Research paper on Family and social influence on career decision making. pdf

Family and Societal Influence on
Career Decision Making
Submitted to:
Md. Shahidul Islam (SUM)
Lecturer, Department of English modern Language
North South University.
Submitted By:
Md. Najmul Huda
Id: 1130849030
Course: Eng105
Section: 8
23rd December 2014
Research Paper

Family and societal influence on career decision making
1
Acknowledgement:
First of all I would like to give thanks to Allah for giving me the ability to complete this research
paper properly. Only for the grace of almighty Allah, I could conduct and prepare this research.
Then I want to express my respect to our honorable instructor MD. SHAHIDUL ISLAM (SUM),
. With his help itLecturer, Department of English and Modern Language, North South University
has become possible to complete this project. I am really grateful to him for his special co-
operation. His helpful advices gave me an inspiration for this project. His proper guidance helps
me to learn a lot about this project. It was really impossible to complete this project without the
help of our instructor. His feedback of every stage encourages me to do better performance in the
work. Finally I would like to give warmest thanks to him for his special support.
I have done this project within a short time. If it has any error or fault then I am praying apology
for this.

2
Abstract
In Bangladesh, family and societal influences are major issues. Though we like it or not, it is
always present to make us feel its existence. In career decision making, family influence a lot.
Society also influence but not as much as family. A student has dream about his career but he/she
can‟t fulfill his dream based on his expectation only for the influence of his family. There have
several reasons for familial and societal influence but I pointed out only four reasons.
Dependency to family is the first reason for familial influence. As the students are dependent to
their family, so they have to take family‟s decision. Students‟ maturity is another reason for
familial influence. Students don‟t get the right to take their own decision because of not reaching
maturity stage, thought by the parent. Additionally parent‟s job sector and experience also create
interest in to the children‟s mind. Gender also influence in career decision making. Females‟
choose those career paths which are endurable and easygoing to them. Sometimes neighbors or
some well-known persons of the society try to influence on students career decision making by
sharing their experience and knowledge.

3
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 4
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................ 5
RESEARCH QUESTION:.............................................................................................................. 7
HYPOTHESIS:............................................................................................................................... 8
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: .................................................................................................. 8
DATA ANALYSIS:........................................................................................................................ 9
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS: ................................................................................. 19
RECMMENDATIONS:................................................................................................................ 20
CONCLUSION:............................................................................................................................ 21

4
INTRODUCTION
When we came to this world, we did not know how to decide on our own. But gradually
every person learns to decide things. When we start to grow up, we start to take decisions and
these continue till the end of our life. Though it seems like the decisions of our lives are taken by
us individually; the scenario is not like this always. Most of the time, most of our decisions are
influenced by our families or sometimes by the society. Every individual has the right to take
his/her decisions, but most of the time family and societal influences don‟t allow them to do so.
Decision making is necessary in every sphere of our life. May be its deciding about our
education, career, life partner or something else; we have to take many decisions all through our
lives. Generally, it seems natural that every individual is taking his decision by himself as it is
related to his own life. But in our society things are not like this most of the time. In our society,
it is recognized as good manner if someone completely agrees with each and every decision of
his family. If he disagrees with that, it will be considered as a negative attitude. People are
habituated to think in this way in our society. Not only family, there‟s another thing which
influence our decision more than anything and that is the society.
People in our society is so familiarized with these influences that sometimes they don‟t even
feel the necessity of going against it. But later on, these influences can create negative results in
someone‟s life. And when those happen, society doesn‟t come to rescue that person. It has to be
carried by the person himself. Like this, decisions forced by family can also be wrong.
Most important decision like choosing study area, family also tries to influence. Even there are
several researches that proved that family has strong influence on career decision making. For

