Vocational Choice

Vocational Choice G W Peterson and J G Lenz, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA ã 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Glossary Lifestyle The integration of decisions in the realms of vocational, personal, and family relationships, and leisure pursuits that result in the attainment of an over-arching purpose or meaning in one’s life. Vocation One’s life work entailing both paid and unpaid employment that satisfies survival as well as self-esteem, social, and spiritual needs. Vocational decision making A process that not only encompasses making educational, occupational, and employment choices, but also involves making a

Vocational choice may be defined in terms of the outcome of a decision-making process involving the consideration of educational, occupational, and employment alternatives at any point in time during the life span with the ultimate aim of attaining a satisfying and meaningful life. An appropriate vocational choice may be considered as one in which there is a high probability that an individual will be able to successfully perform the work and to derive a sense of personal satisfaction. Thus, the decision-making process leading to a choice involves two important aspects: (1) the cognitive and affective processes involved in making a vocational decision at any point in time, and (2) an estimation of the likelihood that a choice will result in occupational success and accomplishment as well as a satisfying and meaningful life. The text that follows examines the act of choosing a vocation from historical, psychological, and social perspectives.

Overview and Historical Perspectives Early accounts of the process of choosing a vocation may be traced to the turn of the century when Frank Parsons wrote in his 1909 book Choosing a Vocation that there were three key factors in making a career choice: a clear self-understanding, a knowledge of occupations, and the ability to draw relationships between them. He reasoned that if individuals possessed these attributes, not only would they make more effective vocational choices, but that society in turn would be better served by greater efficiency in matching persons to appropriate kinds of work. Since then, this three-dimensional model has provided the fundamental framework for the investigation of how individuals make vocational choices. Several principal lines of inquiry emanated from this early work of Parsons. One was directed toward helping individuals acquire self-understanding through the development of measures of interests such as the Kuder Preference Record in 1946 and the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) in 1943. The original Kuder required individuals, using a pin-punch, to choose the most-liked and least-liked activity from a series of

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commitment and carrying out the actions necessary to implement these choices. Vocational development The implementation of a series of integrated vocational decisions, through the life span, that provide a guiding direction to one’s life work. Vocational problem solving A complex set of thought processes involving the acknowledgment of a state of vocational indecision, an analysis of the causes, the formulation of alternative courses of action to achieve a state of decidedness, and the choosing of one of these alternatives.

triads. The results of this interest inventory provided relative estimates of preference in seven areas of interest including science, computational, art, music, literature, social, and persuasive. The SVIB, on the other hand, compared one’s likes and dislikes for activities to the likes and dislikes of individuals successfully employed in a variety of occupations. Since the development of these early prototypes, more refined assessments have recently evolved to relate abilities, interests, and values to occupations such as the Kuder Career Planning System, which includes interests, skills, and values assessments, the Strong Interest Inventory, and the Self-Directed Search. This direction of inquiry further led to the development and implementation of a variety of computer and web-based career guidance systems such as CHOICES Planner, DISCOVER, the Focus Career Planning System, and SIGI3. A second line of investigation sought to help individuals to become more knowledgeable about the world of work. Occupational classification systems, traced back to the US Census Bureau’s classification system in 1820, were developed to facilitate the storage and retrieval of information about related occupations. Modern classification systems include the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), O*NET, and the Standard Occupational Classification System. Computer-assisted career guidance systems typically utilize these classification systems in their databases and are able to link internally the results of the assessment of abilities, interests, and values to occupations. A third line of inquiry has sought to develop psychological and sociological theories concerning how self-knowledge and occupational knowledge are integrated in the process of making vocational choices. These theoretical approaches may be categorized into three domains. The matching approach sought to identify empirical and rational linkages between measures of personality characteristics and attributes of occupations to derive possible occupational alternatives for further consideration. Cognitive information processing (CIP) is a comprehensive theoretical system that provides a framework for the sequential process of making vocational decisions. And finally, a third domain encompasses important affective,

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cognitive, developmental, cultural, social, and spiritual factors that exert an influence on the decision process. These three theoretical domains will be presented in terms of their principle assumptions and propositions, most important concepts, and how the respective theoretical domains may be applied to help individuals make satisfying and meaningful vocational choices.

Vocational Choice as a Matching Process Vocational choice as a matching process entails the derivation of empirical and rational estimates of the congruence between measured personality factors and occupational characteristics. The goal of this approach is to provide precise information about one’s self or occupations that will assist individuals in identifying appropriate occupational alternatives for further consideration in the vocational decision-making process. A fundamental assumption is that the greater the correspondence between personality characteristics and the requirements of an occupation, the greater the likelihood for attaining successful work performance and satisfaction. Important personality characteristics typically used to make predictions of success include cognitive abilities, scholastic aptitudes, interests, values, and special cognitive or psychomotor abilities. This topic is discussed elsewhere in this encyclopedia. To illustrate this principle of using measures to make the best estimates of matches between persons and occupational environments, three types of matching approaches are described, trait-factor, the Holland’s RIASEC Theory, and computerassisted career guidance systems.

Trait-Factor Theory According to Robert Lent, “trait-factor models have contributed greatly to the understanding of career behaviors and to career counseling by highlighting relatively stable features of persons and environments that, if appropriately matched, are likely to lead to satisfying and satisfactory choices.” From the standpoint of trait-factor theory, personality may be considered as comprising a set of theoretical constructs or dimensions that exist along a continuum from low to high. Important personality dimensions in vocational choice relate to cognitive abilities, interests, values, and cognitive and psychomotor skills. An awareness of the extent to which certain dimensions are possessed allows individuals the opportunity not only to compare the strengths of their personality characteristics relative to others, but also relative to members of norm groups as well. Such information facilitates the acquisition of selfknowledge, one of the cornerstones in the Parson model. It also provides more precise information with which to estimate the degree of match between individual characteristics and the requirements of an occupation. A trait may be defined as an enduring or persisting personality characteristic that provides a means by which individuals can be distinguished from one another, and is manifested consistently across a wide range of circumstances or situations. A factor is considered the operational form for measuring the existence of a trait such as an intercorrelated set of test items comprising a scale on an aptitude test or an interest inventory.

