An investigation of racial differences on vocational variables among college women

This study used a sample of black and white college women matched on Duncan's (1961) socioeconomic indicator ratings to explore possible racial differences on vocationally relevant variables. There were no differences between the groups on age or educational level. The distribution of the parents' occupations by Holland type and the distribution of the subjects by their VPI type appeared to be quite similar. There were no significant differences based on: the relationship of the parents' occupational types to the subjects' VPIs: the relationship between the subjects' VPI types and their occupational choice or college major; the estimated likelihood of reaching the career goal; satisfaction with career choice or college major; and scores on two recent scales designed to measure vocational indecision. While no differences were found on the number of possible factors listed that might impede career goals, the distribution of the most important of these factors indicated there were differences between the two groups. These findings are discussed relative to their implications for interpreting previous research and carrying out future studies.     

Career indecision in adult women: A comparative and descriptive study

This study compared 66 high-school women, 66 first-year college women, and 66 adult women on four measures of career indecision, the Satisfaction with Career Scale, the Occupational Alternatives Question, the Vocational Decision Making Difficulty Scale, and the Career Decision Scale. The results consistently suggested that the adult women were experiencing more career indecision than the high-school and college women. Intercorrelations among the scales were generally moderate to somewhat low and raised some questions about the use of the Career Decision Scale with adult women. Additional data were gathered on the adult women in an attempt to delineate the sample. Variables included were: marital status, present work experience, the career-related goals and the reasons for pursuing these goals, and possible impediments to reaching the goals. These results are presented and the implications for future research and counseling with adult women are examined.     

The mediating effects of career indecision subtypes on career-counseling effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that career indecision subtypes serve as a mediating variable in regard to career-counseling effectiveness, and to an attempt to detect two other mediators, i.e., individual- versus group-counseling modes and direct versus indirect test interpretation. In a pre-post design conducted on 149 undergraduate clients who went through a standard counseling process it was found that: (a) Different subtype groups gained differentially in their career decidedness; clients who “lack structure” gained the most from the treatment while clients who “perceive external barrier” and who experienced “personal conflict” gained the least, (b) Neither counseling mode nor test interpretation directiveness had significant effects or interactions with career decidedness. It was proposed that career counseling should be conducted with different contents rather than processes in order to benefit clients with various problem types.     

An occupational taxonomy by professional characteristics: Implications for research

Theorists concerned with the nature of professionalism and researchers investigating professionals in the work environment often assume that professional occupations are a unique occupational type. To test this assumption, an occupational taxonomy based on nine dimensions of professionalism was derived empirically. The taxonomy represented expectations only to a moderate degree. Several implications were noted for the use of occupational taxonomies in the generalization of research findings on one occupational group to other occupational groups in the same classification.     

Applications of self-efficacy theory to the understanding and treatment of career indecision

The present study was designed to investigate the utility of Bandura's self-efficacy theory to the understanding and treatment of career indecision. More specifically, the study involved the development of a measure of self-efficacy expectations with regard to 50 tasks or behaviors required in career decision making and the examination of the relationships of career decision-making self-efficacy to several components of vocational indecision. A total of 346 subjects, 154 students attending a private liberal arts college and 193 students attending a large state university, were administered the measure of career decision-making self-efficacy expectations and the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, Columbus, Ohio: Marathon Consulting and Press, 1980). In addition, Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal and math scores were obtained for the liberal arts students, and American College Test math and English subtest scores were obtained for the state university students. Results indicated first that college students in general express considerable confidence in their ability to complete the tasks necessary to make career decisions. In addition, however, the strength of students' career decision-making self-efficacy expectations was strongly and negatively related to overall levels of career indecision and was, in particular, related to the component of indecision described as a lack of structure and confidence with respect to career decisions. Relationships of career decision-making self-efficacy expectations to ability level were negligible. Based on the findings of this study it is suggested that the concept of career-related self-efficacy expectations provides a useful framework for the understanding, assessment, and treatment of at least some of the antecedents to vocational indecision.     

