Depth-Oriented Values Extraction.

The author examines the role of values in the career decision-making process and describes Depth-Oriented Values Extraction (DOVE) as a process that translates various types of psychological data (e.g., Holland-type themes) into values-based terms and language that facilitate career decision making. The author presents a case study to demonstrate the implications of DOVE for career counseling and makes suggestions for counselors.

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The role of values in the decision-making process has been examined by many researchers (e.g., Brown, 1995; Kinnier, 1995; Raths, Harmin, & Simon, 1966; Rogers, 1977; Rokeach, 1977; Super, 1957; Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996; Super & Sverko, 1995). Rokeach (1977) noted that values have cognitive (knowing the correct end state to strive for), affective (feeling emotion for or against the value), and behavioral (the value as an intervening variable that leads to action when activated) components. Interests are one manifestation of values and may be the cognitive representation of the need to guide actions; evaluate self and others; and serve adjustive, knowledge, and self-actualization functions. Dewey (1897/1959) believed that a child's interests are the "signs and symptoms of growing power ... dawning capacities ... (that) prophesy the stage upon which he is about to enter" (p. 29).

Two distinct values systems may be operative in the career decision-making process, and they constantly contribute to cognitive and affective processes associated with decision making (Colozzi, 1978; Colozzi & Haehnlen, 1982). The first value system, (i.e., expressed values) can be misleading and cause confusion to a client because it is often in conflict and tends to overshadow the second system (i.e., implied values), which seems to serve as a truer and more accurate criterion for making self-actualizing career and life choices (Colozzi & Colozzi, 2000). Expressed values are the values that a person readily identifies as his or her values when asked the question, "What are your most important work or life values?" Implied values are more hidden and can be extracted through a reflective dialogue involving self-reflection and individual counseling.

Expressed work values seem to be influenced by external sources (e.g., present employment situation, parents, peers). Examples of expressed values might be security or steady pay. They are most similar to Rogers's (1977) discussion of "conceived values" that originate in early childhood and accumulate throughout people's lives. They evolve into introjected, or absorbed, value patterns--a set of rarely examined, fixed concepts by which individuals live (Rogers, 1977). Expressed values are also similar to Fowler's (1981) "assumptive value" system that is formed and influenced by external sources of authority and usually defined by a group or group membership that can block an individual's capacity for the critical reflection that is necessary in order for an individual to become his or her true self and to form his or her own perceptions.

People are usually unaware of their implied values, which often only become a part of a person's conscious thoughts through an in-depth analysis and reflection of interests, because interests are one manifestation of values (Rokeach, 1977). Super (see Super et al., 1996) also considered the important relationship between values and interests when he explained how values provided a sense of purpose and "venues" for the expression of interests. Implied values usually appear as specifically worded value themes that relate to a client's Holland-type (Holland, 1996) RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) theme.

Implied values are similar to Rogers's discussion of "operative" values (Rogers, 1977), which are the behaviors that indicate preferences for one specific object or objective rather than for another. He described how this "organismic valuing process" can be used by individuals to effectively negotiate complex value problems that tend to lead to self-actualization. These values also resemble Fowler's (1981) "tacit" system, described as the, principally, unexamined system of informing images and values to which individuals are committed, but because the images and values are tacit, they are unexamined. Rogers (1977) believed that individuals lose touch with their organismic valuing process, desert their inner wisdom, and abandon their ability to clearly discern through introjecting the value judgments of others and taking them on as their own. They choose to behave in terms of values that have been set by others and are motivated by a need to gain approval and esteem or retain love. Over time, the individual's world develops around confusion, leading to a lack of clarity of beliefs or purpose. This lack of clarity and the searching for purpose can be important emotional triggers that move clients into a state of readiness for career counseling.

Using Values Clarification to Improve Career Decision Making

Paramount in the valuing process is the decision maker's ability to identify, clarify, and prioritize values using qualitative and quantitative approaches to facilitate values clarification, a complex process that may be intricately intertwined with self-efficacy beliefs, interests, and other factors and that requires further research, especially longitudinal study (Brown, 1995; Super, 1995). Brown (1996) focused on the importance of the role of values in decision making and challenged counselors to discover how to translate various types of psychological data into values-based terms. Depth-Oriented Values Extraction (DOVE) provides practitioners with a means to accomplish this translation and specifically "unpacks" a client's Holland-type RIASEC themes in language that relates to career and education goals and improves balance among various career-life roles.

For many years, a dominant assumption in vocational psychology has supported the person-environment fit approach, yet the prevalent use of vocational interests for screening thousands of occupations and identifying the most appropriate choices is often not very effective (Gati & Asher, 2001). Having too many options is often confusing for clients, a situation that is represented in the case study described later in this article. More attention needs to be given to the role of values in people's belief systems and the application of both planful and intuitive decision making, in the context of values clarification, to facilitate clients' choices across multiple and changing career-life roles.

People's beliefs about themselves, and how they perceive their self-knowledge, ultimately influence their approach to life and their specific career-life choices. There are many opportunities to relearn old, limiting beliefs (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996), and the core of all learning experiences, at some level, is very subtly linked to "what is important to me (to do, to be, to believe, to say) as an individual." The resulting evolution of a values system becomes a central factor that influences all career-life decisions. Even when life happens and situational determinants occur, people's values influence how they choose to respond to those determinants.

Values can be measured and are related to psychological and sociological variables, but there is limited evidence to demonstrate their relation, even predictive validity, to career choice and entry, satisfaction with a career, and success in a career (Super, 1995). Furthermore, there has not been a systematic attempt to separate work values from life values (Brown, 1996). What would be helpful is to provide counselors with a tool that can translate psychological data into values-based terms that are useful with career-life decision-making issues and a tool that is also applicable to clients who are experiencing mental health problems that are related to their failure to clarify and prioritize their values (Brown, 1996). The DOVE process shows promise in these areas.

Core Concepts and Theoretical Context

* Values are the cornerstone of career-life choices; true values serve as a guiding light, "stars to steer by" (Super et al., 1996, p. 138), that are capable of leading a person toward focus, satisfaction, happiness, and purpose when the values are fully expressed. Values are influenced by several factors (Betsworth et al., 1994; Brown, 1996; Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996; Super et al., 1996): the environment (including people's generalized conclusions derived from their history of learning experiences), heredity, and a spiritual factor that can be informed and clarified through an individual's culture and faith tradition (Colozzi, in press; Colozzi & Colozzi, 2000).

* What people feel or experience as an emotion, think about, and even sense intuitively is related, at some core level, to their values system and is converted into specific types of neurochemicals that translate into electrical and chemical events that subtly and profoundly shape both their inner and outer worlds. This energy, or "biochemistry of belief," must be expressed, and the blocked energy is basically unrealized potential and can result in a feeling of lack of purpose; hopelessness, even depression; stress; and compromised immunocompetence (Benson, 1997; Brown, 1996; Kobasa, 1979; Wolfe, 2001).

* Values can be separated into two categories (Colozzi & Colozzi, 2000): life values and work values. Work values can be further separately. rated into two categories: conscious expressed work values, which are usually misleading and often related to the influence of others' values systems, and unconscious implied (or hidden) work values, which are a representation of authentic self-knowledge, that is, one's true self.

* Most people make career-life choices based on their expressed work values, which results in lack of focus, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, feeling "off-purpose," and even depression and often causing negative influences throughout several career-life roles, because an individual's expressed work values rarely resemble an individual's implied work values.

* People are usually unaware of their implied work values. Implied work values are stable, grounding beliefs that persist, although the ordering of them may shift throughout life, requiring adjustments between work and life roles from time to time.

* An in-depth reflection of interests can facilitate the extraction of a person's implied work values (Colozzi & Haehnlen, 1982) by bringing them to conscious, operative use and resulting in work values themes that usually relate to Holland-type RIASEC themes. These extracted values themes facilitate an application that is more holistic and complete of a person's Holland-type scores to career decision making (Colozzi & Colozzi, 2000). The extracted values themes often relate to a client's deep sense of purpose and calling--to the things that would contribute to his or her sense of accomplishment and fulfillment and that would assist with the selection of appropriate majors and continuing education experiences. Extracted values themes can also be used to identify nonwork activities in which clients may more fully express themselves than in their work activities. Identifying these nonwork activities also allows individuals to proactively choose and use work in the context of other role choices (Holland, 1996).

The DOVE Process

DOVE's Five-Step Process

Before the actual DOVE session, encourage the client to make a list of her or his top 15 to 20 abilities, interests, work values, and life values, noting that work values are the things that are most important in a work situation and that life values are the things that are most important in nonwork situations. Then have the client rank order her or his top 8 selections in each category. The client then circles her or his top 8 interests only, writing briefly under each interest five good and different reasons she or he enjoys that particular interest. Remind the client not to use reasons that simply state, "I really have fun" or "It's very enjoyable" or even "It's really interesting." Rather, encourage full reflection on the actual activity, perhaps aided by asking the client to close her or his eyes and imagine doing the activity for a few seconds and then asking, "What is there about this activity that I really enjoy?" Ask the client to try to access the emotional core of her or his reasons as if peeling an onion to get at that center, continually asking, "Why do I enjoy this activity so much?" Finally, have the client summarize each stated reason in one or two words on the right side of the list, as indicated in the following example. This homework is usually completed on a DOVE Reflection Inventory prior to the actual DOVE session (see Table 1 example.) Following is a delineation of the five-step DOVE process.

1. Discovery

Encourage further reflection of the client's reasons for interest and allow the client again to experientially access emotions associated with each interest activity noted in her or his homework, making notes on the homework sheet as she or he speaks.

Encourage a collaborative give-and-take exploratory discussion to discover the client's core emotional experience associated with the activity and the words and phrases that best describe it. The more exploration efforts by the counselor and the client, the greater the opportunity to "bump" into the words and phrases that "work" for the client and strike that emotional core. Discovery occurs throughout the DOVE process, even throughout the following stages.

2. Integration and Crystallization

Notice any common themes that begin to evolve from the client's responses regarding the analysis of specific interests. Begin to collaboratively piece together the words and phrases to formulate the beginnings of a values theme, a summary that best articulates the client's reflections, and notice any relationship between the evolving value theme and Holland-type RIASEC themes. Through this clarification process a concretization of values occurs, which is a kind of crystallization that allows the client to identify the core meaning of her or his experience and translate these reflections into a group of words and phrases that make sense to the client as evidenced by affirmative statements to the counselor. This is a prelude to extraction.

3. Extraction

Identify and extract the values theme from the other evolving themes by circling it on the page that contains the counselor's notes or by writing it on a separate notepad where all the extracted values themes will eventually be written. Usually four or five values themes are evident from this reflection process.

4. Prioritization and Achievement of Cognitive Clarity

Ask the client to review, compare, and prioritize the extracted implied work values during this session or at home. Then ask the client to compare her or his top four or five expressed work values from the DOVE Reflection Inventory with her or his top four or five implied work values and reflect on the comparison. Encourage the client to select the preferred list (based on the most accurate ranking or the most accurately expressed) that best describes the client's most authentic statement of work values. It is during this step that the client discovers that her or his truer work values are the implied work values when compared with her or his previously rank-ordered list of expressed work values that were initially indicated on the DOVE Reflection Inventory.

5. Congruence

Help the client assess the congruence of the implied work values with specific occupations and an ideal career scenario that the client developed to determine appropriate matches. This is usually completed at home when the client matches each of her or his occupational choices against the five implied work values themes and then reviews this matching with the counselor in the next session. The client immediately understands which occupations match best, which ones do not, and, most important, why certain choices do not match. The clarity gained greatly assists clients in narrowing down a number of possible choices (often from vocational inventories) that "appear to make sense" to the choices that are the best matches.

Counselor's Role

The counselor's role is to be constantly curious about why the client is truly interested in the specific activities being investigated and to be eager to understand more clearly and "capture" what, specifically, the client gains from participating in the activities. All statements by the client, including nonverbal ones, are clues to be followed and used as additional stepping stones to reach the core experience--and any emotional truth that is part of that experience. Acknowledge the client's efforts through-out to raise self-efficacy and the client's progress toward developing a sense of personal agency.

Some clues may start leading into the discovery of a different values theme than the one being integrated and crystallized for extraction. For example, a client may be reflecting on a theme that relates to an Investigative Holland-type RIASEC theme and indicates her or his feelings about leading and managing others. Acknowledge to the client the importance of these clues, write them down as the beginnings of a new values theme, and remain focused on the present values theme by seeking further evidence of its presence and the appropriate words to more fully "unpack" its essence.