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Further, while traits were at one time assumed to be enduring neurologically based structures, many psychologists now believe that traits are highly influenced by learning and that they are task or situation specific. Nevertheless, while the nature–nurture aspects of traits are still unresolved, the kinds of human traits that play an important role in making vocational choices – such as interests, aptitudes, abilities, and values – do appear to be relatively stable over time. There are several key assumptions or propositions in relating trait–factor theory to vocational choice. One is that each individual possesses a unique and stable pattern of traits that can be measured empirically. Second, for each occupation, there is a unique pattern of traits required of individuals to perform the critical duties and tasks of an occupation successfully. Third, the closer the match between a person’s traits and the trait requirements of an occupation, the greater the likelihood of successful job performance and personal satisfaction. Thus, given these assumptions, if measures of traits could be developed with sufficient validity and reliability, individuals could use such information about their abilities, interests, and values to formulate appropriate occupational alternatives and to make more informed vocational choices. Measures such as the Kuder Career Planning System, the Strong Interest Inventory, the General Aptitude Test Battery, and card sorts can assist individuals in acquiring accurate appraisals of important job-related traits. A matching approach to vocational decisionmaking process typically involves a knowledgeable professional or other human services staff members who assists individuals in identifying possible career alternatives, locating relevant occupational information, and in formulating a plan for an occupational search strategy. In some instances, individuals may receive assistance in locating and obtaining appropriate training or job opportunities. Though some individuals in the field of vocational psychology have suggested that matching approaches are no longer viable in today’s uncertain and changing global economy, and research results have been modest in their predictions, these approaches continue to play a significant role in vocational counseling interventions and practice. John Holland’s work, one of the most widely researched and applied examples of matching theories, is discussed in the next section.

John Holland The Holland typological theory relates personality characteristics to occupations on the basis of the old adage, "birds of a feather flock together." He extended the work of the trait and factor theorists by drawing empirical (in addition to logical) relationships between personality traits and selected occupations of which over 1300 are listed in the Occupations Finder that accompanies the Self-Directed Search. The principal theoretical presupposition undergirding Holland’s work is that when individuals are classified on the basis of measured traits as belonging to a given occupational category, they can be linked to many occupational alternatives within that category. The empirical matching process enables individuals to quickly identify themselves as belonging to an occupational subgroup and to develop an array of corresponding occupational alternatives for consideration. There are several key assumptions on which Holland’s theory is based:

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Most individuals can be placed into one of the six personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, or Conventional (RIASEC). The relationship among these six personality types is portrayed in the form of hexagon (see Figure 1) in which adjacent occupational groups on the hexagon have more in common in terms of personality characteristics than groups that are opposite one another. There are six occupational environments corresponding to the six personality types. According to Holland, people tend to surround themselves with others like themselves and hence create environments that reflect the type they are. Thus, R-type personalities are more congruent with R-type environments than with S-type environments. An individual’s behavior is determined by the interaction between one’s personality and the environment. Thus, career phenomena such as vocational choice, career development, job satisfaction, and career advancement is influenced by the extent to which there is a match between personality characteristics and occupational environments. The degree of differentiation affects the strength of the match between person and the occupational environment. Differentiation refers to the extent to which one or two interests are clearly different from the others. When an individual with a high degree of differentiation is in an environment congruent with the dominant code (S, for example) and less like others (e.g., R, C, or I), the greater the likelihood of satisfaction in that environment.

The six personality types and environments portrayed in Figure 1 may be described as follows:

Realistic

People with clerical and math ability; prefer working indoors and organizing things; like to deal with words and numbers rather than people or ideas.

People with leadership and speaking abilities; like to be influential; interested in politics and economics; like to deal with people and ideas rather than things. Enterprising

Investigative People with math and science abilities; like working alone and solving complex problems; like dealing with ideas rather than people or things.

People with artistic and imaginational abilities; enjoy creating original work; like dealing with ideas rather than things.

Artistic

Conventional

People with mechanical and athletic abilities; like working outdoors with tools and objects; prefer dealing with things rather than people.

Realistic (R) personalities enjoy working with their hands, tool, machines, and they possess mechanical and athletic abilities, whereas corresponding R-type environments require manual, technical, and mechanical competencies, interaction with machines, tools, and objects, and encompass occupations such as automobile mechanic, surveyor, farmer, or electrician. Investigative (I) people enjoy scholarly and intellectual activities and have mathematical and scientific interests, while the investigative environment demands systematic observation of physical, biological, or cultural phenomena as in biologist, chemist, medical technologist, or anthropologist. Artistic (A) persons prefer ambiguous, free, unsystematic activities that lead to the creation of art forms or products, whereas this environment may be portrayed as unstructured and encouraging individuals to perceive the world in complex, unconventional and flexible ways as in writer, musician, artist, interior decorator, and stage director. Social (S) personalities like to help and understand others and prefer activities that entail informing, training, curing, developing, or enlightening people, while the social environment demands manipulation or the development of others to achieve social goals as in teacher, psychologist, social worker, or the clergy. Enterprising (E) individuals prefer activities that entail persuading others to attain organizational or economic goals and possess leadership and speaking abilities, while the corresponding environment demands the manipulation of others to attain certain economic or organizational goals as in salesperson, buyer, manager, sports promoter, and television producer.

