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Chapter 3 Person- Environment Congruence (PEC) Theories: Frank Parsons, Theory of Work Adjustment, John Holland, and a Values-Based Approach
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Things to Remember Major historical events in the history of career development theorizing The major tenets of TWA and Holland’s theory of vocational choice Cultural values, their role in human behavior, and Brown’s values-based theory Similarities and differences between the theory of work adjustment and Holland’s theory O*NET applications of Holland’s and TWA theories
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The theories presented in this chapter are traditional theories; they were once characterized as trait and factor theories, because needs, values, and personality types were derived via statistical techniques known as factor analysis.
Buford Stefflre, a counselor educator at Michigan State University for many years, is reputed to have coined the phrase, “There is nothing as practical as a good theory.” When this statement is conveyed to students, they are at best skeptical. Isn’t using theory and practical in the same sentence oxymoronic? Theories are obviously not fact, and what most students want are proven practices that they can use to help their clients. The problem is that many of our practices have not been investigated to a degree that will allow us to say unequivocally that they work. A good theory provides a framework for designing practices. I believe that Stefflre was right!
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The Purposes and Evaluation of Theory In Chapter 1 , career development was defined as a lifelong process involving psychological, sociological, educational, economic, physical, and cultural factors that influence individuals’ selection of, adjustment to, and advancement in the occupations that collectively make up their careers. Career development is, to say the least, a complex process. Theories provide us with simplified pictures or, as Krumboltz (1994) prefers, road maps to the career development process.
There are “good” theories and “bad” theories. Krumboltz (1994) states: “Our psychological theories are as good as we know how to make them so far, but in all probability they are far short of being accurate” (p. 11). However, good theories have distinct characteristics— such as well-defined terms and constructs—that can easily be interpreted by practitioners and researchers. Just as importantly, the relationships among the constructs in the theory are clearly articulated. If the terms are clearly defined and logically interrelated, practitioners can use them as guides to practice, and researchers can generate research to test the assumptions of the theory. Moreover, good theories are comprehensive in that they explain the career development process for all groups, including men and
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women and individuals from various cultures and from all socioeconomic strata.
Well-constructed theories also serve other purposes. For example, they help us understand why people choose careers and then become dissatisfied with them. They also allow us to interpret data about career development that have been generated in the past, are being generated in the present, and will be generated in the future. Researchers and practitioners have long been aware that children and adults sex-type careers and that these stereotypes influence career choices. In Chapter 4 , Gottfredson’s theory (1981, 2002) helps us understand why this occurs. Well-developed theories also help us account for all internal and external factors that influence career development, including cognitions about careers and affective responses to various career- related events (Brown & Brooks, 1996; Krumboltz, 1994; Savickas, 2013). Well-constructed theories are also parsimonious, which means that they are set forth in the simplest, most succinct fashion necessary to describe the phenomena involved. To summarize, theories of career choice and development serve three functions:
1. Facilitate the understanding of the forces that influence career choice and development
2. Stimulate research that will help to better clarify career choice and the development process
3. Provide a guide to practice in the absence of empirical guidelines
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A History of Career Development Theorizing
One aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the history of theorizing about career choice and development. It is generally recognized that the forerunner of modern theories of career development appeared in 1909 in Choosing Your Vocation by Frank Parsons. Parsons’s tripartite model—understanding one’s self, understanding the requirements of the jobs available, and choosing one job based on true logic— underpinned career counseling and career development practice into the middle of the twentieth century.
Parson’s model had a number of problems given the time in which it was published. Perhaps the major issue confronting practitioners of the time was that there were no tools that could be used to measure the personal traits of their clients. Similarly, there was no single source of occupational information other than personal exploration to aid counselors and psychologists in helping their clients to find suitable occupations. Therefore, the matching process that Parsons envisioned was not well informed. It was not until World War I—when a committee of psychometricians headed by Ralph Yerkes developed the Army Alpha—that instruments that could be used to measure human traits such as intellect and personality began to become available. The Army Alpha test measured verbal ability and numerical ability (scholastic aptitude) as well as
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ability to follow directions and general knowledge. Yerkes and his committee’s work stimulated the testing industry, and after World War I literally dozens of psychometric instruments became available to practitioners. In 1938, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles—which emphasized blue collar jobs—was published by the Department of Labor. This closed Parson’s loop of (1) identifying personal characteristics and (2) matching them to jobs.
Today, we understand that the idea of using “true logic” to make choices to match personal characteristics to jobs is an unrealizable pipe dream, because the decision-making process is filtered through myriad factors, including self-confidence, role relationships, sex-role identity, values, and so forth. Perhaps because there were no other options, the person-environment congruence (PEC) model held sway until well past the middle of the twentieth century. Moreover, as we shall see, the trait and factor model is still very much a part of the contemporary career development scene.
However, in the 1950s and 1960s a period of intense theorizing about career development occurred, resulting in eight new theories of career choice and development, many of which are still viable today. From 1970 to 1984, six additional theories of career choice and development were advanced, three of which focused largely on women’s career development. Another intense period of theorizing began in 1991, and since 1991 five new theories of career choice and development have
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been presented. A chronological account of these events can be found in Table 3.1 .
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Table 3.1 A History of Career Development Theorizing
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Year Event
1909 Parsons’s book, Choosing Your Vocation, is published posthumously.
1951 Ginzberg and associates publish Occupational Choice: An Approach to a General Theory, which outlines a developmental theory of career development.
1953 Super publishes “A Theory of Vocational Development“ in American Psychologist; his article outlines a second developmental theory of career development.
1956 Roe publishes The Psychology of Occupations, which contains her personality-based theory of career development.
1959 Holland publishes “A Theory of Vocational Choice“ in the Journal of Counseling Psychology; his article sets forth some of the propositions of his theory of vocational choice.
1963 Tiedeman and O’Hara publish Career Development: Choice and Adjustment, which contains a theory rooted in the idea that careers satisfy needs.
1963 Bordin and associates publish “An Articulated Framework for Vocational Development” in the Journal of Counseling Psychology; their article sets
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forth a psychodynamic framework for career development.
1967 Blau and Duncan publish The American Occupational Structure, which sets forth the premises of status attainment theory, a sociological theory of career development.
1969 Lofquist and Dawis publish Adjustment to Work, which outlines the premises of a trait-factor model of occupational selection and adjustment.
1976 Krumboltz and associates publish “A Social Learning Theory of Career Selection” in The Counseling Psychologist.
1981 Gottfredson publishes “Circumscription and Compromise: A Developmental Theory of Occupational Aspirations“ in the Journal of Counseling Psychology; her article focuses on how sex-role identification limits occupational aspirations.
1981 Hackett and Betz publish “A Self-Efficacy Approach to the Career-Development of Women“ in the Journal of Vocational Behavior.
1984 Astin publishes “The Meaning of Work in Women’s Lives: A Sociopsychological Model of Career Choice and Work Behavior“ in The Counseling Psychologist; her article outlines a general theory of the career development of women.
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1984 Tiedeman and Miller-Tiedeman publish “Career Decision Making: An Individualistic Perspective,” which is one of the early attempts at framing a theory based on constructivist philosophy.
1991 Peterson, Sampson, and Reardon publish Career Development and Services: A Cognitive Approach, which contains their cognitive information- processing model of career choice and development.
1994 Lent, S. Brown, and Hackett publish “Toward a Unifying Social Cognitive Theory of Career and Academic Interest, Choice and Performance” in the Journal of Vocational Psychology.
1996 D. Brown’s “A Holistic, Values-Based Model of Career and Life-Role Choices and Satisfaction” is published in the Career Development Quarterly and Career Choice and Development. This theory was revised in 2002
1996 Young, Valach, and Collin publish “A Contextual Explanation of Career,” which is based on constructivist philosophy.
2005 Bloch and Bright and Pryor publish two independent versions of chaos theories of careers. Both appeared in the Career Development Quarterly.
2013 Savickas publishes “Career Construction Theory,”
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in a book edited by S. Brown and Lent, Career Development and Counseling.
