A constructivist look at life roles.

The author reviews the literature related to life roles and describes a variety of techniques that can be used from a constructivist career counseling perspective. Seven counseling techniques are included: life space map, life line, life-space genogram, life roles circles, life roles assessment, life role analysis, and goal map. Framed from the storied approach (P. E. Brott, 2001), constructivist applications to co-construct, de-construct, and construct the client's life story are presented. Applications for use with diverse populations are suggested.

**********

Most career counselors will credit Donald Super with their understanding of life roles. However, other theorists include aspects of life roles in their approach to counseling, such as Adler's lifestyle (Shulman, 1973; Shulman & Mosak, 1988) and life tasks (Mosak & Dreikurs, 1967); Glasser's (2000) genetically encoded needs; and the existential philosophy dealing with identity, relationships, and the search for meaning (May & Yalom, 1995). Theories of development also reflect the concept of life roles when addressing identity (e.g., Erikson, 1963) and developmental tasks (Havighurst, 1972). In the field of career counseling, a number of approaches have taken career counseling beyond job placement. Examples of these approaches include that of Gysbers and Moore (1973), who conceptualize life career development as the interaction and integration of the roles, settings, and events in a person's life. Brown (1996) presents a values-based, holistic model of decision making. Hansen's (1997) Integrative Life Planning model (ILP) integrates life roles into the career decision-making process. Furthermore, life roles are a focus of postmodern approaches to career counseling, such as those of Blustein (1997), Brott (2001, 2004), Peavy (1997), and Savickas (1993).

The postmodern, or constructivist, counseling process is based on the client's subjective narrative or life story, with the counselor as a collaborative partner both in the client's personal awareness of past and present chapters and in the client's action steps in building a preferred way of being in future chapters (Brott, 2001; Bujold, 2004). The constructivist approach reaches beyond the client's worker role and occupational decision making. Clients are active participants in becoming aware of and exploring the variety of life roles (e.g., worker, family, relationships, learner) and their own sources of beliefs (e.g., experiences, media, family). Acknowledging the synergy among the life roles and the belief system of the client marks a refreshing direction for career counseling. It is more than "test them and tell them" and more than "true reasoning" for finding the fit between person and occupation.

Given the variety of counseling perspectives that include aspects of life roles and the emphasis in career development on life roles, this is certainly an important issue for counseling in general and career counseling in particular. In fact, a recent issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior (Young & Collin, 2004) was devoted to constructivism. The purpose of this article as a constructivist look at life roles is twofold. The first purpose is to provide a review of the theoretical models that contribute to the counseling profession's focus on life roles. The second purpose is to present seven counseling techniques that can be incorporated into the career counseling process with a focus on life roles from a constructivist career counseling perspective. The career counseling techniques are life space map, life line, life-space genogram, life roles circles, life roles assessment, life role analysis, and goal map.

Theoretical Basis for Life Roles

The Adlerian lifestyle assessment (Shulman & Mosak, 1988) explores the client's subjective frame of reference from three perspectives: (a) the client's basic orientation to life, (b) the client's social interest that begins in childhood and involves finding a place in society and acquiring a sense of belonging and of contributing, and (c) the client as understood from a social context. Mosak (as cited in Corey, 2001) presented five life tasks that include relating to others, making a contribution, achieving intimacy, getting along with oneself, and developing one's spiritual dimension. These can be related to the respective life roles of relationships, work, family, self, and spirituality. Reality therapy, based on choice theory, poses that human beings are born with the genetically encoded needs of survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun (Glasser, 2000). The client's quality world is explored to determine how he or she meets these needs. These needs are reflected in various life roles, such as work, relationships, and leisure. The existential philosophy of significance in life includes striving for identity and relationship to others as well as one's search for meaning (May & Yalom, 1995). Meaningfulness is found in engaging in life through creating, loving, working, and building. These may be seen as the life roles of family, relationships, work, and actualization.

