Holland's theory and non-college-degreed working men and women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences between men and women employed in traditional male occupations using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and the SDS were administered to 103 male and female non-college-degreed workers in three occupations (bus-taxi drivers, police officers, and car sales agents) corresponding to three of Holland's environmental categories (Realistic, Social, and Enterprising). In general, the results indicate that the VPI and SDS scales to some extent discriminate among occupational groups, but expected patterns do not always occur within and between occupational groups.     

A test of Holland's theory in a population of accountants

The study examined the SDS scales and work attitudes of 1952 Canadian Chartered Accountants (Anglophones and Francophones) and Californian Certified Public Accountants. Combinations of C, E, and S were found the most frequent personality patterns, and they constitute 27.8% of the total population. Scores on these types were positively related to organizational and professional commitments, as well as to vocational satisfaction. The level of congruence was positively correlated with the vocational criteria only in the American sample. The consistency level correlated with professional commitment in the Francophone sample, whereas the differentiation score showed mixed results.     

Object disappearance and error in Piaget's Stage IV task

Piaget attributes perseverative error in infant manual search to the failure of the infant to conceive of objects as permanent entities which retain their identity when hidden at successive locations A and B. An experiment was performed to test this explanation in which search was compared under three conditions: when the object was hidden at A and B, when the object was covered but visible at A and B, and when the object was visible and uncovered at A and B. Errors occurred under all three conditions taking the form of a conflict in which infants searched persistently either at A or at B. The conflict was at a maximum when the object was hidden, but was evident even when the object was visible but covered. It is suggested that errors may reflect lack of coordination between egocentric and visual frames of reference in relation to which the object is located.     

Study habits and Eysenck's theory of extraversion-introversion

Predictions derived from Eysenck's theory of personality were tested in two samples by relating extraversion scores to library study locations, frequency of study breaks, and self-report of factors which influence study location. The predicted main effects for study location were found, with extraverts occupying locations that provided greater external stimulation. Positive correlations were consistently found between extraversion and preferred level of noise, preferred level of socializing opportunities, and rated importance of socializing opportunities. The prediction that extraverts would take more frequent study breaks was supported in Sample 1 but not replicated in Sample 2. The data are interpreted as providing direct support for Eysenck's theory of behavioral differences and mixed indirect support for his theory of neurological differences between introverts and extraverts.     

The predictive efficiency of Holland's SDS summary codes in terms of career choice: A four-year follow-up

This study was designed to investigate the predictive efficiency of the primary and secondary summary codes of Holland's Self-Directed Search for Educational and Vocational Planning (SDS) in terms of expressed career choice 4 years later. In 1974, 126 voiationally undecided high school seniors were given the SDS, followed by a revision of Trow's Vocational Choice Inventory (VCI) in which they were asked to express a career choice or a state of indecision. In 1978, this same group was mailed a posttest VCI; the responses of 84 subjects were then analyzed. The subjects' expressed career choices on both the 1974 and 1978 VCI were compared to the primary and secondary summary codes on the SDS which they had taken in 1974. Inspection of the responses indicated that 21.4% of the subjects had made career choices predicted by their primary summary codes and 51.2% had made vocational choices found among their secondary summary codes. Only 27.4% chose a career area not predicted by their 1974 SDS results. The results of this study appear to lend support to the validity of using the SDS summary codes to predict eventual career decisions.     

Two tests of Maslow's theory of need fulfillment

In a two-part test of Maslow's theory of human motivation, two relationships were explored: (1) the relationship between need importance and need deficiencies, and (2) the relationship between need deficiencies and life satisfaction. The subjects were groups of women college graduates in three types of occupations: professional-managerial, clerical-sales, and homemaking. In the first study, group differences in actual deficiencies did not support the hypothesis that need importance is negatively correlated with need deficiencies. Rankings of the deficiencies for the three groups, however, were consistent with the hypothesized relationship, as were the small but significant correlations that were obtained between need importance and deficiency values. In the second study, the findings gave partial support to Maslow's theory in that a significant relationship was found between need fulfillment and life satisfaction for two of the three occupational groups. The findings of both studies are discussed in relation to considerations in women's career development.     

An analysis of Holland's interest types for women: A comparison of the Strong-Holland and the ACT vocational interest profile scales for women

The purpose of this paper was to examine the basic vocational interest dimensions of women. Two interest inventories designed to measure the six interest dimensions described by Holland (1966) were administered to 126 university freshman women. The correlations between corresponding scales of the two instruments was generally high and application of the spatial configuration analysis resulted in the expected circular ordering found in previous studies. The usefulness of the basic interest dimensions when counseling with women was discussed from a practical and a theoretical point of view.     

College major and career choice: A retest of Holland's theory

In an effort to examine whether the previously established relationship between vocational choice and self-ratings on Holland's personality stereotypes among college freshmen would be strengthened with a sample of male college seniors, 109 subjects, sampled on the basis of major field choice, completed a questionnaire to select career stereotypes which described them best. The relationship between self-ratings and academic major was also to be examined. Significant relationships were obtained for four stereotypes (realistic, conventional, enterprising, and artistic) on the basis of both major and vocational choice, although significant stereotypes were not identical in each. Three of these significant relationships based on vocational choice matched those obtained previously. An additional finding suggested that vocational choice was slightly more valid than major field as a basis for utilizing this technique. The more restricted class sample emphasized did not, however, produce a more substantial relationship between self-ratings and occupational choice as expected.     

