Category: Counseling Theories

David Valentine Tiedeman received his B.A. in psychology at Union College in 1941. Tiedeman would receive a master’s from the University of Rochester in 1943 and go on to Harvard to complete degrees in educational measurement both his Ed.M. in 1948 and an Ed.D. in 1949. While at Harvard, Tiedeman was mentored by the renowned… Continue reading Tiedeman’s Theory

The Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) is a person-environment fit (P-E fit) theory that elaborated the P-E fit theories of Frank Parsons, Donald G. Paterson, and John G. Darley into a dynamic model of vocational adjustment. The TWA postulates that optimal vocational outcomes occur when (a) the individual’s abilities match the skills required for success… Continue reading Theory of Work Adjustment

Beginning with the first documented vocational counseling attempts of Frank Parsons in 1909, vocational counseling and research focused for nearly half a century on vocational choice—not on how or why one made a particular vocational decision, but rather on what that decision was. Donald Super’s theory of vocational development was therefore unique in being one… Continue reading Super’s Theory

Originally developed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner to understand the psychological bases of intergroup discrimination, social identity theory seeks to explain the psychological and social bases for intergroup behavior and has more recently been used to also understand intragroup processes. Social identity theory can be used in the contexts of multicultural counseling, research, and… Continue reading Social Identity Theory

First developed in 1977, self-efficacy is an important component of Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory. Self-efficacy refers to people’s judgments of their ability to perform necessary behaviors to produce desired outcomes in specific situations. These judgments are highly context specific and tend to influence which activities people will attempt, how much effort they will put… Continue reading Self-Efficacy