Vocational interest dissonance and need for prestige

A principal purpose in vocational (i.e. educational and occupational) counselling is to guide counsellees directly or indirectly into jobs in which they will be relatively satisfied and successful. This thesis investigated the nature of one of the determinants of vocational adjustment, namely vocational interest. Vocational interests can be separated into two basic forms: (1) predicated or affirmed interests, and (2) inventoried or tested interests. In this thesis the relationship between predicated and inventoried interests was studied, not by comparing their powers to predict vocational satisfaction and success, but by examining personality factors apparently related to discrepancies between predicated and inventoried interests in individuals. The question considered was, what causes a person to be dissonant, to have a discrepancy, in his predicated and inventoried interests? Specifically, is prestige need positively related to such dissonance? Previous studies have shown that 'naivete and stereotypy', one's being naive about occupational activities and stereotyping occupational positions, and ‘social pressure' are associated with vocational interest dissonance. Prestige need, however, appears without empirical support as a correlate of discrepancy between predicated and inventoried interests. The present study sought to provide such support. A Job Choice Inventory was constructed for measuring prestige need. Form D of the WIPCO Vocational Interest Profile was used for measuring inventoried interest, and an Occupational Preferences Blank was constructed for measuring predicated interest. The discrepancy between these interests was used as a measure of vocational interest dissonance. Although not statistically significant, vocational interest dissonance showed some curvi-linear relationship to prestige need. That is, interest dissonance increased somewhat towards the high and the low extremities of prestige need. Sex evidently did not differentiate this relationship.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat