Personality correlates of career choice in the Kibbutz: A comparison between career and noncareer women

The study compared Kibbutz career women (who studied beyond high school and worked in their profession) to Kibbutz noncareer women (who did not study beyond high school and worked in various nonprofessional jobs such as the laundry, the kitchen, and child care) on several personality characteristics. All subjects were nonorthodox Jewish women who were born and raised in the Kibbutz. The two groups completed a variety of self-report inventories, including the Bem Sex-Role Orientation Inventory, need for achievement inventory, two self-esteem scales that measured both the global self-esteem and various dimensions of self-esteem (academic, social, physical appearance, physical abilities, and self-regard) and Cattell's Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ), which is a short version of Cattell's 16 Personality Factors Test. The results showed that Kibbutz career women differed significantly from noncareer women on several personality characteristics. These women attributed to themselves more instrumental characteristics, were found to be more independent and emotionally stable, and had a higher need for achievement and a higher academic and social self-esteem. In addition, the division of household work was more egalitarian in the case of career women. The results are discussed in view of the fact that all of the career women were actually holding traditionally feminine positions such as teachers and social workers.     

Sex-role attitudes: A comparison of sex-race groups

This study investigated the differences in the three dimensions of sex-role attitudes among four sex-race groups and also the ability of sex and race jointly to condition the effects of background characteristics on these attitudes. In a sample of 409 college students significant differences were found on all three dimensions of sex-role attitudes between the two sex groups, but not between the two racial groups, implying that gender is the most significant variable in eliciting differences in sex-role attitudes. Stepwise multiple regression analysis did not find a single common predictor to explain the variance in the wife role, the mother role, and the father role for the four sex-race group models. Some predictors were found in common in the four models explaining the variance in three dimensions of sex-role attitudes when the effects of sex and race were examined separately. However, the interaction of race and sex in conditioning the effect of background variables on the sex-role attitudes was quite different for each of the four sex-race subsamples.     

Sex-role self-concept and attitudes related to occupational daydreams and future fantasies of college women

This study explored the relationship of sex-role self-concept and general attitudes toward women's roles to patterns of career preferences and to career salience among 50 undergraduate women. Sex-role self-concept was measured by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, and attitudes by the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Patterns in career preferences were determined by studying the degree of gender dominance in past occupational daydreams as well as in present college major and intended future occupation. Career salience was measured using a content analysis of written future fantasies. Sex-role self-concept was related to past occupational preferences, with masculine-typed women showing a pattern of nontraditional daydreams compared to those of feminine-typed women. Attitude variables were related to present career choices, with liberal women in more male-dominant fields than conservative women. Both self-concept and attitude variables were related to career salience, measured by the proportion of fantasies about the future devoted to work themes. Masculine women showed evidence of more career salience than androgynous or undifferentiated women, and liberal women more than conservative women.     

Sex-role attitudes of working-class women in Bogota,Colombia 1977

This study examines the sex-role attitudes of 204 working-class women in Bogota, Colombia, and compares their attitudes to recent findings for women in the United States. Historical evidence from Europe and the United States, as well as contemporary evidence from Latin America, provides insight into the ways in which women's work and family commitments can be fully integrated. On the basis of these examples, it is hypothesized that working-class Colombian women will have seemingly inconsistent sex-role attitudes, more inconsistent than those of North American women. The Colombian women studied had highly egalitarian attitudes with regard to women's labor market rights and less egalitarian attitudes with regard to women's family roles. It is further hypothesized that education and wage level will be important factors influencing the sex-role attitudes of working-class Colombian women. A multiple regression analysis confirmed that these factors are successful predictors of sex-role attitudes involving women's family roles. It is proposed that education and wage level reflect an emphasis on individualistic values rather than traditional family values, and thus support more egalitarian attitudes about family roles.The data collection and initial analysis of results for this study were funded by a Rockefeller-Ford Population Policy Grant in 1976–1977. These stages were completed at the Corporacion Centro Regional de Poblacion in Bogota, Colombia, with the assistance of Elsa Gomez and Elena Prada. Further analysis was supported by a State University of New York, University Awards Committee Grant to the author in the summer of 1978. Michael Goode, Norman Goodman, Eugene Weinstein, and an anonymous reviewer all contributed to the final version of this article.     

