Lecture # 510:
Occupational Information and Decision Making: Personal Characteristics

copyright 2008 Cheryl K. Hosken, BSN, MS Psych.

Vocational assessment is a way of helping a person to correlate their characteristics as a worker with the characteristics of different occupations. We need to help clients form an accurate picture of their vocational traits and then to compare them with various occupations. Often, people do not know how to make decisions about their abilities and limitations in a job. They do not recognize the significance of past activities or achievements. People need to increase their self-knowledge and decision-making skills. The choice of a job depends on the knowledge of suitable occupations. A systematic classification of occupational information can give the person an orderly way to search for a job. Otherwise, there is a chaotic mass of information covering thousands of jobs that a person cannot understand.

Meditate Word By Word On This Verse:
Rom. 11:29.

There are five common job characteristics that can be matched with occupations. They are listed below:

1. A high school degree is the minimum education needed.
2. Technical institute or an apprenticeship required.
3. A university degree required for a position.
4. There are common jobs found in most parts of the country, i.e. cashiers, librarians, government employees.
5. There are also jobs that are concentrated in certain localities, i.e. space launch centers, computer research centers, and defense locations.

Specific Personal Characteristics and Occupational Preferences - These characteristics and preferences are listed in a separate worksheet. Now, fill out THIS WORKSHEET, then return to this lesson. [You can also use this form later to gather information for any client.]

1. What personal and job characteritstics does a bus driver have?
(One or more of the following answers may be correct.)
a) working with things,
b) working closely supervised,
c) repetitious work,
d) motivates others,
e) works with ideas,
f) works independently.

These lists help a person understand important personal characteristics such as interests, preferences, educational accomplishments, and capabilities to be paired with the characteristics of an occupation or a group of occupations.

2. A television commercial is the result of someone who has:
(Only one of the following answers is correct.)
a) protective and artistic preferences,
b) business and selling preferences,
c) artistic and selling preferences.

Educational Development
General educational development refers to both formal and informal training that helps a person to think and follow directions as well as increase his use of basic linguistic and mechanical skills.

There are three components of educational development. They are reasoning, mathematical, and language ability. Reasoning development ranges from applying common sense and understanding simple instructions to a high level of applying principles of logical or scientific thinking. Mathematical development ranges from simple arithmetic to the advanced level of application of mathematical theories. Language development is characterized by understanding simple to advanced levels of comprehension and expression. An example of this development is the ability to read simple directions and understand them on the lowest level and on the highest level, being able to read and understand a medical textbook or other scientific research.

Vocational Preparation
Vocational training is obtained in an institute, college, or military service, through paid or volunteer work or through a hobby or other interest. There are many different situations where a person can learn a vocation - in technical and art institutes, apprentice programs, in-house training in a factory that is provided by an employer, on-the-job training in which the individual learns a job by instruction from another worker, and through other job experience that may apply to a new job.

There are 9 different levels of specific vocational preparation:

1. Short demonstration of a job - example: handing out advertisements at the subway.
2. Any job that requires 30 days of preparation - cashier work.
3. A job that requires preparation time of 3 months - restaurant work.
4. A job that requires preparation time of 6 months - postal worker, transport driver.
5. A job that requires preparation time of 6 months to 1 year - hair stylists.
6. A job that requires 1-2 years of preparation - mechanic, electrician.
7. A job that requires 2-4 years of training - nurse.
8. A job that requires 4-10 years of vocational preparation - accountant.
9. A job requiring over 10 years of preparation - neurosurgeon.

Question:
3. What type of specific vocational preparation did you need for your job?

Aptitudes
Aptitudes are particular capabilities that a person needs in order to learn or complete a job with competence. There are eleven of these aptitudes and they can be measured with certain tests.

• INTELLIGENCE - General learning ability or the ability to understand directions and underlying principles of a job. The ability to reason and make judgments.
• VERBAL - Ability to understand words and the meanings of words. Ability to use words effectively.
• NUMERICAL - Ability to perform arithmetic operations quickly and accurately.
• SPATIAL - Ability to comprehend forms in space and understand relationships of solid and plane objects. May also be described as the ability to visualize objects of two or three dimensions.
• FORM PERCEPTION - Ability to perceive detail in objects or in pictorial and graphic material and make comparisons.
• CLERICAL PERCEPTION - Ability to perceive detail in verbal or written materials.
• MOTOR COORDINATION - Ability to coordinate eyes and hands or fingers rapidly and make precise movements with speed.
• FINGER DEXTERITY - Ability to move the fingers to manipulate small objects rapidly.
• MANUAL DEXTERITY - Ability to move the hands easily and skillfully.
• EYE-HAND-FOOT COORDINATION - Ability to move the hand and foot with each other in accordance with visual stimuli.
• COLOR DISCRIMINATION - Ability to perceive or recognize similarities or differences in colors or in shades of the same color.

4. What aptitudes does a computer programmer need to do his job well?
(One or more of the following answers may be correct.)
a) intelligence,
b) finger dexterity,
c) verbal,
d) eye-hand-foot coordination.

Temperaments or Personal Traits
Temperaments refer to the adaptability that a person must make to work at a certain job. Different jobs have different requirements. For example, a nurse must be able to work different times of the day. One of my friends who is a nurse can work only in the evening hours. Her body cannot adjust to early morning hours.

Effectiveness in a certain job is usually the result of the temperament of a person. If the person adjusts to the specific job demands, he can work well. Ineffectiveness or discontentment with a job may be the result of failure to adapt to the circumstances of the job.

Employers usually want information about personal characteristics that have to do with temperaments. Other qualifications such as experience and training are important as well, but the ability to adjust to a certain job is desirable. Often, as you read advertisements in the newspaper for employment, temperament or personalities traits that the employer desires are listed. These traits can be evaluated by interviewing, testing, and analyzing work histories. By looking at the job requirements, the rehabilitation worker links his client's traits to that job.

There are ten personal traits needed by a person in specific work situations:

1. Adaptability in accepting responsibility for direction, control, or planning in a particular job.
2. Adaptability to situations involving the interpretations of feelings, ideas, or facts - what is a person trying to say to me about his job and what needs to be done.
3. Adaptability to influence people's opinions, attitudes, or judgments about ideas or things - teaching new material to a group of workers about a new procedure in their work.
4. Adaptability to make generalizations, evaluations, or decisions based on sensory or judgmental criteria - looking at a handicapped person and beginning to understand what is needed to help him.
5. Adaptability to make decisions, evaluations, or generalizations based on measurable data - we can know if a rehabilitation plan is helpful to a person if he makes improvements in his life with our help.
6. Adaptability with people beyond giving and receiving instructions - being able to interpret non-verbal language of a co-worker such as expression on a face or a movement of the body that signifies he needs help or further instruction.
7. Adaptability is performing repetitive work according to set procedures, sequence, or pace - can a person work on an assembly line or in a laboratory where procedures must be accurate.
8. Adaptability in performing under stress when confronted with an emergency, critical, or dangerous situations - these are jobs for police, firemen, and emergency medical personnel.
9. Adaptability to situations requiring precise attainments of limits, tolerances, or standards - refers to a worker in a laboratory doing research, to construction of buildings, to financial work.
10. Adaptability in performing a variety of duties, often changing from one task to another without the loss of efficiency or composure - a businessman who meets various people for various reasons, a job of a mayor, a person who does a variety of jobs in a factory.

5. What personal traits does a pastor of a church need?
(One or more of the following answers may be correct.)
a) ability with people,
b) ability to influence people,
c) ability to perform in stressful situations,
d) ability to perform repetitive work,
e) ability to accept responsibility and control for a project.