Study on Career Guidance and Career Decision Making in the Context of India

1. INTRODUCTION

The idea of a job or option of occupation starts right from the moment children engage in role play as a doctor, teacher and other professionals they see around them. Many children find themselves asking questions as to what they wish to do when they are older. While this phase begins early, real preparation and decision making occur in adolescence, the time between 13 and 18 years. It is a crucial developmental stage marked by many biological and psychological changes and involves the successful resolution of particular challenges including identity achievement. It is a period where they strive to find a balance between submission and individuality. Along with other skills, a teenager needs to learn appropriate decision-making skills as many significant decisions that will have an effect on their future will be made in this phase. One such significant decision that needs to be made is about academic and job decisions. The career journey of a person begins when he starts dreaming of his potential career and starts preparations for a promising foray into the same. Career interests are established, future career goals are created, and the groundwork for one's future career is laid in adolescence. According to Erickson late adolescence is the period when ideological and workplace engagement is a crucial activity. The key prerequisite at this point is readiness for a profession, increase in information of jobs and professions, discovery of life positions and understanding of prejudices about particular occupations (Joseph, 2012). Savickas (as quoted in Landine, 2013) spoke of the need for students to “look ahead” He promoted the creation in competencies of self-knowledge, occupational information, decision making, planning, and problem-solving. As early as 1951, Ginzberg, Ginzberg, Axelrad, and Herma (as cited in Crites,1972- 73) emphasized the importance of job decision-making in adolescence. They talked of the challenge of transitioning to new choices ( e.g. modifying one's stream) until old choices are acted upon with respect to profession, resulting in a compromise. Going through the stages of identity crisis and psychosocial moratorium in the form of having to make a decision from a multitude of career options can be very difficult and daunting for the adolescent (Bakshi, Gandhi, Shah, & Maru, 2012). They can face problems with collecting and assessing self and occupational information. This makes job decision making a dynamic operation. The willingness to make successful career decisions is important for success in life because these choices would have effects on the individual's whole life and future. A person's future successes, income levels, standard of living, self- esteem, and social standing are primarily determined by his career. Hence it is important to provide effective career advice at this point to make acceptable career choices. In the Oxford dictionary, career is described as an "occupation for a substantial amount of a person's life and prospects for advancement". In this context, the term profession can be extended to any kind of job as opposed to the common notion that only individuals in those professions are viewed as possessing a career. However, the term 'career' is usually applied to careers synonymous with some types of status and professional credentials. In recent years the meaning and definition of the term 'carriage' has evolved enormously worldwide. What was once considered a family responsibility has now grown into a lifetime presence that is used as a way of personal and social growth and development. Savickas described clinical psychology (as quoted in Walsh & Savickas), 2005) is "an applied psychology specialty; is scientific endeavour conducting research in order to enhance understanding of ethical behaviour, improve job interventions, and educate social decisions on job problems." The conduct sciences division is rooted in clinical counselling, educational psychology, economics and sociology. Starting with career preparation, a person transforms his career aspirations from entering the working world, to retaining himself and continuing on his path. In the current situation, a person will have to equip himself with the appropriate expertise and this will require professional training and professional advice. The conception and growth of the field of career choice has been influenced by many global phenomena. Its history can be traced back to the early 20th century and the industrial revolution in the West that allowed this region to be born. In Western economies much of the ideas of job growth and leadership were mainly inspired by the industrial revolution. But in the real world, emerging countries with their vast workforces and evolving job concepts, the nature of work needs to be redefined in a culturally relevant manner and models based on this culturally responsive definition must be developed. Background of Career Guidance The idea of career leadership is heavily influenced by cultural, social and economic influences. Recent career management paradigms encourage the development of jobs as the result of a dynamic relationship between the person and the community. It is a continuous process to be understood