The roles of self-esteem and n achievement in aspiring to prestigious vocations

This study investigated several hypotheses relevant to the vocational aspiration process as it is related to self-esteem and n Achievement. One hundred and forty-four male college students completed the Attitudes Toward Occupation Questionnaire, Form B of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, and the Adjective Check List. To investigate the differential relationships of self-esteem and n Achievement with vocational aspirations, each hypothesis was tested by computing partial correlations, controlling first for n Achievement and then for self-esteem. The data indicated a positive relationship between self-esteem and the tendency to aspire to vocations with high prestige. This finding was interpreted as providing an extension of Super's self-implementation theory. Additionally, the data revealed (a) the existence of a negative relationship between self-esteem and the tendency to strive for vocations with less prestige than one's perceived vocational upper limit, and (b) contrary to prediction, a significant positive relationship between self-esteem and the tendency to settle for vocations which have less satisfaction associated with them than with one's perceived vocational upper limit.     

Adolescents' occupational and educational goals: A test of reciprocal relations

During adolescence, young people's future aspirations and expectations begin to crystallize, especially in the domains of education and occupation. Much of the research in this area has emphasized development within a particular domain (e.g., education) and relations between aspirations and expectations across domains remain largely unexplored, resulting in a lack of information on how goals develop in tandem and affect each other. It is also unclear whether these developmental processes differ by gender and socioeconomic status. We tested reciprocal effects between occupational and educational goals using a longitudinal sample of 636 adolescents (52% boys). Results from dynamic systems models indicated change in occupational and educational goals across high school. For all youth, occupational aspirations predicted change in occupational expectations. Educational expectations predicted change in occupational aspirations for youth in high but not low parent education groups, and occupational expectations predicted change in educational expectations for girls but not boys.     

Reinforcers and vocational maturity in occupational aspiration,expectation, and goal deflection

When vocational aspirations and expectations are not the same, this difference is termed occupational goal deflection. The present study was designed to investigate the notion that such aspirations, expectations, and goal deflection are related to an individual's vocational maturity, education, and job reinforcers. The subjects were 149 vocational rehabilitation clients and 51 graduate students. Analyses of variance yielded findings that more vocationally mature individuals tend to display greater vocational aspiration, greater vocational expectation, and less goal deflection. Similarily, subjects who value such job characteristics as “getting a feeling of accomplishment, fair company policies, trying out their own ideas, doing work without feeling it is morally wrong, making their own decisions, (and) planning work with little supervision” tend to have higher aspirations and expectations, but lower goal deflection.     

Fathers' expectations and aspirations for their children

Do contemporary fathers have the same kinds of goals, beliefs, aspirations, and expectations about their children that fathers had 30 years ago? To answer this question, we interviewed 102 White fathers of 133 daughters and 126 sons about the topics probed by Aberle and Naegele (1952). We also asked about how the fathers expressed approval and disapproval of their children's behaviors, about their techniques for encouraging their children to develop the traits the fathers considered desirable, and about the sources of sex education for children. In general, our contemporary fathers mimicked some of the expectations of the earlier group and differed in others. Like the earlier group, some expectations were gender stereotypic. These expectations presumably function to restrict or limit the socialization of their children. More striking were the differences in the two sets of responses. In contrast to the statements from Aberle and Naegele's fathers, our fathers expressed many similar expectations for their daughters and sons. The educational and occupational levels of the fathers and the family composition qualified only a few of the above results.     

Educational Planning and Academic Achievement of Middle School Students: A Racial and Cultural Comparison

A nationally representative sample of middle school students from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds was surveyed on educational aspirations, planning, and achievements. Results indicated significant racial and gender differences in educational and voational planning help-seeking behaviors. Results also indicated a significant race and sex interaction in students' educational aspirations as well as perception of parental expectations. Students' educational aspirations were significantly related to their current academic achievements. In many cases, students' aspirations and perceived parents' expectations did not match closely. Significant dtfferences in mathematics, science, and reading proficiency among racial and sex groups also were indicated. Implications for counseling are discussed.     

