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The effect of self-knowledge and career information on career maturity

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The effect of self-knowledge and career information on career maturity

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Content ♦
THE EFFECT OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND CAREER INFORMATION
ON CAREER MATURITY
by
William Wayne McDermott
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Education)
June 1977
(
UMI Number: DP24221
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U N IV E R S IT Y O F S O U T H E R N C A L IF O R N IA
T H E G R A D U A T E S C H O O L
U N IV E R S IT Y P A R K ^
LO S A N G E L E S , C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7 r ) o 1 7
tci
'77
M l 3H
T his dissertation, w ritten by
.... h i i X I i &JH.. M a XXX e .. M c D e rm o 1 1 .............................
is
under the direction of h........ Dissertation C o m
mittee, and approved by a ll its members, has
been presented to and accepted by The Graduate
School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of requirements of
the degree of
D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y
~P
Dean
D ISSERTATIO N C O M M IT T E E
. . £ Z i a s £ 2 s^J.......%....
Chairm an
r . ..
i r
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To my wife Sandra for her limitless patience and
understanding, to Dr. Paul Bloland for his guidance and
instruction, and to my family and friends who lived through
it with me--and to my mother who wanted to, but was not
able.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................ii
' LIST OF T A B L E S .............................................v
j
i
i
] Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 1
Background of the P r oblem................. 2
Statement of the Problem................... 5
Purpose of the Study and Research
Questions ................................. 5
Significance of the Study to the
Theoretical Framework of Career
Development...............................7
Conceptual Assumptions ...................... 10
Hypotheses ................................... 10
Delimitations of the Study.................14
Definitions of Terms U s e d .................15
Organization of the Remainder of the
Dissertation ............................. 16
II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE..................... 18
The Self-Concept (Self-Knowledge)
Phenomenon in Career Development and
Vocational Maturity ...................... 18
Socioeconomic and Cultural Factors .... 20
Vocational Self-Concept Theory ............. 24
Career Development Theories and Influences . 32
Adscititious Influences in Career
Development Theory ...................... 34
Parental Influence and Home Environment. . 34
Mental Health ............................. 37
Career or Vocational Maturity ............. 39
Summary.....................................51
III. METHODOLOGY.................................. 57
Selection and Description of the
Sample Groups ............................. 57
Methodology and Treatment Procedure .... 60
iii
Chapter
Treatment: Self-Knowledge
Information.................... 63
Treatment: Career Information .... 65
Research Design and Null Hypotheses . . . 67
A Description of the Evaluative
Instrument ........................... 72
Analysis of D a t a ............. 79
IV. THE FINDINGS 84
Results.................................... 84
Task O n e ............................... 84
Task T w o ............................... 91
Task T h r e e ............................. 96
Task Four ............................. 97
Discussion..................................100
Task O n e ..................................100
Task T w o ..................................104
Task Three..................................109
Task Four ................................110
V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . 113
Summary .................................... 113
Hypotheses................................118
Methodology................................123
Results .................................... 124
Task O n e ..................................124
Task T w o ..................................125
Task T h r e e ................................126
Task Four ................................127
Conclusions ..............................128
Recommendations............................. 133
REFERENCES............................................... 136
iv
LIST OF TABLES
Pre-, Mid-, and Posttest Score Means by
Group on the Six C.M,I, Scales................. 86
Analysis of Variance by Pre-, Mid-, and
Post Mean Test Scores Between the Four
Groups on the Six C.M.I. S c a l e s ...............88
Analysis of Covariance by Mean Posttest
Scores as Measured by the Six C.M.I.
Scales 93
Posttest Contrast Coefficient Matrix-Pooled
Variance Estimate Between Groups by C.M.I.
Scales Reflecting Statistical Significance . . 94
2 X 2 Chi-square Analysis for Hypothesis 13
Importance of Information N o w ................. 98
2 X 2 Chi-square Analysis for Hypothesis 14
Importance of Information in Future I
(10-15 Years) ............... 99
2 X 2 Chi-square Analysis for Hypothesis 15
Self-Image 101
Tasks and Hypotheses of the S t u d y ..............119
v
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This study was undertaken to discover what types of
career information are capable of effectively influencing j
!
the career maturity level of high school students. Many ,
schools regularly include in their curriculum and guidance 1
programs some type of career or world of work information
in order to help their students prepare for their future j
I
lifestyles and jobs. Unfortunately, much of this infor
mation is presented to students who are not ready for it, I
or who are incapable of applying it personally. However, j
the development (1957) of Super’s concept of career matur- ;
ity has made available to the researchers three instruments
designed to measure an individual's career development in i
maturational terms. There is now no need to rely on hap- i
hazard guesswork to determine when or what appropriate
career information should be presented to students (Super, ^
1974). !
The approach taken by this study was to focus on the |
i
effects of two specifically defined types of career infor- j
mation on the career maturity level of sophomore-age high j
school students. !
Background of the Problem *
Career counselors must address themselves daily to theI
I
fact that individuals differ in their interests, needs, |
i
aptitudes, values, abilities, attitudes, and individual j
self-orientations, and that these and many other forces
influence the understanding, acceptance, and development of
the individual's career self-concept. From birth to death ;
through a constantly changing procession of life experi- J
ences, brought about by the interaction of environmental |
and individual forces, an individual's perception of his
role in choosing a career direction is formulated. This
i
study was designed to assist the high school counselor in I
understanding the relationship and importance of career j
information and self-knowledge to career maturity in the
developmental career-choice process.
It is assumed by many educators that occupation and/or
career information is a necessary component in the career j
decision or the career direction decision process j
(Isaacson, 1971). It has also been assumed that this ;
i
career information can be integrated with a person's
heightened self-knowledge to bring about a good career ;
I
choice decision (Davis, 1969; Super, 1957; Williamson,
1965). \
Most career counselors agree that both self-knowledge
and career information are needed by individuals who are j
making a career direction decision. Only recently has thisl
jassumed paradigm been questioned or challenged (Biggers, !
| 1971; Osipow, 1968). In several studies related to this
area, researchers are questioning the role and importance
of career information in the developmental career-choice
process (Omvig, Tulloch, & Thompson, 1975; Osipow, 1973).
The appearance of such research and its inherent ques
tions indicate that career educators now want to know in ;
measurable terms what specific effect career information ;
and career self-knowledge have upon the developing career- |
i
ichoice process. However, until recently, there was no j
i
valid method of ascertaining these particular aspects of anI
i
I individual's personal growth and understanding in relation-j
. ship to the world of work (Crites, 1969, 1973; Super, !
1974; Westbrook, Parry-Hill, Sc Woodbury, 1971, 1972). The
■ . i
recent development of three instruments, the Career 1
Maturity Inventory (Crites, 1973, the Cognitive Vocational !
Maturity Test (Westbrook, Parry-Hill, & Woodbury, 1971, -
1972; Westbrook Sc Parry-Hill, 1973) and the Career
'Development Inventory (Forest, Lindeman, Jordaan, Pierre Sc J
Super, 1972) that measure the psychodynamic index of voca- !
tional and/or career maturity, has opened new avenues of |
approach to qualifying and quantifying the effect that many1
i
types of career information or self-knowledge have on the j
career-choice process (Super, 1974).
i
Although numerous studies have utilized many separate j
i
dimensions of self-knowledge and career information in j
- their research designs, few, until very recently, have beenl
i
i able to focus on whether or not this information is neces-
i
j sary or important in the development of the individual’s
; career-decision process (Biggers, 1971; Qmvig, Tulloch, &
, Thomas, 1975). None have answered the questions of whether
information alone is an important factor in the career-
choice process and, if so, which aspects of it are of the \
most value to the individual in his decision-making j
i
■ process (Biggers, 1971; Flake, Roach, & Stenning, 1975;
i Myers, Lindeman, Thompson, & Patrick, 1975; Omvig,
i
: Tulloch, & Thompson, 1975).
i
This study was a two-fold attempt to investigate a |
' possible solution to the problem of whether or not career j
information and self-knowledge are important to the indi
vidual student in his developmental career-choice process. 1
If career information and self-knowledge information are |
needed and important factors in the career-choice process, ;
1 individuals who have been exposed to a combined career (
information and self-knowledge information program will j
demonstrate a positive advancement in their career develop-j
ment; i.e., they should show a heightened career maturity. I
In this study, the importance as well as the effect of !
; career information and self-knowledge information was
measured by whether or not they contributed to a positive
change in the career maturity scores and, more importantly,|
which type of information had the more influential effect j
i
■ on career maturity. j
. . . . _ 4
Statement of the Problem
The knowledge of what affects and influences the indi
vidual’s developmental growth and understanding of the .
world of work is an important element in the career-choice
process. This study will attempt to answer the question:
What specific kinds and arrangements of career and self-
i
knowledge information are able to influence or facilitate j
the developmental career-choice process? I
Purpose of the Study and
Research Questions
The general purpose of this study was to determine
f
what specific effects the presentation of two different |
r
types of information, self-knowledge information and j
general career information, would have on an individual's
career development. It was expected that self-knowledge
i
information and general career information presented |
together would increase the level of career development, i
i
and that self-knowledge information should precede general '
career information in any career development informational |
program for the best results. Also, after receiving such
an informational program, it was expected that the partici
pants would be aware of the element of time in their own
career development and that the information presented,
self-knowledge and general career information, would not
impair an individual's self-image.
This study is important to the fields of career edu^ !
i cation, career counseling, and career development because
| it is one of the first to study and actually measure the j
effect that specific types of career information have on
: ■ i
an individual's career development. In the past, both the
theory and practice of many aspects of what has recently
become known as career education rested on deductive
i
reasoning and research findings in other academic discip- j
i
lines (Williamson, 1965). Now, however, new instruments
. are available for researchers to measure an individual’s
i
level of career maturity (Super, 1974). Due to this
recent advancement in the field, it will become much
: I
easier to determine not only what affects an individual's j
career development, but exactly how much it was affected.
These findings may enable educators and counselors
i
to better understand the career informational needs of the :
study's participating population sample and might suggest ,
; I
revisions of career education curricula and career guid
ance techniques so that an individual's educational experi-;
; ences could contain more pertinent and effective informa- j
i
tion.
i
Four research questions, which coincide with the four
general aims or tasks of the study, were addressed: j
i
(a) Does self-knowledge information or general career
information have the most significant effect on career |
development as measured by a career maturity index? 1
i
(b) Will an intensive short-term career information j
i program, consisting of career and self-knowledge infor- ;
| mation, be effective in influencing the career maturity j
! j
| level of career development? (c) Which type of infor- !
mation, career or self-knowledge, will be considered more I
I »
t
important by the study's participants, immediately and in
the long-term future? and, (d) Will a career informational
program improve or impair an individual's self-image in j
relationship to the world of work? j
Significance of the Study to the
! Theoretical Framework oT
Career Development i
Career development theory is just one of many theoriesj
which have proliferated in recent years to explain the j
process by which individuals decide upon and enter into ;
the world of work (Crites, 1969). The theory itself !
focuses on the "development of the career, along lines j
which are consistent with the individual's past experience
and with the development of his personality" (Super, 1957, I
p. 131). Career development theory depends greatly upon |
i
the individual’s past learning experiences and the indi- j
|
vidual’s developing personality which manifests itself in
growth stages. !
i
Career development theory is most closely identified I
I
I
■ with Super and his self-concept theory of career develop
ment in which the individual's progress toward and entrance
j
into the world of work takes place in stages which "conformj
with the general principles of human development . . . it
7
is fundamentally evolutionary in nature" (Osipow, 1 9 6 8 , '
i
p. 119). The individual's self-concept acts as his guide I
i
through these various stages and is also itself in a state j
t
J
of continuous change due to numerous influences acting uponj
the individual, i.e., age, understanding, I.Q., role- \
playing opportunities, etc.
i
Career or vocational maturity is the place that an j
individual has reached in his career development process j
i
{
(Super, 1957). It is basically a means of measurement thatj
shows whether an individual is developing at an appropriate!
rate, or needs remedial help in his progress towards
entrance into the world of work. 1
i
Recently three instruments were developed which are j
capable of providing career maturity scores which reflect
i
an individual's career development progress (Crites, 1 9 7 3 ;
Forest et al, 1 9 7 2 ; Super, 1 9 7 4 ; Westbook, Parry-Hill, 6c j
Woodbury, 1 9 7 1 , 1 9 7 2 ) . Already these and similar instru-
i
ments have been used to show that counseling, computer .
i
assisted counseling, and general career education programs
can positively affect high school student's career develop-'
ment by increasing their career maturity scores (Flake, j
Roach, 6c Stenning, 1 9 7 5 ; Myers, Lindeman, Thompson, 6: i
i
Patrick, 1 9 7 5 ; Omvig, Tulloch, 6c Thomas, 1 9 7 5 ) . However, j
more research is needed that will indicate more specifi- |
cally what influences and determines an individual's stage
I
of career development. j
8
One such application of needed research would be to !
i
discover the validity of the long-held assumption that |
career and self-knowledge information are important facets !
i
I
in the determination of an appropriate career choice |
(Davis, 1969). This could be accomplished by presenting
both career information and self-knowledge information to a
i
sample population, and measuring its effect on career
development by obtaining career maturity scores.
The current study may have significance for the career*
development and self-concept theories of career choice j
because the effect of both self-knowledge information and
career information, individually and collectively, may |
finally be confirmed or denied on the basis of empirical j
evidence. Positive results obtained by the use of these
i
recently developed career maturity instruments would then
i
enable career counselors, career educators, ancl other
practitioners of career choice facilitation to better pro
vide programs to meet the needs of the individuals they j
serve with greater confidence in their efficiency. ;
i
Due to the recent research beginning to investigate |
!
the general way of influencing career development (Flake,
i
Roach, 6c Stenning, 1975; Myers, Lindeman, Thompson, 6c
Patrick, 1975; Omvig, Tulloch, 6c Thomas, 1975; Super,
1974), and the past research into what comprises career
development theory (Crites, 1969; Osipow, 1973; Super, j
i
1957), it could be reasonably expected that career and j
I
i
I self-knowledge information would positively influence j
i
icareer development by increasing career maturity scores. !
i
j
' Conceptual Assumptions :
Certain conceptual assumptions were made in this |
study:
1. Career maturity, or vocational maturity, can be
i
measured by utilizing the Career Maturity Inventory. |
; 2. Career maturity is an indicator of numerous and j
i
different levels of individual career development. j
1 t
3. Career development is monotonically related to age
and grade placement.
|
4. Career development does not take place continu-
i
• ously or consistently, but intermittently and variously. I
5. Self-knowledge and career information influence
levels of career development.
6. Career development is not impaired by self-
I
knowledge or career information. t
i
Hypotheses !
Hypotheses 1 through 6 test the assumption that self- |
knowledge information is significantly more important in 1
influencing career maturity than career information in the j
developmental career process. i
1. The experimental group treated with self-awareness
information first will score significantly higher on careerj
maturity ratings in self-appraisal on the mid-treatment !
10
j test than will the experimental group treated with career
| information first.
! 2. The experimental group treated with self-awareness
; information first will score significantly higher on career
maturity ratings in career information on the mid-treatment
test than will the experimental group treated with career
information first. j
3. The experimental group treated with self-awareness|
j information first will score significantly higher on career!
I maturity ratings in choosing a career direction on the mid-
1 |
treatment test than will the experimental group treated j
with career information first. j
i
4. The experimental group treated with self-awareness|
i
information first will score significantly higher on career
maturity ratings in career planning on the mid-treatment
i
i
test than will the experimental group treated with career
!
information first. 1
t
5. The experimental group treated with self-awarenessj
information first will score significantly higher on careerj
!
, maturity ratings in career problem solving on the mid- j
I
treatment test than will the experimental group treated i
with career information first.
i
6. The experimental group treated with self-awareness|
information first will score significantly higher on career
maturity ratings in career-choice attitudes on the mid
treatment test than will the experimental group treated
11
iwith career information first. !
