INFO RM A TIO N TO USERS

Transcription

1 INFO RM A TIO N TO USERS This was produced from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. The following explanation o f techniques is provided to help you understand markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or target for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is Missing Page(s). If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure you o f complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark it is an indication that the film inspector noticed either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, or duplicate copy. Unless we meant to delete copyrighted materials that should not have been film ed, you will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. If copyrighted materials were deleted you will find a target note listing the pages in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., is part of the material being photographed the photographer has followed a definite method in sectioning the material. It is customary to begin filming at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. If necessary, sectioning is continued again beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. For any illustrations that cannot be reproduced satisfactorily by xerography, photographic prints can be purchased at additional cost and tipped into your xerographic copy. Requests can be made to our Dissertations Customer Services Department. 5. Some pages in any document may have indistinct print. In all cases we have film ed the best available copy. University Microfilms International 300 N. ZEEB RD., ANN ARBOR. Ml 48106

2

3 Wolfe, Lynda Kay TRADITIONALITY OF CHOICE, SEX-ROLE ORIENTATION, PERFORMANCE SELF-ESTEEM AND CAREER CENTEREDNESS AS MODERATORS OF TH E CONGRUENCE OF OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE IN COLLEGE WOMEN The Ohio State University Ph.D University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, M I 48106

4

5 TRADITIONALITY OF CHOICE, SEX-ROLE ORIENTATION, PERFORMANCE SELF-ESTEEM AND CAREER CENTEREDNESS AS MODERATORS OF THE CONGRUENCE OF OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE IN COLLEGE WOMEN DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lynda Kay Wolfe, A.B., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 1982 Reading Committee: Approved By Nancy E. Betz, Ph.D. Samuel H. Osipow, Ph.D. W. Bruce Walsh, Ph.D. Z r Adviser Department of Psychology

6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation to my adviser, Dr. Nancy E. Betz, for her help in the conceptualization and editing of this thesis. In addition, she has been an invaluable source of support and encouragement throughout my graduate program. I would also like to thank my reading committee-dr. Samuel Osipow and Dr. Bruce Walsh-for their interest in this project and their helpful comments. I am grateful to the administrators, residence hall directors and residence hall staff in the Ohio State University residence hall system who helped me recruit participants for this study, for their time, effort and interest in my project. Without their generous assistance, this study would not have been possible. Finally, a special note of thanks to my husband, Steve, for his much appreciated personal support throughout my graduate studies.

7 VITA December 14, Born - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania A.B., Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio Student Personnel Assistant, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Psychology Intern, Zepf Community Mental Health Center, Toledo, Ohio Academic Adviser, University College, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS Wolfe, Lynda K. & Betz, Nancy E. Traditionality of choice and sex-role identification as moderators of the congruence of occupational choice in college women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1981, 18, Betz, Nancy E. & Wolfe, Lynda K. Comparison of the u t ilit y of two approaches to sex-balanced interest scales for college women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1981, J^, FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Counseling Psychology Studies in Counseling, Career Development, Student Personnel Work, Training and Development, and Quantitative Psychology i i i

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS... VITA... LIST OF TABLES... Page ii i i i v Chapter I. INTRODUCTION... 1 I I. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE I I I. METHODOLOGY IV. RESULTS V. DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY APPENDICES A. Career Salience Scale B. Demographic Questionnaire C. Data Pertaining to Regression Analyses for the Prediction of Congruence REFERENCE NOTES LIST OF REFERENCES iv

9 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Descriptive Statistics for Career and Personality Variables in Female College Students Occupational Choices of Female College Students Relationship between Traditionality and Congruence of Occupational Choice in College Women Relationship between Traditionality and Congruence of Occupational Choice in Freshmen and Sophomores Relationship between Traditionality and Congruence of Occupational Choice in Juniors and Seniors Relationship between Sex-Role Orientation and Congruence of Occupational Choice in College Women Relationships Among Independent and Dependent Variables for College Women Relationships Among Independent and Dependent Variables for Freshmen and Sophomores Relationships Among Independent and Dependent Variables for Juniors and Seniors Regression Analyses for the Prediction of Congruence from Sex-Role Orientation Regression Analyses for the Prediction of Congruence for Freshmen and Sophomores Regression Analyses for the Prediction of Congruence for Freshmen and Sophomores v

10 LIST OF TABLES (continued) Table Page 13. Regression Analyses for the Prediction of Congruence for College Women Regression Analyses for the Prediction of Congruence fo r College Women Regression Analyses for the Prediction of Congruence for Juniors and Seniors Regression Analyses for the Prediction of Congruence for Juniors and Seniors vi

11 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION As more and more women join the work force, research examining the career development of women has intensified. In a recent surmary of progress in this area, Fitzgerald and Crites (1980) echoed an observation made by Osipow (1973) when they suggested the continuing need for theoretical frameworks capable of describing and explaining women's career behavior and for research examining the u tility of such theories to the understanding of women's career development. While earlier attempts at theory construction (e.g., Psathas, 1968; Zytowski, 1969) focused on developing separate theories of women's career development, more recent efforts have included the development of theories applicable to both women and men or the use of a moderator variable approach to the examination of existing theories. The former approach, i.e., theories having potential applicability to the career development of both women and men, is represented by the work of Hackett and Betz (1981). Based on the postulates of Bandura's (1977) theory of self-efficacy expectations and behavior/behavior change, Hackett and Betz postulate that self-efficacy expectations affect career behaviors of both males and females. Sex differences in career development are then explained in terms of socialization experiences; women lack strong expectations of personal efficacy in relationship to

12 many career-related behaviors and thus fa il to u tiliz e their capabilities in career pursuits. The second recent approach to theorizing about the career development of women is based on the assumption that the vocational behavior of some women may be sim iliar to that of men and thus explicable using existing theories. In other words, a particular theory may be d iffe re n tia lly valid for different types of women. In this approach, individual difference variables which may moderate the u tility of a theory for women are examined. The present study w ill take this second approach of identifying "moderator variables" for one major theory of vocational choice and adjustment, i.e., that of John Holland (1973). Holland's theory postulates the existence of six personality types: Realistic (R), Investigative ( I ), A rtistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C), and six work environments which correspond with these personality types. A person develops a modal orientation in dealing with the world which corresponds to one or more of the personality types. According to Holland, a person sees the world of work in terms of occupational stereotypes which are essentially valid. When considering vocational choice, a person w ill tend to choose a work environment which, according to his or her stereotypes, is congruent with his or her personality type. A congruent occupational choice is most conducive to job satisfaction and tenure. Much of the recent research on the valid ity of Holland's theory has focused on the extent to which the theory is applicable to and useful for women as well as for men. Most of these studies have examined the

13 3 notion of congruence, that is, the postulate that people seek occupational environments correspondent with their personality types and, as a corollary, that people in the same occupation have sim iliar personalities. Support for the valid ity of this postulate for women has been provided in studies by Werner (1969), using 348 employed women, and Spokane and Walsh (1978) and Doty and Betz (1979) using men and women in Enterprising occupations. Other studies, however, have failed to provide general support for the congruence postulate for women. For example, Harvey and Whinfield (1973) found that the Investigative, Enterprising and Conventional scales applied to women but that the Realistic, Social and A rtistic scales did not, and Horton and Walsh (1976) and Matthews and Walsh (1978) found that some groups of employed women were described by the appropriate Holland personality type, but that others were not. In summary, then, research directed at the question "Is Holland's theory valid for women?" has yielded inconsistent results. This may be due to the great diversity among women in relation to career behavior and the possibility that Holland's theory is d iffe re n tia lly valid for different types of women. Research which has used the "moderator approach", that is, research which has directed its attention to the question "For what kinds of women is Holland's theory more or less valid?" (i.e. Wolfe and Betz, 1981; Orcutt and Walsh, 1979) has attempted to examine the effects of diversity among women and in doing so, to further our understanding of the applicability of the theory to women.

14 Wolfe and Betz (1981) examined trad itio n ality of occupational choice (defined as the percentage of women in the occupation) and sexrole orientation (determined by the Bex Sex Role Inventory) as possible moderators of the congruence of personality and occupational environment, as defined by Holland's theory, in college women. Their results indicated a significant association between congruence and trad itio n ality of choice; the nontraditional chooser was more likely to be making a choice congruent with her personality type than was the traditional chooser. Sex-role orientation was not significantly related to either congruence or trad itio n a lity of choice, although there was a clear trend for masculine-typed women to make nontraditional and congruent choices, while feminine-typed, androgynous and undifferentiated women chose traditional fields. Orcutt and Walsh (1979) examined the extent to which several variables, including career commitment, feminist attitudes and personal effectiveness, differentiated congruent and incongruent choosers (again according to Holland's theory) in a sample of junior and senior college women. None of the variables examined yielded significant results. However, differences in instrumentation for determination of Holland themes and in determination of congruence suggest caution in comparing these results with those of Wolfe and Betz (1981). Such methodological differences w ill be considered in greater depth later when the methodology for the present study is discussed. The significant results of the Wolfe and Betz (1981) study suggest the potential u tility of the moderator approach in examining the v alid ity of the congruence notion for women. However, moderator research is in its infancy. I t is the purpose of the present study to

15 further this line of research by addressing limitations of previous studies and examining other potential moderators of choice congruence in college women. Several limitations in the subject pool used in the Wolfe and Betz (1981) study seem to deserve attention. Subjects were gathered fran an introductory psychology course pool with the hopes of getting a heterogeneous sample. This was not the case fur two potentially crucial variables. F irst, very few subjects were mascu1ine-typed. The relative lack of masculine sex-typed subjects rendered interpretation and generalization of findings regarding the influence of sex role d iffic u lt; further research using larger numbers of masculine-typed women is necessary to c la rify the degree to which sex role moderates congruence. Secondly, the majority of subjects were freshmen and sophomores. It does not seem appropriate to assume these results could be generalized to older college students or to assume that the age factor did not somehow confound the results of the Wolfe and Betz study. Studies which have included age as a factor have found that age is significantly related to other variables related to women's career development. A pertinent example is that of Vice (1977), who investigated possible differences among college women in engineering and college women in general on several factors, including sex-role identification. She found that within each of these groups of women, sex-typing differed for freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. In the Wolfe and Betz study, age may have been related not only to the moderator variables of sex-typing and trad itio n ality of choice, i t may

16 also its e lf have been a moderator of congruence. I t would thus be useful to include older students to increase the potential generalizability of the results, and also, to allow examination of age as a moderator of congruence. To summarize thus far, the present study w ill examine trad itio n ality of occupational choice, sex-role identification and age as individual difference variables which may moderate a women's tendency to choose an occupation congruent with her personality type. Two additional variables which have shown some promise of u t ilit y as moderators of choice congruence w ill also be examined. These variables are self-esteem and career orientation/career salience. I t seems reasonable to hypothesize that self-esteem may moderate choice congruence. Individuals with positive self concepts would likely value their interests and a b ilitie s and feel they have something to contribute in a career they would choose. Such people would thus be likely to consider their interests as they searched for careers which would meet their need for locating the best opportunity for themselves. They would, therefore, be more likely than an individual low in self-esteem to choose an occupation congruent with their interests. Self-esteem has not been directly investigated in relationship to Holland's theory, but there is some research which suggests that this would be a fru itfu l endeavor. Greenhaus (1971a) examined the relationship of self-esteem to the degree of self-concept-occupational choice congruence postulated in Super's (1957) self-concept implementation theory of occupational choice. Analogous to Holland's

17 concept of personality-environment congruence, Super's theory suggests that a person selects from alternative occupations the one occupation most congruent with his or her self concept. Based on past research which suggested that high self-esteem individuals were more like ly to choose occupations that were congruent with their self perceived a b ilitie s, personalities and interests (Korman, 1966, 1967), Greenhaus (1971a) hypothesized that self-esteem would be positively related to the degree of self-occupational congruence. His data indicated a trend in this direction, but the effect was not significant and the results were interpreted as inconclusive. Several limitations of the sample which may have affected the results were discussed (e.g., mostly female freshmen and sophomores low in self-esteem). Thus, a more representative sample of college students would probably provide a better test of the relationship of self-esteem to congruence. An additional point which should be considered in conducting an investigation of self-esteem as a moderator variable is the possibility that self-esteem may have several components, some of which may be more relevant than others to the study of vocational behavior. One such component of self-esteem which may be particularly relevant to career choice is that of one's perceptions of his or her a b ilities and/or performance or ability/performance self-esteem (Stake, 1979a). I t seems reasonable to suggest that perceptions of competence, a b ilitie s and performance are more closely involved in thoughts and behaviors in the academic/career realm of lif e than for example one's perceptions of one's social skills (social self-esteem). Further, in regard to the particular career behavior of choice congruence to be investigated here,

18 i t seems reasonable that individuals possessing higher levels of performance self-esteem would make more congruent occupational choices because they would be less likely than low performance self-esteem individuals to perceive their capabilities (or lack thereof) as barriers to the actualization of their interests/personalities in career pursuits. Stake (1979a) proposed that the ability/performance dimension of self-esteem may have particular relevance in investigations of the relationship between self-esteem and women's career behavior, but noted problems in assessing this dimension using existing instrumentation. Most measures of self-esteem currently in use measure global self-esteem. Stake cites research which suggests that the relationship between global self-esteem and ability/performance self-esteem may d iffer for men and women; ability/performance dimensions are more closely related to other aspects of self-esteem for men than for women. Thus global measures of self-esteem are often adequate for assessing the ability/performance self evaluations in males, but are not adequate in females. In order to be able to measure performance self-esteem in women, Stake (1979a) developed an instrument, the Performance Self-Esteem Scale, and found she was able to measure this separate, distinct dimension of self-esteem. Preliminary investigations using this scale supported her hypothesis that undergraduate males would score higher on this scale than females. She also found that performance self-esteem was positively related to career motivation in both males and females. Given this in itia l success in measuring performance self

