An Ecological Model

1. An Ecological Model Hannah Gillis Jeni Shannon Xinting Zhao

2. Outline • Overview of Ecological model • Development and Multicultural perspective • Applications

3. Overview • The more things change, the more they remain the same • Increasingly enters the labor force • Succeeded in career • The overall pattern of gender and race discrimination remains similar • Relatively few, poorly paid occupations • Largely responsible for home and family

4. Feminist Analysisand Counseling • The person is political • Individual behavior understood within the sociopolitical environment • The non-hierarchical nature of the counseling relationship • Client and counselor have equal worth • The placement of women’s issue within a larger sociopolitical context

5. The Ecological Model • B = f(P * E) • Behavior is a function of persons interacting in their environment • Identified subsystem influencing behavior as nested within one another • Individuals influence and are influenced by, their environments, through their thinking process • How people construe what happens to them • Meaning Making

6. The Ecological Model • Career behavior can be thought of as determined by the interrelations between subsystems in a larger ecosystem • Interrelationships occur simultaneously on multiple levels, so that a focus on any one level of interaction is by definition a limited picture of the dynamics shaping career behavior at any one time • The ecological model of career development recognized that by their very nature, humans live interactionally in a social environment

7. The Ecological Model • Every person has both a biological sex and a race, There factors decisively shape an individual’s career throughout life, as he or she encounters opportunities or roadblocks because of the biological sex or race. • Although individuals of the same biological sex or race ma encounter similar circumstances because of their demographics, each career path is unique because of individual circumstances, and the unique interactions of their subsystems

8. The Ecological Model • Clients bring their ecosystems into counseling primarily through conveying how they understand and react to it • Even when individuals are alone, their career behaviors are strongly influenced by the action of others, whether indirectly (law) or internally (self-concepts influenced b precious interactions) • Individuals also shape the environment around them in complex ways

9. Ecological Model Macrosystems Exosystems Msosystems Microsystems Individual Variables

10. Macrosystem • Ideological components of a given society • Norms, Values, Customs • Race/Gender Stereotyping; Class Bias; Structure of Opportunity • Sociolcutural Context and Dynamics • Intersection between race and gender • Convey appropriate/inappropriate career options based on cultural or gender context • Institutionalized discrimination

11. Exosystem • Linkages between subsystems that directly influence the individual • Formal and informal structures such as: • One’s neighborhood • The media • School system policies • Social network

12. Mesosystem • Interactions between two or more microsystems • e.g. The relations between: • An individual’s school and environment • Work and home • Home and peer group

13. Microsystem • Interpersonal interactions within a given environment • Influence individual’s aspirations, confidence, risk-taking • i.e. home, school, or work setting • Direct interactions with individuals and groups through diverse life roles in a woman’s immediate environment • Influences: • Expectations of others • Support from others • Media • Nature and demand of personal role commitments • Sexual harassment

14. Individual Variables • Interests • Values • Abilities • Self-Identity • Occupational Self-Concepts • Race and Gender Identity • Sexual Orientation • Centrality of Relationships

15. Meaning Making • How a woman understands who she is and what happens to her within her ecosystem • Any cognitions pertaining to a woman’s experience • Interpretive process to make sense of life events • Important in variability of career patterns • Unique perceptions and responses to environment • Integrated mental map of self

16. Early Development • Young children understand race/gender ideologies as they apply to occupational choices • Macrosystem Impact • Theory of Circumscription and Compromise • Perceptions of appropriate occupations into acceptable sex- and race-typed career options. • Mesosystem Impact • Parents and teachers interact to influence girls’ career development • Exosystem Impact • Neighborhood • Microsystem Impact • Role models

17. Adolescence • Develop sense of identity and question where you fit in the occupational world • Macrosystem and Microsystem • Macrosystem pledges equality in educational opportunity • At microsystem level, reinforced sexist and racist views • Differential treatment of boys and girls at different levels of educational experience • Teachers educated in a macrosystem that reinforced the development of sexist and racist ideologies • Mesosystem Impact • Interaction of parents and teachers to assure girls’ access to same treatment • Exosystem and Microsystem Impact • Adolescents strongly influenced by peers (Exosystem) and the media (Microsystem)

18. Late Adolescence into Adulthood • Gender and racial discrimination limit educational opportunities and the workplace for late adolescent and adult woman • Macrosystem Impact • Discrimination in hiring and salaries • Sexual Harassment • Glass Ceiling • Microsystem Impact • Uniformity myths limit women’s possibilities • Individual Level • Race and Gender identity • Centrality of relationships

