Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP) Perspective
&
Constructivism in Career Counseling
CNS 743 – Career Development
and Counseling
Dr. Mark B. Scholl, Wake Forest University
February 2014
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective

The CIP career theory is based on cognitive
information processing and was developed by
Peterson, Sampson, and Reardon (1991). CIP
career theory looks at how an individual makes
a career decision and uses information in career
problem solving and decision making.

The CIP approach can be understood as one that
emphasizes not only decision making, but also
how the client and counselor “think about
decision making.”
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective

The approach can also be represented by the
pyramid below:
Information Processing:
Thinking about
Decision-making
Decision-making
Self – knowledge (e.g.,
values, skills, interests)

Knowledge of Occupations
or Career Options
Question: Why do you think “Thinking About
Decision-making” is at the top of the pyramid?
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective




The “Information-Processing – Thinking About Decision
Making” is the aspect that deals with metacognitions.
It’s a layer that has been added over and above
Parsons’s three-part decision-making model.
“Thinking About Decision Making” is a higher executive
function.
Important Implication of the Model: A client could
have pages and pages of good information on
occupations, and excellent self-knowledge, but lack a
sound decision making model, and remain stuck.
So, Sampson and Associates developed the CASVE
cycle to address this need for a decision making model.
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective: Higher Executive Functions
Information Processing:
Thinking about
Decision-making
Decision-making
Self – knowledge (e.g.,
values, skills, interests)

Knowledge of Occupations
or Career Options
Question: What are some examples of cognitive
functions that represent Information Processing or
higher executive functions?
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective: Higher Executive Functions
Examples of Cognitive Processes in Information
Processing (metacognitive processes) include:
 Describing or communicating one’s career concern
 Defining a threshold representing realistic options –
e.g., how hard you want to work, how much pay
you require as minimum, # of years you are willing
to go to school, etc.
 Synthesizing values, skills, interests into an original
occupational role
 Valuing some job aspects more than others
 Planning – develop and follow a timeline for
achieving certain tasks in decision making process
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective: Relationship to Mental Health
Information Processing:
Thinking about
Decision-making
Decision-making
Self – knowledge (e.g.,
values, skills, interests)
Knowledge of Occupations
or Career Options
Question: How might client functioning in the
top tier (Information Processing) be closely
related to a client’s degree of mental health?
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective: Relationship to Mental Health
Information Processing:
Thinking about
Decision making
Decision making
Self – knowledge (e.g.,
values, skills, interests)

Knowledge of Occupations
or Career Options
Mental health dimensions such as “positive vs. negative
self-talk,” “clarity vs. confusion,” and “pessimism vs.
optimism” can powerfully influence “thinking about”
career decision-making.
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective: Relationship to Mental Health
Career Thoughts Inventory (Sampson, Peterson, Lenz,
Reardon & Saunders, 1996):
Purpose: Identify the type(s) of dysfunctional thinking
(e.g., confusion, negativism, external conflicts) that are
posing barriers to decision making.
Global Index: Negative Thinking
4 Subscales: 1. Decision Making
2. Confusion
3. Commitment Anxiety
4. External Conflict
Cognitive Information-Processing (CIP)
Perspective: CASVE cycle
The CASVE cycle represents a problem solving model
(see top level of CIP pyramid diagram) that Sampson,
Reardon, Peterson, and Lenz (2004) developed as a
model for effective decision making. They recommend
clients employ a sequential process of thinking about
career decisions in the following order:
1. Communication (identifying and sharing a need)
2. Analysis (interrelating problem components)
3. Synthesis (creating likely alternatives)
4. Valuing (prioritizing alternatives)
5. Execution (forming means-ends strategies for attaining
one or more alternatives; e.g., a 5 to 7 year plan)
Constructivism and Career Counseling
The Constructivist Resume: Promoting the
Career Adaptability of
Graduate Students in Counseling Programs
Rationale for the Approach

Students in counseling programs frequently
have a grade orientation emphasizing GPA
over individuality.

It is important for students to invest in their
individuality and develop their unique
professional identity.
Objectives

Become familiar with the four-session
Constructivist Resume approach (in our case it has
been adapted to one “session” and a homework
assignment).

Develop your own Constructivist Resume.

Develop a one page essay describing your Action
Plan for making your Constructivist Resume a
reality.
Objectives (cont.)

Learn about feedback from a graduate
student based upon a case application

Receive recommendations for effectively
implementing the approach
Definitions
Postmodern perspective – views human
knowing as a process of subjective meaning
making in which knowledge is constructed by
the individual.
Constructivism - a relatively new theoretical
counseling perspective; posits that individuals
create meaning in their own lives.
Definitions
Important to distinguish between Constructivism and
Social Constructivism.
Social Constructivism – a perspective that views meaning
as being constructed collaboratively by groups of two or
more individuals; an example of this is the process by
which mental health professionals have developed
descriptions of mental health “disorders” in the editions of
the DSM. The term “disorder” has been socially
constructed by psychiatrists and other mental health
professionals.
The term Constructivism by contrast emphasizes an
individual’s capacity for independent meaning making.
Constructing Identities
Peavy’s (1998) SocioDynamic Counseling
Model – views the self as a project that is
perpetually being constructed by the
individual.
A student can possess a Vague, incomplete or a
Clear, complete sense of professional identity.
Question: How is the principle of constructivism illustrated
in the movie ‘October Sky’?
Super’s Exploration Stage

Employers prefer applicants with a clear,
complete sense of their professional
identity including their unique attributes.

