Occupational Choice and Vocational Interests

Abstract

The study concerns the problem of why certain high-school boys make tentative occupational choices which are more congruent with their inventoried vocational interests than do other boys. A sample of eighty-seven eleventh-grade boys was divided between a group with interests which were congruent with their occupational choice and a group with inter ests incongruent with their occupational choice. If the congruent group were found to be higher than the incongruent group in terms of selected variables (e.g., knowledge of one's interests) the variables were considered a likely source of occupational choice-interests congruency. Results suggested the following are possible sources of occupational choice interest congruency: (1) knowledge of one's vocational interests, (2) use of school as one's main source of occupational information, (3) deliberate orientation toward decisions regarding social phenomena, and (4) continuity between the so cialization of upper-middle-class children by their family and by society. Results showed no association between apparent crystallization of occupational choice and occupational choice-vocational interests congruency. THE LITERATURE concerning occupational choice, inventoried vocational interests, and so cialization of children suggests a number of rea sons why some young men make occupational choices which are congruent with their vocational interests while other men do not. Sinnett (9) and Wallace (12) found a positive correlation between the amount of knowledge men have about their chosen occupation and their occupational choice vocational interests congruency. According to Ausubel (1), adolescents must understand their real interests and values before they can make occupational choices which are congruent with their interests, abilities, and values. Wallace's data also pointed to the possibility that use of certain sources of information (e.g., friends) is positively associated with occupational choice vocational interests congruency. According to Ginzberg (5), young men must know how to com promise, to delay gratification, and to appreciate the relationship between ends and means before they can select an occupation which is congruent with their interests, values, and aptitudes. Darley and Hagenah (2) point to prestige drives among youth as an important source of occupational choice-vocational interest incongru ency. The writers do not, however, explain why certain boys with high prestige drives exhibit high occupational choice-vocational interests con gruency while other boys with the same drives exhibit low congruency. According to socializa tion and social stratification theory (7, 10), boys are socialized by society to value prestige and to strive for prestigious occupations. Strong's (11) study suggests that boys internalize many of their father's vocational interests. Because upper middle-class fathers possess the interests attached to prestigious occupational roles, continuity exists between upper-middle-class boys' learning of vo cational interests at home and their learning of occupational aspirations through society's many agents of socialization. The same continuity does not exist, however, in the socialization of lower