Professional self-determination is a form of personal choice that reflects the process of searching for and acquiring a profession. Self-determination is realized in the process of analyzing personal capabilities and abilities in relation to professional requirements. Currently, the understanding of professional self-determination takes into account the problems of the relationship with the life self-determination of the individual, and also includes the influence of influence on the social environment and its active position. In a market economy, the problem of freedom to choose a profession and ensuring the competitiveness of an employee is acute.
Professional self-determination of students
Self-determination of students is the process of formation by an individual of a personal attitude towards professional activity and the method of its implementation through the coordination of socio-professional and personal needs.
Professional self-determination of students is part of life self-determination, since it is part of the social group for choosing a profession and lifestyle.
There are different approaches to professional self-determination: sociological - when society sets tasks for the individual, socio-psychological - step-by-step decision-making by the individual, as well as coordination of the needs of society and personal preferences, differential psychological - the formation of an individual way of life.
The interrelated stages of students’ professional self-determination are symbolically identified:
— preschool stage, including the formation of initial labor skills;
- primary school, which includes awareness of the role of work in the life of an individual through participation in various types of activities: educational, play, work.
Awareness of one's abilities and interests related to professional choice occurs in grades 5-7, and the formation of professional self-awareness occurs in grades 8-9.
In the professional self-determination of students, a significant role is assigned to the family and the state-social structure (vocational and general educational institutions; institutions of further education, employment services).
Psychological and pedagogical support for students’ self-determination is aimed at realizing a conscious choice of profession.
Students are determined to choose a profession in the process of learning basic sciences, as well as during vocational training.
So, the professional self-determination of students includes the process of formation by an individual of a personal attitude towards the work sphere, as well as the method of his self-realization through the coordination of professional and intrapersonal needs.
Professional self-determination of high school students
Determining high school students with a future profession is one of the forms of personal self-determination and is characterized by the process of acquisition, as well as the search for a profession, analysis of personal capabilities and abilities in comparison with the requirements of the profession.
At the age of fifteen, it is very difficult for a high school student to choose a profession. Often, professional intentions are vague and diffuse, and professionally oriented dreams, as well as romantic aspirations, are impossible to realize.
The unsatisfied coming future stimulates the development of awareness of the personal “I”. A high school student is “defined”: who he is, what his abilities are, what his life ideal is, what he wants to become. Self-analysis is a delayed psychological basis for professional self-determination for most vocational school students.
Those high school students who receive complete secondary general education feel more comfortable. At the time of graduation, high school students choose the most acceptable and realistic options from fantastic, imaginary professions. Children understand that success and well-being in life, first of all, depend on the right choice of profession.
By assessing their capabilities and abilities, the prestige of the profession, and the socio-economic situation, high school students self-determine in obtaining a vocational education.
Thus, for high school students, educational and professional self-determination acts as a conscious choice of paths to vocational education and training.
Professional self-determination of personality
Psychologists refer to professional and personal self-determination as the process of forming a person’s personal attitude towards the professional work sphere, as well as self-realization through the coordination of social, professional and intrapersonal needs.
Let's consider professional self-determination, including different stages of personality development.
In preschool childhood, children imitate adults in play activities and reproduce their actions. Role-playing games, some of which are professionally oriented, become widespread in preschool age. While playing, children assume the roles of sellers, doctors, builders, educators, cooks, and vehicle drivers.
Initial labor actions are of great importance in professional self-determination - performing simple actions to care for plants, clothes, and cleaning premises. These actions help children develop interest in the work of adults. Professional role-playing games, performing elementary types of work, observing the work of adults contribute to the self-determination of preschoolers. At primary school age, children willingly imitate the actions of adults and, based on this, they are oriented toward the professions of relatives, parents, teachers, and close friends. An important feature of schoolchildren is the motivation of achievements in educational activities. A child’s awareness of his or her capabilities, as well as abilities based on existing experience in gaming, educational, and work activities, forms an idea of the future profession.
The end of primary school age is marked by a significant increase in individual differences in the development of abilities between children, and this in turn affects a significant expansion of the range of professional preferences. Work and educational activities influence the development of children’s imagination, both creative and recreative. Thanks to this ability, ideas about various types of work are enriched, and the ability to see oneself in a certain profession develops. Often, a child has professionally colored fantasies that have a huge impact on professional self-determination in the future.
Adolescence is marked by the laying of the foundations of a moral attitude towards various types of work; a teenager develops a system of personal values that determine selectivity in relation to professions. Psychologists consider this period to be responsible for the formation of personality.
Teenage boys, imitating external forms of adult behavior, focus on romantic professions that have endurance, strong will, courage, courage, for example, astronaut, test pilot, race driver. Girls prefer the professions of “real women” - these are charming, popular, attractive top models, pop singers, and TV presenters.
Orientation towards romantic professions is directed under the influence of the media, which replicate examples of “real adults”. Such professional romantic orientation is facilitated by adolescents’ desire for self-affirmation and self-expression. A differentiated attitude towards various activities in clubs and academic subjects shapes children’s intentions and dreams. Dreams, examples of the desired future are touches of self-determination.
Professional self-determination of an individual in early adolescence is the most important task. Often, a teenager’s plans are very amorphous, vague, and represent the nature of a dream.
A teenager most often imagines himself in various emotionally attractive roles and cannot make a psychologically sound choice of profession on his own. And at the beginning of adolescence, this problem arises for boys and girls who leave the basic secondary school. They make up a third of older teenagers who enter secondary and primary vocational education institutions, while others are forced to begin independent work.
Psychologists have found that often students receiving education in vocational schools, vocational schools, colleges and technical schools have not finally decided and their choice of educational institution was not psychologically justified.
The vast majority of young people aged 16 - 23 years old receive education or undergo vocational training in institutions or enterprises. Often, romantic aspirations and dreams are left in the past, but the desired future has already become the present, and many experience disappointment and dissatisfaction from the choice made. Some are making attempts to make adjustments to their professional start, and most boys and girls, during their training, gain confidence in the correctness of their choice.
At the age of 27, social and professional activity is noted. Already have a job and some experience. Professional growth and achievements become relevant. However, the vast majority begin to experience psychological discomfort, which is caused by lofty, unrealized plans, as well as work saturation.
Uncertainty of career prospects and lack of achievements actualize the reflection of personal existence, giving rise to self-esteem of the “I-concept” and introspection. This period is characterized by mental turmoil. The audit of professional life pushes us to define new significant goals. Some of these include professional development and advancement; changing jobs and initiating promotions; choosing a new profession or related specialty.
For many people, by the age of 30, the problem of professional self-determination again becomes relevant. There are two possible ways here: either to establish yourself further in your chosen profession and become a professional, or to change your place of work, as well as your profession.
The age period up to 60 years is considered the most productive. This period is marked by the realization of oneself as an individual, and is also characterized by the use of professional and psychological potential. It is during this period that life plans are realized and a person’s meaningful existence is justified. The profession provides a unique opportunity, using one’s abilities at work, to realize the need to be an individual, as well as to develop an individual style of activity.
After reaching retirement age, people leave the profession, but by the age of 60 a person does not have time to fully exhaust his potential. This period is marked by an alarming state, since stereotypes that have developed over decades, as well as a way of life, collapse overnight. Skills, knowledge, important qualities - everything becomes unclaimed. Such negative aspects accelerate social aging. Most pensioners experience psychological confusion, worrying about their uselessness and uselessness. The problem of self-determination arises again, however, in a socially useful, social life.
Psychology of professional self-determination
Domestic psychology connects the processes of professional self-determination with personal self-determination and lifestyle choice. By choosing this or that profession, a person plans his way of existence, while correlating his future professional personal status with life values.
The following researchers worked on this problem: M.R. Ginzburg, K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, N.S. Pryazhnikov, E.I. Golovakhi, E.F. Zeer, E.A. Klimov.
The most comprehensive and consistent issues of professional self-determination of the subject were studied in the works of N.S. Pryazhnikova, E.A. Klimova, E.F. Zeera.
E.A. Klimov attributed professional self-determination to the quality of the mental manifestation of human development. Over the course of his life, an individual develops a certain attitude towards different areas of work, develops an idea of his capabilities, professions, and identifies preferences.
According to E.A. Klimov, the most important component in self-determination is the formation of self-awareness.
The structure of professional identity includes:
— awareness of personal belonging to a specific professional community (“we are builders”);
— assessment of one’s place and personal compliance with standards in the profession (one of the best specialists, a beginner);
- the individual’s knowledge of his recognition in a social group (“I am considered a good specialist”);
- knowledge of strengths and weaknesses, individual and successful methods of action and ways of self-improvement;
- personal idea of yourself, as well as work in the future.
E.A. Klimov notes two levels in professional self-determination:
- Gnostic (restructuring of self-awareness and consciousness);
— practical (changes in a person’s social status).