Most introductions to career development include Super's (1980, 1990) conceptual model of the life rainbow and the longitudinal two-dimensional graphic depicting the nine life roles that are played in four theaters as one progresses through the five developmental stages. The life roles are child, student, leisurite, citizen, worker, spouse, homemaker, parent, and pensioner. The four theaters are home, school, community, and workplace. The life stages are growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline. This conceptual model allows us to see that we are involved in several roles simultaneously and that roles affect each other (Zunker, 2002). Later, Super (1990) created the Archway model to clarify the influence of biographical-geographical, psychological, and socioeconomic components on career development. Collectively, these models visually represent the life-span, life-space approach to career development that is synonymous with the name of Donald Super.

It seems that the initial ideas for Super's theory of life-span, life-space began forming in the late 1930s with his interest in work and occupations, developmental studies, and occupational mobility (Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnson, 2003; Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996). The reference to life roles can be traced at least as far back as Davidson and Anderson's (1937) research on occupational mobility with the relationship between the worker and the roles held by a person outside of his or her work life. Another reference (Davidson & Anderson, 1940) appeared in a report on occupational trends in the United States that established the influence of an individual's occupation on his or her place in society, circle of friends and acquaintances, use of leisure time, political affiliations, interests and aspirations, and boundaries of culture.

In one of his earliest writings, Super (1942) wrote about vocations and leisure, positing that the industrial revolution had shortened Americans' workday and work life, thus increasing interest in leisure activities. Leisure activities were outlets for interests and abilities that were not fully used or were not being satisfied on the job. By 1980, Super was integrating social role theory into career development as he called attention to the relationships of job roles with other life roles (e.g., family, leisure, learner, citizen) and the concept of role salience, which is the importance of each role to the person. Super's (1990) life-span, life-space approach was presented as a life-career rainbow of life roles in a schematic life space.

In the field of career counseling, life roles have been the basis of numerous applications dealing with adolescent career development (Amatea & Cross, 1986), university students (Anderson, 1995), adults (Chiappone, 1989), women's issues (Crozier, 1999), dual-career couples (Hall & Huenefeld, 2002), and families (MacDermid, Leslie, & Bissonnette, 2001), as well as international applications (e.g., Stead & Watson, 1998). Research studies that have dealt with life roles include clients with diagnosed cumulative trauma disorders (Dale et al., 2003); clients with spinal cord injury (Quigley, 1995); college student development (Niles, Sowa, & Laden, 1994); gender differences (Cinamon & Rich, 2002); dual-career couples (Rajadhyaksha & Bhatnagar, 2000); and international perspectives, such as the Work Importance Study (Super & Sverko, 1995). For the Work Importance Study, the five major life roles or activities identified for the international research project were study, work, home and family, leisure, and community activities or service. The most widely used standardized assessments in these research studies include the Values Scale (Nevill & Super, 1989), the Salience Inventory (Nevill & Super, 1986), and the Life Roles Inventory (Fitzsimmons, Macnab, & Casserly, 1985).

Other authors writing in the field of career development and counseling have contributed additional considerations on the concept of life roles. Brown's (1996) values-based, holistic model marked a shift in the focus of career development theories. This approach emphasized that values play a part in decision making for career choice and that career decisions related to the worker role should be considered in relation to other life roles. Hansen (1997) has written about the obstacles to women's career development that include gender-role socialization, role conflicts between marriage and work, focus on marriage, lack of work orientation, and sexism and gender discrimination. Her ILP model incorporates career development, life transitions, gender-role socialization, and social change. The ILP model is seen as a lifelong process of identifying and integrating our primary needs, roles, and goals within ourselves, our work, and our family (Zunker, 2002). Other writers (e.g., Forrest & Mikolaitis, 1986; Gilligan, 1977, 1982) have suggested that the client's identity is reflected in relational roles, such as women connecting with others and men differentiating themselves from others. These authors have contributed additional considerations when looking at life roles, such as values, gender, and socialization.