An investigation of vocational indecision in college students: Correlates and moderators

This study investigated the relationships among fear of success, locus of control, and vocational indecision in college students and the extent to which these relationships are moderated by sex and ability. Subjects, 103 female and 98 male undergraduate students, were administered measures of fear of success, locus of control, and career indecision. In addition, American College Test (ACT) composite scores were available for 154, or 77%, of the subjects. Results indicate that vocationally undecided college students are more external in their locus of control, are more fearful of success, and have lower ACT scores than decided students. Multiple regression analyses for the prediction of vocational indecision yield mixed results, as the power of prediction of the independent variables of locus of control and fear of success were influenced by the sex and ability level of the student. Results, implications for future vocational indecision research, and implications for counseling assistance of vocationally undecided students are discussed.     

A biographical data analysis of career patterns in engineering

This study focuses on an instrument that appears useful for career guidance or job assignment purposes — the Biographical Data Blank. Responses of three groups of engineers (holding research and development, management, and nonengineering positions) to a life history questionnaire were analyzed. Results indicate that groups could indeed be differentiated using response patterns. In addition, items defining these patterns were related to demands of actual career paths chosen.     

Some characteristics of concurrent discrimination and retention by monkeys

Before and after learning-set training, 12 rhesus monkeys were tested on the acquisition and retention of tasks consisting of eight concurrent object discrimination problems. Training on the concurrent discrimination was administered unitil a fairly stringent acquisition criterion was met. Under these procedures, retention, unlike acquisition, was little influenced by initial object preferences. Excellent retention was observed both before and after learning-set training. In a second experiment, these same monkeys were tested on a series of concurrent tasks which provided different numbers of objects as the sets of correct and incorrect discriminanda. Task solutions depended largely upon acquiring and retaining a list of correct objects despite designation of the large or small sets as the correct one. The animals seemed not to use “exclusion” strategies even when this might have provided an efficient task solution. It was considered that the monkeys' performances were based on stimulus sampling characteristics like those seen in other discrimination testing situations.     

Fostering a career in engineering

The purpose of the present study was to examine J. Holland's (Making vocational choices: a theory of careers, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973) congruence hypothesis within the context of intraoccupational rather than interoccupational differences. One hundred and nine engineers were tested on an interest inventory which was designed to measure the vocational interest in six different job functions of the engineering occupation. Reliability coefficients range between .66 and .93. Results confirmed the congruence hypothesis: Correlations between job satisfaction and three measures derived from the interest inventory were .45, .44, and .62, respectively (p < .01). The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Vocational behavior and career development, 1975: A review

This paper presents a review of selected literature concerning career development and vocational behavior during 1975. Topics covered include sex roles and career development, women's careers, recent trends in interest measurement, trends in vocational theory, life span aspects of career development, vocational interventions, and racial differences and similarities in career development.     

An investigation of the nomological network of social interest

This paper presents the results of three studies relating a composite measure of social interest to numerous variables within the nomological network of social interest. Study 1 found that social interest is positively related to sex-role femininity, androgyny, positive ambition, other-centered life goals, and, surprisingly, sex-role masculinity. Study 1 also found social interest negatively related to a narcissistic life goal, personality rigidity, and negative interpersonal behavior (Drivenness). Study 2 correlated social interest with the Personality Research Form and found, as expected, that social interest is correlated with the Affiliation and Nurturance scales. Unfortunately, social interest was not negatively related to Aggression. Finally, Study 3 provided generally positive support for the hypothesized relationships between social interest and several variables from the Life Styles Inventory (e.g., Humanism, Affiliation, etc.). Implications of the results for the construct validity of Adlerian social interest theory and current measurement of social interest are presented.     