In Super’s Life-Span, Life Space Model,
adolescents and young adults pass through
the Exploration Stage (Ages 14 to 24
years) of career development.
Super’s Exploration Stage (cont.)
Exploration Stage (14 – 24 yrs) – a tentative
stage in which choices are narrowed but not
finalized.
Implementation (21-24 yrs) – a period of
completing training for a vocational preference
and beginning one’s first position.
The Constructivist Resume facilitates the
transition from the role of student to the role
of professional counselor.
Career Adaptability and Coping
Attitudes
Career adaptability – def. an individual’s
resources and level of readiness for coping
with occupational transitions (Savickas,
2005, p. 51).
Four Coping Attitudes:
1. Career concern – a future orientation
and psychological investment in thinking
about and planning for the future.
Career Adaptability and Coping Attitudes
(cont.)
Four Coping Attitudes (cont.):
2. Career curiosity – an inquisitive and
exploratory attitude with regard to
understanding how one’s identity fits into the
world of work.
3. Career confidence – the anticipation of
successful outcomes related to one’s
intentional efforts.
4. Career control – sense of personal agency
with regard to constructing one’s career.
Statement of Purpose

To assist graduate students in developing a
clearer, more complex sense of their
professional identities.

To increase students’ levels of career
adaptability (i.e., concern, curiosity,
confidence, and control).

To facilitate implementation of the student’s
articulated professional identity.
Counseling Process
Constructivist Resume and Card Sort

Client sorts 88 cards into relevant to my
identity, irrelevant, and uncertain piles.
Question: Why are 4 cards blank?

Client divides relevant pile into subpiles
based on subjective themes.

Client imprints her own subjective meaning
onto the cards.

Constructivist Resume is given as a
homework assignment.
Four-Session Counseling Model
Session 1 – The Card Sort and discussion of
subjective meaning for the client.
Counselor gives client a homework
assignment to write the Constructivst
Resume.
Session 2 – Review the Constructivist
Resume. (e.g., intrinsic vs. extrinsic values)
Session 3 – Co-constructing Action Plans and
Goals.
Session 4 – Describing One’s Professional
Identity. (e.g., Mock Interview)
Case illustration
Client Description
Melissa is a 21-year-old student earning her M.S. in
School Counseling. She has completed one year of a
two-year program incl. a 100-hour field experience.
The Four Counseling Sessions

Session 1: The Card Sort – facilitates
deconstruction and reconstruction of identity;
promotes career curiosity.
Case illustration (cont.)
The Four Counseling Sessions

Session 2: The Constructivist Resume Review
– provides visual representation of future identity;
promotes concern and motivates client.
Case illustration (cont.)
The Four Counseling Sessions
Session 3: Co-constructing Action Plans and
Goals - these might include informational
interviews and participation in skill development
workshops. These should be as concrete and
detailed as possible.
Ex. – I plan on attending the ASERVIC Conference in
New Mexico this summer and attending sessions
related to incorporating spirituality into substance
abuse counseling.
Case illustration (cont.)
The Four Counseling Sessions
Session 4: Describing One’s Professional Identity
– co-constructing a response to typical interview
prompts (e.g., “Tell me about yourself”, “What
unique contribution can you make to our
organization?” “Where do you see yourself in 5
yrs?”)
The counselor works with the client on developing an
authentic and natural response to these
questions. These questions are very common in
employment interviews – client is developing
entry skills.
Outcomes based upon feedback from
Melissa

Increased understanding of her
professional identity including her unique
attributes.

Increased career concern – realized that
she can actively prepare for the school-towork transition.

Her increased self-understanding facilitated
increased sense of confidence and control.
Outcomes based upon feedback from
Melissa (cont.)

Reported increased career curiosity.

Prepared her for the school-to-work
transition.

Expressed desire to return for career
counseling after the completion of her
Internship class.
Advantages and Limitations
Advantages
Collaborative Approach
 Promotes confidence and sense of control
or personal agency
 Includes action-oriented elements

Limitations

Requires openness and imagination on the
part of the client and counselor.
Recommendations for Counselors

Some clients or students may require more than
four sessions to complete the process
Recommendations for Counselors

The counselor may need to spend additional
time addressing issues that are barriers to
identity development – e.g., lack of confidence,
conflicts with significant others regarding career
choices, anxiety related to the transition to the
world of work, etc.

The Constructive Resume is more effective after
the student has completed at least one field
experience class (i.e., practicum or internship)
References

Peavy, R.V. (1998). SocioDynamic Counseling. A constructivist
perspective for the practice of counselling in the twenty-first
century. Victoria, BC: Trafford.

Rottinghaus, P. J., Day, S. X., & Borgen, F. H. (2005). The Career
Futures Inventory: A measure of career-related adaptability and
optimism. Journal of Career Assessment, 13, 3-24.

Savickas, M. L. (1993). Career counseling in the postmodern era.
Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly, 7, 205215.

Savickas, M. L. (2005). The theory and practice of career
construction. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career
development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp.
42-70). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
References

Scholl, M. B., & Cascone, J. (in press). The Constructivist Resume:
Promoting the career adaptability of graduate students in
counseling programs. Career Development Quarterly.

Super, D. E. (1990). A life-span, life-space approach to career
development. In D. Brown, L. Brook, & Associates (Eds.), Career
choice and development (2nd ed., pp. 197-261). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.

Super, D. E. (1996). A life-span, life-space approach to career
development. In D. Brown, L. Brook, & Associates (Eds.), Career
choice and development (2nd ed., pp. 121-128). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.

Super, D. E., & Nevill, D. D. (1985). Values Scale. Palo Alto, CA:
Consulting Psychologists Press.