People with social skills; interested in social relationships and helping others solve problems; likes dealing with people rather than things. Social

Figure 1 RIASEC hexagonal model. Reproduced with special permission of the publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., from Making Vocational Choices, 3rd ed., Copyright 1973, 1985, 1992, 1997 by Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Finally, Conventional (C) people prefer activities involving the systematizing and manipulation of data, the operating of data processing equipment, and word processing machines, while the conventional environment requires the manipulation and systematizing of information as in court reporter, financial analyst, title examiner, or tax accountant. Holland’s typological theory has been operationalized through the development of the Self-Directed Search (SDS), a measure that helps individuals determine their three highest personality codes (e.g., SAE or RIE), and the Occupations Finder, a resource that helps individuals locate occupations consistent with their three-point code. The three-point codes of many occupations were derived empirically from having job incumbents take the SDS, while the three-point codes of other occupations were derived from expert consensus and job analysis. Holland and Gottfredson’s Dictionary of Holland Occupational Code provided an even greater level of analysis for more than 12 000 occupations. The compelling nature of Holland’s theory lies in its parsimony as a theory, the ease of administration and scoring of the SDS, and the high degree of efficiency in locating potential matching occupations listed in the Occupations Finder. The predictive validity of the three-point code in terms of training performance and job performance and satisfaction varies considerably across the codes and occupations. Therefore, in vocational choice, the primary use of the SDS and the Occupations Finder should be to assist individuals in expanding their horizons of possible occupational alternatives to consider for further exploration. Following the identification of plausible occupations, individuals can obtain further occupational or educational information that would facilitate the narrowing of options and ultimately arriving at a selection of a vocational choice.

Computer-Assisted Career Guidance (CACG) Systems CACG systems continue to serve as a valuable resource for facilitating matching approaches to vocational choice. CACG systems provide an online interactive instructional medium that allows individuals an opportunity to assess some combination of interests, abilities, and values, to conduct a search for potential occupational alternatives, and to gain access to builtin career libraries of educational and occupational information. Some CACG systems may also include modules on such topics as career decision-making strategies, developing actionplans to implement a choice, the assessment of needs, an orientation to world-of-work information, financial aid, assistance in coping with constraints that impede vocational choice, and strategies for career decision making. Examples of some of the more prominent comprehensive CACG systems are annotated as follows to provide a representation of the technological capabilities and features of these systems: DISCOVER, developed by the American College Testing (ACT) Program, includes a series of assessments that cover career-relevant interests, abilities, and job values. The assessment results are designed to help individuals explore career options that are a good match for them. DISCOVER incorporates ACT’s Work-of-Work Map to organize occupations into six clusters, parallel to Holland’s Hexagon, which further assists users in matching self-knowledge to options that fit

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them best. DISCOVER is based on a comprehensive, developmental guidance process which can help users identify their strengths and needs, make good career decisions, and build a plan based on their personal profiles. The system offers current databases of occupations, college majors, schools and training institutions, financial aid/scholarships, and military options. Users can also learn how to develop good job-seeking skills through effective resumes, cover letters, job applications, and interviewing skills. SIGI3 (formerly known as SIGIPLUS) is the third generation of a CACG system that was originally developed by the Educational Testing Service, and is currently managed by Valpar International Corporation. Valpar describes the system as follows: SIGI3 integrates self-assessment with in-depth and upto-date career information that is easy to use and provides students and adults with a realistic view of the best educational and career options for their future success. The program introduces users to a decision-making paradigm, allows them to compare jobs using a grid format, offers guidelines for coping with career transitions, taking the next steps to implement career goals, and provides strategies for securing jobs in the area of one’s vocational choice. FOCUS-2, developed by Career Dimensions, Inc., is an online, interactive career and education planning system that combines self-assessment, career exploration, and decision making into one comprehensive program. According to the developer’s website, FOCUS-2 helps individuals connect their interests, personality, values, and skills assessment results to identify areas of study and plan their education and career paths. FOCUS2 includes information on more than 1200 occupations and allows users to compile their results in an online portfolio. Even though CACG systems possess vast capabilities for the efficient storage and rapid retrieval of information, and contain information about a wide range of occupations and educational institutions, they are generally not recommended as stand-alone instruments to facilitate the making of vocational choices. The research literature suggests that even though individuals seeking career assistance express a strong liking for their experience with these systems, clients still prefer to use them as a helpful adjunct to the career counseling process with a professionally trained career counselor or other appropriately trained human services staff member. Further, the psychometric qualities of the embedded interest and related assessments, as well as the predictive validity of suggested occupations in terms of success in training programs or job satisfaction, are not widely documented with regard to evidence-based practice.

Vocational Choice as a Decision-Making Process We now turn from vocational choice as a matching process, which emphasizes the development of measures and technology to increase the precision and capabilities of the person– occupation matching process, to the decision making which focuses on the actual thought processes that individuals might employ in making a vocational choice. The cognitive information processing approach, which builds on earlier vocational decision-making models, is presented to represent this domain of approaches to vocational choice.

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Cognitive Information Processing Initially, Peterson et al., in their book Career Development and Services: A Cognitive Approach, and recently, Sampson et al., in their book Career Counseling and Services: A Cognitive Information Processing Approach, introduced from the field of cognitive psychology a comprehensive perspective on vocational choice and career development. The cognitive information processing (CIP) paradigm was initially formulated in works of Newell and Simon in their book Human Problem Solving and from other cognitive scientists in the late 1970s. CIP concerns the thought and memory processes related to a career problem, as well as a cognitive strategy in the form of an orderly prescribed sequence of stages to resolve it. Further, in applying CIP theory to the practice of vocational counseling and guidance, the emphasis shifts from helping individuals to make an appropriate choice at a given point in time, to the acquisition of knowledge and cognitive skills to solve vocational problems and to making vocational decisions over time. Therefore, the aim of this approach is to help people become skillful vocational problem solvers and decision makers.

