Values Based Theory 

I personally believe that values have a lot to do with the career path that a person takes. I just know that I could never work in a career or at an organization where I did not have similar values to said career or organization. Personal values are a big aspect of the values based theory but are certainly not the only values that influence the career development process. Cultural values can also have influence in the career development process. Using myself as an example, I am Latina and family and community are two  important cultural aspects in my culture. I think that the counseling profession has an amazing sense of community, which shows support for their clients as well as other professionals. Theses different values, both personal and cultural have helped to shape goals (both career related and not). 

 I found it interesting to find that several factors can influence the non-pursuit of or slow down the process of people to act on their values. Mental health issues, personal/cultural or group discrimination, lack of information, and self-efficacy are five factors that can influence a person to have lowered expectations of success if they act on their values at all ( Brown, 2012, pg. 39). Thinking how the above issues can influence a person's life it is not hard to believe that they can cause a person to have lowered expectations of their personal abilities. Lack of information is something that I can relate to and has helped shape my career development. I initially entered college as an undergraduate with hopes of being a scientist. I didn't have a lot of information which influenced the goals that I set for myself. Eventually I determined that wasn't the career for me. I was able to get past the halt in my career process and was able to find a career that was more aligned with my values.  

Even though values based theory is fairly new and there needs to be more in depth research to further develop the theory, I really subscribe with the theory.  Most likely because I personally believe values are important to understanding a person and a lot of the choices that they make, including career decisions. I am interested in seeing how the values based theory develops, as well as what impact the theory can have on the career development process. 

References
Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development(10th ed., p. 6). Boston: Pearson