The 20 publications listed in Table 3.1 are by no means the only attempts at developing theories of career choice and development, and, as shown later, most of these theories have been revised numerous times. Today, the theories of Holland (1997), Super (1990), Lofquist and Dawis (Dawis, 1996; Lofquist & Dawis, 1991), Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1995, 1996, 2002), and Gottfredson (1981, 1996, 2002) are making a major impact on research and practice. Many of the psychological theories are discussed in some detail later in this book. Socioeconomic theories will be briefly discussed (Blau & Duncan, 1967; Hotchkiss & Borow, 1996; Johnson & Mortimer 2002).
It is difficult to say why some theories become influential whereas others do not. Bordin’s psychodynamic theory (1984) was well constructed, but it may not have become popular because it was built on psychodynamic theory, which has never been widely accepted by counselors or counseling psychologists. Roe’s theory (Roe, 1956, 1984; Roe & Lunneborg, 1990) gradually lost favor because researchers were unable to verify her basic propositions that early childhood environments give rise to personality types that in turn result in career selection. No perfect theory of career choice has yet to emerge, and it is unlikely that this will occur.
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Some relatively new theories of career choice and development may become influential in the future. For example, constructivist theories (e.g., Savickas, 2013; Young, Valach, & Collin, 2002) are receiving a great deal of attention from scientists and practitioners alike. Other theories are so new that they have not had an opportunity to attract large numbers of adherents, although the career information–processing model (CIP; Peterson, Sampson, & Reardon, 1991; Peterson, Sampson, Reardon, & Lenz, 1996) has influenced both research and practice. My values-based theory of Brown (Brown, 1996, 2002a; Brown & Crace, 1995) is still a work in progress and will be further elaborated in this chapter.
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Theories for Special Groups. Some writers (e.g., Astin, 1984; Hackett & Betz, 1981) have proposed that because many early theories (e.g., Super, 1953) were oriented primarily to white males they are inappropriate explanations of the career development of women or males and females from other-than-European backgrounds. Theorists such as Holland (1997) and Super (1990) contend that these criticisms are unwarranted, although Super made some changes in his theory over time to accommodate the changing career patterns of women. Efforts to develop alternative theories that focus on specific subgroups have not been met with much enthusiasm. For example, Astin’s (1984) psychosociological model of career choice and work behavior has attracted few supporters. Moreover, Gail Hackett—who, in collaboration with Nancy Betz, addressed the role of self-efficacy in women’s career choice making—is now a coauthor of a more comprehensive theory that focuses on the social cognitive factors that influence the career development of both men and women (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1995, 1996, 2002). Betz, along with Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald & Betz, 1994), has argued forcefully that current theories have limited applicability to minority groups, persons with gay or lesbian sexual orientation, and women. These claims are in dispute, as will be discussed from time to time in appropriate sections of the book.
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Is Career Development Theory Unintentionally Racist? Sue and Sue (2000) and Pedersen (1991) have proposed that most of the theories included in training programs for professional counselors, psychologists, and others are culturally oppressive because they are rooted in Eurocentric beliefs. The Western European worldview is that people should act independently when they make career decisions, a belief that arises from the cultural belief that the individual is the most important social unit (Carter, 1991). Moreover, many American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanics believe that the welfare of the group should be placed ahead of the concerns of individuals. They hold a collateral, or collective, social value and thus may reject the idea that individual is more important than the family, for example. Leong (1991) found that the Asian American students in his sample had a dependent decision- making style, not the independent style that would flow from Eurocentric values. One implication of this finding is that some Asian American students may find it perfectly appropriate to allow their parents to play a major role in the selection of their occupations.
Two of the theories included in this chapter (e.g., Dawis, 1996; Holland, 1997) are based on the assumption that job satisfaction is the result of the individual’s interaction with his or her work environment. It seems entirely likely that job satisfaction and factors such as achievement in one’s career are related to a much more
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complex set of variables, including family or group approval of the career choice and the individual’s performance in it. Hartung (2002) joined the chorus of criticisms of career development theory based on cultural validity by reviewing some of the critiques, which more or less echo those previously discussed. He, like the others mentioned here, suggests that there is a need to move from a monocultural approach to a multicultural perspective. However, Hartung admits that not all theories produced to date have a monocultural perspective. He cites the work of Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1996) and Brown (1996) as examples of theories that have abandoned a monocultural perspective. Hartung (2002) also suggests that research literature is becoming available that supports the use of some of the traditional theories with cultural minorities.
Monocultural theories are flawed, because they sometimes lack cultural validity. However, in the hands of a culturally sensitive counselor or psychologist they can provide a valid basis for practice for people who do not hold a Western European worldview. Also, it is the cultural beliefs of the client that are important in the career counseling process. Too often we make assumptions about the belief system of our clients based on their phenotypic characteristics. Many cultural minorities have adopted a Western European worldview and function primarily in cultural contexts that reinforce these values. It is an ethical error to apply theories of any type without assessing the cultural perspective of the individual first.
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As was discussed in Chapter 1 , a different set of criticisms of traditional theories has been advanced by Peterson and Gonzalez (2005), Bloch (2005), and Bright and Pryor (2005). These authors suggest that the modern philosophy that underpins most traditional theories is inappropriate based on advances in thinking and that it should be replaced with a postmodern perspective. They believe that the self is created from the outside in, as she or he interacts with her or his contexts. As also noted in Chapter 1 , Blustein (2006) is critical of current theories, because they do not contain a social justice component. He and his colleagues (Blustein, 2008; Blustein, Kenna, Gill, & DeVoy, 2008) suggest that career development specialists must become advocates for social change.
It may well be that not all theories apply to all client groups. Each reader will ultimately have to choose his or her own approach. It will be helpful before you read the remainder of this chapter to consider your own personal theory about human behavior and career choice and development. Yes, you have your biases and perceptions about why people choose careers, although you may not have given them much thought previously. By identifying your own thoughts in this area, you take the first step toward the construction of a sophisticated theory of your own.
The modern philosophical assumptions upon which the theories in this chapter are based are as follows:
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1. Human behavior can be measured objectively if reliable, valid instruments are used.
2. Human behavior can be studied outside of the context in which it occurs.
3. Research processes should be value free. If the researcher’s values enter into the process, the results are likely to be flawed.
4. Cause-and-effect relationships occur and can be measured (e.g., predictive validity of tests).
5. If certain conditions are met, such as random sampling, the use of reliable, valid instruments, and lack of contamination of results by the researcher’s values, then results can be generalized to other people in similar settings.
�. As much as possible, career counselors should maintain their objectivity, use instruments that are reliable and valid, and base their practice on well- designed empirical research.
These assumptions should be kept in mind as the theories in this chapter and the one to follow are reviewed.
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Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice
Holland developed a theoretical position that he gradually revealed in a series of published theoretical statements and research studies (Holland, 1959, 1962, 1963a, 1963b, 1963c, 1963d, 1966a, 1966b, 1972, 1973, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1994a, 1994b, 1997; Holland & Gottfredson, 1976; Holland & Lutz, 1968; Holland & Nichols, 1964; see also Gottfredson and Johnstun, 2009). Holland’s theory of vocational choice is based on several assumptions:
1. An individual’s personality is the primary factor in vocational choice.
2. Interest inventories are in fact personality inventories.
3. Individuals develop stereotypical views of occupations that have psychological relevance. These stereotypes play a major role in occupational choice.
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Figure 3.1 Holland’s Model for Interpreting Interclass and Intraclass Relationships. Source: Reproduced by special permission of the publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., Odessa, FL 33556. From the Self-Directed Search Technical Manual by J. L. Holland, Copyright 1985, 1987, 1994, by PAR, Inc. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission from PAR, Inc.
4. Daydreams about occupations are often precursors to occupational choices.
5. Identity—the clarity of an individual’s perceptions of his or her goals and personal characteristics— is related to having a small number of rather focused vocational goals.
�. Personality types that are consistent (see Figure 3.1 ) and differentiated are likely to be the best predictors of occupational choice and
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satisfaction in the choice. Consistency is present when the individual types of the first three letters in the profile are adjacent on the hexagon.
7. To be successful and satisfied in one’s career, it is necessary to choose an occupation that is congruent with one’s personality. A congruent occupation is one in which other people in the work environment have the same or similar characteristics as those of the worker.
