Relationships between vocational development and self-concept in sixth grade students

Super, in his self-concept theory of vocational development, indicates the existence of a strong relationship between vocational development and the development of self-concept in adolescent and adult subjects. This study was designed to test for this relationship in preadolescent subjects. The study investigated the relationships among a measure of career maturity, self-concept, socioeconomic status, race, sex, place of residence, and age. The research sample included 300 randomly selected sixth grade students enrolled in 22 public schools in the state of Georgia during the fall quarter of 1978. Data were obtained by the administration of two instruments, the Career Maturity Inventory-Attitude Scale (CMI-AS) and the Piers-Harris (P-H) Children's Self-Concept Scale. A multiple regression analysis was utilized to analyze the data. Results of this study indicate a positive but low correlation between the total scores on the CMI-AS and the P-H Scale. All six of the self-concept factors on the P-H Scale were found to be significantly correlated to the CMI-AS score. Socioeconomic status was found to be significantly correlated to the CMI-AS score. Although race was not found to be a significant source of variance on the CMI-AS, the interaction of race and socioeconomic status was found to be significant. Sex, place of residence (urban and rural), and age were not found to be significant sources of variance on the CMI-AS.     

Individual and organizational correlates of promotion refusal

Individual and organizational correlates of employees who refuse seniority-based promotions in union lines of progression are examined. The sample consisted of 313 production employees of a large manufacturing complex. Correlational and discriminant analyses revealed that age, being female, and number of employees in the department related positively to promotion refusal, while years of education and pay showed a negative relationship. Of these variables, years of education was the strongest predictor. Potential explanations for the results relate to stress avoidance, perceived inabilities, and equity theory. Areas for future research are suggested.     

Formal assessment of problem-solving and planning processes in preschool children

While much is known about adult problem-solving, the materials, analyses, and theoretical issues from the adult literature rarely make contact with the tasks typically used to investigate children's thinking. This paper examines the behavior of 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children attempting to solve a novel variant of the Tower of Hanoi task. Problems varied in difficulty (one to seven moves for the minimum path solution) and in goal type: tower (all objects on one peg) or flat (all pegs occupied). For each problem, children gave verbal statements of their complete solution plan. The Plan Analysis examined performance as a function of goal type and age. Better performance was observed for tower ending problems, and among older children. The Error Analysis revealed that specific error propensities were related to both age and goal type. The Strategic Analysis compared the first move profiles of 6-year-olds to those of several plausible move selection models, and a high degree of correspondence was obtained between specific models and individual children. Young children appear to have rudimentary forms of many of the problem-solving processes previously identified in adults, but they may differ in encoding and representational processes.     

Integrating velocity,time, and distance information: A developmental study

The development of understanding the relationships between velocity, time, and distance was investigated in three tasks. In each task, values of two dimensions were given, and 5-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and adults had to infer values of the third dimension. These inferences were made in all age groups. The integration rules were found to depend upon age and task. In the distance = time × velocity task, all age groups obeyed the normative multiplication rule. In the time = distance ÷ velocity task, the two older age groups obeyed the normative division rule, but the 5-year-olds shifted to a simpler subtraction rule. In the velocity = distance ÷ time task, which was the most difficult, the two older age groups simplified to use of a subtraction rule, and the 5-year-olds simplified even further to use of a distance-only rule. The knowledge level revealed for young children contrasts sharply with results from previous studies using Piagetian choice tasks, which apparently investigate selective attention to one dimension rather than conceptual understanding of relations.