ASSIGNMENT 1

PK30703 CAREER AND PLACEMENT

SEMESTER 1, SESSION 2022/2023

TITLE:
THE COMPARISONS BETWEEN JOHN HOLLAND’S THEORY AND
ANNE ROE’S THEORY UNDER CAREER SELECTION THEORY

STUDENT:
BP20110069 PAN LI JUN

LECTURER:
SIR MOHD. SOBRI BIN ISMAIL
 Table of Contents
Introduction 1-3

Similarities of Theories 3-4

Differences of Theories 4-6

Strengths 6-7

Limitations 7-8

Conclusion 9

References 10-11

Appendix 12
 1

Introduction

Since the field of counselling psychology first emerged as a profession, it has always been
vital to its identity to guide individuals in making career choices (Gelso & Fretz, 2001, as
cited in Nauta, 2010). There are several theories that have made contributions to the area
of career development, selection, and application. This paper will contribute to the
discussion on the theories in the career selection category which includes Holland’s Theory
and Anne Roe’s Personality Theory. This paper also will provide a comprehensive description
of both theories, the similarities and differences between both theories, as well as the
strength and weaknesses of the theories.

John Holland’s Typology Theory

Figure 1

RIASEC Model

Note. RIASEC Model, a six personality types model. From Finding the Right Career, by
SkillsFuture Singapore, 2020 (https://www.myskillsfuture.gov.sg/content/portal/en/career-
resources/career-resources/education-career-personal-development/finding-the-right-career-
with-the-abcs-of-riasec/jcr:content/par/article_container_757027542/par-article-container/
columncontrol/col-8-4-1/image_1368453760.img.png/1607928727970.png). Copyright 2022
by SkillsFuture Singapore.

John Holland's most well-known work is his theory of vocational personalities and
work environments which is based on the typology theory (Holland, 1959). Holland
established the concept of an environmental component after examining the works of
Murray (1938) and Linton (1945). This theory is continuously revised and finally completed
in 1985. His theory perceived most individuals can be explained with the combination of six
personality types, including Realistic (R), Investigate (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising
(E), and Conventional (C). These six personality types are usually abbreviated as RIASEC.
Each personality type has a particular interest, beliefs, traits, and skills as shown in Figure 1.
 2

As mentioned earlier, Holland suggested using the typology theory to define

individuals in order to classify them to the work environment that suits their personalities. In
his latest revision of the theory, Holland proposes that individuals not only predominate by a
personality type, but they may also have more than one personality type or subtype that
can give a more comprehensive description of them (Holland, 1973, 1985). Based on the
typology, every individual’s profile contains six kinds of personality traits, the three most
obvious traits that can be used to identify the individuals are called subtype or three-letter
codes. For instance, the individuals with RCI codes consist of realistic, conventional and
investigative traits.

Anne Roe’s Personality Theory

Anne Roe’s career development theory is mainly concerned with the combination of
personality and occupational classification. She believes that occupations are influenced by
individual variances in psychological and physical factors, origins, and experiences. Roe
initially developed a career development theory in 1956 after reading Maslow’s basic needs
hierarchy (Maslow, 1954). Roe also proposed that individuals choose jobs based on their
early childhood relationship with parents in three categories, including emotional
concentration on the child, avoidance of the child, and acceptance of the child.

Figure 2

Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Occupational Classification

 3

Note. Figure of Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Occupational Classification. Own

work.

Moreover, according to Brown (1990), Roe worried about the existing occupation
classification system that is confusing, inconsistent and lacks a psychological base. Thus,
she later developed and categorized the occupations classification into 8 groups as shown in
figure 2, such as service, business contact, organization, technology, outdoor, science,
general culture, as well as arts and entertainment. Each organization group consist of six
levels that are determined by the level of competency, responsibility, and talent. These six
levels comprise professional and managerial 1, professional and managerial 2, semi-
professional and small business, skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled.

Similarities of Theories

Since Holland’s Theory and Anne Roe’s Theory are placed in the same category, they have
several common factors. When discussing the similarities between Holland’s Theory and
Anne Roe’s Theory, both of them were developed based on basic psychological literature
(Samuel, 1995). Both theory concept has grounds in the personality theory. Holland’s theory
of careers (1973) assumes that a person’s personality is simultaneous to his or her
vocational choice because the vocational choice is one part of the personality. Personality
traits are defined through preferences for school courses, leisure activities, interests, and
jobs, while vocational choices can be considered as an extension of the personality. In the
same context, Roe came up with a miniature personality theory. She emphasized the
connections between personality traits and occupational behaviour. Roe aimed at examining
the various career related to individual differences in experiences, physical and psychological
factors, and histories.

Besides, Holland and Roe have implemented a similar classification method in career
selection theory. Holland divided individuals into six personality types and environments with
the use of typology theory (Brown, 1990). The typological group includes Realistic (R),
Investigate (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C). Holland
believes that an individual’s complete profile should comprise all traits from six personality
types, while the three most obvious types can determine an individual is a better fit for
which type of career environment. Different from Holland, Roe classified the occupations
into eight groups, comprising service, business contact, organization, technology, outdoor,
science, general culture, and also arts and entertainment (Brown, 1990). She considered
each occupation classification contained six levels of responsibility and complexity, involving
 4

professional and managerial 1, professional and managerial 2, semi-professional and small

business, skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled.

Furthermore, Holland and Roe reckoned that parents have an influence on their
children’s career choices (Brown, 1990). According to Holland, “types generate types”. The
parent's personality type contributes to establishing a wide range of environmental options
for a kid, which has a big impact on personality development. Parents play an important role
in affecting children's involvement in activities, friendships, belongings, and materials. These
attributes influence the children’s interests and later give impact the children’s personality
traits. Roe concentrated on the relationship between the parents and the children during
their childhood experiences. She believed the parenting style affects the children’s future
career choices. The parenting styles involve secure (parents are constantly aware of
children; the children are allowed to explore and return to their parents), anxious or
ambivalent (parents have inconstant replies or are unavailable; the children are alert or
afraid of isolating from their parents), and avoidant (the parents refuse children’s request
for interact; children shun parents as a source of comfort).

Differences of Theories

Even though Holland’s and Roe’s theories are being placed in the same category, their
theories remain some differences that allow the readers to differentiate them. First, Holland
and Roe have a different view in theoretical based (Cara, 2008). Holland's theory is focused
on the correlation between personality and occupational choice. It makes apparent
connections between distinct personality traits and job titles. It assumes that choosing a job
is a reflection of one's personality rather than a random event. Roe's theory is centred on
the correlation between one's family environment and one's profession choice. The family
serves as the core of Roe's theory. According to Roe, family influences vocational choices
significantly (Brown et al., 1997). The family environment affects the development of
psychological demands and continues to affect career behaviour.

Besides, there is a difference in the components being emphasized in Holland’s and

Roe’s Theories. The RIASEC model of Holland’s theory placed emphasis on the individual
and the environment. Holland centred the five concepts when explaining the RIASEC model,
such as consistency (the closer the personality types, the more consistent the person is),
differentiation (if a person or environment shows an alike score in all or several categories,
it is undifferentiated), identity (identity can be divided into people and environment),
congruence (to matching the similar personality into the similar environment), and calculus
 5

(to clarify the interconnections between types or environments). All the concepts attempt to
demonstrate how the relationship between a person and environment is important in career
selection. Nevertheless, Roe focused on the person and things as the second method of
occupation classification as shown in figure 3. For instance, Roe characterised one
dimension as “level”, while the second dimension as “Thing-Versus-Person” during her
description of occupational categorization systems.

Figure 3

Projection of Occupation Classification Model onto Plane Surface

Note. Classification of Occupational. From Career choice and development (2nd ed., p. 83),
Brown, D., 1990, Jossey-Bass. Copyright 1990 by Duane Brown. Reprinted with permission.

Holland and Roe are different in terms of showing how career development might
become theoretically misplaced (Samuel, 1995). Holland’s theory is quite clear about how
inappropriate career choices might be made. Holland considered this issue in terms of
occupational conflict or uncertainty. If the personality types modal causes the individual
unable to make a career choice and there is no second modal to support the individual in
making the vocational decision, there will be vocational indecision. However, Roe is unclear
on how career development might go wrong. The issue of misplaced career choice is
inappropriate for Roe. Roe's theory fails to account for the possibility of vocational indecision
 6

since she has demonstrated how choices are formed without properly evaluating their
appropriateness.