Personality develops as a result of the interaction of inherited characteristics, the activities to which the individual is exposed, and the interests and competencies that grow out of the activities (Holland, 1997). Holland believes that to some degree “types beget types,” but he recognizes that children shape their own environments to an extent and that they are exposed to a number of people in addition to their parents who provide experiences and reinforce certain types of performance. The combination of these influences produces “a person who is predisposed to exhibit a characteristic self-concept and outlook and to acquire a characteristic disposition” (Holland, 1997, p. 19). Ultimately, the personality emerges. Holland posits the following “pure” personality types, which occur rarely if at all in their pure form: (1) realistic, (2) investigative, (3) artistic, (4) social, (5) enterprising, and (6) conventional. Let’s look at these six types in more detail.
Realistic people deal with the environment in an objective, concrete, and physically manipulative manner. They avoid goals and tasks that demand subjectivity,
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intellectual or artistic expressions, or social abilities. They are described as masculine, unsociable, emotionally stable, and materialistic. They prefer agricultural, technical, skilled-trade, and engineering vocations. They like activities that involve motor skills, equipment, machines, tools, and structure, such as athletics, scouting, crafts, and shop work.
Investigative people deal with the environment by using intellect—manipulating ideas, words, and symbols. They prefer scientific vocations, theoretical tasks, reading, collecting, algebra, foreign languages, and such creative activities, such as art, music, and sculpture. They avoid social situations and see themselves as unsociable, masculine, persistent, scholarly, and introverted. They achieve primarily in academic and scientific areas and usually do poorly as leaders.
Artistic individuals deal with the environment by creating art forms and products. They rely on subjective impressions and fantasies in seeking solutions to problems. They prefer musical, artistic, literary, and dramatic vocations and activities that are creative in nature. They dislike masculine activities and roles, such as auto repair and athletics. They see themselves as unsociable, feminine, submissive, introspective, sensitive, impulsive, and flexible.
Social people deal with the environment by using skills to interact with and relate to others. They are typified by social skills and the need for social interaction. They prefer educational, therapeutic, and religious vocations
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and activities, such as church, government, community services, music, reading, and dramatics. They see themselves as sociable, nurturant, cheerful, conservative, responsible, achieving, and self-accepting.
Enterprising people cope with the environment by expressing adventurous, dominant, enthusiastic, and impulsive qualities. Characterized as persuasive, verbal, extroverted, self-accepting, self-confident, aggressive, and exhibitionistic, they prefer sales, supervisory, and leadership vocations and activities that satisfy needs for dominance, verbal expression, recognition, and power.
Conventional people deal with the environment by choosing goals and activities that carry social approval. Their approach to problems is stereotypical, correct, and unoriginal. They create a neat, sociable, conservative impression. They prefer clerical and computational tasks, identify with business, and put a high value on economic matters. They see themselves as masculine, shrewd, dominant, controlled, rigid, and stable and have more mathematical than verbal aptitude.
According to Holland, a person can be typed into one of these categories by expressed or demonstrated vocational or educational interests, by employment, or by scores obtained on such instruments as the Vocational Preference Inventory, the Strong Interest Inventory, or the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The SDS was developed by Holland and consists of occupational titles, preferences, self-efficacy estimates, and activities that can be divided equally among the six type areas.
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Each method of determining personality type yields a score. Although Holland (1997) believes that all six types are descriptive of personality, he suggests that the top three scores are the most telling factors. Thus, the result of the assessment of type is a three-letter code (e.g., SAE), known as a Holland code. If the three-letter code is consistent and differentiated, the primary (first type) is expected to be the most influential, the second type the second most influential, and the tertiary or third type the third most influential in describing vocational decisions and aspirations and academic achievement. The consistency of a personality profile can be determined by use of the hexagon shown in Figure 3.1 . If the personality types are adjacent (e.g., realistic and investigative), they are said to be consistent. Inconsistent types are located opposite each other on the hexagon (e.g., investigative and enterprising). It is expected that people with consistent personality profiles will have an easier time making a career choice than those with inconsistent profiles.
A personality profile is well differentiated if the score of the primary type (highest score) of the profile is significantly higher than the lowest score. Holland (1997) believes that consistency and differentiation are indirect estimates of identity, which he defines as the clarity of an individual’s goals and self-perceptions of abilities. Identity can be measured directly by using the My Vocational Situation instrument (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980). It can also be ascertained clinically by a skillful interviewer.
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With regard to personality, it is important to note that although Holland theorized that the personality profile would be relatively stable over time he also theorized that personality may change as the individual interacts with her or his work environment. Individuals with highly consistent, differentiated personalities and with highly developed identities are the least likely to change.
Holland (1985, 1997) also proposes six work environments (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional) analogous to the pure personality types just described. Work environments are assigned Holland codes based on the personalities of the workers in those work environments. As already noted, individuals should select vocational environments congruent with their personalities to maximize their job satisfaction and achievements. The environments are described ahead.
The realistic environment involves concrete, physical tasks requiring mechanical skill, persistence, and physical movement. Only minimal interpersonal skills are needed. Typical realistic settings include a filling station, a machine shop, a farm, a construction site, and a barber shop.
The investigative environment requires the use of abstract and creative abilities rather than personal perceptiveness. Satisfactory performance demands imagination and intelligence; achievement usually requires a considerable time span. Problems encountered may vary in level of difficulty, but they are
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usually solved by applying intellectual skills and tools. The work revolves around ideas and things rather than people. Typical settings include a research laboratory, a diagnostic case conference, a library, and a work group of scientists, mathematicians, or research engineers.
The artistic environment demands the creative and interpretive use of artistic forms. One must be able to draw on knowledge, intuition, and emotional life in solving typical problems. Information is judged against personal, subjective criteria. The work usually requires intense involvement for prolonged periods. Typical settings include a play rehearsal, a concert hall, a dance studio, a study, a library, and an art or music studio.
The social environment demands the ability to interpret and modify human behavior and an interest in caring for and interacting with people. The work requires frequent and prolonged personal relationships. The work hazards are primarily emotional. Typical work situations include school and college classrooms, counseling offices, mental hospitals, churches, educational offices, and recreational centers.
The enterprising environment requires verbal skill in directing or persuading people. The work requires directing, controlling, or planning activities of others and a more superficial interest in people than in the social environment, with most of that interest centered on what can be gained from people. Typical settings include a car lot, a real estate office, a political rally, and an advertising agency.
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The conventional environment involves systematic, concrete, routine processing of verbal and mathematical information. The tasks frequently call for repetitive, short-cycle operations according to an established procedure. Minimal skill in interpersonal relations is required, because the work mostly involves office equipment and materials. Typical settings include a bank, an accounting firm, a post office, a file room, and a business office.
Work environments may also be more or less consistent (homogeneous with regard to the type of people working in the environment who are congruent with the work environment). Work environments can also be assigned a differentiation score based on the personality types working in the environment.
Holland suggests that each work environment is sought by individuals whose personality type is similar to those controlling the environment. It is assumed that they will be comfortable and happy in a compatible environment and uneasy in an environment suited to a different personality type. A congruent person-environment match presumably results in a more stable vocational choice, greater vocational achievement, higher academic achievement, better maintenance of personal stability, and greater satisfaction.
Holland developed an occupational classification system based on the Person-Environment Congruence model. The first edition of his classification system was published in 1982, and the latest edition of The
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Dictionary of Holland Occupational Codes (Gottfredson & Holland, 1996) is still available. However, the U.S. Department of Labor also secured permission to include Holland codes in O*Net, the most extensive listing of occupations available; O*NET is available online.
Student Learning Exercise 3.1 If you have not taken one of the many inventories mentioned in this section to ascertain your three- letter profile, then you may estimate your profile by reading the description of the six personality types and estimating your code. After you have an estimate of your three-letter code (I am an SAE, for example), go to Figure 3.1 and place a pencil on the first letter of your code. Run the tip of the pencil to the second letter and then on to the third letter. Based on the definition of a consistent code, is your code consistent?