At some point in the reflection process, usually at the end of Step 2, Integration and Crystallization, the client and the counselor arrive at a sense of initial completion, and Step 3, the extraction of a single theme, occurs. Clients usually indicate that they are satisfied with their understanding of a particular theme and their willingness to move forward with the process. The counselor and the client then continue to the discovery, integration, crystallization, and extraction of other themes. The collaborative dialogue of discovery may uncover a clue that refines a previously extracted theme. The counselor should simply attend to the refinement and modify the theme appropriately.

Case Study

Client J.

J. is a 30-year-old, married, Caucasian woman, employed 7 months fulltime as a human resources representative with a job satisfaction rating of 3 (1 = low, 10 = high). She has a bachelor of science degree in business administration and 12 years of work experience, mostly in human resources (at banks and investment companies). She had wanted to be a dentist since 10th grade and had graduated from high school with a class ranking of 15 out of 400 students. She experienced discouragement from her parents and her high school guidance counselor regarding dentistry as a career goal and became so discouraged she gave up pursuit of health-related occupations and selected business as "the way to go." After 3 years of intense job dissatisfaction; stress; some depression; physical ailments such as severe headaches, chronic colds, "catching everything that was going around in the office," stomach problems; and conflictual feelings about leaving the business field and reconsidering the health field, she decided to obtain career counseling.

      My turning point was when a big layoff occurred. We had to let 25
      people go. During a 24-hour period, I had to deal with this
      layoff, and it was a difficult and draining experience. I watched
      how my colleague handled it; she looked at it strictly as a
      business situation. I understood in my mind it was a business
      decision, but in my heart it was very difficult for me. I was
      running down the stairs on my way to a meeting about this layoff
      and fell down the entire stair-way. I got up and hobbled to my
      meeting and saw my foot swelling but did not do anything. After
      work my husband took me for x-rays, and I had injured my foot! I
      was home for a week with crutches. This gave me time away from my
      work situation, and I reflected and asked, "What am I doing with
      myself? Nothing!" Yes, a great paycheck, but I was no longer able
      to do this work.

The following information was obtained through discussions and traditional assessments:

  Expressed Career Goal: Dental hygienist (fairly decided)  Fantasy
  Occupations Identified: Screenwriter, leisure consultant, personal
  shopper, and craftsperson

The results of the various traditional objective assessments that J. completed are given in the Appendix. On the basis of the traditional assessments (see Appendix) and occupational research, the client narrowed her choices to the following list: dental lab technologist, dental hygienist, electroencephalogram technician, operating room technician, medical technician, prosthetist, physical therapist, radiation therapy technician, respiratory therapist, sonographer, electrocardiogram technician, optician, optometrist, dental assistant, medical assistant, optometric assistant, dietician, occupational therapist, audiologist, and jeweler. Finally, after more research and reflection, the client narrowed her list further to the following choices: dental hygienist, ophthalmic technician, optometrist, dental assistant, respiratory therapist, audiologist, and optician.

At this point in the career counseling, the client was introduced to the DOVE process and completed the DOVE Reflection Inventory in preparation for the DOVE session. The following are her responses to the portion of the DOVE process that asked her to identify her top five expressed work and life values. (See Table 2.)

The client came to the next session, the DOVE session, with her completed DOVE Reflection Inventory. Through a reflective discussion of her interests, the following four implied work values were extracted.

Implied Work Values

1. Opportunity to usually be physically active, primarily working with my hands (i.e., eye/hand coordination), including using a variety of small, hand-held tools, materials and equipment, including much attention to detail and precision; working in a small space and using an organized, logical process to improve or complete a situation, ideally resulting in a more aesthetically pleasing "finished product or setting," providing me with a sense of order, completion, and closure, including feedback from others and/or my own observations and monitoring of my work for a sense of accomplishment and purpose--a job well done!

