Adult Development
Vocational Choice
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General Objective
 Understands the psychological
foundations of workforce education.
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Career Development
“… is a lifelong process involving
psychological, sociological, economic, and
cultural factors that influence individuals’
selection of, adjustment to, and
advancement in the occupations that
collectively make up their careers.”
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Good vs. Bad Theories
• Good theories have well-defined terms
and easily interpreted constructs.
• Good theories explain the career
development process for all groups.
• Good theories explain why people choose
careers and become dissatisfied with
them.
• Good theories are parsimonious.
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Early Theories
• Have limited applicability to special groups
– women, European men and women.
• Are culturally oppressive because they are
rooted in Eurocentric beliefs
• Reflect independent, not dependent career
decision making.
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Theories with Major Impact on
Research and Practice
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Holland (1997)
Super (1990)
Lofquist & Dawis (1996, 1991)
Lent, Brown, & Hackett (1995, 1996, 2002)
Gottfredson (1981, 1996)
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“The Western European worldview is that
people should act independently when
they make career decisions… Many
Native Americans, Asian Americans, and
Hispanics believe that the welfare of the
group should be placed ahead of the
concerns of individuals.”
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Career Choice and
Development Categories
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Trait and Factor Theories
Developmental Theories
Theories Based in Learning Theory
Socioeconomic Theories
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Philosophical Assumptions
• Positivist (modernist)
– Trait-and-factor theories
– Developmental theories
– Theories rooted in learning theory
• Post Modern (phenomenological/ constructivist)
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Trait-and-Factor Theories
• Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice
• Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA)
• Brown’s Value-Based Theory
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Holland’s Theory of
Vocational Choice
• Individual personality is the primary factor in
vocational choice.
• Interest inventories are personality inventories.
• Daydreams about occupations are precursors to
occupational choice.
• Identify is related to a small number of focused
vocational goals.
• Career success and satisfaction is related to
choosing an occupation that is congruent with
one’s personality.
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Holland’s Six Personality Types
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Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
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Holland’s Personality-Job Fit Theory
Type
Personality
Occupations
Realistic
Shy, Stable, Practical
Mechanic, Farmer,
Assembly-Line Worker
Investigative
Analytical, Independent
Biologist, Economist,
Mathematician
Social
Sociable, Cooperative
Social Worker,
Teacher, Counselor
Conventional
Practical, Efficient
Accountant, Manager
Bank Teller
Enterprising
Ambitious, Energetic
Lawyer, Salesperson
Artistic
Imaginative, Idealistic
Painter, Writer,
Musician
Prentice Hall, 2001Fall,
2008
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Holland’s Six Work Environments
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Realistic Environment
Investigative Environment
Artistic Environment
Social Environment
Enterprising Environment
Conventional Environment
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Occupational Personality Types
Conventional
R
C
A
E
Prentice Hall, 2001Fall,
2008
I
S
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Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA)
• People have two types of needs.
– Biological (survival)
– Psychological (social acceptance)
• These needs give rise to drive states.
• Work environments have requirements
that are analogous to individual needs.
• Workers select jobs because of the
perception that the job will satisfy their
needs.
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Predicting Worker Success
(i.e., worker adjustment)
• Skills
– Job-related skills
• Aptitudes
– Potential to develop job-related skills
• Personality
– Combination of skills and aptitudes
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Values-Based Theory of
Occupational Choice
• Values
– Human nature
– Person-nature relationship
– Time orientation
– Activity
– Self-control
– Social relationships
– Collateral
– allocentrism
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How Values Develop
– Enculturation is the process by which
individuals incorporate the beliefs and values
of their cultural group and form a values
system
– Most individuals are monocultural
– Acculturation involves the enculturation of
beliefs from a culture different from one’s
own.
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Propositions of Brown’s ValuesBased Theory
1. Highly prioritized work values are the
most important determinant of career
choice from people who value
individualism.
2. Individuals who hold collective social
values and come from families who hold
the same values defer to the wishes of
the family in occupational decisionmaking.
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Propositions of Brown’s ValuesBased Theory (continued)
3. When taken individually, cultural values
regarding activity do not constrain the
occupational decision-making process.
4. Males, females, and people from
differing cultural groups enter
occupations at varying rates.
5. The process of choosing an occupation
value involves a series of estimates.
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Propositions of Brown’s ValuesBased Theory (continued)
6. Occupational success is related to job-related
skills acquired in formal and informal
educational settings, job-related aptitudes and
skills, SES, preparation in the work role, and
the extent to which discrimination is
experienced.
7. Occupational tenure os partially the result of
the match between the cultural and work
values of worker, supervisors, and colleagues.
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Developmental Theories
• Super’s Life Span, Life Space Theory
• Gottfredson’s Theory of Circumscription
and Compromise
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Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space
Theory
1. People differ in their abilities,
personalities, needs, values, interests,
traits, and self-concepts.
2. People are qualified, by virtue of these
characteristics, each for a number of
occupations.
3. Each occupation requires a characteristic
pattern of abilities and personality traits.
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Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space
Theory (continued)
4. Vocational preferences and competencies
change with time and experience.
5. The process of change is a series of life
stages.
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Growth Stage
Exploratory Stage
Establishment Stage
Maintenance Stage
Decline Stage
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Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space
Theory (continued)
6. The nature of the career pattern is determined
by the individual’s parental socioeconomic
level, mental ability, education, skills,
personality characteristics, career maturity,
and the opportunity to which he/she is
exposed.
7. Success in coping with environmental
demands depends on the readiness of the
individual to cope (career maturity).
8. Career maturity is a hypothetical construct.
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Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space
Theory (continued)
9. Life stage development can be guided partly
by the maturing of abilities and interests and
partly by aiding in reality testing and in the
development of self concepts.
10. The process of career development is
developing and implementing occupational
self-concepts.
11. Several factors influence the process of
synthesis of or compromise between individual
and social factors.
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Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space
Theory (continued)
12. Work satisfaction and life satisfactions depend
on the extent to which the individuals find
adequate outlets for abilities, needs, values,
interests, personality traits, and self-concepts.
13. The degree of satisfaction people attain from
work is proportional to the degree to which
they have been able to implement selfconcepts.
14. Work and occupation provide a focus for
personality organization.
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Gottfredson’s Theory of
Circumscription and Compromise
•
Four assumptions regarding how career
aspirations develop…
1. Begin in childhood
2. Are attempts to implement one’s selfconcept
3. Depend on the degree to which the career is
congruent with self-perceptions
4. Are guided by occupational stereotypes
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Cognitive Maps of Occupations
• Are organized along the dimensions of
– Masculinity/femininity of the occupation
– Fields of work
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Gottfredson’s Developmental
Stages
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Ages 3-5: Orientation to size and power
Ages 6-8: Orientation to sex roles
Ages 9-13: Orientation to social valuation
Ages 14+: Choices explored
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Summary
• Theories of career choice and
development provide guides to this
complex phenomenon.
• All theories (except Brown’s) are
predicated on the belief that the individual
holds an independence social value and
will chose his/her own occupation.
• Indiscriminate application of a theory is
inappropriate and unethical.
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