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Holland’s Career Planning Model: Modified
Holland apparently never intended his theory to be the basis for career counseling. He is reported to have believed at one point that his instruments and their supporting document (i.e., the Educational Opportunities Finder and the Occupations Finder, Revised) could be used by an individual to make a career choice. He seemed to revise this assumption (Holland, 1997) later. Table 3.2 presents a revised, simplified version of his career planning model. Why present a revised model? The three-step model available at Hollandcodes.com incorporates almost every possible source of personal information, education, and occupational information available and fails to include a decision-making model.
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Table 3.2 A Holland Theory–Based Career Planning Model
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Step One: Personal Awareness
What is my three letter Holland Code (SDS, SII, or other inventory)?
What are my aptitudes and career-related skills (inventory results or self-estimates; pp. 6, 7, & 9 of SDS or GATB of Ability Profiler)?
What are my work and cultural values (prized beliefs about occupations)?
Step Two: Occupational Awareness
What are the occupations that match my personality type?
What are the occupations that I can perform well based on my aptitudes (Occupations Finder Revised; O*NET or DOD [2005 instruments])?
What are the occupations that will satisfy my work and cultural values?
What is my list of attractive occupations? Are they prioritized?
Step Three: Incorporating Educational Planning
What are the entry requirements (education, experience, etc.) of the occupations of interest (the Education Opportunities Finder)?
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Am I motivated enough to pursue the education or skills development needed to qualify for the occupations that seem most attractive to me (self-expectation ratings)?
Choosing
What are the criteria I will use to make my final choice? Possible options include:
a. Salary
b. Geographic location of jobs
c. Time away from home (e.g., commute, travel)
d. Family considerations, including approval of the choice
e. Opportunities for significant other
f. Security (in terms of tenure in the job) issues
g. Outdoors vs. indoors
h. Vacation time
Choices
1. First choice ______________________
2. Plan B choice _____________________ (In case the first choice doesn’t work out)
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The Case of B
B is enrolled in my careers class, which is required of all new students. She completed the Self-Directed Search as a part of the class requirements and has been looking at occupational information. Later, she will take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a work values scale, and several self-efficacy instruments focusing on aptitudes. All members of the class have been invited to come to the career center to discuss their inventory results. A transcript of our conversation follows.
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Okay. I’m an SEA—Social, Enterprising, Artistic— type. There’s only one point difference between the S and E and not much difference between the E and A, either. After the descriptions you gave of the types in class, I thought I would be an Artistic type because of my background in music and because I love to sing.
You may be right, of course. Given your scores, the SDS is an estimate. Your self-estimate may be a better measure of your true type, but the difference between your highest and lowest (S–I) scores is fairly significant.
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I guess I’m not an Investigative type. I can do math and stuff, but I don’t like it.
Let’s see. [Looking at records.]. You attended Z College two years before enrolling here. Were you a music major?
Yes. I wanted to major in voice, but they didn’t seem to offer a major in voice. I accumulated $14,000 in debt, 36 credits, and not much else. I was there for two years, but I pretty much dropped out during my second year.
We don’t offer a music major. Why did you choose to come here?
I don’t want a music major, actually. I want to be a singer. Apparently, my voice isn’t that great. I’ve auditioned for two of the national shows, “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent.” They turned me down. I’ve told the band that I have been singing with to get another singer. I need to make some money to pay back my student loans. Besides, I’m getting married in three weeks, and I think it would be a dumb way to
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start a marriage by staying out until all hours singing in clubs.
So, you have decided to give up music altogether.
No. Not altogether. I’ll still sing at church. I like to sing in the choir. I’ve been doing it since I was twelve.
Let’s go back to your SDS results. Did you follow the directions and look up occupations that that related to the combinations of SEA plus ESA, SAE, and ASE, AES, and EAS?
Yeah; that was a trip. That turned up about a hundred different jobs. But when I began to look more closely at the lists, there were some that seemed better for me than others.
Did you make a list of those that are better?
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Yes. I listed religious education director, especially if it involved the music program, cosmetologist, music teacher, and music supervisor, whatever that is.
Sounds like a theme involving music and supervisions. The only outlier seems to be cosmetologist. It is certainly in keeping with your profile, but it doesn’t involve music.
But the cosmetology program here only lasts for a year, and I could start making money. The other options would take more college, and my fiancé wants me to pay off my debts. I do, too.
The next step is to make a comprehensive list of the characteristics of the jobs that interest you. By that, I mean the amount of money you might make, the training program length and requirements to get in, the skill set you have now and would need to develop, and of course working conditions. Also, are jobs available? Nothing is quite so discouraging as to prepare for a job and not be able to find one.
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Follow -up: B debate d the pros and cons of going back to school and completing a degree that would allow her to be involved with music programs. She chose cosmetology because she could make the money she needed to pay off her student loans. She did get married as planned. The fact that a relative offered a job when she completed the cosmetology training program may have tipped the choice in that direction.
I’ve got it. I’ve got work to do. After I complete it, I’ll make another appointment.
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Status and Use of Holland’s Theory. Holland’s theory is the most influential of all of the extant theories. A note from Dr. Mary Askew of the Holland Codes Resource Center dated July 20, 2013, reported that the Self-Directed Search is used by 22 million people worldwide. Instruments based on the theory also include Find Your Interests (Department of Defense, 2005), which is used by the Department of Defense along with the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery in its military recruitment program of high school students throughout the country.
The goal of career exploration and counseling using Holland’s (1997) theory is to help client groups identify occupations that include workers in them with the same personality characteristics as their own (congruence). This process, in all likelihood, begins with an assessment of a client’s Holland type using one of the following instruments:
The Self-Directed Search (4th ed.)
The Strong Interest Inventory
The Harrington–O’Shea Career Decision-Making System, Revised
Find Your Interests (part of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery [ASVAB] Career Exploration Program)
The Career Key (online)
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Interest Profiler (part of the O*NET system)
Wide Range Interest and Occupation Test (2nd ed.; nonverbal inventory for special populations)
Although these instruments most often are used to measure Holland’s constructs, they are by no means the only ones available for this purpose. All of the leading interest inventories produce Holland profiles.
Holland’s theory has stimulated hundreds of research studies (e.g., Gottfredson & Johnstun, 2009; Holland, 1997; Holland & Gottfredson, 1990, Nauta, 2013). Moreover, Holland’s conceptual scheme of interests is used exclusively in O*NET, the major occupational classification system in the United States. The theory has been criticized on the basis of its cultural and gender biases, but reviews by Spokane, Luchetta, and Richwine (2002) and Nauta (2013) failed to support the validity of these assertions. The concerns about gender validity will be taken up in greater detail later in this book.
Much of the research defending the theory has taken the form of administering one of the instruments that measure Holland’s constructs and then analyzing the data to see if it yields interest patterns that approximate his hexagon. For example, Sidiropoulou-Dimakakou, Mylonas, and Argyropoulou (2008) tested the Holland model with a sample of Greek students and concluded that Holland’s model is useful for Greeks and counseling in Greece. The presumption is that if the
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pattern of interests of a minority group (e.g., Greeks) approximates that found by Holland in his original research, then construct validity has been established. The more important issue is the individual’s interpretation of their profile, that is, the extent to which they believe the profile is representative of their personalities. Inconsistent profiles may need to be fleshed out with a qualitative assessment of likes and dislikes and self-efficacy assessments.
Research generally supports the use of Holland’s instruments with males and females as well as with people from diverse cultural backgrounds (Nauta, 2013; Spokane, Luchetta, & Richwine, 2002). Much of the research regarding Holland’s theory has focused on whether his conceptualization is appropriate for use with different minority groups. Typically, the answer is yes (e.g., Day, Rounds, & Swaney, 1998, Nauta, 2013, Spokane, 2002). However, research that suggests that the interest patterns of cultural minorities approximate those of white persons raises the question of the appropriateness of the theory for these groups, because it does little to address the issue of the decision-making process. The career planning model shown in this chapter focuses on an individualistic decision-making style, which reflects Holland’s theory. More work is needed in this area, particularly with clients who hold a collective social value and thus may not subscribe to an individual decision-making style.
