Perspectives on Donald Super#39;s Construct of Career Maturity.pdfVIP

Internat. Jnl. for Educational and Vocational Guidance 1: 31–48, 2001. 31 © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Perspectives on Donald Super’s Construct of Career Maturity WENDY PATTON1 JAN LOKAN2 1Centre for Cognitive Processes in Learning, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Campus, Queensland 4059, Australia; 2Australian Council for Educational Research, Camberwell 3124, Australia (author for correspondence; E-mail: w.patton@qut.edu.au) Abstract. The evolution of Donald Super’s construct of Career Maturity (CM) is traced from the Career Pattern Study of the 1950s to the innovative research of the Work Importance Study in the 1980s. Successful attempts to establish the portability of the CM construct across countries, particularly in Canada and Australia, are described. An overview of instruments derived from Super’s theories about career development and maturity is presented, together with an overview of research on the correlates of CM. Reference is made to implications of changes over time in the nature of work and the nature of careers for Super’s theories. As others have recognised, evolving changes in these areas mean that theories, to remain relevant, also need to evolve. The article includes discussion of some of the dimensions identified more recently as useful in explaining career development levels and patterns, including career indecision and work role salience. Résumé: Perspectives sur le construit de maturité vocationnelle de Donald Super. L’évolution du construit de Maturityé Vocationnelle (MV) de Donald Super est retracée depuis l’Etude de Profil Vocationnel des années cinquante jusqu’aux recherches novatrices portant sur l’Etude de l’Importance du Travail dans les années quatre-vingt. On décrit les tentatives couronnées de succès de tranférabilité du concept de MV da