Interest-occupation congruence and career exploration behaviors were examined in a sample of 107 White and 83 Asian Indian American college students. It was hypothesized that there would be both intergroup differences and intragroup differences. Asian Indians were expected to evidence less congruence and career exploration than Whites. The specific intragroup differences examined were the endorsement of Dharmic values (an Indian value of tradition and duty), which was hypothesized to be related to lower congruence and less career exploration. Results of hierarchical regressions demonstrated that the hypotheses were supported with respect to congruence but not career exploration. Results are discussed with respect to the importance of duty in the career selection process and Asian Indians in particular.
Assouline, M., & Meir, E. I. (1987). Meta-analysis of the relationship between congruence and well-being measures. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 31, 319-323.
2.
Berry, J. W. (2003). Conceptual approaches to acculturation. In K. M. Chun, P. Balls Organista, & G. Marín (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (pp. 17-39). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
3.
Blustein, D. L., & Ellis, M. V. (2000). The cultural context of career assessment. Journal of Career Assessment, 8, 379-390.
4.
Blustein, D. L., Devenis, L. E., & Kidney, B. A. (1989). Relationship between the identity formation process and career development. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 36, 196-202.
5.
Brown, S. D., & Gore, P. A. (1994). An evaluation of interest congruence indices: Distribution characteristics and measurement properties. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 310-327.
6.
Bureau of the Census. (2002). The Asian population: 2000. Retrieved November 18, 2003, from http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/c2kbr01-16.pdf
7.
Gottfredson, G. D., & Holland, J. L. (1996). Dictionary of Holland occupational codes. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
8.
Hardin, E. E., Leong, F. T. L., & Osipow, S. H. (2001). Cultural relativity in the conceptualization of career maturity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58, 36-52.
9.
Hubert, L., & Arabie, P. (1987). Evaluating order hypotheses within proximity matrices. Psychological Bulletin, 102, 172-178.
10.
Kwak, J. C., & Pulvino, C. J. (1982). A mathematical model for comparing Holland’s personality and environmental codes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 21, 231-241.
11.
Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (2000). Contextual supports and barriers to career choice: A social cognitive analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 36-49.
12.
Leong, F. T. L., Austin, J. T., Sekaran, U., & Komarraju, M. (1998). An evaluation of the cross-cultural validity of Holland’s theory: Career choices by workers in India. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 52, 441-455.
13.
Leung, S. A., Ivey, D., & Suzuki, L. (1994). Factors affecting the career aspirations of Asian Americans. Journal of Counseling and Development, 72, 404-410.
14.
Magerkorth, R. E. M. (2000). Vocational congruence and perceived career barriers: Effects on college student’s career development. Dissertation Abstracts International-Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 60, 2884.
15.
Rangaswamy, P. (2000). Namaste’ America: Indian immigrants in an American metropolis. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
16.
Spokane, A. R. (1985). A review of research on person-environment congruence in Holland’s theory of careers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 26, 306-343.
17.
Spokane, A. R., Meir, E. I., & Catalano, M. (2000). Person-environment congruence and Holland’s theory: A review and reconsideration. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 57, 137-187.
18.
Stephenson, M. (2000). Development and validation of the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale (SMAS). Psychological Assessment, 12, 77-88.
19.
Stumpf, S. A., Colarelli, S. M., & Hartman, K. (1983). Development of the Career Exploration Survey (CES). Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22, 191-226.
20.
Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1999). Counseling the culturally different: Theory and practice. New York: John Wiley.
21.
Tinsley, H. E. A. (2000). The congruence myth: An analysis of the efficacy of the person-environment fit model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 147-179.
22.
Tracey, T. J. G. (2000). Analysis of circumplex models. In H. E. A. Tinsley & S. D. Brown (Eds.), Handbook of applied multivariate statistics and mathematical modeling (pp. 641-664). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
23.
Tracey, T. J. G. (2002). Development of interests and competency beliefs: A 1-year longitudinal study of fifth- to eighth-grade students using the ICA-R and structural equation modeling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49, 148-163.
24.
Tracey, T. J. G., Darcy, M., & Kovalski, T. (2000). A closer look at person-environment fit. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56, 216-224.
25.
Tracey, T. J. G., Leong, F. T. L., & Glidden, C. (1986). Help seeking and problem perception among Asian Americans. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 33, 331-336.
26.
Tracey, T. J., & Rounds, J. (1993). Evaluating Holland’s and Gati’s vocational interest models: A structural meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 229-246.
27.
Tracey, T. J. G., & Ward, C. C. (1998). The structure of children’s interests and competence perceptions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 45, 290-303.
28.
Zane, N., & Mak, W. (2003). Major approaches to the measurement of acculturation among ethnic minority populations: A content analysis and an alternative empirical strategy. In K. M. Chun, P. Balls Organista, & G. Marín (Eds.), Acculturation: Advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (pp. 39-60). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
