The Mother–Daughter Relationship as a Resource for Korean Women's Career Aspirations

Korean college women's career aspirations were examined among 482 Korean college women in South Korea. The inability of women to envision themselves in a career has been largely attributed to formal education that perpetuates gender inequality. As such, this study investigated the inter-relationships between external factors (school experiences and peer influences) and internal factors (maternal influences with the mother–daughter relationship) in Korean women's development of self-perception and in the significance of their sex-role behaviors (career orientation and feminist identification). The structural equation model (SEM) utilized in this study revealed that Korean women's career orientation was determined directly by their nontraditional sex-role attitudes and by a close, continuous, and satisfactory relationship with their mothers. Overall, maternal influences on the development of daughters' career orientation outweigh other factors encountered in schools, and emerge as key predictor variables in Korean women's career development.     

Subjective career success: A study of managers and support personnel

Despite popular belief that managers are successful by virtue of their positions, few studies have examined the position-success relationship. In this research, it was predicted that subjective career success is a multi-dimensional construct whose facets can be measured by several factors. Moreover, the phenomenon of career success was tested to see if it would relate to an employee's perception of occupational self-concept and job features. The notion that these dimensions would predict some aspects of career success more accurately for either managers or support personnel was also investigated. The confirming results obtained in this study and their implications for future research as well as practitioners are discussed.An earlier version of this article was presented at the 93rd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California, 1985.     

Sex differences in achievement/career motivation of Iranian boys and girls

The relationships of early socialization, socioeconomic status (SES), religion, community discrimination, and community resources (all as possible predictor variables) to achievement/career motivation (the criterion variables) for 200 Iranian high school senior girls and boys were studied. Multiple regression analyses were performed to identify how much variance was accounted for by each predictor variable. In addition, a discriminant function analysis based on four linear combinations of the predictors for high and low SES, and for males and females, was performed to identify the best and strongest predictors. Through content analysis of the projective protocols representing achievement motivation, no significant achieving imagery was found for these Iranian subjects. The measure did, however, provoke imagery indicative of the subjects' preoccupation with marriage and/or affiliation with the opposite sex. Consistent with research findings in the United States, Iranian females scored lower in career motivation and expressed less belief in sex discriminatory myths than did males. The upper SES subjects of both sexes showed a higher level of career aspiration, and perceived more community resources for their careers, than did the lower SES groups. Sex, SES, community discrimination, and heterosexual interest contributed more heavily than the other predictors in predicting the variance of career motivation. Possible implications of the results for improving Iranian women's achievement/career motivation are discussed. A need for a more cross-culturally appropriate measure of achievement motivation is suggested.This study was supported, in part, by the University of Illinois Center for International and Comparative Studies. The author is indebted to Drs. Martin L. Maehr and Helen S. Farmer of the University of Illinois for their direction and advice in conducting this study.     

Alexander W. Astin: Higher Education's Relentless Reformer

Alexander “Sandy” W. Astin of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), probably the most prolific and influential researcher in American (U.S.) higher education today, talks about his development as a professional in the field, his mentors, his professional contributions, his personal development, his family, dual career issues, and his hopes for the future of the field.     

Life satisfaction among Iranian and American graduate students

This study aimed to find out if there were differences in the life satisfaction of Iranian students (who came to the United States after the Iranian revolution in 1979) as compared with American students. It also aimed at identifying students' perceptions of some of the variables, like social network, competence and stress, that affect the quality of their lives. Ninety-four Iranian students who were attending the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, and California State University, Long Beach, during the academic year of 1986-87 participated in this study. Multivariate analysis of variance was employed to compare the scores of the two groups, Iranians and Americans, on fifteen life satisfaction subscale scores. The results indicated that for both Iranians and Americans, perceptions of life satisfaction correlated significantly with perception of competence, social network, and hopes for the future. American subjects showed more satisfaction with their competence than Iranians. The Iranians, however, reported greater availability of social network resources than Americans. The results also indicated that both groups are tolerating the stress in their lives relatively well and that both are optimistic about their futures with regard to most aspects of their lives. Implications of these findings for cross-cultural counselling and the usefulness of a multivariate concept of life satisfaction are discussed.     