More recently, the constructivist perspective on career counseling has emerged. Constructivist approaches to career counseling are well suited to incorporating life roles in the client's formulation of a subjective narrative frame of reference. The constructivist approach holds that clients construct their own personal meanings and that these personal meanings are reflected in past and present experiences in a variety of life roles. The counselor co-constructs (uncovers and explores) with the client the life story that has been and is currently being lived. The themes across the client's life experiences reflect the personal meanings held by the client. By de-constructing (opening up) these themes, the client is able to see different perspectives, find exceptions, imagine different experiences, and reveal the client's preferred way of being. Clients have the opportunity to construct (author) their future story based on the personal meanings that they wish to implement in their lives. A number of authors have written about the constructivist career counseling approach (e.g., Brott, 2001; Peavy, 1997) and the use of qualitative assessments to explore the client's life story (e.g., Brott, 2004; Okocha, 1998).

In my storied approach (Brott, 2001), I have used a number of techniques related to life roles in order to co-construct, de-construct, and construct the client's story. The lifeline technique is used to uncover themes, people, and significant life events as perceived by the client. The career genogram is used to uncover and explore the client's gender-role and life roles beliefs. By engaging the client in self-awareness and self-assessment, one uncovers the underlying values on which future choices and decisions will be made. The exploration of life roles is a strategy that will reveal the personal meanings of the client. The life roles circles (Brown & Brooks, 1991) is an excellent example of a counseling technique that engages the client in a qualitative review of interrole relationships.

Given the history of life roles in counseling and the postmodern movement toward client narratives, there is certainly an opportunity for career counselors to meld these two foci through the use of a variety of counseling techniques. Techniques that address these foci include, but are not limited to, the life space map (Peavy, 1997), life line (Brott, 2001; Goldman, 1992; Okocha, 1998), life-space genogram (Brown & Brooks, 1991; Gysbers & Moore, 1987; Okocha, 1998), life roles circles (Brown & Brooks, 1991), life roles assessment, life role analysis, and goal map (Brott, 2004). Following are descriptions of each of these seven techniques that may be incorporated into the counseling process that focus both on life roles and on the client narrative. The techniques may be used separately or with two or more selected to provide a collaborative process that builds awareness and leads to client action in a preferred way of being.

Life Roles Counseling Techniques

The storied approach (Brott, 2001) context is used to demonstrate a variety of techniques that focus on life roles. The emphasis is on the counseling process rather than on the techniques, with the process represented by co-construction (uncovering), de-construction (opening up), and construction (authoring) of the client's story. When using the storied approach, counseling techniques are selected to illuminate the life story and personal meanings of the client.

Co-Construction of the Client's Story

During this phase of counseling, the counselor and client are able to establish rapport, place the client as expert in his or her life story, and develop an atmosphere of collaboration in the counseling process. A number of techniques can be used during this phase, such as the life space map, life line, life-space genogram, and life roles circles.

The life space map (Peavy, 1997) is drawn by the client on a blank sheet of paper, with the counselor providing a variety of exploratory prompts. The activity begins with the counselor describing that the blank page will be developed with representations of what the client is currently thinking, feeling, and doing in relation to the presenting concern, which is the reason the client has come to counseling. The counselor asks the client to draw a circle on the page that represents him- or herself; the circle may be drawn anywhere on the page to represent where the client is currently feeling within in his or her space. The next request is for the client to draw a circle for each important person in the client's world, give the name of the individual, and draw a double ring around those persons who are related to the client's presenting concern. These circles are drawn on the paper in a spatial relationship to the client (e.g., close, overlapping, distant). The life space map that is co-constructed can be discussed as it relates to the client's relationships, emotional references to the presenting concern, and the voices of meanings and interpretations provided by the client as the life space map is drawn.

The life line (Brott, 2001; Goldman, 1992; Okocha, 1998) is a technique that will reveal the client's past and present life story. It is a graphic illustration of events, people, and perceptions that will uncover themes and meanings in the client's story. On a blank sheet of paper, the client is instructed to draw a horizontal line through the middle of the paper; at the left edge of the paper the client writes his or her date of birth and at the right edge of the paper, today's date. The counselor introduces the storied approach as a framework for uncovering the chapters in the client's past and present story. Chapters are represented by life stages, such as before starting formal schooling, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, first job, and starting a family. The client is asked to mark off on the line significant starting points for each chapter and note on the page the year that each chapter began. Prompts by the counselor engage the client in exploring significant events (e.g., What are the high points you remember in this chapter? What are the low points?), important people (e.g., Name the people you remember in this chapter, What is the significance of each person?), and adjectives to describe the chapter (e.g., Give two adjectives that best describe how you remember this chapter in your life). As chapters are explored, the counselor asks the client to title the chapter (e.g., Thinking back on this chapter in your life, what is the title of this chapter?). The life line is continued during the construction phase when future chapters of the client's life story are identified.