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Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA)
The theory of work adjustment (TWA) has been set forth in a series of publications (Dawis, 1996, 2002; Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1964; Dawis & Lofquist, 1984; Dawis, Lofquist, & Weiss, 1968; Lofquist & Dawis, 1991). In each of these publications, the theory has been changed somewhat, but with few exceptions the assumptions underpinning the theory have not changed. Although the theory is typically labeled TWA, it is a PEC model with a bit of a twist. For Holland (1997), PEC is an abbreviation for Person-Environment Congruence. For TWA theories, the letters stand for Person-Environment Correspondence. What is the difference? For Holland, congruence alluded to the fit between the person and his or her work environment. TWA theory takes the fit one step further and defines it to mean the dynamic relationship between the person and his or her work environment. In the TWA model, the person actively interacts with his environment in specified ways, and in both reaction and action toward the worker the environment responds. Holland envisioned the same type of interaction but was less specific about its nature. This model will first describe the person’s (worker’s) characteristics, followed by a description of the work environment’s characteristics as Dawis and his colleagues see them. The third part of the presentation will deal with the result of the interaction between the person and work environment.
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Two notes about the theory may be important. First, some people have rejected TWA because of its origin in basic reinforcement theory, which they view as philosophically indeterministic. Second, TWA does not deal with personality traits or interests. Values are mentioned, but they are not deeply held personal beliefs. They are clusters of needs.
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Person Characteristics
People have requirements that manifest themselves as two types of needs: biological and psychological. Needs develop in what Dawis and associates describe as the background of heredity, a tacit recognition that heredity is an influential factor but never discussed player in needs development. Needs are prioritized as individuals develop preferences for reinforcers that will satisfy their needs. Individuals seek environments that will reinforce their needs. Each person also develops sets of skills, which Dawis (2002, p. 428) defined as a “behavior sequence emitted in response to a task such as those presented by jobs, require skills. This summarizes the early assumptions of TWA” (Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1964).
In 2002, Dawis made the following statement: “…the emphasis has shifted from skills and needs to abilities and values.” Dawis’s rationale for the switch from the concept of skills to capabilities came about because he believes that inherent in the concept of capabilities is the idea that there are degrees of difficulty. Both meat cutters and surgeons use cutting skills, but the difference in the skills required by each is substantial. There are three types of abilities: (1) visual acuity— speed and perception of detail; (2) cognitive— comprehension, memory, and reasoning with words and numbers; and (3) motor or psychomotor—dexterity, speed, eye–hand coordination. In fact, aptitude batteries such as the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) or the
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Ability Profiler are typically employed to measure capabilities in TWA practice. The O*NET Ability Profiler measures nine job-relevant abilities:
Verbal Ability Arithmetic Reasoning Computation Spatial Ability Form Perception Clerical Perception Motor Coordination Finger Dexterity Manual Dexterity
Values, according to the studies by members of the TWA research team, are clusters of needs. This concept was incorporated into the O*NET classification system. The titles and descriptions of the O*NET values are shown in Table 3.3 . Also listed are the values identified by Dawis and his associates. They are shown in parentheses.
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Maintenance and Adjustment (Correspondence)
Once a person takes a job, the correspondence between the worker and the work environment begins. The worker responds to the demands of the workplace with what Dawis terms celerity
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Table 3.3 Work Values Included in O*NET and Their TWA Antecedents Source: O*NET: “Work Values.” O*NET OnLine. National Center for O*NET Development, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. http:// www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/Work_Values/. National Center for O*NET Development.
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Work Values
Global aspects of work that are important to a person’s satisfaction.
Achievement—(Achievement) Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.
Independence—(Autonomy) Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility, and Autonomy.
Recognition—(Status) Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement and potential for leadership and are often considered prestigious. Corresponding needs are Advancement, Authority, Recognition, and Social Status.
Relationships—(Altruism) Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and to work with coworkers in a friendly, noncompetitive environment. Corresponding needs are Coworkers, Moral Values, and Social Service.
Support—(Comfort) Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees. Corresponding needs are Company Policies, Supervision: Human Relations, and Supervision: Technical.
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Working Conditions—(Safety) Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions. Corresponding needs are Activity, Compensation, Independence, Security, Variety, and Working Conditions.
At the web address listed at the end of the table, a job hunter may click on one, two, or three of the O*NET work values and search the O*NET database of nearly 1,000 jobs to identify jobs that potentially satisfy the values they choose.
(quickness of responding), pace (intensity of response), rhythm (pattern of response), and endurance (duration of response). A newly hired, over-the-road salesperson may immediately begin to contact customers and make appointments for face-to-face meetings. She places calls at the rate of three per hour for two hours. She then takes a 15-minute break and returns to work at the original pace. She maintains her pace until she has contacted everyone in the assigned territory. As employees orient themselves to the job, their adjustment includes the flexibility with which they work, adapt, or change to meet the demands of the job, work to change the job so it will meet their needs, and persevere to varying degrees to change either themselves or the nature of the job. The result of this process is varying degrees of job satisfaction. If the reinforcer pattern of the workplace matches the need pattern of the worker, then satisfaction and
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satisfactoriness occur. Dissatisfaction may result in the worker leaving the job.
Satisfactoriness is the workplace’s reaction to the worker’s capabilities (ability to perform the tasks demanded by the job), approach to the job (celerity, pace, endurance, and reactiveness), and adjustment to the job. Gibson, Weiss, Dawis, and Lofquist (1970) developed the Minnesota Satisfactoriness Scale to be used by supervisors to measure 28 dimensions of satisfactoriness. It yields scores on five scales: Performance, Conformance, General Satisfactoriness, Dependability, and Personal Adjustment. Satisfactoriness is related to tenure (continuing or being terminated), often to success (advancement, monetary rewards), and most likely to satisfaction.
To summarize, the basic assumption of TWA is that people have two types of needs: biological (or survival) needs, such as the need for food, and psychological needs, such as social acceptance. These needs give rise to drive states, which in turn lead to volitional behavior. Whenever the behavior results in the needs being satisfied, reinforcement occurs, and the behavior is strengthened. A second assumption is that work environments have “requirements” that are analogous to the needs of individuals. Both individuals and environments develop mechanisms for satisfying their needs. When the needs of individuals in an environment (work) and those of the environment are satisfied, correspondence exists. Workers select jobs because of their perception that the job will satisfy their needs, and
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workers are selected because of the perceptions that their skills will meet the needs of the workplace. Satisfaction results when the worker is reinforced. Workers are judged to be satisfactory when they reinforce the need pattern of the work environment. The tenure, or time spent in a job by workers, is the result of their satisfaction with the job and satisfactoriness of their performance.
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Career Counseling and TWA
Figure 3.2 is a graphic description of the occupational choice-making process in TWA terms. As can be seen, decision making begins with an analysis of values and abilities, followed by an analysis of the ability patterns and value patterns of several occupations. As discussed earlier, the measurement of work values can be greatly simplified by using the O*NET system, assuming that the individual understands his or her own work values.
The Minnesota Importance Questionnaire can be used to measure need preferences, and the Minnesota Ability Test Battery can be used to measure aptitudes. However, Swanson and Schneider (2013) point out that that the MIQ is primarily used in research, not in practice. Occupational Reinforcer Patterns is an inventory that can be used to measure preferences for patterns of reinforcers. The University of Minnesota Vocational Psychology website has posted information about these instruments. It can be reached via a keyword search in a search engine.
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Status and Use of TWA The major value of TWA for career practitioners is to gain a better understanding of the interaction between workers and their places of employment. TWA is not
Figure 3.2 TWA’s Graphic Explanation of Career Choice Correspondence. Source: From Dawis, R. V. The thoery of work adjustment and person-environment counselling. “The Theory of Work Adjustment and Person-Environment Counselling in D. Brown, L. Brooks and Associates Career Choice and Development (3rd ed, pp. 75–120) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass: A Wiley Imprint. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
a widely practiced theory, probably because of its complexity. It can be very helpful for people struggling to adjust to a new work environment and can help them
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adjust to become both satisfied and satisfactory. The process might proceed as follows:
1. Assess ability patterns using the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). The U.S. Department of Labor has compiled a list of minimum requirements for jobs, as measured by the GATB, for success on the job. This is a time-consuming process. Self-estimates of abilities can probably be substituted for the GATB in most cases (Sharf, 2013).
