Applying Image Norms Across Super's Career Development Stages

D. E. Super's (1957) theory of career development has long been of interest to careers researchers (M. Savickas, 1994; S. C. Whiston & B. K. Brecheisen, 2002). Its insightful illustration of career stages has made it widely applied by careers practitioners, Image norms may influence the career decisions and developmental tasks inherent in each stage. An image norm is the belief that individuals must present or possess a certain image, consistent with occupational, organizational, or industry standards, in order to achieve career success. Understanding the effects of image norms across D. E. Super's (1957) career stages has important implications for individuals, organizations, and career counseling professionals. Super's (1957) theory of career development has long been of interest to careers researchers (Fouad & Arhona, 1994; Savickas, 1994; Whiston & Brecheisen, 2002). Its insightful illustration of the stages individuals pass through in their careers has made it widely applied by careers practitioners and has profoundly affected numerous clients. The purpose of this article is to use Super's (1957) theory as a tool to illustrate how image norms may operate in each of his career stages. Image norms may influence the career decisions and developmental tasks inherent in each of Super's (1990) stages. An image norm is the belief that individuals must present or possess a certain image, consistent with occupational, organizational, or industry standards, in order to achieve career success. The rise in image discrimination cases suggests that image norms may play an important role in employment decisions. We propose that physical attractiveness and image effects may have an impact on career decisions throughout Super's (1957,1990) developmental stages. These effects need to be more fully researched in order to understand the role of image norms in career decisions. Image norms may influence career choices in every stage of an individual's career. Super's (1957, 1984) Model of Career Development has greatly influenced research on career stages. Super (1990) described five stages individuals go through in their careers, beginning with growth and ending with disengagement. As individuals confront the developmental tasks inherent in each stage, beliefs about the role of image may influence the accomplishment of said tasks. In the first part of this article, we describe how image norms are formed. Image norms are considered to operate within a broader societal context and, as such, are expected to be influenced by society's definitions of beauty and attractiveness. In the second part, we examine Super's (1984) theory of careers and hypothesize how image norms may operate in each stage of his model. Finally, in the third part, we discuss the implications of image norms for individuals, organizations, and career counseling professionals. I mage Norms Although the role of physical attractiveness in career decisions has received fairly strong research support (Hosoda, Stone-Romero, & Coats, 2003), the role of image has received limited attention from academics. A person's image is the totality of his or her personal appearance. Beliefs about the importance of image, personal appearance, and physical attractiveness in the workplace may reflect occupational and organizational stereotypes. Image norms may also reflect gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disability status, spiritual beliefs, and other cultural factors (Fouad & Byars-VVinston, 2005). Ultimately, all of these factors may shape one's perception of image and become the basis for image norms. Individuals develop three separate (but not mutually exclusive) sets of image perceptions, each of which may shape image norms and influence career decisions. The first set of perceptions involves occupational stereotypes. This is the belief that presenting or possessing a certain image is a requirement for entry into an occupation. …