Integrating Social Class Into Vocational Psychology (Diemer & Ali, 2009)

Vocational Psychology 03.23.16

Integrating Social Class Into Vocational Psychology (Diemer & Ali, 2009)

Social Class

·  is underrepresented in vocational psychology theory, scholarship, and practice

·  is determined by one's occupation

·  is operationalized by socioeconomic stats indices (SES) use of educational and/or occupational attainment (Nakao & Treas, 1994)

·  Scholarship has suggested that social class affects vocational psychology constructs such as:

o  work role salience (Brown, Fukunaga, Umemoto, & Wicker, 1996; Diemer & Blustein, 2007)

o  occupational expectations (Diemer & Hsieh, 2008)

o  vocational/educational aspirations (Ali & McWhirter, 2006)

o  views of the world of work (Chaves et al., 2004)

o  occupational self-concept implementation (Blustein et al., 2002)

Sociological Perspectives

·  Sociological perspectives emphasize macro-level forces and sociostructural constructs over internal traits and explain how access to external career-related resources that vary by social class influence career development and occupational attainment.

o  Research indicates that SES affect participants' quality of educational environment, emotional and financial support for college attendance, and cognitive ability, among other variables

·  Structural perspectives consider the impact of social class resources but also incorporates the impact of structural forces (such as labor market discrimination) to explain career development processes (Rossides, 1990)

o  It rejects the ideology of equal opportunity in the U.S. and point to factors beyond individual's control--such as race, gender, or parenting practices--as influential in the career development process (particularly social mobility and occupational attainment)

o  Being born to parents who place little value on formal education (generally) results in lower educational and occupational attainment

Socioeconomic Status

·  The SES tradition is more of a quantitative approach to considering social class that deemphasizes the psychological impact of social class

·  Has traditionally been measured through educational/occupational attainment, income, and/or occupational prestige

·  SES background has commonly been operationalized by:

o  education attained by one's mother

o  average education attained by one's mother and father

o  highest education attained either by one's mother or father

§  limitations of this method -> difficult to measure the SES of single-parent households, same-sex households, and reconstituted families (Entwisle & Astone, 1994)

·  Another method of measurement examines income levels

o  limitation -> confounded by the fact that an estimated 15% to 25% of the U.S.'s gross national product comes from illegal, underground, and/or untaxed sources (Rossides, 1990)

·  Another method is to operationalize SES through the prestige of either mother's or father's occupation

o  however, subjective perceptions of occupational prestige can operational SES

o  ex. laypersons have a sense of occupational prestige and can delineate prestige differences between an M.D. and a sanitation worker (Nakao & Treas, 1994)

o  Nakao and Treas (1994) developed the Socioeconomic Index (SEI) to update existing prestige scales, based on the creation of new occupations and potential changes in occupational prestige over time.

·  Measuring SES through educational attainment, income, or prestige only in the current generation is a problem because it does not account for the wealth and status of previous generations (Fouad & Brown, 2000; Rossides, 1990)

o  Assessing SES of previous generations creates a more complete picture of SES but is more difficult to measure and leads to further questions

o  May be more descriptive of economic resources than current income

·  Important to consider the neighborhood context when measuring SES

o  One method to conceptualize and measure this is to examine the proportion of adults in that neighborhood whom have completed high school (Brooks-Gunn, Denner, & Klebanov, 1995)

Social Class

·  The social class perspective is a more psychological and phenomenological approach that emphasizes how persons understand their own social class, how class shapes an individual's view of the world, and how others view an individual because of his or her perceived social class.

·  Kliman (1998) argued that social class determines access to resources, as well as serving a protective function (among the upper social classes) to the negative effects of misfortune (e.g., illness, job loss, natural disasters)

Social Class Worldview Model (SCWM)

·  emphasizes subjective identification with and subjective experiences of social class, rather than objective criteria (e.g., income, education, occupation), to operationalize social class (Liu et al., 2004)

·  individuals subjectively identify with a particular class and make class-related lifestyle choices to remain congruent with the perceived cultural norms of that social class

·  offers a postmodern perspective to understand the heterogeneity within classes and regional differences in social class (i.e., different experiences of being middle class in NYC vs. rural Georgia)

·  can be integrated with the "psychology of working" perspective to better understand the subjective nature of social class experience and its relationship to work (Liu et al., 2004)

o  Blustein et al. (2002) found that lower social class youth tended to view work as a means of survival or "making ends meet," whereas upper social class youth tended to view work as a means of identity, life satisfaction, or upward mobility.

