Influence of sex role attitudes and cognitive styles on career decision making.

Examined the relative influence of gender, sex role attitudes, cognitive styles and decision-making process on choice of major by means of path analysis procedures. 578 college students from all classes completed the Assessment of Career Decision Making, the Paragraph Completion Method (a measure of conceptual level), the Cognitive Differentiation Grid, and the Bem Sex Role Inventory. It was found that progress in the decision-making process most directly influenced choice of major. Gender, sex role attitudes, and cognitive styles had little direct influence on choice of major; rather, their influence was indirect, via the decision-making process. These results support the following causal inferences: Gender influences sex role attitudes; sex role attitudes and cognitive styles influence progress in the decision-making process; and the latter directly influences whether a satisfying choice of major has been made. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of gender, sex-role attitudes, and cognitive complexity on gender-dominant career choices.

248 male and 344 female college students who had made a choice of major and occupation and who had indicated that they were highly satisfied with their choice were studied. The majors and occupations chosen were assigned a male-dominance index representing the proportion of men to women in the field. This index for major and for occupation served as the criterion variable. Gender, sex-role attitudes, and cognitive complexity (Cognitive Differentiation Grid) were the predictor variables. Three measures of sex-role attitude were employed: the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, and an attitudes toward masculine transcendence scale. Path analysis and multiple regression analysis procedures were used. It was found that gender significantly predicted choice of gender-dominant majors and occupations. It was also found that the feminine-related, but not the masculine-related, sex-role attitude and cognitive complexity variables significantly predicted choice. Implications for expanding the career options of men and women are discussed. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex role expectations and ego level in relation to problem marriages.

Compared 52 couples in problem marriages and 55 in nonproblem marriages with respect to degree of agreement between spouses in sex-role expectations, sex-linked self-concepts, and ego development, as measured by, respectively, a new sex-role survey (SRS), the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), and the Sentence Completion Test (SCT). With regard to differences between spouses, those on the SRS were associated with problem marriage, whereas those on the PAQ and SCT were not. Age differences of spouses were greater in problem marriages. Relations among measured variables were also examined. Among women, an androgynous self-concept was unrelated to androgynous role expectations; among men, there was a small positive correlation. Ego level was positively related to androgynous role expectations but not to androgynous self-concept. Homogamous mating was shown for ego level and sex role expectations but not for personal attributes. An unexpected finding was that mean ego level scores for husbands and wives were identical. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of computer-assisted instruction in using formal decision-making strategies to choose a college major.

Compared the effects of using formal decision-making strategies on the quality of students' decisions about choice of a college major. The interaction of students' decision-making characteristics, stage, and style on treatment outcomes was also examined. University freshmen (n?=?113) were randomly assigned to 3 groups: the Elimination by Aspects Strategy (EBA), the Subjective Expected Utility Strategy (SEU), and the control group. The results showed that the "rational" decision style students who used the EBA scored significantly higher on choice certainty. They also scored lower on choice anxiety and career indecision than rational style students in the control group. The "explorers" who used the EBA sought more information than their counterparts in the control group. Rational style students who used SEU scored significantly higher on cognitive complexity than their counterparts in the control group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex role attributes, symptom distress, and defensive style among college men and women.

Administered the Personality Research Form-Andro Scale Masculinity and Femininity subscales, the Symptom Check List-90 (Revised), and the Defense Mechanism Inventory to 84 male and 90 female undergraduates. Results indicate that interrelations among sex-role attributes, defense preferences, and symptom distress differed for men and women. Cross-sex-typed Ss mostly accounted for differences in symptom distress within each sex: Masculine women reported relatively low and feminine men reported relatively high degrees of symptom distress. In addition, sex roles interacted with sex in determining defense preferences. The possibility that defensive styles mediated between sex-role attributes and symptom distress was also explored. Among women, an association between masculine attributes and a rejection of self-blaming defenses accounted for the negative relation between masculinity attributes and symptom distress. Among men, sex-role attributes and defensive styles, for the most part, contributed independently to symptom distress. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction of sex role self-concept with relationship quality and relationship beliefs in married, heterosexual cohabiting, gay, and lesbian couples.

