CAREER EXPLORATION: THEORY AND RESEARCH The theory of career exploration developed tardily in the early sixties, when it first started being considered as a category of general exploratory behavior (Jordaan, 1963). Recent reviews of the topic by Taveira (1997, 2000) enables the identification of four different conceptions of career exploration, that clearly illustrate the evolution of the construct during the last century, and that can be viewed presently, as complementary. The first and more simplistic one considers career exploration as a type of information seeking behavior or as a career problem-solving behavior, and it is originated in theories such as that of Krumboltz’s learning theory of career choice and counseling (Krumboltz, 1979). A second conception, derived from career decision theory, considers career exploration an important phase of the process of career decision-making, involving the identification and evaluation of options and information seeking behavior, and the absence of a strong compromise with an option (e.g., Gelatt, 1962; Tiedeman, & O’Hara, 1963). A third conception, originated in normative career development theories, defines exploration as a major life stage, that of adolescence (ages fourteen to twenty-four), comprising the career developmental tasks of crystallizing, specifying and implementing an occupational choice (Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad & Herma, 1951; Super, 1957). And, finally, a recent position that describes exploration as a life-span process underlying career learning and development (Atkinson & Murrell, 1988; Blustein, 1997; Jordaan, 1963; Super, 1995; Taveira, 1997). Consistent with this last position, career exploration has been referred to a complex psychological process which sustains the search of information as well as the hypothesis testing about self and environment, in order to attain career goals. It involves the concomitant cognitive and affective activity of interpreting and recreating past and present experiences, and of projecting them into the future, moved by intrinsic or instrumental motives. In addition, according to the processual view of the construct, self- and environment-exploration are conceived as two dimensions of the same process, that of career exploration, rather than two distinct exploratory processes. Furthermore, it is assumed that what best distinguishes career exploration from general exploration is the nature of exploratory activity goals, and not the process or context of that activity. In short, the mere presence of information-seeking behaviors or of self-appraisal does not guarantee by itself that we are in
presence of a career exploration process. Actually, career exploration requires career goal oriented behavior. Jordaan (1963) is a key figure of the theorization of career exploration. He and his team initiated a line of work which has had and continue to have a tremendous impact upon career exploration thinking and research, even outside vocational psychology (e.g., Grotevant & Cooper, 1988; Kracke, 1997). Over the seventies and eighties, Stumpf, Collarelli & Hartman (1983) and Blustein (1987, 1988, 1989ab), among others, largely operationalized the construct of career exploration for research purposes. In consequence of a more profound approach to the topic of career exploration, we encounter two related main lines of research in the domain: (a) the development and validation of career exploration assessment devices and (b) the study of the conditions and results of career exploration. Following, a brief review of each of these lines of work is presented.
The development and validation of career exploration assessment devices During the last two decades, several methods and instruments for the assessment of career exploration have been developed, according to the different conceptions of the construct. Some very well known assessment devices stand out, like structured interviews and questionnaires, the checklists, the vocational maturity inventories, and the direct observation of career informationseeking behavior, either in real, or in simulated situations (see Blustein, 1990). More recently, occupational card sort has been suggested as an additional career exploration assessment procedure (Peterson,1998; Peterson & Lenz, 1992), permitting the analysis of individuals development and integration of occupational knowledge. Amongst the most significant measures is the Career Exploration Survey (CES) by Stumpf et al. (1983), that operationalizes a complex hierarchical model of the construct, including cognitive, behavioral and affective dimensions of career exploration1. The questionnaire was initially developed for young adults and further adapted for adolescents by Blustein (1988). This new version of the CES was adapted to Portugal by Taveira (1997). The dimensionality
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The CES is a self-administered scale with 62 items using Likert-type response format, designed to assess six beliefs about exploration [employment outlook, certainty of career exploration outcomes, external search instrumentality, internal search instrumentality, method search instrumentality, importance of preferred position], seven dimensions of the exploration process [extent of environment and of self exploration, intended-systematic exploration, frequency, amount of information acquired, number of options considered, focus of exploration], and three reactions to exploration [satisfaction with information, exploration stress, and decision stress].
and structure of the CES was tested in a confirmatory factor analysis and different profiles of career exploration were identified among Portuguese adolescents (Taveira, Silva, Rodríguez, & Maia, 1998). After that, the CES was adapted, in Spain, by Rodríguez-Moreno, Sandín, & Buisán (2000), who developed a criterion-based system to categorize the scale results. Furthermore, the same authors, to enable the development of career exploration studies with social excluded groups, are adapting the content of the CES scales to that population. Although some increment in the assessment of career exploration evidences a renewal interest in the process, much work has to be done regarding the dimensionality and structure of this vocational construct. In the past few years, much of the available research has used revised versions of the Career Exploration Survey. Nevertheless, most studies are restrictive, adopting a simplistic operational definition of career exploration process through the exclusive use of self- and environmental exploration scales of the CES. That is, assessing only the extent of self- and environmental exploration. Future research and discussion on the dimensionality and structure would constitute an important development of career exploration assessment.
