Holland’s Theory of Career Choice

Holland’s theory of career choice asserts that people’s vocational interests are expressions of their personalities, and individuals feel more fulfilled if they work in positions with attributes aligning with their personalities. Holland originally published this psychological theory in 1959 and continued to revise and refine it through the next three decades of his career. Numerous tests and assessments have been developed to help people identify their personality type according to the six categories included in Holland’s theory. Even the US government has used Holland’s personality categories to help people identify the careers for which they are best suited.

Background

John L. Holland was Omaha, Nebraska, in 1918, and earned a degree in psychology in 1942 from the University of Omaha. Holland then served in the US Army as a classification interviewer, and in that position, noticed that the people he worked with tended to have specific vocational personality types.

Holland remained interested in developmental psychology and the factors influencing people’s vocational choices. He then pursued a doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota, where he studied developmental psychology, including the work of Edward Strong, a developmental psychologist who researched vocational interest. In the 1940s, Strong developed a type of “interest assessment” that he used to help give guidance to individuals seeking careers or jobs. Strong divided occupations into different categories, which helped inspire Holland’s later work. Holland also conducted his own empirical research regarding vocational choices and people’s personalities.

In 1959, Holland published the article “A Theory of Vocational Choice,” in the Journal of Counseling Psychology, in which he first explained his theory about how people’s personalities impact their vocational choices. That same year, he published the book Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments, which further expanded upon his vocational theory. For more than three decades, Holland continued to refine his theory and expand upon some of his beliefs about the topic. Nevertheless, his theory became one of the most important in the field of career development by the end of the twentieth century and continued to be used and cited by other psychologists in the twenty-first century.

Overview

Holland’s theory of career choice has numerous aspects, but its main points are the existence of a close relationship between personality and vocational interest and that people’s career interests are expressions of their personalities. Holland also developed six personality categories: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional (RIASEC). He believed that nearly all individual personalities, in relation to work, could be described as a combination of these categories. Holland identified various preferences and traits that were common among each group.

Individuals with a realistic personality type most often enjoy jobs in which they use their hands. They like making things or accomplishing specific, set tasks. People with this personality type may prefer to work alone or with smaller groups of people. They may enjoy repairing objects and often have good mechanical skills. Those with realistic personalities may also like to perform tasks outdoors, work with animals, operate tools or machinery, engage in physical tasks, or complete practical tasks. Some examples of jobs with these attributes are construction worker, automotive technician, maintenance worker, machine operator, carpenter, short-order cook, and baker.

Those with an investigative personality often prefer work that demands abstract thinking. Individuals with this personality type are often good at math and science and appreciate occupations that require them to observe, research, and analyze information. These individuals may prefer to work alone and are often logical and intellectual. Careers with these attributes include scientist, computer programmer, lab technician, surgeon, robotics engineer, historian, and economist.

Individuals with an artistic personality prefer occupations that give them the freedom to solve problems in their own way and be spontaneous. Those possessing an artistic personality are talented in one or more types of creative arts. They often like to entertain and enjoy working with others. People with this personality type usually thrive in positions with little structure that allow more freedom of choice. Occupations include illustrators, makeup artists, graphic designers, singers, floral designers, actors, and interior decorators.

People with a social personality prefer to work with and help others. They often enjoy teaching or counseling as well as assisting people in finding solutions to problems. Most individuals with social personalities enjoy working face-to-face with others. Those with this personality type are usually friendly, possessing highly developed interpersonal communication skills. Some examples of jobs with attributes closely aligning to the social personality type are teacher, fitness trainer, counselor, tour guide, doctor, and nurse.

Individuals with an enterprising personality take pleasure in managing or influencing others. Like those with a social personality type, they prefer to work with others and are often outgoing and energetic. People in this group are often confident and assertive and enjoy administrative and managerial work. People with enterprising personalities may also place a high value on influence, power, authority, or money. Suitable occupations include salespeople, business owners, promoters, managers, chief executives, real estate agents, school administrators, and lawyers.

Those with a conventional personality often enjoy work that allows them to maintain or implement order and organization. They usually excel in positions requiring attention to detail. They often enjoy working with numbers—such as dates or prices. Individuals in this category often prefer completing structured tasks with clear guidelines, deadlines, and rules. They are usually compliant and careful in their work. Examples of jobs with attributes closely aligning to the conventional personality type are receptionists, office workers, cashiers, archivists, librarians, and financial analysts.

Holland asserted that people’s personalities comprise aspects of different personality types, and generally a person does not identity with only a single personality type. Holland eventually developed a method of testing to help people determine which personality types best described their vocational identities. Holland developed a test whose results gave participants the two or three personality types that best characterized them based on their answers to the tests. The test provided a two- or three-letter code, with each letter indicating one of the six RIASEC categories. For example, the code “AS” means that person’s personality closely aligns to Holland’s artistic and social categories. These codes became known as Holland codes. As Holland’s theory and the RIASEC categories became more popular in the late twentieth century, other researchers used these categories and codes in their own assessments, which were differed slightly from Holland’s assessments.

Holland also continued to refine his theory. For example, early on he added careers, jobs, and learning environments that could be classified using the RIASEC categories, based on their own attributes. Holland asserted that people could find jobs and other opportunities that best aligned with their personalities by searching for jobs with the same or similar RIASEC categories. Another main assertion that Holland developed and including in his theory was that people who work in jobs suiting their personalities are more likely to experience job satisfaction. In the 1970s, he also refined the theory by placing the RIASEC categories in a hexagonal graphic organizer to help individuals understand the relationship between them. He explained that the categories closest to each other in the organizer were most similar. For example, the realistic group is more closely related to the investigative group than to the enterprising group. This hexagonal structure is commonly used in career development to help people choose careers that will most likely suit their personalities. Holland also refined his work by pointing out that many other factors—including educational level, employment opportunities, and health—contribute to a person’s vocational choices.

Holland’s work has been vital to the field of career development, which is the process of identifying career objectives and creating plans to help people meet them. Career development professionals often help individuals choose careers jobs by finding those for which they are best suited and best meet their needs (e.g., economic needs, social needs, cognitive needs, personality etc.). Numerous factors, including a person’s education, culture, and physical abilities all influence the types of jobs the person pursues. Holland’s research has helped professionals in the field identify careers for individuals that might be good choices based on personality.

Bibliography

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Holland, Jacqueline M. “Career Development Planning: Getting Students on the Right Track.” Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, vol. 86, no. 2, Feb. 2011, pp. 8–9. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=508185520&site=ehost-live. Accessed 20 Sept. 2022.

Holland, John L. “A Theory of Vocational Choice.” Journal of Counseling Psychology, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 35–45, doi.org/10.1037/h0040767. Accessed 20 Sept. 2022.

Kim, Soo. “Science-Backed Personality Tests to Discover Your Strengths and Weaknesses.” Newsweek, 27 July 2022, www.newsweek.com/personality-tests-science-big-five-neo-1715683. Accessed 5 Sept. 2022.

“Vocational Interests.” Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology, edited by Charles D. Spielberger, vol. 3, Elsevier, 2004, pp. 647–53.