in the wider system of the society in which the individual is present (Arulmani & Nag-Arulmani, 2004). Many job therapy interventions are focused on ideas and frameworks specifically tailored by western societies. The views of the West vary greatly from the views of the East. Western cultures are understood as individualists, and eastern cultures as collectivists. However, cultural worldviews of eastern (Natarajan 2010). The use of western models can harm the efficacy of these in eastern cultures (Reese & Vera, 2007). Career convictions as defined by Krumboltz (as quoted in Sangma & Arulmani 2013) can be understood as "opinions and behaviours that can affect career decision-making with regard to career and career growth." Career beliefs are considered to be cultural influenced and can either support or inhibit the development or making of optimal career choices. Arulmani (as stated in Arulmani, 2012) stressed the importance of discussing social cognitions and the family's and individual's professional values in professional counselling. Career in the Context of India Career Psychology takes on a new meaning in India as the changing environment and access to an immense labour force open the doors to a wide variety of jobs and prospects. The ideal use of this ability will further increase employee efficiency. Career decisions in India are often guided rather than based on personal choices and desires by labour market and external influences. The perception of job decision-making would also help to obtain insightful insights into it (Arulmani, 2012). In India however, career psychology has not evolved to the degree required, and many cannot access career advice programmes. The current job guidance models may not be focused on quantitative guidelines appropriate for our diverse economic, social and cultural contexts. Career preparation must also be researched in order to develop successful career guidance systems in this sense and Indian career psychology must be established with Indian values and a cultural atmosphere in mind. Career Decision Making Career selection and Making are critical as globalisation, and existing career choices have created an unparalleled battle for talent (Smith, 2011). Selection of the wrong occupation will influence the individual's success, contentment and mental wellbeing for life. Career decisions are also a significant achievement in a person's life. The decision-making process is a process that describes the decisions a person makes for a specific profession. The phenomenon is dynamic and has social, psychic and metaphysical dimensions (Aldona & Liuda, 2004). It helps to recognise personality variations and different influences in the decision-making phase of an individual (Hirschi & Läge, 2007). It also offers a glimpse into the way .These influences influence

A variety of external (economy), personal (family history, attitude) and sociocultural factors affect career choices for an individual (Agarwala, 2008). The following are classifications of factors that affect Carpenter, Foster and Beyonce's choice of profession (as stated in Agarwala, 2008). • Intrinsic (e.g. personal interest and satisfaction) • Extrinsic (e.g. job availability) • Interpersonal (e.g. influence of significant people) Intrinsic factors. Individuals have a predisposition to think and act in certain ways which influence career decision making. Some of these aspects are personality traits, cognitive styles, and decision-making styles. The individual factors that are explored in the current study are discussed in the following section. Personality. Many scholars such as Holland, Wise, Eysenck, and Eysenck have elaborated the role of personality in occupational decision-making and occupational performance (Ryan, 2014). The characteristics of career maturity and decision-making advocate that stable characteristics play a vital role in career decision-making. They agree that the needs of different people vary Job needs individuals with varied expertise and desires. These ideas support the notion that successful decisions can be taken by defining these attributes and applying them to occupational criteria in the professional guidance process. One of Holland 's key trait theors identified six forms of practical, science, imaginative, social, entrepreneurial and traditional personality. Similarly, he categorised the working conditions and expected greater results when the criteria of a profession were balanced. He also assumed that occupational preferences could be a personality factor (Gillespie, 1992). Raskin (1998) called for the study of career maturity in relation to human personality, decision-making and context. The five major personality theories are drawn from observational and laboratory studies and are considered to be robust across cultures (ACT 2007). It defines the essential aspects of personality on a global basis. This paradigm is commonly used to classify the way people think, feel and act. The five qualities cohesiveness, awareness, extraversion, Adya and Kaiser (2005) propose in their model for research in teenage career decisions using the broad 5 characteristic paradigm to analyse the role of the personality in career decision-making. Baker, Victor, Chambers and Halverson (2004) documented the convergent and distinguishing