Relationship of sex and professional training area to job orientation.

Examined indications that differences in job orientation may be more closely related to professional interests as reflected in one's professional training area than to differences in sex. 175 university students subgrouped into male business majors, female business majors, and female psychology majors rated the importance of 25 job characteristics comprising 3 job orientation dimensions--long-term career objectives, comfortable working environment and pleasant interpersonal relationships, and intrinsic job aspects. Male and female business majors differed significantly on the comfortable working environment and pleasant interpersonal relationships dimension, but business majors, regardless of sex, differed significantly from female psychology majors on all 3 dimensions, thus supporting the use of professional training area as a control variable in research related to sex differences in job orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)