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Running head: Occupational Choice of Social Workers 1

SBS 402Senior Capstone SeminarLorenzo Covarrubias, PhD

______________________________________________________________________Capstone

Occupational Choice of Social Workers: Testing Theoretical Models

By Dylan HarbertSocial and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology California State University Monterey Bay

AdvisorsGeorge Baldwin, PhD

Lorenzo Covarrubias, PhDJennifer Lucido, MA

May 1, 2018

Occupational Choice of Social Workers 2

Table of Contents

Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4

Literature Review……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7

Theory………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………11

Methods………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………15

Results…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...……………………17

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………24

Reference………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………25

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………28


Abstract

In many occupations there is significant speculation as to why one will enter and eventually remain in a particular career path. Why and how one becomes a social worker is one of those paths. This research examines the current literature and findings on Master of Social Work (MSW) and Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) student's personal (childhood, young adult) lives and how it has affected their career choice. Specifically, the researcher looked at how childhood traumas and experiences such as drug or alcohol abuse, physical abuse, and spousal abuse may have contributed a preference to the professional job of social work. The researched used two theories, Social Learning Theory and Trait Theory to describe why the students made the occupational choice they did. My hypothesis is that Social Learning Theory is a best fit over Trait Theory over explaining social worker occupational choice. a meta-analysis of four articles was used as the method. The literature shows that childhood trauma has an impact on career choice and outcome for social work students. In this Capstone I will describe and analyze case studies which look at MSW and BSW students’ pasts to examine to what extent it affected their choice to become a social worker. The conclusion of the study shows how Social Learning Theory best explains the reasons behind why people become social workers.

Key terms: MSW, STUDENT, CHILDHOOD, CAREER, MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK, OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE


Introduction

In many occupations there is significant speculation as to why one will enter and eventually

remain in a particular career path. Why and how one becomes a social worker is one of those paths. This

research examines the current literature and findings on Master of Social Work (MSW) and Bachelor of

Social Work (BSW) student's personal (childhood, young adult) lives and how it has affected their career

choice. Specifically, the researcher looked at how childhood traumas and experiences such as drug or

alcohol abuse, physical abuse, and spousal abuse may have contributed a preference to the professional

job of social work. The researched used two theories, Social Learning Theory and Trait Theory to

describe why the students made the occupational choice they did. My hypothesis is that Social Learning

Theory is a best fit over Trait Theory over explaining social worker occupational choice. a meta-analysis

of four articles was used as the method. The literature shows that childhood trauma has an impact on

career choice and outcome for social work students. In this Capstone I will describe and analyze case

studies which look at MSW and BSW students’ pasts to examine to what extent it affected their choice

to become a social worker.

The subject of occupational choice has been studied since the early 1930’s (Ginzberg et al,

1951). Since then there have been numerous sociologists, psychologists, career counselors and others

who have studied the subject. Psychologists when examining why people chose a vocation often look at

traits and personality. An instrument often used to find an individual’s personality is the Myers-Briggs

Personality Test and Big Five Personality Test. Based from the traits that the instrument finds a career

counselor or career counseling program looks at occupations which individuals with similar traits will

thrive and become exceptional. This look at occupational choice contrasts with that of a more

sociological approach, Social Learning Theory. Social Learning Theory looks at how an individual was

raised, the environment they were raised in; to sum up, how and where the they were socialized. An


individual observing what is around them determines what they want to do and what they can do. These

theories will be explained more in-depth in the theory section of the Capstone. This examination of

occupational choice of social workers will introduce the concept, go over the previously published

literature, explain the theories involved and describe how the theories influence social workers in their

career choices.

An analysis of social work students shows that early life experiences influence their reasoning to

join the profession (Rompf & Royse, 1994). Psychologists, sociologists and career counselors often look

at why an individual decides to join a specific career. This Capstone aims to reveal whether Trait Theory

or Social Learning Theory models best describes why a social work student choses social work as an

occupational choice. The literature states that’s social work students may want to become social

workers because of altruistic reasons (trait), for others it may be because of faith, personal or family

reasons (Biggerstaff, 2000; Rompf & Royse, 1994). Inside of the field of professional social work there

are many different career paths. As a MSW graduate one can work with: children, geriatrics, alcohol and

drug users and many other populations. Besides the counseling and therapist (micro) jobs a MSW

graduate can do there are also policy careers available (macro) (Zerden, Sheely, & Despard, 2016). With

so many career options available it is no wonder that there is a huge demand of social workers. The