·  can help to explain the differences in "work or economic subcultures" embedded within larger cultures and how classism operates to advantage or disadvantage individual and/or groups

o  ex. people from rural Appalachia view working with your hands as more valuable than pushing paper around

Future Directions in Understanding and Assessing Social Class

·  The most comprehensive assessment of social class would incorporate objective data (e.g., household educational/occupational attainment, income, generational wealth, neighborhood characteristics) and subjective identification with social class (e.g., self-identification, economic culture)

·  Vocational psychologists should go beyond household attainment and/or income to also consider generation, neighborhood, and subjective identification to best assess social class

Social Class in Career Development Theories

·  Gottfredson's theory of circumscription and compromise (1981) was one of the first theories to explicitly address social class by considering the impact of occupational prestige on children's career choice process

o  Gottfredson (2005) proposed that by age 9, children begin to recognize social class differences in their peers, and by age 13, most children understand occupational prestige.

o  Adolescents begin to understand that certain occupations provide an income that allows for the acquisition of material possessions and many begin to exclude occupations that do not provide adequate prestige, income level, or social standing.

·  Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) describes SES as one of the person input variables that may impact vocational choice by influencing opportunities for learning experiences.

o  Within the SCCT model, self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations are postulated to have a direct impact on the development of vocational interest, which in turn affect vocational goals.

o  Instead of examining the relationships between measures of numeric indices of SES (as measured by income, occupation, free and reduced-priced lunch status), an examination of individuals' experiences with classism and subjective perceptions of their own social status that could potentially influence access to learning experiences might further elucidate the construct of social class within SCCT.

·  Holland (1959) suggested that social class may impact vocational choice in the original postulation of person-environment fit theory.

o  Holland proposed that a person's selection of an occupation is mediated by personal factors, including socioeconomic resources and the physical environment.

o  Researchers needs to move beyond simply verifying the usefulness or applicability of Holland's interest structure to low-SES groups and investigate how the structure of opportunity impacts the actual development of RIASEC interests

Access to Resources

·  Access to social class-related resources has been identified as an important facilitator of occupational preparedness and labor market entry

·  Urban and rural schools are often underfunded in comparison to suburban schools, which limits the availability of school-based resources facilitative of career development and occupational attainment (Ali & McWhirter, 2006; Wilson, 1996)

·  Sewell and Hauser (1975) found that teachers maintained higher educational and occupational expectations for higher social class children than children from middle and lower social classes.

Work Experiences

·  Kliman (1998) argued that the social class of an occupation can be ascertained by the amount of autonomy provided, supervision required, and respect accorded to individuals in that occupation.

·  The impact of social class is also demonstrated in the differences in absenteeism and mental health between white- and blue-collar workers (Brown et al., 1996)

·  The impact of social class even extends to retirement, as being a member of the upper social class relates to more "money activities" (e.g., golf) and more intellectually engaging activities in retirement tan individuals from middle-class and lower lass backgrounds (Brown et al., 1996)

Summary: Social Class and Career Development

·  Social class needs to be more fully integrated and explored in extant career development theories and in our understanding of vocational behavior and occupational attainment

·  Social class impacts access to resources and multiple aspects of career development across the lifespan

·  These social class-based resources affect:

o  work salience (Diemer, 2007)

o  vocational expectations (Diemer & Hsieh, 2008)

o  occupational self-concept implementation (Blustein et al., 2002)

o  academic preparedness for college (Argyle, 1994)

o  readiness for the school-to-work transition (Blustein et al., 2002)

o  occupational attainment and earnings (Sewell & Hauser, 1975)

o  workplace experiences (Kliman, 1998)

o  retirement (Brown et al., 1996)