19 esteem and in relating i t to certain dimensions of career behavior, i t seems reasonable to continue investigating its relationship to other dimensions of career behavior. Therefore, this study w ill examine performance self-esteem as a potential moderator of occupational choice congruence. One final variable to be examined in this study, career salience, or the importance of a career in a person's life, may also have some bearing on the degree to which a person would choose a career congruent with their personality, a b ilitie s and interests. I t seems reasonable to assume that the more value a person places on career or the larger the role one expects his or her career to play in life, the more likely i t is that an individual w ill carefully choose a career on the basis of what will f i t him or her best. Previous research (Greenhaus, 1971b; Orcutt and Walsh, 1979) which has directly investigated career salience in relation to selfoccupational choice congruence has shown a nonsignificant relationship for college women, however, Greenhaus did find a significant relationship for men. As with the self-esteem variable, recent research on career salience has focused on examining the dimensionality of the construct (Greenhaus, 1973; Marshall and Wijting, 1980). Again, i t may be that certain components may be more relevant than others in research examining the career behavior of women. Marshall and Wijting (1980) determined through factor analysis that there are two separate dimensions to career orientation-career centeredness (placing career above all other activities as a source of satisfaction) and career

20 10 commitment (the intention of steadily pursuing a career throughout lif e ). Preliminary research u tilizin g this distinction indicated that career centeredness was more strongly related to achievement motivation and masculine sex-role identity than was career commitment. It might also be that career centeredness would be more related to self-choice congruence than career commitment. An individual who expects career to be the major source of satisfaction in his or her life will likely seek an occupation which utilizes his or her interests and a b ilitie s. I t seems possible that a person with high career commitment, but who expects their major lif e satisfaction to come from some other source (i.e. family or religion), would not necessarily be looking for an occupation in which they could express their interests. The present study w ill test the hypothesis that career centeredness is a better predictor of choice congruence than a global measure of career salience. In summary, the purpose of the present study is to identify individual difference variables which may moderate the applicability of John Holland's (1973) vocational theory to the career development of women. More specifically, trad itio n ality of occupational choice, sex- role orientation, age, performance self-esteem and career centeredness w ill be examined as potential moderators of a woman's tendency to choose chose an occupation congruent with her personality type.

21 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Several areas of research provide background for the present study. First, studies examining the valid ity of Holland's occupational choice congruence postulate for women w ill be reviewed. Then each of the four moderator variables investigated in the present studytrad itio n ality of occupational choice, sex-role orientation, self-esteem and career salience-will be explored in separate sections which review literature pertinent to the purposes of the present study. Holland's Theory Applied to Women Holland's theory of vocational choice is based on the postulate that individuals choose occupational environments congruent or consistent with their own personality types. Using such instruments as the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI; Holland, 1975), the Self- Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1972) or the UNIACT (Hanson, Prediger and Schussel, 1977) to assess personality types, numerous studies have examined the correspondence of personality with an individual's occupational preference or choice. Such research has suggested the general valid ity of Holland's theory of occupational choice for men. Recently, numerous researchers have begun to focus on the extent to which Holland's theory is applicable to women as well. For purposes of 11

22 12 the present study, those which dealt with the congruence postulate in particular w ill be reviewed. Several studies have provided support for Holland's congruence postulate among samples of employed women. Werner (1969) administered the VP I to a group of 348 women employed in occupations representing each of Holland's six personality types: production workers (R ealistic), research scientists & technicians (Investigative), teachers (Social), bank employees (Conventional), professional managerial or supervisory persons (Enterprising) and commercial artists, interior decorators and writers (A rtis tic ). The findings showed that all but 45 of the women had VPI profiles consistent with Holland's congruence postulate. Similar results were obtained by Spokane and Walsh (1978) who administered the VPI and the SDS to 84 male and female workers employed in high (insurance managers) and low (route salespersons) level Enterprising occupational environments. Among their results were findings that all of the occupational groups obtained mean scores on the Enterprising scale of both inventories that were consistent with Holland's congruence postulate. The degree of personality-environment correspondence for men and women employed in an Enterprising occupation was also the focus of a study by Doty and Betz (1979). The SDS and the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII; Campbell, 1974) were administered to 45 male and 43 female sales managers. Using both the SDS and the SCII, men and women obtained their highest scores on the Enterprising scale. Results were thus consistent with Holland's congruence postulate and provided

23 13 additional support for its valid ity, at least among samples of employed men and women in Enterprising occupations. While studies such as these have supported the valid ity of Holland's congruence postulate, other studies have revealed limitations in applying Holland's theory to women. Harvey and Whinfield (1973) examined the valid ity of Holland's personality types as descriptors of women's personality styles and vocational interests. The VPI, the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values, the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Women and the Differential Aptitudes Tests were administered to a group of 61 women enrolled in an adult testing and guidance program at the University of Connecticut. The mean age of the women was 40.7 and most were married and unemployed. The findings indicated strong evidence for the valid ity of the Investigative, Conventional and Enterprising types, but raised many questions regarding the meaningful ness of the Realistic, Social and A rtistic types. Similiar questions regarding the valid ity of the six scales were raised by Horton and Walsh (1976) in their examination of the valid ity of Holland's congruence postulate for a group of 179 college-degreed women who were employed in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. Engineers (R), physicians ( I ), architects (A), ministers (S), lawyers (E) and certified public accountants (C) responded to the VPI and the SDS. Results indicated that four of the VPI scales (R,A,S,C) and four of the SDS scales (A,S,E,C) identified occupational groups consistent with Holland's congruence postulate.

24 Matthews and Walsh (1978) also found that their results were not consistent across personality types; they found that some groups of employed women were described by the appropriate Holland personality type, but that others were not. In their examination of the valid ity of the congruence postulate for employed non-coilege-degreed women, they administered the VPI and SDS to 114 women in occupational environments representing each of the six types: assemblers (R), laboratory technicians ( I ), flo ral designers (A), ward attendants (S), salespersons (E) and clerk-typists (C). Results indicated that three of the VPI scales (R,A,S) and five of the SDS scales (R,I,A,S,C) successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's congruence postulate. The other scales did not successfully differentiate the groups. In summary, research which has examined the valid ity of Holland's congruence postulate for women has yielded mixed results. Most of the studies examined results pertaining to congruence separately for women in each of the six occupational environments. None of the studies found that the congruence postulate holds for all six types and results differed as to which of the six types did support the congruence notion. This inconsistency in results may have been due to the great diversity among women in relation to career behavior. I t may be more useful to describe women in terms of individual difference variables rather than Holland theme of their occupation and examine these variables, called "moderators", in relation to the congruence postulate. Some recent research has taken this approach, called the "moderator approach", and attempted to identify types of women for whom the congruence postulate is more or less valid.

25 15 Wolfe and Betz (1981) used the moderator approach in their investigation of Holland's notion of occupational choice congruence. More specifically, they examined trad itio n ality of occupational choice and sex role orientation as possible moderators of a woman's tendency to choose an occupation congruent with her personality type. Two three le tte r Holland personality codes were obtained for each of 184 college women, one based on same-sex normative scores from the Strong-Campbel1 Interest Inventory and one on scores from the ACT Unisex Interest Inventory (UNIACT). Subject's occupational preferences were classified as traditional, moderately traditional or nontraditional based on the percentage of women in the occupation. Scores on the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) were used to classify subjects into one of four sex role categories: undifferentiated. feminine-typed, masculine-typed, androgynous or Results indicated a significant association between congruence and trad itio n ality of choice; the nontraditional chooser was more likely to be making a choice congruent with her personality type than was the traditional chooser. Sex-role orientation was not significantly related to either congruence or trad itio n a lity of choice, although there was a clear trend for masculine-typed women to make nontraditional and congruent choices, while feminine-typed, androgynous and undifferentiated women chose traditional field s. The significance of these results regarding sex-role orientation could have been affected by the small number of masculine-typed subjects. Another attempt to identify variables which would distinguish congruent from incongruent choosers (according to Holland's theory) was made by Orcutt and Walsh (1979) with a sample of junior and senior

26 16 college women. The VPI was used to obtain Holland personality types and only those subjects whose highest personality theme matched the highest thane designating their occupational choice were classified as congruent choosers. None of the variables examined differentiated congruent from incongruent choosers. Among the variables were career commitment (determined by Desire to Work Scale; Eyde, 1962), feminist attitudes (determined by Feminism Scale; Dempewolff), and personal effectiveness or claimed competencies (determined by the VPI infrequency scale). It is possible that Orcutt and Walsh's results regarding congruence could have been affected by their use of the VPI to determine Holland types and their very s tric t rule for determining congruence. Recent research has favored more sex-balanced instruments for determining Holland type (Betz & Wolfe, 1981) and more generous determination of congruence given the v a ria b ility across instruments of the ordering of the Holland themes (Harmon & Zytowski, 1980; Wolfe & Betz, 1981). To summarize, research investigating Holland's choice congruence notion in college women has identified trad itio n ality of choice as a significant moderator variable, thus indicating the potential u t ilit y of the moderator approach. I t is not possible to draw firm conclusions about sex role orientation, career commitment or personal effectiveness as moderators due to methodological d iffic u ltie s. Methodological improvements may c la rify the results regarding these variables. In addition, moderator research w ill be advanced through investigations of other individual difference variables. The present study examined four variables as potential moderators of choice congruence: trad itio n ality of occupational choice, sex-role orientation, self-esteem and career

27 salience. The remainder of this review w ill be devoted to development of a rationale for considering each of these variables as moderators of choice congruence and to examination of literature related to each. Traditionality of Occupational Choice One variable which may be related to the congruence of choices among women is the extent to which those choices are influenced primarily by sex-role stereotypes rather than by consideration of the individual's characteristics and capabilities. The existence of occupational sex stereotyping, or shared beliefs of the differential appropriateness of occupations for men versus women, and the resulting restriction of range of career options considered by women, is well documented (e.g., see Fitzgerald & Crites, 1980). One study which found that there is a pervasive belief that certain occupations are d iffe re n tia lly appropriate for men and women was conducted by Shinar (1975). In this study, one hundred twenty male and female college students rated each of 129 occupations in terms of its masculinity, femininity and neutrality. Three types of rating c rite ria were used: vague, proportion of men and women in the occupation, and sex-related attributes linked with the occupation. Results indicated that sexual stereotypes of occupations are clearly defined and held in general agreement by both college men and college women. Also, sexual classifications of occupations is rather constant and highly similar regardless of the c rite ria used for rating. Schlossberg and Goodman (1972) also found that occupational stereotypes exist and additionally found that sexual

28 18 stereotyping of occupations may be retrictin g the career options for women. The study explored the degree to which kindergarten and sixth grade children hold sexual stereotypes of occupations. The groups did not d iffer in amount of stereotyping. Both groups restricted women to certain female dominated occupations but men were not so restricted; they could do just about anything. They excluded women from male dominated occupations twice as often as they excluded men from female dominated occupations. Findings also revealed that in terms of their own career choice, children chose appropriate sex-typed occupations for themselves. Additional evidence that women consider a restricted range of occupations was provided by Harmon (1971). In a retrospective study, she asked 1188 college freshmen women which of 135 occupations they had ever considered entering and the age at which they fir s t and last considered them. The average number of occupations considered was 16, the most popular fields being medical, social service and verbal and the least popular being business and clerical. Results indicated that early vocational preferences were largely restricted to typical women's field s. Finally, statistical evidence from the U.S. Department of Labor indicates that women are restricting themselves to traditional women's field s. In 1973, more than 40 percent of all women workers were employed in ten occupations-secretary, re ta il trade sales worker, bookkeeper, private household worker, elementary school teacher, waitress, typist, cashier, sewer and stitcher and registered nurseoccupations in which 70 to 100 percent of the employees were women.