The life-space genogram is a variation on the technique used by family therapists (Bowen, 1978; McGoldrick, Gerson, & Shellenberger, 1999). Career counselors use the occupational genogram to explore careers and occupations of a client's family members (Brown & Brooks, 1991; Gysbers & Moore, 1987; Okocha, 1998). The life-space genogram is used to illuminate life roles as perceived by the client with at least three generations of the client's family included. An important aspect of this activity is to engage the client in defining what he or she means by family, and the counselor needs to be open to the need for including "family bushes" so that significant others who are not related by direct family lines in the family tree can be included in the genogram. The basic guidelines for the activity are as follows: (a) Males are represented by squares and females are represented by circles; (b) a horizontal line connects a husband (square) and wife (circle) who are on the same plane to the left and right of each other; (c) children are denoted by a respective figure (e.g., square for male, circle for female) below the parents with a line drawn down from the horizontal line connecting to each child's figure and listed in birth order with the oldest to the left and the youngest to the right; (c) relationship of the client to other family members is a color-coded line (e.g., red line indicates warm relationship, blue line indicates cold relationship); (d) an x is placed in the shape if the person is deceased; and (e) for each family member, the name and current age are indicated. Names of other significant people in the client's life can be listed at the bottom of the page as "bushes" in the client's genogram. Once the three-generation genogram is constructed, the counselor asks the client to fill in next to each person's name the occupations held, geographic locations of where each person has lived, leisure activities enjoyed, and a quality admired in each individual. Reflective questions posed by the counselor are used to uncover and explore a variety of life roles: What were the family rules growing up? What are your current family rules? What has been your role as child? As parent? As sibling? How have the life roles of [select someone from the genogram] changed over the years? Who in your genogram do you admire or look up to? What do you admire in that person?

Life roles circles is a variation on the assessment of interrole relationships described by Brown and Brooks (1991). The activity begins with a discussion of what life roles are and involves the client in identifying the life roles he or she has experienced and is currently experiencing. On a blank sheet of paper, the client is asked to draw circles representing his or her current involvement in the identified life roles, with the size of the circle representing either the importance of the role or the amount of time spent in the role. On another sheet of paper, the client is asked to draw the same life circles representing a point in the future, with the size of the circle again representing either the importance of the role or the amount of time to be spent in the role. The discussion will explore the relationships between and among the life roles: conflicting roles, complementary roles, and compensatory roles. Barriers and problems that the client may encounter can be discussed with a focus on how to overcome and solve the problems. Role salience can be explored to assist the client in identifying and accommodating the importance of a variety of life roles. An action plan can be devised to begin the first steps in moving from current life roles to future life roles based on the client's values and life plan.

De-Construction of the Client's Story

The de-construction phase of counseling "opens space" and provides other points of view to the client's story and challenges the context of society's role expectations for the client. Counseling strategies are focused on exploring the origin of values and beliefs, assessing their importance, and determining how values and beliefs will be lived in future chapters of the client's story. The client's choice of life themes that hold importance can provide the motivation and direction for future chapters in his or her life story. The life role perspective plays a part in the de-construction phase of counseling by allowing the client to expand the definition of career from being narrowly defined only as the worker role to being more broadly defined as living a life through multiple life roles.

Building on the activities from the co-construction phase (e.g., life line, life-space genogram), the counselor engages the client in a life roles assessment. The counselor asks questions to probe and define the client's values and beliefs: What themes do you see so far in your life story? What continually motivates you in your worker role? In your family role? In your leisure role? If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would it be? How would your life be different now? Why would you want to do that differently in your life? What would [name of significant person from client's past] say is your motivation in life? The counselor may prefer to use a sentence completion technique (Lock, 2000) to probe and define the client's values and beliefs: If I had a million dollars, I would...; One thing I would change in my life would be...; I daydream most about...; People who know me well think I am...; In school, I did (do) best in/when.... Reviewing the life role choices that have been made and allowing the client to think of "what would have been" had the other choice been made high-light how current choices influence future life experiences.