The study of career exploration process and outcomes The second main line of research involves the study of career exploration process and outcomes. One line of inquiry focused on contextual and personal conditions of career exploration, which has been studied, over the past three decades, under a broad range of perspectives. The first studies were developed under the Social Learning Paradigm, and evidenced that vicarious reinforcement and modeling have a positive impact on the amount and frequency of career exploratory behavior (e.g., Krumboltz & Schroeder, 1965). Other studies considered implicity or explicity the contributions of Motivation, Identity, Attachment, and Career Development Theory, and have evidenced that content and process of exploration may vary not only according contextual conditions but also as a function of individual characteristics (see Blustein, 1990; Taveira, 2000). Activation of career exploration appears associated with work role salience, importance of preferred career domain, attainment of valued career goals, satisfaction with the decision, and instrumentality of career exploration In sum, there is evidence to conclude that career exploration is influenced by the importance attached to career development domain, and by the satisfaction with career results and
consequent effect on outcomes expectations. The studies based on theories of motivation such as the Self-determination theory by Deci & Ryan (1985, 1991) suggested also that some career exploration may be self determined (Blustein, 1988), which means that it can be either intrinsically motivated or motivated through the internalization of extrinsic regulations. In fact, some empirical evidence suggests that feelings of self-determination, perceived competence, internal locus of control, selfefficacy expectations, self-esteem, and moderate levels of stress are related to career exploration intentions and/or activation (Betz & Voiten, 1997; Blustein, 1988; 1989a; Solberg, 1998; Solberg, Good, Fischer, Brown & Nord, 1995; Taylor & Pompa, 1990). Overall these results indicate that external incentive to career exploration may not always be beneficial, and that psychological confidence, self-direction, and other positive feelings about the self and the context, as well as some sense of imminence regarding career development tasks, increase the probability of career exploration involvement by individuals. Despite the research evidence suggesting that career exploration may be self determined, the case of those adolescents and adults that are not interested in career exploration or offer resistance to extensive self or environment exploration deserves further attention. For instance, attachment theory and research suggests that individuals who developed in familial environments that favored nonsecure attachment representations do not get actively involved in exploration and may exhibit high levels of anxiety in this type of activity (cf. Soares, 1992, 1996). On the other hand, research inspired by the identity status paradigm formulated by Marcia (1966) suggested that Foreclosure, one of the four identified statuses of identity, characterizes those adolescents that “remain closely tied to their families, with guilt and anxiety attendant to questioning parental values. Thus to invite a foreclosure to explore is to ask him or her to do and be the opposite of what he or she learned under anxiety – arousing conditions to not do and not be” (Marcia, 1994, p. 39). Furthermore, Diffusion, another identity status, “characterizes adolescents who lack firm commitments and who are not currently in the process of active self-exploration” (Berzonsky, 2000, p. 21) . As it might be expected, career exploration research inspired by Bowlby’s Attachment Theory (Bolwby, 1982), indicates that
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The two other identity statuses- Moratorium and Achievement, are characterized respectively, as a state of intense exploration at the cost of much anxiety, with absence of commitment; and, as the presence of commitments after a period of exploration (Marcia, 1966).