Hypotheses 7 through 12 test the assumption that an
i
j intensive, short-term, career-information program is an
important factor in the developmental career-choice process
by having individuals who have participated in an intensive
career-information program, comprised of both self- j
I
knowledge and career information, increase significantly I
their level of career maturity as measured by six areas of !
■ career developmental competencies and attitudes (Crites, j
: I
' 1973).
i
; 7. The experimental groups will display significant
change in their career maturity ratings on self-appraisal j
' while the control groups will display no such significant j
change.
i
8. The experimental groups will display significant
I
change in their career maturity ratings on career infor- f
mation, while the control groups will display no such
significant change.
9. The experimental groups will display significant I
change in their career maturity ratings on choosing a !
career direction, while the control groups will display j
no such significant change.
10. The experimental groups will display significant
change in their career maturity ratings on career planning,
I
while the control groups will display no such significant !
change. j
I
i d
11. The experimental groups will display significant |
change in their career maturity ratings on career problem |
i
solving, while the control groups will display no such |
significant change. |
i
12. The experimental groups will display significant
change in their career maturity ratings on career-choice ]
attitudes, while the control groups will display no such j
I
significant change. !
Hypotheses 13 and 14 test the assumption that indi
viduals who have participated in an intensive, short-term,
career-information program, comprised of both self-
knowledge information and career information, will be able j
to display their awareness of a realistic time continuum j
i
in the developmental career-choice process as well as their
relative place on that time continuum.
i
13. The experimental groups will display a signifi- 1
cant preference for the importance of self-knowledge
information than for career information; they will see \
i
self-knowledge information as being more immediately j
helpful in their developmental career-choice process. :
I
14. The experimental groups will display a signifi
cant preference for the importance of career information I
than for self-knowledge information; they will see career j
I
information as being more potentially helpful in the next j
I
10- to fifteen-year period of their developmental career-
choice process.
Hypothesis 15 tests the assumption that individuals |
i
who have participated in an intensive, short-term, career- j
1
information program, comprised of both self-knowledge |
information and career information, will be able to state
that they have a good, or positive, career self-image in
relationship to the world of work.
15. The experimental groups will indicate, in sig- j
nificant number, that they possess a good or positive I
career image in relationship to the world of work.
I
I
Delimitations of the Study
The following delimitations in the study were
observed:
i
1. The most obvious delimitation to this study was
the small population sample involved--sophomore students ;
randomly selected from a single comprehensive senior high .
school. !
2. The study was delimited to the Los Alamitos High j
School attendance area, located in the western extremety
I
of Orange County, California.
3. The study was delimited in time to 9 weeks of
j
school attendance, from October 13 to December 15, during |
the fall semester of the 1975-76 school year. j
i
4. In spite of an attempt to include all the students
who were randomly selected in the study, the sample was
delimited to those students who had obtained written parentj
permission. The participation was revokable at any time
j during the study. j
i !
! 5. There was a limitation in the study due to the |
i , i
j validity and reliability of the measurement instrument
used, i.e. Career Maturity Inventory (Crites, 1973).
i
6. The generalizability of the results and conclu
sions were limited by the study's design, procedure, and
i
population.
I
Definitions of Terms Used [
i Career Maturity and Vocational
! Maturity
Used interchangeably to describe "the degree of
J
development, the places reached on the continuum of voca- j
! tional development from exploration to decline" (Super,
■ 1957, p. 186).
i
Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) ■
An instrument designed by Crites (1973) to measure |
i
level of career maturity in five career choice competencies,
and in career-choice attitudes. I
1
’ Career Information (Cl)
Consists of information about the structure of the j
world of work, job requirements, salary, working condi-
i
i
tions, career preparations, educational requirements, and !
i
gaining employment (Blackledge, Blackledge, 6c Keily, 1967;
■ Isaacson, 1971).
15
Self-Knowledge Information (SKI) I
Information about the self in relation to the world i
of work--career interests, personal preferences, inter- j
I
personal relationships, aptitudes, abilities, lifestyles,
attitudes, and personal values (Planning Your Future, 1965;
Bolles, 1972).
t
i
Career-Choice Process I
Sometimes termed as the career-choice direction j
decision--a developmental series of choices or decisions |
i
based on level of personality and cognitive growth that
guides an individual through certain occupational cate- ;
gories, i.e., doctor, carpenter, etc., and experiences in !
the world of work (Kroll, Dinklage, Lee, Morley, & Wilson, I
1970; Super, 1957).
Career Development |
Is
i
a segment of general human development and behavior
. . . which denotes the life-long sequence and j
pattern of an individual's work-related behavior, <
including all work-relevant experience and activities ,
before and after entry into a formal occupation . . . j
a sequence of successive approximations whereby j
congruency is tested. (Kroll, et al., 1970, pps. 10, |
11, and 19)
Organization of the Remainder of
the Dissertation
This chapter has presented the study by considering
the background of the problem, describing the essence of
the problem, indicating the purpose of questions to be |
l
j answered, depicting, the theoretical framework and concep- j
| tional assumptions, and listing the hypotheses, delimi- j
tations, and definitions used.
Chapter II reviews the literature dealing with the
recent evolution of vocational development theory and the
,
importance of the concept of career maturity to that j
1 theory. j
: i
Chapter III describes the sample, treatment, instru- j
' mentation, methodology and analysis used in this study.
; Chapter IV proffers the findings of the study as they
have relevance to the hypotheses, together with a dis
cussion of the results.
Chapter V consists of a summary of the study, expla- 1
.nation of the results, and list of recommendations. !
17
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
This chapter presents a review of selected literature
confined to those theoretical and experimental writings
which possess significant relevance to career self-
concept, career development theory, and career maturity.
The Self-Concept (Self-Knowledge)
Phenomena in Career Development
and Vocational Maturity
Before 1949, the behavioristic and functionalistic
theories dominated psychology in the United States, even
though most Freudian and neo-Freudians did imply in their
postulates some kind of self-referent to make them more
credible (Wylie, 1974).
Donald Super is given credit for bringing together
the vague references to self-descriptive and self-
evaluative thought into a working theory of developmental
self-concept in the early 1950’s (Osipow, 1968). Indeed,
in 1951, in response to an article by Eli Ginzberg, Super
wrote an article on vocational development which combines
self-concept theory with his developmental stages of
vocational choice and career satisfaction. At this time,
all aspects of Super’s theory were open for research and
investigation, which followed immediately. Most of these |
i
investigations which deal solely with the self-concept and
especially its measurement were reviewed in Wylie's (1974)
two-volume work on self-concept. Crites1 (1969) and
Osipow's (1973) books reviewed all pertinent research on
the vocational or career self-concept and its implications
for the areas of career choice and career development.
The self-concept as an aspect of career development has
been refined and defined numerous times by Super (1957,
1961), Super, Starisheusky, Matlin, 6c Jordaan (1963).
Thus, different aspects of the self-concept in career
development have been studied and have evolved. Vocational
i
maturity is one dimension that Crites (1973) has clarified j
through extensive research, but other dimensions are also *
open to investigation. For example, Akeret (1959) dis
covered that the individual's self-concept does not seem '
to be a unified gestalt but, instead, consists of charac- i
teristics or dimensions which he values differentially. j
These studies in vocational psychology illuminate numerous
aspects of career development, each opening the possibil
ity for further research. Therefore, the study of voca
tional psychology, along with the findings that psycho
therapy and counseling can increase the stability of self-
concept due to increased self-understanding (Gullen, 1969),
places career counseling in a very strategic position to
contribute to the body of knowledge about self-concept
and career development.
Socioeconomic and Cultural
Factors
New research is demonstrating that the difference that
previously existed in the farm vs. non-farm youth in the
area of career aspiration and expectations is either non
existent or has been reversed (Larson & Slocum, 1969;
Slocum, 1968; Sperry & Herrin, 1967).
Slocum's study, which consisted of a random sample of
over 3,600 students enrolled in 30 rural Washington high
schools in 1964-65, showed that farm males have higher
career aspirations than do their urban counterparts, and
that farm females show no significant difference in their
results from non-farm females. This study represented
the antithesis to most of the previous research which
indicated that rural youths1 career aspirations and
expectations were not as high as those of the urban youths.
Too, though some evidence indicated that farm males tended
to exhibit less realism and seemed to misjudge the economic
and scholastic requirements for the attainment of high edu
cational goals (Slocum, 1968), they were more likely to
report that teachers and counselors had influenced their
educational or occupational plans than non-farm students
(Slocum, 1968).
The educational and career expectations and aspira
tions were influenced by multiple sociological, cultural,
and economic factors, one of which was termed the self-
appraisal of ability or self-concept (Slocum, 1968). How
ever, when self-appraisals were compared between the rural
low-income families and rural families in general, many
rural low-income students have much higher-than-expected
career and educational aspirations, expectations, and
self-concepts. This unique finding does not reverse the
general trend that most rural low-income students were less
interested in education and received less positive feedback
from their school environments (Larson 6c Slocum, 1969).
The rural low-income student seemed to share another
similar factor with students in general when it was found
that the self-concept of high school students and junior
college graduates was directly linked to the socioeconomic
status of their parents as measured by income. Ford and
Muse (1972) based their findings on survey data obtained
from over 3,300 junior college and high school students
from Dade County, Florida. The findings also indicated
that the more positive the student's self-concept, the
higher the probability that the student would have "long-
range” educational and career plans.
However, the inner-city school studies of self-
concept indicated that the self-concept was important to
both the achievement and career aspiration of the
. individual (Martin, 1972). Both black and white students |
! i
| from segregated and inter-racial schools in the inner-city !
j j
j area have quite high occupational aspirations, and a major-j
; ity cited a preference for professional or highly technical
i
careers (Gottlieb & Heinsohn, 1971). Moreover, Martin
(1972) reported the exceptional finding in her study that
the black males of segregated inner-city schools have a
f
1 higher self-concept rating than the black males from the
; inter-racial schools. This could be due to the small
i number of participants in the study, 92 subjects, as well
; as the principal's selection of the participants for the
i
study. However, the implication cannot be ignored that
!
inner-city racially mixed schools might have some detri-
i mental effect on the self-concepts of their black male
population. One similarity that the rural and inner-city
school black students have in common is their dependence
on school personnel to help them with career and educa
tional decisions and planning (Gottlieb & Heinsohn, 1971).
Graham (1971) found that with male Navajo students a
i
' positive relationship existed between the students'
measured self-concept and their llth-grade grade-point
average and teachers' evaluation. Students who had a
business or academic orientation in school also had a
higher positive self-concept. Soldahl (1971) found that
another major influence in the development of the self-
concept is the family, a unit that plays an important role
in constructing the environment and values; it has even '
l
been suggested that a career counseling program be designedj
which will emphasize a program of career counseling and
education for the entire family. Indeed, the educational
scene seems to provide a natural selection process in which
students with high self-concepts proceed successfully
through the educational system, while those with lower
i
self-concepts select themselves out of the system (Ford 6c
Muse, 1972; Garner, 1961). Thus, the self-concept seems to
be an indicator of persons’ overall evaluations of them
selves, complete with all of the sociological, economic,
cultural, familial, and other important factors affecting j
their self-appraisal. When students enter secondary edu- !
j
cation, the counselor must utilize their self-concepts as
an intervening mechanism between the socioeconomic back- 1
ground and future educational plans as a tool in the career;
i
counseling process (Ford 6c Muse, 1972).
i
At present, the effect of the geographic, economic, |
and cultural factors which at one time greatly influenced j
i
i
the self-concept and career aspirations of many students j
i
seems to be diminishing. The principle reason listed for j
such a change in the effect that these circumstances have ;
i
on students’ self-concepts, awareness, and career aspir- j
ations is a national polarization of values and attitudes
on what is important in life which seems to have taken
place due to mass communication techniques. John W. j
I Gardner (1961) past Secretary of Health, Education, and H
i
| Welfare, saw it as a change of national personal values:
i
! "Attendance at college has become virtually a prerequisite 1
I I
' of high attainment in the world's eyes, so that it becomes
. in the false value framework we have created, the only
passport to a meaningful life" (p. 95).
i
i
Vocational Self-Concept Theory |
Vocational self-concept, or developmental theory, is j
!
most notably identified with Donald E. Super's work and I
the research generated by his ideas (Isaacson, 1971).
i
Super (1953) generated the following ten propositions to
describe a vocational development theory:
People differ in their abilities, interests, and |
personalities.
They are qualified, by virtue of these character- '
istics, each for a number of occupations.
Each of these occupations requires a character- .
istic pattern of abilities, interests, and per- i
sonality traits, with tolerances wide enough,
however, to allow both some variety of occupa
tions for each individual and some variety of j
individuals in each occupation. ;
Vocational preferences and competencies, the j
situations in which people live and work, and
hence their self-concepts, change with time and j
experience (although self-concepts are generally [
fairly stable from late adolescence until late |
maturity), making choice and adjustment a j
continuous process. !
This process may be summed up in a series of life i
stages characterized as those of growth, explora- \
tion, establishment, maintenance and decline, and
these stages may in turn be subdivided into (a)
the fantasy, tentative, and realistic phases of
the exploratory stage, and (b) the trial and
stable phases of the establishment stage.
The nature of the career pattern (that is, the
occupational level attained and the sequence,
frequency, and duration of trial and stable jobs)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
24]
is determined by the individual's parental socio
economic level, mental ability and personality
characteristics, and by the opportunities to
which he is exposed.
7. Development through life stages can be guided,
partly by facilitating the process of maturation
of abilities and interest, and partly by aiding
in reality testing and in the development of the
self-concept.
8. The process of vocational development is essen
tially that of developing and implementing a
self-concept: it is a compromise process in which:
the self-concept is a product of the interaction
of inherited aptitudes, neural and endocrine
makeup, opportunity to play various roles, and
evaluations of the extent to which the results of
role playing meet with the approval of superiors
and fellows. j
9. The process of compromise between individual and
social factors, between self-concept and reality,
is one of role playing, whether the role is played
in fantasy, in the counseling interview, or in
real life activities such as school classes,
clubs, part-time work and entry jobs. '
10. Work satisfactions and life satisfactions depend j
upon the extent to which the individual finds j
adequate outlets for his abilities, interests,
personality traits, and values; they depend upon 1
his establishment in a type of work, a role which ■
his growth and exploratory experiences have led j
him to consider congenial and appropriate.(pp.
185-190) !
Super (1957) indicated that people try to implement or live
out their self-concept by choosing a career which allows |
them personal expression of their own self-concept, and j
that the particular occupation a person has at any one j
point in time depends upon that person's stage of develop- |
I
ment or vocational maturity. '
Berlin (1955) discussed how both Super's and
Ginzberg's theories of vocational development dealt with
only one aspect of the individual's general development, j
and supported the position that this approach assumed that !
vocational choice is not a single moment in time, but a !
developmental process. Osipow (1968) pointed out that
important to Super's theory is the difference between the i
i
psychology of occupations and the psychology of careers.
The psychology of occupations is based primarily on
differential psychology and on the assumption that
once an individual and a career are matched they
will live "happily ever after." The psychology of
careers, on the other hand, stemming from develop- !
mental psychology, rests on the assumption that
career development conforms with the general prin
ciples of human development, which is fundamentally i
evolutionary in nature, (pp. 118-119)
Super's precept that individuals select a vocation j
which they perceive to be a means of implementing their
self-concept was supported by Englander (1960) who found
that elementary school teaching majors in college saw j
elementary school teaching as a way to perpetuate their
self-concepts and obtain those things which they desire in 1
a vocation. However, those college students whose majors j
were not in elementary education saw the job of elementary 1
school teaching as not being what they expected or desired I
in a career for themselves. This particular aspect of j
i
Super's theory has attracted much positive attention by j
i
researchers who supported its main thrust. Stephenson j
(1961) observed that the self-concept of the pre-medicine I
students at the University of Minnesota crystallized prior
to making application to a school of medicine, and that
80% of his test group later were found in medicine or :
health-related fields. Ziegler (1970) found that
( individuals perceived a greater degree of congruence 1
i between themselves and their most preferred occupational j
i member concepts than between themselves and their least
i j
preferred occupational member concepts. Also, certain
i
distinctive self-concept features were found for indivi
duals attracted to different occupational interest areas.
i
Similar positive findings of this crystallization, or |
agreement between the self-concept and career direction
i
i were found in Morrison (1962) and Oppenheimer (1966). j
i I
Once Super had established the basic foundation to !