E.F. Zeer highlights the problem of individual self-determination in the context of applied psychology, where professional self-determination is noted:
- selectivity in the individual’s attitude to the world of professions;
— choice taking into account the individual qualities and characteristics of a person, as well as socio-economic conditions and requirements in the profession;
— constant self-determination of the subject throughout life;
— determination of external events (change of place of residence, graduation);
- a manifestation of the social maturity of the individual with a close connection with self-realization.
Problems in self-determination are solved differently at each stage of professional development. They are determined by interpersonal relationships in the team, socio-economic conditions, professional and age-related crises, but the leading role remains with the activity of the individual and his responsibility for personal development.
E.F. Zeer believes that self-determination is an important factor in an individual’s self-realization in a particular profession.
N. S. Pryazhnikov proposed his own model of self-determination, which includes the following components:
— awareness by the individual of the values of socially useful work, as well as the need for professional training;
— orientation in the socio-economic situation, as well as forecasting the prestige of the chosen work;
— defining a professional dream goal;
— highlighting immediate professional goals as stages for achieving further goals;
— search for information about specialties and professions corresponding to educational institutions and places of employment;
— an idea of the personal qualities necessary to implement the plans, as well as possible difficulties in achieving goals;
- availability of backup options in choosing a profession in case of failure with the main option of self-determination;
— practical implementation of personal perspective, adjustment of plans.
Professional self-determination according to N.S. Pryazhnikov occurs at the following levels:
— self-determination in a specific labor function (the employee sees the meaning of activity in the high-quality performance of operations or individual labor functions, while the freedom of choice of actions by the individual is limited);
- self-determination in a specific work position (a work position is marked by a limited production environment, which includes certain rights, means of labor, and responsibilities), while the performance of diverse functions provides the opportunity for self-realization of the activities performed, and a change in work position has a negative impact on the quality of work, causing employee dissatisfaction;
— self-determination at the level of a certain specialty provides for a change of job positions, which allows expanding the opportunities for self-realization of the individual;
— self-determination in a specific profession;
— life self-determination is associated with the choice of lifestyle, which includes leisure and self-education;
- personal self-determination is determined by finding the image of the Self and its affirmation among the surrounding individuals (the individual rises above social roles, profession, becomes the master of his personal life, and the people around him classify him as both a good specialist and a respected, unique person);
— the self-determination of an individual in culture is marked by the individual’s focus on “continuing” himself in other people and is characterized by a significant contribution to the development of culture, which makes it possible to talk about the social immortality of the individual.
The problem of professional self-determination
The experience of career counseling shows that students who have not chosen a profession often seek help from a psychologist to determine the type of activity where they will be most capable. Behind this lies an unconscious desire to shift the solution to a life problem to another individual. Difficulties of this kind often arise due to the lack of adequate ideas among schoolchildren about professional suitability, the inability to assess their abilities and capabilities, and also relate them to the world of professions.
Many students cannot answer: “What activities would you like to engage in?”, “What abilities do you see in yourself?”; “What qualities are important for success in mastering a future profession?”
A low culture of knowledge, as well as ignorance of modern professions, complicates the choice of a life path for high school students.
The career guidance work of a psychologist should turn from diagnostic to formative, developmental, diagnostic and correctional. The stages of consulting work should be aimed at activating students to form a desire for a conscious, independent choice of profession, taking into account the knowledge gained about themselves.
Psychology of professional and personal self-determination
SUBJECT. BASICS OF PROFESSIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION
Introduction
- 1. Concepts: career guidance and career consultation, professional and personal self-determination, career and professional choice
2. Professional self-determination as a search for meaning in work activity
3. Personal dignity as the highest (elite) manifestation of subjectivity in work
4. The main (ideal) goal and main tasks of professional self-determination
5. Psychological “spaces” of professional and personal self-determination
6. Types and levels of professional self-determination
7. Basic methods of career guidance
8. Methods for enhancing professional self-determination
9. Basic strategies for organizing career guidance assistance
1. Concepts: career guidance and career consultation, professional and personal self-determination, career and professional choice
In vocational guidance, the following areas are traditionally distinguished: vocational information, vocational agitation, vocational education, vocational diagnostics (professional selection
,
professional selection
) and professional consultation.Career guidance
- a very comprehensive concept, for example, we can say that modern Western society is essentially career-oriented, because From birth, it orients the child towards “success in life”, towards a “successful career”. Career guidance involves a wide range of measures, going beyond just pedagogy and psychology, to assist in choosing a profession, which includes professional consultation
as individually oriented assistance in professional self-determination.
Both career guidance and career counseling are the “orientation” of the school student (optent), while
is more correlated with the “self-orientation” of a student acting as a subject of self-determination (Klimov, 1983. pp. 15-21
).
Professional and personal self-determination have a lot in common, and in their highest manifestations they almost merge. If we try to separate them, we can distinguish two fundamental differences between professional and personal self-determination
:
1. Professional self-determination - more specific, it is easier to formalize it (get a diploma, etc.); personal self-determination is a more complex concept (a “personality” diploma, at least for mentally healthy people, is not yet issued).
2. Professional self-determination depends more on external (favorable) conditions, and personal self-determination depends more on the person himself; moreover, it is often bad conditions that allow someone to truly express themselves (heroes appear at turning points). True, even in prosperous eras, full of “temptations” and so-called “happiness” with frozen smiles (when everyone is “supposed” to be happy), there are still people who are looking for meaning for themselves in solving some special, incomprehensible a man in the street with problems for whom the worst thing is the joy of the masses “chomping with happiness.” For such people, a prosperous era turns into the most terrible torture, and they themselves create additional difficulties for themselves, i.e. conditions for truly personal self-development.
At the same time, such people (true heroes) have the opportunity to pose complex problems in relatively wealthy “rear areas”, when they do not have to think about survival, about basic food, etc., therefore, personal self-determination in prosperous eras, on the one hand , is still preferable, but, on the other hand, it is much more difficult than in difficult, “heroic” periods of the development of society, since in an era of relative prosperity, genuine personal self-determination often dooms a person to real loneliness, misunderstanding and even condemnation from others. That is why it is undesirable to call for or somehow “formalize” psychological help in personal self-determination. It is better to carry it out carefully against the background of career guidance (professional self-determination) that is more familiar and understandable to most people.
The concept of "career"
widespread in the West (for example, in the USA, career guidance is often generally called “career psychology”). Russia has its own tradition of using the word “career” - this is success in any activity, but with some negative connotations (such as “careerism”). In the American tradition, a career (according to J. Super) is “a certain sequence and combination of roles that a person performs during his life” (child, student, vacationer, employee, citizen, spouse, owner of the house, parent).” This understanding is close to life self-determination in the Russian tradition (see.Pryazhnikov, 1997. pp. 80-81
).
True, in the Western tradition, the concept of “career” is increasingly associated with irony and condemnation. For example, V. Berg in his book “Career-Super Game” writes: “A successful career is not a happy accident. Try not to fall for the “wolves” of economics and politics who managed to make a brilliant career, but learn to howl and hunt with them . Why don't you start poisoning the colleagues around you? Become a killer before you become a victim. But you should always remember that this will slightly spoil your conscience. However, your enemies, your competitors, your envious colleagues... after all, they are do exactly the same thing. Bullying, intrigue, envy no longer cause feelings of shame" (Berg, 1998. P. 8
)…
Professional choice
, in contrast to professional self-determination (according to E.I. Golovakha), “this is a decision that affects only the immediate life prospects of the student”, which can be carried out “both taking into account and without taking into account the long-term consequences of the decision” and “in the last In this case, the choice of profession as a fairly specific life plan will not be mediated by distant life goals" (Golovakha, 1988
). J. Super believes that during his life (career) a person is forced to make many choices (the career itself is considered as “alternating choices”).
2. Professional self-determination as a search for meaning in work activity
The concept of “self-determination” is fully consistent with such currently fashionable concepts as self-actualization, self-realization, self-realization, self-transcendence, self-awareness (see more about professional self-awarenessTopic 5
of this manual)… At the same time, many thinkers associate self-realization, self-actualization, etc. specifically with labor activity, with work. For example, A. Maslow believes that self-actualization manifests itself “through passion for meaningful work”; K. Jaspers connects self-realization with the “deed” that a person does. I.S. Cohn says that self-realization manifests itself through work, work and communication. P.G. Shchedrovitsky notes that “the meaning of self-determination is in a person’s ability to build himself, his individual history, in the ability to constantly rethink his own essence” (quoted from:Pryazhnikov, 1997. pp. 78-79
).
E.A. Klimov
distinguishes two levels of professional self-determination: 1) gnostic (restructuring of consciousness and self-awareness); 2) practical level (real changes in a person’s social status) (Klimov, 1983. pp. 62-63
).
Self-determination presupposes not only “self-realization”, but also the expansion of one’s original capabilities - “self-transcendence” (according toV. Frankl
): “...the fullness of human life is determined through its transcendence, i.e. the ability to “go beyond oneself,” and most importantly, in a person’s ability to find new meanings in a specific matter and in his entire life.” Thus, it is the meaning that determines the essence self-determination, self-actualization and self-transcendence.