Practice Implications of Addressing Social Class in Career Counseling

·  career counselors should be cognizant of these intersections when considering social class and race/ethnicity in their work

·  Liu et al. (2004) proposed that one way to address social class in counseling is to directly link it to classism experiences

Employment and Change in Social Class Status

·  Little clinical attention has been paid to the change in social class as the result of this job loss

·  Liu (2002) suggested that directly addressing the loss of social status and both external and internalized classism pressures in therapy may help men (in particular) to make sense of the effects of job loss on their identity

·  Ali, Lewis, and Sandil (2006) discussed how contextual and political factors constrain the occupations immigrants and refugees pursue

o  Career and employment counselors could help immigrants address how the change in social status is impacting their well-being while helping them pursue career options that fulfill basic needs

Social Class and Career Intervention Groups

·  Interventionists should anticipate social class issues and how to address them in career interventions.

·  Successfully negotiating and addressing social class differences may help all participants maximally benefit from career interventions

Social Class and Career Assessment

·  The use of career assessment tools across social class groups is less clearly understood

·  Many career assessments are guided by the assumption that all individuals experience volition and autonomy in their work lives, which may be true for middle-class/upper-class individuals but is less often the case for poor/working class populations (Blustein, 2006)

·  Because vocational interests are influenced by the occupations that one is exposed to and poor/working class youth are exposed to a more circumscribed range of occupations (Constantine et al., 1998), interest inventories may not identify potentially satisfying occupations for poor/working class youth

o  Practitioners could complement assessments of vocational interests with occupational information (e.g., Dictionary of Occupational Titles) that may expand the range of occupations that poor/working class youth have been exposed to

o  Practitioners could address class-based inequities in access to learning experiences by facilitating youths' access to mentoring programs or community math/science organizations

o  Using narrative therapy would elicit information about how clients view their own social class situation and how this limits or enhances their options

Chapter 9: Social Class, Poverty, and Career Development

·  In 2010, 10.4 million Americans were identified as "working poor," meaning that their income was below the federal poverty level even through they spent at least 27 weeks of the year working or looking for work (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011a)

·  Scholars have suggested that the little progress that has been made in examining social class may be related to the:

o  American taboo against discussing social class (Liu, 2011)

o  unexamined social class biases among providers (Smith, 2005, 2010; Smith & Mao, 2012)

o  distancing from the poor through cognitions, behaviors, and institutional policies (Lott, 2002)

Consideration of Social Class and Poverty in Major Career Development Theories

·  From 2005 to 2009, over 6 million jobs were lost in the U.S. alone

·  Some aspects of career counseling theory may serve as a barrier to meeting the needs of clients from a lower social status

o  Important career development issues (such as personality variables, interests, skills, etc.) may not be adequate for addressing the unique concerns of people living in poverty or lower socioeconomic status

Person-Environment Fit Theories

·  The assessments, interventions, and tools of P-E fit theories can be useful for clients with limited means and reduced opportunities for employment, if wielded by counselors with a solid understanding of and appreciation for the social context experienced by clients.

Developmental Career Theories

·  Super nor his colleagues directly addressed the needs to low-income individuals

·  Within career construction theory, there is a fundamental assumption that individuals are making active choices that create a career narrative

o  Careers in the lives of low-income people often do "unfold," but are reactions of necessity rather than choice

o  the fundamental belief that people have the choice to construct a narrative as opposed to having a narrative imposed on them is a major oversight of career construction theory

·  Savickas (2005) also asserts that regardless of SES most people can find opportunities in their work to both express themselves and make a contribution

·  Due to Gottfredson's research, counselors may overlook the possibility that a client of lower social status may actually be ruling out higher-valued jobs because they seem too high in social standing (i.e., no one in the client's reference group has ever had that job), rather than too hard to obtain

·  Vondracek and colleagues (1986) proposed a career life span development model that explicitly examines the interaction of the individual and his or her social context