; his theory, he eventually began to develop it into a more
(
explicit and detailed structure. The specifics of the
i
self-concept theory were no better described than by
1 Super’s (1963) five vocational development tasks:
j
(a) Crystallization, (b) Specification, (c) Implementa
tion, (d) Stabilization, and (e) Consolidation. These j
developmental tasks showed a general correspondence to j
Ginzberg’s stages of development. The five tasks have !
!
! associated attitudes and behaviors which differentiate one !
i
task from another (Super, 1963). I
1. Crystallization (14-18) of a Career Pattern j
a. awareness of the need to crystallize '
b. use of resources j
c. awareness of factors to consider ;
d. awareness of contingencies which may affect
goals
e. differentiation of interests and values
f. awareness of present-future relationships
g. formulation of a generalized preference
h. consistency of preference I
i. possession of information concerning the j
preferred occupation
27
j. wisdom of the vocational preference 1
2. Specification (18-21) or a Vocational Preference
a. awareness of the need to specify
b. use of resources in specification
c. awareness of factors to consider
d. awareness of contingencies which may affect
goals
e. differentiation of interests and values
f. awareness of present-future relationships
g. specification of a vocational preference
h. consistency of preference
i. possession of information concerning the
preferred occupation i
j. planning for the preferred occupation |
k. wisdom of the vocational preference
1. confidence in a specific preference
3. Implementation (21-24) of a Vocational Preference
a. awareness of the need to implement preference
b. planning to implement preference
c. executing plans to qualify for entry
d. obtaining an entry job
4. Stabilization (25-35) within a Vocation
a. awareness of the need to stabilize
b. planning for stabilization ■
c. becoming qualified for a stable regular job j
or accepting the inevitability of instability I
d. obtaining a stable regular job or acting on
resignation to instability :
5. Consolidation (35 plus) of Status and Advancement 1
a. awareness of the need to consolidate and
advance |
b. possession of information as to how to i
consolidate and advance i
c. planning for consolidation and advancement j
d. executing consolidation and advancement
plans, (pp. 84-91)
t
Super's theory of self-concept and especially voca- j
tional self-concept was best summarized by Osipow (1968) : I
l
i
Starting with the awareness of self (as differentiated
from the nonself) which an infant perceives at birth, 1
Super described a process which leads first to primary
self-percepts and then to more elaborate, or secon
dary percepts. The primary self-percepts deal with
raw sensations such as hunger, pain, and temperature.
As the child matures and begins to develop secondary
percepts, the sensations begin to become ordered and
assume a relationship with one another. As matura
tion continues, the self-percepts become even more
28
complex and abstract. Among the many systems of
self-concepts is the vocational self-concept, the
system of major concern to Super. . . . Self-concept
formation requires a person to recognize himself as
a distinctive individual, yet at the same time to be
aware of the similarities between himself and
others. The self-concept of a well integrated indi
vidual is a continually developing entity, shifting
somewhat through life as experiences indicate that
changes are necessary to reflect reality. Presum
ably, the vocational self-concept develops in a
similar way. As an individual matures, he tests j
himself in many ways, most of which have implications j
for educational and vocational decisions, (p. 121)
Research has been conducted in the investigation of
the self-concept, as well as the self-concept’s role in
the career developmental process, by many investigators
other than Super and his associates. Strong and Feder's
(1961) review of the literature presented over 15 self- i
concept instruments with 6 different classifications of thJ
self-concept. They are as follows: (a) self-concept, !
(b) ideal self-concept, (c) acceptance of self, (d) other ■
j
peoples' view of my self-concept, (e) socially perceived '
self-concept, and (f) discrepancy scores on adjustment j
indexes. Later, Strong (1962) investigated effects of the |
social desirability classification as a factor in person- !
. . |
ality evolution. In this study he also evaluated several
i
similar measures of self-concept obtained from three j
i
measurement instruments: (a) The Butler Haigh Self-Ideal j
Ordinary Person Q Sort, (b) Bell's Index of Adjustment and
Values, and (c) Worchel Self-Activity Inventory. The
findings revealed that the social desirability factor was
not present to any real degree in these three instruments.
; A more complete analysis of these and other self-concept |
|
| instruments was available in Wylie (1974). j
i
| This type of research was similar to that completed
1 by O'Shea and Harrington (1971), in which they found that
i
• like-named scales on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank
and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey actually mea-
» j
sured different things. However, some significant rela- j
i
I tionships have been identified for further study. Atti- |
i
tudes or personal work values seemed to play an important ;
i I
| role in Denmark and Guttentag's (1967) study investigating j
; the present and ideal self-concepts of three classifica-
i
tions of women. The women were divided into three groups:
; one group which met admissions requirements to an adult '
i |
continuing education program; one group which did not meet 1
requirements; and the last group which had no interest in
i
: or experience with college work. Even though no signifi
cant differences in ideal self-perception were evident ;
among the groups, the indication was that women who j
. expend efforts toward obtaining a college education have a |
i
more positive valuation of attitudes relevant to the goal, j
This represented a positive evaluation of goal-related !
activities which varied directly with the amount of time !
, and effort expended in the pursuit of a college goal. A
closely related study by Pallone (1970)deserves more
investigation because it showed no significant relationship
between the self-measuring of an individual and any work
1 values. ^ !
Eli Ginzberg's statement of career choice, which
stimulated Super and others, was the first to place the
career-choice phenomenon in a developmental framework, a
hypothesis whose basic thrust still affects career educa-
| tion today. His statement in 1951 was that occupational
, choice is a long-term decision-making process; that many
individual decisions, in terms of education and explor-
»
I ation, are irreversible; and that the resolution of this
i
j career-choice process ends in a compromise between inter-
I ests, capacities, values, and the world of work (Ginzberg,
1972). In a restatement of his theory of occupational
i choice, he has reappraised his view of the process that
takes place in any career choice. Ginzberg (1972) now sees
the process of career decision making not limited to a
decade between prepuberty and the middle twenties, but
t
jconsiders it open-ended and continually taking place. He
: has also relented on his idea of irreversibility of the
i
I career-choice process and now understands that some
j decisions do limit the directions people can take but
f
I does not make their decisions irreversible. Even the
|principle of compromise in his theory has been amended to
j one of optimization since Ginzberg now feels "that no one
ever makes an occupational choice that satisfies all of
| his principal needs and desires" (p. 171). Optimization
j
;means that people will "seek to find the best occupational
1 fit between their changing desires and their changing
! 31
desires and their changing circumstances" (p. 171). 1
Ginzberg (1972) was also aware of the constraints on occu
pational choice faced by people of low socioeconomic
status as well as of people whose sex and race tend to
constrain them from many career choices; he was cognizant
that most Americans have career options and must be
"willing to make the investment required to realize these
options" (p. 175). j
Career Development Theories and !
Influences
Most career development theory was cataloged and dis
cussed by the name of the principal theorist such as Roe,
Super, Holland, etc., (Isaacson, 1971), and not by the |
basic emphasis implied by the researchers’ work. Osipow
(1968) was an exception and he has categorized models of 1
behavioral phenomena that represent career development j
theory into four distinct approaches: (a) trait-factor, ■
(b) sociology and career choice, (c) self-concept theory, j
and (d) vocational choice and personality theories. j
i
The trait-factor theory is the most simple in that it
is a straightforward matching of a person's interests and !
i
abilities with possible career choices which, once com- !
pleted, terminated the career or occupational choice prob
lem (Crites, 1969; Osipow, 1968; Williamson, 1965). Based
on this approach, many instruments used in career and
vocational counseling were evolved such as the Strong
Vocational Interest Blank, Kuder Preference Record, and
the Differential Aptitude Tests (Osipow, 1968).
The sociology and career-choice approach has been
referred to as the reality or accident theory of career
choice. Its basic thrust is that since a person has no
i
I control over the circumstances which contribute to his
| career choices, the best possible behavior for him to
i
; engage in is learning to cope with his environment
(Osipow, 1968). Self-concept theory which is really a
developmental approach to career development theory is
summarized by Osipow (1968) in the three following state-
j ments :
! (1) Individuals develop more clearly defined self-
j concepts as they grow older, although these vary to
i conform with the changes in one;s view of reality
; as correlated with aging; (2) people develop in ages
j of the occupational world which they compare with
; their self-image in trying to make career decisions;
i and (3) the adequacy of the eventual career decisions
j is based on the similarity between an individual’s
j self-concept and the vocational concept of the career
! he eventually chosses. (p. 11)
]
The vocational choice and personality theories simply
described people choosing their career based on their
1
I
| desires to satisfy personal needs. Osipow believed that
j the longer people stay employed in certain occupations, the
| more they will take on the personality characteristics of
; the majority of those already employed in that occupation,
i
i
| if, indeed, they did not have similar personality charac-
| teristics in the first place.
33
These four approaches, as described by Osipow (1968) f
are general categories and are not set apart or isolated
from one another. Each approach is ultimately related to
the other "in the self-concept or developmental approach,
part of the image of self-concept is based on tests which
reflect the trait-factor approaches; also, Roe's personal-
I
ity theory of career choice includes many developmental
factors" (p. 12). Although the trait-factor and the |
i
i
sociology and career-choice approaches have been
de-emphasized as useful in designing effective career coun
seling techniques and programs, their contributions of
testing instruments and ideas still influence present and j
i
I
future research (Crites, 1969). However, in recent years j
self-concept theory and vocational choice and personality
theory have received much of the attention and research.
i
i
i
Adscititious Influences in Career j
Development Theory
Parental Influence and Home j
Environment i
The individual's home life, familial structure, social1
status, economic situation, and personal and occupational j
values all have influence on his developing personality, !
j
self-concept, and decision-making process (Crites, 1969,
1973; Isaacson, 1971; Roe, 1956; Super, 1957).
Parental influences have an overwhelming effect on the
career values and vocational choices of most individuals.
Wagman (1968) generalized that patterned differences exist
| between the occupational value structure of sons and their |
i
j parents, and daughters and their parents. Daughters have j
i !
a closer similarity in their value patterns with their j
i i
mothers than do sons with their fathers. Werts (1967)
, found, however, that fathers who were in certain types of
careers (scientific, medical, teaching) had sons who made
career choices in the same general career areas. Fathers, |
i
as models, seem to have an important influence on their j
> i
, children’s vocational development. Also, those children J
i who make earlier career choices have higher self-regard, !
» are more self-directing, and exhibit a higher degree of
acceptance toward their fathers. Marr (1965) found there
; i
i was no relationship between children making their career
choice and their parents' occupational level, self-concept,
f
or intelligence. Black males seemed to vary from the
general assumption that it is the father who plays the key |
j
role in influencing a particular career choice. Pallone
i
. (1970) found that black males indicated that the person
. holding their preferred occupation is the person most !
influential in their career-choice process, while black \
females considered their parents as most influential. The |
best general environmental predictors of career choice I
l
seem to be educational attainment and marital-familial |
status, while the most important person variables of pre
dicting a career choice are one’s scholastic aptitude,
socioeconomic status, and early career choices (Astin 6s
Myint, 1971).
35
I White (1959) has shown that girls select a vocation
differently than do boys, and that parental identification
plays a major role. Apparently, girls identify most often
with their mothers and have different self-concepts based
| on whether they adhere to typically feminine roles or have
career interests. White found that the only time identifi-
I
I cation discrepancies between parents and girls or between
the parents' perception of the girls and the girls' own
i
self-concept occurred was when the girl exhibited a ten
dency toward masculine interests and was motivated towards
a career.
j Parental influence on career-choice development of
; their children seemed to remain static over the years. The
I
I
| prestige attributed to different occupations is the same
j for adults and high school students (Clack, 1968). A five-1
I
I part preference and opinion survey was constructed and !
)
\
administered to 107 12th and 104 10th grade students at
: Bremen Senior High School. It revealed that students
i
desire high-prestige jobs if there is no barrier. But they
; seemed well aware that their own abilities, interests, etc.;
i
1 will in most cases prevent them from attaining the high-
j prestige jobs they most desire and they will settle for
less. The salary, education, and training related to
a specific job were greatly associated with the prestige
of the job. Clack contended that high school students'
occupational choices are largely affected by the prestige
36
of those choices if shared by their patents. They will
express choices for a job of higher status than that
which they eventually feel they will obtain.
! Mental Health
Other psychological researchers besides vocational
■ psychologists have studied the developing self-concept and
its vocational ramifications, as well as closely related
areas. Many sociologists and psychologists have added
I their knowledge and perspective to the study of what
: influences career choice and development.
Wrenn (195;»8) found that changes in individuals’ self-
acceptance is accompanied by increased acceptance of j
others. This process is, in turn, associated with inde- j
i
pendently appraised improvement in adjustment or person- j
ality integration. Winkler and Myers (1963) discovered that
self-acceptance, an important dimension of self-concept, 1
j
; is not an independent trait but is heavily reliant upon j
manifested anxiety measures. This study concluded that j
self-acceptance may itself relate to a more global concept i
i
utilizing psychological adjustment. Tseng and Carter j
(1970) opened a new perspective on occupational aspiration |
j
when they discovered that subjects who had high achievement
motivation and a low fear of failure perceived occupation
prestige level more accurately, possessed higher occupa
tional aspirations, and chose occupations with higher
levels of prestige than subjects who had low-achievement
37
! motivation and high fear of failure. The subjects who I
j were certain about their occupational goal had signifi-
j cantly higher achievement motivation and lower fear of
i failure than subjects who were uncertain about their future
occupations. This study strongly implied that vocational
aspiration and the perceived prestige of an occupation play
an important role in occupational choice. ;
Galinsky and Fast (1966) focused on the necessity for
i !
i important decisions in late adolescence, and may have j
; derived the first acceptable explanation' for the large !
! amount of vacillation in career readiness scale scores for
I
that age. The need for decisions at this age apparently
i
bring to the fore distortion in character development. :
i !
People with severe character distortions and neurotic con
flicts either make choices that have no chance of being
i
gratified, or ignore reality in favor of fantasy and cease i
taking any real interest in their future. j
This study was similar in its finding to Beall's j
!
1 (1967) discussion of two particular problems in the area ofj
vocational choice. The first problem results from an j
unstable identification maintained by a preservation of an j
i
impossible competitive fantasy, and the second one results ;
. !
from an unstable defensive choice that allows too little
gratification and constantly threatens to shake the
unstable defensive choice with a "return of the repressed. " j
Beall's thrust was that the counselor must help each client
38
reach a more satisfying equilibrium between impulse and J
expression and defensive control.
Hershenson (1967) believed that vocational development!
consisted of two levels of assistance with the absence of
severe pathology: facilitation and remediation. The
former promoted normal development, while the latter
removed blockages to normal vocational development. j
Hershenson felt that there was a difference between voca
tional development and psychotherapy and, if a condition
existed that needed psychotherapeutic help, it should be
dealt with and solved before vocational development was
started. He also stated that vocational rehabilitation
takes place without any change of personality structure. j
James (1965) introduced the idea of cognitive dis-
- j
sonance into vocational self-concept theory. He felt that
when a discrepancy was made apparent to people between how j
they see other people in their own chosen profession and
how they see themselves in relation to their own profes-
i
sion, they work to achieve congruity and to dispel the dis-'
crepancy. As these people change their attitude to become |
more congruent, these new attitudes become permanent. j
Career or Vocational Maturity j
Vocational or career maturity is a relatively new
concept in career counseling and career education. In the
first known reference to vocational maturity Super (1957),
defined the term as ’’the degree of development, the places |
j reached on the continuum of vocational development from
j exploration to decline” (p. 186). He believed that not
!
only is vocational maturity a place on the vocational
; development continuum, but that it can be measured as well
as described in ’’ gross units of behavior which constitute
life stages . . . and . . . in terms of much smaller and
more refined units of behavior manifested in coping with j
i i
the developmental tasks of a given life stage” (p. 186).
