Job Satisfaction Factors Among Underprivileged Workers

16 factors dealing with motivation on the job were presented in a paired comparison format to 513 underprivileged adults in a federally supported job retraining project in South Carolina. They were directed to select for each pair the one factor which was more important to them on a job. Analyses were computed for the total sample and for subsamples based on race, sex, and economic environment of residence. The results point out that intrinsic, personal factors are more important than job context factors. Slight differences were found across sex; larger differences were found across race and economic environment.     

Undergraduates' punish-help judgments: The effect of transgressor's and victim's sex

Thirty-six undergraduates were presented with four hypothetical court cases in which the negligent actions of one individual (male or female) resulted in harm to another individual (male or female). Each participant read one case from each of the four sex of transgressor— sex of victim dyads. The sex dyads associated with the cases were counterbalanced across the four nine-member groups. Following each case, the subjects were asked to (1) rate the importance of punishing the transgressor and aiding the victim, (2) allocate $1000 of tax revenues to punishing the transgressor and/or helping the victim, (3) select either punishing or helping if the available resources could be used for only one, and (4) rate how angry and how sad they thought the victim felt. Although the undergraduates generally favored helping over punishing, their ratings indicated that they perceive female victims as more emotional and as meriting more assistance than males experiencing the same misfortunes. The relation of the present findings to those of a similar study involving children is discussed.