Effect of role choice on vocational high school students

This study was an attempt to determine whether the role choice dimension of Holland's theory was applicable to vocational high school students. The results of the study indicate that students with a clear role choice have significantly higher mean achievement scores, are more satisfied with their training program and have a lower attrition rate than students with an unclear role choice. These results seem to suggest that school counselors should listen to what students say they want to do in their work role.     

The influence of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of college students

The effects of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of theoretically grouped college freshmen and sophomores were investigated using Super's Career Development Inventory as the dependent measure. The dimensions of consistency/inconsistency and differentiation/nondifferentiation, as identified utilizing Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory, were investigated along with the dimensions of treatment/nontreatment and interaction effects. Predictions related to change in vocational maturity as a result of treatment were made for each dimension. The analysis sample was a group of 68 volunteer freshman and sophomore college students. Results indicated that students did significantly increase their vocational maturity as a result of the group experience. Furthermore, it was found, as predicted, that within experimental groups inconsistent and nondifferentiated students improved significantly more on some vocational maturity measures than consistent or differentiated students. Students who were both inconsistent and nondifferentiated showed consistently greater increases on virtually all vocational maturity measures than all other theoretical groups.     

Vocational maturity in adulthood: Toward turning a model into a measure

It is postulated that adult vocational maturity needs to be assessed because of the changing developmental tasks encountered during the course of a career. Vocational maturity having been found to be multidimensional, existing undimensional inventories of adult vocational maturity are considered of limited although demonstrated validity. Relevant theories of adult vocational development and adjustment are reviewed. Super's proposed adult vocational maturity model is examined for the promise that it offers and for the problems that arise in developing a multidimensional measure of vocational maturity. A way of surmounting these problems is proposed as a basis for work now being undertaken.     

Selection of consultees in school mental health consultation

To further understanding regarding the selection of teacher consultees, 15 mental health consultants completed a questionnaire. Consultants ranked teachers in their school consultation placements on ability to meet academic and socioemotional needs of children, receptivity to change, and likability. Next, after indicating which teachers they would most and least like to work with, consultants rated the teachers on nine 5-point rating scales. In general, results indicate that most preferred consultees, in comparison to least preferred consultees, are perceived as less needy of assistance around issues concerning children and lessons, more responsive to consultation, and more likable. It appears that teachers most in need of assistance are not selected for consultation.     

Social inhibition as a function of observation and recording of performance

In order to compare the relative effects of observation of performance and recording of information about performance on social facilitation/inhibition, 256 college students solved three concept-attainment problems in an orthogonal design. The variables were (a) number of observers (an additional observer or the experimenter alone), (b) videorecording (yes or no), (c) audiorecording (yes or no), (d) task complexity (four, six, eight, or ten total attributes in the problems). Each of videotaping, filming, and audiotaping resulted in poorer performance than the control condition, with no differences between these three recording conditions. The presence of an additional observer had no effect on performance. Pulse measures indicated that the presence of an additional observer increased arousal, but covariance analysis indicated no association between differences in performance and arousal.     

A factorial investigation of career salience

A series of career salience items were factor analyzed and related to several indices of occupational choice behavior. Three factors emerged from the factor analysis: (1) the relative priority of a career; (2) general attitudes toward work; and (3) career advancement and planning. Factor 2 was significantly related to the choice of a congruent occupation for males and to the choice of an “ideal” occupation for males and females. Factor 2 was also most highly related to self-esteem for both sexes.     

A definitive,large-sample factoring of personality structure in objective measures,as a basis for the high school objective-analytic battery

Eighty-two subtests chosen from a series of preceding researches as the best marker variables for 12 previously checked and interpreted personality factors (U.I. 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23–26, 28, 32, and 33) were administered to 2,522 boys of high school age. The ensuing factor analysis, aimed to check and precision the factor patterns, to lead to the definitive HSOA battery, and to yield scores for further age and genetic analyses, observed the following procedural requirements: (1) Scree test for number of factors, (2) iterated communalities, (3) blind automated rotation, carried further by rotoplot to a maximum simple structure, (4) a test of simple structure significance, and (5) matching of patterns for invariance against other studies. As before in this domain, 19–20 factors were found, and the 10 for which definite markers had been made available matched very well with former patterns. Although a small minority of tests failed to load as hypothesized, this results in some weakness of factor estimate only on U.I. 32, Exvia-Invia. For on all 10 factors for the planned HSOA battery, with this possible exception, the validities of weighted battery scores reached acceptable levels.     