; The measurement of one's vocational maturity can be pro- j
, posed in terms of a vocational maturity quotient, and
f thought of as the ratio of vocational maturity to chrono- j
I
logical age. He further stated that one could then indi- |
\
! cate if the level of vocational development (vocational j
maturity) of an individual is appropriate for his age.
i
Based upon Super's concept, Crites (1973) devised his
Career Maturity Inventory which combined Crites' former !
instrument the Vocational Development Inventory with five j
!
other scales to indicate vocational maturity.
; j
; The Career Maturity Inventory, (C.M.I.), has been 1
formulated over the years in the quest of empirically j
establishing a practical and usable definition of voca- ,
i
tional maturity (Crites, 1969, 1973). The first attempt
; to validate a definition and means of measurement for !
vocational maturity can be found in the general career
i
pattern studies (Gribbons & Lohnes, 1967; Super & I
40
Overstreet, 1960). Through these studies, Super (1957) j
wished to combine concepts of vocational development with
individual maturity.
Shortly after Super (1957) described his theories on
vocational maturity, a longitudinal study (Gribbons &
Lohnes, 1967) was undertaken in 1958 to test some of
Super's ideas on the content and growth of vocational
maturity. They interviewed 110 8th grade boys and girls
i
i
about their career plans from which 8 Readiness for J
Vocational Planning scales were derived. This same group
was again interviewed for 1 hour in the 10th grade, 12th
grade, and 2 years out of high school. The results indi
cated that those students categorized by the interviewers
as having a mature self-image and practical vocational
i
goals for themselves in the 8th grade did seem to be 1
satisfied and successful in their progress. But, a j
peculiarity arose in this study; a much higher correla-
!
tion existed between the 8th grade self-concepts and j
i
future vocational goals and the 2 years out of school |
results than between the 10th grade and the 2 years out of |
I
school results. Despite this discrepancy and the fact ;
that all the definitions of the quality abstractions to be j
measured by the research (maturity, success, etc.) were
supplied by the researchers themselves, the study did lend
credence to Super’s theories of vocational development.
I Vocational maturity is an integral part of career or !
vocational development. It finds its importance in trying
to assess the progress of the individual in relation to \
I other individuals, in the career awareness and career
i
i
. adjustment process of that individual (Crites, 1969, 1973;
Super, 1957; Super et al., 1957). Super et al. (1957) j
clearly defined career or vocational adjustment as the I
"long term efficiency in attaining satisfaction of social- !
\
j ized goals" and not as normalcy of behavior (p. 70).
i Another step toward a clearer specification of vocational
'maturity was taken when Super et al. (1957) rejected the
, concept of maturity as "adulthood" and replaced this out-
1 moded concept with two developmental tasks. Also, from j
this basic theoretic foundation, Crites who. was among
Super’s collaborators (Super et al., 1957) could envision 1
an instrument to measure an individual's career maturity. |
, I
With this in mind, vocational maturity was defined in two
< ways :
i
actual life stage (based on the developmental tasks
with which the individual is dealing) in relation to
expected life stage (based on chronological age)-- |
Vocational Maturity I; and, maturity in the actual j
life stage, as revealed by the behavior manifested i
in coping with the developmental tasks actually J
being dealt with--Vocational Maturity II. Integrative!
vocational adjustment, it was concluded, is a !
function of the long term outcomes of these behaviors,
(p. 70)
Five qualitative categories of vocational maturity II were
proposed for early adolescence: (a) orientation to voca
tional choice, (b) information and planning about preferred
occupations, (c) consistency of vocational preferences, i
i
(d) crystallization of traits, and (e) wisdom of voca
tional preference (Super et al., 1957). These categories
or dimensions of vocational maturity are basically the same
ones used later by Crites (1973) in his Career Maturity
Inventory. Super et al. (1957) was very aware that this
model of career maturity and vocational adjustment was j
i
incomplete and needed much empirical testing. This testingj
i
began almost immediately (Gribbons & Lohnes, 1967; Super &
Overstreet, 1960).
The Career Pattern Study was an attempt to concep-
t
; tualize the field of vocational development (Super &
; Overstreet, 1960). The basic thrust of this major |
i
research effort was to demonstrate the following:
i
(a) vocational behavior develops over time, (b) vocational
behavior develops from less complex to more complex behav- |
i
ior, (c) this leads to the capability of progressing from j
one life stage to another, (d) reference to the maturity of,
, *
■ an individual's behavior, (e) the more vocational maturity j
! |
displayed the better the vocational adjustment, (f) voca- I
tional behavior is the result of a variety of determinants,!
, (g) vocational behavior is not entirely explained within j
I
i
the vocation-developmental tasks classification. Voca
tional behavior is defined as any "interaction between an
individual and his environment which is significantly
related to preparation for, participation in, or retire
ment from work" (Super & Overstreet, 1960, p. 141).
: 43
This particular study ’ indicated that the vocational- j
|
maturity of 9th grade boys was found not to possess j
’’consistent, realistic preferences, nor as having begun to
make a place for oneself in the world of work” (Super &
Overstreet, 1960, p. 146). Super (1960) felt that in the
developmental stage the 9th grade boys themselves dis
covered that their main involvement in vocational behavior
should be one of exploration which ’’involves a commitment J
to find out about oneself and about some aspect or segment j
of the world of work,” and not of vocational preparation !
(p. 106). This same conclusion evolved from the Career
Pattern Study (Super & Overstreet, 1960), in which the j
making of a specific career choice in the 9th grade was
seen as premature. Furthermore, a group of these same
i
Career Pattern Study male students was used to study the '
consistency and wisdom of vocational preferences (Super, '
1961). Again, this measure of consistency and wisdom ,
t
lacked validity, and revealed a gap in the realistic !
career choices of 9th grade boys. Vocational maturity has !
been assumed to take place in individuals by many research-j
ers who have used this concept in their studies of voca- j
I
tional choice. The problem is that not enough is known ,
about how vocational behavior changes as a function of age j
i
to feel comfortable with present conclusions about it and
its development (Hall, 1963).
Hall (1963) researched 1,500 male and female students
in an Iowa high school from grades 10, 11, and 12. The
12th-grade students differed greatly from the 10th- and
llth-grade students in their responses to an experimental
form of the Vocational Development Inventory. The 12th-
grade students saw themselves as being able to make a
j
career choice and to base their choices on realistic per- j
ceptions of the world of work. Crites (1963) felt that the}
|
concept of vocational maturity does suffer shortcomings, j
and he proposed that they can be dealt with if more con- !
cern is manifested towards the cognitive mechanisms and
processes which mediate the choice behavior on the career j
choice continuum. A trend was begun when Tiedeman and j
O'Hara (1963) studied differentiation and integration
aspects in the attaining of rational solutions to voca
tional problems. "Career development, then, is self- j
i
development viewed in relation with choice, entry, and
i
progress in educational and vocational pursuits" (p. 46). j
In the development of an instrument which would {
measure the relationship of decision-making ability to J
intelligence, achievement, and extracurricular activities j
participation (three correlates of vocational maturity) ,
Dilley (1965) found that the good decision makers from |
his test group of 174 high school seniors had higher grades^
higher scholastic aptitude test scores, and much more
involvement in extracurricular activities. These corre
lates of what Dilley has described as decision-making
. . . . - - . - . . . . - — . . - _________ - _______________ 45-1
abilities, i.e., I.Q., school achievement, and school
activities are also thought to be important determinants
i
of vocational maturity (Super & Overstreet, 1960).
A more recent study by Ansell and Hansen (1971)
seemed to confirm Dilley1s (1965) conclusion as well as to
focus on two determinants of vocational maturity, intelli-
i
gence and socioeconomic status, as discussed by Super and j
i
Overstreet (1960). Ansell and Hansen found that in grades j
I
10 through 12, lower-class students were slower in develop-;
ing vocational maturity than the middle-class students.
Race did not seem to affect the results with both lower-
class blacks and white students measuring the same. The j
i
disadvantaged students were about 2 years behind their ;
I
middle-class counterparts in vocational maturity but in
their continuous growth pattern of vocational maturity,
|
these same students had an exceptionally large increase 1
in measured maturity in the 11th grade. Crites (1973)
also found a strong relationship between intelligence, as
I
reflected by academic accomplishment, and vocational matur-|
i
ity. I
i
Vocational maturity is much more comprehensive than j
j
just the career-choice decision (Westbrook 6c Cunningham,
J
1970). The development of the selection process and
planning activities of the individual are also included
in the individual's level of career maturity. The many I
i
valid criticisms of early vocational maturity measures
listed by Westbrook and Cunningham in 1970 seemingly have
been met by Crites (1973) in his new Career Maturity
Inventory instrument. Not only are vocational-choice
attitudes measured, but so are five other dimensions of
vocational maturity. Even before Crites' (1973) new
Career Maturity Inventory instrument was introduced, many
useful purposes for vocational maturity measures were
being discovered (Super & Overstreet, 1960; Westbrook &
Cunningham, 1970). These included the early identifica
tion of low levels of career maturity, the discovery of
which areas of vocational maturity needed remedial
attention, and the availability of an evaluation instru
ment for career guidance and career education programs.
Few attempts have been made to evaluate career education
or career guidance programs on their effectiveness for
providing needed information or maturity (Drummond, 1973).
Naturally, the obvious problem was how to measure this
growth and what to use as its measure (Westbrook &
Cunningham, 1970). Crites (1973) has apparently arrived
at an appropriate moment to provide the Career Maturity
Inventory which "was conceived and constructed to measure
Career Choice Competencies and Career Choice Attitudes"
(p. 6). Though this area of vocational psychology needs
much more research (Crites, 1973; Cunningham & Westbrook,
1970; Super et al., 1957; Super & Overstreet, 1960) and
evaluation, it is obvious that Crites has made a more
, comprehensive and valid instrument available to assist in ~j
; this further research.
I The development of career maturity as an aspect of
i
vocational psychology and as an individual academic dis-
1 i
cipline has progressed from a very general theoretical
definition to an identifiable and measurable phenomenon
i
of career development (Crites, 1973; Super, 1957). Due to
such research as Super and Overstreets’ Career Pattern
Study (1960), the career readiness studies of Gribbons and
■ Lohnes (1967), and numerous other studies (Ansell &
j Hansen, 1971; Dilley, 1965; Tiedeman & O'Hara, 1963;
t
Westbrook & Cunningham, 1970) the determinants of career
maturity have been identified. j
tj I
This research has led to the development of three [
separate career maturity instruments; the Career Maturity
Inventory (Crites, 1973), the Cognitive Vocational Maturity!
Test (Westbrook, Parry-Hill, & Woodbury, 1971, 1972; j
Westbrook & Parry-Hill, 1973) and the Career Development j
Inventory (Forest et al., 1972; Super, 1974). Although •
■ these instruments are relatively new to the career maturity
area and have received little testing, they have generated
t
much interest and discussion (Super, 1974). ;
The direction that future research will take appeared
to be shown by two recent studies: Biggers (1971) and
Omvig, Tulloch, and Thomas (1975). Biggers (1971) sampled
294 boys from grades 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 residing in many
ethnically diverse Texas school districts and found that j
in the area of decision making the most influential kind |
I
of occupational information was "type of work," i.e., I
services, business, clerical, etc., and that no develop- j
mental trend in the use of occupational information
appeared. This study on occupational information and j
decision making indicated that these students had great i
i
I
difficulty both in differentiating types of occupational !
1
information and in being able to use the information, j
especially with reference to themselves. Biggers (1971)
appeared to be one of the first researchers to focus
I
I
clearly on the importance and role of information in j
career decision making, although Osipow (1968) did propose |
t
the general question previously.
Omvig, Tulloch, and Thomas (1975) approached the
relationship between information and career development
somewhat differently when they attempted to discover what
i
effects a general career education program would have on
the career maturity of 480 6th and 8th grade students, as j
measured by Crites' Career Maturity Inventory. The seven- |
month study showed that the career education program did
improve the levels of career maturity significantly for
i
the Attitude, Self-Appraisal, Planning, and Occupational
Information scales of the C.M.I. The general procedure j
was to have teachers first attend a career education work- i
I
j
shop to prepare the next year's teaching assignments around:
49
the concept of career education and then to have them
implement this new curriculum in their next year’s teach- j
i
ing assignments. However, each teacher produced and
i
i
taught such a separate and unique career education program j
i
that not only is it impossible to determine what speci
fically caused the career maturity improvement but it
cannot be replicated as a study. j
Recently, the relationship between career maturity !
t
and methods of career information delivery such as coun- I
seling and computer educational and exploration systems j
have been explored (Flake, Roach, & Stenning, 1975; Myers, !
Lindeman, Thompson, & Patrick, 1975). Flake, Roach, and. I
Stenning (1975) showed that 87 lOth-grade students who I
scored below the mean on their career maturity scales, did
improve significantly their career maturity levels through
the use of a short-term counseling program as measured by '
the Career Maturity Inventory. Myers, Lindeman, Thompson,
I
and Patrick (1975) used Educational and Career Exploration j
i
System, a computer-based educational and occupational ;
exploration system, to deliver career education to 792 10th|
i
graders in an attempt to produce increased vocational |
maturity scores. The treatment sample produced signifi-
i
cantly higher vocational maturity scores when treated with i
the computer-based career guidance system than did the I
control sample which received no treatment, and the higher j
scores were directly related to time spent using the
; system. Also, Melhus, Hershenson, and Vermillion (1973) I
found that lOth-grade students, who would be classified I
i # i
as highly ready for vocational counseling, could profit
ably use a computer system of vocational counseling, but j
that low-readiness students should still use the more
traditional vocational counseling procedures for best j
results. 1
i
I
Vocational maturity has also been studied in relation-
i
ship to its grade, school, curriculum, and sex effects j
(Herr & Enderlein, 1976), to its realism of vocational j
!
choice and stage of leaving school effects (Kelso, 1975) !
and to its self-concept and vocational preferences effects \
(Jones, Hansen & . Putnam, 1976). All similarly found that j
vocational maturity was discontinuous but developmental in
i
nature and was related to age and self-image.
Overall, research on vocational or career maturity is i
in its infancy. With the development of three instruments ;
that are able to now measure career maturity, related
questions about what determines the course of career
development, and when it should be facilitated or remed- ^
iated may be addressed. However, much more research is j
needed for a further understanding and refinement of career,
maturity and how it works (Super, 1974). i
i
Summary |
The concept of a developmental career process has j
been developing since the turn of the century when Frank
51
Parsons (Davis, 1969) noted three components of the career-
choice phenomonen: (a) knowledge of yourself, (b) knowl- j
edge of the necessities of various occupations, and j
(c) being able to integrate these two into an appropriate i
career decision. Most of the relevant research in most !
areas of career choice and career development theory
(Crites, 1969; Osipow, 1968; Wylie, 1974) has taken place |
i
since 1950. In 1951, Super combined the developmental
aspect of career choice with the idea of self-concept into j
a workable theory of the career choice and adjustment
phenomonen. This work was stimulated by Eli Ginzberg’s
i
theory of career development which also appeared in 1951 |
(Osipow, 1968). Super later published a book on the j
i
psychology of careers, as well as a guide for research in
i
vocational development (Super, 1957). Thus, in the early 1
i
1960s, the tide of interest and research had definitely ;
turned toward further investigation of the self-concept
and the developmental theory of career choice and adjust
ment as espoused by Super and others (Osipow, 1973). !
