The Role of Work in People's Lives: Applied Career Counseling and Vocational Psychology [Hardcover]

Nadene Peterson (Author), Roberto Cortez González (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0534641830 | ISBN-13: 978-0534641832 | Edition: 2

Presenting a comprehensive overview of career counseling, THE ROLE OF WORK IN PEOPLE'S LIVES enables readers to effectively work with clients who are experiencing career-related issues. The text presents a survey of historical development and theories central to vocational psychology, incorporating the latest thinking and influences in the field. The text's unique emphasis on the role of work in people's lives and how it is influenced by family life cycles, the global economy, technology, and diversity awareness set it apart from other available books.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This text provides a useful and progressive perspective of the construct of work as applied to all aspects of people's lives. The authors have provided a good base for the understanding of the world of work and have expanded that to interventions to help persons of various needs achieve direction in their vocational lives. Student's in any counselor education program will benefit from this text."

"This text is unique, not only in covering a broad range of theoretical approaches - including family, systemic, and multicultural influences - but also in proposing a new, expanded, and social justice understanding of the role of work in people's lives for vocational psychology and career counseling."

"A well written and comprehensive career counseling text that infuses a multicultural and global perspective on work and career throughout the text."

"An excellent text that provides a broad yet scholarly review of career theories and applications. This text would be a good choice for a first graduate course in career counseling. It is thoroughly researched and documented; it is thoughtfully and carefully crafted, and it incorporates an impressive array of complex issues relevant to career counseling."

About the Author

Nadene Peterson is a professor at Our Lady of the Lake and Roberto Cortez Gonzalez is a professor at The University of Texas at El Paso. They are both active members in ACA and APA and the career divisions within each organization. Both present regularly in regional, national and international forums and are becoming known as authorities on career counseling.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 624 pages
• Publisher: Brooks Cole; 2 edition (July 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534641830
• ISBN-13: 978-0534641832
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #353,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Instructors beware: Horribly superficial, badly edited, November 6, 2005

By 

J. Johnston-Tyler (Mountain View CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Role of Work in People's Lives: Applied Career Counseling and Vocational Psychology (Hardcover)

As a grad student, I have read many, many books that are less-than-readable or useful. This book is on my Top Ten Books to Avoid.

First, the authors gloss over extremely important theories, such as Super's and Erikson's, and throw in graphics they've borrowed from other books but never fully explain. The result is a very disjointed, haphazard survey of past and current theories.

Secondly, in some aspects the book does cover cultural diversity adequately. In other areas, their coverage is ludicrous. Regarding Native Americans, they state "[Super's] Life-Career Rainbow also has the potential application for widespread application to Native Americans". First, the editor is asleep at the wheel (two instances of 'application' in one sentence), and secondly, there is no effort to describe why this could be applicable to Native Americans. Anyone who knows this population knows it's complete bunk to think that they could correlate aspects of their lives to such Western terms as Leisurite, Homemaker, or Citizen. It's beyond shoe-horning.

Thirdly, it's clear in too many passages to cite that the authors have a political agenda to put forth, and it's hard to believe that this has not clouded objective thought. It feels very much like we are being talked 'down to' by these 'enlightened' authors. I'm a bleeding heart liberal, and this book made ME cringe in it's tone -- anyone who is politically right to centrist may be offended by this book.

Finally, the structure of the book is haphazard. There is no parallelism throughout that I could ascertain, and so the reader learns different aspects about different theories, never being able to put together a cohesive apples-to-apples perspective. Most offensive is the chapter where the authors both put forth their own theories -- where Erikson gets 2 pages, Peterson dedicates 10 pages to her theory with 17 assumptions, and goes into the detail I wanted for all of the 'real' theories! Also, the editor missed many typos and awkward constructions, and needed to BLEED red ink all over the manuscript.

Ug. It's awful. I've only taken time to review text books once or twice, and only because they were so good. That should tell you how bad this one is.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Role of Work, April 13, 2001

By 

Mystery Lover "Kelly" (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Role of Work in People's Lives: Applied Career Counseling and Vocational Psychology (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent treatment of the changing role of work as we move into the 21st century. It also does a wonderful job of dealing with diverse populations.

4.0 out of 5 stars Ok, May 19, 2010

By 

E. Bell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Role of Work in People's Lives: Applied Career Counseling and Vocational Psychology (Hardcover)

There are more interesting books out there on this topic. It was a hard read (because it was so boring) but provided a good resource for class.