Chapter 11. Relationships and Roles
Introduction
In your book’s chapter on relationships and roles, you learned about the criteria for developing career satisfaction. These criteria include having high self-esteem, being optimistic, and feeling in control of your life. Additionally, emotion regulation is needed to disengage from job stress while at the same time gravitating to challenging tasks (Fossen & Vredenburgh, 2014; Hülsheger et al., 2014; Judge & Hurst, 2007). This may be the case because those with these characteristics gravitate to more rewarding fields and proactively shape their jobs (Drago, 2011; L. Li et al., 2014; W. Li et al., 2014).
11.1 Activity
John Holland (1997) suggested it is highly important to find a great personality–career match, as you will see in this activity.
Indicate how appealing you find each of the following items:
| Not at all appealing | Somewhat appealing | Extremely appealing | |
| Planting a garden | |||
| Math | |||
| Talking to people at a social gathering | |||
| Computers | |||
| Painting | |||
| Reading fiction novels | |||
| Helping friends with their problems | |||
| Truck driving | |||
| Playing music | |||
| Forming friendships | |||
| Being a leader of a group | |||
| Putting things together | |||
| Puzzles | |||
| Clubs | |||
| Public speaking | |||
| Maintaining records | |||
| Conducting research | |||
| Budgeting |
You just completed an abbreviated career inventory based on Holland’s theory. What do your responses reveal about your personality type and how it fits you with an occupation?
Based on your responses, your Holland Code are
These letters represent the main categories that your responses more strongly endorse. They are presented in descending order of endorsement. Each letter corresponds to one of the personality types in Holland’s theory:
- Realistic = R
- Investigative = I
- Artistic = A
- Social = S
- Enterprising = E
- Conventional = C
The website O*NET OnLine lists careers ordered by Holland Code. Here are some careers that might suit you based on your code.
Your score on the assessment is more of a generalization and is not set in stone. Rather your score can help you identify occupations you might find the most interesting and may get the most satisfaction. It definitely can give you a place to start in your career search. To take the complete assessment, visit a career counseling center.
11.2 Something to Consider
According to John Holland’s (1997) theory, the key to work happiness is to find a personality–career match. The closer we get to our ideal personality–career fit, the more satisfied and successful we can be at our jobs. Holland classified six personality types and fit each one of them with specific occupations. His personality types include:
- Realistic:
- These people enjoy manipulating machinery or working with tools. They like physical activity and being outdoors. If you fit this profile, your ideal career might be in construction, appliance repair, or car repair.
- Investigative:
- These people like to find things out through doing research, analyzing information, and collecting data. If you fit this pattern, you might get special satisfaction in some scientific career.
- Artistic:
- These people are creative and nonconforming, and they love to freely express themselves in the arts. If this is your type, a career as a decorator, dancer, musician, or writer might be ideal.
- Social:
- These people enjoy helping others and come alive when they are interacting with other human beings. If this description fits you, a career as a bartender, practicing physician, or social worker might be right.
- Entrepreneurial:
- These people like to lead others, and they enjoy working on organizational goals. As this kind of person, you might find special joy as a company manager or in sales.
- Conventional:
- These people have a passion for manipulating data and getting things organized. If you fit this type, you would probably be very happy as an accountant, administrative assistant, or clerk.
Still, even when people have found work that fits their personality, there is no guarantee that they will be happy at a job. To find work happiness, it’s vital to consider the actual workplace as well.
Based on your results from this activity, what career you might pursue?
References
Drago, F. (2011). Self-esteem and earnings. Journal of Economic Psychology, 32, 480–488.
Fossen, R. S., & Vredenburgh, D. J. (2014). Exploring differences in work’s meaning: An investigation of individual attributes associated with work orientations. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 15(2), 101–120.
Holland, J. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Hülsheger, U. R., Lang, J. B., Depenbrock, F., Fehrmann, C., Zijlstra, F. H., & Alberts, H. M. (2014). The power of presence: The role of mindfulness at work for daily levels and change trajectories of psychological detachment and sleep quality. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(6), 1113–1128.
Judge, T. A., & Hurst, C. (2007). Capitalizing on one’s advantages: Role of core self-evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(5), 1212–1227.
Li, L., Zhong, J. A., Chen, Y., Xie, Y., & Mao, S. (2014). Moderating effects of proactive personality on factors influencing work engagement based on the job demands-resources model. Social Behavior and Personality, 42(1), 7–16.
Li, W., Fay, D., Frese, M., Harms, P. D., & Gao, X. Y. (2014). Reciprocal relationship between proactive personality and work characteristics: A latent change score approach. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(5), 948–965.