2. Assess needs and values using the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ). However, the Work Importance Profiler available on O*NET, which is based on the MIQ, would be an easier route and allows the client to access the O*NET occupational database.
3. Assist individuals in comparing their occupational ability patterns, needs, and values with occupations in the O*NET database.
4. Confirm that the outcome of this process benefits both the worker via increased job satisfaction and the employer by increased satisfactoriness in job performance.
It seems likely that the TWA could be used with both men and women, although there are no empirical data to support this observation. Reading issues and the predictive and construct validity of the tests and inventories for cultural and racial minorities are unresolved at this point. In addition, the developers of the theory have not considered cultural values and how
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they may interact with work values and needs. It may, therefore, be best for practitioners to consider TWA as a work in progress that may prove useful in the future, particularly for minorities (Swanson & Schneider, 2013).
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Case Diagnosing a Work Adjustment Problem
V had lost his job as an imaging equipment repairer for a contractor in another state several months earlier. He relocated after an extended job search that led to essentially the same type of job that he had before. He was recently told by his immediate supervisor that he would not endorse his request for a salary increase. When asked why his request was being rejected, his supervisor simply said that V needed to increase his productivity. V was mystified. He had completed every job that he had been assigned with no callbacks to re- repair the machines, but in two instances the jobs had taken more time than he estimated. When asked to read the values as listed on O*NET and identify those that best described him, he listed Recognition, Relationships, and Support.
I knew three things about V before our discussion. First, he enjoyed talking and smoking immensely. Second, he was late to our group from time to time, but more often he missed the group meeting altogether. He was an unreliable group member. Third, he fancied himself as a comic and on one occasion suggested that what he enjoyed most was making people laugh.
I asked V to run his last work assignment “like a movie” beginning with his arrival on the job site and ending when he completed the task. During this movie, I asked V to pay particular attention to his arrival time (was he on time?), the number and length of smoke or other
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breaks, the length of his lunch break, the problems he encountered repairing the machine, and so on. He was on time, met the secretaries in the front office (it is important to have good relationships with the staff), spent 30 minutes with the technician getting his view on why the MRI machine was not functioning, another 30 minutes running diagnostic tests, and so forth. He took three breaks to smoke and talk to the technician, who was also a smoker. After a 75-minute lunch break with the technician that involved smoking, he completed the repair, left the office at 2:30 p.m., and returned to headquarters at 4:00 p.m. The total repair time (diagnosis + hands on) = three hours. Time on site was 5.5 hours. Time smoking, eating lunch, and schmoozing = 2.5 hours.
When I showed him my summary, he wondered if the supervisor had reached a similar conclusion. I also suggested that V’s work values were not being reinforced and that he return to O*NET and search the occupational database using his work values. Although I did not use the term celerity, I did suggest that V needed to be more aggressive when he arrived on the work site: get to the task as soon as possible, cut breaks to one in the morning and another in the afternoon, and shorten the lunch break. I also suggested that he join Toastmasters to provide an outlet for his need to entertain.
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A Values-Based Theory of Occupational Choice Exists Brown (1996, 2002a; Brown & Crace, 1995) built on the work of Rokeach (1973), Super (1953, 1990), Beck (1976), and others to formulate a holistic model of career and life-role choice making. However, initially the theory was aimed primarily at people with traditional Eurocentric values, including individualism, future time orientation, moderate need for self-control, emphasis on activity, and a core belief that humans should dominate nature.
Cultural values have been identified as important variables in career development and vocational behaviors (e.g., Fouad, 1995), but because these values vary across cultures, a comprehensive theory of career choice and development must take into account this variation. What is presented in this section is a revision of Brown’s (2002b) theory that focuses for the most part on the values in a single life role: career.
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Cultural values are not the only variables that influence the career choice–making process or the resulting satisfaction and/or success. Contextual variables, such as socioeconomic status (SES; e.g., Hotchkiss & Borow, 1996), family or group influence (e.g., Leong & Serifica, 1995), and discrimination (e.g., Heppner, 2013; Melamed, 1996) are also considered in this revision, along with factors such as gender (e.g., Gottfredson, 1996; Melamed, 1995) and aptitudes (e.g., Jencks, Crouse, & Mueser, 1983; Phillips & Imhoff, 1997), because they have been linked empirically to career decision making and occupational attainment.
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Variables That Influence Career Choice and Satisfaction
In many respects, the variables that influence career choice are too numerous to mention. However, each theorist chooses those variables that she or he believes to be the most influential. Holland chose personality types, assuming that values were embedded in the RIASEC types. However, his types probably do not give sufficient credit to the influence of values in general and cultural values in particular.
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Human Values and Norms. Values are beliefs that are experienced by the individual as standards of how he or she should function. They are cognitive structures, but they have behavioral and affective dimensions. Values develop so that individuals can meet their needs in socially acceptable ways (Rokeach, 1973), and thus the behavioral aspect of values is shaped by the cultural context in which they develop. An individual’s values are the basis for his or her self-evaluation and the evaluation of others, and they play a major role in the establishment of personal goals (Rokeach, 1973). There are two types of values: cultural and role-related values. Our concern is how these values interact. For example, how does a person’s social value function in situations such as job interviews, career counseling, or on the job?
Norms are a group’s counterpart of an individual’s values. Work groups develop norms, that is, standards of behavior. Norms have two dimensions: public and private. Public norms are published and are available to all workers. Their enforcement is typically the domain of the supervisory staff. Private norms are unpublished and reflect the cultural and work values of the workers in the group. Enforcement of private norms is conducted by the group via subtle or overt acts. Peer pressure via subtle “hints” of expected behavior on the job, overt acts of aggression, including harassment, and passive aggressive acts of isolation are used by work group members to enforce nonpublished norms.
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Work values are the values that individuals believe should be satisfied as a result of their participation in the work role. Values also play a central role in the decision-making process, because they are the basis of goal setting. Goals, if properly constructed, move the individual toward desired end states (e.g., social acceptance). Financial prosperity, altruism, achievement, and responsibility are examples of work values. In addition to work values, individuals develop a number of other values that they expect to be satisfied in life roles other than work, such as family (Brown, 1996). The major underlying assumption of this theory that is advanced in this chapter is that cultural and work values are the primary variables that influence the occupational choice–making process, the occupation chosen, and the resulting satisfaction with and success in the chosen occupation.
Published group norms are aimed at regulating productivity in the work group. They include expectations about attendance, punctuality, productivity, pace, and other workplace behavior. Unpublished norms may also be directed at standards of attendance, pace, punctuality, and productivity. However, unpublished norms are typically aimed at regulating workplace behavior that may be unrelated to work such as speech, dress, manifestations of sexual preference, and manifestations of political preferences. Unpublished norms are likely to reflect the dominant cultural values as well as historical values associated with the workplace or industry. The unpublished work values associated with the workplace or occupation may be
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quite idiosyncratic but are likely to reflect the work ethic of the culture.
Research (e.g., Carter, 1991; Kluckhorn & Strodtbeck, 1961) has indicated that cultural values seem to be more prevalent in some racial and ethnic groups than in others, although it is not uncommon for two or more cultural groups to hold some of the same values (Carter, 1991). Numerous efforts have been aimed at developing a taxonomy of cultural values that illustrates the similarities and differences among the values held by various cultural groups in this country (e.g., M. Ho, 1987; Sue & Sue, 2000). These taxonomies draw on the pioneering research of Kluckhorn and Strodtbeck (1961), and typically they include categories for values such as the following:
Human nature Human beings are good, bad, or neither.
Person–nature relationship Nature dominates people; people dominate nature; living in harmony with nature is important.
Time orientation Time is experienced as past, past- future, present, or circular—an orientation to changes that recur in nature as opposed to time being measured by watches and calendars.
Activity Being, that is, spontaneous self-expression, is important; being-in-becoming—that is, controlled self-expression—is important; doing—that is, action- oriented self-expression—is important.
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Self-control It is either highly or moderately important to control one’s thoughts and emotions.
Social relationships Individualism is valued, and the individual is the most important social unit.