Examined the relationship between sex-role self-concept (masculine, feminine, undifferentiated, and androgynous) and relationship quality and dysfunctional relationship beliefs among 44 married (mean age 29.68 yrs), 35 heterosexual cohabiting (mean age 28.68 yrs), 50 homosexual (mean age 31.28 yrs), and 56 lesbian (mean age 31.18 yrs) couples. Ss completed questionnaires on demographic and background information, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, a relationship beliefs inventory, and relationship quality assessments. Individual partner analyses revealed that relationship quality and relationship beliefs differed by Ss' sex-role self-concept. Androgynous and feminine Ss reported higher relationship quality than masculine and undifferentiated Ss; androgynous Ss had fewer "disagreement is destructive" beliefs than feminine Ss; and androgynous Ss had fewer "partner cannot change" beliefs than undifferentiated Ss. Couple analyses showed a relation between partners' sex-role self-concept only for the heterosexual cohabiting couples. For these couples, masculine men tended to pair with feminine or undifferentiated women, and androgynous partners tended to pair together. Relative to other couples, those in which one or both partners were androgynous or feminine reported the highest relationship quality; couples in which one or both partners were undifferentiated or masculine reported the lowest. These effects did not vary by type of couple. It is concluded that sex-role self-concept is a robust factor in appraisals of relationship quality. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instruction in career decision making and decision-making styles.

Investigated the differential effectiveness of 2 distinct career decision-making interventions and decision-making styles on certainty of vocational choice and changes in vocational maturity. 120 undergraduates were randomly assigned to (a) intuitive intervention, (b) rational intervention, (c) attention-placebo, or (d) no-treatment control groups. Ss were classified as having either a rational, intuitive, or dependent decision-making style, and styles distributed themselves evenly across the 4 groups. They were administered a battery of tests including the Career Maturity Inventory, Vocational Survey Questionnaire, and Assessment of Career Decision Making. Results indicate that decision-making style contributed to vocational maturity and certainty of vocational choice, and both interventions resulted in increases on both dependent measures. Rational decision makers did best with the rational intervention, whereas intuitive decision makers did best with the intuitive interventions. Thus, both styles can be considered as effective. Dependent decision makers had an ineffective style, demonstrating decreases on both dependent measures in all groups. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Locus of control and college women's role expectations.

Hypothesized that college women's locus of control orientations would be related to their role expectations, with women with an external locus of control having lower aspirations, more conservative sex-role ideologies, and less involvement in career planning than women with an internal locus of control. 116 female college juniors and seniors completed a career expectation scale, the Adult Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale (ANSIE), and an index of sympathy for women's liberation ideology. Regression analyses using ANSIE scores as the predictor variable supported the hypotheses. Compared to Ss with internal orientations, Ss with external orientations expected to have less commitment to their careers, to work for a smaller portion of their lives, and to feel more discomfort due to violating sex-role stereotypes. In addition, Ss with a more external orientation reported less career planning activity, less positive feelings about their future careers, and more conservative views on women's liberation ideology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation between ego identity statuses and decision-making styles.

We examined the proposition that individual variations in career decision making are related conceptually to the identity formation process of late adolescence. To investigate this proposition 2 studies were conducted to identify the relations between ego identity statuses and decision-making styles. The findings suggested that persons who have achieved a stable identity tend to use rational and systematic decision-making strategies. Those whose identity status is foreclosed tend to rely on dependent strategies and do not endorse systematic and internal strategies. Persons in the diffusion status tend to rely on intuitive and dependent styles or exhibit an absence of systematic and internal styles. The moratorium status was not consistently associated with variations in decision-making styles. We relate the results to previous theory and to implications for practice and research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in math achievement: Toward a model of academic choice.

