The metaphor of the professional self-determination: the interrelationship of individual and personal characteristics, and vocational choice

Abstract

The article presents the data of research of interrelation of professional self-determination and features of individual and personal characteristics of individuals on the example of the choice of the profession of “psychologist” in different age groups: high school students, psychology students and practitioners. Also considered the peculiarities of the choice of metaphors to describe the category of “Self” image” and “I'm a professional”. The study was done on a sample of 55 people using a set of three methods. Based on the results, it is concluded that some personal characteristics can indirectly affect professional self-determination. For example, “altruistic” people tend to choose “helping” professions, while those with high indicators on the scale of “Openness to new experience” are more suited to creatively oriented work. It is assumed that the relationship between the use of certain cognitive metaphors and professional choice determines some inclusion of images of different “Self” images” in the process of self-determination, but for the conclusions about the integration of personal and professional self-determination in cognitive metaphors further research is needed.

Keywords

• professional self-determination
• individual and personal characteristics
• cognitive metaphors
• “Self” image”
• the profession of psychologist