ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the application of discourse analysis to the study of occupational-choice accounts. The utility of this approach will be demonstrated through an examination of vocational undergraduates' responses on being interviewed about their course and related occupational choices. The analysis of these responses is located within an attempt to provide an empirically demonstrable critique of traditional psychological approaches to the study of occupational choice. These traditional approaches have sought to use respondents' answers as a means of revealing underlying psychological structures or processes which govern occupational choice. Discourse analysis does not attempt to reveal psychological universals but rather is concerned with the social context in which responses are generated and, in the case of interviews, the interactive functions they may serve (Potter and Wetherell, 1987).