Types produce types: An examination of personality development using Holland's theory

This study was designed to test Holland's hypothesis that parents encourage the development of their own personality types in their offspring. Data were collected by personal interviews from three freshmen classes at a large midwestern university. Parent's personality types (occupations) were compared to offsprings' personality types (expressed occupational choices) using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test to determine whether or not the comparisons were due to chance. The results indicated that relationships existed between the personality types of fathers-sons, fathers-daughters and mothers-daughters while no relationship was confirmed between mothers-sons.     

Cognitive and motivational determinants of children's humor responses

Cognitive and motivational influences on children's humor responses were examined. Forty-eight Caucasian children from three economically heterogeneous schools were tested. Equal numbers of middle SES and lower SES boys and girls from kindergarten and third grade were shown 12 aggression and dependency cartoons of different difficulty levels. Three responses to each cartoon were recorded: mirth, funniness rating, and comprehension score. Results support aspects of both psychodynamic and cognitive theories of humor response. All children preferred aggressive themes to dependency themes, and third graders especially showed attenuated response to dependency cartoons. Funniness ratings decreased as difficulty levels increased. IQ, as assessed by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-R, was positively related to humor. Mirth responses and funniness ratings increased as comprehension increased.     

The effects of television on children's stereotyping of women's work roles

Sixty-seven elementary school students, ages 5 through 10 years, from three ethnic groups were systematically exposed, over a 1-month period, to specially produced television commercials. One treatment group viewed prevideotaped cartoons interspersed with commercials of women in “traditional” roles, while a second group viewed the same cartoons but with commercials which portrayed women in traditionally male or “reversed” roles. Children were measured on pre-and post-tests on (1) their occupational knowledge, (2) the extent to which they stereotyped occupations, and (3) their own preferences for traditionally male and female jobs. Results indicate that children do learn about occupations from television content, that they also learn to stereotype or nonstereotype various occupations based on the sex of the TV model, and, finally, that girls will change their preferences for various occupations based on the particular roles they view women portrayed in.     

Relationship of job satisfaction and productivity to work values of vocational education graduates

The relationships of job satisfaction and job productivity to work values of a randomly selected sample of beginning workers who graduated from public vocational education programs were investigated. Workers with intrinsic work value orientation seem to be more satisfied with their job and are more productive than are those with extrinsic work value orientation. In addition, workers with a broader perception of the meaning of work seem to be more satisfied with their job than are those with a relatively narrow perception of the meaning of work.     

Managerial career stage and facets of job satisfaction

The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between a three-stage model of careers (establishment, advancement, and maintenance) and facets of managers' job satisfaction. Four hundred eighty-three managers responded to a questionnaire regarding the length of time they had been in their occupation and their satisfaction with various aspects of work. The results indicated that career stage moderated managers' satisfaction with all facets of work. Specifically, managers in the establishment stage were significantly more satisfied than those in the advancement and maintenance stages with five of the six facets studied. Further analyses indicated that the first year in the occupation accounted for the differences in satisfaction obtained in the three-stage model. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for the study of managerial careers and the need for consistency in the operational definition of career stages.     

Organizational communication,performance, and job satisfaction as a function of ethnicity and sex

Regression analysis was used to examine simultaneously the effects of supervisors' and subordinates' ethnicity and sex on organizational communication, supervisory-rated performance, and job satisfaction. The study indicates that female subordinates differentially perceive organizational communication. It also identifies interactions between the sex of the supervisor and subordinate on communication and between the ethnicity of the superior and subordinate on supervisory-rated performance. There were limited impacts of sex and ethnicity on job satisfaction.     

An application of Strong's validity criteria to basic interest scales

E. K. Strong, Jr.'s (Vocational interests of men and women, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1943) four propositions for interest-inventory validity andJ. L. Holland's (Making vocational choices: A theory of careers, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973) hexagonal classification system were synthesized in order to adapt a traditional procedure for determining the construct validity of occupational interest scales to the validation of basic interest scales. The procedure was tested using a sample of 4035 males and 3671 females whose interest inventory results as high school students and whose majors as college seniors could be assigned Holland codes. Results of the study indicate that this procedure can be used to assess the construct validity of inventories using basic interest scales.     

Toward a reconceptualization of the reciprocal imitation phenomenon: Two experiments

This paper reports two experiments which consider the increased imitation exhibited by models who have been imitated. Experiment 1 was concerned with whether the reciprocal imitation effect is really reciprocal or if the subsequent imitation will generalize to someone else. It was found that adult subjects who were previously imitated at the 75% rate on a perceptual judgments task subsequently imitated their partner more, rated their partner more attractive, and felt more confidence when imitated than did subjects imitated at the 25% rate. These results were obtained regardless of which confederate the subjects imitated, thus indicating that reciprocal imitation is not necessarily reciprocal, but is generalizable. Experiment 2 assessed whether the subsequent imitation is the product of the effects of being imitated or is the result of the subject observing the imitator's imitation. The results indicated that after having observed imitation at a 75% rate, adult onlookers are more likely to subsequently imitate and be attracted to the imitator, the imitated person, and a person new to the situation than are onlookers who observed a 25% imitation rate. A theoretical modification is advanced which holds that subsequent imitation effects, whether from observing others imitate or from being the target of the imitation, result from a process of imitation of imitativeness. The results of these two experiments have implications for theory in imitation and social learning.