Job Satisfaction Researches of 1964–65

This annual review of job satisfaction researches is the 23rd in a series and covers reports published in 1964–65 plus earlier studies not previously dealt with in this journal. The format—findings and conclusions, topics investigated, per cent dissatisfied, current emphases, and summaries of studies—has become standard in this series of articles.     

Characteristics of Counseling Centers in Large Universities

Factual and subjective data gathered from counseling centers in 36 major universities is presented to show present conditions, emphasis, and needs of the future. Data are presented showing ratios of counselors to students, budget allotments, strengths, specific weaknesses, etc. Counseling facilities, services provided, emphasis, communications and plans for expansion are dealt with individually. Less than half the centers were meeting student needs and a majority indicated a shortage of professional staff, particularly those competent to do personal adjustment counseling.     

Personality Types and Vocational Choice: A Test of Holland's Theory

In order to test the adequacy of Holland's theory of vocational choice with reference to a broad segment of entering college students, a sample of the freshman class entering the Pennsylvania State University evaluated themselves in terms of the six personality styles of Holland's theory. Relationships between the personality styles and vocational choices were studied for groups of Decided, Tentative, and Undecided students. While several inversions in the data are evident, the data possess sufficient consistency to indicate that the personality identifications these students made in Holland's frame of reference were related to their initial vocational choices.     

Individual response patterns in binary choice tasks with nondiscriminable stimuli

The present experiment sought to determine whether individual Ss tend to employ repeatedly the same response patterns in binary choice tasks containing nondiscriminable stimuli and, if so, whether the response sequences when used to constructstimulus sequences improve the performance of other choice tasks. Information and frequency analyses of the response sequences of 48 Ss showed moderate consistency of patterning within a light and within a tone task. Performance of a card task following the light and tone tasks was closely related to the task (light or tone) from which the stimulus sequence was obtained. The frequency analysis showed that repetition patterns were preferred by most Ss but at the expense of alternation responses. The presentation of reinforcement in the card task did not improve performance over that observed in the light and tone tasks.     

Negative recency and event-dependence

In a two-choice situation with event-probabilities of 0.67 and 0.33, recency effects were studied as a function of (a) event-dependence and (b) fore-knowledge of event-probabilities. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) Belief in some kind of event-dependence is a necessary condition for the occurrence of negative recency; (2) Foreknowledge of the event-probabilities does not affect recency phenomena; (3) The behaviour of subjects in the two-choice situation, is less irrational than some writers have claimed.