At present, many different experiments and types of |
research are being conducted in the career theory area i
with most of the work being based on the concept that
i
career choice is a developmental process and not a chance |
i
or one time occurrence. Kroll et al. (1970) has researched
and compiled a relevant review of the pertinent literature i
!
by looking at career development as a growth and decision
making process. Crites (1969) updated the review of the j
j
literature and research that Roe (1956) and Super (1957) j
had compiled over 10 years previously. By trial and j
t
error, the field of vocational psychology or career |
development theory seems to be taking shape, with many j
approaches being advocated and tested; but, overall, the |
1950s saw the most research activity. j
During the 1960s and the early 1970s, much work was >
done to refine and measure the developing career self- '
concept (Akert, 1959; Gullen, 1969; Pallone, 1970; Strong, ;
1962; Strong & Feder, 1961; Tseng & Carter, 1970; Winkler I
& Myers, 1963; Wrenn, 1958). Important research during I
this time was not limited to the studies which tried to
combine refinements in the self-concept and career develop
ment theory, but also included those which delved into a
more subtle and complex study of the developmental theory; !
such as vocational maturity and career-choice competen
cies (Ansell & Hansen, 1971; Crites, 1973; Dilley, 1965; !
Hall, 1963; Westbrook & Cunningham, 1970). ^
i
Behind the self-identity, or self-concept, and career j
development theory is the notion that all the effects of i
environment, socioeconomic status, intelligence, etc.,
can be included within a person's self-concept and that
the progression of a person in terms of age and maturity |
can be followed to observe the effects and the behavior j
of that individual's self-concept upon and in relation to !
j
his environment which includes many career-choice
_ . . _ 5.3__
decisions. The best summation of the progress made by j
developmental career-choice theory in the field of voca- ;
tional psychology in the last 25 to 75 years is presented i
by Eli Ginzberg (1972) in the restatement of his theory
of career choice. He now places career choice on a life
time continuum, and calls it "a life long process of
i
decision making in which the individual seeks to find the \
optimal fit between his career preparations and goals j
and the realities of the world of work" (p. 172).
I
Thus, the relationships between the many important
i
factors in career choice and development theory offers |
questions which must be studied and answered in order to |
further the knowledge about this important area. ,
|
It can be observed that the career-choice phenomenon,
or placement of individuals into jobs that best fit them, 1
has evolved from a very general and simple approach where \
i
personality, physical attributes, and circumstance were
the only considerations into a somewhat more complex and
sophisticated system based on an individual’s free choice, 1
motivation, and career interests manifested in a develop
mental framework (Crites, 1969; Osipow, 1968; Williamson,
1965). Most career researchers now accept career develop- ;
ment theory as more useful than personality theory or j
other approaches used to study the relationship between |
j
men and work in our society (Osipow, 1973).
t
I
I
54 i
This acceptance and evolution of the concept of career. 1
i
or vocational maturity provides a way to define and measurej
the many different levels of career development through |
i
which a person progresses during his lifetime. The
research completed in the 1960s and early 1970s in this j
area has provided three instruments that are capable of
i
measuring an individual's career development as a career
maturity score that is in turn related to age and grade j
placement (Super, 1974). i
i
i
Most recently, researchers are using the new career
maturity instruments to refine even more, and make very \
clear, the determinants of an individual's career develop- j
ment. Studies have shown that traditional counseling, j
computer assisted counseling, and curriculum career educa
tional programs all enhance and influence career develop- 1
ment by raising career maturity levels (Flake, Roach, &
Stenning, 1975; Myers, Lindeman, Thompson, & Patrick,
i
1975; Omvig, Tulloch, & Thomas, 1975). However, more work
is needed to further refine what aspects of the informa- 1
tion provided by these various career information delivery j
techniques are capable of providing the most influence in j
the facilitation and remediation of career maturity ,
(Biggers, 1971; Osipow, 1968). !
In conclusion, it can be stated that much progress I
j
in the refinement of career-development theory has been j
attained since Super (1957) first outlined the idea. Now |
that career development can be defined and measured, muchI
more progress can be made to discover even more specific- \
i
ally what affects and improves the career development and i
i
maturity of individuals (Super, 1974).
I
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A review of the study's methodology and research !
i
design was presented under the following listings: j
i
(a) selection and description of the sample groups, j
(b) methodology and treatment procedure, (c) research |
i
design and null hypotheses, (d) a description of the |
evaluative instrument, and (e) analysis of data. j
I
Selection and Description of the j
Sample Groups 1
One hundred forty sophomore-level (lOth-grade) stu
dents, 75 male and 65 female, were randomly selected for j
the research study from the 1975-76 sophomore class at Los
Alamitos High School, Los Alamitos, California. Los
i
Alamitos High School is a daily demand flexible scheduled
1
high school in the West end of Orange County, bordering on |
the City of Long Beach and the County of Los Angeles. The ,
i
school serves the communities of Cypress, Seal Beach, Los
I
Alamitos, and the unincorporated area of Rossmoor. These
140 students were then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups
labeled A, B, C, and D. Groups A and B were designated as
l
the experimental groups, while C and D were designated as j
I
57
the control groups. The only requirement for being
selected for the study was that the students could not have
i
been enrolled in a career guidance class prior to the 9-
week tenure of the study. |
i
All subjects and their parents knew that they were to
participate in a special study that would relate to career
I
i
development. In addition, they were notified that all |
I
personal information was to be considered confidential, j
s
and that it would not be shared with anyone but the
|
subjects and their families after the study was completed. \
It was further explained that participation was on a volun-j
tary basis, and could be revoked at any time during the
study. This information was provided to gain the parents' i
permission for their students' participation in the experi
ment. Because of the two different types of involvement
demanded of the experimental, as opposed to the control
groups, they were prepared for the experiment in somewhat
different ways. ;
The subjects in experimental groups A and B were ;
j
asked to participate in a 9-week class of career and self- !
knowledge information that would assist them in their j
future educational and career plans. Each subject was j
individually requested to consider entering this 9-week
graded course which was to be taken for credit based on j
attendance and completion of all work assigned. Each j
j
subject was given a permission slip to be signed by his .
parents and returned to school within a 2-week period of J
i
time. Almost all of the students returned their per- ,
I
mission slips signed. The students were told that partici-j
pation in the class was to be voluntary, that it would be
an added seventh class, and that it would be scheduled
during the regular school day 3 times a week for 1 hour. .
Flexible scheduling as a curriculum device allowed this I
i
extra seventh class to become a part of the regular school J
i
day for the duration of the experiment. Once the parents’ j
permission was obtained for participation, no further i
mention of these groups as experimental or special in any
way was made to either the students or parents.
The subjects in control groups C and D were also |
i
asked to participate in a special study, and to return the
i
parent permission slips. They were told that they had
been selected for the purpose of testing a new instrument !
that purported to measure how students were progressing in i
their career development. They were apprised that if this
i
new instrument did measure what it was designed to measure, j
it could be used in the future for helping students at Los !
Alamitos High School. Members of control group C were I
told that they would be scheduled into a classroom for
testing twice: the first time to be scheduled for the I
I
week of October 13th, and the second time to be just before;
i
the Christmas vacation recess. Control group D members [
t
were informed that they would be scheduled into a classroomj
59 I
to test this new instrument just before the Christmas j
vacation recess.
Methodology and Treatment Procedure !
This study began after parental permission was
obtained for each student’s participation. The four groups
i
were named and referred to for the duration of the experi- I
i
ment as Career Study Classes A, B, C, and D. The experi- j
mental period began the week of October 13, 1975, con- i
tinued during the Fall Semester of the 1975-76 school yearJ
and ended December 16, 1975.
I
The experimental groups A and B, along with control |
group C, were then administered the evaluative pretest ;
j
instrument, Career Maturity Inventory (Crites, 1973).
Control group D was not pretested in order to determine
the interaction effects of the pretest and the treatment. \
The members of experimental groups A and B continued to !
attend their regularly scheduled six sophomore year
classes. The treatment classes, designated as Career
I
Study Group A and Career Study Group B, were to be the j
only addition or exception to the subjects’ school day
I
demanded by the experimental design. This seventh clads
i
became a part of the regular school day because of the ■
unique computer-administered daily demand flexible sched
uling program which exists at Los Alamitos High School. j
i
This program allowed for classes to be established and j
scheduled on the individual student’s daily computer i
printed schedule on any day and at any time that a teacher '
wished to assemble these classes. I
I
Control groups C and D did not experience the treat
ment class, but were designated as Career Study Group C and
Career Study Group D for the purpose of scheduling into the
pre- and posttesting sessions. Both control groups C and !
D also continued to follow the usual sophomore year curri- !
culum of six required and elected classes, but were not I
involved in the treatment classes. Although the only dif- ,
ference between the control and experimental groups was
the treatment class, this class did not interfere with any !
extracurricular or athletic participation the subjects j
might be involved in after school.
i
The experimental treatment was a 9-week class program
of intensive self-knowledge information and career informa-i
tion. The members of experimental groups A and B met !
separately for 1 hour on each of 3 days a week during the j
treatment period. In addition to the 1 hour, 3 days a
week specified for the experimental treatment, 2 to 3
i
hours per week were allowed for individual home study !
i
and/or on-campus related work. Each participating student
was allowed to take home and complete any information- ,
* i
gathering exercise utilized in the treatment so as not to |
penalize the slower completion by some students. Each ,
experimental group was given 4% weeks of self-knowledge ;
information and 4% weeks of career information. In order |
I
to decrease the possibility of an order effect taking |
I
place at posttest time, the subjects in group A were pre- |
sented the treatment beginning with self-knowledge infor
mation and terminating with career information, while group
B subjects were presented the treatment in reverse order.
This procedure permitted a comparison between order of j
j
presentation effects of both types of material in the
i
treatment, and kept both experimental groups from over- |
reacting to that material which was presented in the treat-j
ment just prior to the posttest. j
i
Group A was presented the self-knowledge information !
for the first 4% weeks of the treatment while group B was :
being presented the career information. Both experimental '
groups were then administered the evaluative instrument
(C.M.I.) as a mid-treatment test to compare and determine
i
the effectiveness of the self-knowledge information and
career-information segments of the treatment on the j
subjects' career maturity. After the mid-treatment test- |
ing, both experimental groups switched the treatment seg- j
ments for the remaining 4% weeks of the treatment period:
i
group A received career information, and group B received
i
self-knowledge information. Upon completion of this last j
i
4%-week segment of the 9-week treatment period, both I
I
experimental groups A and B, and both control groups C and J
i
D were posttested with the evaluative instrument (C.M.I.).
After posttesting, the experimental groups A and B had i
been administered the Career Maturity Inventory three
times; at the pretest, midtest, and posttest sessions, 1
i
while control group C had experienced testing twice; pre
test and posttest, and control group D had only been
tested once; at the posttesting session.
Treatment: Self-Knowledge j
Information
The main task of the self-knowledge information j
section of the treatment procedure was to provide the stu
dents with information about themselves which they should
relate personally to the world of work. It was to furnish |
self-awareness, self-concept, or self-description informa- ;
tion that would provide a firm foundation of personal facts
for exploring possible future careers and life styles
(Super, 1957). i
The self-knowledge information section of the treat- ;
ment consisted of 4% weeks of instruction, utilizing career
interest and personality assessment instruments in associ- !
l
ation with self-description work sheets and interpretation |
of existing data present on each student’s school trans- I
i
cript. 1
I
The procedure and time line for the self-knowledge
information section for both experimcnetal groups were j
identical. Each group met for 1 hour, 3 times a week for ;
i
4% weeks, and participated in the information exercises \
[which would be recorded or placed into a personal file by !
i
the student when completed. Each experimental group began
i
the self-knowledge information section of the treatment i
with the administration and interpretation of the ,
1 California Occupational Preference Survey (C.O.P.S.) ;
(Knapp, Grant, 6c Demos, 1971), which provided a profile of !
: 14 high and low career interest areas, i.e., business, pro
fession, outdoor, etc. This, like most exercises, was
,followed by some discussion about the applicability of this
l
i
I new information. The C.O.P.S. was followed by a series of
I . 1
three worksheets (Group Instruction for Work Experience
Education, 1972) in which the students evaluated their life
I
jstyles and values, rated their own personality, and listed -
i
|career preferences based on career interest areas similar
i
I to the ones listed in the C.O.P.S.
The next exercise was the administration and inter-
Ipretation of the Survey of Personal Values (Gordon, 1967)
I
and the Survey of Interpersonal Values (Gordon, 1960).
|The first is a personality assessment instrument, while
|the latter assesses an individual's interpersonal rela-
y
tionships. At this point, the pretest Career Maturity
i
|Inventory results were presented in cursory fashion, with
I no indication that it would be administered again, and the
Jresults were given only in percentile scores. Following !
this, the students completed worksheets on desirable atti
tudes and behaviors, a survey of personal needs, and an
attitudinal inventory (Group Instruction for Work 1
Experience Education, 1972). A transcript evaluation, ;
I which included an interpretation of past Differential j
Aptitude Test scores and recent achievement test scores, j
was presented and followed by the administration and
interpretation of the Vocational Preference Inventory
(Holland, 1965). This, and a review of all the self- ‘
knowledge information, completed this section of the treat-;
ment. j
i
Treatment: Career Information
The principal purpose of this section of the treat- !
i
ment procedure was to provide the students with information^
about the world of work, jobs, and different career !
requirements. Here the focus was on the creation of an
awareness of the hierarchy, structure, and training
requirements of the world of work which would provide the
y
knowledge needed for the exploration of possible future
careers and life styles (Bolles, 1974; Isaacson, 1971). !
The career information section of the treatment con- i
f
sisted of 4% weeks of instruction, utilizing world-of-work :
i
orientation information, and job application forms in
i
combination with career-goal selection and job description
profiles. j
i
Again, the career information treatment procedure |
was identical for both experimental groups. Each group |
met for 1 hour, 3 times a week, for 4% weeks to participate
65
in informational exercises which would be recorded or I
!
placed in a personal file by the student upon completion. !
I
Each experimental group began the career information sec- I
tion of the treatment with a class presentation on job j
families and career goals. They were told where different !
high school programs led, which different types of job
training are available, i.e., college, trade school, etc. j
They listened to a career case study, and finally, a dis- ■
cussion of job function, i.e., data, people, and things j
(Planning Your Future, 1965). This was followed by a film
strip and cassette program entitled An Introduction to
Vocation (Singer S.V.E. Filmstrip C788-1), which explained j
the problems of selecting a career. Then a set of work-
I
sheets which addressed themselves to picking a career goal
with examples of how others have done so was completed
(Blackledge, Blackledge, & Keily, 1967). An orientation of
the Career College Center and career clusters was completed
prior to the students' preparation of three separate per
sonally selected career profiles utilizing the numerous
i
informational sources available in the center, i.e.,
career files, Dictionary of Occupational Titles, •
0 c cup a t i o nal Ou tlook Handbook, etc. After the pamphlet, !
You and Your First Job (Personnel and Industrial Relations
Association, Inc., 1968), was read and studied, a review
of all the career information presented was executed to j
conclude this section of the treatment.
Research Design and Null Hypotheses " 1
The experimental research design selected for the I
|
study was a variation of the Randomized Solomon Four Group !
|
Design (Campbell & Stanley, 1973; Isaac & Michael, 1971), I
which is structured as follows: I
R
°1 X1 °2 X2 °3
R
°A X3 °5 X4' °6
R
°7
00
O
R
Oq
where ;
i
i
R = the initial randomization j
0- j ^ 0^ and 0y = pretreatment observations (pretests) ‘
X^ and Xg = application of the first section of the J
treatment ^
0o and 0_ = midtreatment observation (midtests)
L d
X2 and X^ = application of the second section of
the treatment
O3 0g 0g and 0^ = final observations (posttest)
This design attempted to eliminate the external validity 1
contamination that the pretest might have on the experi
mental groups by comparing the unpretested control groups' ,
1
posttest scores with the experimental groups' pretest
1
scores. This design allows for the measurement and con
trol of the main pretest effects, and any interaction
1
effects of pretesting and the experimental treatment if it j
exists. Not only is this design counterbalanced, but it |
also increases the legitimacy of any hypothetical
67
generalizations rendered by its usage since any effect of
I
the pretesting’s interaction with the independent variable j
(treatment) is identifiable and quantifiable (Isaac 6c !
j
Michael, 1971).
