Abilities and Choices
There is a rough correspondence between an individual's intelligence and the intellectual requirements of the occupation he prefers. It is very difficult, of course, to get an exact measure showing the relationship between interest and actual ability. However, there is much evidence showing a relationship between interest and perceived ability. The activities which are most highly preferred are those in which the person believes himself or herself to possess the greatest ability. This is certainly a type of finding useful to the student in trusting (to some extent of self-perception.
Many data from test scores and from practical situations support the position that verbal and quantitative scores are related to choice of work. Persons with abilities related to an occupation tend to choose that occupation. One follow-up study of over two thousand high school students found that those who entered the mechanical, electric, and building trade5 had their highest scores in mechanical reasoning. Those who succeeded as clerks had superior knowledge of grammar and spelling.
One psychologist, who has been following thousands of students in their career development, has come up with the following practical theory about vocational development: "The process of vocational development is essentially that of developing and implementing a self concept: It is a compromise process [ITALICS ADDED] in which the self concept is a product of the interaction of inherited aptitudes, neural and endocrine makeup, opportunity to play various roles, and evaluations of the extent to which the results of role playing meet with the approval of superiors and fellows."
