In an effort to remedy this situation, action theory offers a conceptual framework and language for understanding career development and career counseling that is close to human experience. Action theory's perspective is based on a constructionist epistemology which highlights the importance of the way we organize our knowledge in our daily lives. Essentially, constructionists suggest that people use a variety of concepts and frameworks to organize and explain their own and other people's behavior. Moreover, the meaning of people's experience is reflected in their construct system. Action and career are two important and interrelated constructs in the lives of many people.
People frequently think of themselves and other people as purposive, proactive, and self-organizing.
For the most part, their behavior is goal-directed and intentional. Action refers to short-term behavior of this kind, but other constructs are needed for sequences of interrelated actions over the long term. Career is one construct that many people use to understand goal-directed and intentional action over the long term. When joined with other actions, it can also have long-term meaning, such as qualification for further study or job entry. Action theory provides a conceptual framework and language useful to our understanding of career and career counseling.