The effects of a career course on undecided college students

The effects of a career course taught by 11 instructors (two sections each) for college students, who were undecided about a major field or career, were evaluated in a pre-post design using the Vocational Identity, Occupational Information, and Barrier scales of the My Vocational Situation (J. A. Holland, D. C. Daiger, & P. G. Power, Palo Alto, Calif.: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1980). Large main effects were observed for the Identity and Occupational Information scales, but not for the Barriers scale. No interactions by instructor or student characteristics were found by using a simple ANOVA procedure or by using a split plot factorial design. The implications for new research and career instructors were discussed.     

The role of cue additivity in salience in taste aversion conditioning

In toxiphobia conditioning certain cues are more easily associated with malaise (i.e., more salient) than others. The present experiments show that cue additivity can account for previously found differences in salience of certain fluids. The relative salience of saccharin, saline and casein hydrolysate was tested in normal rats and in animals rendered anosmic by treatment of their nasal passages with zinc sulphate. The normally more salient casein was reduced in salience to the same level as saccharin and saline in the anosmic animals, while anosmia did not affect the relative salience of saccharin and saline. A second study tested the cue properties of vanilla, a fluid of very low salience. Anosmic animals could not show a conditioned aversion to vanilla. Normal animals readily learned the aversion but could not show it following a later anosmia treatment. Anosmia did not disrupt a saccharin aversion previously conditioned in normal animals. The data show that some of the “tastes” used in toxiphobia conditioning have olfactory components, and some are purely olfactory. Further, olfactory cues can summate with taste cues to form a more salient stimulus.     

The nature of curiosity in children

This study examined several behaviors claimed to reflect curiosity in order to determine whether there are one or more types of curiosity. A secondary purpose was to examine the relations between the one or more types of curiosity and sex, social class, intelligence, achievement level, and ratings of personality traits. In two individual sessions 84 American first-grade boys and girls were administered five tasks which measured observation of complex and simple stimuli, preference of complex and simple stimuli, preference for the unknown, structure of meaning, and object exploration. A normalized Varimax factor analysis allowed the extraction of five factors: manipulatory curiosity, perceptual curiosity, conceptual curiosity, curiosity about the complex, and adjustive-reactive curiosity. Only the first factor was related to a demographic variable, sex. The nature of the factors and their theoretical and practical significance are discussed.     

Fear of success,sex role attitudes,and career salience and anxiety levels of college women

This study examined, for 99 female undergraduate students, both the relationship between fear of success, sex role attitudes, and career salience, and the relationship between fear of success, career salience, and trait anxiety. Fear of success was assessed using the Fear of Success Scale, while sex role attitudes were assessed using the Attitudes towards Women Scale. Career Salience was measured by the Career Salience Scale, and trait anxiety was assessed by the trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results indicated that fear of success and sex-role attitudes, in combination, significantly predicted the level of career salience in a multiple regression analysis. The women higher in fear of success and more traditional tended to be lower in career salience. Trait anxiety levels of women did not differ significantly as a function of fear of success, career salience, or the combination of the two.     

Congruence between personality type and environment type as a predictor of stay in an environment

Following Holland's (Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Careers. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973) congruence hypothesis, the independent variable in this study is the level of congruence between the personality type of the subjects and the modal personality type in their environment. This variable is hypothesized to predict the two criteria of the study—the inclination to stay and the social acceptance of 71 couples from three settlements. Results show that (a) in each settlement the modal personality type of males is not similar to the modal personality type of females; (b) the correlation between congruence level and inclination to stay in the settlement is .44 (n = 142, p < .01); and (c) the correlations between congruence level and social acceptance are low and not significant. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Block-design performance as a function of hue and race

The block-design subtest of the WISC was presented in two forms, the standard red/white and an alternative blue/yellow, to two groups of fourth- and fifth-grade children. Twenty black children and 20 white children performed the red/white task with no significant differences between their scores. Another 20 black and 20 white children performed the blue/yellow task showing a significant interracial difference. Within the group of black children there was also a significant difference between the red/white design scores and the blue/yellow design scores. It is proposed that genetically determined differences in the pigmentation of the fundus oculi account for these results.     

