ABSTRACT
Work and occupation derive from the fundamental needs to satisfy hunger and thirst, and to provide for bodily care and shelter. Thus they have their roots in one or more of the basic original cycles of activity. In contrast to play, which is spontaneous and pleasurable expenditure of energy for some immediate benefit, work may be defined as regularized, recurrent, utilitarian, and organized effort directed toward a somewhat more remote goal. Like other basic activities, work reflects the particular culture of the time and place. In our Western capitalistic system the possession of a specific occupation, the virtues of hard work, thrift, steadiness of working habits, and keeping a regular job, and various bourgeois patterns of business are all high values. The ideals and habits of independence and responsibility which we have emphasized in our particular society relate not alone to citizenship and future marital adjustment, but to vocational choice and vocational performance as well. The need for ego security and ego recognition, which develops in the earliest years, becomes in time closely associated with getting and keeping a job. The high prestige value of a good position, especially one that provides a handsome income, reveals our culture standards and stimulates the aspirations of young people. In contrast, the jobless man, the lazy fellow, the idler, has little or no satisfactory status at all.