29 In surranary, a great many women seem to be restricting themselves to 19 occupations stereotyped as being appropriate for women. Women whose choices are strongly influenced by sex stereotypes and who, therefore, choose occupations trad itio nally considered appropriate for females, e.g. nurse, elementary or secondary school teacher, and secretary, may be making choices less often congruent with their personalities than are women less strongly influenced by occupational stereotyping and who thus may consider a broad range of career options. Thus, the extent to which women have chosen traditional versus nontraditional career fields may be related to the extent to which those choices are correspondent with their personality orientations. Traditionality of choice, then, may moderate the degree to which Holland's congruence postulate describes the vocational choice behavior of women. Sex-Role Orientation Another potential moderator of the congruence of choices is the individual's sex-role orientation. Sex-role orientation can be defined as the degree to which an individual attributes traditionally masculine and trad itio nally feminine personality characteristics to himself or herself. Bern (1974) developed an instrument, the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), to measure masculinity and femininity, and a system of classifying an individual's sex-role orientation based on both scores: balanced masculine & feminine (androgynous), high masculine & low feminine (masculine-typed), high feminine & low masculine (feminine- typed). This system was later modified (Spence, Helmreich & Stapp, 1975; Bern, 1977) to include low masculine & low feminine

30 20 (undifferentiated). Research to be reviewed for this study, which has examined the relationship between sex-role orientation and women's career behavior, has suggested that women who attribute a high degree of masculinity to themselves (androgynous or masculine-typed) are less likely to restrict their consideration of career options to traditionally female occupations than are women who are low on masculinity. Thus i t is possible that androgynous or masculine-typed women may be more likely to make congruent vocational choices than would trad itio nally sex-typed women. Lemkau (1979) reviewed the literature from on personality and background characteristics of employed women or those pursuing advanced degrees in occupations where men predominate. In terms of personality characteristics, the studies reviewed (e.g. Bachtold & Werner, 1970, 1972; Bachtold, 1976) found that these women were high in competency tra its such as independence, assertiveness and rationality; those characteristics commonly seen as the masculine stereotype or ideal. They also possessed warmth/expressiveness tra its (feminine stereotype) and did not d iffer from other women in that regard. Although sex-role orientation was not measured directly, these studies seem to indicate that women in male-dominated professions have a more masculine-typed self concept than other women although they do not see themselves as less feminine. Studies which have directly measured sex-role orientation as it relates to trad itio n a lity of career choice have yielded similar results. Using the BSRI to measure degree of masculinity, femininity and androgyny in male and female subjects, Fitzgerald (1975) found that

31 21 the level of masculinity a person ascribed to himself/herself varied directly with the sex-typing of the occupation in which the person was engaged, i.e. people employed in trad itio n ally male dominated fields described themselves as more masculine. Subjects did not d iffer significantly across occupations on femininity scores. Androgynous individuals were found to be under-represented in a stereotypically female occupation (lib raria n ), i.e., most were feminine sex-typed, but over-represented in a stereotypically masculine occupation (attorney), i.e., equal numbers were masculine-typed and androgynous. Yanico, Hardin & McLaughlin (1978), in examining the relationship of androgyny as measured by the BSRI to career choice among college freshmen, found that as a group, women in engineering (a male dominated occupation) scored in a more androgynous direction than either men in engineering or women in home economics. This result, however, was largely an artifact of the way in which the group mean androgyny score was computed from the masculinity and femininity scores, since the majority of women in engineering were not androgynous. The numbers were more equally balanced between androgynous, feminine-typed and masculine- typed. Unfortunately, the fourfold classification system was not used, so androgynous and undifferentiated subjects were not considered separately, thus confusing interpretation of the results. As in Fitzgerald's (1975) study, women in the two majors did not d iffer on femininity scores, but did d iffer on masculinity scores, i.e. women in engineering did not see themselves as less feminine than women in home economics, but they did see themselves as more masculine. Interestingly, unlike Fitzgerald's study, a relatively equal number of

32 22 women in engineering and home economics fe ll into the androgynous category, from which Yanico et al concluded that women with an androgynous self concept are equally as like ly to choose a traditional as a nontraditional fie ld. This conclusion supports Bern's (1976) concept of the flexib le behavior of the androgynous individual. Again, though, this result could be due to confusion of androgynous and undifferentiated subjects. In a study of 200 senior college women, Tangri (1972) explored the relationship between nontraditional occupational choice (Role innovator) and background, personality and college experiences. Of particular interest to this study were her results which indicated that Role innovators had a more masculine self concept than Traditionals. In addition, Role innovators were found to be more autonomous, more individualistic, more unconventional and more motivated by internally imposed demands to perform to capacity than were Traditionals. In summary, then, studies which have directly or indirectly examined sex-role orientation in relation to trad itio n a lity of occupational choice support the notion that women in nontraditional occupations (or with nontraditional preferences) see themselves as more masculine than women in traditional occupations. They do not, however, see themselves as less feminine. Since a high degree of masculinity is conducive to avoidance of occupational sex stereotyping as a basis for career choice, i t may strengthen the possibility that a woman would make a career choice based on consideration of her characteristics and capabilities, i.e. congruence.

33 23 Self-Esteem A third potential moderator of choice congruence is self-esteem. If an individual makes a career choice based on evaluation of their individual characteristics as Holland hypothesizes in his choice congruence postulate, it seems reasonable to hypothesize that the more positive the self evaluation (high self-esteem), the more like ly i t is that the individual w ill consider those characteristics when making a career choice. Since, as a group, women tend to be lower in self-esteem than men (e.g. Greenhaus, 1971; O'Connor, Mann & Bardwick, 1978; Stake, 1979a), it would be especially useful in terms of evaluating the u tility of the congruence postulate for women to know whether self-esteem is a moderator, that is, to know whether women who are lower in self-esteem tend to make less congruent choices than women high in self-esteem. Self-esteem has not been directly investigated in relation to Holland's theory, but there is some research which suggests the potential u t ilit y of such an endeavor. Korman (1966) designed a study to test his prediction that individuals high in self-esteem tend to implement self when making an occupational choice whereas individuals of low self-esteem do not. The Ghisel1i-S e lf Description Inventory (G hiselli, 1963) was used to measure self-esteem in a sample of junior and senior college men. Results indicated that high self-esteem individuals were more likely than low self-esteem individuals to choose occupations they perceived as likely to f u l f i l l their specific needs and which were in keeping with self-perceived characteristics. Korman hypothesized that those high in self-esteem saw themselves as need satisfying individuals and rejected influences (e.g. social) that would

34 24 minimize achievement of needs. Low self-esteem persons, on the other hand, saw themselves as non-need satisfying individuals and would be more likely to accept external influence. In a further study which included women, Korman (1967) examined the hypothesis that high self-esteem students would be more likely to choose occupations which they perceive require their high a b ilitie s than those with low self-esteem. A sample of lower division male and female college students completed the Ghiselli Self-Description Inventory and an a b ility assessment questionnaire. Results supported the hypothesis for men and women and thus provided additional evidence that those with high self-esteem are more likely to seek out and accept situations which are in keeping with their self-percept. Greenhaus (1971a) continued Korman's investigation of self-esteem as a moderator of the congruence of occupational choices. In a direct investigation of Super's self concept implementation theory, he hypothesized that self and occupation would be more congruent for those high in self-esteem than for those low in self-esteem. Results revealed that moderator effects of self-esteem on self-occupation congruence were not significant although there were trends in the predicted direction. The results are not conclusive, however, since there were several methodological problems which Greenhaus discussed. Most of the problems stem from the fact that the sample consisted mostly of freshmen and sophomore females majoring mostly in teaching and nursing. The sample was extremely low in self-esteem overall which raises doubts about categorization of subjects as "high" in self-esteem. Also, Greenhaus hypothesized that career motivation could be an important factor here

35 and that the effects of self-esteem on occupational behavior may be more pronounced among those who are highly career motivated (i.e. males as 25 opposed to females). He also hypothesized that persons in the particular curriculum groups represented (the helping professions) may be oriented to social cues independent of self-esteem. Then too the results may have been affected i f freshmen and sophomore preferences are less stable than choices. One final problem, to be discussed further in this literature review, is the notion that self-esteem may have many components such as global, task-specific and socially derived. Greenhaus suggests that the task-specific dimension might be more relevant to investigations regarding occupational choice. An additional point, then, that should be considered in conducting an investigation of self-esteem as a moderator variable is the possibility that the self-esteem variable may have several components, some of which may be more relevant than others to the study of vocational behavior. One such component of self-esteem which may be particularly relevant is that of one's perceptions of his/her ab ilities and/or performance or ability/performance self-esteem (Stake, 1979a). It seems reasonable to suggest that perceptions of competence, a b ilities and performance are more closely involved in thoughts and behaviors in the academic/career realm of life than for example one's perceptions of one's social skills (social self-esteem). Further, in regard to the particular career behavior to be investigated here, i t seems reasonable that individuals possessing higher levels of performance self-esteem would make more congruent occupational choices because they would be less likely than low performance self-esteem individuals to perceive

36 26 their capabilities (or lack thereof) as barriers to the actualization of their interests/personalities in career pursuits. Stake (1979a) proposed that the ability/performance dimension of self-esteem may have particular relevance in investigations of the relationship between self-esteem and women's career behavior, but noted problems in assessing this dimension using existing instrumentation. Most measures of self-esteem currently in use measure global selfesteem. Stake cites research which suggests that the relationship between global self-esteem and ability/performance self-esteem may d iffer for men and women; ability/performance dimensions are more closely related to other aspects of self-esteem for men than for women. Thus global measures of self-esteem are often adequate for assessing the ability/performance self evaluations in males, but are not adequate for females. In order to be able to measure performance self-esteem in women, Stake (1979a) developed an instrument, the Performance Self-Esteem Scale (PSES) and found she was able to measure this separate, distinct dimension of self-esteem. Adequate re lia b ility and valid ity were demonstrated. Preliminary investigations using this scale supported her hypothesis that undergraduate males would score higher on the scale than females. She also found that performance self-esteem was positively related to career motivation in both males and females. Stake concluded that the ability/performance dimension of self-esteem, as measured by the PSES, has important implications for the achievement and career behavior of women.

37 In a study designed to test this conclusion further, Stake (1979b) administered the PSES, the Attitudes Toward Women Scale and a questionnaire about home and career choice and demographics to a group of male and female business students and male and female business alumni. Results indicated that PSES scores were related to extent of career commitment. Among women subjects high in performance selfesteem, career commitment was positively related to nontraditional sex-role attitude and negatively related to family involvement. Among low performance self-esteem women these relationships were much weaker. In the sample of men, there was no significant relationship between career motivation and family factors. A related piece of research, although not directly measuring performance self-esteem, provides support for the notion that self perceptions of competence may be related to career behavior in women. Baruch (1976) examined some possible antecedents (maternal variables) and correlates (self-esteem and career aspirations) of self-perceptions of competence as measured by the Rosenkrantz Sex-Role Questionnaire in a sample of white middle class 5th and 10th grade girls. Of particular interest are her results indicating that subjects with high selfperceptions of competence also had higher career aspirations and wanted fewer children. In summary, research which has examined self-esteem as a moderator of self-concept implementation has resulted in inconclusive findings. Korman's (1966, 1967) work suggests that self-esteem is a significant moderator for both men and women, while Greenhaus' (1971a) results indicate it is not significant. Recent research, however, has suggested

38 28 the importance of considering the multidimensionality of self-esteem. There is some evidence to suggest that one particular aspect of selfesteem, that of ability/performance, may be more related to career behavior than the commonly used global self-esteem construct. There is some indication that existing measures of global self-esteem, while sufficient for men, are not sufficient to measure the ability/perfor- mance dimension in women. Thus Stake (1979a) designed an instrument (PSES) with good re lia b ility and valid ity to measure this dimension and provided support for earlier research (Baruch, 1976) indicating that self-perceptions of performance or competence are related to career behavior of women. Career Salience One final variable to be examined in this study, career salience, or the importance of a career in a person's life, may also have some bearing on the degree to which a person would choose a career congruent with their personality, a b ilities and interests. I t seems reasonable to assume that the more value a person places on career or the larger the role one expects his or her career to play in life, the more likely i t is that an individual will carefully choose a career on the basis of what w ill f i t him or her best. An investigation of career salience as a potential moderator of occupational choice congruence was conducted by Greenhaus (1971b). As in his previous study (1971a), the sample consisted largely of freshmen and sophomore women in traditional majors for females (teaching, nursing) although a few more men were included in this

39 29 sample. females. Results indicated significant results for males but not for For men, then, career salience moderated the degree of self- occupational congruence. affected these results. Again, sample characteristics could have Females in the sample were significantly less career salient than the males, thus calling into question the comparison of "high" career salient men and women. Since a very select group of women was studied, i t seems premature to call the results conclusive and assume generalizability to women in general. Finally, just as with self-esteem, recent research has examined the notion that career salience has many dimensions, some of which may be more relevant than others in relation to occupational choice. Marshall & Wijting (1980) note that there have been several attempts made to c la rify the construct of "career orientation" (Richardson, 1974, 1975) or "career salience" (Greenhaus, 1973). Each of these attempts w ill be reviewed before returning to Marshall & Wijting's more recent study. In an attempt to c la rify the construct of "career orientation", Richardson (1974) administered 14 measures of career orientation to a sample of senior college women. An analysis of the relationships among the variables defined by the 14 measures revealed two independent clusters: 1) "career-oriented" - highly career motivated women who perceive the career role as primary in their adult lives and 2) "workoriented" - women with well defined occupational aspirations who placed a high value on both the career role and marriage and family responsibilities. In an examination of correlates of these clusters, Richardson found that the "career-oriented" women tended to choose

40 30 higher level, less traditional (for women) occupations while "workoriented" women tended to choose traditional female occupations. In a further examination of career-orientation, Richardson (1975) investigated the relationship of self and role concepts to orientation toward future roles in a sample of senior college women. An instrument to measure self and role concepts (homemaker vs career woman) was designed and predictor and moderator variables were defined as discrepencies between: 1) self & career woman; 2) self & homemaker; 3) career & homemaker (role differentiation); 4) self & ideal woman (s e lfesteem). "Career orientation" was defined as that cluster previously identified (Richardson, 1974) indicating that career was the primary role in adult life. The hypothesis that women with similar self and career woman concepts would be career oriented was not supported. However, the moderating effects of self-esteem were noted in that high level of self-esteem strengthened the relationship between self-career congruence and career orientation. Just as Richardson (1974) attempted to c la rify the "career orientation construct, Greenhaus (1973) designed a study to determine the factorial structure of career salience as measured by his Career Salience Scale (Greenhaus, 1971a) and then to examine the relationship of the emergent factors to the degree of congruence between the self- concept and the occupational concept and to self-esteem. Three factors emerged from the factor analysis: 1) the relative prio rity of a career; 2) general attitudes toward work; and 3) career advancement and planning. Factor 2 was significantly related to the choice of congruent occupations for males. Among the females, none of the career salience

41 31 dimensions was related to congruence. Results also indicated that Factor 2 was significantly related to self-esteem in both sexes. Thus general positive attitudes towards work seems to be the dimension of career salience most related to degree of congruence (for males only) and self-esteem. Marshall & Wijting (1980) note that both Richardson (1974) and Greenhaus (1973) provide evidence that career orientation is multidimensional and that different measures of career orientation do not represent the construct equivalently. However, due to their use of different measures of career orientation, the comparability of factors identified in each study is not clear. Consequently, Marshall (1978) examined the dimensionality underlying seven measures of career orientation including those analyzed by Greenhaus and Richardson. A factor analysis of responses of 86 college age employed women to these measures revealed two oblique factors accounting for 59% of the total variance. The fir s t factor, named Career Centeredness, reflected an orientation in which a career in a male-dominated fie ld was valued as relatively more important than other sectors of life. The second factor, named Career Commitment, reflected a behavioral commitment to work throughout adult life. After Marshall (1978) defined Career Centeredness and Career Commitment, Marshall & Wijting (1980) designed a study to examine these two factors of career orientation in relation to achievement motivation (measured by the Self Descriptive Questionnaire) and sex-role identity as measured by the BSRI. As before, seven measures of career orientation were utilized and the presence of the two factors confirmed.

42 32 Subjects were junior and senior college women. Hypotheses that Career Centeredness, being less consistent with women's socially defined roles, would be more characteristic of masculine-typed women and correlate higher with achievement motivation than would Career Commitment were generally supported. The authors conclude that these differential results for Career Centeredness and Career Commitment support their criticism of studies using uni dimensional measures of career orientation. In summary, the literature supports the notion that career orientation is multidimensional. In addition, Richardson (1974), Greenhaus (1973) and Marshall & Wijting (1980) all identified a factor in which a career was valued as relatively more important than other areas of life as one of these dimensions. Examinations of correlates of this dimension, which Marshall & Wijting named Career Centeredness, however, have produced conflicting results. Richardson (1975) and Greenhaus (1973) found that certain aspects of career choice congruence were not related to the Career Centeredness dimension in women. However, Marshall & Wijting found that the sex-role identity aspect of self concept was related, as was the tendency to choose higher level, less traditional (for women) occupations (Richardson, 1974). Some results, then, suggest the importance of Career Centeredness over other dimensions of career orientation in investigations of career behavior. I t might also be that career centeredness would be more related to self-choice congruence than career commitment. An individual who expects career to be a major source of satisfaction in his or her lif e w ill likely search to find an occupation which utilizes his or her

43 33 interests and a b ilitie s. It seems possible that a person with high career commitment, but who expects their major lif e satisfaction to come from some other source (i.e. family or religion), would not necessarily be looking for an occupation in which they could express their interests. The present study w ill test the hypothesis that career centeredness is a better predictor of choice congruence than a global measure of career salience. In summary, then, a review of the literature regarding trad itio n ality of occupational choice, sex-role orientation, selfesteem, and career salience has suggested that each of these dimensions (or in the case of self-esteem and career salience, the subdimensions of performance self-esteem and career centeredness) is related to certain aspects of women's career behavior. In each case, i t also seemed reasonable to postulate that these dimensions would be related to the extent to which a woman might make a career choice based on consideration of her characteristics and capabilities. Thus the present study investigated the potential u tility of each of these four individual difference variables as moderators of the applicability of Holland's choice congruence postulate to women.

44 CHAPTER I I I METHODOLOGY Sample Subjects were 268 undergraduate women (145 freshmen and sophomores and 123 juniors and seniors) living in Ohio State University residence halls. Residence hall directors and staff of five coeducational and four all female dormitories were asked i f they would be willing to assist the researcher in recruiting volunteers in their halls for a study on women and careers and all agreed to participate. Staff members were given packets containing all of the instruments and instructions for distributing them to volunteers on their floors (i.e. who was eligible to participate). The only requirement for participation was that the women be able to state preferences concerning occupations she would choose. In order to examine the effects of age or class rank, an attempt was made to recruit fa ir ly equal numbers of lower class (freshmen and sophomores) and upper class (juniors and seniors) students. In addition, since i t was important for statistical purposes that this sample include an adequate number of women who were masculinetyped (as determined by scores on the Bern Sex Role Inventory) and/or were interested in nontraditional careers, Ohio State's engineering and agriculture dormitories were two of the five coeducational halls sampled. I t was hypothesized that including dormitories which house women in nontraditional fields would increase chances of obtaining 34

45 35 masculine-typed women and/or women considering nontraditional occupations. The mean age of the subjects was 19.6 (18.6 for lower and 20.6 for upper class students) with a range from 17 to 26. The mean quarters of college completed was 5.7 (2.9 for lower and 9.0 for upper class students) with a range from 1 to 16, and the mean rank was 2.3 (1.5 for lower and 3.4 for upper class students), where 1 represents freshmen status and 4 represents senior status. Instruments 1 Holland personality types were measured using the UNIACT (Hanson, Prediger & Schussel, 1977), the Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory (ACT-IV; Hanson, 1974). Of the many instruments available to measure Holland personality types (eg. VPI, SDS, SCI I ), the UNIACT has fa ir ly successfully met the challenge of reducing sex restrictiveness in vocational interest measurement at the scale item level. Recent research comparing the UNIACT with a popular method of reducing sex restrictiveness, i. e., use of SCII same-sex norms, revealed comparable levels of valid ity and sex balance for the two inventories (Betz and Wolfe, 1981). The UNIACT is an interest inventory which asks the person i f they would like, dislike or be indifferent to doing 90 activities. Parallel to the ACT-IV Interest Inventory in construction, the UNIACT contains six scales corresponding to Holland's basic types of interests. The UNIACT was designed with the intent of providing a measure of the Holland themes on which males and females would obtain equivalent scores

46 36 on each of the six thanes. In order to achieve this goal, a pool of sex-balanced items, i.e. items having a similar distribution of responses for both males and females, was necessary. In constructing the instrument, items were accepted as sex-balanced i f the difference in percentage of "like" responses between men and women was 10 percent or less. More specifically, to build the item pool, new items were written and added to the sex-balanced items available in the ACT-IV (about one half of them). Six different samples totalling 10,000 people were used to check item characteristics. Based on the data obtained from the development samples, the 90- item UNIACT was constructed. Five of the six scales on the UNIACT meet the sex-balance criterion (social service was 12.3%) and overall 80 percent of the items are sex-balanced. Each Holland type is assessed by 15 items. Raw scores are obtained by summing like, indifferent and dislike responses (assigned weights of 3, 2, and 1 respectively) and dividing by the total number of items answered for each scale; scores range from 1.0 to 3.0 for each scale. In order to determine a three le tte r Holland code, it is necessary to compare an individual's level of interest across scales. This is accomplished by converting raw scores to standard scores based on combined sex norms (mean=50, S.D.=10) for a representative sample of college bound high school students and selecting the three highest standard scores. R elia b ility and valid ity data for the UNIACT have been reported by Prediger and Hanson (1978). Coefficient alpha r e lia b ility coefficients for the six scales assessing Holland types range from.85 to.92, indicating adequate r e lia b ility. Test-retest re lia b ility has not yet

47 been determined, but s ta b ility coefficients for ACT-IV range from.80 to.89 for retesting after 8 weeks. Similar results are lik e ly for UNIACT 37 since the two instruments are similar. Criterion related and construct valid ity have been fa ir ly well established (Prediger and Hanson, 1978). The Bern Sex Role Inventory^ (BSRI; Bern, 1974) was used to measure sex-role identity, i.e. the extent to which a person ascribes masculine and feminine characteristics to himself/herself. The BSRI consists of 20 masculine, 20 feminine and 20 neutral personality characteristics. A person taking the BSRI is asked to indicate on a scale from 1 (never or almost never true) to 7 (always or almost always true) how well each characteristic describes himself/herself. On the basis of his/her response, masculinity and femininity scores are calculated by summing the responses for each of the 20 items in the scale and then dividing by 20 to obtain an average score. In order to classify subjects using the fourfold classification system (Bern, 1977; Spence, Helmreich and Stapp, 1975), medians for the masculinity and femininity scores based on the total sample, sexes combined, are fir s t obtained. Then subjects are classified according to whether their masculinity or femininity scores are above or below each of the two medians. Classifications are: masculine (high masculine, low feminine), feminine (high feminine, low masculine), androgynous (high feminine, high masculine), and undifferentiated (low feminine, low masculine). Since a combined sex sample was not used in this study, Bern's combined sex medians of 4.85 for masculine and 4.95 for feminine were used. S tab ility of the test scores over a four week period is high; test-retest correlations of.90 were found for both masculinity and femininity scores (Bern, 1974).

48 The ability/performance dimension of self-esteem was assessed using 38 the Performance Self-Esteem Scale^ (PSES; Stake, 1979). The PSES contains 40 items (27 positively worded and 13 negatively worded) relating to a b ility and performance and 7 social self-esteem items included for determination of discriminative valid ity. The items are presented in the format of the Bern Sex Role Inventory (Bern, 1974), i.e. subjects are instructed to indicate on a scale from 1 (never or almost never true) to 7 (always or almost always true) the extent to which each of the 47 items describes himself/herself. A total PSES score is calculated for each subject by summing the subject's responses to positive PSES items and then subtracting the sum of negative items from the sum of positive items. PSES scores may range from -64 to +176, with higher scores indicating higher levels of performance self-esteem. Stake (1979) reports re lia b ility and valid ity data based on her original sample of 35 males and 54 females. A check of internal consistency of the scale yielded a coefficient alpha of.90 indicating adequate re lia b lity. Discriminative valid ity was tested in three ways. F irst, a low, positive relationship (+.27; <.01) between the PSES score and the sum of social self-esteem items provided evidence that the PSES measures a separate and distinct factor of self-esteem. Secondly, a low, positive relationship between PSES score and the K scale (developed to tap defensiveness in responding) on the MMPI (+.25, <.05) indicated that PSES scores are not closely related to measures of defensiveness. Finally, since many PSES items represent tra its and behaviors that are nontraditional for women, i t was important to examine the relationship between PSES scores and general nontraditional sex-role

49 39 attitudes. Nonsignificant correlations between PSES scores and scores on the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Spence & Helmreich, 1972) for both females ( =.04) and males ( =-.10) suggest that the PSES measures self evaluations that are independent of general sex-role attitudes. Career salience and career centeredness were assessed using the Career Salience Scale (Greenhaus, 1971a). in this scale represents three broad areas: The content of the 28 items a) general attitudes towards work; b) degree of vocationally relevant planning and thought; and c) the relative importance of work in an individual's lif e. The f ir s t 27 items, 17 of which are positively worded and 10 negatively worded, are in a 5- point Likert scale format with response choices ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Responses to these 27 items are surrened (reversing the scale for the negatively worded items) to yield a score which may range from 27 to 135. Higher scores reflect higher levels of career salience. The 28th item asks subjects to rank six lif e areas (family, career, religion, leisure time, local community activity, national political activity) in terms of the amount of satisfaction expected from each area. Greenhaus (1971) included this item with the other 27 in the total career salience score. Recent research, however, has advocated reporting the results for this item separately (Ayres, 1977; Hardesty & Betz, 1980; Hardesty, 1981) and the present study used this method. Scores on item 28 were used as one indicator of career centeredness or the degree to which the subject places career above all other lif e activities as an expected source of satisfaction. Greenhaus reports the re lia b ility of the Career Salience Scale to be identical for males

50 40 and females with a coefficient alpha of.81. The Career Salience Scale is contained in Appendix A. A second indicator of career centeredness was obtained by calculating a subscore from the fir s t 27 items related to the third content area mentioned above, i.e. the relative importance of work in an individual's life. Items belonging to this scale have been obtained from Greenhaus. An unweighted sum of the responses to these items was used as a second measure of career centeredness. For the present study, then, three career salience scores were calculated for each individual; one was the global score derived from the fir s t 27 items, one was a career centeredness score derived from a subscale of the f ir s t 27 items, and the last was a career centeredness score obtained from the subject's rating of the six lif e areas in item 28. Finally, a brief demographic questionnaire asked for the following information: age, quarters of college completed, rank and major, in order to identify sample characteristics. I t then asked her to state her present occupational choice and to describe the occupational setting in which she saw herself doing that type of work. The demographic questionnaire is contained in Appendix B. Procedure Students who agreed to participate in the study were given a packet containing the demographic questionnaire, the UNIACT, the Career Salience Scale, the PSES, and BSRI and asked to complete all of the instruments in the order given. Dormitory staff members collected the

51 41 packets as they were completed. All students completed the demographic questionnaire f ir s t, followed by the UNIACT since measurement of Holland themes was central to the purpose of this study and i t was important to avoid possible effects of administering the other instruments fir s t. The order of administration of the last three instruments was counterbalanced. Determination of Traditionality and Congruence of Occupational Choice After the UNIACT was scored and the three le tte r Holland personality code was obtained as previously described, i t was necessary to classify the occupational choice stated on the demographic questionnaire in terms of degree of congruence with the obtained personality code and additionally to determine the trad itio n a lity of the choice. Subjects' occupational preferences were assigned the three-letter Holland code provided for occupations contained on the SCII Occupational Scales, in Appendix B of the SCII manual (Campbell & Hansen, 1981) or in the Occupations Finder (Holland, 1977). For occupations for which the SCII manual and Occupations Finder did not provide identical code types, the SCII manual was utilized to assign the code; this decision was based on the empirical derivation of the SCII code types. The degree of Holland theme congruence between each individual's personality type and her occupational choice was determined as follows (adapted from Holland, 1972):

52 42 1) Congruent: Codes representing personality type and occupational choice: a) are exactly alike (e.g. RIE and RIE), b) have the same f ir s t two letters in the same order (e.g. RIA and RIE), or c) have the same three letters but in different order (e.g. REI and IER). 2) P artially Congruent: Codes representing personality types and occupational choice: a) have the same fir s t le tte r (e.g. SIA and SER), or b) have the f ir s t two letters of one code matching any two letters in the other (e.g. RIC and IER). 3) Incongruent: Codes representing personality type and occupational choice: a) have the f ir s t le tte r of one code matching any le tte r of the other (e.g. SEA and AIR), b) have the f ir s t le tte r of one code not included in the other (e.g. IRE and SEA), or c) in general, do not qualify as either congruent or p a rtia lly congruent. For purposes of data analysis, congruent, p a rtia lly congruent and incongruent choices were assigned values of 3, 2, and 1 respectively.