validity of the five factor paradigm for adolescents. Swerdlik and Cohen (as quoted in Smith, 2011; Bailey, 2002; Hartman, 2006) As follows, define the characteristics. • The desire to achieve consensus represents the discrepancies between people around teamwork and collective cohesion and how pro-social and altruistic it is. Persons with this attribute appear to be affectionate and co-operative. • Consciousness includes how we influence, manage and direct our impulses. High-level people are hard-working, creative, trustworthy and coordinated. They may have common orientations of concern. • Extraversion is characterised by a close interaction with the outside world and the degree to which a person is gregarious, optimistic and social. These people may be enthusiastic and outgoing and choose entrepreneurial professions. • Open-mindedness differentiates innovative, inventive people from earth to earth to traditional people and relates to the importance of fresh experiences. Persons high in transparency may want to experiment, encounter new opportunities and have research career interests. • Neuroticism refers to a propensity to negative thoughts and moods. Hostility, impulsiveness, depression and anxiety are facets of this trait. Lower career maturity was linked with it (Bailey, 2002). Study on the five main characteristics and job growth is outlined. Then by Hartman (2006). Awareness and conviction are related to positive facets of job growth. Neuroticism can lead to lower career decisions, work indecision and work efficiency and satisfaction. Extraversion has led to work satisfaction, improved self-efficacy in job search and increased occupational flexibility. Openness is mixed with job growth, although no clear association with the variables of career outcomes Metacognition. Developing good decision making and problem-solving skills is important for young people to make good decisions by hypothetically and objectively reasoning (Gillespie, 1992). Decision-making capabilities in later teens are predicted to increase than in early teens. In the cognitive information management theory, the role of information processing in decision making has been emphasised. The five key decision-making phases include the issue description, generation of solutions, appraisal, decision-making, execution and assessment of the result (Gillespie 1992). It is understood that cognitive considerations such as decision-making and job values affect career decision-making. Decisions are also explored in the sense of a wider term known as metacognition. Flavell developed the term in 1979 and described metacognition as "cognition or thought" (Lai, 2011). In cognitive psychology it has also been described as a method of management control involving monitoring and self-regulation (Lai & Viering, 2012). Schraw (1998) conceives metacognition as a dynamic system, a multi-dimensional generic collection of competencies that are not available in certain cases. Anything unique to the domain. He implies that information about cognition and cognition management are all facets of metacognition. Cognition intelligence contains three forms of metacognitive memory, i.e. declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and conditional knowledge. Cognition control includes planning, monitoring and assessment skills. They provide skills that help to regulate cognition in many areas. Metacognition is an important part of the decision-making phase of profession (Lemeni,2005). It is important for career decision-making as an autonomous evaluation of one's ability to determine tasks and to schedule job ways lets the individual chose the right career (Schraw & Dennison 1994). Cognitive information processing theory specifically addresses the metacognitive dimension which includes Krumboltz theory, social cognitive job theory, and the career theological context (Lemeni, 2005). The semantic information processing theory recognises metacognition as part of the information processing pyramid executive domain. Self-talk, self-confidence and control and controlling are the three skills required for. According to this theory, executive processing. Self-talking requires perspectives about the decision-making process. The ability to recognise thoughts profession in this field can lead to career indecision and to poor decision-making (Paivandy, 2008). Evaluating, preparing and using effective metacognitive techniques will help young people make smarter job choices. Aldona & Liuda (2004) highlighted the need for consultants in this respect Develop comprehensive services that allow consumers to develop their metacognitive and decision-making capabilities to make better job choices. The skills acquired by academic learning are proven to support progress ACT (2007) Profession. Extrinsic/ Contextual factors. Contextual factors may act as supportive factors or barriers to career aspirations and final career choices. Family. The family plays a significant role in personal career growth, as it is the benchmark for many choices and behaviours that the young person makes (Sands, 2011). In a young person's life, family members play many positions from becoming an educator to a decision-maker. Family may have overt effects such as material and financial assistance and indirect influences Transmission