Occupational choices is an important field in developmental psycholgy. This field is important in practise to advisor teenagers and prevent them to some mistakes choices. There is different theories like the Holland’s theorie (1973) which show six types of personnality based on interests. Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad and Hernia theory (1951) shows also the role of compromises in the choice. Globally, developmental psychology explanations of occupation choices often focus on internal factors such as interests, personnality, abilities and capacities.
Gottfredson’s theory is interesting because she insists on the social dimension behind the choice. She is an american psychologist and sociologist and this second specialization explains her particular contribution to occupational choices field. Indeed, Gottfredson postulates that occupations are not equal. There are popular occupations which are desired and valued by everyone. Studies had clearly shown that people have distaste for occupations which are not corresponding with their sextype and with low level of prestige. They also have a difficulty to explain why (Slocum et Bowles, 1968 ; Reeb, 1959 ; Reiss, 1961, cited by Gottfredson, 1981).
Gottfredson postulates also that occupational choices are the reflect of our social self and that we compare our social self to the occupation’s social representation or « occupational stereotype ». Gottfredson prefers using « occupational image » than « occupational stereotype » because of the negative value behind this second term.
To make our choice, we got a cognitive map which is socially shared. This cognitive map is a social representation of work in our society. It gives a global view of all occupations through the dimensions of sextype, level of prestige and field.
In this cognitive map of work, some occupations are over-represented and it can explain why some fields of occupations are not enough chosen.
Teenagers consider, firstly, the gender axis and, after, the prestige axis. It’s only after these considerations that they give attention to their interests. When their scolarity success is not as high as their first choice, teenagers prefer to renonce, firstly to their interests. Gottfredson call this process « compromises ». It drives to occupations alternatives which appear when occupational preferences are contradicted by the perceived accessibility of the occupation.
Super and al. (1963) had already distinguished the self-concept as a belief about what we are and that we base our actions in relation to this self-concept which contain perception of our abilities, personnality, interests and place in the society. Self-concept consider together psychological and social components like « gender, social class background, intelligence, vocationnal interests, competencies, and value ».
Occupational preferences appear when people compare their self-concept with their representation of an occupation explored in the cognitive map. However, occupational preferences can be based on delusions because it’s based on a subjective judgement of self and we rarely have a real knowledge concerning the occupation.
To make our vocationnal choice, there is also the idea of « perceived accessibility of an occupation » which reflect the obstacles and opportunities in the environment to access to the corresponding occupation.
An explanation of why sextype and prestige seems to be more important than interests is shown by the study of Shinar (1975). He presents 129 occupations which were regrouped according to the Holland’s theory of 6 types of personnality : investigative, social, artistic, realistic, conventionnal and enterprising personnality. Results had shown that each interest cover a particular level in the two axis of feminity/masculinity and prestige. For example, investigative personnality is associated with a very high level of prestige and more masculine degree than feminine.
Words I have learned / Keywords : Occupational choice (choix professionnel) ; To advisor (conseiller) ; Distaste (dégoût) ; Occupational image/stereotype (Représentation sociale de la profession) ; Cognitive map (Carte cognitive des professions) ; Self-concept (Concept de soi).
Bibliography :
Gottfredson, L. S. (1981). Circumscription and compromise: A developmental theory of occupational aspirations. Journal of Counseling psychology, 28(6), 545.