Another aspect of the de-construction phase of counseling deals with the dominant social discourses related to life roles. Feminist therapists and others who have adapted the feminist therapy model provide a variety of techniques to help both women and men differentiate between what they have been taught is socially acceptable or desirable and what is actually healthy for them (Enns, 1993; Sharf, 2000; Worell & Remer, 1992). By addressing this aspect during the de-construction phase, the client is encouraged to overcome stereotypes and negative self-talk. One technique that addresses culture and gender issues is the life role analysis.

Life role analysis helps the client to examine the costs and benefits of role expectations as defined by culture and gender. The client is asked to recall parental messages related to family and work. The counselor asks the client to identify positive and negative consequences (e.g., cost, benefit) of these messages. The counselor can place the messages in the context of society's role expectations by exploring with the client the influences from media and popular culture (e.g., TV, movies, advertising) that socially construct these experiences. Together, the client and counselor de-construct these messages in order to (a) open the space for the messages the client wants to change and develop and (b) make a plan to create a place for these messages in the future chapters. A review of the life roles assessment to integrate the life role analysis is a bridge to the construction phase as the client develops a future orientation.

Construction of the Client's Future Story

The construction phase focuses on the future chapters in the client's life story. The chapters are developed across the life roles and integrate the values and beliefs that have been identified by the client. Action plans are developed that identify the steps to take, anticipated barriers, and resources to overcome the barriers.

Future chapters in the client's life story can be seen as the "possible selves" of what clients might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming (Markus & Nurius, 1986). Other writers view this future self-concept as the "potential social Me" (James, 1910), the "ego ideal" (Freud, 1925), "how I should be" (Rogers, 1951), and "the Dream" (Levinson, 1978). This future self-concept is linked to motivation with specific, organized, concrete action steps toward future goals; this motivated action is seen as a vital part of the self-concept (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Robinson, Davis, & Meara, 2003). These client steps are actions or behaviors that can be enacted to realize positive states of being or avoid negative ones and facilitate an optimistic belief that change is possible (Markus & Nurius, 1986). Self-directed goals serve to guide and regulate behavior by providing a road map connecting the past and present to the future (Oyserman, Bybee, Terry, & Hart-Johnson, 2004). When goals are directly tied to strategies or action steps, the more likely they are to be carried out (Gollwitzer, 1996).

A review of the client's life roles assessment is an excellent place to start the construction phase to develop future chapters in his or her life story: What is the first step you can take to move this life role from where it is to where you want it to be? What is your time frame for making that happen? What other steps do you need to take? What are the barriers to your ability to accomplish this step? What resources do you have to overcome those barriers? A goal map can assist the client in visualizing the steps to take, obstacles that may impede, resources to overcome the obstacles, and a clear focus on the goal. Brott (2004) used a one-page visual of a road to move the client from the bottom of the page (i.e., where the client is today), with footsteps to start the journey (representing action steps), down a road with forks and bends (anticipated obstacles), across bridges (representing resources for overcoming the obstacles), and to the top of the page where the client's goal has been written. Dates can easily be added to identify a time frame for the goal map.

The life line that was begun during the co-construction phase of career counseling can now be expanded into the future. A blank sheet of paper is given to the client with the instruction to draw a horizontal line through the middle of the paper and put today's date on the left edge and an arrowhead at the right edge. The client picks a point in time from the future that identifies a next chapter. The next chapter is constructed to embrace the client's preferred way of being through a variety of life roles. The counselor and client identify the values and beliefs that will be a part of the various life roles. Once the future chapter is constructed and titled, the counselor can assist the client in identifying the steps that need to be taken now to begin the journey into the next chapter. During termination, the client will tape together the two pieces of the life line that represent past, present, and future chapters and then title the life story.

Constructivist Applications of Life Roles in Career Counseling

Life roles are important to career development in that they expand the focus of counseling from occupational concerns and job placement to life stories that empower clients. The concept of life roles is applicable to a variety of clients and different presenting concerns. Dual-career partners; women; men; adolescents; diverse populations that include race and ethnicity, gay men, lesbians, and bisexual and transgender persons; and persons with disabilities will benefit from the life roles perspective. Presenting concerns that relate to satisfaction, actualization, socialization, and expectations can be viewed from a life roles perspective. These life roles may include learner, family, relationships, worker, leisure, and community.

Dual-career partners may have concerns about the relationship between home/family and worker roles, role overload and role conflict, satisfaction, relocations, competition, dealing with stress, occupational stereotypes, and gender-role expectations (Hall & Huenefeld, 2002; Reardon, Lenz, Sampson, & Peterson, 2000). These concerns may be co-constructed and de-constructed through the life roles of worker, partner and family, relationships, and leisure to allow clients an opportunity to understand and explore their personal narrative as it exists and to develop their future narrative in preferred ways.

Women's career development issues may arise from their consideration of gender-role socialization, role conflicts (e.g., family and work), and relational needs. These issues may be explored through a variety of roles, including family, relationships, worker, leisure, and community. The relational context that generally arises for women can be viewed from the perspective of a number of roles and explored to find ways to meet the need to relate with others. Single mothers may need to find a balance between the family role and other life roles (e.g., leisure, community, relationships).

Men's career development issues may include gender-role socialization; the gendered workplace context; and the importance of performance, achievement, and success. The life roles perspective is an avenue for men to explore the context of gender, one's needs and motivation, and life satisfaction. Identifying his current life roles participation and setting a direction for where he prefers his life roles participation to be may open up opportunities for the male client to enrich family, relationships, and leisure roles to complement the worker role.

It is important to address life roles before adulthood, and the benefits of providing opportunities for adolescents to participate in a school counseling program should be acknowledged. School counselors can expand their school counseling programs to reach beyond career education (e.g., career day, career speakers) and postsecondary plans (e.g., work, college) that have a narrow focus on occupations. Career development should include understanding lifestyle and identifying goals for personal success and satisfaction, which can be seen through the life roles of learner, worker, family and relationships, leisure, and community. School counselors have many avenues for presenting life roles, such as classroom guidance units, group counseling, individual counseling, and parent education programs.

Counselors are often challenged when working with diverse populations to understand the client's perspective. The constructivist approach, with the counselor and client collaborating to co-construct, de-construct, and construct the client's narrative, provides an opportunity to address this challenge. With a focus on life roles, it is not necessary for the counselor to be an expert on issues relating to race and ethnicity, sexual orientation (e.g., gay men, lesbians, and bisexual and transgender persons), older workers, and individuals with disabilities. Rather, the counselor approaches the counseling process with curiosity and a wanting-to-know attitude that will enrich the counselor's experience in knowing and understanding the client's frame of reference. Using the life roles perspective is an excellent way in which the counselor and client can identify the themes and issues in the client's present life story and develop a future life story to support and enhance his or her preferred way of being. Illuminating the life roles of family, community, leisure, worker, and learner through the client's life story acknowledges the influence of the social context and mores of society with the opportunity for the client to embrace, weave, or reconstruct these influences in future chapters.

Summary

With a long and successful history within counseling, the life roles perspective has provided an insight into the client's lifestyle, needs, significance, decision-making style, and personal narratives. Thanks to the seminal work of Donald Super, social role theory has long been associated with career counseling. Standardized assessments (e.g., the Values Scale, the Salience Inventory, the Life Roles Inventory), research studies, and international perspectives have expanded the profession's understanding of and interest in life roles. With the dawning of a postmodern perspective, career counselors moved from the role of expert to the role of collaborator in the client's story. For some constructivist writers, the concept of life roles has been integral in the development of the counseling process. For this article, a storied approach was selected as the preferred counseling process to co-construct, de-construct, and construct the client's story with the focus on the client's life roles.