Assumptions Some of the key assumptions on which the application of CIP to vocational choice is based include:

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Making vocational choices is a problem-solving activity. A vocational problem is defined as a gap between an extant state of indecision and a desired state of decidedness with respect to career and life goals. Vocational problem solving is defined in terms of an information transformation process in which a series of thought processes are used to arrive at a course of action to remove the gap. Thus, vocational problem solving involves the transformation of information through the recognition of a gap (problem definition), an analysis of its causes, the formulation of alternative courses of action, and the selection of one of the alternatives that represents the most optimal solution. Career problems are exceedingly complex involving an ambiguous cue function, the optimization of solution alternatives, and the lack of certainty that the anticipated outcomes of the choice process will remove the gap. The capabilities of vocational problem solvers depend on the availability of cognitive operations as well as knowledge. An analogy can be made to the functions of the computer. Data files represent occupational knowledge and self-knowledge stored in long-term memory, while the programs are cognitive algorithms, also stored in long-term memory, which are used to transform the data into new, and more useful and meaningful forms of information. In this way, relationships between self-knowledge and occupational knowledge are formulated through a series of problem-solving and decision-making algorithms. Vocational development involves continual growth and change in knowledge structures. Self-knowledge and occupational knowledge consist of sets of organized memory structures called schemata (singular schema) that evolve over the lifespan. Since both the occupational world and individuals are ever changing, the need to develop and integrate these domains never ceases.

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The aim of vocational counseling and guidance is to facilitate the development of information processing skills. From a CIP perspective, vocational counseling involves providing the conditions of learning that enhance the acquisition of self- and occupational knowledge, and the development of cognitive problem-solving and decisionmaking skills that are necessary to cope with the inevitable occurrence of gaps between indecision and decidedness that arise in the course of a lifetime.

Structural attributes of CIP In order for individuals to become independent and responsible vocational problem solvers and decision makers, certain information processing capabilities must undergo continual development throughout the life span. From an adaptation of the works of Robert Sternberg, these capabilities may be envisioned as forming a pyramid of information processing domains with three hierarchically arranged domains. Two knowledge domains, self-knowledge and occupational knowledge, lie at the base of the pyramid with the decision skills domain placed above it, and the executive processing domain at the apex (see Figure 2). Information from the respective knowledge domain is combined using the information processing skills of the decision skills domain. These skills, referred to as generic information processing skills, are configured in the form of a recursive cycle (i.e., the CASVE cycle), and they are presented in Figure 3. They are used as a heuristic in the career decision-making process as follows: 1. Communication (C). Information is received which signals that a problem exists. One then queries oneself and the environment to formulate the gap (or discontinuity) that is the problem. It also entails getting ‘in touch’ with all components of the problem space including thoughts, feelings, and related life circumstances. 2. Analysis (A). The causes of the problem are identified and the relationships among problem components are placed in a conceptual framework or mental model. 3. Synthesis (S). Possible courses of action are formulated through the creation of possibilities (synthesis elaboration) and the subsequent narrowing (synthesis crystallization) to a manageable set of viable alternatives.

Thinking about my decision making Knowing how I make decisions

Knowing about myself

Knowing about my options

Figure 2 Pyramid of information processing.

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Communication Identifying the problem – the gap

Execution Taking action to narrow the gap

Valuing Prioritizing alternatives

Analysis Thinking about alternatives

Synthesis Generating likely alternatives

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of the vocational decision process. Self-instructional modules can be made available to assist individuals in progressing through the phases of the CASVE cycle. A comprehensive career resource center (both physical and virtual) that includes occupational information, computer-assisted career guidance (CACG) systems, and related materials, can help individuals clarify interests, abilities, and values, and formulate possible career options once they reach the synthesis phase of the decision cycle. Career advisors and counselors provide assistance in defining and analyzing the career problem, diagnosing one’s capabilities as a vocational problem solver, designing individualized learning plans (ILPs) to master components of the pyramid, and achieving mastery of the paradigm so that clients use their presenting problem as an instance in becoming more proficient vocational decision makers. Further discussion on this topic is discussed elsewhere in this encyclopedia.

Figure 3 CASVE cycle.

4. Valuing (V). Each course of action is evaluated and prioritized according to its likelihood of its success in removing the gap and its probable impact on self, significant others, cultural group, community, and society. Through this process a first choice for a course of action emerges and the vocational problem is solved. 5. Execution (E). An action plan is formulated to implement the choice, which becomes a goal for the client. A series of milestones are laid out in the form of means–ends relationship that will lead step by step to the attainment of the goal. Thus, a vocational decision is made when individuals move deliberately toward a goal, such as selecting a course of study, choosing an occupation, or seeking employment in a chosen field. 6. Upon executing the plan, there is a return to the communication phase to evaluate whether the decision successfully removed the gap. If so, the individual moves on to solve succeeding problems that arise from the implementation of the solution. If not, one recycles through the CASVE cycle with new information about the problem, one’s self, and occupations identified from the initial passing through the CASVE cycle. There is yet a set of higher order of cognitive functions that guide and regulate the lower order functions in the pyramid, the executive processing domain. This domain comprises metacognitions that (1) control the selection and sequencing of cognitive strategies to achieve a goal, and (2) monitor the execution of a given problem-solving strategy to determine if the goal is being reached. A third vital component of this domain consists of the beliefs, assumptions, and awareness of one’s self as a vocational problem solver that are necessary to effectively carry out the lower order functions of the pyramid. Dysfunctional beliefs or invalid assumptions pertaining to any facet of the respective domains will inhibit progress through the CASVE cycle and the development of career problem-solving and decision-making skills. A measure such as the Career Thoughts Inventory can be used to assess the impact of dysfunctional thinking on all components of the information processing pyramid. A career counseling environment emphasizing self-directed exploration can be developed along the lines of the paradigm to assist individuals in progressing through the respective phases

