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Vocational Interests and Job Choices Following an Acquired Disability: Results and Implications of an Idiographic Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

James Athanasou
James Athanasou*
Affiliation:
Discipline of Rehabilitation Counselling, University of Sydney, Faculty of Health Sciences, Lidcombe, New South Wales, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: James Athanasou, Discipline of Rehabilitation Counselling, University of Sydney Faculty of Health Sciences, 75 East Street, Lidcombe, New South Wales, Australia. E-mail: james.athanasou@sydney.edu.au
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Abstract

This idiographic study explored the value of six vocational interest types (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional) for guiding a person's occupational choices. To that end, five rehabilitation clients who attended for vocational assessment following a personal injury (e.g., motor vehicle or general accident or work injury) reported on their vocational interests. Participants indicated their preferences (like or dislike) for 77 occupations. Altogether, they made from 5 to 27 choices. A profiling procedure indicated that clients reported more occupational dislikes rather than likes. Of the vocational interest types the choices in realistic, investigative, artistic and enterprising domains were endorsed more than those in social or conventional domains. It was not clear that the six vocational interest types determined occupational choice following an injury. Instead, occupational dislikes may provide more useful data for vocational counselling.

Keywords

Vocational interestoccupational choicesdecision-makingcareer development theoryHolland personality typespersonal injury
Type
Professional or Policy Issue Papers
Information
The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , July 2018 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 

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