Sex Role Expectations in Children's Vocational Aspirations and Perceptions of Occupations

To study sex role expectations, 120 boys and girls from three age groups—preschool, second grade, and fifth grade—in two socioeconomic levels were asked to name their vocational aspirations and to choose whether a man, woman, or both could do the work in 30 occupations depicted in a slide-tape series. Results indicated that sex typing was present in the way their aspirations conformed to traditional sex roles, with a significant relationship (p <.001) between sex typing of aspirations and sex of the respondents. Significant differences in responses to the occupational slides were found on the variables of sex (p <.01), grade level (p <.001), and socioeconomic level (p <.05), with greater sex typing indicated by boys than girls, by preschool children than by older children, and by lower to lower-middle class children than by middle to upper-middle class children. The study revealed a disparity between many children's perceptions of occupations as ones in which both sexes could work and their own personalized, sex-typed aspirations.     

Effects of Crystal and Bolles's Life/Work-Planning Process on Selected Factors Related to Vocational Choice

This study tested the relative effects of Crystal and Bolles's life/work-planning process on the following factors related to vocational choice: aspirations, expectations, resident skills, and preferences. The results indicated that the process is an effective strategy to use to facilitate agreement between factors.     

Same‐gender supervisors protect women's leadership aspirations after negative performance feedback

Two studies examined how the gender of a workplace supervisor can affect a woman's response to performance evaluations and also her professional advancement aspirations. In Study 1, employed women reviewed a performance evaluation in which feedback was manipulated to reflect one of two stereotypes of women (high in warmth or low in competence). Findings showed that participants were more likely to attribute negative (i.e., low competence) feedback from men supervisors to gender biases than the same feedback from women supervisors. There was no effect of supervisor gender when the feedback was positive (i.e., high warmth) or neutral. In Study 2, negative feedback from men supervisors, regardless of evaluative dimension (competence or warmth) resulted in women reporting decreased professional aspirations. This relationship was mediated by women's attribution of supervisor feedback to gender biases. Together, these findings suggest that same‐gender supervisors can potentially buffer women's long term professional aspirations after a discouraging performance review.     

Parental Behavior and Vocational Choice: A Comparison of Counselors and Engineers

This study compared the perceived parental behavior characteristics of 41 counselors in training and 33 fifth-year engineering students in a test of a part of Roe's vocational choice theory, which suggests dichotomous pattern of vocational choice: “toward persons” (e.g., counseling) or “toward nonpersons” (e.g., engineering) categories that will have been determined by the nature of the early childhood socialization process. In essence, a person who has experienced a warm loving home situation is more likely to enter a “toward persons” occupation and an individual whose parent-child relationship was emotionally cold will most likely gravitate toward a “toward nonpersons” occupation. Both groups were administered the Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire developed by Roe and Siegelman. The findings lend considerable support to Roe's theory.     

Photovoice as a Methodological Tool to Address HIV and AIDS and Gender Violence amongst Girls on the Street in Rwanda

There has been limited international and South African research on the career development of rural and socioeconomically disadvantaged children. The present research provides baseline information on the career development of rural, low socioeconomic status, Black upper elementary school children (N = 292; 154 girls and 138 boys) in relation to their occupational interests and aspirations. Interests and aspirations were classified in terms of Holland's typology and status level. The results revealed that the children were more interested in and aspired more towards professional status level occupations in Social (i.e., people) and Investigative (i.e., scientific) type categories. Several significant gender differences were found. Girls aspired more to Social type occupations and boys more to Investigative type occupations, with the children's occupational aspirations reflecting gender traditionality. The implications of the present findings present the field with challenges in terms of career theory, research and practice     

When Job Candidates Are “Hard-” Versus “Easy-to-Get”: Effects of Candidate Availability on Employment Decisions1

Research on interpersonal attraction suggests that being elusive or “playing hard-to-get” is effective for increasing one's desirability and the likelihood of being selected as a dating partner. The following two studies explored the effects of this hard-to-get phenomenon in an employment decision setting. Both college students (Experiment 1) and professional recruiters (Experiment 2) reviewed application materials that conveyed that a candidate was either hard- (e. g., considering other job opportunities) or easy-to-get (e. g., not considering other opportunities) and then indicated their evaluations of these candidates. In both studies, being hard-to-get affected the interviewers’ judgments. However, this effect was moderated by the type of rationale given for being hard- or easy-to-get, as well as the objective qualifications (GPA) information. In addition, recruiter sex and candidate gender differences were explored. Male recruiters’ evaluations of application materials were more lenient than were females’ evaluations.     