19. The Multicuture Issue • Multiple identity career issues • Compounded discrimination • Perceives not be understood about issues related to race • Working collaboratively with men of color that share an understanding of race issue

20. Lesbian and Bisexual Women • Bias and benefit • Discrimination at the macrosystem and microsystem • Bias in vocational testing • Endorse nontraditional gender role attitudes • Nontraditional careers • Social communication/support • Not need to accommodate men

21. Relevant Issues for Women Today • Gendered Violence • Extreme Cost of Child Care • Threat of Loss of Choice • Role Strain • Unequal Pay • Discrimination and Stereotyping • Role Models

22. Relevant Issues • Gendered Violence • Intimate Partner Violence • 1 in 4 women (MCADSV, 2006) • Rape and Sexual Assault • 1 in 6 women (RAINN, 2008) • 1 in 4 college women (RAINN, 2008) • Stalking • 1 in 12 women (NCVC, 2008) • Sexual Harassment • 12,510 files in 2007 (EEOC, 2008)

23. Relevant Issues • Extreme Cost of Child Care • Average Costs in 2007 • $10,920 for 4 yr old children • $14,647 for infants (naccrra, 2008) • Threat of Loss of Choice/Sex Education • Republican VP Candidate • Outlawing abortion (even in case of rape) • Funding abstinence-only education • Republican Presidential Candidate • Against funding of birth control and sex ed • Overturn Roe vs Wade (huffingtonpost.com, 2008)

24. Relevant Issues • Role Strain • Majority of housework (heterosexual relationships) • Managing parental and work responsibilities • U.S. one of five countries without paid maternal leave • One of worst in terms of support of breastfeeding and paid sick days (inc.com, 2007)

25. Relevant Issues • Unequal Pay • 45 years since the Equal Pay Act • 2005, women made 77 cents on the dollar (U.S. Census Bureau) • Year out of college, women made 20% less than male counterparts (American Association of University Women Educational Foundation study in 2007).

26. Relevant Issues • Discrimination and Stereotyping • Uniformity Myths • Women care more about taking care of children, significant others • Women are more relational and less interested in technical jobs • Based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, class • Role Models • Diverse lifestyles

27. Role Strain Young, single mother Lack of maternity leave Choice/Sex Education “Didn’t want to get pregnant” Extreme Cost of Child Care Neighbor (Possible) Gendered Violence “Fighting” Unequal Pay Discrimination and Stereotyping Fast food and waitress Having kids, gender, ethnicity, class Welfare system 10 months until cut-off Depression Job Skills Transportation Lack of child support Case Study: Jeanetta

28. What do Career Counselors Utilizing the Model Think?? • Recognize assumptions in traditional career counseling • Acknowledge and respect the diversity of career patterns and clients!!! • Understand the intertwining role of the individual and the environment • It’s all about CONTEXT!!! • Realize the importance of changing systems

29. What do Career Counselors Utilizing the Model Do?? • Establish a non-hierarchical relationship with clients • Relationship is “demystified” and jargon eliminated • Empowerment and Active Collaboration • Self-Disclosure • Conceptualize using Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) subsystems • Microsystems, Mesosystems, Exosystems, and Macrosystems • Go through this WITH the client • Note the barriers AND strengths!!! Enhance self-efficacy! • Talk about coping skills to navigate systems • Educate and support • Serve as advocates • Talk with clients about how to AFFECT CHANGE • Work towards systemic change (social justice work) • Help when needed

30. Application to Jeanetta’s Case • Establish an egalitarian relationship • Describe nature of career counseling and roles • Normalize concerns • Use reflective listening skills to demonstrate empathy • Difficulty of navigating the system • Focus on strengths • Abilities as a mother • Use self-disclosure • Single parent

31. Application to Jeanetta’s Case • Go through subsystems • Macrosystem: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA); racial, sexual, and class discrimination • Exosystem: Availability of Community Resources (job training, affordable child care, transportation) • Mesosystem: interrelationships between children’s fathers and violence in neighborhood; family feels about her role as single parent • Microsystem: single parent, relationships with family, children’s fathers, violence in neighborhood, church

32. Application to Jeanetta’s Case • Empower Jeanetta by assisting her in learning about the welfare system • What counts as “self-sufficiency” training • Help Jeanetta locate information about job availability and career options in community • Jobs within walking distance or bus line • Talk about interviewing skills, effective communication, career advancement • Look for child care • Church options • Seek child support • Decrease isolation • Encourage to pursue individual counseling, church involvement • Career Group modality!!!