Self as an Integrating Factor in Vocational Choice Self theorists allude to higher-order cognitive processes that transcend such activities as the formulation and consideration of occupational alternatives or the making of specific vocational choices. Psychological constructs such as self-concept and self-efficacy not only provide an integrating force that bears directly on the consideration of occupational alternatives in the making of a vocational choice at any point in time, but they also span successive vocational decisions over the lifespan and give one’s work and life continuity and meaning. When individuals possess positive self-concepts or a high degree of self-efficacy, vocational decisions are made as a matter of course in moving through the life span. However, the process of vocational decision making often becomes excruciatingly difficult in the presence of a negative or fragmented self-concept or when one’s self-efficacy is low. Theories that emphasize the constructs of self-concept and self-efficacy are presented below to illuminate this important aspect of vocational choice.

Self-Concept Over his long career, Donald Super developed one of the most comprehensive theories of vocational choice. However, for purposes of this article, only the components of his theory concerning the role of self-concept are described, which incidentally constitute a major part of his writings. Some of the key propositions of his theory concerning the development of the self-concept include:

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Career development is essentially a process of developing and implementing one’s self-concept, or in later writings, self-concept systems. A self-concept is the product of the integration of inherited aptitudes, physical makeup, the opportunity to play various roles, and the extent to which these roles are reinforced by peers, parents, and superiors. While the self-concept begins to stabilize in late adolescence, it continues to evolve throughout the life span as a result of life ’s experiences and making choices. The degree of satisfaction people attain from work is in proportion to the degree to which they are able to implement their self-concepts.

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In Super’s theory, the implementation of self-concepts was thought of as a matching process in which individuals related their perceptions of attributes of themselves to their perceptions of attributes of occupations. This matching process maybe static, focusing on a single vocational choice, or it can be developmental, relating a series of vocational choices to a common integrated theme. The implementation of the self-concept in making career decisions over time enhances the evolution of one’s identity. Further, as one’s identity develops and becomes clearer and attains a more stable and complex structure, one’s self-concept becomes more positive as well. One of the implications of self-concept theory for vocational choice is that occupational alternatives are viewed with respect to the degree to which one’s self-concept varies from positive to negative, or to the extent to which it is developed in terms of its structural complexity. Negative self-concepts often restrict the formation of viable options. For example, individuals may use an interest inventory or a CACG system to generate a list of plausible options, but because of a negative self-concept, they may inappropriately reject many of them. An immature or undifferentiated self-concept will often result in the inability to discriminate among interests such that either almost all occupations generated by an interest inventory or a CACG system may seem plausible on one hand, or very few seem plausible on the other. Undifferentiated self-concepts may also result in computers producing long, nearly randomly generated lists of occupations without focus. Finally, undifferentiated self-concepts may foster a lack of consistency among vocational choices over time. Thus, when there is no consistent self-referent to guide lower-order decision-making processes, wide-ranging and frequent changes in educational or career aspirations are a common outcome. Another common occurrence in the vocational choice process is that even if an individual arrives at a first choice of an occupation, a person with a negative self-concept will tend to disconfirm the choice because it is perceived to be unattainable, thus fostering a state of chronic indecision. In the presence of a negative self-concept, group counseling interventions have been found to be effective, such as a job club, where individuals may express their fears and doubts while obtaining social support in the formation and exploration of career alternatives. In recent years, Savickas has extended Donald Super’s theory with regard to a role of self-concept in the implementation of vocational choice, by describing the process as one of career construction. According to Savickas, “careers do not unfold, they are constructed as individuals make choices that express their self-concepts and substantiate their goals in the social reality of work role.” Client’s vocational choices unfold as they impose their unique meaning on their vocational behavior and occupational experiences. Savickas suggests that the career construction perspective is not designed to replace choice theories that focus on person–environment fit, but rather it helps to integrate diverse segments, and improve career counseling practice. Individual’s views about their ability to construct and implement their career goals is closely tied to the notion of self-efficacy which is described in the section that follows.

Self-Efficacy Bandura defined self-efficacy expectations as people’s judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute actions necessary to attain specific kinds of performances. These expectations influence whether a course of action will be initiated, the amount of effort invested in the action, persistence in attaining the desired level of performance, the amount and kinds of cognitive processing, and the affective reactions when confronted with obstacles. Self-efficacy is viewed as a dynamic aspect of the self-system that is primarily domain specific and interacts with other persons in the immediate environment. The principal proposition of the theory is that accurate and strong self-efficacy expectations are vital to the initiation and maintenance of any goal-directed behavior. Bandura speculated that self-efficacy beliefs pertaining to a task may be shaped or modified by (1) perception of past performance, (2) modeling the behavior of others (3) verbal support or persuasion, and (4) emotional or psychological arousal experienced in the conduct of the task. Hackett and Betz extended self-efficacy theory into the area of career development proposing that self-efficacy influences career decisions, achievements, and occupational adjustment. Self-efficacy beliefs have been found to be related to other career phenomena including the range of perceived options, educational attainment and persistence, career indecision, work performance, overcoming barriers imposed by gender and race, and the effects of job loss. Additionally, Hackett and Betz have found that self-efficacy is related to the extent to which females pursue traditionally male-dominated academic subjects and occupations. Following their initial work, numerous studies has been conducted that shed light on how self-efficacy beliefs develop, how they are maintained, or how they can be altered through education or therapeutic intervention. Further discussion on this topic is discussed elsewhere in this encyclopedia.