5
these reason students can‟t take their career decision by their (student) own choice. They take
families decision either willingly or families create pressure over them to take family‟s decision.
As a result the students can‟t perform well in the sector that has selected by their family,
because they didn‟t like that sector. They couldn‟t raise their voice against their family at the
time of taking decision. Sometimes they feel frustration for that and also go for addiction. So I
performed a research based on the situation and reason behind “Family and societal influence on
. In this research I tried to find out the answer of this question „whycareer decision making”
family influence career decision making?‟
BACKGROUND
O‟Neil, Meeker, and Borger (1978) made a model based on career decision making. In this
model they tried establish the theory of this study. They also gave us the concept about how a
person usually takes career decision. In career decision making model six factors have major
influence and 22 sub-factors have minor influence and these are (a) the Familial Factor, (b) the
Individual Factor, (c) the Societal Factor, (d) the Socioeconomic Factor, (d) the Situational
Factor, and (e) the Psychosocial-Emotional factor (O‟Neil, Meeker, & Borger, 1978). O‟Neil et
al. also found each of these variables has significance role in career decision making process. (As
cited in Tabassum & Rahman, 2014, p.42)
Fisher and Stanfford (1999) mentioned that friends‟ and peers‟ influence is not seen at all.
But in his result of his study they also marked out that the elements of social context, basically
parents obtain a major role on students‟ career decision making.(as sited in Bright, Pryor,

6
Wilkenfeld & Easrl, 2004, p.32). The influence was established by the data that shows us the
impact of behavioral relationship where students usually choose those occupations that similarity
with their parents. (Bright, Pryor, Wilkenfeld & Easrl, 2004, p.32)
The research on familial influence on career decision making shows us that the choice of
selecting occupations taken by parents may create a strong and direct influence on the career
decision making process of their children.(Ozbilgin & Malach-Piness, 2007, pp. 101-126).
According to Brown(2002) family or group effect on career decision making process and a
person‟s career choice.(as sited in Ozbilgin & Malach-Piness, 2007, pp. 101-126).
Family influence also simulates career decision automatically. As explained in psychoanalytic
theory, the tradition of the family also has an important role in career choice. According to Pines
and Yanai (2001) persons usually want to select a profession that helps them to complete their
needs that weren‟t fulfilled in their childhood, and it also actualizes their hopes that transferred to
them by their family. (As sited in Ozbilgin & Malach-Piness, 2007, pp. 101-126).
In some evidence, it is proved that parents influence their children‟s career development and
family give resources which are important about thinking their(children) future ideas. Family
give economic and emotional support and also transfer norms, values, goals and expectation to
their child, and these factors create strong impact in career development. (Bergen, 2006, p.7)
Many theories related with career development process explained that families help their
member in shaping the values, norms and needs. Super theory (1957) mentioned that family has
an impact in the establishment of a child‟s self-concept that figure out his/her capabilities,
gustoes, values and career choice. Mitchell and Krumboltz (1990) said that parents can establish
their effects on career decision making process and career development by positivety

7
invigorating and punishing particular behaviors can exhort or deter certain gustoes and abilities.
(as cited in Berger, 2006, p.7)
Gottfredson said in his theory of circumscription and compromise, career expectations are
built from early stage of childhood in accordance with the concept of gender stereotype about
what career will be perfect. And hence if these concept remain same with the increase of child
maturity then it impact on career development model. The boarder of career possibilities reduce
the number of alternatives that can take place in consideration, which also turns the decision
making process faster.(as cited in Albion & Forarty(n.d), p.6)
RESEARCH QUESTION:
 Are the decisions we take all through our lives always our own decision?
 How much influence can be exerted by family in case of career decision making?
 What is the effect of societal influence on people?
 Does gender influence in career decision making?
 In case of choosing students‟ career, who mostly take the decision? They, themselves or
their family?
 Other important decisions of life like choosing study area, who is the decision maker in
reality?
 Why do family members try to influence on career decision making?