Collateral Also referred to as filial piety, collateral lifestyle is highly or moderately valued (Lee, 1991).
Allocentrism It is important to put the group’s concerns ahead of the concerns of the individual (Marin & Marin, 1991).
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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 (Ho, 1995; Rokeach, 1973). Although the process of enculturation is not fully understood, it seems likely that it occurs initially as a result of a complex process of modeling, reinforcement, and experience (Bandura, 1986; Rokeach, 1973). Cultural values and the work values that develop later in life may be vaguely perceived or crystallized. When values are crystallized, individuals can label them (I value competition) and apply them to their own behaviors (and that is why I try to work harder than other people). Values are relatively stable, but they may change throughout the life span as a result of conflict or contemplation (Rokeach, 1973).
The result of enculturation for most individuals is monoculturalism—that is, they incorporate the values and beliefs of one culture. Bienculturation or multienculturation occurs when the beliefs of two or more cultures are internalized. Biculturalism or multiculturalism may be the result of involvement in a bicultural or multicultural family (Ho, 1995) or acculturation resulting from sustained contact with other cultural groups.
Although the concept of biculturalism is often discussed in the context of multicultural literature (e.g., Leong & Gim-Chung, 1995), it is unlikely that an individual can adopt the values of two or more cultures,
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because often these values conflict. However, this should not be interpreted to mean that individuals cannot understand and appreciate the cultural values of more than one cultural group and adapt some of their behaviors to match various cultural contexts. The enculturation process is influenced by the cultural group membership (Ho, 1987), gender (e.g., Brenner, Blazini, & Greenhaus, 1988; Brown, 1995), SES (Arbona, 1995; Blau & Duncan, 1967), and family membership (Ho, 1995; Ho, 1987).
Acculturation may or may not influence the cultural values that individuals incorporate into their values systems. Acculturation involves the enculturation of beliefs from a culture different from one’s own (Berry, 1990). It may also involve adopting the language, customs, and traditions of the other culture. Individuals who are in contact with another culture often receive “messages” that conflict with their own beliefs. For example, an Asian American student who believes that it is important to make a career choice that is in keeping with his family’s wishes may be “told” by members of his peer group and his counselor that the “appropriate” way to make a career choice is to act independently. The result of these conflicting messages is acculturative stress (Chan & Ostheimer, 1983; Smart & Smart, 1995). Acculturative stress can be resolved in several ways, including adopting the values of the dominant culture. However, as Rokeach (1973) noted, although values may change as a reaction to conflict, they may also change as a result of contemplation. Therefore,
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acculturation probably does not occur solely as a reaction to conflicts.
New hires who enter a work group may also be subject to acculturative pressure to conform to the norms of the work group if they have a value structure other than that held by the dominant coalition in the workplace. The greater the variation in the worker’s value system from that held by the dominant workplace coalition, the greater the acculturation pressure will be. As mentioned earlier, this pressure is likely to be subtle, but as resistance to the dominant coalition’s norms occurs the likelihood that the resistance will be met aggressively increases.
Outside the workplace, members of minority groups are continuously exposed to the values of the dominant culture, values that are often at odds with those they have acquired from their own culture (e.g., Brown, 2002; McWhirter & Ryan, 1991; Smart & Smart, 1995). Acceptance and inclusion of Eurocentric values in the values system and the behavioral norms and traditions accompanying them result in acculturation. One of the outcomes of acculturation may be the rejection of one’s cultural beliefs. If the conflicting images and messages that are transmitted from the different culture are rejected, no acculturation occurs (LaFromboise, Trimble, & Mohatt, 1990).
Two additional points should be made at this time. First, acculturation is not necessarily a one-way process: It is reversible. Second, acculturation is a process that may
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affect individuals from all cultural groups, including members of the dominant culture who interact with cultural groups with different values (Berry, 1990). Because of the dynamic nature of the enculturation process in a multicultural society, it is a mistake to make assumptions about the values held based solely on cultural group membership.
Cultural Group Membership Versus Internalized Culture. Cultural group membership, which is a demographic designation, has typically been used in lieu of internalized culture (Ho, 1995) in much of the research and some of the multicultural literature. Ho recommends that the psychological characteristic— internalized culture—be substituted for demographic designations. Internalized culture consists of the beliefs and values of the individual. To repeat, research has consistently supported the idea that values systems differ among major cultural groups as well as within group variation (e.g., Carter, 1991), and, thus, assuming that an individual has a particular set of cultural values is likely to lead to erroneous conclusions.
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Factors That Retard Motivation to Act on Values. As noted previously, values are the major force in the goal-setting process (Feather, 1988; Rokeach, 1973). However, five factors may lead individuals to lower their expectations of success if they act on their values: mental health problems (Casserly, 1982; Pietromonaco & Rock, 1987), history of personal/cultural group discrimination (Brown, 1995; Leong & Serifica, 1995; Melamed, 1996), lack of information (Brown, 1996), poverty (Hotchkiss & Borow, 1996), and self-efficacy (e.g., Lent, 2013; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1996, 2002). These variables are all incorporated into the propositions that follow.
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Propositions of Brown’s Values-Based Theory
Several propositions are related to Brown’s values-based theory (Brown, 1996):
1. Highly prioritized work values are the most important determinants of career choice for people who value individualism (i.e., the individual is the most important unit) if their work values are crystallized and prioritized. These individuals are affected by several factors: (1) whether they feel unconstrained to act on their work values; (2) whether at least one occupational option is available that will satisfy the values held; (3) whether values-based information about occupational options is available; (4) whether the difficulty level of implementing the options available is approximately the same; and (5) whether the financial resources available are sufficient to support the implementation of the preferred option.
1. a. The factors that limit the number of occupational options considered by people who value individualism include low SES, minority status, mental health problems, physical disabilities, gender (Gottfredson, 1996), low scholastic aptitude, perception that they will be discriminated against in the
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occupation, and lack of values-based information. Women, minorities, people from lower SES levels, and people with mental or physical limitations who value individualism choose occupations consistent with their work values, but they are likely to choose from a more restricted range of occupations than white European American males (Heppner, 2013).
1. b. Self-efficacy becomes a constraining factor in the occupational decision-making process of individuals who value individualism when the options being considered require widely divergent skills and abilities.
2. Individuals who hold collective social values and come from families and/or groups who hold the same social values may either defer to the wishes of the group or family members or are heavily influenced by them in the occupational decision-making process. The result is that the occupations chosen correlate less with the individual’s work values than is the case with individuals who value individualism and make their own occupational choices.
2. a. Gender is a major factor in the occupations entered by individuals who value collectivism because of decision makers’ sex- stereotyped perceptions of occupations. The result is that occupational choices are more
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likely to be stereotypically male or female. Women who value collectivism enter a more restricted range of occupations than men who value collectivism.
2. b. Perceptions that discrimination may occur if an occupation is chosen is a deterrent to choosing that occupation by decision makers who value collectivism.
2. c. Perceptions regarding resources available to implement an occupational choice are a major limiting factor in the occupational decision-making process of individuals who value collectivism.
2. d. The outcome of the occupational decision-making process for people who value collectivism is less influenced by the availability of the values-based occupational information than it is by the work values of their families or groups.
3. When taken individually, cultural values regarding activity (doing, being, being-in-becoming) do not constrain the occupational decision-making process. People who value individualism and have both a future/past-future time value and a doing/activity value are more likely to make decisions at important transition points, such as graduation from high school, and to act on those choices than people who value either collectivism or individualism and being or being-in-becoming.
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4. Because of differing values systems, males and females and people from differing cultural groups enter occupations at varying rates.
5. The process of choosing an occupation value involves the following series of “estimates”: (a) one’s abilities and values, (b) the skills and abilities required to be successful in an occupation, and (c) the work values that the occupational alternatives being considered satisfy. For people who value individualism, the ability to make accurate estimates is a critical factor in their occupational success and satisfaction. For individuals who value collateral relationships, estimates made by the decision makers are the key factors in their occupational success and satisfaction.