motivation for, and competence in career exploration is associated with secure based and supportive familial relationships (Blustein, Prezioso, & Schultheiss, 1995; Ketterson & Blustein, 1997; Kracke, 1997; Ryan, Solberg & Brown, 1996). It is thus important to consider these relational and developmental factors of career exploration, and to influence parents to foster attachment along autonomy in the relationship with their children. At the same time, it would be important that counselors offer that kind of relational support in educational and counseling contexts as a basic condition for self and environment oriented exploration (Blustein & Flumm, 1999; Taveira et al., 1998; Vondracek, 1993). In turn, studies influenced by the Identity Status Paradigm (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1980) also revealed that career exploration is associated to ego identity (Blustein & Noumair, 1996). More recently, adopting a specific domain approach in the assessment of identity, Taveira (1997) found that vocational identity of junior and senior high school adolescents, measured by the Dellas Identity Status Inventory-Occupation (DISI-O; Dellas & Jernigan, 1981), and level of career indecision (Career Decision Scale, CDS; Osipow, 1987), were better predictors of exploration (Career Exploration Survey, CES; Stumpf et al., 1983), than sex, age or education. Besides, the results of a clustering analysis evidenced that vocational identity status associated to different configurations of the career exploration process and to different levels of career indecision. s of stress and of indecision, the group with salience of Moratorium identity registered high levels stress and of indecision. Another simultaneous line of research on career exploration is based on Career Decision-Making Theory and in the research done in the domain of social cognition and of human information processing. Overall, the main conclusions of this line of research are that a rational career decision-making style and vocational cognitive differentiation and integration are related to career exploration. Second, that individuals are very parsimonious when exploring and use different strategies for collecting and processing information in career exploration. And finally, individuals use selective mechanisms in information processing, and exhibit a confirmatory bias when testing hypothesis about self and environment (see Taveira, 1997). This type of results suggests that it would be important to increase individuals feelings of self-efficacy regarding career exploration, and self-consciousness, in terms of cognitive functioning. In addition, to avoid the premature exclusion of options that do not fit their actual self-concept, adolescents and young adults should learn with career counselors how to be more
objective in self- and environmental information processing (for further suggestions, see Blustein, 1992; Peterson, Sampson, Reardon, and Lenz, 1996; Rodríguez, 1999; Taveira et al., 1998). Finally, a deeply attention to the nature of contextual factors of career exploration defines the focus of an emergent line of research in the field. In short, researchers outline that content and process of career exploration are influenced by the nature of historical, social, economical, and cultural opportunities, and that career exploration can be fostered by social contexts that offer access to a wide range of options and which are consistent with individuals own interests and abilities (Blustein, 1997; Blustein, Lochard & Pol, in press). The studies that include the analysis of correlates of exploration such as age, gender, social-economical conditions and education offered some evidence for the role of life-development contexts in career exploration. It becomes however forceful, due to the scarceness of studies in the field, the need to better study the role of contextual factors in the differential development of vocational exploration. Age been found to relate to career exploration, with older adolescents and young adults more likely to be engaged in self- and environmental exploration (Ketterson & Blustein, 1997; Taveira et al., 1998). Moreover, in the early stages of career development, the interest for specific occupational information seems to be less than in later years (Blustein, 1990, Taveira et al., 1998). A number of researchers have discussed and documented the relation between gender and career exploration content (e.g., Afonso & Taveira, 1999; Betz & Hackett, 1997; Fitzgerald, Fassinger, & Betz, 1995; Harmon, 1999), outlining the traditional sexual orientation of career preferences. Unfortunately, in what concerns career exploration process, empirical evidence is inconclusive, with some studies documenting differences in career exploration as a function of Sex (e.g., Afonso & Taveira, 1999; Afonso, 1987; Stumpf et al., 1983; Simas, 1996; Super & Forrest, 1972; Stumpf & Lockart, 1987; Thompson, & Lindeman, 1984), and others not (e.g., Blustein, 1988, 1989ab; Blustein & Phillips, 1988; Ketterson & Blustein, 1997; Sugalski & Greenhaus, 1986). No doubt, additional studies on the role of gender in career exploration will be needed. In turn, Brown, Darden, Shelton, & Dipoto, (1999) found that urban students scored significantly higher on career exploration than their suburban counterparts. Moreover, Afonso & Taveira (1999) found that content and process of 12th graders career exploration does vary in function of social-economical status. Individuals of lower social-economical condition exclude more options in
