ABSTRACT
Vocational Psychology has a proud history of strong theories, most of which are empirically testable and which have arisen from the need to assist people in career choice and adjustment. The Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA; Dawis & Lofquist, 1984; Lofquist & Dawis, 1969) is in the best tradition of an empirically testable and applicable theory. The theory arose from the consultancy undertaken at the University of Minnesota as part of the Work Adjustment Project started in 1957, which grew out of research into job placement problems of the disabled. Much of the early research leading to TWA was published as part of the Minnesota Studies in Vocational Rehabilitation (e.g., Betz, Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1966; Weiss, Dawis, Lofquist, Tinsley, & Warnken, 1969). The early context for the development of the construct of work adjustment, and TWA more generally, lay in the measurement tradition at Minnesota that fitted with the need for objective criteria to determine the effectiveness of rehabilitation programs. A British occupational psychologist, A. Heron (1954), drew attention to satisfaction and satisfactoriness as two components of occupational adjustment, and these formed the cornerstone criteria in TWA.