Sex-role orientation and psychological adjustment: comparison of MMPI profiles among college women and housewives

Androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated women, as determined by the Bern Sex Role Inventory, were compared on the three validity and ten clinical scales of the MMPI. Two samples of women were included: Female college students and a group of upper middle-class suburban housewives. No significant differences emerged in the housewife sample. Among college women, androgynous and masculine women did not differ in adjustment, and both groups were better adjusted (i.e., less depressed, anxious, tense, and less socially introverted) than the undifferentiated women. A cross-validation study with a comparable student sample essentially replicated the results of the first study. Rather than supporting Bem's (1974) hypothesis of better psychological adjustment in androgynous persons, results were interpreted as providing support for the notion that masculinity is associated with equally good adjustment as androgyny in college women.     

Sex-role orientation,identity formation,and self-esteem in college men and women

Contrasting hypotheses that psychological androgyny (Bem, 1974, 1975) would be associated with (1) identity confusion and a lack of personal integration or (2) identity achievement and high levels of integration were tested. Sex-role orientation, ego-identity status, and self-esteem were determined for 111 college men and women. The results support the second hypothesis, that high levels of masculinity and femininity (androgynous orientation) are conducive to identity achievement and high self-esteem. In contrast, low levels of masculine and feminine characteristics (undifferentiated sex-role orientation) were associated with uniformly low self-esteem and a lack of personal integration (identity diffusion). Sex-typing was most often associated with premature identity commitments and a lack of personality differentiation (identity foreclosure) and with high self-esteem in males but low self-esteem in females. Cross-sex-typing was associated with high levels of self-esteem and identity achievement in females, but with somewhat lower self-esteem in males and either unsuccessful (diffusion) or transitional (moratorium) levels of identity resolution.This research was supported by University of Missouri Summer Research Fellowship 3694-1100. The author would like to express his gratitude to Mona Asbed, Richard Baker, Sheila Ginsburg, Keith Shaw, and Marsha Whitson for conducting and rating the identity status interviews.     

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.     

Effects of a persuasive communication on beliefs, attitudes, and career choice

Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action was used to formulate a persuasive communication in an attempt to influence unclassified American college students' beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors regarding signing up for a career as a registered nurse. A two-stage cluster sample was used to assign 90 male and female students to either an experimental or control group. After persuasive communication exposure, the experimental group showed a significantly more positive change in beliefs, attitudes, and intentions than did the control group exposed to a neutral message. Sign-up rate was also statistically significant for the experimental group. With the Fishbein model to predict sign-up behavior, no other scores were found to add to the prediction once behavioral intention was entered into the model. Change in behavioral intention explained 49% of the variation in behavior. Normative belief scores did not approach statistical significance.     

Increasing nontraditional career choices in women: Relation of attitudes toward women and responses to a career intervention

This study examined whether 80 college women, grouped according to their scores on the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS; J. T. Spence, R. Helmreich, & J. Stapp 1973 Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 2, 219–220), were differentially affected by a videotape career intervention. The videotape was entitled “Women: Choices and Changes,” and it focused on career development, broadly defined. It was developed as part of Project Born Free. A variety of outcome measures were used, including a brief measure of career decidedness, a measure of the traditionality of the women's own career choices and of the career choices they selected for their hypothetical daughters. In addition, two measures of self-efficacy were used, the Vocational Self-Efficacy Scale (Hackett & Betz 1981) and the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale (K. M. Taylor & N. E. Betz 1983 Journal of Vocational Behavior, 22, 63–81). The results indicated that AWS scores were related to the traditionality of the careers chosen for the subjects' hypothetical daughters and to self-efficacy. Increases were found for the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale and on career decidedness. Careers chosen by the women for themselves and for their daughters were more non-traditional after the videotape intervention. These results are discussed and their implications for career counseling and future research are examined.     

Shedding light on the relationships between Machiavellianism,career ambition,and unethical behavior intention

ABSTRACT

This research aims at revealing how Machiavellianism correlates with the propensity to engage in unethical behavior. The mediating role of career ambition was thus investigated for this purpose. This research posits that career ambition partially mediates the relationship between Machiavellianism and unethical behavior intention. The research model was tested via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Research data were collected from full-time hotel employees and managers in Antalya, Turkey. The findings revealed that Machiavellianism positively correlated with career ambition and unethical behavior intention. Furthermore, the mediating role of career ambition in the relationship between Machiavellianism and unethical behavior intention was verified. Specifically, Machiavellianism predicted career ambition, which in turn predicted unethical behavior intention. Finally, considering the fact that the dark sides of the antecedents and consequences of career ambition have been neglected to a significant extent in the literature, the current study makes a significant contribution to filling this gap.     