Bureau of Labor Statistics views that there will be a change of employment of 19% from 2012 through

2022 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

To see how socialization may influence the occupational choice of Social Workers I analyzed four

quantitative studies. I chose this selection of studies because they inquired about the family life of the

student. The surveys showed that the instances of childhood problems for social work students are

significantly higher than that of their peers (Sellers, Hunter 2005; Rompf and David Royse, 1994; Russel,

Gill, Coyne and Woody, 1993). Extracting from Social Learning Theory one can argue that the reason why

social worker students chose career of social work is because their personal family experience. Growing


up in family with dysfunctions may increase the amount of interactions with social workers. The positive

environment and interactions with social workers may have socialized the child to see the profession as

a positive career to do. In the Social Work Influence Questionnaire showed that a high number of

students who took the questionnaire chose social work as a career because of personal family

experiences (Biggerstaff, 2000). A weakness of this theory of socialization Trait Theory.

When looking at the three same studies about the family life of the student one can also use

trait theory to explain why the students went the occupational choice they did. The literature indicates

that an overwhelming majority of social worker students are women (Biggerstaff, 2000). Women as a

population score higher in openness and agreeableness (Weisberg et al, 2011). Not to say all women

score higher than men, or that all men score low on openness and agreeableness. Social work is a

ocupation which demands high amount of empathy and compassion and as a profession does not

compensate as high, monetarily, as other professions, with a median salary of $46,890 compared to the

national income median of $56,516 (Bureau of Labor Statistics & Proctor et al, 2015).

Literature Review

Many scholarly articles that have been published on theories of occupational choice. Theories

such as Trait Theory and Social Learning Theory have often been used by career counselors to help

decide what vocational choice one should make (Brown, 2002). However, the specific goal of explaining

why social workers choose the ocupation they did is lacking. I have read many articles and reports on

social workers, Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students and Master of Social Work (MSW) students

describing, statistically, their victimization to violence as children and exposure to drug abuse. In the

literature most agree that a majority of social worker have had family disfunction, though there is

disagreement whether the traumatic past affected their decision to become social workers (Biggerstaff,

2000). It is important to note that in these studies, “families of origin” was not operationalized, so I

believe they are working under the nuclear family mode. The terms dysfunctional and problems are very


broad and are not defined as well in these surveys, we can assume that those terms mean that the

participants of the surveys met any one of the surveys’ items. These survey items included but are not

limited to abuse, violence in the home, drug and alcohol use and abuse in the home, family members

with mental health issues (sex addition, eating disorders, schizophrenia, depression).

Scholars have written how compassion careers have different family histories compared to

those of non-helping careers, social workers especially. A study by Robin Russel, Phyllis Gill, Ann Coyne

and Jane Woody (1993) showed that MSW students were significantly more likely to be a victim of

violence compared to MBA students,19.3% versus 3.9% respectively. A different study by Rompf and

Royce (1994) found that Social Work students had significantly higher likelihood of experiencing child

abuse or neglect compared to English students, 17% vs 8% (p=.003). A third study found the comparable

results, looking at 126 MSW students 19% of them were victims of violence.

What is curious about reported amount of household violence is when compared to a self-

reported victimization survey of children the national percent of the sample showed that family assault

on children is 8.6% (Finkelhor & Dziuba-Leatherman, 1994) This shows that social work students are

more likely to have experienced violence than the general populous. Disfunction in the family history

goes beyond violence. Social work students also have more histories with a family member with drug

and alcohol addiction.

With a higher chance of violence there is no surprise that there is a high rate of drug and

alcohol abuse in the families of social work students. Look at those same studies regarding drug

addiction and alcohol abuse we find that families of social worker students have an average of one in

five chances of having an alcoholic family member, business students had a one in ten chances; as for

drug abuse in family histories, social workers had twice as many drug addiction instances compared to

the business majors (Russel et al, 1993; Rompf & Royce 1994).


