Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective & Constructivism in Career Counseling CNS 743 – Career Development and Counseling Dr. Mark B. Scholl, Wake Forest University February 2014

Cognitive Information-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 (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? Information Processing: Thinking about Decision-making Decision-making Self – knowledge (e.g., values, skills, interests) Knowledge of Occupations or Career Options

Cognitive Information-Processing (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 (CIP) Perspective: Higher Executive Functions Question: What are some examples of cognitive functions that represent Information Processing or higher executive functions? Information Processing: Thinking about Decision-making Decision-making Self – knowledge (e.g., values, skills, interests) Knowledge of Occupations or Career Options

Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Higher Executive Functions Examples of Cognitive Processes in Information Processing (metacognitive processes) include: Describing or communicating one’s career concern Defining 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 role Valuing some job aspects more than others Planning – develop and follow a timeline for achieving certain tasks in decision making process

Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to Mental Health Question: How might client functioning in the top tier (Information Processing) be closely related to a client’s degree of mental health? Information Processing: Thinking about Decision-making Decision-making Self – knowledge (e.g., values, skills, interests) Knowledge of Occupations or Career Options

Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to Mental 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. Information Processing: Thinking about Decision making Decision making Self – knowledge (e.g., values, skills, interests) Knowledge of Occupations or Career Options

Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective: Relationship to Mental Health Career 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 (CIP) Perspective: CASVE cycle The 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 Counseling The Constructivist Resume: Promoting the Career Adaptability of Graduate Students in Counseling Programs

Rationale 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.

Objectives Become 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

Definitions 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.

Definitions 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 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 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 Stage (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 Coping 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 Attitudes (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 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 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 Model Session 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 illustration Client 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 Sessions Session 1: The Card Sort – facilitates deconstruction and reconstruction of identity; promotes career curiosity.

Case illustration (cont.) The Four Counseling Sessions Session 2: The Constructivist Resume Review – provides visual representation of future identity; promotes concern and motivates client.

Case illustration (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 (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 feedback 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 feedback from Melissa (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 Limitations Collaborative Approach Promotes confidence and sense of control or personal agency Includes action-oriented elements Limitations Requires openness and imagination on the part of the client and counselor.

Recommendations for Counselors Some clients or students may require more than four sessions to complete the process

Recommendations for Counselors 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)

References 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.

References 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.