ON THE. Berdyaev in his work “Self-Knowledge” notes that “on the threshold of adolescence and youth, I was once shocked by the thought: “Even though I don’t know the meaning of life, but the search for meaning already gives meaning to life, and I will devote my life to this search for meaning” (Berdyaev, 1990. P. 74
).
All this allows us to determine the essence of professional self-determination as the search and finding of personal meaning in the chosen, mastered and already performed work activity, as well as finding meaning in the very process of self-determination
.
At the same time, the paradox of self-determination is immediately revealed (as is the paradox of happiness): the found meaning immediately devalues life (a kind of “emptiness” is formed). Therefore, it is the process of searching for meaning that is important, where individual (already found) meanings are only intermediate stages of the process (the process itself becomes the main meaning - this is life, life as a process, and not as some kind of “achievement”).
True, according to V. Frankl (1990), it turns out that meaning cannot be built anew, it can only be “found.” But there is an element of predetermination in this, which somewhat limits the true creativity of professional and personal self-determination.
With a more creative approach to one’s life, the meaning itself is created anew by a person. It is in this case that a person turns into a genuine subject of self-determination
, and does not simply act as a conductor of some “higher” meanings.
One of the most difficult (and at the same time creative) problems is the search for meaning for a specific self-determined client. But there cannot be a single meaning (the same for everyone). The only exceptions are eras of wars and moral trials, when the people or certain sections of society are united by a single idea. We can conditionally highlight some options for the meaning of self-determination
, intended for general orientation, both for the self-determined client and for the professional psychologist himself.
1. In relation to professional self-determination, a generalized meaning can be identified: the search for suchprofessions
and work that would provide the opportunity to receive earnings (social assessment of work) fairly, i.e. according to the effort expended (or according to the person's contribution to society).
But K. Marx also put the problem of "alienation of labor from capital".
His line of reasoning is roughly as follows. Two aspects of labor are distinguished: 1) “living labor” - as activity, as an opportunity and as a source of wealth and 2) “abstract labor”, expressed in value, in capital. Due to the unfair distribution of wealth, it often turns out that a worker has little money (only to maintain his existence), while a slacker can be a rich man. In a just society, living labor (the activity itself, work) must be combined with the abstract (with monetary reward). Plato also believed that in a just society, a person’s contribution to society should correspond to the reward. A slacker can become a rich man precisely because labor exists in two aspects and it (especially in the abstract part associated with capital) can be unfairly “alienated” from a real worker (see.Marx, Engels, Lenin, 1984
).
Thus, what becomes more important is not the work itself, but the possibility of redistributing benefits and the results of this work. But devalued labor gives rise to purely psychological problems associated with the attitude towards work and planning one’s development as a real worker or as an “enterprising” slacker exploiter. And although K. Marx himself did not explore the purely psychological consequences of such injustice (psychology itself as a science had not yet appeared), his reasoning can be very interesting when considering problems of professional self-determination.
Money is not only an economic category - it is a kind of accumulator of human hopes, dreams and meanings. Already in the development of Marx's ideas we can say that the owner of capital, as it were, also possesses parts of the souls of other people
. But money (large capital) allows the person who possesses it to free up free time for harmonious personal development.
"Harmoniously developed individual"
(according to K. Marx) is a person who is constantly changing his professional functions, these are “the essence of alternating ways of life,” i.e. Harmony is understood as versatility in different types of work. “With developed industry, a worker will change his profession every five years,” wrote K. Marx. It is noteworthy that in many Western companies (in particular, in modern Germany) it is difficult to make a career without mastering related professions.
The worst "swear word" for
K. Marx
- this is a “professional cretin” (or “professional idiocy”)
, i.e. a person “who knows only his profession well, is limited by it and does not participate in the life of society,” which also greatly limits his development as an individual. Another “expletive” of K. Marx is “vocation”
person, because assigns it to a specific labor function. “Recognizing a calling, we are forced to admit the fatality of human life, but man is the creator of his own destiny,” wrote K. Marx. One can imagine K. Marx’s reaction if he had gotten into a Soviet school a few years ago, where slogans like: “You choose a profession. Remember, this is for life!”
K. Marx noted that “the main result of labor is not the goods produced, but the person himself in his social relations”
. Under capitalism, many people appear who have the opportunity to use free time for their development - and this is the progressive meaning of capitalism (compared to previous formations). But all this happens at the expense of the exploitation of other people (who spend their time on exhausting work to ensure their existence). It was assumed that under socialism most people would have time for harmonious development - this was Marx’s main “sedition”.
2. But, as already noted, K. Marx did not reveal precisely the psychological (personal) meaning of labor.E. Fromm
tried to somewhat “psychologize” K. Marx. His term is "aloof character
", when a person is separated from his business, from his activity, when the activity ceases to be personally significant for him, i.e. the person, as it were, loses the meaning of his work. A person simply sells himself on the “market of personalities” (as in Marx, a person sells his labor power). An alienated character is a “market personality” that has lost its true meaning (the meaning for such a person is, as it were, outside of work, for example, in making money). But again it is not clear what this meaning is? For example, the question remains unanswered: why does a person need a lot of money? As an antithesis to the “alienated character,” E. Fromm identifies “non-alienated character,” when a person performs an activity that is significant for himself, as if personally “merging” with it, but the essence of such a person is revealed only through a set of “beautiful” (albeit correct) words like “self-orientation”, “active, loving and reasonable orientation”, when a person “loves what he works for, and works for what he loves”, etc. P. (cm.Fromm, 1992
).
3. V. Frankl considers different variants of meanings (“three triads of meanings”) and identifies the most important of them - the meaning of suffering, but “only the kind of suffering that changes a person for the better”
(cm.Frankl, 1990
). True, before him, F. Nietzsche wrote that “a person’s place in society is determined by the suffering that he is ready to endure for it.” If we take suffering for the sake of self-improvement as a basis, then the question remains: in what direction should we improve, what ideals should we strive for? And although V. Frankl himself, and F. Nietzsche, give approximate guidelines for self-development, the construction of “spaces” of choice is still left to the client himself. As a result, the client, and the psychologist-consultant himself, remain at a loss.
4. J. Rawls in his famous work"A Theory of Justice" (1995)
highlights "primary good" - self-esteem
. The question can be raised again: why does a person need money and capital? The usual answer is to buy things, experience culture, travel, etc. But then an even more interesting question follows: why is all this? Many people are usually at a loss with the answer, because... the answer seems self-evident. Let's try to reason in this direction. A typical example: a person bought an expensive thing (traveled abroad, “got involved in culture, ran around the entire Louvre in two hours”), but often the main point for him is to tell his loved ones and acquaintances about it. It is known, for example, that a person often gets more pleasure not from a prestigious trip abroad, but from the anticipation of this trip, or from stories about this trip among “friends,” or from memories of it. That is, the meaning is not in the trip, but outside of it.
But then the question arises: why does this happen? And why then is this trip (this purchase, etc.) needed? One of the most convincing answers: to increase your sense of self-worth. Thus, it is not even money (and the benefits purchased with it) that become the main meaning: money is one of the means to increase self-esteem. But all this means that often when choosing a profession (the most prestigious and lucrative), a person either consciously or intuitively focuses on what the profession can give him to increase his sense of self-worth. If we put aside the grievances and indignations about the above reasoning, then identifying self-esteem as the “original” category will allow us to better understand many clients, their “primary”, more essential ideas about values and benefits, and therefore about the meaning of their professional life.
5. If we try to somewhat develop the idea of the “primary good” and self-esteem, then we can highlight another version of the meaning - desire for elitism
(cm.Pryazhnikov, 2000
). It is known that many people (teenagers and their ambitious parents) often dream of going “from rags to riches” (including through a “successfully” chosen profession and through “successful” employment). This is especially important in eras of socio-economic transformations and upheavals, when what comes to the fore is not so much creative, highly qualified specialists who work effectively in more stable conditions, but so-called “adventurers” who have not so much the talent to work well, but the talent to get a good job (or more precisely, adapt to the changing labor market conditions). The idea of adventurism is now very popular among self-determined youth.
V.A. Polyakov, in his famous book “Career Technology,” openly identifies two main goals (we would say meaning) when building a “successful” career: the first is “to achieve a high position in society,” and the second is to achieve a “high income” (see.Polyakov, 1995. P. 5
).
Of course, elitist orientations inprofessional self-determination
imply not only “prestige” and “high earnings”, but also a truly creative construction of one’s life, an orientation towards the highest human ideals and values. The only problem is how to figure out where the real values are and where the imaginary ones are, where the elite is and where the pseudo-elite are.