Race versus belief about race as determinants of attraction: Belief prejudice and two kinds of race prejudice

An experiment was conducted to assess the effects of actual racial membership versus similarity of beliefs about racial issues on interpersonal evaluations. Prejudiced and unprejudiced White male students observed a videotaped interaction of two Black and two White male actors discussing racial issues and then evaluated the actors on several scales. One White and one Black actor took a conservative stand on racial issues, and the other White and Black pair of actors took a liberal position. Results from the ratings showed strong belief prejudice effects. Prejudiced subjects were attracted to conservative actors while unprejudiced subjects were attracted to liberal actors. Additionally, there were two kinds of race effects. Prejudiced subjects preferred White to Black actors, but unprejudiced subjects showed a reverse bias, preferring Black to White actors. A tentative explanation for this unusual finding was proposed.     

An empirical investigation of self-esteem as a composite construct

Three measures of chronic self-esteem, plus four measures developed to assess situational components of self-esteem (task-specific self-esteem and social self-esteem), were administered to 238 undergraduates at a large, urban university and a community college in the southeastern United States. Evidence for a composite construct of self-esteem was found. Results also indicate task-specific self-esteem correlates as high as .42 (p < .01) with chronic self-esteem and as high as .76 (p < .01) with social self-esteem. Task-specific self-esteem was found to be a better predictor of grade point average than chronic or social self-esteem. Suggestions are made for further research on the situational components of self-esteem to extend current findings.     

The relationships of career salience,attitudes toward women,and demographic and family characteristics to marital adjustment in dual-career couples

Facilitation of women's increasing involvement and satisfaction in career pursuits necessitates understanding of ways in which multiple roles may be managed and integrated by both women and men. Accordingly, the present study was designed to investigate predictors of levels of marital adjustment in dual-career couples. Both husbands and wives in 42 dual-career couples completed Greenhaus' Career Salience scale, the Attitudes toward Women scale, the Dyadic Adjustment scale, and a demographic information questionnaire. Results indicated, first, that the dual-career couples studied reported relatively high levels of marital adjustment, relatively profeminist attitudes toward women, and moderate levels of career salience; family interests were ranked as more important than were career interests. Second, higher levels of marital adjustment in both husbands and wives were found in couples in which the wife was more highly educated and which had relatively high combined incomes. In addition, greater marital adjustment in husbands was related to higher levels of career salience among wives. Contrary to expectation, husbands' attitudes toward women's roles were unrelated to their levels of marital adjustment. Implications for further research on dual-career couples and for the successful integration of career and family roles are discussed.     

Preference for shock signals as a function of the temporal accuracy of the signals

Three groups of rats were exposed to pairs of three different contingencies on two sides of a shuttlebox. One signaled contingency provided 10-min danger and safety cues plus an additional 10-sec cue immediately preceeding shock (P-S), another signaled contingency provided 10-min danger and safety cues but random 10-sec cues with respect to shock (R-S), and an unsignaled contingency provided no safety period, but only a 20-min danger period during which shock could occur (NS). Signaled P-S and R-S contingencies were preferred in a choice test to the unsignaled NS contingency, and P-S was preferred to R-S. Independent tests of the fear-eliciting properties of the cues made in an off-baseline test of suppression of ongoing exploration indicated more freezing (fear) to the 10-sec cue in rats experiencing the P-S contingency. The results were interpreted as indicating a preference for cues providing more precise information about the temporal location of shock even when those cues were fear-eliciting.     

Interests of career and homemaking oriented women

The women's form of the SVIB and a Career Orientation questionnaire were administered to a sample of 90 undergraduate women. The sample was divided into two groups, career and homemaking oriented, on the basis of high-low career orientation scores. The two groups obtained significantly different scores on 25 of the 57 occupational scales on the women's SVIB. Career orientation correlated significantly with the academic achievement interest and homemaking basic interest scales of the SVIB but not with the femininity-masculinity scale. Results are discussed in terms of the interest patterns of career and homemaking-oriented students.