When a person does not act the way we expect him to act, when he acts in a way directly contrary to our expectations, he contradicts the theories on which we operate. We feel insecure, uncertain of our success, and doubtful of our methods.
We may even feel impatient with the person who obstinately refuses to act in the way our theories have led us to expect that he will act. But when we recover from our impatience, we begin to reexamine our theories, to look for others which offer better explanations of the way people behave and better bases for anticipating how our students and clients will respond to our efforts as counselors.
A Composite Theory
- Occupations are chosen to meet needs.
- The occupation that we choose is the one that we believe will best meet the needs that most concern us.
- Needs may be intellectually perceived, or they may be only vaguely felt as attractions which draw us in certain directions. In either case, they may influence choices.
- Vocational development begins when we first become aware that an occupation can help to meet our needs.
- Vocational development progresses and occupational choice improves as we become better able to anticipate how well a prospective occupation will meet our needs. Our capacity thus to anticipate depends upon our knowledge of ourselves, our knowledge of occupations, and our ability to think clearly.
- Information about ourselves affects occupational choice by helping us to recognize what we want and by helping us to anticipate whether or not we will be successful in collecting what the contemplated occupation offers to us.
- Information about occupations affects occupational choice by helping us to discover the occupations that may meet our needs and by helping us to anticipate how well satisfied we may hope to be in one occupation as compared with another.
- Job satisfaction depends upon the extent to which the job that we hold meets the needs that we feel it should meet. The degree of satisfaction is determined by the ratio between what we have and what we want.
- Satisfaction can result from a job which meets our needs today or from a job which promises to meet them in the future.
- Occupational choice is always subject to change when we believe that a change will better meet our needs.
What can a counselor extract from the conflicting theories now available? Must these theories only add to his confusion? Or can they help him to understand the behavior of the persons he tries to serve? Admittedly, what the counselor can infer from theories yet unconfirmed will still be speculative. But examination and comparison of several theories may provide the counselor with a broader base for his own speculations and thus bring him a little nearer to truth, whatever that truth may be.
