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The Psychology of Working.

Article Excerpt
The Psychology of Working

David L. Blustein

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

2006, 360 Pages, ISBN 0-8058-5879-2

Rehabilitation counseling professionals currently face numerous challenges resulting from the bleak economic situation when addressing the vocational placement of their consumers. Rather than drawing from traditional career counseling perspectives and established theoretical frameworks, a fresh conceptualization of working can now be implemented when assisting individuals with disabilities in finding meaningful employment. In his text, The Psychology of Working, David Blustein offers a conceptual framework that empowers the consumer while emphasizing social connectedness and self-determination.

Blustein's conceptualization challenges traditional assumptions of vocational counseling by proposing that the term career may carry an elitist connotation. He illustrates this through focusing on the differential availability of opportunity structures for many people.

Opportunity structures are defined by Blustein as the access a person has to the "resources and supports that frame the process of planning, training, locating, and adjusting to work" (p. 143). The framework posits that factors such as a lack of mentors and social support, prevalence of societal barriers, and lack of available educational and vocational opportunities for growth...