Holland's typological model and its role in career guidance

Personality is the overall pattern of behavior, perception, and thought that each of us we have, being our unique and distinctive individual configuration compared to that of the the rest. However, the traits themselves that make up this personality are more or less the same, although we possess them to different degrees within a continuum.

The great differences between one and the other mean that attempts have been made to integrate knowledge regarding personality in different currents of thought, generating different personality models and some of which have an objective specific. An example of this is Holland's typological model., which proposes a series of basic personality patterns which are used mainly in the field of vocational guidance.

• Related article: "The main theories of personality"

Holland's typological model

Holland's typological model is a proposal for a personality model that arises from the author's intention to generate an explanatory theory regarding the choice of a professional occupation, linking different characteristics and traits to the correct performance and taste for certain tasks and fields labor. For the author, we tend to want to find a high level of

congruence between our personality and the type of task we perform.

For Holland, the choice of a specific career or profession will depend on the development of the set of elements and traits that make up the personality, the person being more competent and feeling greater satisfaction in his work depending on the harmony between his personality and the type of task he performs.

With the aim of contributing to help in vocational guidance, the author generated a hexagonal model with six main types of personality, which links with certain types of environments and interests. This does not mean that we cannot carry out a task that does not correspond to our type of personality, simply that starting from the base of Those of us who are looking for a job where we can develop our main skills will tend to seek and feel more comfortable in certain areas. would try to find jobs for which we could feel a vocation, despite the fact that we may end up performing tasks that do not correspond to it.

The relationship between profession and personality is bidirectional: it is not just that certain professions require certain skills and ways of doing things but also stems from the fact that the type of task attracts people with a concrete personality. This has as a result that a large number of professionals in a given sector tend to have, if they are carrying out such employment by vocation and not by mere necessity, relatively similar.

The ascription to a certain type of personality or the choice of a career or another are not better or worse, being all of them equally positive and necessary. Also, it must be taken into account that hardly a person will be totally reflected with a single type of personality: we all have different traits that make us complex beings and that can make us fit into different profiles. In these cases, the professional choice may seem more complicated, although some characteristics or interests generally prevail over others.

• You may be interested in: "The Big 5 Personality Traits: Sociability, Responsibility, Openness, Kindness, and Neuroticism"

The different types of personality

As we have said, the Holland model establishes, depending on the predominant characteristics of each individual, the belonging or possession of one of the six types of personality which facilitate orientation towards certain types of professions. The six types are as follows.

1. Realistic

The realistic personality refers to that pattern of behavior and thought that tends to see the world as an objective and concrete whole. They take the world as it comes. They tend to be realistic, dynamic, material and although they are not asocial, contact with others is not their highest priority. They are also usually patient and constant.

These types of personalities tend to feel more comfortable performing direct jobs, with strong practical components and that require a certain mobility and systematized use of elements. They tend to stand out in the use of mechanical instruments and in need of manual precision. Fields such as agriculture and livestock, architecture or engineering would be conducive to this type of personality.

2. Intellectual

This type of personality tends more to observe and analyze the world, often in a way abstract and trying to make associations and find relationships between the phenomena that in it they happen. They are curious, analytical personalities, with a tendency to introspection and the use of reason over emotion. They are not especially sociable and tend to have a rather theoretical approach to the world., not interested in practice so much.

This personality corresponds to mainly research-based tasks. Physics, chemistry, economics or biology are some of the areas in which these types of personalities are most often observed.

3. Social

The most notable aspect of people with this type of personality is the need or desire to help others through dealing with them, and their high need for human interaction. They are usually very empathetic and idealistic people, highly communicative and have a certain facility or taste for relationships and cooperation.

The type of tasks in which this type of personality is usually found are all those that involve a direct contact with other people and in which said interaction exists as an objective the idea of ​​giving support to the other. Psychologists, doctors, nurses, teachers or social workers usually have characteristics of this type of personality. More mechanical tasks are not usually to his liking.

4. Artistic

Creativity and the use of materials in search of expression are some of the main elements that characterize the artistic personality. It is not uncommon for these to be people. impulsive, idealistic and highly emotional and intuitive. Aesthetics and being able to project their sensations to the world is important to them, and they tend to be independent people. Although they also try to see the world from abstraction, they tend to focus more on emotion and tend to dislike the merely intellectual, having the need to elaborate and create.

Painters, sculptors or musicians are some of the professionals who tend to have this type of personality. Also dancers and actors, writers and journalists.

5. Entrepreneur

The ability to persuade and communication skills are typical aspects of the entrepreneurial personality. A certain level of dominance and a search for achievement and power are common in this type of person, as well as courage and risk capacity. They are generally people socially skilled and highly extroverted, with leadership skills and a high level of energy.

Professions in which these types of people prevail are the world of banking and business. Salespeople and businessmen often also have traits of this type of personality.

• You may be interested in: "Differences between extraverted, introverted and shy people"

6. Conventional

We are facing a type of personality that is characterized by a taste for order without the need to introduce major changes in it. Nor do they require great social contact at the work level. They tend to be highly organized, orderly, disciplined and formal people. A certain tendency to conformism is not uncommon, given that identify with the established organization. They tend to be agile and logical.

Within this type of personalities we find people with a vocation for aspects such as accounting, office work, secretarial work, librarians... in general with a tendency to look for order.

Conclusion

Holland's typological model, despite having limitations and having been criticized for numerous reasons (for example, it does not allow predicting whether within the same type of environment occupational level, one position or another may be more recommendable and it is also worth considering that there will be people whose characteristics overlap with more than one of the types), it continues to be today one of the most relevant within professional guidance.

The test that Holland created based on this model is widely known, the Vocational Preferences Inventory, which has also served as the basis for the creation of other questionnaires and models that allow us to offer a better approach to the relationship between personality characteristics and adaptation to certain fields professionals.

Bibliographic references:

• Holland, J. (1978). The vocational choice. Racing theory. Editorial Trillas: Mexico.
• Martinez, J.M.; Valls, F. (2008). Application of Holland's theory to the classification of occupations. Adaptation of the Occupational Classification Inventory (ICO). Mexican Journal of Psychology, 25 (1): 151-164. Mexican Society of Psychology, Mexico.