Consistent occupational preferences and personality

This study explored the differences on personality variables between upperclass students who made congruent and incongruent occupational choices. The personality variables were operationally defined by the California Psychological Inventory and the Omnibus Personality Inventory. Congruent and incongruent current occupational choice groups were defined operationally using the Self Directed Search. The analysis of variance revealed the main effect of groups to be significant for nine personality variables. The test for the main effect of sex was found to be significant for seven personality variables. The test for interaction was found to be significant for three personality variables. Findings suggest that students in the congruent male group tend to report better maintenance of personal and vocational stability and greater satisfaction than students in the incongruent male and female groups.     

Wyckoff's observing response: Pigeons learn to observe stimuli for free food but not stimuli for extinction

Four pigeons received periods of free food delivery alternating with periods of extinction. The experimental chamber was divided in half. Initially the subjects could produce stimuli selectively associated with these schedules by standing on the right side of the chamber and later by standing on the left side. In both phases, subjects produced the free food stimulus most of the time it was available but did not increase above baseline the time spent producing the extinction stimulus. Thus, when alternative stimuli are available, the pigeon prefers the stimulus associated with the greater frequency of reinforcement although the choice results in no biological advantage.     

An investigation of vocational indecision in college students: Correlates and moderators

This study investigated the relationships among fear of success, locus of control, and vocational indecision in college students and the extent to which these relationships are moderated by sex and ability. Subjects, 103 female and 98 male undergraduate students, were administered measures of fear of success, locus of control, and career indecision. In addition, American College Test (ACT) composite scores were available for 154, or 77%, of the subjects. Results indicate that vocationally undecided college students are more external in their locus of control, are more fearful of success, and have lower ACT scores than decided students. Multiple regression analyses for the prediction of vocational indecision yield mixed results, as the power of prediction of the independent variables of locus of control and fear of success were influenced by the sex and ability level of the student. Results, implications for future vocational indecision research, and implications for counseling assistance of vocationally undecided students are discussed.     

An investigation of two measures of career indecision

The present study compared two recent scales developed to measure career indecision, the Career Decision Scale and the Vocational Decision-Making Difficulty Scale. The subjects were 857 male and female undergraduates. The scales were factor analyzed, the total scores were correlated, and the factor structures were examined for similarities and differences. Test-retest correlations were performed on the items, the total scores, and the factor scores of both measures. Subjects who were satisfied with their career choices were compared with subjects who were unsure, dissatisfied, or undecided about their career choices using the items, total scores, and factor scores. The results are discussed along with the implications for the future development of the scales.     

Holland's theory and non-college-degreed working men and women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences between men and women employed in traditional male occupations using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and the SDS were administered to 103 male and female non-college-degreed workers in three occupations (bus-taxi drivers, police officers, and car sales agents) corresponding to three of Holland's environmental categories (Realistic, Social, and Enterprising). In general, the results indicate that the VPI and SDS scales to some extent discriminate among occupational groups, but expected patterns do not always occur within and between occupational groups.     

Applications of self-efficacy theory to the understanding and treatment of career indecision

The present study was designed to investigate the utility of Bandura's self-efficacy theory to the understanding and treatment of career indecision. More specifically, the study involved the development of a measure of self-efficacy expectations with regard to 50 tasks or behaviors required in career decision making and the examination of the relationships of career decision-making self-efficacy to several components of vocational indecision. A total of 346 subjects, 154 students attending a private liberal arts college and 193 students attending a large state university, were administered the measure of career decision-making self-efficacy expectations and the Career Decision Scale (Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, Columbus, Ohio: Marathon Consulting and Press, 1980). In addition, Scholastic Aptitude Test verbal and math scores were obtained for the liberal arts students, and American College Test math and English subtest scores were obtained for the state university students. Results indicated first that college students in general express considerable confidence in their ability to complete the tasks necessary to make career decisions. In addition, however, the strength of students' career decision-making self-efficacy expectations was strongly and negatively related to overall levels of career indecision and was, in particular, related to the component of indecision described as a lack of structure and confidence with respect to career decisions. Relationships of career decision-making self-efficacy expectations to ability level were negligible. Based on the findings of this study it is suggested that the concept of career-related self-efficacy expectations provides a useful framework for the understanding, assessment, and treatment of at least some of the antecedents to vocational indecision.     

Self-monitoring in communicative interactions: Social cognitive consequences of goal-directed message modification

The hypothesis was examined that previously demonstrated message modification and its subsequent social cognitive effects would be more characteristic of high than low self-monitors. Subjects first read an essay describing a stimulus person and were then requested to communicate a referential message concerning him to a listener who supposedly either liked (positive audience condition) or disliked (negative audience condition) the stimulus person. Subjects were subsequently given, after both a brief and long delay interval, a reproduction, impression, and attitude measure. The results indicated that high self-monitors were more likely to modify their message in a manner that was evaluatively consistent with their listener's attitude. In addition, this message modification had the predicted social cognitive consequences in that it affected the high self-monitor's subsequent impressions of (but not necessarily attitude toward) the target person. The results suggested that the responses obtained from high self-monitors in many experimental contexts may themselves be the results of a self-monitoring strategy. The implications of these results for research examining the effects of “self-monitoring” are discussed.     

Differential validity of the Gottschalk-Gleser Anxiety Scales: is gender a moderator variable?

It can be hypothesized that affects like anxiety can be measured by content analysis of speech due to the phenomenon of mood congruent memory, which is found predominantly in females. To assess the effect of gender on the validity of the Gottschalk-Gleser Anxiety Scales, the standard procedure for obtaining verbal samples was followed and self-report measurements of comparable emotional constructs were applied concurrently. Measures of state and trait emotions were administered to 25 female and 25 male university students. In the female group 18 significant convergent validity coefficients were found. For males, content analytic anxiety scores showed four significant correlations with concurrent self-report scales. These results suggest that content analytic anxiety scores from female subjects may allow a more accurate prediction of state and trait emotions than anxiety scores from male subjects. Thus, gender might have a differential effect on the validity of the Gottschalk-Gleser Anxiety Scales.     

Predicting preschool motor and cognitive performance in appropriate-for-gestational-age children born at ≤ 32 weeks gestation

Although many follow-up studies have been performed on preterm infants, little attention has been devoted to prediction of motor skills in the preschool or school years. We studied the relationship of performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at a mean corrected age of 21 months to performance on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities at a mean corrected age of 44.7 months for 43 appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) children born at ≤ 32 weeks gestation. Motor scores were stable over time with a significant correlation between the Bayley Psychomotor Developmental Index (PDI) and the McCarthy Motor subscale (r = 0.60; p = 0.0001). Scores of cognitive abilities also showed a significant correlation between the Bayley Mental Developmental Index (MDI) and the McCarthy General Cognitive Index (r = 0.42; p = 0.009). Small-for-gestational-age (SGA), very low-birthweight (≤ 1500 grams) children scored lower on the McCarthy General Cognitive Index (p = 0.01) and on the Motor subscale (p = 0.047) than the AGA children. We concluded that motor performance of AGA children born at ≤ 32 weeks gestation is stable from toddlerhood to preschool age. We suggest that SGA children be excluded from studies of motor performance of prematurely born children.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for college-degreed black women

This study, using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self Directed Search (SDS), explored the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college-degreed black women. The VPI and SDS were administered to 93 black women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. The results revealed that four scales of the VPI and five scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical notions. In general, the findings lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college-degreed black women.