RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-CONCEPT AND OCCUPATIONAL PREFERENCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY ADOLESCENTS IN UDU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF DELTA STATE (GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
An individual’s life, including happiness and fulfilment borders on personal view of self and a realistic occupational preference. The statement “an unexamined life is not worth living” attributed to Socrates is much a gem of wisdom today as it was at the time of Socrates. It is therefore important that a person takes his time to systematically review various aspects of his life most especially those aspects that have or will have bearing on his work life, for “work maketh man”.
One’s occupation has a pervasive connection with one’s entire way of life. The choice of occupation therefore reflects not only the public declaration of “this is what I am” but also the result of examination of one’s life. Thus one can say that a prerequisite to competent choice of work is the ability to know and differentiate personal values and personal interests, recognise one’s strengths and weaknesses in verbal, quantitative and psycho-motive areas of operations, and appreciate the relationships of these to each other.
The researcher has observed that people express satisfaction and fulfilment in discharging duties which they are interested in, have the right skills and energy to cope with. On the other hand, people get frustrated in performing jobs they have no skills for, and in jobs, which their environments are adverse to their physical and psychological well-being.
Early theorists assumed that persons develop traits in terms of their interests and abilities and that these traits tend to be both stable over time and susceptible to reliable measurement. They also assumed that an individual would be happiest when the demands and responsibilities of their chosen fields of work were commensurate with their trait profiles (Borrow, 2000). Consequently, a “matching method” arose, in which individuals were helped to understand themselves in relation to opportunities and working conditions in different field of work. The matching method has provided since the early 1900’s a basis for career decision making that is still in use, but it has never adequately accounted for developmental changes in motivation, interests or skills. One of the relatively well-developed viewpoints that takes into account motivation and other developmental factors is that of self-concept.