Interpersonal needs and functional area of management

This study examines a sample of first-semester MBA students to determine the relationship between their interpersonal needs and their preferences for a functional area of management. The students were categorized according to their preference for one of the following eight functional areas: accounting, systems analysis, finance, small business management, engineering, marketing, manufacturing management, and personnel management. Interpersonal needs were measured by the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO-B) instrument developed by W. C. Schutz. Significant differences in interpersonal needs were found among students preferring different functional specialities. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of occupational choice processes.     

Problems in the measurement of vocational maturity

Problems posed by the measurement of vocational maturity are discussed. One is the choice of an appropriate approach to the construction of vocational maturity measures, and another is how to demonstrate that a developmental variable has been measured. A combined rational-empirical methodology is proposed as a possible solution to these problems, and a model of vocational maturity is formulated which can be used as a conceptual frame of reference for constructing theoretically meaningful and psychometrically valid measures of the variables.     

Describing organizations as reinforcer systems: A new use for job satisfaction and employee attitude surveys

Job satisfaction data on managerial personnel were used to illustrate how organizations can be differentiated and described as reinforcer systems. Twenty-seven specific satisfaction scales were regressed on overall job satisfaction, separately for each of five groups of managers from five organizations. For all groups, overall satisfaction was found to be determined mainly by scales concerning challenge of the job and prospects of one's chosen career. Application of decremental stepwise multiple regression procedures to obtain minimum-variable-set equations resulted in different, though overlapping, sets of variables in the equations for the different organizations. These results suggest a way of describing organizations as reinforcer systems, in terms of the specific determinants of overall satisfaction for the organization.     

A multivariate investigation of the reinforcer structure of occupations

Earlier research based on 81 Occupational Reinforcer Patterns (ORPs) suggested a nine-category classification of occupations. The present research, based on 148 ORPs, investigated the ability of that classificatory system to assimilate new information. Cluster analysis of the 148 ORPs yielded an eight-category classification of occupations in which five of the original occupational clusters appeared virtually unchanged; the other four original clusters were combined into two occupational clusters. One new cluster was identified. Principal factors analysis was employed to study the factor structure of the occupational reinforcers and to highlight the essential nature of the classificatory system. Five reinforcer factors were identified.     

Concurrent validity and Holland's theory

This study was designed to explore two areas: (1) the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed men using four different operational definitions of vocational orientation, and (2) the relationships among all possible combinations of same named scales across the four inventories. Concurrent validity was studied by administering the Vocational Preference Inventory, the Self Directed Search, and the Holland Scales (Set I and Set II) to 153 male workers established in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. The results revealed that five scales of the VPI and of the Holland Scales (Set I and Set II) and four scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical framework. The correlation coefficients for same named scales for all possible combinations of the four inventories were all found to be significant. In general, the findings of this study tend to support the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed men.     

Content analysis of the strong vocational interest blank for women

The content of each of the Occupational and Nonoccupational scales on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Women (SVIB-W; Form TW398) was described in terms of the categories used for the Basic Interest scales. The number of common items scored on the Occupational or Nonoccupational scales and the Basic scales was cross-tabulated for each pair of scales. A variety of interest factors was represented on each of the Occupational and Nonoccupational scales. Several shortcomings of the SVIB-W (e.g., restricted range of interests represented in item pool, no Occupational scale for “outdoors” occupations, and questionable validity of Diversity scale) were noted.     

Auditory temporal discrimination by trained listeners

Previous reports from this laboratory have shown that untrained listeners cannot name the order of sounds in extended sequences of unrelated items such as hisses, tones, and buzzes at item durations of 200 msec, even though identification of order for the sounds of speech and music is accomplished readily at much shorter item durations. The present study indicates that under appropriate conditions subjects can be trained to distinguish between and to identify permuted orders within sequences of nonrelated sounds each lasting only 10 msec or less. Evidence is presented suggesting that much of what passes for direct identification of order is actually based on prior identification of a larger pattern. Two principal mechanisms seem to mediate discrimination of auditory temporal order: (1) fine resolution (requiring prior training) permitting identification of over-all patterns and capable of operating with item durations of only a few msec; (2) coarse resolution (special prior training not required) allowing naming of order of items having minimal durations usually above 200 msec for unfamiliar sequences.     

The effects of exposure duration and practice on the immediate memory spans of children and adults

Immediate memory spans for alphabetic items were determined for second-grade, fifth-grade, and adult subjects. Subjects were tested on three days, ten trials per day at each of three exposure durations: 15, 50, and 200 msec. One half of the subjects were presented with exposure durations in an ascending order, the other half in a descending order. The results indicated that immediate memory span increases with age and practice. The exposure duration effect depended on the order and day in which durations were presented. There was a suggestion that the exposure duration effect was also dependent upon the age and sex of the subject. The ordering of array positions from most accurately reported to least accurately reported was identical for all three age levels, indicating that scanning strategies are well established at an early age.     

Deep and surface structure in children's sentence learning

Fifth-graders were asked to learn 32 syntactically varied, semantically unrelated sentences containing combinations of agentive, objective and instrumental case relations. Five learning trials, each followed by a noun-prompted recall test, were provided. Recall patterns indicated that variations in surface structure complexity (i.e., verb voice and sentential position of noun prompts) exerted less influence on Ss' memory for sentences than deep structures. Several trials were required for Ss to reproduce syntactic details accurately and many transformational errors were observed. Even then, children were unable to learn one syntactic form. Although patterns of recall were more consistent with deep structure predictions, results were not completely supportive of Fillmore's analysis of deep structure in terms of case relations, and the possibility that other non-linguistic means were used to store sentences loomed as an alternative to the deep structure view.