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 CHAPTER XIII

OCCUPATIONAL TYPES

No argument is required to show that one's occupation determines to a large extent his habitual mental processes. In adult life it appears to be the chief factor in giving direction and form to the intellectual and emotional development. Its importance in this respect, while always predominant, will depend on how nearly the occupation monopolizes the time and energy of the person, i.e., upon the relative amount of leisure he has and how he uses it. If his leisure is ample and so used as to bring him into other and different currents of thought and feeling, to introduce new interests into his life and to give him points of view upon life different from those of his occupation, it will in a corresponding measure modify the development of his inner life. In other words, an occupation which leaves little leisure is, second only to the instinctive inheritance and the environment of childhood, the chief determining factor in fashioning the personality. Ample leisure, if so used as to bring one into other circles of interest, renders the occupation relatively less dominant; and yet it must be remembered that the habits formed in the occupation will most likely influence the use of the leisure time. One s leisure is spent according to inclination and taste; and inclination and taste, while not wholly determined by one s customary activities, are largely controlled by them. Without going into details we may say, then, that although the use of leisure may have some, and certain uses of it a considerable, tendency to soften the hard lines of occupational specialization, its effect is limited.

That those who pursue the same occupation or similar ones tend to resemble one another in their modes of thought

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