

The Constructivist Resume facilitates the transition from the role of student to the role of professional counselor.

Career Adaptability and Career Adaptability and Coping AttitudesCoping Attitudes

Career adaptability – def. an individual’s resources and level of readiness for coping with occupational transitions (Savickas, 2005, p. 51).

Four Coping Attitudes:

1. Career concern – a future orientation and psychological investment in thinking about and planning for the future.

Career Adaptability and Coping Career Adaptability and Coping AttitudesAttitudes (cont.)(cont.)

Four Coping Attitudes (cont.):

2. Career curiosity – an inquisitive and exploratory attitude with regard to understanding how one’s identity fits into the world of work.

3. Career confidence – the anticipation of successful outcomes related to one’s intentional efforts.

4. Career control – sense of personal agency with regard to constructing one’s career.

Statement of PurposeStatement of Purpose To assist graduate students in

developing a clearer, more complex sense of their professional identities.

To increase students’ levels of career adaptability (i.e., concern, curiosity, confidence, and control).

To facilitate implementation of the student’s articulated professional identity.

Counseling ProcessCounseling Process Constructivist Resume and Card Sort

Client sorts 88 cards into relevant to my identity, irrelevant, and uncertain piles.

Question: Why are 4 cards blank?

Client divides relevant pile into subpiles based on subjective themes.

Client imprints her own subjective meaning onto the cards.

Constructivist Resume is given as a homework assignment.

Four-Session Counseling Four-Session Counseling ModelModelSession 1 – The Card Sort and discussion

of subjective meaning for the client. Counselor gives client a homework assignment to write the Constructivst Resume.

Session 2 – Review the Constructivist Resume. (e.g., intrinsic vs. extrinsic values)

Session 3 – Co-constructing Action Plans and Goals.

Session 4 – Describing One’s Professional Identity. (e.g., Mock Interview)

Case illustrationCase illustrationClient Description

Melissa is a 21-year-old student earning her M.S. in School Counseling. She has completed one year of a two-year program incl. a 100-hour field experience.

The Four Counseling SessionsSession 1: The Card Sort – facilitates

deconstruction and reconstruction of identity; promotes career curiosity.

Case illustration Case illustration (cont.)(cont.)

The Four Counseling Sessions

Session 2: The Constructivist Resume Review – provides visual representation of future identity; promotes concern and motivates client.

Case illustrationCase illustration (cont.) (cont.)

The Four Counseling Sessions

Session 3: Co-constructing Action Plans and Goals - these might include informational interviews and participation in skill development workshops. These should be as concrete and detailed as possible.

Ex. – I plan on attending the ASERVIC Conference in New Mexico this summer and attending sessions related to incorporating spirituality into substance abuse counseling.

Case illustration Case illustration (cont.)(cont.)The Four Counseling Sessions

Session 4: Describing One’s Professional Identity – co-constructing a response to typical interview prompts (e.g., “Tell me about yourself”, “What unique contribution can you make to our organization?” “Where do you see yourself in 5 yrs?”)

The counselor works with the client on developing an authentic and natural response to these questions. These questions are very common in employment interviews – client is developing entry skills.

Outcomes based upon Outcomes based upon feedback from Melissafeedback from Melissa

Increased understanding of her professional identity including her unique attributes.

Increased career concern – realized that she can actively prepare for the school-to-work transition.

Her increased self-understanding facilitated increased sense of confidence and control.

Outcomes based upon Outcomes based upon feedback from Melissafeedback from Melissa (cont.)(cont.)

Reported increased career curiosity.

Prepared her for the school-to-work transition.

Expressed desire to return for career counseling after the completion of her Internship class.

Advantages and Advantages and LimitationsLimitations

AdvantagesAdvantages

Collaborative ApproachPromotes confidence and sense of

control or personal agencyIncludes action-oriented elements

LimitationsLimitations

Requires openness and imagination on the part of the client and counselor.

Recommendations for Recommendations for CounselorsCounselorsSome clients or students may require

more than four sessions to complete the process

Recommendations for Recommendations for CounselorsCounselors The counselor may need to spend

additional time addressing issues that are barriers to identity development – e.g., lack of confidence, conflicts with significant others regarding career choices, anxiety related to the transition to the world of work, etc.

The Constructive Resume is more effective after the student has completed at least one field experience class (i.e., practicum or internship)

ReferencesReferences Peavy, R. V. (1998). SocioDynamic Counseling. A

constructivist perspective for the practice of counselling in the twenty-first century. Victoria, BC: Trafford.

Rottinghaus, P. J., Day, S. X., & Borgen, F. H. (2005). The Career Futures Inventory: A measure of career-related adaptability and optimism. Journal of Career Assessment, 13, 3-24.

Savickas, M. L. (1993). Career counseling in the postmodern era. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly, 7, 205-215.

Savickas, M. L. (2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 42-70). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

ReferencesReferences Scholl, M. B., & Cascone, J. (in press). The

Constructivist Resume: Promoting the career adaptability of graduate students in counseling programs. Career Development Quarterly.

Super, D. E. (1990). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. In D. Brown, L. Brook, & Associates (Eds.), Career choice and development (2nd ed., pp. 197-261). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Super, D. E. (1996). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. In D. Brown, L. Brook, & Associates (Eds.), Career choice and development (2nd ed., pp. 121-128). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Super, D. E., & Nevill, D. D. (1985). Values Scale. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.