3. Personal dignity as the highest (elite) manifestation of subjectivity in work
The famous philosopher and sociologist J. Rawls defines self-respect andself-esteem
as the “primary good” that underlies all human aspirations and actions and which must be taken into account when building a just society. Self-esteem itself (according to J. Rawls) includes two main aspects. First, it includes “a person’s sense of his own importance, his firm conviction that his concept of his own good, his life plan, deserves to be realized.” Secondly, self-respect includes confidence in one's own abilities, since one has the power to carry out one's own intentions" (Rawls, 1995, p. 385
).
Thus, only that person who is “confident in his own abilities” and is ready to realize his concept of good can consider himself worthy, i.e. ready to be the subject of building your own happiness. But a person lives in a real society and interacts with other people, and all these people have their own “concepts of the good,” which often come into inevitable conflict with each other. If we take as a basis the point of view that all people should love each other equally, then this will turn out to be deliberate self-deception, for only the Lord God Himself is capable of this, notes J. Rawls. Therefore, it is necessary to look for new approaches, in particular, J. Rawls offers his concept of “justice as honesty.”
Only in a “just society,” notes J. Rawls, should people strive to balance their interests, i.e. “agree” and make certain concessions to each other. And this means that Even in a “fair society” certain concessions and internal compromises are inevitable
. Moreover, concessions become inevitable in the most important thing - in self-esteem. But only in this case, conceding even in something so important for themselves, a person and the whole society receive a much greater gain - the stability of this entire society and its further development, and therefore the expansion of opportunities for self-realization of each individual member of such a society (see Rawls, 1995). Naturally, all this is directly related to work activity, where the main self-realization of the individual occurs.
And it is here that a person turns from a “single individual” into a genuine personality, involved in public interests, and a person acquires what the “late” A. Adler called “a sense of belonging to society” (from German - Gemeinschaftsgefuhl) and what he called for pursuit. In fact, a person oriented towards the interests of society (and even better, Culture) does not so much “lose” his dignity in the inevitable concessions to the interests of other people, but rather elevates it. In this case, we can say that dignity undergoes a real test - a test of the significance of the goal and meaning for which a person lives and may or may not consider himself a person at all, and the highest such goal is precisely service to other people and society as a whole.
True, the French revolutionary and writer N. Chamfort noted with bitterness that “too great virtues sometimes make a person unsuitable for society: they don’t go to the market with gold bars - they need small change, especially small change.” This means that the problem still remains for many people.
Self-realization in work, understood as the desire to assert one’s dignity through serving the ideals of goodness and justice, actually faces serious difficulties
:
1. Is society ready to fairly evaluate the contribution of each person to the general welfare? We believe that it is not ready yet.
2. Is a particular person, realizing that his work is often not fairly assessed, nevertheless ready to voluntarily and creatively realize his best talents in work? We believe that in reality there are very few such people; they are sometimes considered “almost saints” or... fools.
3. Is there currently unity in the understanding of what is “worthy” and “unworthy”? If such an understanding were at the level of public consciousness, then it would be easier for many people to focus on the true values of culture, and, accordingly, it would be easier to realize themselves in culture as full-fledged subjects. But so far, even many leading figures of modern culture are very confused in these issues, which is manifested in the constantly changing “crises of culture.” And if for the culture itself these crises help in reflecting on its problems, then for the unprepared average person this greatly complicates the problems of personal and professional self-determination. These problems are especially acute in modern Russia, where a considerable part of the so-called creative intelligentsia has already managed to demonstrate their commitment to the best ideals of justice and self-dignity. On this occasion, the famous domestic playwright V. Rozov wrote with regret: “I do not like intellectual toady. Outright toady, which I noticed at the first gathering in the Beethoven Hall in the Kremlin at the meeting of the President with representatives of the creative intelligentsia. I then spoke in Pravda.” and I was no longer invited to such lackeys" (Rozov, 1996. P. 6
). Even earlier, a famous anti-fascist writer said that “the dream of slaves is a market where they can buy masters for themselves,” etc.
Thus, the problem of human dignity can only be re-identified in the context of a person’s self-realization in work, but the solution to this problem itself in many ways still seems to be the work of the person himself. And this depends on how much he himself perceives the possibilities of his professional activity as a condition for full personal development.
4. The main (ideal) goal and main tasks of professional self-determination
- Conventionally, the following can be distinguished main groups of tasks
professional self-determination
:
- information, reference, educational;
diagnostic (ideally, assistance in self-knowledge);
moral and emotional support for the client;
assistance in choosing, in making decisions.
For example, when solving an information and reference task, at the first level the client is simply informed of the necessary information (this is also help!), at the second level - the psychologist analyzes certain information together with the client, at the third level - the psychologist explains to the client how to independently obtain the necessary information (what ask questions to specialists in this profession, where to contact, etc.).
To reach the third level of assistance, it is often necessary to first organize interaction with the client at the second level. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to help the client, limiting yourself to only the first level (for example, in cases where you need to make a quick decision, but there is not enough time for this).
The main (ideal) goal of professional self-determination - gradually form in the client the internal readiness to independently and consciously plan, adjust and realize the prospects for his development (professional, life and personal) (see.Pryazhnikov, 1999. pp. 45-46 ).
This goal is called ideal because it is very rarely possible to achieve it, but ideals, as we know, exist not in order to achieve them, but in order to indicate the direction of one’s aspirations. Gradual formation means that such complex issues are not resolved quickly (professional consultation “in one sitting” is “profanity”). Career counseling involves not only traditional “planning,” but also timely adjustment of one’s plans (as already noted, the most important result of career guidance assistance is not only the promotion of a specific choice, but also the formation of the ability to make new choices). The realization of professional prospects presupposes at least the moral inspiration of the client to take the first steps towards his goals, as well as initial monitoring of the success of these steps. Professional development must necessarily be considered in the context of life and in the context of personal development.
The main goal of professional self-determination can be formulated somewhat differently: the gradual formation in the client of a willingness to consider himself developing within a certain time, space and meaning, to constantly expand his capabilities and realize them to the maximum (close to “self-transcendence” - according to V. Frankl).
5. Psychological “spaces” of professional and personal self-determination
For the theory and practice of professional self-determination, it is important to highlight those “spaces of choice” in which self-determining people often find themselves, who themselves may not always be aware of “what” and “from what” they generally choose. Sometimes professional consulting assistance to a client may also consist of informing him in some way about the available “spaces” of self-determination, which creates the indicative basis for the actions of a self-determining person (almost in terms of P.Ya. Galperin).
For example, M. Feldenkrais writes about society as “a field in which he (a person - N.P.) must advance in order to be accepted as a valuable member, so that his value in his own eyes depends on his position in society” (Feldenkrais, 1993. P. 46 ). We can highlight approximately the following the main guidelines of a self-determined person , which may form the basis of his thoughts about his professional present and future. First, we will present below the basic concepts that are in one way or another related to planning a person’s life and professional prospects.
As already noted, professional self-determination is not only the choice of a specific profession, but often the choice of a whole life. Let us recall that even abroad the close concept of “career” presupposes a constant change of various life roles and the fulfillment of these roles (according to D. Super).E.A. Klimov believes that professional self-determination should be considered not “in an egoistic sense, but in connection with society, civilization, culture” (Klimov, 1993, p. 55).
Thus, often a person chooses not only this profession, but something more important (that thisprofession gives him a more complete sense of his life).
Considering the problems of constructing human destiny, E. Berne singled out life scenarios and life strategies (Bern, 1988 ). At the same time, life scenarios are “programs of progressive development, developed in early childhood under the influence of parents and determining the behavior of an individual in important aspects of his life”; scenarios cover a person's entire life in detail, and strategies are considered as general ideas about human life.
- E. Bern identified the following main types of scenarios:
- “I never do”;
“I always do”;
“never done this before”;
“I won’t do it (I’ll do it later)”;
“I do it again and again”;
“I will do it until it is no longer possible to do it.”
At the same time, E. Berne noted that “scenarios are possible because most people do not understand what they are doing,” while understanding, according to E. Berne, means “getting out of the power of scenarios.” You can add to this that understanding means learning to build prospects for your professional and personal development yourself (!), and not being a toy in the hands of fate.
M.V. Rozin , somewhat arguing with E. Berne, notes that the construction of life cannot be associated with purely unconscious influences (E. Berne himself believed that all life is determined by unconscious programs laid down in a person in childhood and implemented in certain situations, and that often these unconscious programs prevent a person from living fully). M.V. himself Rozin believes that, at least, creative people (“symbolists”) structure their lives as if they were “writing a poem.”
- Wherein constructing life as a poem
involves identifying and implementing the following main points:
- the image of the hero (the image of oneself as the hero of the poem);
plot;
tragedy (experiences without which life becomes uninteresting and meaningless);
unexpected turns (even more diversifying life and making it unique) (see.Rozin, 1992 ).
For a career consultant, it is important to clarify for yourself such concepts as style and lifestyle, since, as already noted, many people choose not so much a profession as a certain lifestyle and life stereotype.
