with one’s genetic individuality, that is, the pursuit of a congruent
ecological “niche” or place in the world.
Nature-nurture partnership theory thus stresses that humans are
self-directed and self-creating from birth but that only through expe-
rience do we take form as psychologically distinct beings. It departs
from socialization theory by recognizing that environments are both
causes and effects—that people shape the environments that shape
them. After all, our environments are typically other people, and
we constantly nudge and activate, accept and reject, these others in
our encounters. Social learning versions of socialization theory are
correct to emphasize that behavior is shaped by our reinforcement
histories, but they err in seeming to assume that the same stimuli
induce the same degree of comfort and discomfort and hence the
same responses in all of us. Large, loud social gatherings may be
strong stimuli for all high school students, but they are as painful for
some genotypes (shy) as they are pleasurable for others (sensation
seekers) and will therefore always repel some individuals while
attracting others. (Both shyness and sensation-seeking are substan-
tially heritable.)
This biosocial perspective on individual differences suggests
some principles that can help explain the development and imple-
mentation of career-relevant traits and behaviors, including circum-
scription and compromise. It does so by suggesting that individual
differences in career-relevant attributes vary in their nearness to the
genetic substrate and the manner in which experience crystallizes
them into stable, measurable tendencies to behave in certain ways.
This distinction in degrees of genetic embeddedness, in turn, illu-
minates which of our various dimensions of individual difference
may reflect culturally channeled or canalized behaviors that can be
shaped and packaged to some extent by parents, schools, and econ-
omies and that are deep, inherent aspects of individuality that we
might be able to redirect socially but not remanufacture. The bio-
social perspective also helps to explain which cultural pathways we
follow or avoid in life and to what extent our paths deviate from
those trod by our social peers.
116 CAREER CHOICE AND DEVELOPMENT