Occupational Aptitude Patterns Map: Development and implications for a theory of job aptitude requirements

United States Employment Service data on the cognitive and noncognitive aptitude requirements of different occupations were used to create an occupational classification—the Occupational Aptitude Patterns (OAP) Map. The OAP Map consists of 13 job clusters arrayed according to major differences in overall intellectual difficulty level and in functional focus (field) of work activities. The OAP Map was compared with an alternative, aptitude-based classification, with the Holland typology of work environments, and with ratings for complexity of involvement with data, people, and things. Those comparisons provided considerable evidence concerning the construct validity of different aspects of the Map and helped to clarify the uses for which the Map is most appropriate. When combined with previous evidence about patterns of job aptitude demands, the OAP Map provides the basis for a theory of job aptitude requirements. The OAP Map and accompanying analyses support the following hypotheses: (1) general intelligence is the major gradient by which aptitude demands have become organized across jobs in the U.S. economy, (2) within broad levels of work, the aptitude demands of different fields of work differ primarily in the shape of their cognitive profiles, and (3) different aptitude demand patterns arise in large part from broad differences in the tasks workers actually perform on the job.