Lifestyle - this is a comprehensive consideration of life activity (work, everyday life, social life), often associated with consideration of the quality of life of an individual, a social group, and society as a whole.
Life style - this is a type of human behavior where the emphasis is on the subjective and dynamic side of an individual’s life.
Social psychology also highlights such important concepts for career counseling as social roles and social stereotypes.
Social role (according to D. Mead) is a social function of an individual, his place in a certain community of people (the role of a leader, an outcast, etc.).
Social stereotype (according to W. Lipman) is a schematized idea of a social object (a person, a social or professional group).
Interesting, although unconventional for the theory and practice of career counseling, are the following:K.G. Jung archetypes . The “archetype” itself is defined as the collective unconscious. K.G. Jung distinguishes consciousness, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious (“archetypes” as certain mythological figures, images, the average experience of many generations, which “repeats in the process of history where the creative imagination” of a given person freely manifests itself). Moreover, “every step towards higher consciousness,” meaning “the fulfillment of a task that he discovered in his world” and associated with “virtue” and “efficiency” in the best sense of the word, means moving a person away from the general unconscious of the crowd, but at the same time makes it is more “lonely”, misunderstood and often causes doubts and suspicions on the part of ordinary people (Jung, 1994. P. 57 ). In other words, “a breakthrough of the unconscious (in particular, the collective unconscious) can expand the possibilities of a person’s self-determination in the world, but it can also complicate life for him.
For further consideration of the “spaces” of self-determination, we can highlight more specific options for choices, where certain social and professional stereotypes, life scenarios, etc. are, as it were, concretized. Based on this, the following can be distinguished: typologies of professional and personal self-determination.
- Back in the Petrine era, the famous Russian statesman V.N. Tatishchev classified all “sciences” (types of labor) according to the criterion of “good and evil for humans”:
- “necessary” sciences (economics, medicine, law);
“useful” sciences (rhetoric, grammar, “mathematics”-arithmetic, “land surveying”, mechanics, astronomy);
“dandy, or entertaining” (poetry, dancing, painting, “vaulting” - prancing on a horse), serving more to gain a position in society than for business;
“amateur, or vain” (astrology, physiognomy, alchemy);
“harmful” sciences (witchcraft, divination) (see Tatishchev, 1979).
- In the 20s of our centuryS.P. Strumilin
offered classify professions according to the degree of independence of a person in work
:
- automatic reflex work (for example, a twirler of the handle of a winnowing machine, hand mill, etc.);
semi-automatic habitual work (for example, the work of a typist, telegraph operator);
routine-executive work - according to instructions (for example, work on a machine, the work of a tape operator, a clerk, an accountant);
independent work within the scope of the task (for example, the work of an engineer, teacher, doctor, journalist);
free creative work (for example, work in the field of art, the work of a scientist, an economic organizer, a politician) (seeStrumilin, 1983 ).
- man is nature;
man - technology;
person - person;
man - sign systems;
man - artistic image (Klimov, 1990 ).
Abroad, today the most famous and popular typology is J. Holland (sometimes written J. Holland), based on comparison of personality types and types of professional environment (cm.Proshchitskaya, 1993
- The following main types are distinguished (personality types and types of professional environment):
- realistic type (technique, male prof.) - P;
intellectual type - I;
social - C;
conventional (sign systems that require structure) - K;
entrepreneurial - P;
artistic type - A.
When comparing different typologies, it becomes noticeable that These typologies are based not only on the position of the author, but also on that cultural and historical environment, that society, which often determines the presence of different types of people who realize themselves in specific labor and social activities . For example, E. Spranger singled out a religious person, but in more modern typologies this type is absent. Another example: in the typology traditional for Russia during the USSR eraE.A. Klimova there is no entrepreneurial type, although in J. Holland’s typology there is such a type (the Lithuanian psychologist L.A. Jovaisha has already identified something similar, apparently because even the Lithuanian SSR is closer to the Western way of life).
Thus, typologies of professional activity and, accordingly, spaces of self-determination largely depend on the cultural and historical environment. An interesting question arises: what typologies should a career consultant rely on in conditions of instability of the general socio-economic (and spiritual) situation, for example, in the conditions of Russia in the “transition period”? The complexity of the issue is that outdated typologies of domestic authors no longer correspond to this situation in many respects, and the construction of new typologies may significantly lag behind the process of change in the country. Known foreign typologies all the more often do not take into account the specifics of our country. Under these conditions, a possible solution is either the construction of some kind of “universal” typology, applicable for different countries, peoples and eras, or attempts to still understand what is happening in a country called the Russian Federation (RF), especially since the “transition The period" to a "bright life" (or to the "light at the end of the tunnel" - in the words of one former "popularly beloved President") has been greatly delayed.
In this regard, it seems interesting that it is quite universal typology of people proposed by the famous Russian historian L.N. Gumilev . Its typology is built according to the passionary-attractive principle .
- Some space is being built where:
- one axis - attractiveness- has the following poles: a) egoism based on reason and b) attractiveness as “a strange desire for truth, beauty, justice”;
other axis - passionarity- has poles: a) the instinct of self-preservation and b) passionarity as an anti-instinct (“unjustified risk for the sake of achieving illusory goals”).
etc.................
On the verge of graduating from school, the graduate determines his life and professional guidelines, thereby laying the foundation for his further development. As a result, this age period is of particular importance in preparing the student for the choice of life path and future profession.
In IX grade, the question of future life is decided: what to do - continue studying at school, go to college or work? Essentially, society requires professional self-determination, albeit initial, from older adolescents. At the same time, he must understand his own abilities and inclinations, have an idea of his future profession and specific ways to achieve professional excellence in his chosen field. This in itself is an extremely difficult task.
It becomes even more complicated in our time - a turning point in history, when stereotypes and values developed by previous generations, in particular, ideas about the importance of education and the prestige of a particular profession, are crumbling.
There are 4 stages of professional development.
The first stage of professional development of an individual is associated with the emergence and formation of professional intentions under the influence of the general development of the individual and initial orientation in various fields of work in the world of work and the world of professions. The psychological criterion for the success of passing this stage is the choice of profession or specialty that corresponds to social needs (labor market requirements) and the needs of the individual himself.
The second stage is the period of vocational training and education, i.e. targeted training in your chosen professional activity and mastery of all the intricacies of professional skill. The psychological criterion for successfully passing this stage is the professional self-determination of the individual, i.e. formation of an attitude towards oneself as a subject of one’s chosen activity and professional orientation, which quite clearly reflects the attitudes towards the development of professionally significant qualities.
The third stage is active entry into the professional environment, reflecting the student’s transition to a new type of activity - to professional work in its various forms in real production conditions. The psychological criterion for successfully passing this stage is the active mastery of a profession in the conditions of the real labor process and production relations, finding oneself in the system of work collectives.
The fourth stage involves the full or partial realization of professional aspirations and capabilities of the individual in independent work. The psychological criterion for successfully passing this stage is the degree of mastery of the operational side of professional activity, the level of formation of professionally significant personality traits, attitude to work, a measure of skill and creativity. Turning to the current state of affairs in the field of professional self-determination of young people, researchers emphasize the multidimensionality and multi-stage nature of this process, in which several aspects are highlighted related to the tasks of society that it puts forward for the emerging personality; with the process of forming an individual lifestyle, part of which is professional activity; with decision-making in which a balance must be established between personal preferences and inclinations, and the needs of the existing system of division of labor. The last aspect is the point of intersection of social and psychological factors of professional self-determination, and represents the greatest opportunities for effectively solving the most pressing problems of young people’s choice of profession and life path.
Each stage of professional self-determination corresponds to a certain social situation, its own environment and atmosphere. In the process of professional development of an individual, four main stages are distinguished: 1) formation of professional intentions; 2) vocational training; 3) professional adaptation; 4) partial or complete realization of personality in professional work. The key point in this long process is the choice of profession. It is at this critical phase of professional self-determination, directly related to the choice of profession, that we will further focus our analysis, the object of which will be boys and girls in senior secondary school, for whom the choice of profession becomes extremely important.
The beginning of this phase coincides with the transition from childhood to adolescence, from middle school age to high school age. Those schoolchildren who, after graduating from the 8th grade, enter vocational schools and technical schools, already at the age of 14-15 years, largely determine their work and life path. For those who continue to study at school, the situation of choice becomes aggravated again by the age of seventeen. And although they receive some professional training at school, the severity of the situation does not go away, since they have to choose from a significantly larger number of possible professional paths open to a person who has received a secondary education. In this situation, society and the individual are equally interested in ensuring that the process of professional self-determination does not turn into a long series of “trials and errors,” failures and disappointments, material and moral costs. But how to avoid mistakes and difficulties when a person must make such a responsible decision during his school years, practically without crossing the line that separates childhood from maturity, dependence on independence in decisions and actions.
