ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews lifespan and career development; both are imperative to understand when working with clients. Jean Piaget focused on four stages of cognitive development, whereas Erik Erikson looked at eight stages of psychosocial development. Both researchers concentrated on how change impacts the individual over time. Marcia took Erikson’s fifth stage (adolescence) further and related that there were four different statues of identity or ways that adolescents develop during this stage by making decisions and commitments. Another developmental theorist, Kohlberg, focused on morality using three different levels which were proposed using the Heinz dilemma and the individual’s justifications for the dilemma. Whereas Piaget and Erikson concentrated more on development over the early parts of the lifespan, Vaillant, Levinson, and Neugarten focused more on later development and the changes that occur during adulthood. The last section of this chapter is on career counseling. Career counseling was greatly impacted by Frank Parson and the trait and factor theory. While the roots of career counseling are with Frank Parson, Super’s stages of career development and Holland’s personality theory of career choices also had an impact on counselors’ career guidance.
