Trait-Factor Counseling

Donald E. Eggerth

Trait-factor counseling approaches assume that career choice may be facilitated and career outcomes optimized through a fairly straightforward process of matching an individual's most relevant work-relevant characteristics (abilities, interests, values, etc.) with information regarding job activities, demands, rewards, and availability. The counseling process for this approach typically starts with a client interview, then proceeds to extensive psychometric assessment of the client's work-relevant characteristics, and is finalized with an interpretation of assessment results with connections being drawn between these results and one or more occupational classification systems. Trait-factor counseling assumes that having been provided with accurate information about self and jobs, most individuals will be able to make a rational choice of career. Conceptually, the origins of trait-factor approaches to career counseling can be traced to Frank Parsons's pioneering efforts to better match individuals with jobs. This matching process involved using an accurate understanding of an individual's work-relevant attributes (skills, aptitudes, ...

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