8
HYPOTHESIS:
I think the decisions we take all through our lives are not always own decision. There can have
huge amount of influence by family in decision making specially career decision making.
Society is another factor that influence in decision making. And the effect of societal influence
on people is high. Gender also influence in career decision making. For example, girls usually
select that type of profession which are easy to handle like teaching, nursing, doctoring rather
than engineering and other professions. In case of choosing career family mostly take the
decision. Other important decisions of life like choosing study area or choosing job sector family
and society are the decision maker in reality. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the
students are usually dependent to their family, so they don‟t have any other choice without taking
their family‟s decision. Secondly, parents and other family members provide valuable learning
experiences through their own role models and supporting activities that assist in exploring
career interests. Thirdly, a lot of parents think that their son or daughter is not mature enough to
take his/her career decision, so they want to take control of their son/daughter‟s career decision.
In addition to family members, some elder brothers or uncles of society try to make an
impression to the students about their career. They try to give examples of their own experience;
try to explain societal & job condition that sometimes explore career interest in student‟s mind.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
I will perform both primary and secondary research. In primary research I will conduct a survey
of a representative sampling of the students in North South University. I will try to interview
some people who faced this type of situation, and struggled for establishing their opinion in
career decision making.
For my secondary research, I plan to use the resources of the library. I will also download
various articles, journals related to my topic.

9
DATA ANALYSIS:
The results that are presented and analyzed below are mainly based on the survey that has been
conducted on 20 respondents and they were all North South University‟s students.
This is a general question about decision making. Here I tried to find out how many times the
students usually take their decision?
Here vertical axis presents the percentage of the result and horizontal axis presents the frequency
of time.
40% students from my survey group said they always take their decision by their own and 30%
said they take often and other 30% said they sometimes take their own decision. So we can see
that students usually take simple decisions by their own choice.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Always often Sometimes Rarely Never
How often do you take decision by your own?
Students

10
Then I asked the question like this:
In response, 70% of the students said that parents take their decision if they don‟t take their decision by
their own choice. 10% said brother and sister and 20% mentioned other where they mentioned spouse
take their decision instead of themselves. By this graph we can see that family has strong influence in
case of decision making, if they don‟t take their decision by own choice.
Question about influential factors:
In this question I tried to find out what type of influence students usually face before taking their
decision.
Parents Brother or
sister
Neighbour or
prominent
member of
society
Other
70%
10% 0%
20%
If you don't take your decision , who mostly take your
decision?
Students
Family
80%
Societal
10%
Other
10%
Which type of influence do you mosty face before taking
your decision?

11
In reply 80% said that they face familial influence, 10% said societal and 10% said other where they
mentioned interpersonal and educational. This evidence proves that before taking decision family exert
most influence over the students.
The bar graph above shows comparison among familial and societal influence before
decision making. By this question o tried to find out which factor has more influence in decision
making, society of family? Here we can see 35% said family create huge amount of influence,
50% said moderate and 15% said on influence. On the other hand for society, only 5% said it has
huge influence, 70% said moderate and 25% said society has no influence over decision making.
So, by seeing this graph we can easily say that family has more influence over students in case of
decision making.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Huge Moderate No influence
How much influence can be exerted in case of
decision making
Family
Society

12
Question: Are you happy with your career decision?
In reply 75% of them said that they are happy with their career decision, and 25% said no. most
of them replied that they weren‟t interested on that sector. Only one person said that his/her
parents force him/her to take their decision.
Research question based on career selection:
Here I tried to find out whose decision they like most at time of choosing their career. And
55% said they prefer their own decision, 40% said they prefer their family‟s decision and 5%
Family
Friends
Prominent member
of the society Your own
40%
0% 5%
55%
While chosing your career, whose decision you prefer most?
Yes
75% No
25%

13
said they prefer society‟s prominent members decision. So, mostly they prefer to take their own
decision.
Question based on selecting decision:
Although 55% students said they prefer their own decision, but here in case of
implementation we can see the reverse effect. Here we can see 55% of the students take their
family decision in case of choosing study area. I think the reason behind this is students want to
take their career decision by their own but due to the pressure from their family they can‟t take
the decision by their own. In this graph it shows that 45% students can take their decision by
their own choice. But overall family influence at the time of taking career decision.
Question based on gender influence:
Many of us think that gender influence on career decision making. Usually female take those
types of jobs which are easy. For example, in our country females are comparatively less seen in
engineering sector than male, because engineering jobs are usually tough and employees have to
work till night. These factors discourage females to enter into this sector. Females usually select
45%
55%
0%
Regarding other important decision like choosing
your study area, who mostly take decisions?
You Your Family Any mmember of the society