Of course, a certain advantage of adolescence is precisely that a person must make, perhaps, the most important decision in his life, being free from the doubts that inevitably accompany an understanding of the complexity and responsibility of the upcoming choice. If at the age of 15-17 he had fully realized how much his entire future life depended on the right choice of profession, it is possible that this would have been associated with excessive emotional stress. When assessing the situation of choosing a profession, one should take into account the essential point that the choice itself is a decision that affects only the student’s immediate life prospects. It can be carried out either taking into account or without taking into account the long-term consequences of the decision made. In the latter case, the choice of profession as a fairly specific life plan will not be mediated by distant life goals. And therefore, as soon as this plan is implemented, a situation of life uncertainty will again arise in which a young man or girl who has chosen this or that profession will be in the position of a person who has a very complex and valuable “tool”, but has no idea what it is for. he needs and how to achieve success in life with his help. It is no coincidence that the highest proportion of those dissatisfied with their profession and planning to change it is observed among first-year students and young workers with minimal work experience in production. Partly to blame for this are the insufficiently high level of teaching in universities and the practice that has developed in many enterprises of using young workers not in accordance with their level of education and qualifications, as evidenced by sociological research. However, we must not forget that even ideal conditions for the training and use of workers will not solve the problem of random choice of profession, which is associated primarily with the rash decision of the person himself. Too often, “chance” becomes a factor in choosing a profession - the proximity of work to home, the example of a friend who is confident in the correctness of the only choice, strong recommendations from parents who have the opportunity to help them master a certain profession, the opportunity to get housing or registration in the city, etc.
Consequently, it is necessary that when choosing a profession, a young person proceeds not only from the immediate future, but also necessarily coordinates it with distant life goals that could be realized through work in the chosen field of professional activity.
Professional self-determination is an essential aspect of the social process of personal development. Identifying the features of the manifestation of the principle of determinism in the process of self-determination involves the analysis of two systems. On the one hand, this is a personality as a complex self-regulatory system, on the other hand, it is a system of social guidance for young people in deciding the issue of conscious choice of profession. This system includes the targeted influence of school, family, public organizations, literature, and art on the motives for choosing a profession. This set of vocational guidance tools is designed to provide solutions to the problems of vocational education and counseling of students, awakening professional interest and inclinations, direct assistance in finding employment and overcoming the difficulties of the professional adaptation stage. The system of career guidance means contains a wide range of opportunities for the professional development of an individual, from which the individual “draws” the motives and goals of his activities.
The need for self-determination experienced by a person is in itself pointless. A.N. Leontyev noted that “...until its first satisfaction, the need “does not know” its object, since it has not yet been discovered...”.
The relationship between the individual and the system of career guidance influences external to it arises only in the process of activity. Activity as a form of relationship between the subject and objects forms a condition for mental reflection and acts as a mechanism of deterministic influence on the individual.
In the process of constant communication with the outside world, a person acts as an active party to interaction. Therefore, the psychological manifestation of the principle of determinism can only be understood within the framework of the problem of the relationship between external and internal conditions in the determination of activity. In terms of analyzing the driving forces of activity, it is necessary to proceed from the relationship and opposition of internal and external.
The process of professional self-determination is determined by the emergence and expansion of the subject’s activities, realizing its connection with career guidance factors. Self-determination is woven into this activity as a component.
The structural elements of personality, as the immediate psychological prerequisites for professional self-determination, differ in the nature of their functions. The entire set of the most important personal prerequisites for self-determination can be reduced to two main groups:
) personality traits that provide the opportunity to successfully solve the problem of choosing a profession, but are not directly involved in activating this process. This group includes strong-willed character traits, as well as such a trait as hard work. This should also include the presence of some work and life experience, the level of a person’s general life maturity.
) this group of psychological prerequisites for self-determination is formed by various components of personality orientation, which dynamize the process of professional self-determination and determine the selectivity of response. This includes the need for professional self-determination, a person’s educational and professional interests and inclinations, beliefs and attitudes, values and ideals, and ideas about life values.
The components of the second group, due to their connection with cognitive needs, have the function of determining the sphere of activity that is attractive to a person.
Introduction
The subject of professional self-determination and the main stages of its development
Main factors of professional self-determination
Socio-psychological and professional “spaces” of personality self-determination
Main mistakes and prejudices when planning a career
Conclusion
Introduction
The concept of “self-determination” is fully correlated with such concepts as “self-actualization”, “self-realization”, “self-realization”, “self-transcendence”. Moreover, self-realization, self-actualization, etc. are often associated with labor activity, with work, namely, with finding meaning in one’s work.
The essence of professional self-determination can be defined as the search and finding of personal meaning in the chosen, mastered and already performed work activity, as well as finding meaning in the process of self-determination itself.
At the same time, the paradox of self-determination is immediately revealed (as is the paradox of happiness): the found meaning immediately devalues life (a kind of emptiness is formed). Therefore, the process of searching for meaning is no less important, where individual (already found) meanings are only intermediate stages of the process (the process itself becomes the main meaning - this is life, life as a process, and not as some kind of achievement).
With a more creative approach to one’s life, the meaning itself is created anew by a person. It is in this case that a person turns into a true subject of self-determination, and does not simply act as a conductor of some “higher” meanings.
One of the most difficult (and at the same time creative) problems is the search for meaning for a specific self-determined client. But there cannot be a single meaning (the same for everyone). The only exceptions are eras of wars and moral trials, when the people or certain sections of society are united by a single idea.
self-determination personality career planning
1. The subject of professional self-determination and the main stages of its development
The most famous in Russia is the periodization of human development as a subject of labor by E.A. Klimova (1996):
) the pre-game stage (from birth to 3 years), when the functions of perception, movement, speech, the simplest rules of behavior and moral assessments are mastered, which become the basis for further development and introduction of a person to work;
) stage of play (from 3 to 6-8 years), when the “basic meanings” of human activity are mastered, as well as familiarity with specific professions (playing driver, doctor, salesman, teacher), which is the most important condition for future socialization .
D. B. Elkonin, following G. V. Plekhanov, wrote that “game is the child of labor,” and children’s role-playing game itself arose when the child could no longer directly master the work of adults, when the historical division and complexity of labor.
In the modern world, there is increasingly a situation where children in their games reproduce the activities of adults less and less. This is probably due to the growing complexity of the world of adults, when the direct relationship between the quality and social usefulness of labor, on the one hand, and the standard of living of workers, on the other hand, is lost, when even money (in the form of wages) often does not reflect the labor invested in it;
) stage of mastering educational activities (from 6-8 to 11-12 years), when the functions of self-control, introspection, the ability to plan one’s activities, etc. intensively develop. It is especially important that the child independently plans his time when doing homework, overcoming his desire to take a walk and relax after school;
) stage of “option” (from Latin optatio - desire, choice) (from 11 - 12 to 14-18 years). This is the stage of preparation for life, for work, conscious and responsible planning and choice of a professional path; Accordingly, a person in a situation of professional self-determination is called an optant. The paradox of this stage lies in the fact that an adult, for example, an unemployed person, may well find himself in the situation of an optant; as E. A. Klimov himself notes, option is an indication not so much of age as of the situation of choosing a profession;
) adept stage - professional training that most school graduates undergo;
) adapter stage - entry into the profession after completion of vocational training, lasting from several months to 2 - 3 years;
) the internal stage is entering the profession as a full-fledged colleague, capable of stably working at a normal level. This is the stage about which E.A. Klimov says that colleagues perceive an employee as “one of their own,” i.e. the employee has already entered the professional community as a full member (“inter-” and means: entered “inside”, become “one of our own”);
) the stage of the master, when one can say about the worker: “the best” among the “normal” ones, among the “good” ones, i.e. the employee stands out noticeably from the general background;
) the mentor stage is the highest level of work of any specialist. This stage is interesting because the employee is not just an excellent specialist in his field, but turns into a Teacher, capable of passing on his best experience to his students and embodying in them a part of his soul (the best part of the soul).
Thus, the highest level of development of any specialist is the pedagogical level. It is pedagogy and education that are the core of human culture, since they ensure the continuity and preservation of the best experience of humanity. A professional who has become a Mentor or Teacher is the highest level of professional development.
. Main factors of professional self-determination
E. A. Klimov offers an interesting model - “an octagon of the main factors for choosing a profession”, which characterize the situation of professional self-determination and determine the very quality of a teenager’s professional plans:
) taking into account one’s inclinations (compared to interests, inclinations are more stable);
) taking into account abilities, external and internal capabilities;
) taking into account the prestige of the chosen profession;
) taking into account awareness of it;
) taking into account the position of parents;
) taking into account the position of classmates, friends and peers;
) taking into account the needs of production ("market");
) the presence of a specific program of action for choosing and achieving professional goals - with a personal professional perspective (PPP). The LPP is considered successful when it is built taking into account all the listed factors.