Competence in mathematics has long been identified as a critical skill directly related to educational and occupational choices. Yet compared with men, fewer women elect to take advanced level mathematics courses and to enter mathematically-oriented careers. The present article summarizes the common explanations of this problem and then integrates this research into a theoretical model first proposed by J. E. Parsons et al (in press) for studying students' academic choices and decisions. Drawing on concepts used in decision-making, achievement, and attribution research, this psychological model links academic choice to expectations of success and the subjective value of a particular course. In addition, the model specifies the relations among a set of other variables that are believed to mediate individual differences in both students' expectations of success and their perceptions of the relative value of various academic options. The utility of the model for increasing understanding of course enrollment patterns and career decisions and for designing appropriate intervention strategies is discussed. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple outcome evaluation of a life-career development course.

Examined the multiple effects of a life-career development course on 74 university students. The treatment was based on a comprehensive counseling model of "change agent career decision making." A modification of D. T. Campbell and J. C. Stanley's (1963) institutional cycle design and MANOVA was used for evaluating Ss' performance on 8 career inventories. The Ss were significantly more rational and less intuitive and dependent in their decision-making styles, more certain of their major and career choices, and more crystallized in their vocational self-concept. They also collected more career information and had fewer vocational identity problems as a result of the course. Inconsistent results were found with regard to the external locus of control and overcoming career barriers measures. The treatment did not seem to have an immediate impact on internal locus of control. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The efficacy of supportive learning environments for returning women: An empirical evaluation.

Conducted 2 studies of 103 women to evaluate the efficacy of programs designed to meet the needs of today's changing women. The studies sought to determine whether changes that would influence women's life styles could occur by providing a supportive learning environment, rather than through traditional individual or group counseling. Pre–post, experimental–control group designs were employed for both studies. One experiment examined the effects of the treatment in a university setting, with the outcome measures being vocational decision-making attitudes, learning attitudes, attitudes toward women, and receptivity to new information. The 2nd study examined treatment effects in a community setting, with the measures being vocational decision-making, self-concept, and attitudes toward women. Results suggest that the 2 programs did affect certain vocational and psychological attitudes. Specifically, in Exp I Ss exhibited greater maturity in vocational decision making, while in Exp II self-concept was enhanced. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex roles and psychotherapy: A current appraisal.

Reviews the current status of research on the effects of sex-role stereotypes on mental health judgments. Studies in this area have addressed (a) whether there are different sex-role-related standards of mental health for men and women, (b) if violations of sex role norms result in adverse mental health judgments, and (c) if therapists set sex-role-related goals for their clients. It is concluded that sex-role stereotypes are strong mental health cues for nonprofessionals, with violations of sex-role norms leading to adverse mental health judgments, but that while professionals share the sex-role stereotypes of their lay contemporaries, the professionals are unaffected by them in making mental health judgments and in setting therapeutic goals. This discrepancy between stereotypes and behavior may be due to any of 3 factors: the methodological limitations of the studies, actual differences in mental health between men and women, or normal attitude–behavior discrepancies. (2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality profiles of gifted women: Psychologists.

Compared the responses to the 16PF of 124 highly successful women psychologists with women in general, college women, and successful academic men to identify personality factors enabling these women to succeed in spite of powerful sex-role expectations to the contrary. In terms of test scores, women psychologists were significantly more intelligent, socially aloof, dominant, serious, adventuresome, sensitive, flexible, imaginative, insightful, unconventional, secure, self-sufficient, and less anxiety-prone than women in general and college girls. Despite similar test profiles of successful academic men and women, the women scored higher on intelligence, radicalism, and super-ego strength, and lower on self-sentiment. Women who published extensively were more exacting and socially aloof than less productive women psychologists. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex role self-concept and sex role attitudes: Enduring personality characteristics or adapatations to changing life situations?