14
nursing jobs, teaching jobs. I asked a question to my target group about gender has any influence
on career decision making or not?
Here we can see that 20% students strongly agreed with this opinion, 20 % simply agreed,
30% were neutral. Among the students 20% were disagreed and 10% were strongly disagreed.
So, we can say from the survey result most portion from the target group were agreed this
statement. So it‟s proved that gender really influence on career decision making.
Question based on reason of familial influence:
There are several reasons behind the familial influence on career decision making. Researchers
gather ideas from different theories and tried to relate those theories with family and career
development more widely and gave different ideas related with career development. With the
help of these ideas I tried to find the reason behind familial influence on career decision making
with my survey. So I asked a general question related with reason:
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
20%
20%
30%
20%
10%
Does gender influence in career decision making?

15
According to this survey 45% of students said parents influence on career decision making
because they think that their children aren‟t mature enough to take their decision. 25% said that
parents want to make their child as they are. 15% said parents influence because they want to
take control of their child and rest 15% said they think parents influence because of the students‟
reliance upon family. So we can see according to survey result 1st
reason selected by target group
is maturity and last reason is reliance upon family and taking control of children.
Significance of the reasons:
Bergen (2006) explained in his research paper that family gives us economic and emotional
support. For financial dependency we can‟t say anything against our family. So, in my
hypothesis is I tried to figure out this fact as a reason behind the familial influence on career
decision making where I explained that students usually dependent to their family so they have
no option without taking family‟s decision. Then I tried to find the significance of this reason. So
I asked a question like this:
To take
control of you
parents think
you aren't
mature
enough
The reliance
upon family Parents want
to make you
similar as
they are
15%
45%
15% 25%
Why do parents influence on career decision making?

16
In this graph we can see 55% of students said this statement is sometimes true for them, 15%
said it is often for them and 30% students said it is never true for them. So we can say that it has
moderate significance as a reason behind the familial influence on career decision making.
Significance of Second Reason:
According to psychoanalytic theory, it is proved that the tradition of the family also has an
important role in career choice. It means that children become attractive by seeing his/her
father‟s or other family members job position or experience. Then I estimated the second reason
where I explained that parents and others family members job and valuable experience helps the
students to explore career interest. And I asked the question like this:
Never true for you
Sometimes true for
you Often true for you
Always true for you
30%
55%
15%
0%
Students are usually dependent on their family, so they have to
take family's decision, what do you think?

17
In this survey we can see that 55% students were agreed with this opinion and 25% were
strongly agreed. On the other hand 10% were strongly disagreed and 10% were neutral about this
opinion. So we can say that this reason has strong impact behind the familial influence in career
decision making as agree and strongly agree options possess most portion of the answer than
other options.
Significance of third Reason:
Most of the parents in our country don‟t want to rely on their child in case of taking any kind of
decision. They always think their children aren‟t mature enough to take decision especially in
case of selecting career decision. I assumed this as third reason for familial influence. I tried to
find significance of this reason. Then I asked to my target group a question like this,
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Your parents and other family members's job and valuable
experiance help you to explore career interest, do you?

18
In this question 30% students strongly agreed with this opinion, 35% simply agreed and 25%
were neutral. Only 10% students disagreed with this opinion. So it is easily visible to us strongly
agree and agree options get more votes than others. So it can be consider as a strong reason
behind the familial influence on career decision making process.
Significance of the reason behind societal influence:
Fisher and Stanfford (1999) mentioned that friends‟ and peers‟ influence is not seen at all.
But society has also little impact on career decision making process. Beside familial influence I
also assumed a reason which is related to social impact. I assumed that some neighbors or
prominent members of the society try to create hidden influence over students‟ career decision
making process. They share their personal experience with the students. In this way they try to
make an impression to the students about their career decision. That‟s how society influences
over the students. After assuming this reason I wanted to find the significance of this reason by
survey. So I threw a question to my target group like this:
30%
35%
25%
10%
0%
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
Parents think their children are not mature enough to take
decision, parents help them to take decision, do you?

