Personality characteristics and vocational identification.

Abstract

Positive and negative sentence-completion responses were compared for 20 students aspiring to be artists and 20 students aspiring to be architects. Differences predicted from occupational stereotypes and clinical observations were supported. Art students generally expressed negative reactions to self, parents, peers, achievement, and learning. Conversely, architecture students generally expressed positive attitudes in these same areas. For all of the areas evaluated, differences between vocational groups were found at or beyond the .05 level. The implications of differences in personality characteristics of persons identified with either art or architecture are discussed.

Locus of control, consistency of vocational interest patterns, and academic achievement.

“…The optimism shared by Bohn (1961), Irvin (1968), and Goldschmidt (1967) that in one fashion or another personality characteristics and vocational choice or interest are closely related could not be supported from these results. One explanation for the lack of significant results rests in the criticism of Carkhuff, Alexis, and Anderson (1967) that Holland's research is circular-it is used to change hypotheses that can be tested, but it does not modify his theory because it does "not flow deductively from it in the first place," Even the 1969 hexagonal classification schema was not deduced from his theory but rather was developed directly from an extensive empirical study of the "relatedness" of the occupational scales of his Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI).…”

Decision Making in Vocational Theory: Evolution and Implications

“…Since the 1960s, the influence of people's values on their decisions has received heavy emphasis, particularly by educators (Irvin, 1968;Thompson, 1966). Most recently, the use of fantasy to enhance decision-making ability has received considerable positive results (Keller et al, 1982;Morgan & Skovholt, 1977).…”