How Immature and Emotional Needs Affect Choice of Occupation

We smile and dismiss as fantasy the occupational choice of the little child who announces his serious intention to be a fireman when he grows up. It may not occur to us that the child, dominated by adults from morning until night and protected from every danger that can be anticipated, may feel a real need to be important and to embark upon some adventure more thrilling than the exploration of his own backyard. In terms of the needs that he feels and of the occupations with which he is familiar, his choice may be as logical as ours. In his place, we might well make the same choice, and some of us did.

We consider immature the choice of the adolescent who is determined to enter the occupation of his current adult hero, for which work our student obviously lacks essential aptitudes. We overlook, perhaps, the fact that the adolescent is here showing the first sign of maturity. He is breaking away from home ties and has a real need to identify with some adult outside the family and to try to be like him, as in the past he tried to be like his parents. Knowing as little as he does about vocational aptitudes and about the requirements of occupations and being not yet ready to stand alone, we too might find security in such an occupational choice.

If we can even suspect the emotional needs behind what look to us like irrational choices, we may be more tolerant of them. If we can occasionally understand the connection between these needs and choices, we may then be of more help to our clients, sometimes by simply waiting for them to mature a little more, sometimes by helping them to understand and accept themselves, sometimes by helping them to discover more effective and attractive ways to satisfy their needs.



Aptitudes and interests are not enough. Aptitude and interest are important, but they are only a part of the total picture of a decision maker. A person may have a perfect pattern of measured abilities and interests for a specific occupation and firmly reject it if it fails to meet the needs, which are most important to him. He may be happier and, conceivably, more effective in an occupation for which he has only average qualifications if the occupation meets more of the needs which are high in his scale of values.

Thus, a man who values his role as a husband and father higher than his occupational success may reject a job for which he has perfect aptitudes, because it would require him to leave his family or to move them to a location that would aggravate one child's allergies.

Another person may value leisure more than money, prestige, or achievement and be happier in a job that is "beneath him" than in one which would utilize more of his talents but consume more of his time.

Another may prefer steady work and an assured weekly income in a job that he does moderately well rather than higher but irregular earnings in a field for which he may have superior aptitude and interest.

A child may feel a need to conform to or to resist his parents' wishes, to remain near them or to get away from them. His choice may be influenced more by such considerations than by others, which may appear more rational to the counselor.

This is how even immature and emotional needs can affect one’s choice of occupation.