Attention to Sex in Psychological Research as Related to Journal Policy and Author Sex

From 1969 to 1974, Developmental Psychology, but not Child Development , specified that authors analyze for sex differences. The authors examined 503 studies published in Child Development and Developmental Psychology in 1971 and 1975. Sex of senior author, subjects and experimenter(s) were recorded for each study. If subjects of both sexes were used, the presence or absence of the following were noted: (a) analysis of sex differences; (b) hypotheses regarding sex differences; (c) mention of subjects' sex in the abstract. For single-sex-subject studies, mention of subjects' sex in the discussion or conclusion was noted. Using these data as dependent variables, chi-square analyses were performed comparing: (a) the two journals; (b) 1971 and 1975 authors; and (c) male and female authors. The findings were: (a) More attention was paid to sex in Developmental Psychology when the journal had a written editorial policy regarding this factor; (b) Evidence was mixed for increasing awareness of sex as a variable between 1971 and 1975; (c) Female authors were more aware of sex than were male authors in 1971 but not in 1975; (d) In both years, authors used own-sex subjects and experimenters more than those of the opposite sex; (e) Developmental psychologists, as compared to psychologists in other areas previously examined, were more sensitive to sex as a variable.     

Vocational aspirations of Chinese high school students and their parents' expectations

This study examined the vocational aspirations and parental vocational expectations of high school students and their parents (1067 parent–child dyads). Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and an Occupations List. The Occupations List consisted of 126 occupational titles evenly distributed across the six Holland types. Parents were asked to check the occupations that they expected their children to pursue and students were asked to select occupations to which they aspired. The expectations of parents were compared to the aspirations of children according to the occupational field, prestige, and sextype of occupations. The expectation–aspiration gap was relatively small for occupational field, but the gap was larger for occupational prestige and sextype. There were also gender differences for both expectations (parents' expectation toward sons and daughters) and aspirations (aspirations of male and female students). Types of high school (key or regular high schools) and parental educational background also related to expectations and aspirations. Theoretical, research, and practice implications are discussed.     

Flexibility and traditionality in children's gender roles

The present study examined the correlates of variability in children's gender-role preferences. A multidimensional test battery assessed the traditionality of preferences of 376 kindergarten and third grade children in five different gender role domains, and elicited information about three significant socialization agents (parents, peers, and media). Parents of the children (N = 358) were also interviewed with regard to their attitudes and sex role socialization practices. Predictions were generated from an existing theoretical developmental model. Boys exhibited stronger sex-typed preferences than did girls. Older girls were more flexible and older boys less flexible than were their younger counterparts. In accordance with prediction, two factors were obtained; the first relevant to current gender-related activities, the other to future expectations. Present-oriented gender preferences correlated best with peer perceptions, whereas future expectations (e.g. job aspirations) were best predicted by media choices. Parental data correlated with children's preferences but not as strongly as did the peer and media scales. Predictability of children's gender-role orientations was reasonably high when a number of factors were included, thus supporting the utility of a multidimensional approach.     

Safe and Unsafe Sexual Intentions and Behavior: The Effects of Norms and Attitudes1

A study of 85 heterosexual men, 85 heterosexual women, and 82 homosexual men was undertaken to examine the variables that influence intentions to engage in different sexual practices and actual sexual behavior. On the basis of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) theory of reasoned action, it was predicted that the strength of intentions would be related to whether behavior was in accord with intentions. Consistent with expectations, the strength of intention to engage in six different sexual practices (e. g., vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, oral sex) and the three strategies that modify the risk of HIV transmission (sex with an exclusive partner, sex wearing a condom, and looking for a new partner) predicted actual behavior. Second, it was proposed that attitudes toward one's sexual practices and norms would be related to intentions to engage in safe sex. To reflect differential levels in the safety of behavioral intentions, five safety intention groups were formed: (a) nonpenetrative sex, (b) penetrative sex in an exclusive relationship with a condom, (c) penetrative sex in an exclusive relationship without a condom, (d) penetrative sex in a nonexclusive relationship with a condom, and (e) penetrative sex in a nonexclusive relationship without a condom. Norms, rather than attitudes, distinguished the five safety intention groups. the groups intending to engage in safe sex (nonpenetrative sex or penetrative sex with a condom) perceived lower levels of social approval for their sexual practices than the noncondom groups. Additional analyses showed that past behavior had a stabilizing effect on the intention-behavior relationship, but only for the nonpenetrative and noncondom safety intention groups.     

