Unit 3

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Athabasca University, Athabasca *

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Arts Humanities

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Oct 30, 2023

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1 Unit 3 Reflection Assignment Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Athabasca University PSYC300: Theories of Career Development Tutor: Louis Svenningsen August 17, 2023

2 Part I: Activity Introduction: This reflection will describe the benefits and insights I gained from the life-career rainbow exercise and the relevant advantages/disadvantages through the lens of a professional practitioner that leverages this exercise. Lastly, the theoretical construct that will be used as part of this reflection is Donald Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space Theory. Part I: Activity Below Figure 1 is my life-career rainbow. Key moments in my career

3 include starting a consulting role out of university at age 20 and continuing in my Finance career through the age of 25. At age 25, I had a career change as an entrepreneur. In my early 30s, I began the process of starting a Master’s Program in Psychology, which will then culminate in my re-focusing on my career upon graduation – approximately at around 35 years of age. Part II: Critique / Reflection Client Perspective – Benefits & Insights Through the lens of a client, the life-career rainbow was an extremely insightful exercise as it allowed me to consider what the term "balance" means – and how "balance" can be defined differently at various stages of life. I found it extremely insightful to consider the various roles – student, spouse, homemaker, worker – and how these fluctuate in their respective importance and dedicated time. For example, it was insightful to consider how in my early 20s, my career was very important and therefore more time was dedicated to it – but then as other aspects of life became more important such as getting married and maintaining a home, the career must drop in priority. Similarly, in my early 30s, the focus is on school, and work has to accommodate that – but upon graduating from my master's program, the importance of being a student drops off entirely and my career becomes highly important again as I plan to build out a therapy practice. What the exercise does is put life roles into perspective - over time. Knowing that at a particular age, a given life role may require more effort or time can help me understand that "balance" is a concept that looks different throughout my life. This exercise is impactful in that it allows a macro view of what is important, where time is being spent, and then to consider

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4 whether how I view “balance” at any point in time is misaligned with what “balance” may need to be. This then becomes a vital tool in potentially understanding how a misalignment in roles as compared to what I may think, may drive unsatisfaction or undue stress. Practitioner Perspective – Advantages & Disadvantages Through a practitioner's lens, there are several advantages and disadvantages to this exercise. The first advantage is that the practitioner can better understand the client now, in the past, and the future. This allows the practitioner to frame what roles were important to the client previously, how this may have shaped the client to become who they are today, and then to understand how guidance or therapy can help with the aspects of life that are important to them today. Secondly, this exercise can also help the practitioner focus on resolving any potential disconnects in the client's roles versus what the client thinks or wants the life role balance to be. This ultimately helps the practitioner to focus guidance or therapy on the issues that are most important to the life roles where the client is today. In terms of disadvantages, the practitioner may not have knowledge of life-span issues to fully support the client. For example, in the instance of working with a client in their 60s and entering retirement – a younger practitioner in their 20s or 30s may struggle to understand the issues the client is experiencing and the importance of their life roles (Sharf, 2013). This issue may be potentially exacerbated by the client, should they also recognize that the practitioner is unable to grasp the relevant life roles as they would not have experienced this phase of life. Similarly, this may drive potential issues with a client that identifies as part of a minority group (whether based on gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity). If the client does not believe

5 that the therapist can understand their life roles, it may lead to challenges in building a strong therapeutic alliance. Ultimately, the practitioner needs to maintain a level of curiosity and empathy to overcome these challenges, however, being aware of these issues would be critical to a practitioner in ensuring this exercise is a positive one. Practitioner Perspective – Theoretical Interpretation Leveraging Super's theory, it becomes clear that through my early 20s, this was an "establishment" stage (Sharf, 2013, p. 244) as this time was getting established in my career and it was the start of my post-University working life. While my employer changed several times, my occupation in finance and analysis was stable for the early part of the decade. In my late 20s, my career had stabilized – a sub-stage period Super referred to as “Consolidation” (Sharf, 2013, p. 245), where I became highly respected within the respective organization or company I was employed with. Perhaps somewhat out of the norm, my subsequent career did not enter a long period of Maintenance but rather into a period of Recycling and subsequently Exploration (Sharf, 2013, p. 240). In my late 20s, I began to recognize that my career in finance was not a good fit based on my personality, interests, and life roles. As a result, I selected a new field (psychology) as the field I planned to change. This process began with a Disengagement stage (notably the Decelerating sub-stage), (Sharf, 2013, p. 249) in my career as I found myself finding it difficult to concentrate at work, procrastinating on deliverables, and overall feeling disconnected from my work and finding no meaning in it.