Sex-role self-concept and persistence in a traditional vs nontraditional college major for women

This article reports a 3-year follow-up study of a sample of women engineering and home economics majors who were previously studied as freshmen. It was hypothesized that persistence in the two curricula would be related to sex roles, with feminine-typed women more likely to leave engineering and masculine-typed women more likely to leave home economics. The findings did not generally support this hypothesis, however. Women in the two majors who persisted were not found to differ significantly from women who changed majors or dropped out on either sex roles or on ratings given as freshmen of their satisfaction with and certainty of college major. Persisters in engineering had higher college entrance SAT math scores than changers or dropouts. Those who changed majors from home economics tended to go into less traditional fields than home economics. Nearly all of the women who changed from engineering chose another nontraditional or male-dominated field as their second major.     

Career development and career choice in pioneer and traditional women

Two groups of college seniors were compared in an attempt to elucidate those factors affecting feminine career choice and career development. The sample consisted of 106 female Caucasian students enrolled at a large Southwestern university. Sixty-three of the subjects were majoring in traditional female fields, while the remaining 43 were majoring in male-dominated areas. Five instruments were administered to the subjects. Seven factors were found to distinguish significantly between the two groups of women. Of the seven, three factors pertained to feminine role perception. The remaining four were concerned with sex-role stereotyping and various aspects of family background.     

Temperament and loving-styles in college women: associations with eating attitudes

The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations of temperament and love attitudes with eating behaviors in 190 college-aged nonclinical women who completed a survey that included measures of temperament, loving-style, and eating attitudes. Certain temperament and loving-style variables showed significant statistical association with scores on eating attitudes. Specifically, both obsessive and game-playing love-styles were related to the Dieting and Bulimia-Food Preoccupation dimensions of the eating scales, while temperamental fear and anger were related to bulimia and oral control. The role of interpersonal relationships and self-perceptions of temperament may provide a useful perspective for understanding the etiology of eating disorders.     

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.     

Parental identification and patterns of career orientation in college women

We argued that parental identification should be viewed as an intermediate variable which mediates the impact of parental characteristics on women's career orientation but does not directly affect career orientation itself. Questionnaire data from 457 college women showed that, while there was no overall association between career orientation and parental identification, these variables interacted significantly in their association with self-differentiation from the father, maternal employment and occupation, and maternal sex role ideology. As predicted, career orientation among mother-identified women was associated with more extensive maternal employment and less conventional sex role ideology in both parents. For this group it was also associated with greater dissimilarity between perception of self and father. For father-identified women, we hypothesized that career orientation would be associated with less dissimilarity between self and father, less extensive maternal employment, and greater maternal sex role traditionality. Results directionally supported this father-identified pattern.     

Sex-role typing as related to acceptance of self, acceptance of others, and discriminatory attitudes toward women

This study examines four hypotheses relating sex-role typing to self-acceptance, acceptance of others, and sexist attitudes toward women. University students completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Berger Self-Acceptance Scale, and the Macho Scale. Findings showed more self-acceptance than acceptance of others among masculine-typed subjects and more acceptance of others than self-acceptance among feminine-typed subjects. Feminine-typed males and masculine-type females showed least self-acceptance among the six groups, while androgynous subjects showed highest self-acceptance. Masculine-typed males were least accepting of others and scored highest in discriminatory attitudes toward women. Male subjects showed greater variability than did female subjects on all scales, and Bem's measure of sex-role typing proved a more efficient moderator of scores of males than of those of females. Additional personality and behavioral research with sex-role typing variables is proposed.     

Age and gender differences in college students' attitudes toward women: A replication and extension

This study replicates and extends earlier research on the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (J. T. Spence and R. L. Helmreich, The Attitudes Towards Women Scale: An Objective Instrument to Measure Attitudes Towards the Rights and Roles of Women in Contemporary Society, JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 1972, 2, 66). The scale was administered to 382 college students to assess the reliability of the scale, gender and age differences in responses to the scale, and to make comparisons to past research with different samples. Age was positively associated with more liberal attitudes toward women. Females were more liberal overall than males; however, this depended on the particular item.     

Gender attitudes, feminist identity, and body images among college women

Cultural forces influence body-image development in gender-contingent ways, such that women in our society possess more dysfunctional body-image attitudes than men do. However, few studies have examined how women’s body-image experiences relate to their own gender attitudes and ideologies. This investigation of 122 college women assessed multiple parameters of body image (i.e., evaluation, investment, and affect) and different facets of gender attitudes and feminist identity development. Results revealed minimal relationships between body-image attitudes and either feminist identity or adherence to traditional gender beliefs at individual/stereotypic or societal levels. On the other hand, traditional gender attitudes at the level of male-female social interactions were associated with stronger and more dysfunctional investments in cultural and personal appearance standards. The scientific, social, and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.