53 43 T r a d itio n a lity of the occupational choice was determined using the percentage of women in the occupation. The choice was c la s s ifie d as tra d itio n a l (greater than 66% women), moderately tra d itio n a l (34 to 66% women) or nontraditional (33% or fewer women). Again, fo r purposes of data analysis, tra d itio n a l, moderately tra d itio n a l and nontraditional choices were assigned values of 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Data pertaining to percentage of women employed in the occupation was obtained from the 1975 Handbook of Women Workers from the U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau. Hypotheses I t was hypothesized that the tr a d itio n a lity of choice, sex-role o rie n ta tio n, performance self-esteem and career centeredness would a ll be s ig n ific a n tly related to the congruence of occupational choice. More s p e c ific a lly, the follow ing hypotheses were investigated: 1. Women who make nontraditional choices make more congruent choices than those who make tra d itio n a l choices. 2. Androgynous and masculine-typed women ( i. e., women who see themselves as more masculine) make more congruent choices than fem inine-typed and un d ifferen tia te d women ( i. e. those who see themselves as less masculine). The extent to which women see themselves as fem inine w ill not be re la te d to choice congruence. 3. Women who are higher in performance self-esteem make more congruent choices than those who are lower in performance self-esteem.

54 44 4. Women who are higher in career centeredness make more congruent choices than those who are lower in career centeredness. 5. Women's ratings on global career salience w ill not be s ig n ific a n tly re la te d to degree of choice congruence. Based on the available lite r a tu r e, i t was not possible to formulate specific hypotheses pertaining to the relationsh ip of age or class rank and choice congruence. Therefore, the investigation of age as moderator of choice congruence was exploratory in nature and was intended to assess g e n e ra liz a b ility of previous findings regarding congruence (Wolfe and Betz, 1981) to an older sample. Analysis of Data Hypotheses one and two were tested in two ways. Chi-square analyses were used to examine the relationships of congruence and tr a d itio n a lity and congruence and sex-role orientation in order to provide a basis fo r comparison with the analyses of Wolfe and Betz (1981). In addition, since congruence and tr a d itio n a lity can be considered continuous variables, relationships between congruence and tr a d itio n a lity, congruence and m asculinity scores and congruence and fe m in in ity scores were evaluated through calculation of Pearson's product-moment correlation c o e ffic ie n ts. To evaluate the relationsh ip between sex-role category and congruence, m ultiple lin ear regression (MLR), with congruence as the dependent variable and effects coding to represent s ex-ro le category, was u t iliz e d.

55 45 Hypotheses 3, 4, and 5 were tested using Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficien ts to evaluate relationships between congruence and performance self-esteem, congruence and career centeredness and congruence and career salience. Correlations were also calculated to evaluate the re la tio n s h ip between age fa c to rs and congruence. In addition to calculatio n of simple correlations to evaluate the hypothesized relationsh ips, m u ltip le lin ear regression was used to determine whether combinations of the independent variables would account fo r more of the variance in congruence than each did alone. This type of analysis takes into account the amount of overlap among the variables and allows determ ination of the s ig n ific a n t unique contribution of each independent variab le in accounting fo r the variance in congruence. S p e c ific a lly, six MLR analyses were performed with congruence as the dependent variab le and the follow ing as the independent v a riab les: 1. quarters of college completed, tr a d itio n a lity of choice, sex-role o rie n ta tio n, performance self-esteem, career centeredness (subscale of 27 items) 2. quarters, tr a d itio n a lity, sex-ro le, PSES, career centeredness (item 28) 3. quarters, tr a d itio n a lity, sex-ro le, PSES, career salience 4. quarters, tr a d itio n a lity, m asculinity score, fem in in ity score, PSES, career centeredness (subscale of 27 items) 5. quarters, tr a d itio n a lity, m asculinity, fem in in ity, PSES, career centeredness (item 28)

56 46 6. quarters, tr a d itio n a lity, m asculinity, fe m in in ity, PSES, career salience In order to fu rth e r investigate the moderating effects of age, the calculatio n of co rrelatio n c o efficients and the six MLR analyses were repeated separately fo r freshmen/sophomores and ju nio rs/seniors and the re su lts were compared with those of the combined group.

57 CHAPTER IV RESULTS Means, standard deviations and ranges of the career and personality variables fo r the combined sample and fo r lower (freshmen and sophomores) and upper (juniors and seniors) class women separately are presented in Table 1. Lower and upper class women d iffe re d s ig n ific a n tly only on performance self-esteem and m asculinity (jd_ <.0 5 ). The lower class women were higher in performance self-esteem and saw themselves as more masculine. The sample on the whole, however, was high on performance self-esteem and m asculinity and also on career salience. The mean performance self-esteem score of women in the present study (93.94) was more sim ilar to Stake's (1979) reported performance self-esteem score mean fo r men (92.19) than i t was to the reported mean fo r women ( ), which was s ig n ific a n tly lower than the male mean. The mean fo r m asculinity in the present study (4.92) was above Bern's (1977) reported median fo r m asculinity (4.85) fo r a combined sample of men and women. And f in a lly, the present career salience mean of was more sim ilar to Greenhaus' (1971) reported mean fo r men (90.78) than fo r women ( ). Thus, the present sample of women can be described as more career s a lie n t, more masculine and higher in performance self-esteem than other samples of women reported in the lite r a tu re. 47

58 Table 1 Descriptive S ta tis tic s fo r Career and Personality Variables in Female College Students Variable Freshmen/Sophomores (N=145) M SD MIN-MAX Juniors/Seniors (N=123) M SD MIN-MAX M Total (N=268) SD MIN-MAX Congruence T r a d itio n a lity Performance Self-Esteem * Career Salience Career Centeredness l a Career Centeredness Masculinity * Fem ininity abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on Career Salience Scale. ^Based on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale. D ifference between Freshmen/Sophomores and Juniors/Seniors s ig n ific a n t at.05 le v e l. 00

59 49 A description of occupational fie ld s chosen by the women in th is study categorized by tr a d itio n a lity of choice (% of women in the fie ld ) is presented in Table 2. Close to one th ird of the sample (29.9%) chose fie ld s considered to be tra d itio n a l fo r women (greater than 66% women), whereas almost two th ird s of the sample (58.6%) chose nontraditional fie ld s (33% or fewer women). Most of the tra d itio n a l choices were e ith e r in health care fie ld s or education. A greater d iv e rs ity of fie ld s was represented among the nontraditional choices. One h alf of the nontraditional choices were divided f a i r l y evenly between agricultu re/n atu ral resources and business, while another fourth were divided evenly between engineering and m e d ic in e/ve te rin a ry medicine. The small number of moderately tra d itio n a l choices were mostly in education or social work/psychology. The cro ss-classificatio n of subjects by congruence and tr a d itio n a lity of occupational choice are presented in Tables 3, 4 and 5 fo r the entire sample, fo r freshmen and sophomores, and fo r juniors and seniors respectively. An examination of these tables reveals th at over one th ird of the subjects made incongruent choices (41.4 to 41.5%), less than one th ird made p a rtly congruent choices (22.8 to 28.3%) and close to one th ird made congruent choices (30.3 to 35.8%). In addition, as has been noted in Table 2, almost one th ird of the subjects made tra d itio n a l choices (27.6 to 32.5%), very few made moderately tra d itio n a l choices (7.6 to 16.3%) and s lig h tly less than two thirds made no ntrad itio n al choices (5 1.2 to 64.8%). On the basis of the chi-square analyses of the data presented in Tables 3, 4 and 5, the hypothesis of independence between congruence

60 Table 2 50 Occupational Choices of Female College Students Freshmen/ Juniors/ Sophomores Seniors Total N % N % N % T ra d itio n a l9 Education 13 Nursing 11 Dental Hygiene 4 Other Medical 7 Fashion Merchandising 5 Other 0 Total 40 Moderately Traditional Education 3 Social Work/Psychology 3 Other 5 Total 11 N ontraditional Engineering 14 M edicine/v eterinary Medicine 17 Other Science 4 A griculture/n atural Resources 20 Business/Computer Science 27 Journalism 7 Law 1 Other 4 Total 94 Totals t r a d it io n a l, moderately tra d itio n a l and nontraditional describe occupations whose percentages of women are greater than 66, 34 to 66, and less than 34%, re sp ec tiv e ly.

61 Table 3 51 R elationship between T r a d itio n a lity and Congruence of O ccupational Choice in C ollege Women T ra d itio n a lity *3 Moderately Non- Congruence9 T rad itio n al Trad itio n al Trad itio n al Total N % N % N % N % Incongruent P a rtia lly Congruent Congruent Total Note: Upper percentage re fle c ts proportion of row t o t a l, lower percentage r e fle c ts proportion of column t o t a l. X2=19.97, p <.001 acongruent, p a r tia lly congruent, and incongruent describe degree of correspondence between Holland theme scores obtained fo r occupational choice and from the Unisex ACT In te re s t Inventory. ^ T ra d itio n a l, m oderately t r a d it io n a l, and n o n tra d itio n a l describe occupations whose percentages of women are g re a te r than 66, 34 to 66, and less than 34%, re s p e c tiv e ly.

62 Table 4 52 R elationship between T r a d itio n a lity and Congruence of O ccupational Choice in Freshmen and Sophomores T ra d itio n a lity b Moderately Non- Congruence3 T raditio n al Traditional Traditional Total N % N % N % N % Incongruent P a rtia lly Congruent Congruent Total Note: Upper percentage r e fle c ts proportion of row t o t a l, lower percentage r e fle c ts proportion of column t o t a l. X2=14.12, p=.007 acongruent, p a r tia lly congruent, and incongruent describe degree of correspondence between Holland thane scores obtained fo r occupational choice and from the Unisex ACT In te re s t Inventory. bt ra d itio n a l, m oderately t r a d it io n a l, and n o n trad itio n a l describe occupations whose percentages of women are g re a te r than 66, 34 to 66, and less than 34%, re s p e c tiv e ly.

63 53 Tab le 5 R elatio n ship between T r a d itio n a lity and Congruence o f O ccupational Choice in Juniors and Seniors T ra d itio n a lity*3 Moderately Non- Congruence3 T rad itio n al Traditional Traditional Total N % N % N % ~N To Incongruent Parti a lly Congruent Congruent Total Note: Upper percentage r e fle c ts proportion of row t o t a l, lower percentage r e fle c ts proportion of column t o t a l. X2= 8.09, p=.09 acongruent, p a r tia lly congruent, and incongruent describe degree of correspondence between Holland theme scores obtained fo r occupational choice and from the Unisex ACT In te re s t Inventory. ^ T ra d itio n a l, m oderately t r a d it io n a l, and n o n tra d itio n a l describe occupations whose percentages of women are g re a te r than 66, 34 to 66, and less than 34%, re s p e c tiv e ly.

64 54 and tr a d itio n a lity was rejected fo r the whole sample ( <.001) and fo r freshmen and sophomores ( <.0 1 ), but not fo r juniors and seniors ( =.0 9 ). For the e n tire sample, a s ig n ific a n tly greater proportion of those who made nontraditional choices (35%) made congruent choices than those who made tra d itio n a l choices (20%; <.0 5 ). S im ila rly, 35% of lower class students who made nontraditional choices made congruent choices, while only 15% of those who made tra d itio n a l choices made congruent choices ( <.0 5 ). Conversely, a s ig n ific a n tly greater proportion of those who made tra d itio n a l choices (59% and 65% fo r the to ta l group and fo r lower class students respectively) made incongruent choices than those who made nontraditional choices (37% and 34% fo r the to ta l group and fo r lower class students respectively) ( <.0 5 ). Although these results were not s ig n ific a n t fo r juniors and seniors, the trends were the same as those reported fo r the e n tire sample and fo r freshmen and sophomores. These relationships between congruence and tra d itio n a lity are generally correspondent with the prediction of the f i r s t hypothesis, i. e., that women who make nontraditional choices make more congruent choices than do women who make tr a d itio n a l choices. The cro ss-classificatio n of subjects by congruence of occupational choice and sex-role orientatio n is presented in Table 6. The largest percentage of women f e l l into the androgynous category (36.6% ), followed by feminine (29.5%), masculine (20.5%) and u n d ifferen tiated (1 3.4 ). On the basis of the chi-square analysis, the hypothesis of independence between congruence and sex-role orientation was not rejected ( =.0 7 ). Approximately equal proportions of androgynous, masculine, feminine and undifferen tiated women (33%, 35%, 32% and 39% resp ectively) made congruent choices. The re s u lts found in Table 6 thus do not provide

65 Table 6 55 R elationship between Sex-Role O rien tatio n and Congruence o f O ccupational Choice in C ollege Women Sex-Role O rientation13 Andro- U ndiffer- Congruence9 qynous Masculine Feminine entiated Total N % N N W N Tl % Incongruent Parti a lly Congruent Congruent Total Note: Upper percentage r e fle c ts proportion of row t o t a l, lower percentage r e fle c ts proportion of column t o t a l. X2=11.84, p=.07 acongruent, p a r tia lly congruent, and incongruent describe degree of correspondence between Holland theme scores obtained fo r occupational choice and from the Unisex ACT In te re s t Inventory. bmedians used to c la s s ify subjects into sex-role categories were 4.85 fo r m asculinity and 4.95 fo r fem in in ity.