There is overwhelming evidence that social work students experience a higher rate of

disfunction in their families compared to their peers. This disfunction of family upbringing is debated on

how important it is when it came to the career choice for the students. Sellers and Hunter in their study

showed that 57% of their participants in their survey said that their past affected their career choice

(Sellers & Hunter, 2005). Another study explained that only 39% of students decided that their past

experiences however it did show that 24% of the group explained that the reason they wanted to

become a social worker was because a social worker that their role model was a social worker in their

young life. The key difference is that rather being affected by the events that transpired they were

influenced those by who helped them though the events. It is important to note that as Rompf and

Royce stated “[The] study should not be misconstrued as evidence that social work students are drawn

to the profession because of their own mental health problems” (Rompf & Royse, 1994, p. 169) as it

would not be fair to judge.

My examination of the literature has found some weaknesses in the studies. What I have found missing

in the studies is that what are the sociodemographic of the MSW and BSW students and how does that

affect their dysfunction family history. In one study which related to the influence of problems in the

family they showed the demographics. The mean age of the social work students surveyed was 27.8, the

87% of the respondents of the survey were women and 72% were [White] and the next closet was

African American at 11% (Sellers & Hunter, 2005). When looking at a childhood self-reported

victimization survey, the gender most victimized in their childhood are boys at 57.6% and girls at 44.8%

(Finkelhor & Dziuba-Leatherma, 1994, 417). A theory that links the occupational choice of social work

with one’s past is best stated by Lackie, “one's choice of social work as a career may be an attempt to

deal with an earlier imbalance of parentication/infantilization” (Lackie, 1983, p. 315). A snag on this

theory is that if this was true there could be more male social workers, as it currently stands, its

dominated by women (Women’s Bureau, 2015).


An alternative to the socialization of children which guides them to the career of social work, is

based off personality. A blog posted by University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School

of Social Work has a list of skills which every social worker needs. Mentioned are: empathy, self-

awareness and cooperation. The skills mentioned can be attributed to the Big Five psychological trait

agreeableness (Song, & Shi, 2017; Weisberg et al, 2011).

Empathy is the touchstone of being a Social Worker. The Social Work Dictionary defines

empathy as, "the act of perceiving, understanding, experiencing, and responding to the emotional state

and ideas of another person” (Barker, (2003) p. 141). This definition comes from a combination of

psychoanalyst, therapists, psychologists and developmental psychologists (Gerdes & Segal 2011). In the

article Importance of Empathy for Social Work Practice: Integrating New Science, it was noted that two

main components are used when measuring empathy they are emotional empathy and cognitive

empathy.

The National Association of Social Workers, one of largest professional organizations for social

workers, states that a social worker’s mission is to: serve the community, promote social justice, uphold

the dignity of people, integrity, competence, and promote the importance of human relationships. The

key point in this mission restates the important of empathy and altruism.

When BSW and MSW students were scored on the importance of choosing social work as a

career the mean scores which where the highest were under the altruistic category, other options were

professional concerns and exploratory factors (Csikai & Rozensky, 1997). The most important reason to

choose social work as a career in Csikai and Rozensky’s evaluation specifically was, “I had a desire to

help people”. In the same study it was noted that age and gender significant affected the answers of

altruism, specifically women and younger students scored higher on those scales.

In Trait Theory, as measured by the Big Five, the category of empathy and other aspects which

result in altruism lie under the factor of agreeableness (Weisberg, DeYoung, Hirsh, 2011). These factors,


according to research, have a relation with career choices (Hussain et al, 2011). According to Hussain et

al, the reason why people stay in a career field for a long time is because they matched their personality

type with their job, conversely job dissatisfaction is related to ignorance on their personality type (2011).

This idea of job satisfaction based upon ignorance of personality type is contested (Lin & Watkins &

Yuen, 2009). Lin et al argue that instead of personality type which keeps people in their occupation the

reason is a combination of personality types which create success in all occupations.


Theory

Theories are a lens to examine phenomena and explain why and how the outcome came about.

In this examination of social workers and why they made their occupational choice is no different. For

the purposed of this Capstone two theories are being used as lenses for the phenomena Social Learning

Theory and Trait Theory.