2. Opportunity to usually work with a variety of people, primarily patients, and mostly [in] one-on-one interactions (with periodic groups when appropriate); helping people; caring for them directly, including providing and sharing information about subject matter in which I have specific knowledge and expertise; engaging them in conversation or demonstration activities in subjects of mutual interest, preferably in a friendly, nurturing, noncompetitive, relaxing, comfortable work environment with an opportunity to build rapport with colleagues and patients to foster an environment of trust--including having feedback from self and/or others and a sense of daily completion with balance of autonomy and independence, with supervision and consultation when necessary, giving me a sense of accomplishment, competence and purpose, making a difference in people's lives, rescuing and preserving "people's treasures."

3. Opportunity to often observe, investigate, analyze a variety of health/wellness-related topics--especially relating to such areas as oral hygiene/teeth, nutrition, and patients' attitudes and behaviors (visually concrete situations) regarding these topics to compare and contrast (even diagnose) the problem and accurately monitor the situation at hand, allowing me to move forward with the most appropriate treatment to improve the situation.

4. Opportunity to selectively be alone, quiet, reflective, absorbed and focused, independent, preferably uninterrupted, and going at my own pace.

After career counseling, J. applied to a dental hygienist program, took science prerequisites, resigned from her human resources job, continued more prerequisites through September 2000, and then enrolled as a full-time student taking five courses a semester. She earned a 3.8 grade point average and is currently employed as a dental hygienist and "loving her work." She reported no further illnesses, sleep disorders, stomach problems, colds or influenza, or feeling depressed.

Future Areas for DOVE Research and Development

Research efforts are needed to evaluate the efficacy of the DOVE process. Most persons who have participated in the DOVE process do so individually, although the process has been used in several small-group settings where some individual reflection occurred in the context of group discussions. This group application may be more applicable in high school and college settings. I am particularly interested in the relationships that may exist between the DOVE process and the psychosomatic network (i.e., neuroscience, endocrinology, and immunology) and in how changes in thoughts and emotions (the power of belief and optimism) change the chemicals in an individual's brains and how changes in brain chemistry cause transformations in mood and intellectual performance and even in the ability to "believe in possibilities."

Related to this topic are the relationships among the DOVE process and people's spirituality, having a strong sense of meaning and purpose, callings, commitment and intensity, and feelings of control over situations that may hinder or facilitate accomplishing their callings. Finally, I strongly believe that the DOVE process can be further developed and used in conjunction with more stand-alone, traditional, computer-as-sisted career guidance systems that are modified with an artificial intelligence component. Additional research might also explore the efficacy of the DOVE process across cultures and with special needs populations (e.g., clients with visual impairments, clients who are physically challenged, and clients with learning disabilities with whom I have used the DOVE process).

APPENDIX

Results of Traditional Objective Assessments

Self-Directed Search (Holland, 1973):

ACR/I (R = 14, 1 = 14, A = 17, S = 10, E = 7, C = 15)

DISCOVER (ACT, 1998):

UNIACT Interest Inventory = World-of-Work (WOW) Map Regions 7 and 8 (working with things and perhaps ideas)

Abilities Inventory = WOW Map Regions 1 (working with people and perhaps data) and 4 (working with data and perhaps things)

Values Inventory = Select Job Families were identified, specifically C., Records and Communications; K., Home/Business Equipment Repair; L., Industrial Equipment Operation/Repair; and N., Medical Specialties and Technologies

TABLE 1

Example of DOVE Reflection Inventory

Interest Number 1: Scuba Diving                        Summary Words

(a) I like being alone and away from lots  (a) Being alone
    of people.

(b) I like the physical exercise and       (b) Physical exercise
    moving about.

(c) I like the freedom and independence    (c) Independence
    I feel.

(d) I like the newness of the situation    (d) Exploring the unknown
    and the many different sights to see
    and places to explore.

(e) I like the feeling of risk and         (e) Challenge and adventure
    challenge.

TABLE 2

Example of DOVE Process Session

Expressed Work Values            Expressed Life Values

1. Enjoyment/satisfaction  1. Family
2. Balance/time for self   2. Spirituality
3. Flexibility             3. Fun
4. Security                4. Health/wellness

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Edward Anthony Colozzi, Career Development and Counseling Services, Winchester, Massachusetts. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Edward Anthony Colozzi, Career Development and Counseling Services, 165 Washington Street, Winchester, MA 01890 (e-mail: [e-mail]).