occupational choicerequires that individuals explore deeply to sift
through tentative preferences in preparation for declaring an occu-
pational choice. Exploration-in-depth requires that role playing
become more purposive and reality testing become more systematic.
It can include obtaining further education and training, as well as
moratorium periods used to explore self and world through travel
and work experiences. Eventually, advanced exploration results in
specifying a particular occupation that one wants to enter and mak-
ing a commitment to do so.
Specifying an occupation choice involves more than just the
psychological activity of mentally comparing and suitably cou-
pling self and occupational concepts. It consists of constructing a
story that engages the larger sociocultural context by organizing
self-percepts and then positioning the resulting self-concept in soci-
ety. An individual’s career story crystallizes how that person sees
him- or herself in relation to the world. Vocationally relevant traits
such as abilities and interests constitute the substance of this story,
yet the story’s essence is the narrative theme that shapes the story’s
meaning, continuity, and distinctiveness. The theme imposes nar-
rative structure on the choices made and, in so doing, constructs a
unified self from an individual’s often-contradictory views, baffling
behaviors, and inconsistent desires. This unity makes the vocational
self-concept whole by stating its ruling passion and describing how
the occupational choice transforms this lifelong obsession into a pro-
fession. The theme also stakes a claim to uniqueness, an assertion
that distinguishes “me” from others in the same community and
identifies the way in which “I” can be a resource for the group
(Hogan, 1983). The declaration of an occupational choice confirms
who we are and wish to become. Moreover, the choice announces
the controlling idea for our working lives, sometimes even revealing
a secret we have hidden. The career story we tell authorizes entry
into the adult world of work and enables us to add our voice to it.
The more we tell the story, the more real we become. In short, trans-
lating private vocational self-concepts into public occupational roles
involves the psychosocial process of vocational identity formation.
A DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY OF VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR 175