Abstract

Holland presented a personality typology representing investigative, social, enterprising, intellectual, realistic and artistic types, which he argued could also be used to classify job types. This study was designed to test the hypotheses that incongruence between one's preferred job and one's actual job would be stressful and contribute to levels of job stress and impoverished health. Job satisfaction and solution-oriented coping were proposed as mediators of this relationship. Seventy-two people completed the Occupational Stress Inventory, The Deakin Coping Scale and the Vocational Preference Inventory. Job incongruence, job dissatisfaction and job stress predicted 42 percent of the variance in respondents' ratings of their physical health. The results provided support for the negative impact of lack of job congruence on health but not for the proposition that incongruence would also predict job stress. Although incongruence negatively predicted the use of solution-oriented coping strategies, coping did not act as a mediator variable between incongruence and health. The results are discussed in terms of state versus trait indicators of health, as well as the implications for career and health advisors.