When working with schoolchildren, the factors for choosing a profession are indicated in the form of an octagon, and when assessing (or self-assessing) the situation of professional choice, lines indicate connections between the LPP and certain factors (for example, if the LPP is constructed without taking into account this factor, then the line is not drawn).
In this form, the “octagon of main choice factors” clearly reflects the characteristics of the teenager being consulted and allows him to clarify his career guidance problems himself.
. Socio-psychological and professional “spaces” of personality self-determination
The most popular typology of professional and personal self-determination in Russia today was proposed by E.A. Klimov. He identified five spheres of labor based on the principle of human interaction with the primary subject of labor:
) man - nature;
) man - technology;
) man - sign systems;
) person - person;
) a person is an artistic image.
Foreign typologies often highlight similar areas of work. But at the same time, something new is added: for example, such a “type of professional environment” as “entrepreneurial” (in D. Holland), and in earlier typologies - also the spheres of “politics” or “religion” (in E. Spranger) and etc. Analysis of typologies shows that they largely reflect the cultural and historical situation that has developed in a given society.
A career consultant can select the most appropriate typology for the situation, or specifically develop a new typology, or look for some kind of universal typology that is adequate to different cultural and historical situations.
Professional Development Planning Options
To begin with, it is useful to understand how the concepts of “professional choice”, “personal professional plan” and “personal professional prospect” fundamentally differ.
Professional choice is focused on the near future. For example, choosing a specific vocational educational institution. Next, there may be a choice (clarification) of a specialty, department, faculty. During the course of training, other choices may arise: a supervisor, a place of practical training, various special courses, etc. Upon completion - choose a place of work.
Thus, the whole career is an alternating election.
Therefore, it cannot be said that an unsuccessful choice of profession will make your whole life unsuccessful. Even a bad choice can be largely corrected by other (subsequent) choices. Although, of course, it is better to make fewer unsuccessful choices.
A professional plan is a clear sequence of actions to achieve specific goals: you can plan a meeting with a professional consultant, etc. A plan often allows you to present complex (at first glance) professional goals in the form of simpler actions (or tasks) that are completely understandable and easy to implement.
The professional perspective is more generalized; it is usually focused on the distant future, and therefore is less specific. A professional perspective is usually more optimistic (the word “prospect” itself contains something good and desirable). It is often on the basis of perspective that various (more specific) plans are developed. In this case, there may be one perspective, but there may be several plans for the implementation of this perspective. And here the problem of choosing the most successful plans arises.
And the basis of professional prospects, and the basis of professional plans, and even professional choices are the value and semantic orientations of a given person. Each time he seems to ask himself the question: will this choice, plan or prospect allow him to achieve the desired lifestyle, to success?
Let's consider the main options for planning professional development.
Target option
A person is more focused on complex and prestigious goals, but takes little into account his real capabilities. Therefore, this option can be called “romantic”. Often such plans are difficult to implement, so career counselors try to reorient clients towards more realistic goals. But sometimes, if the client is a strong personality, complex goals can mobilize him and he quickly expands his capabilities (works on himself) in order to implement even such complex plans. But not everyone succeeds.
Realistic option
A person, on the contrary, does not set difficult goals for himself, but takes more into account his real capabilities and, as it were, selects professional goals to match these capabilities. Usually a person achieves such modest goals, although he often regrets that he did not even try to achieve more interesting and complex goals. Sometimes it happens that a person, having already begun to implement such plans, discovers more interesting opportunities. And then other, more complex choices and plans may appear, i.e. It is quite acceptable to adjust plans.
Event-driven approach
It is based on the interesting idea that all life is a series of interconnected (and mutually determined) events. An event is understood as relatively compact in time, but very important (significant, bright) for a person’s entire life. Often mature or elderly people, recalling their lives, highlight just such vivid events (it is quite difficult to remember a whole life in all its details). Sometimes they even say that if there were no such events in life, then life did not work out. There is an interesting technique where a “life perspective” is built from the events of the past, present and expected future, which is then analyzed together with the client and the most important life events are determined (and sometimes planned).
Scenario approach
It is based on typical life scenarios, based on which many people plan their lives. These scenarios are set by a given culture and are original models by which one can live. The peculiarity of many scenarios is that society approves of most of them, so a person who plans his life according to such models is understandable to others and has much fewer problems than those who plan their life in some unusual, original, creative way. On the one hand, a person does not realize his right to be a subject of self-determination, since he follows ready-made models. But, on the other hand, most people are not ready to be full-fledged subjects of self-determination - this, unfortunately, is a reality associated with insufficient career guidance work. And ready-made scripts often help such people to at least somehow gain self-determination in our complex world. They, however, still have the opportunity to choose the most attractive scenario, i.e. They show at least some subjectivity in self-determination.
Creative option
The basis here is the desire to build an original life, not very similar to anything else. The more original the professional and life plans and their implementation, the more interesting they are for others, and the more reason a person has to be proud of the uniqueness of his life (which means he did not live in vain). The main problem when implementing such a creative approach is that it is little understood by others, and often a creative person is lonely, or even condemned by the majority of those around him. For example, a creative person is not interested in living without worries, without unexpected turns of fate, without internal or external problems that must be overcome, etc. But is this interesting to everyone?
And yet, it is precisely this option that is promoted by many thinkers of the humanistic direction and is even considered as a kind of ideal of self-determination, self-realization, self-actualization, self-transcendence, etc.
For most, such an “ideal” is difficult and unattractive. Therefore, in actual professional consulting work, a psychologist should talk about this option for planning professional development very carefully. However, it is also impossible not to say this.
4. Main mistakes and prejudices when planning a career
E.A. Klimov identifies the following main difficulties and mistakes when choosing a profession.
Treating the choice of profession as a choice of a permanent island in the world of professions. This gives rise to a feeling of “fatality” of the choice. When a bad choice can ruin your whole life. In fact, all life is constantly alternating elections (according to D. Super). Even K. Marx opposed the “vocation” that assigns a person to a certain labor function and called for a person to constantly master more and more new types of activity in the course of his life, since this is what ensures his harmonious development. He even wrote that “the nature of large-scale industry requires a constant movement of labor,” when “every five years a worker will be forced to change his profession,” which is associated with the constant change and development of production itself. K. Marx's predictions were partially confirmed, and in modern enterprises, successful careers are more likely to develop for those who master at least related professions.
Prejudices of honor, when some professions are considered “shameful”, intended for “second-class” people. This problem is complex, but we must understand that every work is important for society. In the West, increasingly, low-prestige professions such as garbage collectors are paid quite highly, and, conversely, workers in prestigious creative professions do not always receive high salaries. One explanation: creative work itself is already a high reward, and then, if everyone wants to be prestigious creators, then who will clean up the garbage? Regarding garbage, one can also note that culture generally begins with the fact that the produced garbage is not left behind, but removed, or the energy of the garbage is somehow accumulated into a different quality.
The choice of profession is under the direct or indirect influence of comrades. On the one hand, you should listen to the opinions of friends who know each other well and sometimes give honest and informed advice. But often, focusing on the opinions of his comrades, a teenager makes the same professional choices as they do - this is called choosing “for the company.” And if a comrade has even justified his choice for himself, this does not mean that his friends should follow him. Still, each person should have his own choice, his own happiness.
Transfer of attitude from a person - a representative of a particular profession - to the profession itself. For example, a teenager knows an adult who is a wonderful person involved in science. And then the teenager begins to think that all scientists are wonderful people. Although it is known that people with very difficult characters often work in creative professions, which often gives rise to difficult relationships in work teams (envy, squabbles, outright bullying of the most creative workers, etc.). And communicating with such people is quite difficult. Therefore, severe disappointments may arise in the future. The profession itself does not always attract the best people into its ranks. And there are wonderful (smart, decent) people in every profession, including among scientists.
Passion for some external or some private side of the profession. For example, in the profession of a geologist, a student may be attracted by the opportunity to travel, but he may not take into account that a geologist has a lot of painstaking and even routine work associated with the finest observations, chemical analyses, recordings and processing of results. Therefore, all the various characteristics of the future profession should be taken into account.
Identification of a school subject with a profession (or poor distinction between these realities). Of course, ideally, educational subjects should also fulfill a career guidance role, i.e. to guide schoolchildren in relevant professional activities. But in practice, many academic subjects are taught too academically and are actually divorced from life. For example, history as an academic subject does not always correspond to the work of a real historian, who literally suffers (meaning “creative torment,” which is a natural and even happy state for a seeking person) from the inability to understand the specifics of the era in which he himself lives. Education itself is usually more conservative (and even dogmatic) in nature: pupils and students are more familiar with the conservative part of a given science or a given field of production, while real practice is more focused on solving specific problematic issues. And solving these problematic practical issues involves special difficulties in professional communication with colleagues, managers, customers, clients and other people, which is clearly not talked about enough in school.