Moreover, Holland and Roe place differing emphasis on individuals’ abilities in their
theory of career selection (Samuel, 1995). Holland stated that the ability of the individual is
one component of the decision equation. People prefer workplace settings in which they
may put their use abilities, share their opinion and ideas, and undertake acceptable tasks
and roles. When individuals are involved in career selection, they will choose the occupation
based on their ability. For instance, artistic individuals who have a high ability in creativity
will decide to involve themselves in an artistic job, such as an artist or designer. However,
Roe believes that ability is genetically determined. The individual’s ability is primarily
inherited since genetic control would give an impact on the individual differences in
characteristics. The genetic component is more particular and stronger in individuals’
intellectual abilities than interests and behaviours.

Strengths

Everything comes with two sides. It is undeniable that Holland’s and Roe’s theories also
involve several strengths. These strengths have provided countless value to practitioners in
numerous professions.

John Holland’s Typology Theory

The most visible strength of Holland’s theory is its simplicity (Holland, 1985, p.7).
Holland was concerned that a more elegant and complicated conceptualization might
enhance explanatory value. At the same time, the complexity of the conceptual notion may
result in too complicated for practical career guidance. Conversely, simplicity provides the
most applicable theory for practitioners to understand and implement the theory when they
are engaging in career selection assistance. Holland’s theory is assessed not only on the
basis of scientific study findings but also on the measure of the acceptability of the
practitioners and the public.

The second strength of Holland’s theory is its practicability (Holland, 1985, p.7).
Holland’s theory has a high practical value in the career-related profession, such as career
counselling, vocational psychology, and career guidance. In the modern career guidance
profession, the counsellor employs the six personality types model to assist the individual in
assessing and discovering their personalities. Later, the counsellor used the codes in the
RIASEC model to match the personality traits of individuals to the relevant career path. For
 7

example, the counsellor helps to match the social individuals into the social working
environment, including social workers, psychologists and others.

Anne Roe’s Personality Theory

As a career selection theory, Roe’s theory's most overt strength is when it can be
applied to the practice of family counselling environment (Martina, 2021). Since Roe’s theory
emphasize the client’s family background, early satisfaction and frustration, and needs
structure, the practice of Roe’s theory is effective in helping the parents and client
understand why individuals act differently and choose one career over another at different
periods. In the practice of Roe’s theory, the counsellor employs the inherent concept to
create a framework for identifying personality traits and their potentialities in connection to
environmental characteristics. Roe’s theory will also enhance the benefit of the counselling
session when the counsellor explores the needs of the clients during the vocational
selection.

In addition, Roe’s theory served as a motivator when using the need hierarchy in the
explanation of career selection. In Roe’s theory, the levels of needs satisfaction define which
of Maslow’s needs are the most powerful motivators that prompt a person to engage in a
related career. For Roe, she thinks it is impossible to fulfil all levels of needs satisfaction in
society, especially physiological and safety needs. The most ideal situation will only happen
if a congenial group works together and is accepted by one’s peers which will result in the
achievement of self-esteem. Roe also noted the demand for self-actualization which is
placed in the highest position in Maslow’s need hierarchy should come after the demand for
self-esteem, significance, respect, and independence.

Limitations

John Holland’s Typology Theory

Holland’s theory lacks a description of how individuals develop into their personality
types. Holland is ambiguous in defining this point (Osipow, 1983, p. 112 & Brown 1987, p.
17). According to Holland (1985, p. 15), types generate types. However, the fact showed
this impact is caused by more than inheritance. Although a parent’s personality type
contributes to providing a wide range of environmental options for a kid, which has a big
impact on personality development that can bring influence future career selections, it
should be taken into account that personality type influences parents and kids can interact
together. Sometimes, the parents’ personalities will also be influenced by the kids which can
 8

affect the kids’ personality development. Thus, Holland’s assumption on how individuals
develop into their personality types can be more detailed or concrete.

Besides, Holland’s model is sexist (Brown, 1990). There is obvious gender

discrimination and differences that happened when the individual engaged in career-related
assessments or evaluations. Holland’s study demonstrates that females outperform males on
the Self-Directed Search (SDS) conventional scale, while males outperform females on the
SDS realistic scale. This shortcoming has a significant impact on the SDS instrument's
reliability and validity. It is critical to note that, when an individual is engaged in the
vocational evaluation of suitability for a profession, their performance is determined by their
prior experience and innate potential. It should be highlighted that the way women and men
perform in SDS reflects the cultural impacts on the individual's development instead of
gender differences.