African American Adolescent Mothers' Vocational Aspiration–Expectation Gap: Individual, Social And Environmental Influences

This study investigated the vocational aspirations and expectations of 160 African American adolescent mothers living in urban poverty. Discriminant function analysis was used in an attempt to distinguish between participants with, and those without, a discrepancy between their vocational aspirations and expectations. The two groups were found to be distinct in several ways. Depressive and anxious symptoms along with childcare provided by relatives, were associated with a gap between aspirations and expectations. Higher grade point averages, living with biological parents, and having a career mentor were more often associated with a match between expectations and aspirations. A combination of factors, including psychological functioning, social support, achievement, and contextual factors specific to the tasks of teen parenting, should be considered in future attempts to understand and describe adolescent mothers' vocational development.     

Adolescents' secondary attachments to celebrity figures

This study examined the influence of age, gender, and pubertal development on the personality attributions that adolescents make to age-appropriate celebrities. Sixty male and female 5th, 8th, and 11th graders completed a series of questionnaires describing the perceived maturity, attractiveness, and personality of six male and six female age-appropriate celebrities. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that (a) adolescent found opposite-sex celebrities more attractive than same-sex celebrities; (b) the perceived attractiveness of opposite-sex celebrities increased with grade, particularly among adolescent females; (c) androgynous celebrities were seen as more attractive than either sex-typed or cross-sex celebrities; and (d) adolescents' preference for androgynous celebrities increased with grade. Contrary to prediction, adolescent pubertal development was unrelated to celebrity attractiveness ratings. For 5th-grade girls, however, pubertal development positively correlated with the perceived maturity of all female celebrity figures, regardless of the celebrity's sex type (i.e., sex typed vs. androgynous vs. cross sex). These findings provide convergent support for the hypothesized role of secondary attachments in adolescent identity development.

     

Sex differences in the determination of adolescent aspirations: A review of research

This article reviews research on sex differences in the educational and occupational orientations of adolescents. Because the aspirations and expectations of adolescents are predictive of subsequent adult attainment, these variables are important mediating factors in the process by which individuals of the two sexes come to occupy different educational and occupational positions in adulthood. Adolescent boys aspire to a higher level of education than girls, and the occupational choices of the two sexes are highly sex-stereotyped. Factors influencing levels of adolescent aspiration are reviewed, including socioeconomic background, academic ability, number of siblings, parental encouragement, mother's employment, academic performance, peer aspirations, dating, and participation in school activities. Although sex differences exist in the process by which both educational and occupational aspirations are formed, they are greater with respect to occupational than educational aspirations.     

A Unique Variance in Future Motivation for Observed Active Behaviors on Positive Class Participation Beyond the Effect of Current Motivation

Based on self-determination theory, this study investigates a unique variance in the effect of aspirations (future motivation) on the observed active behaviors on positive class participation, while controlling for academic motivation (current motivation). In Study 1, 364 fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students participated in a survey to confirm the validity of the Aspirations Index for Children. Confirmatory factor analysis on the theoretically hypothesized model showed an acceptable fit for the data. In Study 2, 297 fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students participated in this survey, assessing their aspirations and academic motivation. Furthermore, their homeroom teachers evaluated the students’ academic behaviors on positive class participation. The results of multilevel structural equation modeling, which controls for the effect of current motivation, indicated the unique variance in aspirations (future motivation): intrinsic aspirations were positively associated with active behaviors on positive class participation, whereas extrinsic aspirations showed a negative relation. This study concludes that future motivation, specifically intrinsic aspirations, facilitates active learning behaviors beyond the effect of current motivation.