Holland

Chapter 6

THE BIG FIVE CAREER THEORIES
S. Alvin Leung

Career guidance and counselling in the western world, most notably in the United States (USA), has developed a comprehensive system of theories and intervention strategies in its more than 100 years of history. It began in the years of Frank Parson as a trait-factor approach in the early twentieth century (Betz, Fitzgerald, & Hill, 1989; Zunker, 2002), and slowly evolved to become a rather mature discipline today in the twenty-first century with a strong theoretical and empirical base, with the potential to further develop into a more “global” discipline in the years ahead. Indeed, vocational and career related issues are salient across different cultures and nationalities (Hesketh & Rounds, 1995; Leung, 2004). In an age of economic globalisation, all individuals are affected by an array of work related concerns, some of these concerns are unique to certain cultures, but others are common to many cultural groups. The search for life purposes and meanings, the journey to actualise oneself through various life and workrelated roles, and the efforts by nations to deal with problems of employment and unemployment, are examples of universal issues that seem to affect many individuals from diverse cultures. Under the theme of career development, there are experiences, concerns, and issues that we could share, explore, and discussed at a global stage (Richardson, 1993; Lips-Wiersma & McMorland, 2006). The development of career guidance and development into a global discipline requires a set of theoretical frameworks with universal validity and applications, as well as culture-specific models that could be used to explain career development issues and phenomenon at a local level. The focus of this chapter is on the five theories of career development that have guided career guidance and counselling practice and research in the past few decades in the USA as well as internationally. These five theories are (a)