PRESTIGE IN VOCATIONAL INTERESTS

Level is an important feature of occupations and occupational aspirati ons. Level of occupational aspiration, expectation, or attainment has long been central in sociological inquiry. Occupational or educational level is also often incorporated in materials for assisting clients w ith career exploration. Tracey and Rounds (this issue) have shown that when a RIASEC circumplex is combined with a prestige hierarchy, a mea ningful three-dimensional representation of interests results. This re presentation has theoretical value. The communalities for interest sca les tell their distance from the origin in the plane produced by pairs of dimensions. These distances indicate a bumpy surface topography fo r a three-dimensional structure. A more perfect sphere would be produc ed by scales with equal proportions of their variance in the three-dim ensional space (and in each plane passing through the origin of this s pace). The pursuit of a perfect sphere could have aesthetic value, but little additional practical value. Because every one cannot have pres tigious or highly complex occupations in the present economy, it is fo rtunate that everyone does not want them. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc .