preferences for life roles are deeply grounded in the social
practices that engage individuals and locate them in unequal
social positions.
- An individual’s career pattern—that is, the occupational level
attained and the sequence, frequency, and duration of jobs—is
determined by the parents’ socioeconomic level and the per-
son’s education, abilities, personality traits, self-concepts, and
career adaptability in transaction with the opportunities pre-
sented by society.
- People differ in vocational characteristics such as ability, per-
sonality traits, and self-concepts.
- Each occupation requires a different pattern of vocational
characteristics, with tolerances wide enough to allow some
variety of individuals in each occupation.
- People are qualified for a variety of occupations because of their
vocational characteristics and occupational requirements.
- Occupational success depends on the extent to which individ-
uals find in their work roles adequate outlets for their promi-
nent vocational characteristics.
- The degree of satisfaction people attain from work is propor-
tional to the degree to which they are able to implement their
vocational self-concepts. Job satisfaction depends on estab-
lishment in a type of occupation, a work situation, and a way
of life in which one can play the types of roles that growth and
exploratory experiences have led one to consider congenial
and appropriate.
- The process of career construction is essentially that of de-
veloping and implementing vocational self-concepts in work
roles. Self-concepts develop through the interaction of inher-
ited aptitudes, physical make-up, opportunities to observe and
play various roles, and evaluations of the extent to which the
results of role playing meet with the approval of peers and
A DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY OF VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR 155