Social Learning Theory was a beginning of a change on studying why people act and react to the

things they do. Before Social Learning Theory, an individual was thought only to be based off,

“personality theories [that] proposed diverse lists of motivators, some containing a few all-purpose

drives, others embracing a varied assortment of specific drives.” (Bandura, 1977, 1). The argument was

that the theories at the time ignored how complex and social humans are and that an internal motivator

could be account for the full gambit of responses a human has. Social Learning came bout to combat the

internal driven factor. However, Learning Theory was criticized because proponents of the personality

and trait theories saw it making humanity becoming reactionary in nature. Social Learning Theory is

differing from the more intense variations of behaviorism. An example of this can be found in extreme

behaviorism models which ignores cognitive nature and acknowledges that humans are just a

reactionary force. With a Learning Theory model, the mind takes place and learns from socialization how

and what to do when faced with a situation. Bandura states, “social learning theory [is outlined by

placing] special emphasis -on the important roles played by vicarious, symbolic, and self-regulatory

processes" (Bandrua, 1977, 2), this symbolic representation allowed an individual to react in a familiar

way to an unfamiliar situation. Within the Social Learning Theory there are several ways one can learn.

Learning though direct experience is one of the first ways one learns, as described in Social

Learning Theory. It is represented by the reward and punishment pathway. People meet obstacles every

day. On this journey they choose a path, the path which has a positive outcome is the reward, the

negative outcome is the punishment. Because humans are thinking creatures they take advantage of


this system and have more control over the situations they are in compared to that of a less intelligent

creature. This cognitive ability while having more control over the choices driven by preference sculpts

and limits the choice the individual wants to take. This leads into the next type of learning, information

function of reinforcement.

Direct learning can be very strong to reinforce behavior; however, people do not perform every

task and learn from their own mistakes. We as people can learn from others mistakes vicariously. By

watching others succeed or fail People have the ability create hypothesizes on outcomes for their own

lives and emulate behaviors which create the most success, ignoring the choices which are ineffective or

negative in benefits. The benefits (positive outcomes) and the consequences of negative choices are

part of the motivational function of reinforcement.

Humans are anticipatory in nature, because we notice patterns and react accordingly. We act

according to what we have been told by others and by our own life expeinces. This motivational function

of reinforcement allows most people to understand the value of something without having to use it or

experience it. For instance, when someone from San Diego decides to visit snowy mountains they

understand that it will be cold and rather than arriving in shorts and a t-shirt, the person brings

appropriate clothing. These cognitive abilities allow drives and individual to be insightful and thoughtful

(Bandura, 1977).

The cognitive mediation of reinforcement effect is characterized by the preference of rewarded

choices. This ability to learn what is rewarding is ever evolving. In an experiment if a participant was

rewarded for a specific behavior with no verbal cues they would start to trend with that behavior. If the

old behavior was no longer rewarded and a preference for a new behavior was rewarded, the

participant would start showing preference and doing the new behavior. This is because the individual

will change behaviors based off the reward, they even will do this unknowingly. In contrast, if the


participant knowingly doing a task for reward the reward can negatively or positively affect their

performance based off the reward.

Social Learning Theory is used in this examination to help describe the phenomenon of

occupational choice among social workers. By breaking it down into its atomistic properties we can

better see how the theory applies contrasted to looking at the theory holistically. The Social Learning

Theory can be applied to nearly any learning experience that a person finds themselves in. The reward

systems that are coded into the human brain allows one to feel positive to join an ocupation which

helped them. This theory is at odds with the other theory used in this Capstone Trait Theory.

Trait Theory, also called Dispositional Theory, has its origins in psychology. There various

theories on the trait approach such as: Cattell’s Theory, which uses 16 different factors which can be

over complicated; Eyseneck’s Theory, which looks at the different dimensions of personality in a three-

factor way and went against the idea which traits arise from going against biology and socialization; the

main focus for this Capstone when referring to Trait Theory will be the Five-Factor Model (Big Five) from

McCrae and Costa (Schultz & Schultz, 2016).

The Big Five used a model which breaks down an individual’s traits/personalities into five

Different categories, these categories are neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience,

agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The Big Five will be used for the purposes to represent Trait

Theory. According researcher’s Tupes and Christal, after conducted a battery of different personality

tests found five factors reoccurring in the samples (McCrae & John, 1992, 176). This repetition of results

exhibited the validity of the instrument. Each factor has one name but represents many personality

characteristics.

