Measuring Vocational Preference.

The article attempts to measure the determinants of vocational wishes, preference, and choice and the factors governing them. Vocational preference, according to the author, is not a sudden event, taking place within a relatively small time-span in the course of a lifetime, but rather a process of development that often extends over many years. In this context, the author assumes that an individual never reaches the ultimate decision at a single moment in time, but through a series of decisions over a period of many years; the cumulative impact is the determining factor. Further, the study of vocational preference is usually carried out along one of three lines: an inquiry into the respondents interests, an inquiry into his value orientations, or an inquiry into his actual preference by means of lists of occupations. The article concludes that an occupation list drawn up to establish the various lines of preference in the occupational world will only be of use when it is constructed in a systematic way.