Although Super originally presented the stages and tasks in a sequential manner, he later added that we cycle and recycle throughout our life span as we adapt to changes in ourselves as well as to the trends in the work place. Understanding these ages and related stages of career development helps the facilitator select appropriate responses and activities. Super also looked at the different roles we play during our lifetimes and the relative importance we give to those roles at different times in our lives. Much growth takes place as a result of learning and imitating the behavior of others. Krumboltz developed a theory of career decision making and development based on our social learning, or environmental conditions and events, genetic influences and learning experiences.
People choose their careers based on what they have learned.
Certain behaviors are modeled, rewarded and reinforced. Some decision-making theories hypothesize that there are critical points in our lives when choices are made that greatly influence our career development. These decision making points are such events as educational choices, entry-level job positions, changing jobs, etc. Other decision-making theories concerned with ongoing choices across the life span. The decisions that we make are influenced by our awareness of the choices that are available to us and our knowledge of how to evaluate them.