In addition to the research design’s control over the
possibility that the pretesting may sensitize some or all '
of the experimental subjects, external validity was j
i
strengthened because students from Los Alamitos High 1
i
School had participated in the norming of the evaluative j
!
instrument (C.M.I.) in 1971. The basic population makeup j
I
of the study’s participants as mostly white, middle class, 1
and highly academic, has not changed significantly since !
the school’s population was used in the C„M.I.fs norming |
process. Indeed, the design selected controls for the
internal validity sources of history, maturation, testing,
instrumentation, regression, selection, mortality, and ;
interaction of selection and maturation, etc. (Campbell
6c Stanley, 1973). i
The control of factors involved in the interaction of ;
selection and treatment was attempted through utilization j
!
of the test of covariance, using the verbal I.Q., non- j
verbal I.Q., and previous semesters’ grade-point averages
as covariates in the analysis. This control was necessary
i
because of studies which intimate that intelligence or I
i
academic success might inordinately influence career |
maturity (Ansell 6c Hansen, 1971; Cover, 1968; Dilley, 1965; j
Harris, 1966; Kelso, 1975; Super 6c Overstreet, 1960;
Williams, 1967). The statistical analysis was then per- i
I
formed on a Xerox-Sigma Seven computer, utilizing the
Fortran Statistical Package for the Social Sciences,
i
Xerox form 6.01, at the University of California, Irvine,
School of Information and Computer Science.
The analysis was easily separated into four specific I
areas of hypotheses testing. The first area to be tested |
;
is stated in hypotheses 1 through 6, and is an attempt to ;
i
determine whether self-knowledge information or career !
i
information had a more important effect on career maturity j
i
as measured on the 6 scales of the evaluative instrument ■
i
(C.M.I.). Hypotheses 1 through 6 stated in the null form
are listed as follows: !
1. No difference will exist between the means of the
experimental group treated with self-knowledge information
first and the experimental group treated with career
information first on the Self Appraisal Scale of the mid- ■
treatment test. ,
i
2. No difference will exist between the means of '
i
i
the experimental group treated with self-knowledge ;
information first and the experimental group treated with
career information first on the Career Information Scale
I
of the midtreatment test. i
I
3. No difference will exist between the means of the |
experimental group treated with self-knowledge information j
I
first and the experimental group treated with career j
information first on the Choosing a Career Direction Scale
of the midtreatment test. |
f
4. No difference will exist between the means of the j
!
experimental group treated with self-knowledge information j
first and the experimental group treated with career
information first on the Career Planning Scale of the mid- j
treatment test. i
I
5. No difference will exist between the means of the .
experimental group treated with self-knowledge information i
first and the experimental group treated with career j
information first on the Career Problem Solving Scale of J
i
the midtreatment test.
6. No difference will exist between the means of the 1
\
experimental group treated with self-knowledge information
first and the experimental group treated with career
information first on the Career Attitude Scale of the mid- '
treatment test.
The second area of hypotheses testing was represented
in hypotheses 7 through 12, and was an endeavor to discover'
i
the effect of an intensive short-term career information •
program, consisting of career and self-knowledge informa- >
tion, on career maturity as measured by the six scales of
i
the C.M.I. Stated in the null form, hypotheses 7 through
12 are presented as follows: I
I
7. No difference will exist between the means of the
experimental and control groups on the Self Appraisal Scale-
70
! of the posttest. '
8. No difference will exist between the means of the
experimental and control groups on the Career Information
i
Scale of the posttest. |
9. No difference will exist between the means of the
experimental and control groups on the Choosing a Career
Direction Scale of the posttest. |
10. No difference will exist between the means of the :
i
experimental and control groups on the Career Planning '
i
Scale of the posttest. |
i
11. No difference will exist between the means of the |
l
(
experimental and control groups on the Career Problem ,
Solving Scale of the posttest. j
12. No difference will exist between the means of the
experimental and control groups on the realistic Career !
Attitude Scale of the posttest.
The third area of hypotheses testing was indicated in
hypotheses 13 and 14, and its aim was to ascertain whether
career or self-knowledge information was perceived to be
i
the more important, immediate or long-term, component of >
the career information program. The null hypotheses for !
this task is as follows: j
13. The experimental groups will not select self- j
knowledge information over career information as being j
more immediately helpful in their developmental career-
choice process. ^
71
14. The experimental groups will not select career
I
information over self-knowledge information as being more ;
i
helpful in the next 10 to fifteen-year period in their j
developmental career-choice process. |
The final area of hypotheses testing was described in
hypothesis 15 which asked if a significant number of the j
participants in the treatment group developed a positive !
self-image in relationship to the world of work. In the
null form, hypothesis 15 is stated as follows: I
15. The experimental groups will not select a posi- j
i
tive over a negative career self-image.
I
!
A Description of the Evaluative
Instrument .
i
The Career Maturity Inventory (1973) is an instrument
that was constructed from Super's career development theory
by Crites (1973), and was recently released by the McGraw- ;
Hill Publishers. Crites (1973) constructed this instrument;
to measure an individual's career maturity progression.
The six stated content areas of the instrument which were
cataloged as being able to generate career maturity '
i
ratings are: (a) Knowing yourself (self-appraisal),
(b) Knowing about jobs (career information), (c) Choosing !
i
a job (career direction), (d) Looking ahead (career !
*
planning), (e) What should they do? (career problem solv- I
ing, and (f) Attitude (career attitudes) (Crites, 1973). j
The instrument was a resultant of the emergence of Super's j
72
(1957) career development theory and the need for a mea-
i
surement of career growth, and maturation (Crites',' 1969; ;
1 Super, 1957; Super 6c Overstreet, I960), It converted i
Super's (1957) definition of career maturity into measur
able career-choice competencies and career-choice atti
tudes (Crites, 1973).
i
The C.M.I. is also based on the principle that the j
I
"model of career maturity is a hierarchial one in which the
; higher levels are constituted from the relationships among ;
i
variables or clusters on the lower levels" (Super, 1974,
p. 25). The items were constructed to elicit responses j
that showed an increase or decrease with time and have beenj
defined in terms of grade placement in school. Thus, the j
C.M.I. is composed of two parts: the Career Attitude
i
Scale which was formerly called the attitude test of the
Vocational Development Inventory, and the new Competence |
Test, with five parts that measure career-choice competen-
i
cies. The Attitude Scale has had the most testing and
!
usage since its construction 10 years ago. The reliability’
coefficient for this Attitude Scale was r = (.74) on the !
average for grades 6 through 12, using the Kuder-Richardsonj
Formula 20. A similar stability coefficient of r = (.71)
was found when 1,648 students in grades 6 through 12 were ;
tested and retested after a period of 1 year (Super S c
Crites, 1962). No coefficients of equivalence are avail
able for the Attitude Scale since no alternate forms of the I
' 73
t scale exist (Crites, 1973). The content validity of the 1
i
Attitude Scale was derived from both logical and empirical j
i i
sources. The content of the items written for the scale ;
i
was evolved from Superfs career development theory and pre-j
sented in the language that best represents real voca
tional verbalizations.
Criterion-related validity is extensively demonstrated
through various unpublished studies which Crites has listed
in his Theory and Research Handbook for the Career Maturity
: Inventory (1973). Wilstach (1967), however, found that
the Attitude Scale did not correlate significantly with
i
Super’s Indices of Vocational Maturity. j
Crites (1973) stated that in relation to construct !
i
validity the most meaningful information for his attitude
scale seemed to be ”(1) responses bias, (2) correlations
!
with other variable, and (3) experimental manipulations of
counseling and didactic experiences"(p. 16).
i
Crites (1971) found that a very insignificant amount ;
I
of influence on the Attitude Scale scores was brought about'
i
by response set bias while Shirts (1968) received ques- |
tionable results in his study of response style using the !
i
School and College Ability Test (S.C.A.T.). It appeared, !
however, that the construct validity of the attitude scale j
i
was not contaminated through any response bias. j
i
However, the Attitude Scale's correlation with other j
i
variables was probably most relevant to construct validity.1 ;
7 A’
Cover (1968) and Harris (1966) separately observed no
i
I
significant correlation between the Attitude Scale and
i
i
social economic status. Cover (1968) also found no rela- j
tionship to past work experience. It was found that the j
Attitude Scale’s correlation with the intellective vari- j
ables of intelligence, aptitude, and achievement test |
scores seemed to hover around r = .40 for high school stu- |
dents and a little less for the more homogeneous college ■
student (Cover, 1968; Shirts, 1968; Williams, 1967). |
i
Cover (1968) discovered a correlation of .45 with the j
Cooperative School and College Ability Tests (S.C.A.T.) !
for 162 male 12th-graders; and Williams (1967) had an r \
of .20 with the verbal portion of the S.A.T. (Scholastic
Aptitude Test) with 215 male college sophomores as the
sample.
Crites (1973) stated that a positive correlation
existed between the Attitude Scale and certain personality
i
characteristics defined by the Adjective Check List I
(A.C.L.), as was shown by Bartlett (1968). Bartlett’s ;
(1968) study found that Manpower Development trainees, :
ages 16 to 21 years who scored higher career maturity ;
results on the Attitude Scale also scored higher on the |
Adjective Check List scales for Self-confidence, Achieve
ment, Autonomy, and Dominance, while scoring lower on
Deference and Abasement. Cover (1968); Harris (1966); i
and Williams (1967) all indicated a correlation between the
75
Attitude Scale and student grade-point averages of approx- !
imately .35, which is similar to previous correlations with|
; I
: intelligence tests. i
1 I
Asbury (1968) found in his study that 8th-grade boys
j
who had undergone counseling averaged higher scores on the |
Attitude Scale than those who had had no counseling. Other!
I
studies, such as the one completed by Goodson (1969), also \
l
showed a positive correlation between the Attitude Scale |
I
and 3 8-week freshmen college orientation programs; how- j
ever, studies such as the one by Schmieding and Jensen
I
(1968) failed to show that their 22 hour occupations class j
had any statistically significant effect for 11th- and !
12th-grade students.
The Attitude Scale of the Career Maturity Inventory
has been subjected to 10 years of study and research
resulting in a career maturity scale that is reliable and
[
valid within acceptable limits, and positively correlated
to those factors that could be reasonably associated with
the developmental aspects of psychological and career j
maturity growth in present day society. !
The Competence Test section of the Career Maturity ;
Inventory (C.M.I.) is composed of five separate scales: i
i
1. Knowing Yourself (Self-appraisal) !
2. Knowing About Jobs (Career Information)
3. Choosing a Job (Career Direction)
i
4. Looking Ahead (Career Planning) I
76
5. What Should They Do? (Career Problem Solving)
1 *
At present the only reliability information that was
: available for the Competence Test consisted of internal
1 consistency coefficients using the Kuder-Richardson
Formula 20 for calculating values for each grade level in
the standardization sample. These values for the 10th-
grade level are listed as follows:
Part 1: Self-Appraisal = .85
Part 2: Career Information = .87 .
Part 3: Career Direction = .89
Part 4: Career Planning = .89
Part 5: Problem Solving = .82
The coefficient of internal consistency indicates that
each part of the Competence Test contains items that are
relatively homogeneous, and they seemed to measure the
same variable (Crites, 1973).
Crites (1973) indicated that validation has just
begun on the Competence Test and that
not only were the subtests conceived to define and
quantify the more salient cognitive aspects of
career maturity, but the universe of content used
in writing items for them was derived from the
verbal behavior of children, adolescents, and young
adults typical of those for whom the Competence
Test was intended.(p. 33)
Too, content validity was demonstrated by the presence of
a rational test for the selection of items and by an
empirical approach in which the items were determined
’’theoretically meaningful and monotonically related to
77
grade as an index of time and career development1’ (Crites, 1
1973, p. 33). Each of the five parts of the Competence I
Test contain 20 items which comply to theoretical and j
empirical expectations.
Crites (1973) has indicated that by displaying the
relationship of the Competence Test to time (grade place-
i
ment) a necessary first step in testing criterion-related j
validity was achieved. He stated that this process is I
i
accomplished by: '
an analysis of the percentage of overlap in score j
distribution of the subtests from grade to grade.
Cumulative percentage ogives were plotted against I
scores of the subtests for each grade, and then j
percentages of overlap were read from the graph for
adjacent grades by calculating the percentage of ■
scores above the point on the ogive for a given i
grade which corresponded to the median of the next j
higher grade.(p. 34)
The overlap between grades had a range from 33% to 56%,
and the median was 43%. According to Crites (1973), i
i
"The relationships of the Competence Test to grade as a
criterion of development are about what would be expected 1
theoretically, given the monotonic model and individual !
■ !
differences in career maturity” Cp* 34), The construct j
validity of the Competence Test was indicated through the j
correlations of the separate sections to one another: i
Part 1, Knowing Yourself, correlated to Part 4, Looking j
Ahead, for grades 6 through 12, etc. These coefficients
ranged from .25 to .73, with the mean being .54. Although (
i
these data indicated results expected theoretically, the '
validation process has just begun on the Competence Test. '
Hilton (Super, 1974) has appraised the Career Maturity!
Inventory, along with the Career Development Inventory j
(Forest et al., 1972), and the Cognitive Vocational
Maturity Test (Westbrook, Parry-Hill, & Woodbury, 1971,
1972) by comparing each instrument’s item content with the
i
six main elements of the Ohio State Model of Career j
■ ■ - , — ,
i
Education. These six elements are self-awareness, educa- 1
...» .. ' i
tional awareness, career awareness, decision making, j
beginning competency, and employability skills. All of ;
the items from each of the three instruments were sorted
according to which of the six Ohio State Model of j
Career Education elements it represented. The C.M.I. j
seemed, overall, to have the greatest congruence with the
Ohio model’s six elements, but all three instruments were
i
considered very useful in the evaluation of career educa
tion outcomes.
I
The Career Maturity Inventory holds great promise for
the future as an instrument that is capable of reflecting !
i
the individual growth and development of the personal j
experiences each is exposed to through career exploration
and acceptance into the world of work. ;
Analysis of Data
The statistical analysis of this study's 15 stated
i
hypotheses was separated into 4 general steps which |
coincided with the study’s 4 tasks. The first step of the
analysis procedure was to test hypotheses 1 through 6 and I
determine whether self-knowledge information or career
information had a more obvious impact on career maturity as
t
measured by the six career maturity scales of the Career j
Maturity Inventory. The second step of the analysis pro
cedure was to evaluate hypotheses 7 through 12 and deter
mine the effect that an intensive short-term career j
information program consisting of career and self- j
I
knowledge information had on career maturity as measured 1
i
by the six career maturity scales of the C.M.I. The third j
i
step of the analysis procedure was to evaluate hypotheses |
i
13 and 14 and discover whether self-knowledge information '
or career information was perceived as being more immed- .
i
iately helpful, or more helpful in the long-term future
(10 to 15 years) to the experimental groups. The fourth
and final step of the analysis procedure was to test
hypothesis 15 and determine whether the experimental groups
i
concluded their treatment program with a positive or nega
tive stated self-image. A Fortran Statistical Package for .
the Social Sciences, Xerox form 6.01, was utilized for the j
statistical analysis of the data, and was conducted on a !