Anne Roe’s Personality Theory

The classification of occupations in Roe’s theory seems to be highly satisfactory for

men, but it is not adequate for women, especially for the homemaker-mother role (Brown,
1990). Housewives had no place in the occupational categorization system. Women
nowadays are not simply housewives, but they also work outdoors or at home. It looks
inadequate to categorise them just based on their paid occupations. Roe's theory lacks a
mechanism for measuring the housewives’ external part-time tasks, the distinction between
home and work, and the situation in which women remain at home yet assist their husbands
in their job. For instance, the wife of a beverage vendor helped him prepare containers and
syrup or the wife of a primary school teacher assist him in preparing the teaching materials
and checking students’ homework.

Moreover, Roe’s theory lacks adequate research to determine the relationship

between parenting style and vocational choice (Brown et al., 1997, p. 10). There are three
types of parenting styles in Roe’s theory, including the emotional concentration of the child,
avoidance of the child, and acceptance of the child. Roe’s theory only stated the importance
of parenting style in vocational choice but remains ambiguous in explaining how the parent-
child interactions can affect children’s vocational choices when they grow up in future. While
Roe was concerned about the parenting style in her theory, she forgot to consider the
possibility of the different structures of the family also may influence the parenting style in
the children's development process. Besides, there is a lack of measurement of the parent-
 9

child interactions provided to the practitioners to assess the influence of parent-child

interaction on vocational choice.

Conclusion

This paper has provided a description of John Holland’s theory and Anne Roe’s theory which
has placed under the same career selection theory category. Holland’s theory and Roe’s
theory are not only similar in some points but also have differences in other points. Both
theories include the strengths and limitations that required the researcher to further study.
In short, career selection is a long and complicated process. It should be taken into account
numerous factors and considerations with the use of career selection theory, such as John
Holland’s typology theory and Anne Roe’s personality theory in this paper.
 10

References

Brown, D. (1987). The Status of Holland’s Theory of Vocational Choice. Career Development
Quarterly, 36, 13-23.

Brown, D. (1990). Career choice and development (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

https://archive.org/details/careerchoicedeve00brow/page/n6/mode/1up

Brown, M. T., Lum, J. L., & Voyle, K. (1997). Roe revisited: A call for the reappraisal of the
theory of personality development and career choice. Journal of Vocational Behavior,
51(2), 283-294. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1997.1583

Cara, C. A. (2008). Career aspirations: Similarities and differences between adolescence

with learning disabilities and adolescence not receiving special education
services [Doctoral dissertation]. https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=8381&context=theses

Holland, J. L. (1959). A theory of vocational choice. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 6,

35– 45

Holland, J. L. (1973). Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Careers. Englewood Cliffs, N.

J.: Prentice-Hall.

Holland, J. L. (1985). Manual for the Vocational Preference Inventory. Odessa, Fla.:
Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.

Linton, R. (1945). The Cultural Background of Personality. East Norwalk, Conn.: Appleton-
Century-Crofts.

Martina, C. N. (2021). Application of career development theory of Anne Roe in a family

counselling setting. South Eastern Journal of Research and Sustainable
Development, 5(1), 14-25.

Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row.

Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in Personality. New York: Oxford University Press.

 11

Nauta, M. M. (2010). The development, evolution, and status of Holland’s theory of

vocational personalities: Reflections and future directions for counseling psychology.
Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(1), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018213

Osipow, S. H. (1983). Theories of Career Development (3rd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall.

Samuel, H. O. (1995). A Comparison of the Theories. In Theories of Career Development

(4th ed., pp. 220-223). Pearson.

SkillsFuture Singapore. (2020). RIASEC Model [Online Image].

https://www.myskillsfuture.gov.sg/content/portal/en/career-resources/career-
resources/education-career-personal-development/finding-the-right-career-with-the-
abcs-of-riasec/jcr:content/par/article_container_757027542/par-article-container/
columncontrol/col-8-4-1/image_1368453760.img.png/1607928727970.png
 12

Appendix
13