Chapter 4: Interests and Personality
Interests
Have you ever noticed that you enjoy spending time working on, or engaging in, activities that you are interested in? Have you ever thought of applying this principle to your career choice? The first part of this lesson will focus on exploring the concept of applying our interests to our career choice.
Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice
Article source: Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice (n.d.)
The theory of vocational choice developed by John L. Holland is one of the most widely researched and applied theories of career development. Based on the premise that personality factors underlie career choices, his theory postulates that people project self-and world-of-work views onto occupational titles and make career decisions that satisfy their preferred personal orientations. The theory incorporates several constructs from personality psychology, vocational behavior, and social psychology, including self-perception theory and social stereotyping.
Applications of Holland’s theory of vocational choice involve assessing individuals in terms of two or three prominent personality types and then matching the respective types with the environmental aspects of potential careers. The theory predicts that the higher the degree of congruence between individual and occupational characteristics, the better the potential for positive career-related outcomes, including satisfaction, persistence, and achievement.
Source:
Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice. (n.d.) Career Research. http://career.iresearchnet.com/career-development/hollands-theory-of-vocational-choice/
RIASEC Model
Below you will read about the 6 different interest/personality areas referenced in Holland’s theory. Often, these areas are displayed in a hexagon like the one seen in this interactive link: https://self-directed-search.com/riasec-theory/
Read on to learn about how interests (often referred to as personality) and work relate.
Holland’s Theory
Careers are determined by an interaction between our personality and the environment in John Holland’s Theory of Career Choice. We want jobs with people like us.
John Holland’s Theory of Career Choice (RIASEC) maintains that in choosing a career, people prefer jobs where they can be around others who are like them. They search for environments that will let them use their skills and abilities, and express their attitudes and values, while taking on enjoyable problems and roles. Behaviour is determined by an interaction between personality and environment.
Holland’s theory is centred on the notion that most people fit into one of six personality types:
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional.
Realistic
| Description of interest area | Some key skills | Some occupations with Realistic components | Subjects you could study to give you the skills |
| Likes to work mainly with hands, making, fixing, assembling or building things, using and operating equipment, tools or machine