19
Here we can see that 50% students were agreed with this opinion, 15% strongly agreed and
15% were neutral with this opinion. On the other side 15% disagreed and 5% strongly disagreed
with this opinion. So we can clearly identify that society‟s prominent members also try to
influence on career decision making process. Although the impact of society is low on career
decision making but it plays sometimes vital role because only with the help of society we can
get a lot of information which are trustful and reliable.
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS:
It is proved that in career decision making family plays significant role. Society has also
impact in career decision making process. At first we have seen that students usually feel
comfort by taking their own decision but sometimes they can‟t. Some important decision like
choosing study area or selecting career decision students can‟t take their decision by their own
choice. Although they prefer to take their own decision at career selection, they can‟t take that
decision because of family. Family exerts pressure to their children to take their decision.
Strongly Disagree
5%
Disagree
15%
Neutral
15%
Agree
50%
Strongly
agree
15%
Some neighbour or prominant members of society try to make an
impression to the students about their career decision by sharing
their experience, do you?

20
There are various reasons behind the familial influence on career decision making. Among
them the first reason is parents thinking. Parents think that their child is not mature to take their
own decisions especially career decision. So, parents want to influence on their child‟s career
decision.
Second important reason is family heritage or background. That means parents or other
family members‟ valuable job experience helps their child to explore interest on that particular
sector.
Dependency to the family also established another reason for familial influence on career
decision making. In our country students are usually dependent to their family. And they have to
rely on their family for their economic support. So they don‟t have other option without taking
their family‟s decision.
For societal perspective, we have seen that gender has impact career decision making
process. Female‟s career selection is different than male‟s career selection. Prominent members
of the society also try to influence on career decision which is found in this research.
RECMMENDATIONS:
Everyone wants freedom in his/her life. Similarly students also want freedom in various
sectors especially selecting their career. If we don‟t give them the chance to take their decision
they don‟t get interest to develop on that sector. So it is our duty to give priority to their decision
and if it becomes correct, we should accept that decision. And if they make mistake in taking
decision we should make understand them, rather than ignore them. We should help them to

21
select their accurate decision that suits their interest. In this way we can help them to establish
their career.
CONCLUSION:
Decision making is the inevitability of our life. In every stage of life we have to take decision.
We can‟t stop ourselves from taking decision. So, selecting valuable decisions in our life leads to
successful end on that sector. For taking decision a lot factors will try to influence us. We should
choose the good factors and ignore the unfit factors. In choosing study area, taking decision is
known as planting stage for career. If we can take proper decision it will help us to start a
successful career. Family is special part of our life. We can‟t separate us from family. And it is
also natural factor that family will always influence in decision making. Important decision like
selecting career family will always influence because family wants our wellbeing. It always tries
to give us proper direction. So we should also shape our career decision keeping similarity with
family‟s choice. In this way, we can create balance between our decision and family‟s decision
that will help reduce familial influence over the students.

22
Reference
1. Tabassum, A., & Rahman, T. (2014). Exploring the factors influencing career choice of
bba students in Bangladesh. World Journal of Social Science, 4(3), Pp.39-58
2. Bright, J. E.H., Pryor, R. G.L., Wilkenfeld, S., & Earl, J. (2004). The role of social
context and serendipitous events in career decision making. International Journal for
Education and Vocational Guidance, 5, 19-36. Doi:10.1007/s10775-005-2123-6
3. Ozbilgin, M. F., Malach-Piness, A. (2007) Family influence on the career life cycle. In A.
Beauregard (Ed.), Career choice in management and entrepreneurship: A research
companion (pp.101-126) Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
4. Berger, R. J-S. (2006). Family influence on young adult career development and
aspirations. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of North Texas, Denton, TX
5. Albion, M., & Fogarty, G.J.(n.d) Factor influencing career decision making in
adolescents and adults.(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Southern
Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia

Research paper on Family and social influence on career decision making. pdf

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (9)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (9)

Similar to Research paper on Family and social influence on career decision making. pdf

Similar to Research paper on Family and social influence on career decision making. pdf (14)

Research paper on Family and social influence on career decision making. pdf