Xerox-Sigma Seven computer housed at the University of
California, Irvine's School of Information and Computer i
Science. ]
i
Once the data needed to test the first 12 hypotheses 1
had been keypunched onto computer index cards, a one-way !
' analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run to determine if there .
; were any test mean scores that were significantly differ- j
ent. The experimental and control groups' mean test I
scores for the pre-, mid-, and posttests were listed by
the C.M.I. scale utilized in Table 1, Chapter IV. The
results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA), indicated a i
I
significant difference in one scale's pretest scores, two
i
scale's midtest scores, and two scale's posttest scores, i
as shown in Table 2, Chapter IV. The Solomon Four Group j
!
Research Design used for this experiment equalized
research outcomes (Isaac & Michael, 1971).
i
The two most important outside factors that seemed to |
affect individual career maturity instrument scores were |
intelligence and grade-point average (Ansell 6c Hansen,
1971; Cover, 1968; Dilley, 1965; Harris, 1966; Kelso, 1975;
i
Super 6c Overstreet, 1960; Williams, 1967). Because of the :
effect that these two factors have on the resultant career
maturity scores, a one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) j
was run to further refine the research design's effective- ;
ness from the posttest scores. This technique minimizes '
I
i
the effects that both intelligence and school achievement
(reflected in grade-point average) have on the career !
1
maturity test score results by removing their potential ;
i
effectiveness from the analysis. As had the ANOVA (Table |
1) the ANCOVA indicated that on the posttest both the j
Self-Appraisal and Attitude Scales reflected levels of '
significance between some of the groups. However, the 1
ANCOVA also showed that the Choosing a Career Scale of
the C.M.I. displayed some significant level of difference j
i
I
between its groups on the posttest, as shown in Table 3. |
Utilizing an analysis of covariance, which used
intelligence (verbal and non-verbal I.Q.) and school
achievement (grade-point average) as the two functioning *
covariates, an a posteriori test was run, contrasting j
Experimental Group A with Experimental Group B, Control |
Group C with Control Group D, and both Experimental Groups i
A and B combined with both Control Groups C and D combined
for those significant posttest F scores. This analysis
procedure was referred to as the Contrast Coefficient j
i
Matrix-Pooled Variance Estimate and was displayed in Table
4.
Upon completion of the ANOVA, ANCOVA, and Contrast
Matrix for all the C.M.I. Scales, i.e., experimental and
control groups, etc., for the first 12 hypotheses, a series
of 2 X 2 chi-square comparisons were computed to test the
i
last three hypotheses.
The chi-square analysis indicated that some of the -
frequencies observed in the two experimental groups
deviated from what would be theoretically expected from a I
■ j
random population sample (Isaac & Michael, 1971). A j
separate 2 X 2 chi-square analysis was run for each of the |
two hypotheses in task three (numbers 13 and 14) and the j
■ single hypothesis in task four (number 15), as shown in
Tables 5, 6, and 7.
; In summary, the analysis of data consisted of the
ANOVA, ANCOVA, and Contrast Coefficient Matrix-Pooled
Variance Estimate for the first two tasks of the study and
three separate 2 X 2 chi-square analysis being run for the
last two tasks of the study. The data were collected
utilizing the very solid, counterbalanced randomized
Solomon Four Group Research Design (Campbell & Stanley,
1973; Isaac & Michael, 1971).
83
CHAPTER IV
THE FINDINGS j
The findings of this study were presented under the ^
two headings of (a) results, and (b) discussion. Each of j
these two separate divisions were themselves separated j
into four sections which coincided with each of the four
I
stated tasks of the study. Upon the completion of the \
analysis of variance and covariance, contrast matrix, and I
chi-square computations, the findings were examined as they
appeared to affect each of the 15 null hypotheses that i
constituted the four major tasks or purposes of the study.
Results
Task One
I
\
This first task, consisting of hypotheses 1 through 6,
was developed to discover whether self-knowledge or career ;
information influenced career maturity more, as measured !
by the six career maturity scales of the Career Maturity j
Inventory (C.M.I.). j
t
Hypothesis 1. No difference will exist between the |
means of the experimental group treated with self-knowledge!
information first and the experimental group treated with j
i
career information first on the Self-Appraisal Scale of thei
84
mid-treatment test. The hypothesis was rejected. An ’
ANOVA F score of 7.525 was obtained with a computed sig
nificance of .00801, which was significant at the .05 level;
i
i
of confidence.
As shown by Tables 1 and 2, Experimental Group A
which was administered the self-knowledge information com
ponent of the experimental treatment first, displayed a j
greatly increased score on the Self-Appraisal Scale (mid- j
test) of the C.M.I. This would indicate that the self-
j
i
knowledge information section of the treatment does have 1
some significant effect on an individual's level of career j
maturity. And, since the scores of Group B, which was i
treated with career information first, actually decreased j
i
on the midtest, it might indicate that career information
presented by itself just stimulated doubt, confusion, or
reassessment of one's own career self-image because of this'
introduction of new career and job information. ■
Hypothesis 2. No difference will exist between the ^
means of the experimental group treated with self-knowledge;
information first and the experimental group treated with i
career information first on the Career Information Scale of!
the mid-treatment test. The hypothesis was accepted. An (
i
F score of 0.437 was obtained, which was not significant.
Table 1 indicated that the mean test scores did increase
for both Group A (15.41 to 15.78) and Group B (14.92 to
15.15) on this career information scale which showed some i
Table 1
Pre-, Mid-, and Posttest Score Means by
Group on the Six C.M.I. Scales
C.M.I. Scale Group Pre Mid Post
Self-
Appraisal
Experimental A
Experimental B
13.22
12.42
14.47
11.69
14.22
12.50
Control C 12.32 12.79
Control D 14.69
Career
Information
Experimental A
Experimental B
15.41
14. 92
15.78
15.15
15.84
15.15
Control C 15.75 15.82
Control D 15.66
Choosing a
Career
Experimental A
Experimental B
13.38
12.23
14.53
12.81
14.41
12.62
Control C 13.43 13.18
Control D 13.97
Career
Planning
Experimental A
Experimental B
14.44
13.77
13 .91
12.69
14.97
14.00
Control C 14.43 14.04
Control D 13.93
Table 1 (continued)
C.M.I. Scale Group Pre Mid Post
Career Experimental A 10.09 10.91 11.28
Problem
Solving Experimental B 10.85 10.73 11.00
Control C 9.46 10.32
Control D 11.38
Attitude Experimental A 34.16 36.13 38.16
Experimental B 33.63 35.50 36.96
Control C 34.39 34.79
Control D 34.55
i
i
!
87
«
Table 2
Analysis of Variance by Pre-, Mid-, and Post
Mean Test Scores Between the Four Groups
on the Six C.M.I . Scales
Pre
F scores
Mid Post
Self-Appraisal 1.129 7.525** 2.930*
Career Information 2.406 0.437 0.241
Choosing a Career 3.939* 5.931* 1.707
Career Planning 1.623 1.416 0.757
Career Problem Solving 0.822 0.217 0.869
Attitude 0.771 0.103 4. 634*'
movement of maturity scores, but none that were signifi-
i
cantly different. j
t
i
Hypothesis 3. No difference will exist between the !
means of the experimental group treated with self-knowledge)
information first and the experimental group treated with
career information first on the Choosing a Career Direction
i
Scale of the mid-treatment test. The hypothesis was |
!
I
accepted. An F score of 5.931 was obtained with a com-
i
puted significance of .01787, which was significant at the j
.05 level of confidence. However, the two groups were
significantly different at the pretesting sessions where j
!
Group A received a mean score change of 13.38 to 14.53 j
while Group B’s change of score was from 12.23 to 12.81, !
indicating a larger increase for Group A. The F score for ’
the Choosing A Career Scale moved from 3.939 to 5.931,
which resulted in the movement of F scores from .02296 to !
.01787. Both Group A and Group B began the treatment as (
significantly different groups, and while both improved j
their career maturity ratings on this scale, Group A,
which was treated with the self-knowledge information
i
first, increased the level of significant difference that ;
i
had existed between the groups on the pretest by scoring ;
higher on the midtest than Group B. |
Hypothesis 4. No difference will exist between the
means of the experimental group treated with self-knowledgJ
i
89 j
information first and tire experimental group treated with
!
career information first on the Career Planning Scale of j
I
the mid-treatment test. The hypothesis was accepted. An i
I
F score of 1.416 was obtained, which was not significant. 1
The surprising aspect of these results was that Table 1
indicated that both Groups, A and B, had lower mean scores
I
on the midtest than they had on the pretest. The lowered ■
scores by both experimental groups on this specific scale
(career planning), were the only such occurrences in this !
i
first task.
i
Hypothesis 5. No difference will exist between the j
means of the experimental group treated with self-knowledge
information first and the experimental group treated with !
career information first on the Career Problem Solving
Scale of the mid-treatment test. The hypothesis was
accepted. An F score of 0.217 was obtained which was not 1
significant. Although no significant results were in
evidence, Group A did show increased scores while Group B j
i
regressed slightly in its scores. ;
i
Hypothesis 6. No difference will exist between the ;
means of the experimental group treated with self-knowledge(
information first and the experimental group treated with
career information first on the Career Attitude Scale of j
the mid-treatment test. The hypothesis was accepted. An :
F score of 0.103 was obtained, which was not significant. j
90
The data on Table 1 indicated that both groups, A and B,
increased their scores approximately by the same amount. \
Each group, whether treated with self-knowledge or career !
information first, responded by increasing equally its
Career Attitude Scale scores.
Task Two j
i
The second task consisted of hypotheses 7 through 12 J
I
and was advanced to determine the effect that an intensive j
i
short-term career information program, consisting of career;
and self-knowledge information, had on career maturity as
measured by the six career maturity scales of the C.M.I. j
i
j
Hypothesis 7. No difference will exist between the j
means of the experimental and control groups on the Self-
Appraisal Scale of the posttest. The hypothesis was
!
accepted. Although an F score of 2.930 (p < .05) (Table 2),
was obtained, a T value of -0.73832 (Table 4) was also
obtained from the Contrast Coefficient Matrix-Pooled '
i
Variance Estimate, which was not significant. The F score j
was obtained for the significant difference that existed j
t
between groups A and B, which was continued from the mid-
!
test results (Hypothesis 1). This indicated that the sig-
I
nificant difference, resulting from Group A's receiving the:
self-knowledge information component of the treatment
I
process first, continued to exist at posttest time between J
the two experimental groups, even after each group had j
i
received both segments of the treatment.
Hypothesis 8. No difference will exist between the
means of the experimental and control groups on the Career |
Information Scale of the posttest. The hypothesis was j
accepted. An F score of 0.241 was obtained (Table 2), |
i
which was not significant. No significant difference
existed between the experimental groups and the control
groups when posttest scores were compared. It appeared j
i
that neither self-knowledge information, nor career infor- I
mation, nor a combination of both was able to change sig- j
nificantly the career maturity level on the career infor-
t
mation scale of the C.M.I. j
Hypothesis 9. No difference will exist between the '
means of the experimental and control groups on the !
Choosing a Career Scale of the posttest. The hypothesis
was accepted. An F score of 1.707 was obtained, which was ,
I
not significant. However, the results in Table 2 indicate
that no significant differences existed in the posttest,
demonstrating that the pre- and midtest disparities that i
existed at significant levels were lessened to the extent j
that they no longer were significant. The ANCOVA (Table j
j
3) posttest results on the other hand indicated that some
significant results existed on the posttest, which are ■
i
verified in Table 4, and showed that the significant dif- |
ference which existed between groups A and B on the pre- j
and midtests was still present at the posttest. It was j
interesting to note that the mean test scores for each of
92
1
Table 3
Analysis of Covariance by Mean Posttest Scores
as Measured by the Six C.M.I. Scales
C.M.I. Scale F Score
Self-Appraisal 3.684*
Career Information 0.323
Choosing a Career 3.034
Career Planning 1.839
Career Problem Solving 0.917
Attitude 5.251**
*P < .05
**P < .01
93
J
1
Table 4
Posttest Contrast Coefficient Matrix-Pooled Variance
Estimate Between Groups by C.M.I. Scales
Reflecting Statistical Significance
C.M.I. Scale Contrast T Value
Self-Appraisal Group A to Group B 2.6407*
Group C to Group D -1.9417
Group A+B to Group C+D -0.73832
Choosing a
Career
Group
Group
A to Group B
C to Group D
2.9212*
-0.76318
Group A+B to Group C+D 0.15796
Attitude Group A to Group B 0.99559
Group C to Group D 0.43024
Group A+B to Group C+D 3.8170**
*P < .01
**P < .001
the experimental groups diminished between mid- and post- !
i
testing sessions, as did the mean test scores for Control
Group C between the pre- and posttesting (Table 1). j
i
Hypothesis 10. No difference will exist between the I
— !
I
means of the experimental and control groups on the Career
Planning Scale of the posttest. The hypothesis was
i
accepted. An F score of 0.757 was obtained, which was not J
significant. There was a mean score regression on the j
midtest, which was overcome at the posttest by both exper- j
i
imental groups. Control Group C also experienced a slight
pre- to posttest regression of mean scores (Table 1).
Hypothesis 11. No difference will exist between the '
means of the experimental and control groups on the Career 1
Problem Solving Scale of the posttest. The hypothesis was
accepted. An F score of 0.869 was obtained, which was not ,
significant. Career problem solving as an aspect of career
I
maturity seemed not to be affected by the treatment pro
cedure of self-knowledge and career information. j
1
i
Hypothesis 12. No difference will exist between the !
i
means of the experimental and control groups on the Career !
Attitude Scale of the posttest. The hypothesis was I
rejected. An F score of 4.634 was obtained with a com- |
t
puted significance of .00428, which was significant at the j
I
(
.01 level of confidence. The ANCOVA indicated a signifi
cant F score of .00200 P < .01 (Table 3) and a contrast
coefficient matrix significance of .0002 P < .001 (Table *
[
|
4). A very large difference existed between the experi- '
i
mental groups which experienced the treatment and the con- \
i
trol groups which did not. The significant difference
that existed between the experimental and control groups
can be attributed to the treatment procedure consisting
of self-knowledge and career information. j
i
!
Task Three
I
The third task, consisting of hypotheses 13 and 14, I
i
was evolved to discover if either self-knowledge or career |
information was perceived as being more immediately helpful:
i
or more helpful in the long-term future (10 to 15 years)
to the experimental groups. I
Hypothesis 13. The experimental groups will not
>
select self-knowledge information over career information I
as being more immediately helpful in their developmental ,
career-choice process. The hypothesis was accepted. The ,
chi-square value reached a computed significant level of :
i
.0551 for Group A and .1634 for Group B which for Group A *
was very close to the .05 level of confidence. Group A, j
which received the self-knowledge information component of ;
the treatment first, had 20 members select the self-
knowledge section as being more immediately helpful, while j
I
12 selected career information. Group B, which received <
career information first, had 15 select self-knowledge,
and 11 select career information (Table 5) |
i
Hypothesis 14. The experimental groups will not j
select career information over self-knowledge information
as being more potentially helpful in the next 10 to 15-
year period in their developmental career-choice process.
i
The hypothesis was rejected. A chi-square value reached j
I
the computed significant level of .000001 for Group A, ;
and .000267 for Group B, both of which surpassed the .001 J
level of confidence. Group A selected self-knowledge J
information 5 times, and career information 27 times, j
while Group B selected self-knowledge 5 times? and career |
!
information 21 times.. Both groups felt that in the future
10 to 15-year period of time, information about the world ^
of work (career information) was considered more important !
than knowledge about ones’ self (self-knowledge) (Table 6).:
Task Four
The fourth and final task, hypothesis 15, was designed
I
to detect whether the experimental groups concluded their !
treatment program with a positive or negative stated self- j
i
image. j
I
i
Hypothesis 15. The experimental groups will not j
select a positive over a negative career self-image. The
hypothesis was rejected. A chi-square analysis indicated j
j
very significant results for both Group A and Group B, I
which approached zero probability. Group A selected a I
97
Table 5
2 X 2 Chi-square Analysis for Hypothesis 13
Importance of Information Now
Group A Group B*
Number Selecting Career
Information 12 11 NOW
Number Selecting Self-Knowledge
Information 20 15
* Neither group selected at a significant level.