Listen to the Dreams: Interview with Russell Arthur Lockhart at 65

Los Angeles-born Russell Lockhart has a doctoral degree (human psychophysiology) from the University of Southern California. In 1974 he graduated from the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, where he served as Director of Analyst Training from 1979 to 1982. Since 1974 he has been in private practice. He has served on the faculties at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of California, Berkeley. He was a research psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of the Psychophysiological Research Laboratory at Camarillo State Hospital. Dr. Lockhart is the author of Words as Eggs: Psyche in Language and Clinic; Psyche Speaks: A Jungian Approach to Self and World; Secrets of Undergroundtrader.com (with Jay Yu), and two books in progress: Gleanings from the Dreamfield and Hints and Helps for Short-Term Traders. He and his wife Frankie have been married 44 years and have four children. My first contact with Dr. Lockhart occurred in 1973, when he shared with me his work with cancer patients. We met again in 1982, when he presented the inaugural series of The C. G. Jung Lectures at the C. G. Jung Foundation of New York. Since that meeting Dr. Lockhart and I have maintained a relationship online, which enabled us to produce this interview.     

Adolescent drug use in Mexico and among Mexican American adolescents in the United States: environmental influences and individual characteristics

The authors compared high school students in Baja California Norte (BCN), Mexico (n = 775), with Mexican American students in Los Angeles (LA), California (n = 516). The students' use of cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, inhalants, and other illicit drugs were compared, because these vary by gender, country, and their age of first drug use and are influenced by demographic variables, individual characteristics, and environmental influences. More BCN students than LA students had used alcohol, but more LA than BCN students had used illicit drugs and initiated drug use earlier. When demographic variables were influential, they were most powerful and increased the risk for drug use more than environmental factors or individual characteristics. Environmental factors were most influential for boys' drug use, whereas environmental and demographic variables were most influential for girls' drug use.     

Achievement-related expectations and aspirations in college women

Two hundred unmarried female undergraduates (129 juniors, 71 seniors) participated in an investigation of the thesis that achievement in women is hindered by depressed occupational and educational aspirations, which are in turn influenced by a cluster of a cluster of achievement-related expectations. The study examined correlations among five achievement-related expectations (sex-role conception, expectations about the consequences of role-inappropriate achievement, expectations for success, peer expectations, and perceived discrimination), occupational and educational aspirations, and indices of past achievement and ability. The data support the hypothesized relation between expectations and aspirations. Sex-role conception, expectations of positive consequences from success, expectations of negative consequences from success, expectations for success, female peer expectations, and perceived discrimination were each significantly related to aspirations (p<.05 or above, in all cases). The implications of these findings, along with the high intercorrelations of expectation variables and results from path and factor analyses, are that there is considerable consistency in what women expect from themselves and their social environment, and that these expectations influence women's aspirations.This article is based in part on a dissertation submitted by the author to the faculty of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree. This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant #2TO1MH0661316PO. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Drs. D. Wayne Osgood, Lawrence Severy, Kathleen Wells, John Forward, and Mr. Robert Burton in the preparation of this article, and Brynn Beacom, her research assistant, in the conduct of the study.     

Mother-child interactions in ADHD and comparison boys: Relationships with overt and covert externalizing behavior

Reciprocal relationships between child characteristics and such familial factors as parental psychopathology and interaction style with the child characterize the development and maintenance of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as its comorbidity with antisocial behavior. Our goal was to ascertain the ability of negative maternal behavior exhibited during mothers-on interactions to predict independently observed overt and covert externalizing behavior in the child, controlling for current maternal symptomatology and the boy's acting out behavior during the interaction. Participants were 49 boys with ADHD and 37 comparison boys, aged 6 to 12 years. Hierarchical multiple-regression analyses revealed that, even with maternal psychopathology and child negativity with the mother partialed, maternal negative behaviors predicted both observed noncompliance exhibited in class and play settings and laboratory stealing. Stealing was predicted from maternal negativity even with child interactional compliance controlled. Differential predictions of noncompliance were revealed in ADHD versus comparison families, yet similar patterns emerged for stealing within each group. Results are discussed in light of the high risk for antisocial behavior in ADHD children.This article is based, in part, on a doctoral dissertation written by Carolyn A. Anderson at the University of California, Los Angeles. The research received primary support from National Institute of Mental Health Grant 45064, awarded to Stephen P. Hinshaw. Partial support was received from the Fernald Child Study Center of the University of California, Los Angeles, where the 1990 summer research program was housed, and from a Faculty Research Grant to Stephen P. Hinshaw from the University of California, Berkeley. We express our deep appreciation to the many behavior observers and research staff, too numerous to mention individually, who were essential in collecting and coding the primary data for the study, and to the children and families who participated in the family assessments and summer research programs.     