66 56 support fo r the second hypothesis which stated th a t androgynous and masculine-typed women make more congruent choices than feminine-typed and undifferen tiated women. The Pearson product-moment correlation co efficients describing the relationships among a ll the variables are presented in Tables 7, 8 and 9 fo r the en tire sample, fo r freshmen and sophomores, and fo r juniors and seniors respectively. Age, quarters of college, and rank were not included in Tables 8 and 9 since the range on those variables was severely re stric te d when subjects were divided in to lower and upper class groups. Relationships between congruence and tr a d itio n a lity of occupational choice shown in Tables 7, 8 and 9 are correspondent with the results of the chi-square analyses and provide additional support fo r the f i r s t hypothesis. That is, correlations between congruence and tr a d itio n a lity were positive and s ig n ific a n t fo r the e n tire sample (_r=.17, <.01) and fo r freshmen and sophomores (r=.2 5, <.0 1 ), but not fo r juniors and seniors (r=.0 9 ). These correlations suggest th at there is a lin ear relationship between congruence and n o n tra d itio n a lity of choice and that nontraditional choices tend to be more congruent than tra d itio n a l choices, although th is trend is not s ta tis tic a lly s ig n ific a n t fo r ju n io rs and seniors. Correlations between congruence and m asculinity and congruence and fe m in in ity, also shown in Tables 7, 8 and 9, generally correspond with the results of the chi-square analysis which revealed a lack of association between congruence and sex-role o rie n ta tio n. There was no s ig n ific a n t lin e a r relatio n sh ip between congruence and m asculinity

67 Table 7 Relationships Among Independent and Dependent Variables fo r College Women V ariable Age 2. Quarters of College.89_ 3. Rank Congruence T ra d itio n a lity Performance Self-Esteem Career Salience Career Centeredness l a Career Centeredness M asculinity Fem ininity Note: Based on 268 subjects. S ta tis tic a lly sig n ificant values are underlined. Values of jr of.12,.16, and.20 correspond to the.05,.01, and.001 levels of s t a tis t ic a l s ig n ifican ce. abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. bbased on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale. CJ1

68 Table 8 Relationships Among Independent and Dependent Variables fo r Freshmen and Sophomores V ariable Congruence 2. T ra d itio n a lity Performance Self-Esteem Career Salience Career Centeredness l a Career Centeredness M asculinity Fem ininity Note: Based on 145 freshmen and sophomore subjects. S t a t is t ic a lly s ig n ific a n t values are underlined. Values of r of.16,.21, and.27 correspond to the.05,.01, and.001 levels of s ta tis tic a l significance. abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. ^Based on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale. cn oo

69 Table 9 Relationships Among Independent and Dependent Variables fo r Juniors and Seniors V ariable Congruence 2. T ra d itio n a lity 3. Performance Self-Esteem 4. Career Salience 5. Career Centeredness l a 6. Career Centeredness 2 7. M asculinity 8. Fem ininity Note: Based on 123 ju nio r and senior subjects. S ta tis tic a lly s ig n ific a n t values are underlined. Values of r. of.1 8,.23, and.29 correspond to the.0 5,.0 1, and.001 levels of s ta tis tic a l significance. abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. bbased on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale. cn to

70 60 (_r=.03 to.14) or between congruence and fem in in ity ( =-.03 to.0 6 ). As shown in Tables 7, 8 and 9, correlations between congruence and performance self-esteem were not s ig n ific a n t ( =.01 to.1 4 ), in dicating a lack of lin e a r relatio n sh ip between the variab les. These findings do not support hypothesis 3 which predicted th a t women higher in p e rfo r mance self-esteem would make more congruent choices than women lower in performance self-esteem. Results shown in Tables 7, 8 and 9 also reveal that correlations between congruence and career centeredness (as measured by a subscale of the f i r s t 27 items on the CSS) were not s ig n ific a n t ( = to.0 7 ), in dicating a lack of lin e a r relationship between the variab les. S im ila rly, correlations between congruence and career centeredness (as measured by item 28 of the CSS) (r= to ) and congruence and global career salience ( =.06 to.07) were not s ig n ific a n t. These findings do not support predictions made in hypotheses 4 and 5 th at career centeredness would be more closely re la te d to congruence than global career salien ce. Relationships among the age and college experience variables are shown in Table 7 along with relationships of these variables to the other variables. Age, quarters of college and rank were a ll highly in terco rrelated ( =.88 to.96, <.0001) and the three showed highly sim ilar relationships with the other variables. None of the three was s ig n ific a n tly correlated with congruence ( =.02 to.0 4 ). Thus the data do not support a d irect lin e a r relatio n sh ip between age and congruence. The age factors were, however, s ig n ific a n tly negatively re la te d to performance self-esteem (r= ; =.05 to ; <.001)

71 and m asculinity (_r= ; <.0 5 to ; < ). These results correspond with the observation made in Table 1 that the mean performance self-esteem and m asculinity scores were higher fo r freshmen and sophomores than fo r ju n io rs and seniors. Tables 7, 8 and 9 also provide relevan t re s u lts regarding r e la tio n ships among variables aside from those re la tin g to congruence. T ra d itio n a lity of choice was s ig n ific a n tly related to career salience (jr=.23 to.2 7 ), m asculinity (jr=.18 to.19, not s ig n ific a n t fo r lower class) and performance self-esteem (r=.14, fo r e n tire sample o n ly). These correlations suggest that women making more nontraditional choices tend to be higher in career salience, performance self-esteem and m asculinity. Performance self-esteem was also s ig n ific a n tly co rrelated with career salience (r=.26 to.27) and highly s i g n i f i cantly correlated with m asculinity (r=.82 to.8 3 ). These correlations suggest that those high in performance self-esteem tend to be high in career salience and m asculinity. Performance self-esteem and m asculinity showed highly sim ilar relationships with a ll of the other variables in the m atrices. Career salience was s ig n ific a n tly related not only to tr a d itio n a lity and performance self-esteem, but also to both measures of career centeredness ( =.77 to.81 and jr= -.53 to ) and to m asculinity (r=.28 to.29) and fem in in ity ( =-.15 to ). These correlations suggest that women high in career salience tend to be high in m asculinity and low in fe m in in ity. Also, those high in career salience tend to be high in career centeredness. Table 10 presents the results of the m u ltip le lin e a r regression analyses fo r the to ta l group, lower class and upper class subjects,

72 Table Regression Analyses f o r the P re d ic tio n of Congruence from Sex-Role O rie n ta tio n Parameter 8 t R2 Total Group X Y Z Freshmen/Sophomores X Y Z Juniors/Seniors X Y Z ** * Note: Androgynous: X =l, Y=0, 1=0 Masculine: X=0, Y =l, 1=0 Feminine: X=0, Y=0, 1=1 U ndifferentiated: X = -l, Y = -l, Z=-l * p <.05 **p <.01

73 63 which fu rth er evaluate the relationsh ip between sex-role orientatio n and congruence. Effects coding was used to represent the 4 sex-role categories in the sex-role orientatio n variable as independent variables. The models fo r the to ta l group and fo r freshmen and sopho- mores had nonsignificant R and thus fo r these two groups, sex-role orientatio n was not a s ig n ific a n t predictor of congruence. p fo r juniors and seniors did have a s ig n ific a n t Rc. The model Sex-role orientatio n explained 7% of the variance in congruence. Examination of the t-te s ts fo r the beta estimates revealed th at i t was membership in the feminine sex-role category th a t made a s ig n ific a n t unique contribution in explaining the variance in congruence. These results suggest th at feminine sex-role orien tatio n is negatively related to congruence, which is consistent with hypothesis 2. However, correspondent with the results of the chi-square analyses, there is no evidence to suggest that androgynous and masculine sex-role orientations are p o s itiv e ly related to congruence or that undifferentiated sex-role orientatio n is n egatively re la te d to congruence. Results of the 6 m u ltip le lin e a r regression analyses fo r the to ta l group with congruence as the dependent variable and quarters of college, tr a d itio n a lity of choice, sex-role orientatio n or m asculinity and fe m in in ity, performance self-esteem, and career salience or career centeredness as the independent variables are presented in Appendix C, Tables 13 and 14. None of the R^ fo r these models were s ig n ific a n t (R^=.04 to.05) indicating th at the combinations of independent variables did not explain a s ig n ific a n t amount of the variance in congruence.

74 64 Appendix C, Tables 15 and 16 present the results of the same 6 m u ltip le lin e a r regression analyses fo r juniors and seniors, om itting the age v a ria b le, quarters of college, as an independent v a ria b le. Again, none of the R2 fo r these models were s ig n ific a n t (R2=.03 to.09) in dicating that combinations of independent variables did not contribute s ig n ific a n tly to explaining the variance in congruence. Results of the 6 m u ltip le lin ear regression analyses fo r freshmen and sophomores, again om itting quarters of college as an independent variab le, are presented in Tables 11 and 12. Unlike the resu lts fo r the to ta l group and fo r juniors and seniors in which a ll of the models were nonsignificant, a ll of the models fo r freshmen and sophomores had s ig n ific a n t R2 (R2=.08 to.0 9, <.0 5 ). In order to fu rth e r te s t which variables were making a s ig n ific a n t unique contribution above other variables in explaining variance in congruence, i t was necessary to te s t the significance of the sem i-partial correlatio n s. Because th is is equivalent to testing the beta estimates, the t-te s ts of the betas in Tables 11 and 12 can be interpreted as indicating the s ig n ific a n t unique contributions of each independent variab le. In a ll 6 analyses, tr a d itio n a lity was the only variable which made a s ig n ific a n t unique contribution in explaining variance in congruence. I t should be noted th at the simple co rrelatio n of tr a d itio n a lity and congruence fo r freshmen and sophomores was.25 and ^=.0625, indicating th at tr a d itio n a lity alone explained 6.25% of the variance in congruence. The m u ltip le lin e a r regression models presented in Tables 11 and 12 explained only 8 to 9% of the variance in congruence. Therefore, addition of the other independent variables explained only an addition al

75 Tab le Regression Analyses fo r the P red ictio n of Congruence f o r Freshmen and Sophomores Parameter a> t R2 T ra d itio n a lity ** X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness * T ra d itio n a lity ** X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness * T ra d itio n a lity ** X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Salience * Note: Androgynous: Masculine: Feminine: U ndifferentiated: X=l, Y=0, Z=0 X=0, Y=l, Z=0 X=0, Y=0, Z=1 X = -l, Y = -l, Z=-l abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. bbased on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale. * p <.05 **p <.01

76 Table Regression Analyses f o r the P re d ic tio n of Congruence f o r Freshmen and Sophomores Parameter (3 t R2 T ra d itio n a lity ** Masculi n ity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness l a * T ra d itio n a lity ** Masculi n ity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness * T ra d itio n a lity ** M asculinity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Salience * abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. bbased on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale. *p <.05 **p <.01

77 to of variance in congruence above that explained by t r a d itio n a lity. Tests of th is increase were nonsignificant (F=.75 to.83) indicating th at the set of the other independent variables does not make a unique contrib ution in explaining variance in congruence.

