Super’s Life-Space Theory: A Useful Framework for Achieving Life Balance

As we have noted, more than any other career development theorist, Super (1957, 1980, 1990) recognized that each of us, in large part, balances life differently, due to the contextual affordances life provides to each of us. Super incorporated this fact into his work when he expanded his career development theory to include a “life-space” segment. Specifically, Super noted that people have different life spaces due to personal factors (e.g., needs, values, interests, aptitudes) and situational factors (e.g., family, neighborhood of residence, country of residence, economic policies, the existence of gender and racial bias). These personal and situational factors interact to shape our life-role selfconcepts and to present us with career development tasks with which we must cope successfully to manage our career development effectively. In these ways, Super’s lifespace theory segment merges with his self-concept and life-span theory segments (1990) to create a career development theory that embraces heterogeneity and fluidity in adult career development.