Social Psychological Perspectives on Vocational Choice From this theoretical viewpoint, vocational choice is seen as a process heavily influenced by the interaction with important individuals in one’s social context. Social cognitive career theory (SCCT), advanced by Lent, Brown, and Hackett, is selected as one of the representatives of this domain of vocational choice theory because it speaks of the influence of background and social factors as well as self-efficacy on the vocational choice and implementation process. Krumboltz’ social learning theory, on the other hand, describes how vocational choice is shaped through social learning processes. Finally, Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise provides a developmental perspective on vocational choice.

Social Cognitive Career Theory Lent, Brown, and Hackett extended the construct of selfefficacy to formulate a comprehensive path model of career choice and occupational attainment, social cognitive career theory (SCCT), in which self-efficacy is a key component.

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SCCT emphasizes the importance of background and social context influences on self-efficacy and a resulting vocational choice. In this model, one’s self-efficacy is derived initially from the interactions among an individual’s background characteristics, such as gender, race/ethnicity, disability/health status, personality predispositions, and contextual affordances. These background factors lead into cumulative life learning experiences, which in turn shape both self-efficacy and outcome expectations of the vocational choice process. From here, self-efficacy and outcome expectations influence the development of interests, which in turn form the basis of choice goals, which lead to choice actions, which result in educational and occupational performance, attainments, and satisfaction. Contextual influences on the choice process in the present, such as economic, parental, peer, teacher, and sibling support, may exert an impact on one’s choice of goals and actions. SCCT provides counselors with a rich perspective of contextual factors and processes from which to view their clients as they engage the vocational choice process.

Social Learning Theory From the standpoint of social learning theory advanced by John Krumboltz, the social environment provides the context for learned behavior. Since vocational choice can be ultimately thought of as an instance of learned behavior, it can be understood from the behavioral paradigm. According to proponents of social learning theory, there are three principal types of learning: instrumental learning or operant conditioning, in which the probability of a response is altered by the frequency, recency, and intensity of events contingent upon the response; associative or classical conditioning, in which the learning is the result of the pairing of a significant event with a neutral event and the latter acquiring the power to invoke the same response as the initial significant event; and modeling, in which a behavior is acquired by observing and copying others and then being reinforced for the mimicked behavior. Krumboltz applied these principles of social learning to the realm of vocational choice. Some of the important factors that influence vocational choice and career decision making include:

Genetic endowment and special abilities Personality characteristics such as race, gender, and physical abilities or disabilities, as well as partially determined genetically determined talents such as intellectual, musical, artistic, and kinesthetic may delimit career options open to individuals.

Environmental conditions and events These are factors that are out of control of the individual, which may either enhance or constrain the array of career options open to individuals for consideration. Examples of such factors include the availability of jobs or educational opportunities, job entry criteria, salaries, labor laws and policies, family expenses and resources, and community resources.

Learning experiences Every individual possesses a unique repertoire of learned responses through the interaction between one’s inherited characteristics and the environment. Instrumental learning, those responses reinforced through contingencies such as grades

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earned in school; associative learning, responses acquired through paired conditioning, such as attitudes toward an occupation held by someone admired or disliked, and modeling, a form of associative learning, are additional factors that influence the attractiveness of potential career options.

Task approach skills These learned skills interpret the environment in relation to self-knowledge and world knowledge and make predictions about future events. Such skills include perceptual and cognitive processes (such as symbolic rehearsal), attention and memory, mental sets, and work habits.

Self-observational generalizations These comprise the learned elements of self-knowledge and are general conclusions about ourselves resulting from selfobservations in a variety of situations. These generalizations can be subdivided into three domains: task efficacy, the evaluation of our performances compared to others; interests, the conclusions of whether we like or dislike certain kinds of experiences; and values, generalizations about the desirability of certain behaviors.

World-view generalizations These generalizations are conclusions, derived from instrumental and associative learning, about the social and physical environment we have experienced. Also included in worldview generalizations are the stereotypes and impressions of occupations and the occupational world. Krumboltz’ application of social learning theory to vocational choice calls our attention to the many factors in one’s life history and in the environment that influence the consideration of career options and our career decisions over the lifespan. Further, while both social cognitive career theory and social learning theory are perhaps more explanatory than predictive, they nevertheless demonstrate how vocational choices throughout the life span are influenced by one’s social context in the past and in the present.

Gottfredson’s Theory of Circumscription and Compromise Linda Gottfredson’s theory offers developmental and sociological perspectives of vocational choice by describing processes leading to the formulation of occupational aspirations in childhood and adolescence. Her theory addresses a fundamental question, ‘Why do children seem to re-create the social inequalities of their elders long before they themselves experience barriers to pursuing their dreams?’ In her theory, the processes of circumscription and compromise are enacted through four stages of child and adolescent development. The outcome of the developmental sequence is the identification of career aspirations in late adolescence that are not only preferred and acceptable, but represent an attempt to find one’s niche in a broader social order. Early in development, children begin to distinguish among occupations in the world of work according to the dimensions of masculinity versus femininity, prestige, and field of work. Individuals then arrive at an assessment of compatibility or suitability of a variety of occupations through the

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consideration of factors such as perceived gender appropriateness, prestige, and the extent to which an occupation fulfills one’s preferences and needs. Through the compatibility assessment, a ‘zone of acceptable occupational alternatives’ or ‘social space’ is created with a variety of occupations representing individual conclusions as to their occupational fit in society. Gottfredson contends that children may not invest a great deal of effort in career exploration and arrive at an array of suitable occupational alternatives that are merely ‘good enough’ or ‘not too bad,’ but may not be their ‘best choices.’ Further, individuals may become indecisive when the array of options within their zone of acceptable alternatives is undesirable. The process of circumscription involves the elimination of unacceptable options that are in conflict with the self-concept. Children begin eliminating occupational alternatives as soon as they are able to perceive essential differences among people and lives. The circumscription process is guided by five principles: (1) the capacity to understand and organize complex information about themselves and the world; (2) the belief that occupational aspirations enhance one’s self-concept; (3) the ability to discriminate among people regarding key variables of gender and prestige and to integrate these distinctions into their self-concept; (4) the elimination of options is influenced by the growing complexity and clarity of the selfconcept; and (5) the process is gradual and transitions from one stage of development to the next are not immediately obvious. These principles are enacted through four stages of development, described as follows.