78 CHAPTER V DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY The purpose of this study was to id e n tify individual difference variables which may moderate the a p p lic a b ility of John Holland's (1973) vocational theory to the career development of women. More s p e c ific a lly, one goal of the present study was to in vestig ate the g e n e ra liz a b ility of e a rlie r findings regarding tr a d itio n a lity of occupational choice and sex-role orientatio n (Wolfe & Betz, 1981) as moderator variables, to a sample which included women who were older, more masculine and who chose more nontraditional occupations. In addition, age, performance self-esteem and career salience/career centeredness were also examined as potential moderators of a woman's tendency to choose an occupation congruent with her personality type. S ex-ro le o rie n ta tio n (androgynous, masculine, fem inine, or u n d iffe r entiated) was determined by subjects' responses to the Bern Sex Role Inventory. Performance self-esteem and career salience/career centeredness were determined by subjects' responses to the Performance Self-Esteem Scale (PSES) and the Career Salience Scale (CSS), resp ectively. Subjects' occupational choices were c la s s ifie d as tra d itio n a l, moderately tra d itio n a l or nontraditional based on percentages of women employed in the occupation. The Unisex ACT In te re s t Inventory (UNIACT) was used to determine p e rs o n a lity type according to

79 69 Holland's theory, and subjects' occupational choices were then c la s s ifie d as congruent, p a r tia lly congruent or incongruent with those personality types. R elationship of Data to the Hypotheses Results of this study supported the hypothesized relationsh ip between congruence and tr a d itio n a lity of occupational choice stated in the f i r s t hypothesis, i.e. that women who make nontraditional choices are more lik e ly to make congruent choices than are those who make tra d itio n a l choices. For the e n tire sample and lower class students, nontraditional choices were s ig n ific a n tly more congruent than tra d itio n a l choices and tra d itio n a l choices were s ig n ific a n tly more incongruent than nontraditional choices. Although results were not s ta tis tic a lly s ig n ific a n t, the same trend was apparent among upper class students. These findings generally support the results of Wolfe and Betz (1981) and suggest that women who choose occupations seen as appropriate fo r th e ir sex are less lik e ly to be choosing occupations congruent with th e ir personality type, whereas women who make more nontraditional choices are more often making choices correspondent with Holland's th eoretical predictions. Hypothesis 2 postulated th at androgynous and masculine-typed women ( i. e. women who see themselves as more masculine) make more congruent choices than feminine-typed and undifferen tiated women ( i. e. women who see themselves as less masculine). The data generally did not support th is predictio n. There was no relationship between congruence and m asculinity. In addition, there was no relationsh ip between sex-

80 ro le orientatio n and congruence fo r the group as a whole or lower class 70 students. Among upper class students, feminine sex-role orientatio n was negatively related to congruence; however, there was no indication th at androgynous or masculine sex-role orientatio n was p o sitiv e ly related to congruence. Hypothesis 2 also stated th at fe m in in ity would not be related to congruence and th at prediction was supported. These results regarding Hypothesis 2 correspond with those of Wolfe and Betz (1981) and generally suggest sex-role orientatio n and/or m asculinity/ fem in in ity are individual difference variables which do not appear to influence the extent to which Holland's congruence postulate predicts women's career behavior. Hypothesis 3, i. e., that women higher in performance self-esteem would make more congruent choices than those lower in performance s e lf esteem was not supported by the data. These resu lts indicated th at the ability/perform ance dimension of self-esteem, at least as i t was measured here, was not related to the extent to which women chose occupations congruent with th e ir p e rs o n a lity type. Hypotheses 4 and 5 postulated th at career centeredness is a dimension d is tin c t from global career salience and th at women high in career centeredness would make more congruent choices than those low in career centeredness, whereas global career salience would not be related to degree of choice congruence. The data did not support th is d is tin c tio n between career salience and career centeredness. The two dimensions were highly related to each other and were highly sim ilar in th e ir pattern of relationships with other variables in the study. The lack of re la tio n s h ip of both career salience dimensions to congruence

81 71 corresponds with previous findings which indicated th at neither global career salience (Greenhaus, 1971b) nor career centeredness (Richardson, 1975; Greenhaus, 1973) were related to congruence of choice. These resu lts suggest th at regardless of the way in which career salience is defined, degree of career commitment does not seen to be related to a woman's tendency to choose an occupation congruent w ith her persona lit y type. Results pertaining to the age variables did not support age as a moderator of occupational choice congruence. There was no evidence to suggest that a woman's age or level of college experience affected the extent to which she chose an occupation congruent with her personality type. In addition, age was not related to the other career variables, career salience or tr a d itio n a lity of choice, although i t was related to performance self-esteem and m asculinity. These results concerning age, along with the fa c t th at results of th is study correspond with those of Wolfe and Betz (1981), would seem to indicate that age has not confounded results of previous investigations of moderators of choice congruence. I t should be noted th at while age was not a moderator of congruence, results concerning other moderators varied somewhat as a function of class le v e l. This problem, which may have been due p a rtly to the fa c t th at lower class students were higher in m asculinity and performance self-esteem, w ill be discussed fu rth e r when other lim ita tio n s of the study are considered. In addition to data pertaining d ire c tly to the experimental hypotheses, secondary findings regarding s e x-ro le o rie n ta tio n,

82 performance self-esteem and career salience/career centeredness should 72 be noted. Previous research, which indicated th at women in nontraditional occupations saw themselves as more masculine, but not less feminine, than women in tra d itio n a l occupations, was supported by the present re s u lts. The positive relationsh ip between m asculinity and tr a d itio n a lity of choice suggested th at a high degree of m asculinity was conducive to the consideration of nontraditional or non-sex-stereotyped occupations. Additional findings indicated th at although performance self-esteem was not related to occupational choice congruence, i t was related to two other aspects of career behavior, i. e. career salience and t r a d it io n a l it y of choice. Data revealed th at women high in performance self-esteem tended to be higher in career salience and to make more nontraditional choices. These results suggest that performance self-esteem may be related to certain aspects of career behavior in women, ju s t as Stake (1979) postulated. As in the present study, Stake (1979) also found th at performance self-esteem was related to career commitment. One discrepency which e x is ts, though, between the results of Stake's study and the current results deserves fu rth er atten tio n. In examining the v a lid ity of the PSES, Stake (1979) reported data suggesting th at she was measuring a dimension of self-evalu atio n independent of general sex- role a ttitu d e s. In the present study, however, data indicated a very strong relatio n sh ip between performance self-esteem and m asculinity (jr=.8 3 ). The current results suggest the p o s s ib ility that performance self-esteem is not a dimension d is tin c t from m asculinity of s e lf- evaluation. Further atten tio n to the discrim inative v a lid ity of the construct of performance self-esteem is suggested.

83 Secondary findings regarding career salience/career centeredness 73 also revealed a relationsh ip to tr a d itio n a lity of choice. Women higher in career sa lie n c e/c a ree r centeredness tended to choose more nontraditio n al occupations. These findings suggest that career salience may be related to certain aspects of women's career behavior; in p a rtic u la r, career salience may lessen the p o s s ib ility th at her choice of career w ill be influenced by sex stereotyping. In summary, the results of the present study suggest the importance of in vestig ating individual difference variables which may moderate the a p p lic a b ility of H olland's theory to the career development of women. The major finding was that women who make nontraditional choices were more lik e ly to be choosing occupations congruent with th e ir personality type than were women who selected tra d itio n a l occupations. Thus women who lim it th e ir choices to occupations considered to be appropriate fo r th e ir sex are less often making choices correspondent with Holland's congruence postulate and, given predicted relationships of congruence to la te r satisfactio n with and tenure in an occupation (Holland, 1973), may la te r fin d th e ir vocational involvement less s a tis facto ry and less stable. The other four individual difference variables examined in this study - sex-role o rie n ta tio n, age, performance self-esteem and career salience/career centeredness - did not prove to be s ig n ific a n t moderators of choice congruence. There were, however, in terestin g secondary findings involving these variables. Women high in m asculinity, performance self-esteem and career salience/career centeredness were more lik e ly to choose nontraditional occupations than were women low on those dimensions. Thus high degrees of m ascu lin ity,

84 74 performance self-esteem, and career salience, while not d ire c tly related to career choice congruence, may be in d ire c tly related to congruence through th e ir positive relatio n sh ip to the tendency to consider nontraditional occupations. Both an alytic studies of the possible causal relationships of these variables and of the patterns of relationships among variables are needed to fu rth e r examine this p o s s ib ility. Im plications The findings of the present study have important im plications fo r the th eoretical u t i l i t y of Holland's theory fo r women. Previous findings, which indicated that Holland's congruence postulate was d iffe r e n tia lly applicable to women as a function of the tr a d itio n a lity of the woman's occupational choice (Wolfe & Betz, 1981), were shown to be generalizable to a sample with a wider range of college experience. Further research is necessary to determine the g e n e ra liz a b ility of the present findings to samples of non-college ( i. e. employed) women. Results of the present study additio n ally suggested that performance self-esteem, career salience and m asculinity may have in d ire c tly moderated the a p p lic a b ility of Holland's theory to women in that each was related to tr a d itio n a lity of choice. Further research is necessary to investigate other variables which may moderate choice congruence. I t may be p ro fita b le fo r such research to explore individual difference variables unrelated to tr a d itio n a lity of choice in an e ffo rt to id e n tify moderators of more practical significance in terms of the proportions of variance accounted f o r.

85 One such potential moderator variab le is suggested d ire c tly from the data of the present study. An unexpectedly large number of college women chose nontraditional occupations and, unlike the findings of Wolfe and Betz (1981) which indicated th at most of those choices were also congruent, almost the same number of choices were incongruent as were congruent. Examination of the types of nontraditional occupations chosen revealed th at fie ld s with good job outlooks and earning potential were well represented ( i. e. business, engineering, medicine). I t may be th at many women are fe e lin g economic pressures and th at social imperatives regarding career choice fo r women now include economic pressures as well as occupational stereotyping. Thus, women may be choosing nontraditional occupations which are incongruent with th e ir personality types fo r the anticipated fin an cia l benefits. C ertain ly economic factors would lik e ly a ffe c t career choice of men as w e ll. Thus a p o te n tia lly f r u it f u l lin e of research might be to examine degree of concern with economic factors as a moderator of the a p p lic a b ility of Holland's theory to men and women. In addition to the above findings bearing on the th eoretical u t i l i t y of Holland's theory fo r women, resu lts of the present study also have im plications fo r the applied u t i l i t y of Holland's theory in a counseling s e ttin g. A counselor who is using Holland's theory as a tool to help women make occupational choices can be serving as an agent fo r social change. In working with women considering only tra d itio n a l feminine occupations, a counselor can help explore reasons fo r those choices and present altern atives based on the woman's Holland personality codes which might lead to a more satisfyin g choice.

86 76 Lim itations While the present findings have important im plications, caution in th e ir in te rp re ta tio n and generalization is necessary due to characteristics of the sample u tiliz e d and to certain methodological d iffic u ltie s. The subject sample fo r th is study was quite unusual in that 59% of the women chose nontraditional occupations. Although i t was a goal of this study to increase the number of women in the sample with nontraditional choices by sampling engineering and agricultu re residence h a lls, the high proportion of women making nontraditional choices throughout the e n tire dorm system was unexpected. I t is lik e ly that th is extremely uneven d is trib u tio n of choice tr a d itio n a lity re s tric te d the magnitude of the correlations of tr a d itio n a lity with a ll of the other variab les. Thus, fo r example, the relationship between tr a d itio n a lity and congruence may be stronger than the present results seem to in d icate. I t is possible that a sim ilar problem with re s tric tio n of range existed fo r the performance self-esteem, m asculinity and career salience variables as w e ll. Sample means fo r these variables were a ll quite high compared with norm groups reported in the lite ra tu r e. In s u ffic ie n t numbers of women scoring low on these variables may have re s tric te d the magnitude of the correlations with other variables. An additional lim ita tio n concerning the division of the sample into lower and upper class students should be noted. F irs t, i t should be noted th at when the sample was divided to compare results separately fo r lower and upper class students, the reduced sample sizes produced more

87 77 in s ta b ility in the results than fo r the whole group. In several analyses, expected c e ll frequencies became very small when the sample was divided. I t would be preferable to have a larg er sample i f upper and lower class students are to be compared in separate analyses. A second problem was also noted with the division of th is p a rtic u la r sample. Upper and lower class students d iffered s ig n ific a n tly in th e ir mean score on two of the variables, i. e., lower class students were higher in m asculinity and performance self-esteem. These differences introduce confounding facto rs into the comparison in th at i t is not clear whether differences between groups should be a ttrib u ted to class rank or to m asculinity/perform ance self-esteem. D iffic u ltie s in the c la s s ific a tio n of occupations in th e ir degree of tr a d itio n a lity and in the assignment of Holland codes to occupations should also be noted. I t was d if f ic u lt to categorize the occupational choices of subjects according to tra d itio n a lity /n o n tra d itio n a lity of the f ie ld since many of the job t it le s given did not exactly correspond to occupations lis te d in the Handbook of Women Workers (1975). T ra d itio n a lity was assigned according to the nearest related f ie ld and th is may have introduced seme error into the study. Sim ilar problems were encountered in assigning Holland codes to occupational choices since some of the job t it le s were not lis te d in Appendix B of the SCII manual (Campbell, 1977) or in the Occupations Finder (H olland, 1977). For such occupations, codes were assigned according to the nearest related f ie ld.

88 78 Summary and Conclusions The present study was designed to explore moderating effects of tr a d itio n a lity of occupational choice, sex-role o rientatio n, age, performance self-esteem and career salience/career centeredness on congruence of occupational choice and personality type. Subjects were 268 undergraduate women. The results indicated that women who made nontraditional choices were more lik e ly to be choosing occupations congruent with th e ir personality type than were women who selected tra d itio n a l occupations. The other individual difference variables examined - sex-role o rientatio n, age, performance self-esteem and career salience/career centeredness - were not related to choice congruence. However, with the exception of age, this cluster of variables was related to tr a d itio n a lity of choice, i.e. women high on m asculinity, performance self-esteem and career salience/career centeredness tended to avoid occupational sex-stereotyping as a basis fo r career choice. T ra d itio n a lity of occupational choice seems to moderate the u t i l i t y of Holland's theory in predicting the vocational behavior of women. Further investigation of individual difference variables moderating the a p p lic a b ility of the theory to women should contribute to both its progressive refinement and to our understanding of women's career development.

