At present, research on the vocational development of Black individuals-both adolescents and adults-constitutes a disparate body of knowledge. The purposes of this article are as follows: (1) to examine the "state of the art" 'in this field; (2) to gather together the diverse strands into a meaningful unit; (3) to investigate some of the salient issues in the career development of Blacks; and (4) to present, on the basis of the research reviewed, a profile of the Black individual in vocational literature.
Family Role Models and Family Background
The influence of family role models has been cited by many authors as a potent factor in the development of a person's concept of work (Super, 1957; Henderson, 1967; Smith, 1973). The general tenor of most of these writings is that family work role models provide not only a source of identification for a person but also help him to formulate feelings about the world of work. Typically, writers have emphasized that lower socioeconomic Black youth have few opportunities to associate positive meanings with the value of work-primarily because they are seen to lack positive adult role models and because the Protestant work ethic may not be a part of their upbringing.
Salient in much of the literature on family role models is the importance of the father. Although mothers are seen to have an influence on the vocational development of their children, the impact of the father has been considered paramount (Kohn and Carroll, 1960; Mink and Kaplan, 1970). Basically, Black fathers, particularly those who are categorized as lower socioeconomic, have been singled out as being at best dubious and at worst negative work role models (Moynihan, 1965; Rainwater, 1966). A variety of reasons have been given to explain and to support this position, among which are (1) Black men work in a disproportionately high number of low menial jobs, in comparison with white men of the same level of education; (2) There exists an insidious cycle of racism which predisposes Black children to view their fathers as men who have little power to affect their career development; (3) Black families are seen to suffer from a high proportion of father absent homes; and (4) Lower-socioeconomic parents, in general, lack the technical know-how needed to assist their children in the vocational decision-making process (Henderson, 1967; Neff, 1967; Rainwater, 1966; Sexton, 1971).
Blocher (1973) stresses the significance of family instability on the lower socioeconomic Black youth. He suggests that family instability may lead to lack of career commitment. In his estimation, lower class children from minority backgrounds frequently do not have the opportunity to experience or to even observe close, stable, and long-term interpersonal or work relationships. Lacking such visible models of commitment and involvement either to career or family, they are less inclined to view work as an integral part of their own development.
Supporting Blocher's ideas, Murphy (1973) proffers that lack of positive role models may incline the Black youth to not value life primarily in terms of his work status. According to him, providing a flurry of positive role work models on a short-term basis to combat family instability and lack of commitment to a career goal as a way of life is akin to giving a person two aspirins when major surgery is needed. Frequently, such efforts are much too late to make any real differences in an individual's vocational development. Murphy contends, therefore, that the crucial problem is one of absence of ego involvement and lack of a conception of life built around successful work. Valuing life primarily in terms of one's work status requires more than the presence of role models. It demands a steady indoctrination of this conception of life a long period of time and necessitates some degree of ego involvement with work.
Moulton and Stewart (1971) maintain that vocational psychologists may be overestimating the influence of family instability, and, correlatively, family work role models on the career development of Black youth. In their study of upwardly mobile and low mobile Black males from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, the authors found that the physical presence of the father did not significantly discriminate among members of these two groups. Instead, Moulton and Stewart (1971) assert a "high proportion of a group of highly successful Black males came from families in which the father was frequently absent" or not appreciably present at all. The authors concluded that families with a fundamentally matriarchal structure are, indeed, capable of producing "highly achieving males who may acquire many of the necessary skills and values through identification with their mothers" (Moulton and Stewart, 1971).
The research of Pallone, Rickard, and Hurley (1970) suggests that despite the low socioeconomic status of Black fathers, their sons tend to select them as significant role models. In an investigation of key influencers of occupational preferences of lower socioeconomic Black male and female students, they established that the same sex parent was a major influencer of students' occupational preferences.
Gottlieb (1967) has taken exception with the general notion that lower socioeconomic Black parents function as negative work role models for their children. Analyzing the statements of Black and white lower socioeconomic youth, he reports that both groups of adolescents saw their parents as being understanding and encouraging of their occupational aspirations. The problem seemed to revolve around parental inability to assist their children in goal clarification. Gottlieb (1967) explains: "There are few adults in their lives who have the ability to help the youngster in both the business of goal clarification and goal attainment." Henderson (1967), for one, has taken issue with the notion that only Black people can serve as effective work role models for minority youth. He emphasizes that such an approach is unrealistic because it denies the potential positive influence of a vast reservoir of white role models in occupations wherein Blacks are either in small numbers or nonexistent. The issue herein seems to be not only a question of can whites serve effectively as work role models -the credibility gap debate-but also do conditions mandate that whites be chosen as work role models?
The influence of family role models and family stability as it relates to the minority individual's career development has been called into question. Family instability has not been demonstrated to be the great roadblock that some investigators theorize it to be. As Moulton and Stewart (1971) emphasize, some upwardly mobile black males have climbed the occupational ladder in spite of the absence of their fathers or the nuclear family unit. What is missing in most of the studies on family background and vocational development is the possible influence of surrogate fathers. Until this information is supplied, there will be continued debate as to what the real impact is of a broken home on the vocational development on minority youth.