the fields of Science and Arts than their colleagues of higher social-economical status. On the other hand, individuals from a higher social-economical condition, register higher levels of self and environmental information and a greater involvement in environment exploration activities, than those of a lower social-economical condition. As one may conclude, these type of results lend support to the idea that social and cultural factors influence what one considers being exploitable for vocational purposes (Gottfredson, 1981; Blustein & Flumm, 1999). On the other hand, it becomes once again evident that in the intervention process it is forceful to lay hand on self and environment exploration tools sensitive to the contextual factors of vocational exploration. A second main line of inquiry concerning career exploration attempts to analyze the effects of this process regarding various aspects of vocational development and career decision-making. In general terms, it is found that career exploration has a significant impact on vocational interests and on future time-perspective, and that it favors vocational maturity, in self-concept crystallization (see Taveira, 1997), which is consistent with the role ascribed to exploration by Super, in his interactive model of career development in infancy (Super, 1995). Additionally, career exploration seems to have a positive impact on the decision making process, in job hunting and placement, and on occupational satisfaction and attainment. More recently, it was found that career exploration contributes to the vocational adaptation of first year university students (Soares & Taveira, 1998), that it is related to motivation for personal growth (Urakami, 1996), to vocational identity (Robitschek & Cook, 1999), and to perceptions of hierarchical plateauing in employee population (Allen, Russel, Poteet, & Dobbins, 1999). In turn, Lawrence, Wall, Barnes & Dela-Rosa (1998) have shown that career exploration predicts the competence to generate career options, while another group of studies evidenced that beliefs about exploratory behavior are a significant predictor of career-decision making self-efficacy (Brown, Darden, Shelton, & Dipoto, 1999; O’Brien, Dukstein, Jackson, Tomlinson, & Kamatuka, 1999). The results of this line of research also suggest that vocational exploration produces favorable results, in terms career development, mainly when individuals explore significant and useful information in relation to their proximal career developmental tasks (Blustein, 1989b; Lynch, 1990; Taveira et al., 1994). In general, the study of career exploration effects reinforces the idea of exploration as an important psychological life-span process with a significant role in career learning
and development, and with a positive effect not only on career planning and on career decisionmaking but also on career adaptation.
IMPLICATIONS FOR EXPLORATION-BASED INTERVENTIONS It is important that career counselors conceive exploration as a multidimensional process with a specific dynamics. Practitioners also need to develop or apply strategies to assess client’s motivation and competency related to exploratory activity. Table 1 offers a schemata for the analysis of career exploration dynamics in career intervention. Table 1. Analysis of Career Exploration Process
Dynamics of career exploration Dimensions of career exploration
Why do people explore?
To gather information, to construct meaning, to solve dilemmas and problems, to reduce confusion, incertainty, anxiety, stress, to test self and environment hypothesis
What for do they explore? Where do they explore? How do they explore?
Goals of exploration Extent of self- and environmental exploration In a systematic and intentional mode or in a fortuitous and unconscious manner
How much do they explore?
Frequency of exploratory behavior and amount of information obtained Number of options explored Focus of exploration
Directness of exploration?
What type of factors facilitate or inhibit career exploration?
Personal Developmental Relational Academic Social-Economic Political ...
What occurs after exploration takes place?
Improvement of self-concept Vocational maturity Self-esteem Vocational identity development Differentiation of career interests Progress in career decision-making Career satisfaction...
Besides several suggestions and efforts developed by diverse groups of career development scholars and of career counselors regarding intervention strategies and programs to foster career exploration in adolescence and adulthood (see Rodríguez-Moreno, 1999; Taveira, 1997), we would like to reinforce
the importance of counselors integrate existing knowledge on career exploration correlates into practice, and suggest, like Atkinson & Murrell did in 1988, the use of Kolb’s experiential learning model (Kolb, 1984) to conceptualize and organize career exploration interventions in adolescence. Kolb’s model conceives cognitive development and learning along two orthogonal dimensions, the concrete-abstract and the reflexive-active axes, and can serve as a guide to the articulation of action with reflexive experiences in career exploration-based interventions. Furthermore, in our view, psychologists clearly need to consider individual differences in career exploration and to adopt a client’s centered approach in career intervention. For different groups of individuals, different career exploration exploration-based interventions are significant. Thus, for example, if one takes into consideration the career exploration clusters found by Taveira (1997) and the suggestion of Atkinson & Murrell (1988) to adopt Kolb’s learning model in the organization of exploration activities, the design of relevant interventions for each type of adolescents may become facilitated (see Rodríguez Moreno, 1999; Taveira, 1997). Next, it is exemplified how intervention can be tailored to different career exploration profiles.