Neuroticism (sensitive vs secure) is the factor which represent how prone someone is to

psychological stress, when faced with perceived threat and punishment. A person who scores high in


neuroticism lacks emotional stability. An exemplar of this factor would be described as worrying,

anxious and self-pitying.

The extraversion (sociable vs solitary) factor reflects how social one is and corelates with

positive emotion. This is not the opposite of neuroticism. Extraversion corelates with warmth,

gregariousness (Weisberg, DeYoung, Hirsh, 2011). An exemplar of Extraversion is talkative, enthusiastic

and outgoing.

Openness (curious vs cautious) to experience is notably correlated with intellectual curiosity.

openness is expressed by creativity and the appreciation of new experiences. A person who is an

exemplar of openness has a preference for variety of experience rather than a structured routine, they

would be described as artistic, imaginative and introspective (McCrae & John, 1992).

Agreeableness (compassionate vs detached) is the factor which hold traits related to altruism

for instance, empathy and kindness. Agreeableness measures one ability to be trusting and mild-

temperament. Examples of agreeableness are modest, kind, generous and compassionate toward others

(Weisberg, DeYoung, Hirsh, 2011).

The Conscientiousness (organization vs carelessness) factor holds traits like self-discipline,

organization and reliability. Conscientiousness measures competence, productivity and goal motivation.

An exemplar of this factor would have a high asperation level, behave ethically and is able to delay

gratification (McCrae & John, 1992).

The two theories previously described will be used to describe how Social Workers occupational

choice was decided. Looking at the socialization of a child and using Social Learning Theory to examine

how often the family history of social workers may have made an impact on them as children. How

potentially being raised in a house with family disfunction may have had a counselor or a social worker

involved in their life may have socialized them to see the career as a positive thing driving them to

become social workers, this choice may be conscious or not. Trait Theory would use the Big Five and


examine how social workers score on the five factors with an emphasis on agreeableness, the factor

which attributes toward altruism.

Methods

For this study on the occupational choice of social workers, I chose to do a meta-analysis. This is

because as an undergraduate researcher to get the primary data needed to conduct the study would be

beyond my means at this time. Secondary research is using data and information collected by others as

well as using books and journals. An advantage of secondary research is that is quick way to find

information especially since the age of the internet (Stewart & Kamins, 1993). A reason why secondary

research is a superior research method is because one can use many data sets to examine and explain

phenomena (Stewart & Kamins, 1993). To describe raw statistical data the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

and US Census data base were used.

To find articles relating to the research topic looked at articles as far back as 1992 in an attempt

to have contemporary research. This date while is earlier than what is normally used by researchers.

This approach was needed to gain a fair amount of literature, especially since the breadth of research on

this topic was done in the 1980’s. The key terms used to search for the articles were: MSW PAST

DYSFUNCTION, SOCIAL WORKER INFLUENCE, SOCIAL WORKER CAREER INFLUENCE, BSW. To include the

articles in my literature, review the articles needed to be related to my topic and must have been peer

reviewed scholarly articles. I specifically searched for quantitative data relating to the topic.

With the various articles and case studies collected I used two different theories to the situation,

Social Learning Theory (socialization) and Trait Theory (personality). Using a sociological perspective, I

applied these theories to why Social Workers may have chosen the ocupation based off their past family

history.

Using a case study style, I compared Trait Theory to Social Learning Theory. I did this by

examining the body of literature published that I collected using the technique previously mentioned.


Looking at the research done on empathy and Social Workers and how personality traits affect

occupational choice. How I compared the theories was using a case study type approach.

A case study is a study of a specific situation as opposed to a statistical survey (Shuttleworth,

2018). Case studies are good for testing theoretical models by applying them in non-experimental

situations. A reason why a case study would be best to examine the phenomenon of social worker

ocupational choice is because of how multifaceted the style is. Bromley (1990) states that a case study is

a “systematic inquiry into an event or a set of related events which aims to describe and explain the

phenomenon of interest” (p. 302). Case studies can vary from something as small as a single individual

to a population of a city. Data from a case study can come from many different sources such as:

documentation, observations, artifacts and archival records (Zucker, 2009). There are several types of

case studies, factual, interpretive and evaluative; the key point is that a case study is scientific and

evidence based (Zucker, 2009).

