John Hollands Theory Applied to Secondary School in Hong Kong - Case Study Example

Running Head: JOHN HOLLAND’S THEORY APPLIED TO SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HONG KONG Abstract The extent to which decision-making in subject choice and eventually career choice among secondary school students in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world depends largely on their personality types. Inkson (2007) has categorically underlined the importance of helping students navigate through the decision-making process in their early years of schooling dependent on their inherent personality types as outlined by John Holland. The aim of this paper is therefore to address the application of Holland’s theory in decision-making of career choice as well as in helping secondary school students in Hong Kong to choose their school majors. Rather than praising the theory per se, this paper further highlights its limitations in Hong Kong setting. Introduction John Holland’s theory of vocational choice has for many years been a dominant force in vocational psychology and careers counselling and guidance. The theory was originally formulated in the USA in the 1950s influenced by Holland’s experiences as a careers counselor (Gibson & Mitchell, 2006). Sharf (2006) further explains that this theory has subsequently grown significantly to become what it is today. Based on this theory therefore, John Holland holds that people and their occupational environments are clearly characterized by their close resemblance to each of the six identified ‘pure types’. Additionally, Holland believes that a good match between an individual and the environment will have a number of beneficial outcomes when other things are kept equal (Inkson, 2007). As observed by Herr et al (2004), Holland makes an attempt to explain that career decision making is an important aspect of career choice and career development. This basically forms the theoretical explanation of this paper in exploring the application of Holland’s theory in decision-making styles of career choice. The paper also attempts to relate the application of this theory to secondary school setting in Hong Kong and its limitations. a) John Holland’s Theory in explaining decision-making of career choice John Holland’s theory has been cited by a number of researchers as the most studied amongst all other career counseling theories. Leung & Chen (2007) argue that Holland’s theory of careers portrays individuals and environments as a single set of six types into which most people across cultures of the world can be classified. In view of this, Holland classified people into six dominant types outlined below. The Realistic (R) type has frank, conforming, inflexible, practical, un-insightful and asocial individuals while Investigative (I) type is critical, independent, analytical, complex, introspective, rational and reserved (Brown & Lent, 2005). Similarly, the Artistic (A) type is found to be intuitive, emotional, expressive, introspective, open and sensitive whereas the Social (S) type is cooperative, empathic, helpful, patient, sociable, understanding and warm (Brown & Lent, 2005). Brown & Lent (2005) further contend that the Enterprising (E) type is agreeable, domineering, energetic, extroverted, optimistic and self-confident as compared to the Conventional (C) type with its careful, conforming, conscientious, inhibited, persistent and practical sense. Individuals’ personalities which may include interests, values, abilities and fantasies can be assessed by considering their most dominant type. Inkson (2007) further notes that individuals are assumed to be most satisfied, successful and stable in work environments that are congruent with their personality types. As quoted in Sharf (2006), Holland believed that the greater the compatibility between students and their school majors, the greater chances of success for them. For this reason, Holland’s model explicitly recognizes the role of personality in decision-making as far as career and school major choice is concerned. The goals of career guidance From the outset, Holland intended to enable individuals to use his theory on their own without unnecessarily consulting a skilled counselor (Brown & Lent, 2005). This goal resulted in the formulation of a set of self-scored questionnaire-based measures that effectively help individuals to select their preferred careers or school majors (Leung & Chen, 2007). Some pre-existing instruments have also been revised to reflect Holland’s structure, the most notable being the ‘Strong Interest Inventory’ cited by Herr et al (2004). Other measures focus on the assessment of environments rather than people. Overall, Holland’s approach has become enshrined in the description of occupations across the globe. The assumptions of career guidance Based on Holland’s theory, several assumptions arise when one is making decisions on career choice. Firstly, Holland makes the basic assumption that “persons in a vocation have similar personalities and that they tend to choose actual occupational environments consistent with their personality orientations” (Gibson & Mitchell, 2006). Inkson (2007) further claims that the selection of an occupation is a reflection of an individual’s personality. This is because Holland explains that perceived abilities; anticipated success and expected satisfaction assist in defining interests (Sharf, 2006). Vocational stereotypes hold important psychological meaning when one is choosing a career and hence the need for guidance becomes paramount. It is also assumed that an interest inventory can be a personality inventory which really motivates people to seek out hobbies that compliment their personalities (Herr et al, 2004). This really helps students in school to excel in subjects that will lead them into careers of their choice as expounded by Leung & Chen (2007). Finally, Holland’s theory assumes that “specific career related behaviors like success; satisfaction and job stability can be reasonably predicted by examining a person’s personality/environment fit” (Leung & Chen, 2007). b) Application of Holland theory to secondary school setting in Hong Kong John Holland’s theory of career choice best explains work-related behavior like considering “which career choices are likely to lead to job success and satisfaction”. It also explains other human actions like success and satisfaction in school and training programs as illustrated in Herr et al (2004). Earlier paragraphs have demonstrated that it is the best known and most widely researched theory on the area of career choice and development. Making students understand Holland’s theory is critical in helping them make good choices regarding decisions about occupations, careers, majors or training programs that best fit their situations (Leung & Chen, 2007). It is from this theory that students base their selection of college majors and eventually their ultimate careers. As already established, most people in reality are a combination of personality types outlined above and not any one single type (Gibson & Mitchell, 2006). Using Holland’s theory therefore, teachers in secondary schools in Hong Kong can guide their students in choosing their college majors based on their strong occupation types. Those good at working with tools, machines or animals can choose the Realistic occupation type to become Electricians, Pilots or Farmers (Inkson, 2007). Additionally, those good at understanding and solving science and math problems can be guided to choose Investigative careers like