that provides career counseling to nonstudent adults and for a
Vocational Assessment Program that provides information in PEC-
theory terms to assist vocational rehabilitation clients of the Min-
nesota State Rehabilitation Service.
Individual Differences
In recent years, U.S. society has become more and more conscious
of its diverse composition, in part because it is becoming more and
more diverse, as the year 2000 census has shown. Furthermore, di-
versity is at the root of several contemporary controversies and dif-
ferences of opinion about social policy and social practice. What
has PEC theory to say about diversity?
To begin with, diversity is about individual differences; they are
a fact of nature. Individuals differ within any group: gender groups,
age groups, socioeconomic class groups, ethnic groups—even within
the family. The psychology of individual differences is the branch of
psychology that has long studied this phenomenon (Dawis, 1992).
PEC theory is grounded on the psychology of individual differences.
Two important questions arise: (1) How much do individuals
really differ? and (2) Do these differences make a difference?
The psychology of individual differences has produced many
findings that bear on these two questions (see Lubinski, 2000, for
an updated review). The following statements summarize some of
the basic findings of this field:
- Individuals in any group will differ in the magnitude of any
characteristic they possess. - The range of these differences is typically large, expressed
statistically as five to six standard deviations or more. - When groups differ, they are often characterized by the dif-
ferences in their mean values. - Groups may also differ in variability within the group. Unfor-
tunately, within-group variability (standard deviation) almost
always goes unreported.
PERSON-ENVIRONMENT-CORRESPONDENCE THEORY 455