Results

The results of this research will be drawn from applying Social Learning Theory and Trait Theory

to the situations the Social Workers have found themselves in as well as the psychological traits that are

expressed by the demographic. For Social Learning Theory I looked at data collected by: Sellers &


Hunters; Russel, Gill, Coyne and Woody; Rompf & Royse; Biggerstaff and noted how many students grew

up in a home with family disfunction. To apply Trait theory to social workers I used research from

government surveys and academic surveys which link trait data to populations, then extrapolating that

data and applying it to that of social workers.

Using data about students’ own experience of abuse from Russel et al (1993) I compared the

instances of abuse amongst the different majors (Figure 1). What can be seen in this data set is that

MSW are often victims of abuse so much so that 73.1% of the major has been abused in some way (not

shown on table). This dysfunction is not significantly different when compared to the total of the

counseling major at 68.2%, however when compared to education and business the difference is more

apparent at 44.9% and 36.9% (Russel et al, 1993, 126).

Severe physical abuse Often unsulted or swore at Often subjected to spitful behavior

Sexualy molested0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Students Own Experience of Abuse In Precentages (Figure 1)

Social Work (n=145) Counseling and Guidance (n=78)Education (n=78) Business (n=65)

The personal and family dysfunction is impactful on individuals. These childhood experiences

and life experiences, can provide funds of knowledge to help others who were in a comparable situation

as oneself was in the past. By living though an experience one learned how to perceiver though the

situation. The survivors of these situations often are driven into helping professions such as social


worker or therapy either consciously or subconsciously (Rompf & Royce, 1994). Rompf and Royce

compared Social Work students to English students and the item which was drastically different was that

their experiences affect their career choice (graph in appendix a). These dysfunctional family situations

lead to interacting and socializing with Social Workers, counselors, or therapists.

Socializations with social workers, counselors, or therapists have an influence on the person

interacting with them, creating a role model. Rompf and Royce described in their study that 24% of the

students surveyed, “who was the person most influential in your choice of career”, chose a social

worker. An additional 14% added other mental health professions (1994). These close interactions with

the profession create positive feelings, as well as role models who drive individuals to become social

workers.

With so many Social Worker and Social Work students having grown up with dysfunctional

families the interactions with helping professions is higher than that of other majors and professions

(Russel et al, 1993). The socialization with the professionals create a lasting impression.

The preference for the social work ocupation is based on Bandura’s Social Learning Analysis of

Observational Learning (1971). The individual start observing the person of interest for this situation it

would be a social worker. Observing the behaviors of the social worker and being in contact with them

for a period leave an impression on the individual, leading to retention of the behaviors.

Retention of the behavior is needed in order to model the observed behavior. This impression

on the individual needs to be so strong that the memory becomes symbolic. For instance, when one

thinks of a social worker, the individual remembers the model specifically helping them. In this way

“Social Worker” becomes coded with the action of helping and of that specific person helping them.

Motoric reproduction process is the third step of the observational process which is where the

individual attempts reproduction of the behaviors and actions of the model and integrates the skills that

the model exhibited. This would be when the individual started formally or informally training for the


profession of social work. Since the action of physical reproduction of the behavior cannot be done, the

individual attempts a symbolic reproduction of what the role model did. For purposed of this study this

would be doing humanitarian work, or volunteering in social work setting. During this process the

individual would be self-reflecting and adapting to best reflect the model.

The reinforcement and motivational process as Bandura states, “A person can acquire, retain,

and possess the capabilities for skillful execution of modeled behavior, but the learning may rarely be

activated into overt performance if it is negatively sanctioned or otherwise unfavorably received.”

(Bandura, 1971, 8). What this means conversely is that when positive actions are executed and

rewarded the action is more likely to be repeated. Motivation such as this could be grades in school.

The previously described steps are how an individual would observe and be imprinted by a

model. They would then explore and emulate the behaviors eventually start to express the behaviors as

their own. The Social Learning Theory model differs greatly than the trait theory explanation of why

people become social workers.

To explain why people become social workers using Trait Theory, I will use the Five Factor

Model to help break down the reasons. According to the literature, empathy is a is very important in the

field of social work (Gerdes and Segal, 2011). Empathy is related to the agreeableness factor.