FACTORS INFLUENCING CANADIAN HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS' CAREER MOTIVATION

The need to prepare adolescent girls for the reality of labor market participation prompted this study investigating the factors influencing female career motivation. Questionnaires were completed by 317 female students from grades 8, 10, and 12. Four criterion variables were used to assess overall career motivation: career commitment, occupational aspirations, educational aspirations, and vocational certainty. The relation–ship between the criterion measures and a set of predictor variables (socioeconomic status, school marks, grade level, masculine/feminine trait dimensions, attitudes toward women, and marriage/family commitment) was explored. A canonical correlation analysis, used to test the relationship between the predictor and criterion variables, revealed two significant sets of relationships. First, girls who obtained higher marks in school, identified with either masculine or androgynous trait dispositions, had more liberal attitudes toward women, and were from higher socioeconomic backgrounds aspired to higher levels of education, were more highly committed to a career, and aspired to more highly prestigious occupations. The second relationship showed that older girls from a lower socioeconomic background with high commitment to marriage and a family have high career commitment and certainty about their careers, yet lower educational and occupational aspirations. The study highlights the importance of (a) examining career and family commitment independently, (b) studying the impact of psychological variables on career motivation, and (c) combining a number of factors to represent career motivation.     

Correlates and consequences of uncertainty in career aspirations: Gender differences among adolescents in England

Young people today face a great deal of uncertainty regarding their career opportunities, yet relatively little information is known about the correlates and consequences of uncertain aspirations. Drawing upon the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) born in 1989/90, this study examined a pathway model investigating whether uncertain career aspirations and other associated variables mediate the link between socioeconomic status and prior achievement and later educational outcomes. Gender differences were also examined. Findings indicate that adolescents who had lower prior achievement and were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to have uncertainty in their career aspirations. The hypothesized model was supported to some extent, indicating that uncertain career aspirations and other associated variables were significant mediators. Unexpectedly, adolescents with uncertain career aspirations had higher academic performance at age 16 and a greater likelihood of educational enrollment at age 18 compared to those with high, certain aspirations, when parental educational expectations, school motivation, perceived academic ability and useful career advice were taken into account, suggesting that these young people may benefit from an extended period of moratorium in their career choice.     

Mental health status among Puerto Ricans,Mexican Americans,and Non-Hispanic whites

Compared mental health characteristics of island Puerto Ricans to three groups from the Los Angeles Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study: Mexican American immigrants, U.S.-born Mexican Americans, and Non-Hispanic whites. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule was used to obtain both diagnostic and symptom scale information about affective disorders, alcohol abuse/dependence, somatization, phobic disorder, and psychotic disorder. Mexican American immigrants had the fewest mental health problems of all groups. Puerto Ricans had more somatization disorder, but less affective and alcohol disorders than U.S-born Mexican Americans or non-Hispanic whites. Results are considered in the light of selection factors, relative disadvantage of groups and methodological problems. This research was supported by grants MH36230 and MH45763 from the National Institute of Mental Health, and made use of data from the Los Angeles site of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program, which is a series of five epidemiologic research studies performed by independent research teams in collaboration with staff of the Division of Biometry and Epidemiology of the National Institute of Mental Health. The NIMH principal collaborators were D. Regier, B. Locke, W. Eaton and J. Burke. The NIMH project officers were C. Taube and W. Huber. The principal investigators and coinvestigators from the five sites were Yale University: J. Myers, M. Weissman, G. Tischler; Johns Hopkins University: M. Kramer, E. Gruenberg, S. Shapiro; Washington University: L. Robins, J. Helzer; Duke University: D. Blazer, L. George; University of California at Los Angeles: M. Karno, R. Hough, J. Escobar, A. Burnam, D. Timbers.     

Sex ratio and women's career choice: does a scarcity of men lead women to choose briefcase over baby?

Although the ratio of males to females in a population is known to influence behavior in nonhuman animals, little is known about how sex ratio influences human behavior. We propose that sex ratio affects women's family planning and career choices. Using both historical data and experiments, we examined how sex ratio influences women's career aspirations. Findings showed that a scarcity of men led women to seek high-paying careers and to delay starting a family. This effect was driven by how sex ratio altered the mating market, not just the job market. Sex ratios involving a scarcity of men led women to seek lucrative careers because of the difficulty women have in finding an investing, long-term mate under such circumstances. Accordingly, this low-male sex ratio produced the strongest desire for lucrative careers in women who are least able to secure a mate. These findings demonstrate that sex ratio has far-reaching effects in humans, including whether women choose briefcase over baby.     

