Historical Overview and Contemporary Analysis

The primary purpose of Issues in Career Development is to provide a broad look at the field of career developmentincluding career counseling, career guidance, career education, and general career development programming, and to examine some of the field's major themes, approaches, and assumptions. We will examine both knowledge from the past as well as what the future might bring. We will bring together a variety of experts/authors from the area of interest and try to provide readers with a framework for action based on the best available research information. The concept of career development is in a period of dramatic transition resulting from equally dramatic changes in the labor market and the socio-cultural environment. Work has a different meaning today than it had one hundred, fifty, or even ten years ago. Career is now much more tightly interwoven with life, and lifestyle. In that context, career development can only be understood when viewed as a part of the broader concept of human development. Past research clearly indicates that interventions can and do have a significant impact on a variety of career development areas (e.g. job satisfaction, worker productivity), however, there are significant questions that are yet to be answered, and given the changing career/work landscape, significant questions that are not yet known. Particular areas of interest for the future relate to the changing nature of the labor market, gender and minority group issues, socio-economic trends, etc. Historically, much of the research on career development has assumed that psychological factors play the major role in a person's career choices. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the environment plays a much bigger role than previously assumed. This monograph series will examine these and other relevant issues in the years to come.