Career exploration profiles and intervention As previously referred, Taveira (1997), based on a cluster procedure, identify different groups of adolescents based on their relationship to the dimensions of exploration assessed by the Career Exploration Survey, the Career Decision Scale and the Dellas Identity Status Inventory-Occupation3. Following is a brief description of the four career profiles identified. Profile 1: “Confident Exploration/Identity Achievement/Low Indecision”. The adolescents included in this cluster present very positive expectations about the world of work and about the instrumental value of exploration, and the highest involvement in systematic environment exploration. Moreover, the students of this group acquired the most significant amount of occupational information and are very satisfied with it; and register the lowest levels of stress related to future career exploration activities or to career decision-making situations. This group includes Portuguese 12th grade students of both sexes, with age ranging from 16 to 22 years old (N=386).
The sample of this study was composed of 1,400 Portuguese students, 700 of 9th grade and 700 of 12th grade, from 10 semi-urban northwestern secondary schools, facing an imminent career decision. The 9th and 12th graders ranged in age from 13 to 18 years (M= 14,8, SD=1,04), and from 16 to 22 years (M=17,9; SD=1,89). Only 15,2% of the students had previously received career guidance. Descriptive results show that, in general, the adolescents studied are relatively undecided, and questioning their identity in the career domain. However, a deeply analysis of the career exploration process of these adolescents, based on the CES results, evidence that although attributing instrumental value to career exploration, those adolescents registered low involvement in
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Profile 2: “Anxious Exploration/Moratorium and Foreclosure-Moratorium Identity/High Indecision”. This profile is characterized by the most positive career exploration beliefs; by high involvement in systematic and intentional career exploration, specially in what concerns self oriented questioning; and by feelings of satisfaction with the information obtained in exploration activities. However, contrary to what happens in the former group, the students included in these cluster exhibit high levels of stress related to exploration and decision-making activities. This group includes a majority of 9th grade students of both sexes, with 13 and 14 years of age (N=355). Profile 3: “Gender Circumscribed Exploration/Moratorium Identity/ Highest Indecision” This group, although placing high importance on obtaining one’s career preference, and believing in the instrumentality of career exploration, register the most negative labor market beliefs a low activation of self and environmental exploration. Additionally, low levels of satisfaction with the career information and the highest levels of exploration and decisional stress define this profile. This cluster defines mainly the career profile of 12th girls with 16 and 17 years old and of 9th grade girls, with 13 and 14 years old (N=370). Profile 4: “Differed exploration/Diffusion and Foreclosure-Diffusion Identity/Low indecision”. This profile is defined by negative labor market and exploration beliefs, by deactivation of career exploration process , specially of environment exploration, and by the lowest levels of exploration stress. This cluster defines mainly the career profile of 9th grade boys with 13 and 14 years old (N=289). As it was evidenced by Taveira (1997), adolescents from Cluster 1 would benefit from more proactive intervention strategies and from brief career interventions, with minimal or moderate assistance from a counselor (e.g., information, self-directed activities, career education, brief structured career counseling), focused in fostering competency in exploration and in life and career planning. Adolescents from the remaining Clusters would benefit from more intensive treatments, in terms of counselor and client investment (e.g., long-term individual or group career counseling), focused on the resolution of vocational identity issues, adaptive social-cognitive functioning, and coping skills to bear non adaptive anxiety (Clusters 2, 3 and 4), and on career motivation (Cluster 4). The clients of each cluster could also benefit from a specific organization of career exploration activities, by considering the learning model of Kolb (1984) and the characteristics of each exploration profile. Examples of such an organization of career exploration-based activities is shown in Table 2. Following, the design of a specific intervention for Profile 3 Group is exemplified.
Table 2: Design of intervention activities in relation to career exploration profiles
Type of intervention Examples of intervention activities
Profile 1 Confident
Profile 2 Anxious
Profile 3 Gender Circumsc.
Profile 4 Postponed
self and environment exploration, low satisfaction with information obtained till present, and high explorational and decisional stress. This pattern of descriptive results is similar for both grade groups.
