Ginzberg's Career Development Theory

Ginzberg's Career Development Theory (Ginzberg, 1951) hypothesizes that career choice is a process which extends from about age ten to age twenty-one, and that the most important factor determining career choice is a series of interlocked decisions the adolescent makes in stages over time (Your teen in the working world). Ginzberg also believed that the process of career choice is largely irreversible.

The stages and sub-stages of the developmental process identified by Ginzberg are: Fantasy Tentative - Subdivided into 4 stages Interest Capacity Value Transition Realistic - Subdivided into stages Exploration Crystallization Specification According to Ginzberg, children are in fantasy stage with unrealistic visions of their career until about the age of eleven.

But, between the ages of eleven and seventeen, young people are in the tentative stage where they begin to identify what they like to do (interest), what they are capable of doing (capacity), what's important to them (value), and what direction they'd like to move in (transition). The realistic stage is where adults begin to zero in and identify what they'd like to know more about (exploration), form more concrete opinions about what they would like to do (crystallization), and to gravitate toward specific areas of interests (specification).

The implications of Ginzberg's Career Development Theory are significant for school counselors. First, and most importantly, the Theory would indicate that career guidance should begin during the tentative stage perhaps as early as when children are eleven years old instead of waiting for when teens are trying to make a decision about college or what they're going to do after they graduate high school.

This counseling should include information about career options that that the adolescent has a complete opportunity set to include in their thoughts about what they'd like to do. Perhaps testing is needed earlier not only to determine academic performance, but to also assess aptitudes for particular types of career and there may be a need for testing that emphasizes self-assessment.

It may be useful to appraise the reality of what a child can do as opposed to what the child wants to do at any early age so that they child can be realistic in their selection of a career. And, it may be beneficial to begin discussing values and where they'd like to be in conjunction wit the types of careers that can meet these types of needs. The final realistic stage in Ginzberg's Career Development Theory is clearly built on.