Developing qualitative career assessment processes. (Articles).

Assessment has been integral to career counseling since the early 1900s. During that time, the greatest amount of attention was focused on quantitative assessment. Thus, there is still very little to guide the development and conduct of qualitative assessment in career counseling. The authors present an overview of qualitative career assessment and its theoretical underpinnings and propose suggestions that could guide the development of qualitative career assessment instruments.

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Since its origins in the early 1900s, assessment has been an integral part of career counseling, and its use is still widely accepted (Chartrand & Walsh, 2001). During this period, most of the attention has been focused on quantitative assessment. Society, however, is becoming more diverse and the world of work more complex, and calls have been made for career assessment to "keep pace with changes in the workforce and society" (Subich, 1996, p. 277). Furthermore, the emergence of the constructivist worldview as an influence in career counseling has seen different conceptualizations emerge of career development and the counseling process. Corresponding with these changes has been increased awareness of the potential contribution of qualitative assessment processes (Goldman, 1990, 1992).

There is still very little to guide the development and conduct of qualitative assessment in career counseling because it has traditionally received less attention in the literature. For example, in a review of research in career counseling and development, where almost four pages were devoted to career assessment, only one paragraph referred to qualitative assessment (Young & Chen, 1999). These authors concluded in their review that "psychometrics and standardized assessment tools are still popular in career guidance and counseling, but qualitative assessment strategies received some attention in the career counseling literature in 1998" (p. 121). In the 1999 review (Arbona, 2000), no mention of qualitative career assessment was made in the one and one half page review.

In this article, we first examine understandings about constructivism and its influences on current conceptualizations of the career counseling process. Second, we provide an overview of qualitative career assessment. Finally, we discuss the development of qualitative career assessment processes. We also offer suggestions that could guide the development of qualitative career assessment instruments.

Understandings About Constructivism

Meaning making is fundamental to constructivism (Neimeyer & Neimeyer, 1993b), the worldview that is regarded as providing a second perspective on career assessment (Savickas, 1992). Indeed, Lyddon and Alford (1993) suggested that a fundamental goal of constructivist counseling is "understanding personal patterns of meaning--that is, the way a client organizes and makes sense of his or her experience over time" (p. 52). In a similar way, Peavy (1996) suggested that the generation of personal meaning and the "promotion of reflection on the implications of both new and old self-knowledge" (p. 10) are the primary objectives of constructivist assessment. A significant difference between the traditional logical positivist worldview and constructivism is that "human functioning cannot be reduced to laws or principles, and cause and effect cannot be inferred" (Brown & Brooks, 1990, p. 11). Thus, the objectivity of assessment informed by the logical positivist worldview that can often be supported by test results is r eplaced by subjectivity, as individuals are encouraged to define themselves and their environment and to refer to the subjective sources of their knowledge. From a constructivist perspective, terms such as diagnosis and assessment fit less well in the counseling process (Peavy, 1997). Peavy (1997) proposed that the aim of assessment from a constructivist viewpoint is to "open up avenues of movement, promote empowerment, support transitions, and assist the client gain eligibility for more participation" (p. 180) in their preferred future.

The concept of holism is fundamental to the creation of meanings. Events, behaviors, and attitudes can only be understood in relation to their context (Neimeyer & Neimeyer, 1993b; Patton & McMahon, 1999; Savickas, 1993). Thus, in constructivist assessment, attention is paid to identifying connections between clients' experiences and various elements from their system of influences (Patton & McMahon, 1999), including the past, present, and future. For example, by exploring family-of-origin events, clients may come to understand their present beliefs or values. Similarly, women reentering the workforce, who have discounted previous work experience and the skills and abilities they have developed through unpaid work in the home and raising a family, may be encouraged to relate their skills and abilities to particular paid work roles. As a result, it is not so much the individual ability, value, or belief that is targeted but rather the meaning that clients ascribe to them because of a connection with other eleme nts of their system of influences. Goldman (1990, 1992) suggested that qualitative assessment is more integrative and holistic and that it emphasizes learning about oneself within a developmental framework. Thus, individuals or individual traits are not assessed in isolation but rather systemically. Assessment is viewed idiographically wherein the individual serves as the reference point both to identify relevant variables and to interpret data" (Hood & Johnson, 1997, P. 9). Meaning or learning is generated from within the individual in relation to his or her experience of the world (Bednar, Cunningham, Duffy, & Perry, 1992).