The life roles perspective provides the career counselor with a framework from which to explore with clients their identity, motivations, and preferences in constructing a life story. The life roles perspective can be used with a variety of clients in career counseling to move from a narrow focus on occupation to an integrated life story frame of reference. The techniques described in this article include life space map, life line, life-space genogram, life roles circles, life roles assessment, life role analysis, and goal map. They are presented as a constructivist look at life roles.

References

Amatea, E. S., & Cross, E. G. (1986). Helping high school students clarify life role preferences: The life-styles unit. The School Counselor, 33, 306-313.

Anderson, K. J. (1995). The use of a structured career development group to increase career identity: An exploratory study. Journal of Career Development, 21, 279-291.

Blustein, D. L. (1997). A context-rich perspective of career exploration across the life roles. The Career Development Quarterly, 45, 260-274.

Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York: Aronson.

Brott, P. E. (2001). The storied approach: A postmodern approach to career counseling. The Career Development Quarterly, 49, 304-313.

Brott, P. E. (2004). Constructivist assessment in career counseling. Journal of Career Development, 30, 189-200.

Brown, D. (1996). Brown's values-based, holistic model of career and life-role choices and satisfaction. In D. Brown, L. Brooks, & Associates (Eds.), Career choice and development (3rd ed., pp. 337-338). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brown, D., & Brooks, L. (1991). Career counseling techniques. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Bujold, C. (2004). Constructing career through narrative. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64, 470-484.

Chiappone, J. M. (1989). Clinical issues in career counseling of adults: A new challenge. Career Planning & Adult Development Journal, 5, 5-14.

Cinamon, R. G., & Rich, Y. (2002). Gender differences in the importance of work and family roles: Implications for work-family conflict. Sex Roles, 47, 531-541.

Corey, G. (2001). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Crozier, S. D. (1999). Women's career development in a "relational context." International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 21, 231-247.

Dale, L., Barkley, A., Bayless, S., Coleman, S. D., McDonald, B., Myszkowski, J., et al. (2003). Experiences of cumulative trauma disorders on life roles of worker and family member: A case study of a married couple. Work, 20, 245-255.

Davidson, P. E., & Anderson, H. D. (1937). Occupational mobility in an American community. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Davidson, P. E., & Anderson, H. D. (1940). Occupational trends in the United States. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Enns, C. Z. (1993). Twenty years of feminist counseling and therapy: From naming biases to implementing multifaceted practice. The Counseling Psychologist, 21, 3-87.

Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: Norton.

Fitzsimmons, G. W., Macnab, D., & Casserly, C. (1985). Life Roles Inventory. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Psychometrics Canada.

Forrest, L., & Mikolaitis, N. (1986). The relationship component of identity: An expansion of career development theory. The Career Development Quarterly, 35, 76-88.

Freud, S. (1925). Collected papers (J. Riviere, Trans.). London: Hogarth Press.

Gilligan, C. (1977). In a different voice: Women's conception of self and morality. Harvard Educational Review, 47, 481-517.

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Glasser, W. (2000). Reality therapy in action. New York: HarperCollins.

Goldman, L. (1992). Qualitative assessment: An approach for counselors. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70, 616-621.

Gollwitzer, P. (1996). The volitional benefits of planning. In P. Gollwitzer (Ed.), The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 287-312). New York: Guilford Press.

Gysbers, N. C., Heppner, M, J., & Johnson, J. A. (2003). Career counseling: Process, issues, and techniques (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Gysbers, N. C., & Moore, E. J. (1973). Life career development: A model. Columbia: University of Missouri.

Gysbers, N. C., & Moore, E. J. (1987). Career counseling: Skills and techniques for practitioners. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Hall, M. E., & Huenefeld, N. E. (2002). The storied approach: A constructivist perspective on counseling dual-career couples. In D. Sandhu (Ed.), Counseling employees: A multifaceted approach (pp. 221-238). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

Hansen, L. S. (1997). Integrative life planning: Critical tasks for career development and changing life patterns. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Havighurst, R. (1972). Developmental tasks and education (3rd ed.). New York: Longman.

James, W. (1910). Psychology: The briefer course. New York: Holt.