89 79 APPENDIX A Career Salience Scale

90 80 CAREER QUESTIONNAIRE In stru ctio n s: Please in d icate how much you agree or disagree with each o f the follow ing statements by c irc lin g the number corresponding to your degree o f agreement. Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Uncertain Agree Agree 1. I Intend to pursue the job o f my choice even i f i t cuts deeply into the time I have fo r my fa m ily. 2. I t is more important to have 1 some le is u re time a fte r work, and to enjoy some o f the adventures o f the mind ( a r t, music, lite r a t u r e, e tc.) than to have a job in your chosen f i e ld, be devoted to i t, and be a success a t i t. 3. I f you work very hard on your 1 jo b, you can t enjoy the b etter things in l i f e. 4. Work is one o f the few areas 1 in l i f e where you car. gain real s a tis fa c tio n. 5. I intend to pursue the job o f 1 my choice, even i f i t lim its my personal freedom to enjoy l i f e. 6. To me, a job should be 1 viewed p rim arily as a way o f making good money. 7. I enjoy thinking about and 1 making plans about ray fu tu re career I t is d if f ic u lt to fin d s a tis fa c tio n in l i f e unless you enjoy your jo b. 9. Work is one o f those necessary e v ils. 10. Deciding on a career is ju s t about the most important decision a young person makes.

91 81-2- Strongly Disagree 11. I don't think too much about 1 what type o f job I ' l l be in ten years from now. 12. I'm ready to make many sac- 1 rific e s to get ahead in my jo b. 13. I look a t a career as a means 1 o f expressing m yself. 14. I would consider myself extremely 1 "career minded." 1C. I could never be tr u ly happy 1 in l i f e unless I achieved success in my job or career. 16. I intend to pursue the job o f 1 my choice, even i f i t allows only very l i t t l e opportunity to enjoy my frie n d s. 17. I want to be able to p re tty much 1 forget my job when I leave work in the evenings. 18. I started thinking about jobs 1 and careers when I was young. 19. I intend to pursue the job o f my 1 choice, even i f i t leaves me l i t t l e time fo r my re lig io u s a c t iv it ie s. 20. I t is more important to have a 1 job in your chosen fie ld of in te r e s t, be devoted to i t, and be a success a t i t than to have a fam ily th at is clo sely k n it and th a t shares many experiences. 21. The whole' idea o f working and 1 holding a job is kind o f d ista s te fu l to me. 22. Planning fo r and succeeding in 1 a career is ray primary concern. Strongly Disagree Uncertain Agree Asree

92 \ JS Strongly Strongly Disagree Disagree Uncertain Agree Agree 23. I often find myself thinking about whether I w in enjoy my chosen f ie ld. 24. I t Is more important to be lik e d by others, devote your energies fo r the betterment o f a l l, and be a t le a s t some help to someone, than to have a job in your chosen fie ld o f in te re s t, be devoted to i t and be a success a t i t. 25. Planning fo r a specific career usually is not worth the e ffo r t; i t doesn't m atter too much what you do. 26. I would move to another part o f the country i f I thought i t would help advance my career I never re a lly thought about these types o f questions very much. 28. Rank the following a c tiv itie s in terms o f how much s a tis fa c tio n you expect they w ill give you in your l i f e. Rank them from 1 (most s a tis fa c tio n ] to 6 (le a s t s a tis fa c tio n ). Family relationships Leisure time recreational a c tiv itie s Religious b e lie fs and a c tiv itie s Your career or occupation P a rticip a tio n as a c itiz e n in a ffa irs o f your community P a rticip a tio n in a c tiv itie s directed toward the betterment o f national or "international a ff a ir s.

93 APPENDIX B Demographic Questionnaire

94 84 Name Age Quarters of college completed including the current one College rank Have you chosen a major? Yes No If so, what major have you chosen? If not, please list three majors you are considering, starting with the most likely. What occupation do you think you will most likely enter? If you are not sure, please list three occupations you are considering, starting with the most likely. Please describe the setting in which you see yourself doing the kind of work of your most likely occupation. Where will you bo working? With whom?

95 APPENDIX C Data Pertaining to Regression Analyses fo r the P rediction of Congruence

96 86 Tab le 13 Regression Analyses f o r the P re d ic tio n of Congruence f o r C ollege Women Parameter t& t R2 Quarters of College T ra d itio n a lity X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness l a Quarters of College T ra d itio n a lity X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness Quarters of College T ra d itio n a lity X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Salience Note: Androgynous: X =l, Y=0, Z=0 Masculine: X=0, Y =l, Z=0 Feminine: X=0, Y=0, Z=1 U ndifferentiated: X = -l, Y = -l, Z = -l abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. bbased on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale.

97 Table Regression Analyses fo r the P red ictio n of Congruence fo r College Women Parameter a t R2 Quarters of College T ra d itio n a lity M asculinity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness l a Quarters of College T ra d itio n a lity M asculinity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness Quarters of College T ra d itio n a lity M asculinity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Salience abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. ^Based on item 28 on the Career Salience S cale.

98 88 Table 15 Regression Analyses fo r the Prediction of Congruence fo r Juniors and Seniors Parameter 6 t R2 T ra d itio n a lity X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness l a T ra d itio n a lity X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness T ra d itio n a lity X Y Z Performance Self-Esteem Career Salience Note: Androgynous: Masculine Feminine: U ndifferentiated: X=l, Y=0, Z=0 X=0, Y=l, Z=0 X=0, Y=0, Z=1 X = -l, Y = -l, Z = -l abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. bbased on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale.

99 89 Table 16 Regression Analyses f o r the P re d ic tio n of Congruence f o r Juniors and Seniors Parameter 13 t R2 T ra d itio n a lity M asculinity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness l a T ra d itio n a lity Masculi n ity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Centeredness T ra d itio n a lity M ascu lin ity Fem ininity Performance Self-Esteem Career Salience abased on subscale of f i r s t 27 items on the Career Salience Scale. bbased on item 28 on the Career Salience Scale.

100 REFERENCE NOTES The UNIACT is available from the American College Testing Program, P.O. Box 168, Iowa C ity, Iowa, The Bex Sex Role Inventory is available from Consulting Psychologists Press, In c., 577 College Avenue, Palo A lto, C a lifo rn ia, The Performance S e lf Esteem Scale is presented in Stake, J.E. The ab ility/p e rfo rm an ce dimension of s e lf esteem: Im plications fo r women's achievement behavior. Psycholoqy of Women Q u arterly, 1979, 2, (a)

101 LIST OF REFERENCES 91 Ayres, A. Sex-role id e n tity and vocational behavior among college women. Unpublished Masters Thesis, The Ohio S tate U n iv e rs ity, Bachtold, L.M. Personality character!'sitics of women of d istin c tio n. Psychology of Women Q u a rte rly, 1976, _1_, Bachtold, L.M. & Werner, E.E. Personality p ro file s of g ifte d women: Psychologists. American Psychologist, 1970, Z5_, Bachtold, L.M. & Werner E.E. Personality characteristics of women s c ie n tis ts. Psychological Reports, 1972, _31^, Bandura, A. Social learning theory. Englewood C lif f s, N.J.: Prentice H a ll, Baruch, G.K. G irls who perceive themselves as competent: Some antecedents and c o rrelates. Psychology of Women Q uarterly, 1976, I, Bern, S.L. The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and C lin ic a l Psychology, 1974, _42, Bern, S.L. Sex-typing and androgyny: Further explorations of the expressive domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1976, 34, Bern, S.L. On the u t i l i t y of alternate procedures fo r assessing psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and C lin ic a l Psychology, 1977, 45, Betz, N.E. & Wolfe L.K. Comparison of the u t i l i t y of two approaches to sex-balanced in te re s t scales fo r college women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1981, Campbell, D.P. Manual fo r the Strong-Campbel1 In tere s t Inventory. Stanford, C a l if.: Stanford Univ. Press, Campbell, D.P. & Hansen, J. I. Manual fo r the Strong-Campbel! In tere s t Inventory. (3rd ed.) Stanford, C a lif.: Standford Univ. Press, Doty, M.S. & Betz, N.E. Comparison of the concurrent v a lid it y of Holland's theory fo r men and women in an enterprising occupation. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 1979, JL5, Eyde, L.D. Work values and background factors as predictors of women's desire to work. Research Monograph No. 10, Bureau of Business Research, The Ohio S tate U n iv e rs ity, 1962.

102 F itz g e ra ld, L. Sex, occupational membership and the measurement of psychological androgyny. Unpublished Masters Thesis, The Ohio State U niversity, F itzg e ra ld, L.F. & C rites J.O. Toward a career psychology of women: What do we know? What do we need to know? Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1980, 27, G h is e lli, E.E. The v a lid ity of management tr a its related to occupational le v e l. Personnel Psychology, 1963, Greenhaus, J.H. Self-esteem as an influence on occupational choice and occupational s a tis fa c tio n. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1971, 1, (a) Greenhaus, J.H. An investigation of the ro le of career salience in vocational behavior. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1971, 1, (b) Greenhaus, J.H. A fa c to r ia l in vestig atio n of career salience. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1973, J3, Hackett, G. & Betz, N.E. A s e lf-e ffic a c y approach to the career development of women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1981, 18, Hanson, G.R. Assessing the in te re s t of college youth: Summary of research and applications (ACT Research Report No. 6 7 ). Iowa C ity, Iowa: American College Testing Program, Hanson, G.R., Prediger, D. & Schussel, R. Development and valid ation of sex-balanced in te r e s t inventory scales (ACT Research Report No. 7 8). Iowa C ity, Iowa: American College Testing Program, Hardesty, S.A. The relationships of s e lf-e ffic a c y expectations and performance self-esteem to career salience and behavior. Unpublished doctoral d issertatio n, The Ohio State U niversity, Hardesty, S.A. & Betz, N.E. The relationships of career salience, attitudes toward women, and demographic and fam ily characteristics to m arital adjustment in dual-career couples. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1980, J 7, Harmon, L. The childhood and adolescent career plans of college women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1971, _1, Harmon, L.W. & Zytowski, D.G. R e lia b ility of Holland codes across in tere s t measures fo r adult females. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1980, 2J_, Harvey, D.W. & W hinfield, R.W. Extending Holland's theory to adult women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1973, 3,

103 93 Holland, J.L. Professional Manual fo r the S e lf-d ire c te d Search. Palo A lto, C a l i f.: Consulting Psychologists Press, Holland, J.L. Making vocational choices: A theory of careers. Englewood C lif f s, N.J.: P re n tic e -H a ll, Holland, J.L. The Vocational Preference Inventory manual. Palo A lto, C a l i f.: Consulting Psychologists Press, Holland, J.L. The occupations fin d e r. Palo A lto, C a lif.: Consulting Psychologists Press, Horton, J.A. & Walsh, W.B. Concurrent v a lid ity of Holland's theory fo r college-degreed working women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1976, 9., Korman, A.K. Self-esteem in vocational choice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1966, 80, Korman, A.K. Self-esteem as a moderator of the re la tio n s h ip between self-perceived a b ilitie s and vocational choice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1967, 5JU Lemkau, J.P. Personality and background characteristics of women in male-dominated occupations: A review. Psychology of Women Q u a rte rly, 1979, 4., M arshall, S.J. An investigation of the relationsh ip of need fo r achievement and sex ro le id e n tity to career orientation among college women. Unpublished doctoral d issertatio n. New York U niversity, M arshall, S.J. & W ijtin g, J.P. Relationships of acheivement motivation and sex-role id e n tity to college women's career o rie n ta tio n. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1980, _16, Matthews, D.F. & Walsh, W.B. Concurrent v a lid ity of Holland's theory fo r non-college-degreed working women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978, 1 2, O'Connor, K., Mann, D.W. & Bardwick, J.M Androgyny and self-esteem in the upper-middle class: A re p lic a tio n of Spence. Journal of Consulting and C lin ic a l Psychologya 1978, 46, O rcutt, M.A. & Walsh, W.B. T ra d itio n a lity and congruence of career aspirations fo r college women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1979, 14, Osipow, S.H. Theories of career development. Englewood C lif f s, N.J.: P re n tic e -H a ll, nd ed.

104 Prediger, D. & Hanson, G. Must in te re s t inventories provide males and females with divergent vocational guidance? Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance, 1978, _U, Psathas, G. Toward a theory of occupational choice fo r women. Sociology and Social Research, 1968, 52, Richardson, M.S. The dimensions of career and work o rie n ta tio n in college women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1974, _5, Richardson, M.S. Self-concepts and ro le concepts in the career orientation of college women. Journal of Counseling Psychology 1975, 22, Schlossberg, N. & Goodman, J. A woman's place: C hildren's sex stereotyping of occupations, Vocational Guidance Q u a rte rly, 1972, 20, Shinar, E. Sexual stereotypes of occupations. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1975, 7_, Spence, J.T. & Helmreich, R. The a ttitu d e s toward women scale: An objective instrument to measure attitu d es towards the rights and roles of women in contempory society. Journal Supplement Abstract S ervice, 1972, 2, Spence, J.T., Helmreich, R. & Stapp, J. Ratings of s e lf and peers on sex role a ttrib u te s and th e ir re la tio n to self-esteem and conceptions of m asculinity and fe m in in ity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, J32j, Spokane, A.R. & Walsh, W.B. Occupational level and Holland's theory fo r employed men and women, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978, 12, Stake, J.E. The ability/perform ance dimension of self-esteem: Im plications fo r women's achievement behavior. Psychology of Women Q u a rte rly, 1979, _3, (a) Stake, J.E. Women's self-estim ates of competence and the resolution of the career/home c o n f lic t. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1979, 14, (b) Super, D.E. The psychology of careers. New York: Harper, Tangri, S. Determinants of occupational ro le innovation among college women. Journal of Social Issues, 1972, 28^, U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau, 1975 Handbook on women workers. B u lle tin No Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. P rinting O'fficeT