5. a. People who value individualism and who come from backgrounds in which little emphasis is placed on feedback about individual strengths, weaknesses, and personal traits and who make their own occupational decisions make more errors in the process as defined by mismatches between their values and those values satisfied by the job. The result is lowered job satisfaction, lower levels of success, and shorter job tenure. For people who value collateralism, satisfaction, success, and tenure are based on the ability of the decision maker to make these estimates.
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�. Occupational success is related to job-related skills acquired in formal and informal educational settings, job-related aptitudes and skills, SES, participation in the work role, and the extent to which discrimination is experienced, regardless of which social relationship value is held.
6. a. Because success in the occupational role requires an awareness of future events and the ability to accommodate the dynamic changes that occur in the workplace, success in the occupational role is related to time and activity values, with individuals having future or past-future values paired with doing/activity values being the most successful.
7. Occupational tenure is partially the result of the match between the cultural and work values of the worker, supervisors, and colleagues.
7. a. Alienation and thus early job termination by the worker will be the result if (1) there is no recognition and/or accommodation of the worker’s differences, (2) the worker is isolated by the other workers in his or her work group, and (3) overt discrimination or harassment occurs because of either phenotypic differences or cultural values differences.
7. b. Alienation will result in lower job performance regardless of the capabilities of the worker. The result may be that the worker
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will be terminated in spite of her or his skill set.
7. c. Extrinsic rewards may extend the job tenure and improve the job performance of alienated workers.
The Case of RF
RF, an American Indian, graduated from high school (only one-third of the members of his tribe graduated) and attended a vocational-technical school to learn a trade as a machinist. He was hired immediately by a nearby manufacturing company, a hire that did not meet with the approval of the all-white work group. For fourteen months, RF arrived at work in a timely fashion, which was unexpected by both the other workers and his supervisor. He was also a superior machinist.
RF was shunned by the other workers. He arrived at work alone, took breaks alone, ate lunch alone, and left without anyone saying goodbye. After more than a year, not one member of his work group except his supervisor had spoken to him. On the morning that he was greeted by two of the members of his work group, he picked up his lunch box, informed his supervisor that he was quitting, and left the building. He never returned.
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Status and Use of Brown’s Values- Based Theory. Brown’s first attempt at developing a values-based theory appeared in 1996. That theory attempted to account for the complexity of all life roles, admittedly a difficult task. His latest theory (first published in 2002) is a more modest attempt to account for occupational choice, satisfaction, and success and is thus more in line with the other theories in this section. Because of the newness of the theory, it is difficult to anticipate what its impact might be. Hopefully the theory will stimulate more thinking about the importance of cultural values and the need to consider cultural differences when examining the occupational choice-making process. A detailed example of an approach to career counseling using Brown’s theory is presented in Chapter 8 .
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Student Learning Exercise 3.2
Theories based on modern (logical positivism) versus postmodern theories have little in common. Circle the M or the P to indicate which of the following ideas are drawn from each position.
M P 1. Behavior is linear. M P 2. It is not possible to establish cause-and- effect relationships. M P 3. Meaningful research must be conducted using qualitative approaches. M P 4. It is important to understand the laws of human behavior. M P 5. It is impossible to understand an individual’s behavior outside of the context in which it occurs. M P 6. The theories in this chapter fall into which tradition?
Answers: 1. M 2. P 3. P 4. M 5. P �. M
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Summary Three trait-and-factor theories were discussed in this chapter. At the conclusion of each theory, some of the applications of the theory were presented and the current status of the theory outlined. One factor that limits the application of two of the theories, Holland and TWA, is the social value held by the client or group. Only Brown’s (2002a) theory recognizes the importance of collective social and other important non-European values. However, Holland’s constructs seem to be useful with members of minority groups in this country.
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Chapter Quiz T F 1. TWA theorists René Dawis and John Holland (among others) both place values as the primary factor in occupational choice. T F 2. Values in the TWA formulation and in Brown’s values-based theory are defined in the same way. T F 3. The importance of congruence between a person and the work environment was first identified by Frank Parsons. T F 4. Groups of people who hold collateral social values believe that the welfare of the group should be placed ahead of that of the individual. T F 5. John Holland, René Dawis, and Duane Brown all acknowledge the importance of cultural values in occupational adjustment. T F 6. Congruence and correspondence have somewhat different meanings. T F 7. Satisfaction is the personal dimension of work adjustment. Satisfactoriness denotes the work environment’s endorsement of the work done. T F 8. Alienation from the work role is likely to occur whenever harassment occurs, but extrinsic motivation may extend the tenure of the alienated worker. T F 9. John Holland’s theory of vocational personalities and work environments has been
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incorporated into material used by the military and the U.S. Department of Labor. T F 10. The theory of work adjustment is most like Holland’s theory than any of the others presented in this chapter.
(1) F (2) F (3) T (4) T (5) F (6) T (7) F (8) T (9) T (10) T
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Hartung, P. J. (2013). The life-span, life space theory of careers. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 83–113). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
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personality model for a sample of Greek university students. Journal of Educational and Vocational Guidance, 8, 11–125
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Super, D. E. (1990). A life-span, life-space approach to career development. In D. Brown & Associates, Career choice and development (2nd ed., pp. 192– 234). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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choice and development (4th ed., pp. 206–254). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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Chapter 4 Developmental Theories: Donald Super and Linda Gottfredson
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Things to Remember The stages in development as outlined by Super and Gottfredson The major tenets of Super’s theory of vocational choice How circumscription and compromise work together to limit occupational choices Similarities and differences between Gottfredson’s and Super’s theories
Developmental theories focus on the biological, psychological, sociological, and cultural factors that influence career choice, adjustments to and changes in careers, and withdrawal from careers. These theories focus on stages of development (e.g., childhood and adolescence). The first developmental theory was presented in 1951 by Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad, and Herma, but their theory has been overshadowed by Super’s lifespan, life-space theory, which is discussed ahead. Another developmental theory was presented by Gottfredson (1981, 1996), who focused on circumscription and compromise. Although her theory is not as comprehensive as Super’s theory, it examines an extremely important aspect of the career development process: the impact that sex- typing occupations has on career choice.
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Super’s Lifespan, Life- Space Theory Probably no one has written as extensively about career development or influenced the study of the topic as much as Donald Super. His writing on career development is so extensive that even a highly motivated student faces a major challenge in reviewing all of his work. The references cited here provide considerable depth but are not intended to be all inclusive. (See the references at the end of this chapter for a listing of several works by Super.)
Super’s earliest theoretical statements were influenced by researchers in differential psychology, developmental psychology, sociology, and personality theory. Super has often stated that his view is a “segmented” theory consisting of several related propositions, out of which he hopes an integrated theory ultimately emerges. He has, from time to time, restated these segments, broadening slightly earlier statements and on two occasions adding more segments. His 1953 article presented the initial 10 postulates. He added two more in the 1957 book written with Bachrach. His 1990 article expands the list to 14 propositions that are the basis for the following consideration of Super’s lifespan theory. In this sequence, the original 10 propositions fall under items 1–6 and 9–12, and the additional propositions are identified by items 7, 8, 13, and 14. Super’s 1990
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statements are italicized, followed where appropriate with a brief discussion of the proposition.
1. People differ in their abilities and personalities, needs, values, interests, traits, and self-concepts. The concept of individual differences is so widely recognized and accepted that no one seriously challenges it. The range of personal characteristics varies widely both within each individual and among individuals. Within each person are traits or abilities so pronounced that often they seem to caricature the individual. At the same time, in other areas each person is relatively weak or inept. Although most of us are more or less like other people in many traits, the uniqueness of each person is apparent in the individualized combination of strengths and weaknesses.
2. People are qualified, by virtue of these characteristics, for a number of occupations. The range of abilities, personality characteristics, and other traits is so wide that every person has within his or her makeup the requisites for success in many occupations. Research in the field of rehabilitation has demonstrated that even individuals with severe disabilities have the choice of many occupations in which they can perform satisfactorily. For people without serious physical or emotional impairment, the gamut of possibilities is wide indeed. Few occupations require special abilities, skills, or traits in excessive quantity. Just as most
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athletic activities involve only certain muscles or muscle groups, so too most jobs require only a few specific characteristics. A person can thus perform s