of individual job ideals and aspirations (Bergen, 2006). As suggested by Grotevant and Cooper in interaction (as stated in Bergen in 2006), family effect and circumstances may be facilitative or inhibitory for study, which is a key task in the production of adolescent professions. Literature does not explicitly describe the precise essence of how family affects job development. Family composition, family responsibilities and relationships between family members are considered to impact professional development (Palos & Drobot, 2010). Families help the first level of professional decision-making by providing support and advice for tasks such as raising career knowledge, feedback, access to services and tools and providing an ideal decision-making environment. Family mechanisms such as family contact, patterns of contact (Olaosebikan and Olusakin, 2014) and family preferences and ambitions affect child career goals.(2011). Family and parental influence in the career decision-making of children are significant in the Indian sense as family is actively involved in the life of a youth. They allow children to study before they have graduated. Parenting style. Parents are considered to play the most important part in their children's career

Baumrind first addressed the three parental types of permissive, egalitarian and authoritarian. The parents were divided into two control dimensions (demand) and warmth (responsiveness). The extent of parental influence differs between the types of parents. Parenting has affected infant features in many ways (Natarajan, 2010). The following are the three parental models (Natarajan 2010). • Patriarchal parenting is where parents are superior to power but poor to warmth. Authoritarian parents are seen as restrictive, ruling, disciplinary and put emphasis rather than sovereignty on presumed power. They insist on compliance without doubt and can be draconian. • Authoritarian parenting is where parents are perceived to be dominant and wet. Clear goals and regulation are matched. Autonomy and dialogue along with the optimal control are welcomed. Parents are secure, transparent and independence of decision-making remains under constraints and restrictions. • Permissive parents are known to be warm-up but control-free. There is a lack of influence over actions by parents and children manage their own behaviour. They are non-punitive and unregulated. Parenting style was analyzed in relation to occupational development as the role of the family was stressed in career development theories. Types of parenting In contrast with western and eastern Asian societies, their influence on their children vary. Research on Southern Asian communities, especially on the Indian community (Natarajan 2010), is minimal and illustrates the need to explore parenting styles and their impact in this context in decision-making. Many aspects affect the growth of professions. The mechanism of career decision-making is crucial to consider and it will allow career guides to build successful job counselling programmes. Career based decision-making at adolescence will not only affect their future, but also their work productivity and therefore influence the whole of society. The role of the Arulmani (2013) proposed cultural dimensions and the need to improve career psychology for India. This study will concentrate on defining the role of intrinsic and extrinsic factors in the life of a student in the Indian context that affect this essential decision. influence and involvement on career development (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://etd.fcla.edu/CF/CFE0004391/Latashia_Joseph_Dissertation_Chapters_1 - 5_07202012FINAL.pdf 2. Bakshi, A. J., Gandhi, H. N., Shah, R., & Maru, K. (2012). Influences on career choices as perceived by youth in Mumbai. Indian Journal of Career and Livelihood Planning, 1(1), 7-18. Retrieved from http://iaclp.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/3_Bakshi_et_al_IJCLP_11.2381905 41.pdf 3. Walsh, W. B., & Savickas, M. L. (2005). Current issues and innovations in vocational psychology. In W.B. Walsh, M. L. Savickas, & P. Hartung (Eds.), Handbook of vocational psychology: Theory, research, and practice. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9XSRAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg =PP1&dq=vocational+career+psychology&ots=OGxC62WB1O&sig=9mBvpzP0 y2ioFudQsM- 0oXeRlLw#v=onepage&q=vocational%20career%20psychology&f=false 4. Arulmani, G., & Nag-Arulmani, S. (2004). Career counselling: A handbook. New Delhi, India: Tata McGraw-Hill. 5. Natarajan, A. D. (2010). Culture and perceived parenting style: Implications for interpersonal and academic functioning in Indian and American college students (Master‟s thesis). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text database. (UMI No. 1495893) 6. Sangma, M. V., & Arulmani, G. (2013). Career preparation, career beliefs, and academic achievement motivation among high school students in Meghalaya. Indian Journal of Career and Livelihood Planning, 2(1), pp. 37-40. Retrieved from http://iaclp.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/4_Sangma__Arulmani_Formatted_ AB.82195248.pdf

Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Sri Satya Sai University of Technology & Medical Sciences, Sehore, M.P.