Motives for Choosing a Career in Teaching: A South African Study

The study investigated motives for teaching career entry by students (n= 232, males= 103, females= 129, mean age 23) at a large South African university. Data were collected using a career motives survey differentiating extrinsic, intrinsic and altruistic motivators. Extrinsic motivators scored higher than intrinsic or altruistic motivators. The motives advanced for teaching were in alignment with those reported in similar research carried out in metropolitan and developing countries.     

Students' Views on the Value of Psychological Research: A Contribution to Indigenising Psychology in Botswana

The goal of the study was to explore the value that psychology students accredit to psychological research in a country like Botswana where psychology is a relatively new discipline. Forty-five undergraduate students belonging to the first cohort of psychology students at the University of Botswana participated in the study (males = 7, females = 38, age range 18–23 years). Data were obtained from student essays and evaluated with Qualitative Content Analysis. Students were of the view that psychological research should (a) increase knowledge to better understand human beings and the world (epistemological value); (b) create awareness about psychology within society so as to to assist society in combating societal problems (societal value); (c) enhance individuals' understanding of psychology so as to to accept psychology (individual value); and (d) up-date psychological theories to ensure their applicability in present times (theoretical value). Considering students' views could play an important role in indigenising psychology in Botswana.     

Student Development and Support using a Logotherapeutic Approach

This study reports on participants' meaning-centred experiences and perspectives after attending a logotherapy-based student development and support programme. Thirteen students who were enrolled in the first year of the academic programme, in health science programme at a South Africa university, were participants. Qualitative inquiry was used for the data collection and analysis. Findings suggest that a meaning-centred approach may prove to be beneficial for first year university students.     

Relationships Between Attachment Security and Self-Construal Orientations

The authors report the results of two studies in which they explored the relationship of related and individuated self-construals, as suggested by the balanced integration—differentiation (BID) model (E. O. Imamo?lu, 2003), with (a) general attachment security in the first study (N = 168 Turkish university students) and (b) relationshipspecific attachment security with the family, peers, and romantic partners in the second study (N = 110 Turkish university students). Results indicated that attachment security tended to be associated with the relational self-orientation; however, when relatedness was complemented with individuation, there was a trend toward enhanced attachment security that reached significance when multiple measures of attachment across relationship contexts were considered. The authors discuss results with reference to their implications for attachment theory and the BID model.     

Structure of the Modern Japanese Family: Evidence From the Results of a Doll Location Test by Adolescents

To test Herzberg's (1966, 1987; Herzberg, Mausner, &; Snyderman, 1959) motivator-hygiene theory, I examined the relationship between work values and job satisfaction. Educators (N # 386) from 18 Canadian secondary schools were asked to report the degree to which they experienced 16 work values and five dimensions of job satisfaction. Factor analysis suggested five sets of work values: intrinsic work-related, intrinsic work-outcome, extrinsic job-related, extrinsic job-outcome, and extrinsic people-related. Regression analyses identified the best predictors for each of the five dimensions of job satisfaction. The results support and extend Herzberg's theory. In addition to those identified by Herzberg, other factors contributed portions of variance to the five dimensions of job satisfaction.     

Scaling Incentives: Determining Preference and Indifference in 8- to lO-Year-Old Girls

The present study adopted procedures similar to those used by Logan (1965) to determine choice behavior in children. The objective was to provide an improved methodology in delay-of-gratification studies, thus avoiding the problems associated with scaling different kinds of rewards, and to provide approximate functions relating a delay-of-token reward to choice behavior. Thus, 7 girls aged 8 to 10 years were exposed to a choice paradigm in which a larger reward (2 tokens) was pitted against a smaller reward (1 token); access to these rewards was delayed a certain period of time. The results of this experiment showed that as the delay of the larger reward increased, preference for the smaller reward increased in an orderly fashion. The finding that delay shifted preference from the larger to the smaller reward is discussed in relation to current theory. The results of this experiment also provide evidence for the utility of tokens in scaling incentives for choice studies.     

The Relationship of Cognitive Tempo to Psychological Differentiation and Locus of Control

In this study, we investigated the relationship of cognitive tempo to psychological differentiation and locus of control. The 103 male and female undergraduate students who participated in this study were administered the adolescent and adult version of the Matching Familiar Figures Test, the Group Embedded Figures Test, and the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Scale. Using multiple regression analyses, we found that field dependence and independence were significantly related to both cognitive tempo latency and cognitive tempo errors. Contrary to expectation, no relationship was found between locus of control and cognitive tempo. We concluded that psychological differentiation is highly useful in the direct prediction of cognitive tempo, although locus of control is not. Overall, the value of examining cognitive tempo latency and errors separately was upheld. The importance of these relationships is discussed.     

Predicting Supervisor Ratings of Job Performance Using the NEO Personality Inventory

The resurging interest in identifying personality predictors of job performance has led researchers to use the five-factor model of personality as an important conceptual tool. Two recent meta-analyses illustrated the potential predictive power of the model within an employment context. In this study, we evaluated the relations between a well-validated self-report measure of the five-factor model and supervisor ratings of performance. Fifty-two women and 159 men completed the NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1985) and were independently rated on various performance dimensions by their supervisors. Scores on the Conscientiousness scales correlated with all the performance ratings over this diverse number of occupational groups. Low Neuroticism and high Extraversion scores also predicted high performance. Low straightforwardness (a facet of agreeableness) was associated with ability to accomplish work-related goals and to adapt to changing work conditions. The results support the utility of the five-factor model as a predictor of job performance.     

Personality Profiles of Homosexual Men and Women

There has been surprisingly little research on possible differences between homosexual and heterosexual personalities, although the few studies that have been conducted suggest some interesting differences. We devised two hypothesis that may account for these differences. First, differences appear to reflect generalized social nonconformity and alienation due to the social stigmatization of the homosexual. Second, these differences seem to express a more specific tendency to deviation from socially normative sex roles. The two hypotheses imply a number of predictions concerning specific personality traits, which were tested by comparing the 16PF (Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970) personality profiles of a group of male (N = 34) and female (N = 31) homosexuals with those obtained from the two large student samples (male, N = 899 and female, N = 912) whose scores are commonly used as norms for the South African version of the 16PF. The findings suggested reasonably good support for the two hypotheses, particularly considering the limitations of the study with respect to the adequacy of the comparison groups used and the relative heterogeneity of the 16PF scale content.