Levinson, D. J. (1978). The seasons of a man's life. New York: Ballantine Books.

Lock, R. D. (2000). Taking charge of your career direction (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

MacDermid, S. M., Leslie, L. A., & Bissonnette, L. (2001). Walking the walk: Insights from research on helping clients navigate work and family. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 13, 21-40.

Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist, 41, 954-969.

May, R, & Yalom, I. (1995). Existential psychotherapy. In R. J. Corsini & D. Wedding (Eds.), Current psychotherapies (5th ed., pp. 262-292). Itasca, IL: Peacock.

McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R., & Shellenberger, S. (1999). Genograms: Assessment and intervention (2nd ed.). New York: Norton.

Mosak, H. H., & Dreikurs, R. (1967). The life tasks: III. The fifth life task. Individual Psychologist, 5, 16-22.

Nevill, D., & Super, D. E. (1986). Salience Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Nevill, D., & Super, D. E. (1989). The Values Scale (2nd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.

Niles, S. G., Sowa, C. J., & Laden, J. (1994). Life role participation and commitment as predictors of college student development. Journal of College Student Development, 35, 159-163.

Okocha, A. A. G. (1998). Using qualitative appraisal strategies in career counseling, Journal of Employment Counseling, 35, 151-159.

Oyserman, D., Bybee, D., Terry, K., & Hart-Johnson, T. (2004). Possible selves as road maps. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 130-149.

Peavy, R. V. (1997). A constructive framework for career counseling. In T. L. Sexton & B. L. Griffin (Eds.), Constructivist thinking in counseling practice, research, and training (pp. 122-140). New York: Teachers College.

Quigley, M. C. (1995). Impact of spinal cord injury on the life roles of women. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 49, 780-786.

Rajadhyaksha, U., & Bhatnagar, D. (2000). Life role salience: A study of dual-career couples in the Indian context. Human Relations, 53, 489-511.

Reardon, R. C., Lenz, J. G., Sampson, J. P., & Peterson, G. W. (2000). Career development and planning: A comprehensive approach. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Robinson, B. S., Davis, K. L., & Meara, N. M. (2003). Motivational attributes of occupational possible selves for low-income rural women. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 156-164.

Rogers, C. (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications, and theory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Savickas, M. L. (1993). Career counseling in the postmodern era. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 7, 205-215.

Sharf, R. S. (2000). Theories of psychotherapy and counseling: Concepts and cases (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Shulman, B. H. (1973). Contributions to individual psychology. Chicago: The Alfred Adler Institute.

Shulman, B. H., & Mosak, H. H. (1988). Handbook for the life style. Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development.

Stead, G. B., & Watson, M. B. (1998). Career research in South Africa: Challenges for the future. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 52, 289-299.

Super, D. E. (1942). The dynamics of vocational adjustments. New York: Harper.

Super, D. E. (1980). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 16, 282-298.

Super, D. E. (1990). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. In D. Brown, L. Brooks, & Associates (Eds.), Career choice and development: Applying contemporary theories to practice (2nd ed., pp. 197-261). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Super, D. E., Savickas, M. L., & Super, C. M. (1996). The life-span, life-space approach to careers. In D. Brown & L. Brooks (Eds.), Career choice and development (pp. 121-170). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Super, D. E., & Sverko, B. (1995). Life roles, values, and careers: International findings of the Work Importance Study. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Worell, J., & Remer, P. (1992). Feminist perspectives in therapy: An empowerment model for women. New York: Wiley.

Young, R. A., & Collin, A. (Eds.). (2004). Constructivism, social constructivism and career [Special issue]. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 64(3).

Zunker, V. G. (2002). Career counseling: Applied concepts of life planning (6th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Pamelia E. Brott, Department of Counselor Education, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University-Northern Virginia Center. The author thanks Heather Robertson, doctoral student at Virginia Tech-Northern Virginia Center, for her contributions on the history of life roles. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Pamelia E. Brott, Counselor Education, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University-Northern Virginia Center, 7054 Haycock Road, Falls Church, VA 22043 (e-mail: [e-mail]).