“in”, “on”, and “under” revisited

The present study presents evidence that young children's comprehension of the locatives ‘in’, ‘on’, and ‘under’ is, at least in part, contextually determined. Children aged 1;6–3;0 were given tasks with verbal instructions which were either contextually congruent or incongruent. The results were interpreted in terms of the non-linguistic as well as linguistic strategies apparently used to interpret speech. The results and interpretation are in contrast to those of earlier research.     

Achievement and affiliation motivation in career-oriented and homemaking-oriented college women

The purpose of this research was to investigate the possibility of an interaction between need for achievement and need for affiliation in career-oriented and homemaking-oriented college women. In the first study, scores on the appropriate scales (Achievement and Affiliation) of the Adjective Check List were obtained for 250 female college students, who were also classified as career or homemaking oriented on the basis of their responses to a questionnaire concerning postcollege plans. No significant differences were found between the career- and homemaking-oriented groups on Achievement and Affiliation; but, as predicted, a significant interaction occurred between the two variables. A second study, involving 257 college women and employing the same procedures and analysis, replicated the results of the original study: no main effects, but a significant interaction between Achievement and Affiliation. Implications of the findings for female career development and the counseling of women are discussed.     

The effect of verbal reinforcement on career choice realism

Twenty-four male undergraduates viewed 102 slides containing occupational titles and stated whether or not each represented a realistic career choice. Each subject was given three trials, with the experimental subjects receiving positive verbal reinforcement on the second trial for realistic responses. (If the choice was congruous with the individual's occupational type, as determined by the Vocational Preference Inventory, it was scored as realistic.) The results of the research revealed a tendency for all subjects to increase in career choice realism as a function of participation in the experiment, with significantly (p < .05) more experimental subjects than control subjects demonstrating an operant pattern of responses. Implications of the findings for counselors were discussed.     

Continuing problems in exploring the structure of job satisfaction

Job satisfaction ratings-defined as the product (importance) X (what the job should offer, what the job actually offers)-on 29 job dimensions were factor analyzed for two large and randomly drawn samples of management-level males. An identical analysis was also carried out on the perceived discrepancy score alone. Differences between the results of the analyses on the two types of measures indicated that while the importance weighted measure of job satisfaction is more elegant and conceptually appealing, it is embedded in considerable measurement difficulty. Some probable sources of and possible approaches to handling this difficulty were offered.     

The accuracy of self-administration and scoring on Holland's Self-Directed Search

This study assesed the extent to which Ss commit various types of errors when completing Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) entirely on their own. Nearly all Ss made some type of error and approximately half of the Ss made errors which affected their final three-letter summary codes. Almost one-fifth of the Ss made errors resulting in an incorrect high-point code. Whether or not Ss made errors that affected their summary codes was unrelated to the extent to which they were interested in knowing more about occupations or academic majors they might like. Neither were such errors related to whether Ss felt the occupations suggested by their summary codes seemed reasonable. Only slightly over one-third the Ss actually did feel that the occupations seemed reasonable.     

Effects of computer-mediated vocational guidance procedures: Accuracy of self-knowledge

To assess the effectiveness of vocational guidance procedures proposed for inclusion in a computer-based vocational exploration system, 128 11th-grade male subjects were randomly assigned to three experimental groups and a control group. One group was given a computer-generated accuracy of self-knowledge feedback, another group was taught on occupational classification scheme, a third group experienced both. Measures of self-knowledge showed increased accuracy about intelligence, but not about interests, after treatments that included the feedback. Increases were largely due to changes in subjects who originally underestimated their intelligence. A delayed posttest indicated that the increases did not persist.     

Delay of gratification in children: The effects of training under fixed,decreasing and increasing delay of reward

The effect of fixed, gradually decreasing, or increasing delay of reward in discimination learning on later delay of gratification was investigated. In discrimination training, employing a correction procedure, a candy reward was delivered either after 0, 10, 20, 40 or 60 sec fixed delay; or after 60 sec in the first block of trials and decreased in successive block; or reward was immediate in the first block of trials and delay was gradually increased to 60 sec. In the delay of gratification tests, subjects could press a button immediately to receive a small reward (one candy or a cheap toy) or delay pressing and receive an increasingly larger reward (more candy or a better toy).Learning was not significantly affected by either fixed or decreasing delays. Increasing delays resulted in faster learning than decreasing delays. The increasing delay group demonstrated superior delay of gratification on both tests. Fixed delay groups did not differ significantly among themselves, nor from the decreasing delay group. The effectiveness of exposure to increasing delays in facilitating delay of gratification was interpreted as due to either the acquisition of coping responses or the extinction of frustration.