88 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT
The Core Theory
Next I outline the core concepts and propositions of the theory as
of 1996 (Gottfredson, 1996). Supporting evidence for that core can
be found in Gottfredson (1981, 1996; Gottfredson & Lapan, 1997).
Following this review, I describe extensions of the theory that incor-
porate pertinent research from behavioral genetics.
Major Concepts
Self-conceptrefers to one’s view of oneself—of who one is both pub-
licly and privately. It has many elements, including appearance,
abilities, personality, gender, values, and place in society. Some ele-
ments are more central to one’s sense of self than others. People
may not be able to articulate their self-concepts, nor may their self-
perceptions always be accurate, but they act on them and protect
them just the same. The self-concept is the object of cognition (the
“me”), but it also reflects the person as actor (the “I”).
People also hold images of occupations(often called occupational
stereotypes), including the personalities of people in those occupa-
tions, the work they do, the lives they lead, the rewards and condi-
tions of the work, and the appropriateness of that work for different
types of people. Americans from all segments of society share basi-
cally the same images of occupations and their incumbents, for
example, of personality type and prestige level.
These common images are organized into a meaningful, shared
cognitive map of occupations.Adolescents and adults distinguish
occupations along a few major dimensions: masculinity-femininity,
occupational prestige level (overall desirability), and field of work.
These distinctions can be represented in a two-dimensional map
(Sextype by Prestige Level), as shown in Figure 4.1. Differences in
occupations’ rated prestige mirror differences in the intellectual
complexity of their duties (Gottfredson, 1997), which means that
the occupational prestige hierarchy is also a ladder of demands for
intelligence on the job.