1. A.Concrete Experience
Interact with a CACGS to explore self needs, values, and interests A2.4
Promote the adolescent’ 2. To write working life stories motivation to commit himself/herself with 3. To ask significant ones to tell and evaluate concrete self- and their working life environmental exploration activities 4. Work shadowing B. Reflexive Observation Promote meaning construction, identification of categories or patterns of self and environment information, and to articulate personenvironment features B1.1 1.To hierarchize self values, interests and aptitudes 2. To analyze costs and benefits of specific performed or observed work activities 3. To relate his/her own academic achievement with occupational requisites 4. To discuss in small group personal and colleagues reactions to CACGS use, and work shadowing C1.1 C1.3 C1.4
C. Abstract Conceptualization
1. To formulate hypothesis of possible selves in relation to working life Develop knowledge of 2. Learning how to formulate career plans based self, of work, and of life on tests and inventories results and career roles, as well 3. Becoming aware of decision-making process as the ability to argumen characteristics through the retrospective and to make inferences analysis of personal and significant others and deductions life decisions 4. To reflect, with counselor’s help, the influence of aspects such as gender, social class, family, school, and politics in his/her own career exploration process and contents D. Active Experimentation
C3.2
1. To write a résumé and send it to an organization Exercise abilities and 2. To experiment part-time work with skills to cope with people supervision and situations, and self 3. To experience work and leisure in different and environment contexts and discuss what could be changed hypothesis reality testing in those contexts to fit personal values 4. To move to another city to renew experience in life and career domains
D2.4
D4.1
Development of activity C 1 activity to Profile 3 Goal: To help an adolescent with a profile of Postponed Exploration to generate and test hypothesis for his/her future working life
Activity title “Exploring my working life” Content “What type of work do you think it is more suitable for you?” Explore that option taking into consideration your gender, social class, and academic achievement, according to the following steps: 1. List your aptitudes and interests in one column. 2. Identify the requisites of your preferred work and list them in a second column, parallel to that of your personal attributes. 3. Identify correspondences and gaps between personal attributes and work requisites. 4. Ask the opinion of your colleagues and tutor about your analysis. 5. Use the computer or the career counselor to explore the requisites of your preferred work option, and to test if that work requires your present aptitudes. 6. Try to ask the following questions: a. Do you think that your preferred work is congruent to your social class? Why? b. If you are/were a girl, do you think you will have the same opportunities as if you were a boy to do that type of work? Argument. c. Taking in consideration your social class, do you think you will be given the opportunity to do that type of work? Argument. 7. Comment your opinions with your career counselor or tutor. Planning Two hours per week of tutorial work. Resources 1. Questionnaire 2. Results of tests and of Career Exploration Scale (CES). 3. Human resources (career counselor/tutor and classroom mates) 4. A computer assisted career guidance system (CACGS).
Kolb’s experiential learning model can be a useful frame of reference for career counselors structuring career exploration interventions with different levels of complexity. Each mode of experiential learning requires specific abilities and skills from the client. Concrete experience requires focusing on “here and now” realities and in intuitive and affective action. Abstract conceptualization requires the use of logic thinking and meaning construction. Reflexive observation relates with hypothesis testing, relativism and perspective taking. Finally, active experimentation implies action, participation, pragmatism and risk-taking.
CONCLUSION Current status of career exploration theory and research is promising. The most actual conceptualizations of exploration career exploration portrait the construct as a status of career decision-making process or as a vital process of career learning and development. As a psychological status, career exploration describes a state of temporarily uncertainty or indecision in the process of commitment with a career option. As a psychological process, career exploration refers to the testing, in imagination or in reality, of possible selves and to the gathering and processing or meaning construction of self and environment information in order to achieve career goals or to solve career problems. The simplistic notion of career exploration as extent of information-seeking behavior has
been progressively abandoned in the career literature, although many efforts need to be done to transfer this tendency to practice. Research has been developed in two main lines: the development of career exploration assessment devices and the study of career exploration process and outcomes. Although the remarkable developments in the domain, since the appearance of Career Exploration Survey by Stumpf et al. (1983), dimensionality and structure of career exploration constructs needs further research. Most studies on career exploration process and outcomes use the ideas of Super, Jordaan, and of other developmental theorists such as Eriksson, Marcia, and Bowlby to design and discuss the results of inquiry. The theme of career exploration allows by itself an integration between developments inside an outside vocational psychology. Despite the recognition of the importance of a very rich literature recently dedicated to career exploration, more developments are needed to integrate a developmental perspectives in the theory, research and practice of career exploration. Portugal and Spain, the theme of career exploration has been focus of attention of some scholars of career development including the authors. However, much has to be done in the area of intervention. We attempt to provide some suggestions to the construction of a psycho educational model of career exploration-based intervention in adolescence and with young adults. Because career exploration attitudes and behaviors are a product of the individual interface with the society, both individual and social dimensions must be considered in intervention. Individual intervention requires the consideration of clients cognitive and emotional development characteristics as well as their historical, social and cultural context. Social intervention requires group and organizational focused actions designed to change social groups and institutions so that they promote individuals and communities development.