Chemists, Mathematicians or Biologists (Inkson, 2007). Artistic type will similarly draw students who have good artistic abilities in creative writing, drama, music and art to become Teachers, Composers, Actors and Dancers. Students with an inclination to help others in the society are best guided to choose subject majors leading to Social careers like Counselors, Nurses and Social Workers (Inkson, 2007). Enterprising type can similarly be guided to become good Politicians, Auctioneers or Managers whereas those who are good at working with written records and numbers in a systematic and orderly way are best suited to choose subject majors leading to the Conventional occupations. Their careers of choice include Secretary, Typist or Bookkeeper (Inkson, 2007). It must be noted that most students will probably want to consider occupations in more than one category, implying that they would want to choose an occupation whose personality type is the same as or similar to theirs (Leung & Chen, 2007). This is most likely to lead to the students’ job satisfaction and success in the future. This, according to Sharf (2006) will only be possible if there is a good match-up between the two personality types of the students and their learning environments (Leung & Chen, 2007). c) Problems and limitations of John Holland’s theory The identified problems and limitations of John Holland’s theory are found resident in his “congruence” idea. Studies of congruence have typically assessed people’s vocational personalities as well as their occupational environments using Holland measures (Inkson, 2007). These environments are usually defined as the occupation the individual is pursuing or preference for main subject of study in the case of students. Compatibility between an individual and the environment has been measured in a number of different ways (see Brown& Lent, 2005) and found to present a number of problems and limitations. Firstly, Brown& Lent (2005) contend that Holland’s theory may inaccurately represent the structure of vocational interests and personalities particularly amongst students. If this fails translate correctly to students in Hong Kong setting, then the theory becomes a cropper (Brown& Lent, 2005). Secondly, Holland’s theory may omit some key constructs particularly when using the ‘Self-Directed Search’ questionnaire that asks people about the extent to which they like or dislike various occupational titles and specific activities. This in itself is very parochial as it does not adequately assess some elements of personhood inherent in secondary school students (Leung & Chen, 2007). It is also questionable whether Holland’s theory pays sufficient attention to students’ goals and some aspects of their values. This dismally fails to capture some important concerns of students in Hong Kong setting. The third limitation resides in the fact that Holland’s theory overlooks the main effects of student and learning environment by comparing the two. Herr et al (2004) cite evidence that negates this comparison due to certain attributes found in the student or the learning environment. Conversely, some aspects of individual psychological make-up may influence behavior in all or nearly all environments (Inkson, 2007). This is also applicable to students in Honk Kong. Fourthly, occupation may be an inadequate conceptualization of environment as Holland’s theory tends to wrongly hold environments to refer to occupations when matching up the two (Qted in Leung & Chen, 2007). The separation of an individual and the environment may be artificial because the person can create a personal environment probably by adopting a style of work that is pleasing to oneself (Gibson & Mitchell, 2006), a situation that has been found common in secondary school students in Hong Kong. A student who scores low on Social may wish to minimize contact with others by employing tactics like taking meals alone, avoiding co-curricular activities and becoming introverted (Herr et al, 2004). This illustrates the truth of many assertions made by social and developmental psychologists that environments and individuals are interdependent and not independent (Leung & Chen, 2007). Students really create cocoons in their learning environments to suit their personality types. Tackling the limitations The limitations associated with Holland’s theory in relation to Honk Kong setting can be addressed through a number of ways. First, this paper suggests that teachers and other stakeholders should identify students’ vocational interests and personalities before guiding them through their school majors and eventually career choices. Secondly, Holland’s ‘Position Classification Inventory’ (PCI) questionnaire can be simplified in order to capture students’ specific attributes in line with their learning environments (Gibson & Mitchell, 2006). This will go a long way in helping them identify their career paths. Lastly, the personal goals and values as well as personality may be given a more serious attention than what is accorded Holland’s types (Leung & Chen, 2007). Conclusion Since its inception, Holland’s theory has provoked a great deal of research that have tested the central proposition that a good match between person and environment will lead to a person experiencing greater satisfaction, performing better and persisting longer than if the individual were in a dissimilar environment (Inkson, 2007). Generally, this idea of matching is so fundamental that it has been described by Sharf (2006) as ‘common sense’. Research has further demonstrated that Holland’s theory has been instrumental in influencing practice and research in career development. It did this by contributing a clear theory useful in organizing information about individuals and career alternatives and for understanding individuals’ entry and persistence in occupations and other environments (Gibson & Mitchell, 2006). Moreover, this paper has consistently demonstrated that Holland’s theory has precisely given school administrators the impetus to guide their students in making informed career choices. It has been found that Holland’s model when used in schools predicted a general similarity versus dissimilarity for Artistic, Social and Enterprising students who selected subject majors that were similar to their own type (Herr et al, 2004). Similarly, Sharf (2006) stipulated that counseling outcomes are likely to be different for students with different personality types. In view of this, a number of recent studies have concentrated on expounding on Holland’s theory of personality types to encompass other areas outside the vocational/occupational/career domain as explained by Leung & Chen (2007). References Brown, S & Lent, R. (2005). Career Development and Counseling: Putting Research at work. (Eds.). Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. Gibson, R & Mitchell, M. (2006). Introduction to Career Counselling for the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. Herr, E., Crammer, S., & Niles, S. (2004). Career Guidance and Counseling through the Lifespan: Systematic Approaches, 6th edition, Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Inkson, K. (2007). Understanding Careers: The Metaphors of Working Lives. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Leung, S & Chen, P. (2007). Developing Counseling psychology in Chinese Communities in Asia: Indigenous, Multi-cultural, and Cross-cultural considerations. Manuscript submitted for publication. Sharf, R. (2006). Applying Career Development Theory to Counselling. Australis: Thomson Brook/Cole. Read More