Transitions from school into apprenticeship or field of studies constitute a fundamental task in adolescence. Most of the theories of career choice can be classified as either sociological or psychological approaches. Gottfredson’s theory (1981) in contrast integrates sociological as well as psychological aspects. From a developmental perspective she assumes that occupational choice is a long-term process that already begins (even if partly unconscious) in early childhood by developing a subjective field of occupational aspirations. In order to evaluate occupational alternatives she refers to three major aspects: correspondence of sextype and prestige level (as essential aspects of the social self) and interests (as essential aspects of the psychological self). In first instance Gottfredson assumes that this subjective zone of acceptable alternatives (the so called social space) is defined on the one hand by a tolerable sextype-boundary and on the other hand by tolerable prestige-boundaries. The latter are influenced by a) the assessment of the effort required to achieve a vocational goal and refer to self-efficacy beliefs (upper prestige-boundary) as well as b) the expected level of social support (lower prestige-boundary) (Gottfredson & Lapan 1997). Next, within the set boundaries, adolescents search for occupations best fitting their interests. With respect to the theoretical approach that defining occupational aspirations is an elimination process, she assumes that the social space needs to be small-sized at higher stages of cognitive age.

Although the general hypotheses concerning a restricted subjective zone of the social space with increasing cognitive age have already been confirmed (Ratschinski 2009), most empirical approaches to test Gottfredson’s assumption of circumscription focus on few occupational preferences. However, with regress to Gottfredson, this procedure can only be considered as pointing out the central core of social space (cf. Gottfredson 1996, p. 205). Furthermore, there still exists a lack of information related to the position and boundaries of the field.

Thus, this study aims to test the theoretical assumptions on the basis of a wider scope of occupational alternatives. Moreover, there is little known about further psychological aspects that might have an influence on the structure of occupational aspirations. Especially with regard to vocational interests, seen as personality-facets (Holland 1997) and orientations of the individual to handle decision-making processes in concern of satisfying personal needs (Todt 1995), the study examines the meaning of attachment representations as an indirect determinant of occupational aspirations. Previous findings indicate that career development is influenced by attachment under effects of career exploration (e.g. Blustein, Walbridge, Friedlander & Palladino 1991), career indecision and self-efficacy beliefs (e.g. Tokar, Withrow, Hall & Moradi 2003). Thus, it is hypothesized that attachment representations directly influence career exploration and vocational identity formation, which in turn may affect the field of occupational aspirations and the clearness of vocational interests.

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