Donald Super Essay

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Donald Super's 5 Stages of the Development of Self Concept Theory Donald super made some of the greatest contributions to career development which he emphasized on the importance of self-concept development. According to his findings, self concept develops as a result of experience and changes over time, making career development lifelong (Brown, 2002). Super thought that Eli Ginzberg earlier works had weakness which he addressed in his findings and extended his work in life and career development stages from three to five with different substages included. He developed the concept of vocational maturity which corresponded to chronological age as the cycle that people go through during career transitions. He also argued that competencies, occupational preferences and individual life situations change with experience and time. The five stages of life and career development included Growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline as discussed below; (Super's theory, 2008) Growth stage The growth stage starts from the first day of human life and carries along to 14 years of age. In this stage, major achievements include the development of self-concept, attitudes, needs and the general world of work. Development tasks that take place in this stage include development of a realistic self-concept which helps and individual later in life in developing a realistic self-concept in adolescence between 14-25 years, learning to relate to others in early adulthood between 25 and 45 years, accepting one's own limitations in middle adulthood between 45-65 years (ClearCareers, 2013), and developing and valuing non-occupational roles later in adulthood from 65 years and above. Exploration stage Exploration stage starts from 15 years and continues up to around 24 years. This stage is characterized by "trying out" through school works, hobbies and tentative choice
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