When we look at the demographics of Social Workers we see that most them are white and

women (Biggerstaff, 2000; Sellers & Hunter, 2005; Csikai & Rozensky, 1997). For the scope of this

research I did not entertain the idea on how or if race affects personality however gender does affect

personality (Weisberg et al, 2011). The literature shows that personality affects career choice (Hussain

et al, 2011).

When asked the motivations for choosing social work students on a 14-item survey, students

were given the choices of professional reasons or empathetic reasons. On a 5-point Likert scale the

mean of altruistic reasoning was 3.98 and for professional reasons the mean was 3.69 (Csikai &


Rozensky, 1997). This shows that social workers chose the ocupation to help people, a trait driven by

their personality.

According to Roberts and Robins, personality and career goal are interrelated (as cited by

Hussain et al, 2011, 2257). These career goals could be a position in a company or could be an

occupational choice. For the occupation of social worker, the field is dominated by women. This may be

explained by a study done by Weisberg, DeYoung and Hirsh (2011). First, before describing why

Weisberg et al’s research is relevant to the topic is it very important to understand while the data that

will be provided does not capture a populations data nor can it explain anyone at the individual level.

In Weisberg et al’s (2011) study they compared

the Big Five Factors between men and women. They

got the volunteers from a Canadian metropolitan

area and measured the personality using the Big Five

aspect scales. There were 2643 participants (892

male, 1751 female) with age ranging from 17-85. The

results of the study had interesting results; there

were noticeable differences between men and

women with the factor of agreeableness Figure 2

shows the distribution of the amount of

agreeableness men and women have. What the

figure shows is that women score higher on agreeableness than men. Note not all women score higher

than men.

The two previous studies help explain the demographic of social workers, significantly

dominated by women. The fact that women score higher in agreeableness may be why they are drawn

Figure 2 (Weisberg et al, 2011, 7)

Weisberg et al’


to a helping ocupation such as social work. Individuals who score high in agreeableness would gain

satisfaction from helping others, therefor chose an ocupation such as social work.


Conclusion

After the research into the topic of whether Social Learning Theory or Trait Theory best explains

the occupational choice of social workers, I have concluded Social Learning Theory best explains the

reason why people join the profession. The reason for the high rate of interaction between social work

students in their youth with a social worker or another helping profession. This interaction and

socialization creates role models on young impressionable people. A secondary reason is because of the

emotional and physical abuse one received in their youth, the individual wants to help others who have

experienced similar traumas. While some research may show that an individual’s past did not affect

their choice on choosing social work as a career, the preference and decision making, may be happening

on the subconscious level. Applying Trait Theory to the individuals while explains an interest and

possibly success in social work lacks the ability to explain a drive to the ocupation.

Looking at the Five Factor personality tests alone when it comes to occupational choice,

personality does not have great correlation with the choices some individuals make; personality may

only slightly influence the choice someone will make. This happens because personality is difficult to

demonstrate how it affects one’s choices for it complex. Stating that one should do a specific ocupation

because of personality removes the life experience of the individual to make their choices of what they

think they well be successful in. Social Learning Theory/socialization is the best reason to explain

occupational choice. The proximity of an individual to a ocupation it is normalized. Looking how an

individual was raised, where they were raised determines what a person will want to do and what they

can do.

Doing this research has led me to see a gap in the literature concerning personality. I was

wanting to find data which examined social workers personality using the Five Factor model. There has

not been a study done. This research could help prevent burn out in social workers, which is common in

helping professions. While personality as expressed by this Capstone doesn’t affect occupational choice


to a huge degree, it can help identify occupational success. By viewing long practicing and successful

Social Workers we could see which factors help or hinder the profession.


Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Arias, Dr. Baldwin, Dr. Covarrubias, and Prof. Lucido. Dr. Arias for

guiding me towards a more satisfying capstone expeince. Dr. Baldwin for assisting me finding the best

articles published, ensuring my articles were not second rate and for “missing” kicking my head during

self defence class so I could retain the brain cells I still have. Dr. Covarubias for pushing me to create the

best capstone paper I could make as well as spending the time to correct my proofing erros, I’m sorry for

spelling that word wrong 74 times. Finaly I would like to thank Prof. Lucido for fostering a culture of

greatness at CSUMB; with out you I wouldn’t have the drive for exllence that I have today, and for being

a great role model of what alum CSUMB Otter can achieve.


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