Advances the hypothesis that adult men and women modify their sex role self-concepts and sex role attitudes as a function of the life situations in which they are involved. Four life situations—cohabitation, marriage, the anticipation of a 1st child, and parenthood—were studied using data from 120 White, middle-class adult males and females. Each life situation was characterized in terms of the degree to which it called for more or less traditionally masculine or feminine behavior from men and women. The sex-role self-concepts and sex-role attitudes reported by Ss involved in each situation conformed to the behavioral characterizations. Specifically, men and women involved in situations characterized as requiring predominantly feminine behavior described themselves as relatively more feminine than their contemporaries in less femininely characterized situations. The same was true for the relationship between situationally required and self-ascribed masculinity. Similarly, sex-role attitudes varied in traditionalism in conformity with the behavioral role requirements of the situations. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Drink and Be Merry? Gender, Life Satisfaction, and Alcohol Consumption Among College Students.

This study examined the impact of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems on several domains of life satisfaction (LS) in a sample of 353 college students. Alcohol use was associated with lower general satisfaction and anticipated future satisfaction among women. Female abstainers reported higher general and anticipated future satisfaction than did female heavy drinkers. Female students' alcohol use was unrelated to their academic, family, dating, or social satisfaction. Drinking among men showed a positive, curvilinear relation to social satisfaction but was unrelated to other domains of LS. Alcohol-related problems were associated with decreased LS among both men and women. These findings suggest that alcohol use by young adults is associated with both positive and negative outcomes that may be gender specific. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex-role self-concepts and life style plans of young women.

Examined the relations between sex-role self-concepts and various life-style plans in 65 single college women. Results indicate that plans for innovative sex-role enactment, at least in the spheres of education, childbearing, and employment, were associated with nonstereotypic sex-role self-concepts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bulimarexia as symptom of sex-role strain in professional women.

Explores the relationship between expanded opportunities for high-achieving women and the drastic increase in eating disorders in young women during the past decade. Bulimarexia is hypothesized to be a symptom of the sex-role strain that young women experience when their career choice conflicts with their sex-role socialization into the feminine role. The case study of a 26-yr-old high-achieving female suffering from eating disorders is presented to illustrate common problems experienced by high-achieving women, including feelings of inauthenticity and affiliation/achievement conflict. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peers' granting of control to women with different sex role identities: Implications for depression.

Investigated the degree of control given to 4 (videotaped) women with different sex-role identities to study the extent to which peers (24 male and 24 female undergraduates) were willing to grant control to women with different sex-role identities. Ss indicated how much control they would give each of the role-identified women if working individually with each woman on various 2-person tasks. Results indicate that women with different sex-role identities were granted different amounts of control by their peers as a function of the type of 2-person task under consideration. Women rated high on masculinity were granted greater control on enjoyable and creative tasks, whereas women rated low in masculinity were given more control on methodological and less enjoyable tasks. Women judged high in femininity were given control on tasks requiring interpersonal skills. Findings are discussed within the context of learned helplessness theory as a possible aid in understanding why more women than men become depressed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of the field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles in academic evolution: A longitudinal study.

To assess hypotheses derived from field-dependence theory about the role of cognitive styles in students' academic development, a group of 1,548 students was followed longitudinally from college entry into graduate/professional school. The Group Embedded Figures Test was administered at college entry. 1,422 Ss were followed through their college careers, and 831 Ss were identified as having applied to graduate or professional school and 550 as having enrolled. In their preliminary choices at college entry, final college majors and graduate/professional school specialties, relatively field-independent students favored impersonal domains requiring cognitive restructuring skills (e.g., sciences) and relatively field-dependent students favored interpersonal domains which do not emphasize such skills (e.g., elementary education). Ss whose college-entry choices were incongruent with their cognitive styles tended to shift to more compatible domains by college graduation or graduate school; Ss with congruent choices tended to remain with their choices. Some tendency was found for students to do better in domains compatible with their cognitive styles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)