Family Influence to Career Choices Psychology Research Assignment (Research Paper Sample)

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2. Literature Review
2.1 Family Background
Family background is the specifics of an individual's family, for example, social, cultural, educational and economic foundation. Bell and Adams ( 2016, p.29) stated that an international large-scale assessment of family background helped in determining the way it influences career choices of students studying abroad in the UK. Theorists differ in the way they define and operationalize variables that measure the broad concept of family background (Guiso and Zingales 2016, p.32).
2.1.1 Social Class and Stratification
Social stratification is a society or community description term that ranks specified individuals, families and grounds in a hierarchical structure. The strategy helps in determining the individuals that control the availability of publicly treasured attributes such as wealth, power and status. Furthermore, Lumby and Foskett (2016, p.101) defined a social class as a superior or inferior position of an individual in a community which makes the person to be ranked and perceived as different. Wilson-Strydom (2016, p.151) constructed a conceptual model to study the career choices under-represented international students in University of Oxford and University of Cambridge. The researchers found out that online 8% of under-represented students due to their low social class selected engineering courses in the universities. The reason is that their low social class denied the opportunity to access and utilize resources that are required in the engineering career. Moreover, they could not implement educational plans that called for research-to-practice training such as engineering outreach and workshops.
2.1.2 Socioeconomic Status
Clarke and Sabido (2016, p. 16) affirmed that sociologists use the term socioeconomic status to refer to social structure hierarchy that is based on access and control of wealth, power and prestige. In British research literature, socio-economic status includes the combination of income, occupation, and education. For instance, parent income indicated the possibility of a student to have ready access to social and economic resources. Parent education was considered as a stable variable due to its correlation to income. Currently, home possession is also a measure of socio-economic status and they include the availability of books, computers, space and educational services during a vocational period. Hursh (2017, p.501) assessed 50 international students at Oxford University and found out that wealthy, educated families and those with powerful positions in government influenced their children to study law and medicine. However, 75% of international students in the UK that originated from African nations studied political science and other social science careers.
2.1.3 Cultural Capital
Phillips (2016, p.233) argued that cultural capital is present in three interconnected conditions, for example, embodied, objectified and institutionalized state. In regards to the embodied state of culture, children unconsciously adopt the disposition of parents and following the same line in their career choices. Secondly, cultural capital objectifies itself in materials that act as media, for instance, monuments, painting, and writings. Furthermore, the institutionalized state of cultural capital is in form of academic qualification which is a strategy of guaranteeing value to the owner. Findlay and Skeldon (2013, p.123) surveyed international students that enrolled in the University of London and 70% of the sampled population stated that their career decision was influence parents and close family members. According to Durvasula and Madhavi (2013, p.37), 83% of sampled Korean students that studied the UK argued that choosing a career that satisfied family needs were more significant than satisfying their personal requirements. Besides, high-status cultural participation among the international students that originate from Africa influenced their career choices in the UK colleges. Archer and Osborne (2015, p.202) found out that international students with parents with key responsibilities in UK museums choose careers that focused on artwork, for example, photography and drawing.
2.2 Parenting Control Theory
2.2.1 Authoritative Parenting
Authoritative parents have extensive requirement of achievement and responsibility. However, they are responsive and warm to the children. The parents set regulations and enforce boundaries through reasoning and open discussion. Furthermore, they are supportive, encouraging, and affectionate and embrace independence. The parenting style is referred to as a democratic parenting technique. Notably, authoritative parents have children that appear contented and happy. They are also increasingly independent and gain high educational success (Bandura and Pastorelli 2014, p.201).
2.2 2 Authoritarian Parenting
Authoritarian parenting style requires high standards without reasoning with the child. The parents utilize stern discipline and punish children to control their behaviour. Authoritarian parents rarely respond to the needs of their children and do not nurture them. The children exhibit unhappy disposition and less independence. Furthermore, they seem insecure and have low self-esteem. The portray behavioural problem and have poor academic performance. They display poor social skills and prone to mental problems (Bandura and Pastorelli 2014, p.202).
2.2.3 Permissive Parenting
Permissive parents set limited rules and rarely enforce rules. They are sincere and indulgent, but they dislike saying no or disappointing the children. Children of permissive parents do not like to follow rules and have worse self-control. Furthermore, they have egocentric tendencies and encounter a lot of problems with social interactions and relationships (Bandura and Pastorelli 2014, p.203).
2.2 4 the Implication of Parental Control Theory
Researchers can use the parental control theory to elaborate and predict employees who were raised by indulgent parents. The model can also identify the workers have the potential of becoming abusive supervisors because they were brought up by authoritarian parents. Parenting style can also be leveraged to explain why some organizational performance varies according to employees’ effectiveness. For instance, individuals raised by authoritarian parents embrace job autonomy and display high-level production.
Moreover, Jaskiewicz, Combs, Shanine, and Kacmar (2017, p.321) argued that parenting is connected to the interesting in venturing into entrepreneurship. It was evident that authoritative parenting helped children to develop business skills, such as self-efficacy, setting goals and hard work. However, children from permissive parents have high self-esteem with no justifiable performance outcome. Therefore, they can rush into entrepreneurship without realistic anticipation.
2.2.5 Family Theory
The outcomes of individuals are affected by complex systems within a family. Wayne and Kacmar (2017, p. 69) elaborated family features, for example, special events celebration, health, and communication. The researchers also assessed the way diverse configurations of such characteristics enhanced or reduced resilience of families. The most common family system theory is a circumflex model. It exhibits the key dimension of flexibility, communication, and cohesion as an explanation for a family outcome. Family cohesion is an emotional bonding between families. Flexibility is the amount of change that leadership, rules, and roles exhibit. Communication refers to the listening, and speaking skills, continuity tracking, clarity, and respect.
2.2 6 The Implication of Family Theory
According to Wayne and Kacmar (2017, p. 69) work-family interface portray that family theory can exceed individual models. Savickas (2015, p.249) developed theoretical models that engage work or family system who alters the resource outline of employees. Besides, entrepreneurship studies aimed at family origin and exposures. For example, the original family system of an employee has a direct effect on his or her behaviour at the workplace. Moreover, the strategies that employees utilize to respond to change in an organizational culture and design as derived from the family origin. Workers from highly rigid families find it difficult to operate in companies that require teamwork, decentralization, and organizational design. The current family characteristics of an entrepreneur might encourage or discourage the quest for business opportunities and the determination to take action.
2.2.7 Family Communication Pattern Theory (FCPT)
FCPT elaborates the ways members of a family interact and convey information. It varies in the dimension of conformity and conversation. Precisely, the conversation is the degree to which family members depict the courage to freely interact with each other. Furthermore, parents that converse frequently encourage the children to exchange ideas and assess manifold sides of issues. They also communicate with their children based on relationship issues. Conformity focuses on the family culture that has homogeneity in regards to attitudes, values, and beliefs. Therefore, parents with high conformity anticipate obedience from the children and communicate with them for the purpose of influence.
The combination of the two concepts projects that family communication pattern theory are protective, pluralistic and consensual. Petronio (2017, p.108) investigated the way low or high conformity and conversation related to different outcomes for members of the family. The study indicated that a family with high-end conversation brought about individuals that are mentally healthy. Furthermore, the individual has the need or belief that they contr...