Outdated ideas about the nature of labor in the sphere of material production. E.A. Klimov means that many technical professions previously included a significant element of “manual” and even routine labor, and were also associated with not very favorable conditions (increased pollution, noise, risk of injury, etc.). In many modern enterprises, workers work in much more comfortable (ergonomic) conditions, even the term “blue collar” has appeared, i.e. you can work, if not in white shirts, then quite decently dressed. Indeed, in modern production, more and more technological processes are automated and do not require, as before, large physical and psychophysiological costs.
Inability to understand, lack of habit of understanding one’s personal qualities (inclinations, abilities, preparedness). Of course, this is not an easy matter, notes E.A. Klimov. But an obvious failure to take into account one’s inclinations and one’s readiness often leads to the fact that the intended goals are not achieved or one has to pay for achievements with one’s health and nerves, which does not fit in with a successful choice that brings satisfaction and happiness to a person.
Ignorance or underestimation of one’s physical characteristics and shortcomings, which are significant when choosing a profession. Here, too, there may be difficulties in achieving the intended goals and difficulties in the professional activity itself. For example, a job that requires excellent health, endurance, and stress resistance can not only cause nervous breakdowns and mental illness in an unprepared person, but also lead to accidents and disasters that can have very serious consequences for others.
Ignorance of basic actions, operations and the order of their implementation when solving or thinking about the problem of choosing a profession. And then situations arise when a person wants to choose the right profession, but acts more chaotically than energetically, and then, despite the outward appearance of activity, the result may be unsuccessful. Not only individual advice and consultations from specialists can help here, but ideally, systematic career guidance work. And on the part of a self-determining person, it is important to be active in finding those specialists who could competently help make the right professional and life choice.
To the typical mistakes identified by E.A. Klimov, we can add the following erroneous actions of many self-determining people.
In search of consultants and advisors, they often turn to commercial psychological centers, where clients (schoolchildren and their parents) are charged fairly high fees. However, high fees do not always correspond to high-quality assistance.
Excessive trust in psychologists and professional consultants, who, although they try to provide effective assistance, do not always do it successfully either. For example, in the process of paid consulting, a psychologist, in order to somehow justify his high fees, builds a relationship with a client on outright manipulation (charms him and imposes his choices or chats him up with beautiful conversations, or even simply trivially tests him with the help of exotic foreign tests and issues scientifically sound, but poorly substantiated recommendations). You should not be wary of professional consultants (including private practitioners), but, if possible, you should sometimes double-check their recommendations, and most importantly, understand that responsibility for elections lies with the self-determining person himself.
Inability and unwillingness to think about the prospects for the development of society (and production). Often, elections are made with a focus on today, when professions are in demand that may later turn out to be redundant (according to the laws of the market, when there is too much of something, it loses its value and “market price”) or there will be a need for other professions. The complexity of such forecasts of social and economic development of society is often associated with the fear of taking a realistic look at the situation. Therefore, full self-determination also means overcoming the fear of thinking about the problems of the society in which a person is going to find his place.
Conclusion
The most famous in Russia is the periodization of human development as a subject of labor by E.A. Klimov. He offers an interesting model - “an octagon of the main factors for choosing a profession”, which characterize the situation of professional self-determination and determine the very quality of a teenager’s professional plans: taking into account one’s inclinations (in comparison with interests, inclinations are more stable); taking into account abilities, external and internal capabilities; taking into account the prestige of the chosen profession; taking into account awareness of it; taking into account the position of parents; taking into account the position of classmates, friends and peers; taking into account the needs of production ("market"); the presence of a specific program of action for choosing and achieving professional goals - with a personal professional perspective (PPP). The LPP is considered successful when it is built taking into account all the listed factors.
The most popular typology of professional and personal self-determination in Russia today was proposed by E.A. Klimov. He identified five spheres of labor based on the principle of human interaction with the primary subject of labor: man - nature; man - technology; man - sign systems; person - person; a person is an artistic image.
And the basis of professional prospects, and the basis of professional plans, and even professional choices are the value and semantic orientations of a given person.
E.A. Klimov highlights the main difficulties and mistakes when choosing a profession.
List of used literature
Klimov E. A. Psychology of professional self-determination. - Rostov n/d.: Phoenix, 1996. - P. 356.
Pryazhnikov N. S. Professional self-determination: theory and practice: Textbook. - M.: Publishing center "Academy", 2008. - P. 320.
Pryazhnikov N. S. Theory and practice of professional self-determination. - M., 1999. - P. 359.
Pryazhnikov N.S., Pryazhnikova E. Yu. Psychology of labor and human dignity. - M., 2001. - 456.
Chernyavskaya A.P. Psychological counseling on vocational guidance. - M., 2001. - P. 189.
Psychology of professional self-determination. Klimov E.A.
M.: Academy, 2004 - 304 p.
The textbook reveals the problems of professional self-determination of students and pedagogical guidance in choosing a profession with an emphasis on its psychological side. Ideas about different types of professions, projects of professional life paths are given, and questions of a person’s suitability for certain types of activities are considered. Particular attention is paid to the mental development of a person in the process of professional activity.
For students of higher educational institutions studying courses in developmental psychology and career guidance. It may be useful for students of teacher training institutes, as well as specialists involved in career guidance, career counseling, and assistance to people in situations of forced change of work.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
PART I. INITIAL “PRE-SETTINGS”, REPRESENTATIONS AND CONCEPTS
Chapter 1. About the internal (psychological) difficulties of mastering the proposed course
1.1. Orientation difficulties
1.2. Difficulties in understanding the subject area under discussion
1.3. Life Path Dilemma
1.4. Self-determination and the “psychological portrait” of a person in the public consciousness
Chapter 2. Professional self-determination: subject area, means, expected results of activity
2.1. Some general points
2.2. Professional self-determination of students from the position of a teacher, parent
2.3. Professional self-determination of students from the position of a doctor
2.4. Sociological, economic, legal aspects of the problem of professional self-determination
2.5. General idea of the system for ensuring professional self-determination
2.6. On the relationship between the concepts of “professional self-determination”, “career guidance”, “career consultation”
Chapter 3. Mutual correspondence between a person and his work
3.1. Ways to establish the correspondence of a person’s personal qualities and activity requirements
3.2. Individual style of activity as a way out of the conflict between the characteristics of the subject and the requirements of work
Chapter 4. Basic principles of professional self-determination
4.1. Principles of pedagogical guidance of professional self-determination
4.2. Some principles of student self-education and self-regulation in connection with professional self-determination
PART II. DIVERSITY OF PROFESSIONS AND THE SUBJECTIVE WORLD OF A PROFESSIONAL
Chapter 5. The concept of “profession”
5.1. Profession as a community
5.2. Profession as an area of application of strength
5.3. Profession as an activity and area of personality manifestations
5.4. About other terms characterizing a person’s involvement in professional work
5.5. Profession as a historically developing system
5.6. Profession as a reality creatively formed by the subject
Chapter 6. Some necessary concepts and ideas of psychological professional studies
6.1. Overview classification of professional labor products
6.2. About the given (socially fixed, “objective”) and subjectively accepted goals of activity by a professional
6.3. On the diversity of internal operating conditions
6.4. Overview classification of professional activity conditions
6.5. About the variety of means of activity
6.6. Overview classification of professional means of activity
6.7. Generally significant and individually unique in the system of means and working conditions of a professional
Chapter 7. Overview classification of professions for information support of professional self-determination of youth
7.1. General provisions
7.2. The first tier of classification. Types of professions
7.3. Second tier of classification. Job classes
7.4. Third tier of classification. Departments of professions
7.5. The fourth tier of classification. Profession groups
7.6. The concept of “profession formula”
7.7. Option for an overview classification of professions based on the subject area of work and the form of required education
Chapter 8. Image of the world among different types of professionals
8.1. General provisions
8.2. Descriptive psychological characteristics of types of professionals
"Man-nature" (P)
About representatives of professions like
"Man-Technology" (T)
About representatives of professions like
"Man-man" (H)
About representatives of professions like
“Man-sign system” (3)
About representatives of professions like
“Human Artistic Image” (X)
8.3. Some questions of the theory and practice of professional self-determination in connection with the professional relativity of a person’s mental makeup
PART III. DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN AS A SUBJECT OF LABOR AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE PATH
Chapter 9. Overview of the pre-professional ontogenesis of a person as a subject of labor
9.1. Preschool ontogenesis
9.2. School ontogenesis
Chapter 10. Designing a professional life path (“choosing a profession”)
10.1. The problem of “predestination” or “man-made” professional life path
10.2. The general structure of the situation and the scheme for solving the problem of “choosing a profession”
Chapter 11. The life path of a professional and normal developmental crises
11.1. Some general points
11.2. Biographical crises
11.3. Main options and phases of professional development
Conclusion
Application. Sample brief descriptions of professions for the vocational education of students
Professions like “Human-Wildlife”
Professions such as “Human-technique and inanimate nature”
Professions of the “Human-Human” type
Professions like “Man-sign system”
Professions such as “Human-artistic image”