Just as meaning is fundamental to constructivism, assessment is an active process that is change generating (Goldman, 1990, 1992; Neimeyer & Neimeyer, 1993b; Peavy, 1996). For example, during the process of qualitative career assessment, new meanings and insights are generated for clients, which may, in turn, promote change. This is in direct contrast with assessment conducted under the traditional positivist worldview in which the assessment process itself was viewed as neutral (Neimeyer & Neimeyer, 1993b). Traditionally, change was promoted after the assessment process, when the counselor planned interventions on the basis of the assessment results. Constructivism requires both the client and the counselor to be actively involved in the assessment process and action planning through communication that is constructive, planful, and clarifying (Peavy, 1997).

Qualitative Career Assessment: An Overview

The use of qualitative career assessment marks a significant departure from that predicated on the traditional logical-positivist worldview that has dominated career guidance practice. The emphasis in this traditional worldview is on objective reality where clients' traits, such as ability or personality, can be measured and quantified. Accordingly, little emphasis is placed on the meaning clients ascribe to particular traits or to subjective elements that are associated with career concerns. In addition, test administration has traditionally followed a standard set of procedures as outlined by assessment manuals.

By contrast, qualitative career assessment has the potential for "infinite flexibility to meet the needs of diverse clients" (Subich, 1996, p. 285). It offers counselors "methods of helping clients to know and understand themselves better--methods that are flexible, open-ended, holistic, and nonstatistical" (Goldman, 1992, p. 616). Described as "informal forms of assessment" (Okocha, 1998), qualitative career assessment is bounded by less rigid parameters than quantitative assessment in that it may not be guided by a standardized set of directions, and there is little scoring. In cases in which scoring is featured, it is generally subjective (Isaacson & Brown, 1993). Thus, standardized tests may seem more scientific than qualitative career assessment devices because they may give an "impression of objectivity, precision of measurement, and dependability of interpretative statements" (Goldman, 1992, p. 620). With the emphasis in qualitative career assessment being on stories rather than scores (Savickas, 1993) , individual clients are encouraged to tell their own career stories and to uncover their subjective careers and life themes (McMahon & Patton, 2002).

The constructivist approach to career counseling enriches the career assessment process because the counselor seeks to understand the meaning of traits in terms of the client's life pattern (Savickas, 1992). Furthermore, Savickas claimed that qualitative career assessment places emphasis on the counseling relationship rather than on the delivery of the service. For example, the client becomes much more involved in the counseling process because the assessment is grounded in their lived experience on which they are the expert and from which they have a story to tell. Thus, the position of the client in the relationship is elevated from that of "passive responder" (Goldman, 1990, p. 205) to that of active participant. The career counselor's role, on the other hand, is changed from that of expert or "diagnostician" (Subich, 1996, p. 279) to one of interested, curious, and tentative inquirer; respectful listener; and tentative observer (McMahon & Patton, 2002).

As evidenced by the changed roles of client and counselor, qualitative career assessment defines the counseling relationship differently. Counselors are encouraged to establish collaborative relationships with clients, involve them in the selection of assessment devices, and encourage them to explore meaning from the outcomes (Forrest & Brooks, 1993). Thus, career counseling is viewed as a cooperative rather than an expert process (Peavy, 1996, p. 8). This kind of relationship is significantly different from the more traditional counseling relationship in which quantitative assessment is conducted. Indeed, qualitative assessment processes tend to merge with the counseling process so that the boundaries between assessment and counseling are less distinct (Dowd, 1995; Goldman, 1990). Indeed, Neimeyer and Neimeyer (1993b) proposed that "assessment should be seen as an intervention that prompts subjects to reconstrue the concerns being evaluated" (p. 12). This is reflected in the use of processes such as card sor ts, genograms, and lifelines wherein the counselor works with the client to elicit meaning during the assessment process. Meaning may be generated throughout the assessment process rather than only at the conclusion of the assessment, after scoring has taken place.