Stage 1: orientation to size and power (ages 3–5, preschool) This stage reflects the onset of object constancy in cognitive development in which children are able to classify people in terms such as big and powerful versus little and weak, and they are able to perceive size differences between themselves and adults. They are also able to recognize occupations as adult roles and that they too will one day become working adults.

Stage 2: orientation to sex roles (ages 6–8, elementary school) At this stage, children become aware of male and female sex roles and interpret sex role stereotypes as behavioral imperatives. Their occupational aspirations (e.g., such as firefighter, truck driver, or doctor for boys, and nurses or teachers for girls) reflect gender appropriateness. During this stage, children develop their ‘tolerable-sextype’ boundary condition in forming the zone of acceptable occupational alternatives. One must be mindful that culture can influence children’s sex-typing of occupations.

Stage 3: orientation to social valuation (ages 9–13, middle school) Here, children become more aware of social class by age 9 and prestige by age 13. Occupations that do not meet with the approval of their social reference group are eliminated from further consideration. Moreover, occupations not in line with their perceived ability level to attain them are also discounted. Thus, the considerations of social class and ability form the ‘tolerable level’ lower-level boundary condition in the zone of acceptable alternatives such that occupations that are perceived below this level are eliminated. Children also establish an

upper boundary condition, the ‘tolerable-effort level,’ which reflects the maximum effort they are willing to exert and the risk of failure they are willing to accept in pursing an occupation. Occupations exceeding the tolerable-effort boundary are also excluded from the zone of acceptable alternatives. While circumscription reduces the cognitive load in considering an array of occupations, it can also lead to the foreclosing of potentially socially and financially rewarding aspirations.

Stage 4: orientation to the internal, unique self (ages 14 and beyond, high school and beyond) At this stage, adolescents are better able to engage in abstract thought, and they become more introspective and self-aware. They tend to explore occupations that are congruent with their emerging sense of self and can engage in the consideration of interests, abilities, and values. They are also able to discriminate between idealistic aspirations and realistic aspirations as modulated by accessibility. Further, adolescents shift from the process of eliminating occupations from the zone of acceptable alternatives by embracing options that are most preferred and acceptable. Here, the process of compromise is introduced in which adolescents may be required to choose among minimally acceptable alternatives as preferred options are eliminated from consideration due to reality factors such as accessibility, required abilities, and social and financial resources. The particularly noteworthy contribution of Gottfredson’s theory to vocational choice lies in describing how and when career aspirations are formulated, evaluated, and either included or dismissed from an array of viable career alternatives during childhood and adolescence. At this stage of development, individuals should be encouraged by parents, teachers, counselors, and people important to youth to engage in effortful cognitive processing in career exploration and to not dismiss occupations because of misperceived barriers. Somewhat unfortunately, there has not been a great deal of research on Gottfredson’s theory and the research that has been reported is modest in its support of her propositions. Nevertheless, her theory takes an important place in the vocational choice literature by addressing developmental and social aspects in the formulation of career aspirations that eventually lead to life-determining vocational choices.

Special Considerations Race, gender, ethnicity, age, family background, socioeconomic status, and physical disabilities all may be considered as contextual ‘background factors’ that bear on the vocational choice process and outcome. All of these factors can actively influence such career phenomena as stereotyping, academic self-confidence, fear of success or failure, levels of career aspiration, mastery strivings, career commitment, risktaking attitudes, work motivation, and opportunities for employment and advancement in the work place. Such factors also influence the development of one’ s personality structure that forms the basis of identity, knowledge structures of the world of work, meanings that are derived from work, the ways life and career problems are framed, the thought processes used to derive career options and evaluate their prospects, and one’ s view of personal success.

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Differences among individuals in background factors such as race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, and socio-economic status, and their effects on vocational choice can perhaps be understood from the standpoint of culture. From a vocational development perspective, culture is defined as a system of beliefs, values, customs, and institutions shared and transmitted by members of a particular society, from which people derive meaning from their work, love, and leisure activities. Further discussion on this topic is discussed elsewhere in this encyclopedia. Thus, each factor may be thought of as contributing to forming a basis for belonging to a certain subculture of society, each sharing its unique values, beliefs, and vocational orientations. The following assumptions regarding cultural differences may be applied to how these background factors influence vocational choice: 1. Culture is a determinant of meaning. Each subgroup possesses its own meanings regarding the nature of work itself, the relation of work to family and leisure, and the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. 2. Culture as determinant of communication. Misunderstandings between members of different cultures occur not because people use different vocabularies or languages to describe the same constructs, but because common words are used with different semantic meanings and because different cognitive reasoning processes are used to arrive at truth. Thus, the pragmatic aspects of human communication influence not only internal thought processes involved in making individual choices, but also interactions within and between members of different subgroups. As our society moves toward a more pluralistic work force, the pragmatics of human communication will play an increasingly important role in maintaining productive work groups. 3. Cultural relativity. Even though there are differences among cultural subgroups, no subgroup is objectively superior to another. Further, we come to know our own subgroup through the formation of contrasts between one’s own and others. Thus, instead of differences serving as a basis for dividing people and forming barriers to access and opportunity, differences should become vehicles to higher understandings of ourselves, our groups, our work, and our society. Differences among individuals, as determined by membership in subgroups or cultures, introduce important factors in shaping one’s identity, and therefore how vocational choices are made and integrated over the lifespan.

