Description
Coetzee et al., (2022) Chapters 1 and 2 (Learning theme 1; Lesson 9)
Read through the Thandi case study below. Study the assessment results and answer the
questions that follow.
The case of Thandi
Thandi is a 30-year-old African female. Thandi completed her BCom degree in Industrial and
Organisational Psychology (IOP) in 2013 and her BCom honours degree in Industrial and
Organisational Psychology (IOP) in 2015. Her husband is a mechanical engineer and they have
two children under the age of six. The family lives in an urban area. Thandi is the first-born in a
family of five, all of whom were born and raised in a semi-rural area. They all attended public
schools for both primary and secondary education. From a young age, Thandi was very curious
and liked to do things in a routine manner.
Upon completing her BCom degree in 2013, Thandi got a job with a local accounting firm. She
welcomed this job, as her family was struggling to make ends meet. Thandi informed her
employers that she would like to further her studies and they therefore paid the tuition fees for her
to obtain her BCom honours degree. Now that she has completed her honours degree, she has
begun to question her career choice. She enjoys the accounting environment because it is routine;
however, she is bored with the numerical nature of her work. She wants more, but she cannot
clearly identify what she wants. Her line manager refers Thandi to an industrial and organisational
(IO) psychologist for career counselling and guidance. She hopes to get assistance in making the
right career choice.
After a few sessions with the IO psychologist, Thandi completes some career assessments. The
results are presented in table 1 below.
Table 1: Assessment information
Assessment
instrument
Purpose
Results
Schein’s
career
orientations
inventory
(COI)
Used
to
establish
a
person’s
career
anchor
(self-concept, consisting of
self-perceived talents and
abilities, basic values)
Scored high on the following:
Sense of service/dedication to a cause
Security and stability
Lifestyle
Self-directed
search (SDS)
Underpinned by Holland’s
theory
of
individual
decision-making styles to
determine interest areas
Scored high on the following:
Investigative: focuses more on medical issues
Conventional: likes activities that permit the
organisation of information in a clear and orderly
manner
Social: a high score on community service
Based on the information presented above, answer the following questions:
2
1.1.
Using your knowledge of Super’s theory of developmental stages, describe the career life
stage most appropriate to Thandi and discuss the core psychological tasks associated
with her career life stage (see table 2.2 in Coetzee et al., 2022).
(10)
1.2.
Using your knowledge of Schein’s theory of career anchors, describe Thandi’s core
personality strengths and the career values underlying her assessment results based on
the COI assessment.
(5)
1.3.
Based on your understanding of psychosocial career hurdles (see table 2.4 in Coetzee et
al., 2022), reflect on Thandi’s case and identify ONE psychosocial career hurdle that you
believe may be impacting on her adaptive career capacity profile. Provide examples from
the case study to motivate your answer.
(5)
[20]
TOTAL: 20 marks
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