On the mean and variance of the tetrachoric correlation coefficient

Estimates of the mean and standard deviation of the tetrachoric correlation are compared with their expected values in several 2 × 2 tables. Significant bias in the mean is found when the minimum cell frequency is less than 5. Three formulas for the standard deviation are compared and guidelines given for their use.This research was performed when the first author was on leave at the University of California at Los Angeles and was supported in part by NIH Special Research Resources Grant RR-3. The second author was also supported by NIH Fellowship 5 F22 GM00328-02.     

Overselective response to social stimuli by autistic children

Previous studies have shown that when presented with a complex stimulus input, autistic children typically respond to only one of the elements of the complex. This phenomenon was called stimulus overselectivity (or overselective attention). The present investigation sought to determine if this overselectivity might be a possible basis for the deviant social behavior in autistic children. Autistic and normal children were trained to discriminate between clothed girl and boy doll figures. After the children had acquired this discrimination, the individual clothing components and the heads were systematically interchanged between the figures. Thus, it could be determined which component(s) the children had used to make the discrimination. The autistic children demonstrated stimulus overselectivity in that they formed the discrimination between the boy and girl figures on the basis of only one component or of peculiar combinations of components. For example, one child discriminated the figures on the basis of shoes. In contrast, the normal children responded primarily to the figures' heads but could also respond correctly to other parts. These findings are consistent with previous research on stimulus overselectivity and have implications for understanding the difficulty autistic children show in forming meaningful social relationships.This investigation was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Research Grant 11440 from the National Institute of Mental Health.The authors express their appreciation to James Q. Simmons, Associate Chief, Mental Retardation and Child Mental Health Programs, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, Los Angeles; and Norbert Rieger, Superintendent of Children's Services, Camarillo State Hospital, Camarillo, California. They are also grateful to Robert Koegel and to Thomas Willis for their valuable suggestions and to Meredith Gibbs for her assistance in data collection.     

Orthogonal rotation to congruence

Two problems are considered. The first is that of rotating two factor solutions orthogonally to a position where corresponding factors are as similar as possible. A least-squares solution for transformations of the two factor matrices is developed. The second problem is that of rotating a factor matrix orthogonally to a specified target matrix. The solution to the second problem is related to the first. Applications are discussed.This research was supported in part by contract Nonr 228 (22) between the office of Naval Research and the University of Southern California. Portions of this paper were presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Los Angeles, September, 1964.     

A general structural equation model with dichotomous,ordered categorical,and continuous latent variable indicators

A structural equation model is proposed with a generalized measurement part, allowing for dichotomous and ordered categorical variables (indicators) in addition to continuous ones. A computationally feasible three-stage estimator is proposed for any combination of observed variable types. This approach provides large-sample chi-square tests of fit and standard errors of estimates for situations not previously covered. Two multiple-indicator modeling examples are given. One is a simultaneous analysis of two groups with a structural equation model underlying skewed Likert variables. The second is a longitudinal model with a structural model for multivariate probit regressions.This research was supported by Grant No. 81-IJ-CX-0015 from the National Institute of Justice, by Grant No. DA 01070 from the U.S. Public Health Service, and by Grant No. SES-8312583 from the National Science Foundation. I thank Julie Honig for drawing the figures. Requests for reprints should be sent to Bengt Muthén, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024.     

The dimensions of career and work orientation in college women

The purpose of this study was to clarify the meaning of the construct, career orientation. Fourteen presumed measures of career orientation as well as Super's Work Values Inventory were administered to college women. Analysis of the relationships among these variables identified two relatively independent clusters. The first cluster most closely approximated the usual definition of career orientation. Career-oriented women were found to be highly career motivated and perceived the career role as primary in their adult lives. The second cluster was called work orientation. This orientation characterized women with well-defined occupational aspirations who placed a high value on both the career role and marriage-family responsibilities in their future. Work-oriented women tended to choose traditionally feminine occupations in contrast to the career-oriented women whose aspirations included higher level and less traditional occupations.     

Ideas from my undergraduate years: an autobiographical fragment

This brief autobiographical essay reports a fragment of a life covering four undergraduate years, 1934 to 1938, at the University of California at Los Angeles and focuses on the intellectual impact of 5 professors. The more pervasive influence of Henry A. Murray at Harvard is reported--with pleasure.