Congruency,consistency, and differentiation as predictors of job satisfaction within the nursing occupation

Holland's (Making vocational choices: A theory of careers, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973) congruency, consistency, and differentiation terms were used as independent variables to predict job satisfaction (JS) within the scope of a single occupation, rather than on the comparison between occupations. Based on the responses of 126 registered nurses on the specially designed List of Courses in Nursing (LCN) Inventory the congruence hypothesis was confirmed, while the consistency and differentiation hypotheses were only partially supported. The hypothesis on the additive relationship among congruence, consistency, and differentiation with JS was confirmed. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Career education and career maturity

The relationships between career maturity and the career curriculum practices and policies of 38 Melbourne metropolitan secondary schools were investigated in this study. An Australian adaption of the Career Development Inventory was used as the measure of career maturity of random samples of year 9 and year 11 students. Career curriculum practices were ascertained via questionnaires. Questionnaires were completed by the principal, career teacher, and three subject teachers in each of the schools in the study. The questionnaires yielded five factors, one associated with congruence to Super's theory and four assocated with innovation/implementation factors. The results of the study supported the view that schools with career education programs achieved higher gains in the career maturity of their students between years 9 and 11 than schools with no career education programs. The findings also showed a strong relationship between the type of program offered, the support of the school for that program, and the gains in career maturity of the students between years 9 and 11.     

The development of a measure to assess vocational maturity in adults with delayed career development

The development and validation of a measure of vocational maturity for educationally and economically “disadvantaged” adults who experience delayed career development is described. The Adult Vocational Maturity Assessment Interview (AVMAI) measures the attitudinal, cognitive, and behavior aspects involved in coping with exploratory and early entrance stage vocational development tasks. The measure employs a structured interview format accompanied by a detailed content scoring manual. It includes 120 items which yield scores for eight scales: Orientation to Education; Orientation to Work; Concern with Choice; Self-Appraisal: Interests and Abilities; Self-Appraisal: Personality Characteristics; Self-Appraisal: Values; Exploring Occupations; and Using Resources. Evidence for the measure's reliability, content, and construct validity is presented by examining the internal consistency of the scales, the reliability of its scoring procedures, its interscale correlations, and its performance in a pretest-post-test experimental situation. Research and counseling uses of the measure are discussed in the context of the need for vocational psychologists to develop and use measures that are appropriate for the specific career development problems of different groups in society.     

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.     

Evaluation of outcome in school consultation

To further understanding regarding how content of change, degree of change, and initial level of functioning influence consultants' evaluation of consulation outcome, 14 mental health consultants completed a questionnaire. For each of the 18 prepost consultation ratings on the questionnaire (2 context × 3 degrees of change × 3 initial levels = 18), consultants rated the success of consultation and the degree to which they would like to have been the consultant. Analysis of variance results for both dependent measures indicate main effects for degree of change and initial level. Neither main effects for content nor interaction effects are indicated. It appears that consultants perceive consultation as more successful with and prefer working with consultees who improve the most and who function at a higher initial level.     

Comparative assessment of a coping model for school adolescents

Four brief, interpersonal coping courses were conducted in a junior high school setting for early adolescent students who volunteered for the experience. Two of the classes (N=24) consisted of students who regularly utilized school guidance personnel; the remaining two classes (N=19) consisted of adolescents from the general school population. Course objectives included higher self-esteem and increased ability to perceive, interpret, and express nonverbal communication and feeling. Session tape recordings provided verbal data for analysis by the Hill Interaction Matrix (HIM) procedure. Results showed that the intervention had significant impact on students' patterns of interaction: interactions were fewer, but longer; conventional interactions decreased, while speculative ones increased; and personal and relationship content increased. Generally, the two class types exhibited similar patterns and changes, although some specific differences were detected. Social class background, stressful life events, and the intensity of the problems experienced by the two types of student were postulated as the sources of this variability. When coupled with ancillary postcourse data, these results support the conclusion that students' interpersonal coping skills were improved by the experience.