Summary Vocational choice, as a field of inquiry in psychology, has received the attention of theorists and researchers for more than a century and has been driven by a very practical issue, namely, how can individuals secure meaningful and satisfying work in which they can become productive members of pluralistic and free society? The theoretical approaches vary in terms of descriptive, explanatory, predictive, and heuristic emphases. For example, the trait and factor theories emphasize prediction and applications in the use of technology, decision theories function as process heuristics, while self theories and

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social psychological theories are descriptive and explanatory. All approaches are useful and provide essential perspectives for practitioners of the science of vocational psychology and the craft of vocational counseling. As Sampson suggests, we can avoid the unnecessary divorce between varying approaches to vocational choice and integrate the best of each perspective in order to meet the needs of clients across varied settings. Some of the emerging issues in the field of vocational choice include the expanding of a theoretical and research base on the influences of gender, culture, ethnicity, and physical disabilities on vocational decision-making, job satisfaction, and job performance. Moreover, the role of mental health in vocational choice, the optimal use of technology, and ascertaining how knowledge structures, cognitive skills, and attitudes can be developed through education, guidance, and counseling interventions are additional important avenues of research in the twenty-first century. Blustein has suggested the need to focus on a ‘psychology of working’ that broadens our perspective to include groups of individuals whose volition of choice has been restricted or nonexistent. Expectations are that the field will continue to evolve as the ability to make vocational choices becomes an increasingly important survival skill in a rapidly changing society – a society wrought by powerful international forces moving us toward greater pluralism in the labor force, a peacetime market economy leading to increased global interdependence, an expanding and aging population, and an ever greater use of technology in the production of goods and services.

See also: Adolescence; Career Development; Classical Conditioning; Clinical Psychology: An Information Processing Approach; Decision Making (Individuals); Episodic Memory; Operant Conditioning; Personality Assessment; Problem Solving; Self-Efficacy; Semantic Memory.

Further Reading Bandura A (1977) Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Blustein DL (2006) The Psychology of Working: A New Perspective for Career Development, Counseling, and Public Policy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Brown D and Associates (2002) Career Choice and Development, 4th edn. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Brown D (2006) Career Information, Career Counseling, and Career Development, 9th edn. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Brown SD and Lent RW (1996) A social cognitive framework for career choice counseling. The Career Development Quarterly 44: 354–366. Brown SD and Lent R (eds.) (2005) Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work. New York: Wiley. Gottfredson LS (2002) Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription, compromise, and self-creation. In: Brown D (ed.) Career Choice and Development, 4th edn., pp. 85–148. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Gottfredson LS (2005) Applying Gottfredson’s theory of circumscription and compromise in career guidance and counseling. In: Brown S and Lent R (eds.) Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work, pp. 71–100. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Greenhaus J and Callanan G (eds.) (2006) Encyclopedia of Career Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Herr E, Cramer S, and Niles SG (2003) Career Counseling and Guidance Through the Life Span: Systematic Approaches, 6th edn. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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Holland JL (1973) Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Careers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Krumboltz JD (1996) A learning theory of career counseling. In: Savickas ML and Walsh WB (eds.) Handbook of Career Counseling Theory and Practice, pp. 55–80. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press. Lent RW (2005) A social cognitive view of career development and counseling. In: Brown SD and Lent RW (eds.) Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work, pp. 101–127. New York: Wiley. Niles SG and Harris-Bowlsbey J (2008) Career Development Interventions in the 21st Century, 3rd edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice-Hall. Osborn DS and Zunker VG (2005) Using Assessment Results in Career Counseling, 7th edn. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Parsons F (1909) Choosing a Vocation. Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association; Reprinted by the National Career Development Association, 2005. Peterson GW, Sampson JP Jr., and Reardon RC (1991) Career Development and Services: A Cognitive Approach. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Reardon R, Lenz J, Sampson J, and Peterson G (2009) Career Development and Planning: A Comprehensive Approach, 3rd edn. Mason, OH: Thomson Custom Solutions. Sampson JP Jr. (2009) Modern and postmodern career theories: The unnecessary divorce. The Career Development Quarterly 58: 91–96. Sampson JP Jr., Reardon RC, Peterson GW, and Lenz JL (2004) Career Counseling and Services: A Cognitive Information Processing Approach. Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth-Brooks/Cole. Savickas ML (2000) Assessing career decision making. In: Watkins E and Campbell V (eds.) Testing and Assessment in Counseling Practice, 2nd edn., pp. 429–477. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Savickas ML (2005) The theory and practice of career construction. In: Brown SD and Lent RW (eds.) Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work, pp. 42–70. New York: Wiley. Sharf R (2010) Applying Career Development Theory to Counseling, 5th edn. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole-Thomson. Super DE, Savickas ML, and Super CM (1996) The life-span, life-space approach to careers. In: Brown D and Brooks L (eds.) Career Choice and Development, 3rd edn., pp. 121–178. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Swanson JL and Fouad NA (2009) Career Theory and Practice: Learning Through Case Studies, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Whitfield EA, Feller RW, and Wood C (2009) A Counselor’s Guide to Career Assessment Instruments, 5th ed. Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. Zunker V (2006) Career Counseling: A Holistic Approach, 7th edn. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Relevant Websites www.bridges.com/us/home.html – CHOICES Planner. www.act.org/discover – DISCOVER computer-based guidance system. www.focuscareer.com – Focus Career Planning System. www.kuder.com – Kuder Career Planning System. www.onetcenter.org – O*NET Resource Center. www.sigi3.org – SIGI3Education and Career Planning Software. www.bls.gov/soc/ – Standard Occupational Classification System. www.parinc.com – Publisher of the Self-Directed Search. www.cpp.com – Publisher of the Strong Interest Inventory.