98
Table 6
2 X 2 Chi-square Analysis for Hypothesis 14
Importance of Information in Future
(10-15 Years)
Group A* Group B**
Number Selecting
Information
Career
27 21
Number Selecting
Information
Self-Knowledge
5 5
FUTURE
(10-15
Years)
*P < .000001
positive self-image 30 times, and a negative self-image 0 !
(
times, with 2 non-committed. Group B selected a positive j
self-image 24 times, and a negative self-image 0 times, |
also with 2 non-committed. Both groups felt that they
completed the treatment with a positive self-image in
relationship to the world of work, with none of the parti- j
cipants indicating a negative self-image (Table 7). !
|
Discussion
I
The results of this study can be easily summarized |
and generalized by addressing its findings to the four j
i
stated tasks of the study. Briefly, these tasks were |
i
(a) to discover in hypotheses 1 through 6 whether self- j
t
knowledge or career information affected career maturity
more, (b) to determine in hypotheses 7 through 12 the
effect that self-knowledge and career information had on
career maturity, (c) to discern in hypotheses 13 and 14
whether self-knowledge or career information was perceived j
as being more immediately helpful or more longitudinally
helpful, and (d) to detect in hypothesis 15 whether the
experimental groups terminated treatment with a positive (
j
or negative self-image.
|
Task One ;
The first task of testing hypotheses 1 through 6 by j
i
determining whether self-knowledge or career information !
had a more obvious impact on career maturity as measured !
Table 7
2 X 2 Chi-square Analysis for Hypothesis 15
Self-Image
Group A* Group B*
Number Selecting Positive
Self-Image 30 24
Number Selecting Negative
Self-Image 0 0
*Note both groups very significant, approaching zero
probability.
by the six career maturity scales of the C.M.I. resulted j
in the following significant results: j
Hypothesis 1--Self-Appraisal--.00801 (p < .01) j
Hypothesis 3--Choosing a Career--.01787 (p < .05)
Hypotheses 2, 4, 5, and 6 showed no significant
differences.
i
i
Hypothesis 1 demonstrated that experimental group A, j
which received the self-knowledge segment of the treatment |
did, in fact, significantly increase its scores on the j
self-appraisal scale of the C.M.I. This indicated that j
information which allows a person to learn about himself,
t
i
his own self-concept in relation to the world of work, |
j
can affect career maturity. Too, the relatively short j
period of time that was needed to evidence such results
i
I
(4% weeks) was surprising in that other studies indicated
a more lengthy and complex treatment for similar results. \
The rejection of hypothesis 1 denoted that self-knowledge j
t
information has a more powerful influence on increasing ,
the level of career maturity than does career information,
i
as measured by the Self-Appraisal Scale of the C.M.I.
Hypothesis 3 manifested a significant difference '
between Group A and Group B, but this difference also 1
existed at the pretesting (Table 2), which indicated that |
the two experimental groups were significantly different
before the first component of the treatment was adminis- |
i
tered. In spite of both groups A and B exhibiting their
origin from the same population through random selection !
and similar pretest scores on five of the C.M.I. scales, a ;
l
significant pretest difference existed between groups on j
i
the Choosing a Career Scale. Upon closer inspection,
Table 1 results showed that both groups, A and C, (control
groups) were similar, and that Group B was significantly
different from the other two groups. Although Group A ,
!
moved from 13.38 to 14.53 for mean midtest scores, and \
Group B only moved from 12.23 to 12.81, it can not be J
I
stated positively that this larger score change was brought!
- i
about by the self-knowledge treatment. For this reason, j
I
hypothesis 3 was accepted even though the analysis implied 1
that self-knowledge information could possibly affect sig- j
nificantly the career maturity level of a person on the
Choosing a Career Scale.
Hypotheses 2, 4, 5, and 6 showed no significant
differences; however, one hypothesis deserves more study.
Hypothesis 2 should be more closely scrutinized because !
of the significant results gained by hypothesis 1. If the ;
experimental group (Group A) who received the self- i
knowledge information portion of the treatment gained sig- ,
i
nificantly in career maturity scores on the Self-Appraisal
I
Scale on the midtest, then it could be reasonably expected ;
that the experimental group (Group B) who received the I
l
career information portion of the treatment should show j
significant gains in career maturity scores on the Career j
103
i Information Scale of the midtest. This, however, did not
take place.
f
In its entirety, this first task of the study con-
i
eluded with hypothesis 1 standing as the only hypothesis
to meet the scrutiny and analysis standards of the study.
It also signified that self-knowledge information had a |
more obvious impact on the self-appraisal aspect of career j
maturity than did career information.
I
i
i
Task Two ;
The second task of evaluating hypotheses 7 through 12 |
and determining the effect that an intensive short-term |
career information program, consisting of career and self- ,
i
knowledge information, had on career maturity as measured
by the six career maturity scales of the C.M.I. resulted
in the following significant results:
Significant differences existed between the experi
mental groups (A and B) and the control groups (C and D) 1
on:
Hypothesis 12--Career Attitude--.00428 (p < .01) j
Hypotheses 7 and 9 showed unacceptable significant •
differences.
i
Hypotheses 8, 10, and 11 showed no significant dif- :
ferences. |
i
Hypothesis 12 demonstrated that a short-term, |
intensive, career information program did increase sig- |
nificantly the career maturity scores on the Career
104 |
Attitude Scale of the C.M.I. Table 1 showed that both
experimental groups increased their mean scores at approx
imately the same rate at the midtest whether self-knowledge
or career information was presented. When this treatment
|was switched after the midtest, each of the experimental
groups again experienced a similar mean score increase on
I
!the posttest. The analysis of variance posttest F score
of 4.634 displayed a significance of .00428 which improved
iin the analysis of covariance to an F score of 5.251 with
i
|a significance of .00200. The two covariates used in the
I
i
ANCOVA were intelligence (verbal and non-verbal) and school
|
I achievement (grade-point average). This level of signifi-
|cance became even more impressive when a T value of 3.8170
I
i
and a T probability significance of .0002 were achieved on
!
'the Contrast Coefficient Matrix-Pooled Variance Estimate.
'Hypothesis 12 was rejected because a program of career and
i
,self-knowledge information was able to increase signifi-
i
|cantly the career maturity scores on the Career Attitude
!
|Scale of the C.M.I., thus signifying that these two types
■of career information do affect career maturity.
; Hypothesis 7 demonstrated that a significant dif-
|ference existed on the Self-Appraisal Seale of the C.M.I.
|at the posttest which might indicate that the experimental
t
.groups could be significantly different from the control
groups. This may indicate, to some degree, that the career
'information program could be increasing the career maturity
level on the Self-Appraisal Scale of the C.M.I. The sig-
j 1
nificant difference shown on Table 2 was at the .03669 !
level of probability; it was decreased to .01421 on the !
ANCOVA (Table 3). However, upon inspection of Table 4,
i
j the Contrast Coefficient Matrix-Pooled Variance Estimate,
! j
it became evident that there was no significant difference !
between the experimental and control groups, but that
there was a significant difference betwe'en experimental
igroups A and B. Table 4 showed a T value of 2.6407 which
| resulted in a T probability of .0094, and displayed a
! continued significant difference between the midtest and 1
i
| the posttest for Groups A and B. This denoted that the
’ difference between Group A and Group B, which came about
| because the self-knowledge information had more impact on
| career maturity than did the career information (hypothe-
, sis 1), did not reverse nor overcome the midtest's sig
nificant difference when the treatment was reversed. It
i could be argued that if the self-knowledge information seg-
| ment of the treatment had a significantly more powerful
j impact on career maturity than did career information;
!
; once the treatment segments were reversed, the self-
! knowledge information would be able to duplicate its
i
! initial effect (hypothesis 1) and raise the career maturity
!
!
, level of Group B to that of Group A. However, this did
I ;
' not happen, perhaps because of the order in which the 1
i ,
! treatment segments were administered, and because the
106 !
information provided in the treatment, first part (self- !
knowledge or career), interfered with or somehow diluted j
the impact of the information provided in the second part j
I
of the treatment (self-knowledge or career). j
This dilution of impact may have demonstrated that \
Super’s (1957) developmental theory of career choice which
indicated that self-knowledge (self-concept) provided the \
foundation for experiencing many career-choice process
options and decisions, does contain theoretical substance, j
For, when the self-concept was enhanced or augmented j
i
through the use of self-knowledge information, the level j
of career maturity (Self-Appraisal Scale) was heightened. j
The results from the testing of hypotheses 1 and 7 tended ]
i
I
to support Supers' (1957) theory and also tended to restate
its basic premise that career maturity radiated from self-
knowledge, at least for this population sample.
Hypothesis 9 demonstrated that no significant differ- !
t
ence existed between experimental and control groups on
i
the Choosing a Career Scale of the C.M.I. at the posttest- |
ing which might indicate that nothing of importance took !
!
place. However, upon inspection of Table 3, it was
i
observed that an ANCOVA F score of 3,034, with a signifi
cance of .03225, was obtained. Something happened to :
!
display this resultant significant difference. The j
I
reason this difference appeared in the ANCOVA results and j
not in the ANOVA results (Table 2) was because in the
ANCOVA the covariates of intelligence (verbal and non- 1
verbal) and school achievement (grade-point average) were j
i
standardized for all groups so as not to create inter
ferences or outside contamination of the research results.
The Contrast Coefficient Matrix-Pooled Variance
Estimate (Table 4) cleared up the problem of the signifi
cant ANCOVA results on the posttest by showing that the '
significant difference existed between Group A and Group (
I
B and not between the experimental and control groups. 1
What had happened appeared to be that the significant !
difference that existed on the pretest and on the midtest j
i
(hypothesis 3) still existed at the posttest on the
Choosing a Career Scale of the C.M.I. This difference
I
persisted between Groups A and B. When Groups A and B
were compared to Groups C and D, they were very similar
(Table 4).
The second task of the study concluded with hypothe-
i
sis 12 as the only supposition to meet the scrutiny and •
analysis standards of the study. It stated that an
intensive short-term (9 weeks) career information program, |
consisting of career and self-knowledge information, was
capable of significantly increasing career maturity as
i
measured by the Career Attitude Scale of the C.M.I. This ;
task also indicated that once any type of career infor- i
mation significantly increased the level of career matur- :
ity on a scale (hypothesis 1), this new level of maturity !
108 i
will continue to exist when another and different type of
career information is provided (hypothesis 7). Too, it
was demonstrated that once a unique difference existed
between experimental groups (hypothesis 3), an intensive
program of career information was not able to close that
gap (hypothesis 9).
Task Three
The third task of the study was to evaluate hypothe
ses 13 and 14 to determine whether self-knowledge infor
mation or career information was considered to be more
immediately helpful or more helpful in the long-term
future (10 to 15 years) by the experimental groups.
Hypothesis 13 indicated that the majority of both experi
mental groups felt that self-knowledge information was
personally more immediately important to them than was
career information. Table 5 showed that 2 X 2 chi-square
level of significance for Group A was .0551, and for Group
B was .1634. Group A who received the self-knowledge
segment of the treatment first chose self-knowledge
information more often than did Group B who received the
career information segment of the treatment first and
self-knowledge information subsequently. Hypothesis 14
demonstrated that both experimental Groups, A and B,
felt significantly that career information would be
personally more important in the future (10 to 15 years)
than was self-knowledge information (Table 6). Group A
109
had a 2 X 2 chi-square level of significance of .000001,
and Group B had a level of significance of .000267. j
Again, it should be noted that the group who received
i
self-knowledge information first (Group A) selected career |
i
information more often than did Group B. The third task '
of the study concluded with hypothesis 14 displaying j
strength under statistical analysis and indicating that
i
career information was considered to be more helpful in
the future (10 to 15 years) than was self-knowledge !
information. The element of time and the experimental |
!
groups' awareness of this element in the career-choice j
process was specifically depicted in this task.
Task Four i
The fourth and final task of the study was to detect
whether the experimental groups concluded their treatment
of career and self-knowledge information with a positive
or negative stated self-image. A test of hypothesis 15
indicated that both experimental groups concluded their i
treatment of career and self-knowledge information with a ,
positive stated self-image which had its significance
approach zero probability through the chi-square analysis
(Table 7). Group A responded with 30 positive self-image
i
answers, 2 non-committed answers, and 0 negative self- J
image answers. Group B had 24 positive, 2 non-committed, j
and 0 negative answers. Group A chose a positive self- j
i
image more often than did Group B, although both indicated j
a very significant response frequency in the rejection of
this hypothesis. Because individuals possessed a stated
positive self-image in relation to work at the conclusion ■
of the 9-week career information treatment, Task Four 1
observed with its single hypothesis that the possession of j
j
both career information and self-knowledge information !
seemed to allow individuals to feel more secure about ;
i
their relationship with the world of work. j
j
In summary, the results of this study were presented ,
through the two headings of (a) results, and (b) dis- [
cussion. Both of these sections addressed themselves to
the four main tasks of the study, each of which contained j
some significant findings. Task one detected the self- i
i
knowledge information improved career maturity signifi
cantly more than did career information on the Self-
Appraisal Scale of the C.M.I. It also presented questions ;
about the inability of career information to perform the
same function on the Career Information Scale of the C.M.I.,
Task two demonstrated that self-knowledge and career
i
information when presented in consort were capable of sig
nificantly increasing the general level of career maturity !
as measured by the Career Attitude Scale of the C.M.I. 1
Too, it was shown that groups tended to retain their j
natural and newly acquired levels of career maturity on j
certain scales of the C.M.I. through the entire experi-
t
mental treatment, and that quick remediation was unlikely.
Task three indicated that a realistic perspective about the
element of time in the career-choice process was present
since most members of the experimental groups indicated
that self-knowledge information was more important to them
I
i
inow, and that career information would be more important 1
| i
to them later. The fourth and final task showed that both \
\
■ experimental groups felt that, at the termination of the
f i
I career and self-knowledge information treatment, they
l
j possessed a positive self-image in relation to the world i
of work. Thus, one hypothesis from each of the four tasks '
I of the study was found to be significant to the point that
! the results could not be accorded to chance alone.
CHAPTER V
i SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATION
I
I
; Summary
' The purpose of this study was to identify and investi
gate some specific means of improving the level of career
,maturity through the use of career and self-knowledge
j information. The four general tasks of the problem that
Jwere investigated were: (a) To determine whether self-
!knowledge information or career information had a more
i
jsignificant effect on career maturity, (b) To discover the
|effect of an intensive short-term (9-week) career informa-
I
;tion program consisting of career and self-knowledge
;information on career maturity, (c) To ascertain whether
;career or self-knowledge information was perceived to be
jthe more important, immediate and long-term, component of
;the career information program, and (d) To discover if a
!significant number of participants had a positive self-
’image in relationship to the world of work.
I The study utilized the randomized Solomon Four Group
i Research Design (Campbell 6c Stanley, 1 9 7 3 ; Isaac 6c
(Michael, 1971) a counterbalanced research design that was
considered very efficient due to its special ability to
measure and control the main pretest effects and
i 1 1 3
interaction effects of pretesting and the experimental !
treatment. The design's strength was also derived from !
its ability to control for the internal validity sources !
i
of history, maturation, testing, instrumentation, regres- |
sion, selection, mortality, and interaction of selection
and maturation, etc. (Campbell & Stanley, 1973). j
!
The line of research which makes this study one of :
i
i
the logical next areas for investigation began in earnest
l
in the 1950s when Donald Super (1953, 1957) generated
10 propositions, and then a theory, to describe vocational i
I
development. Super's (1953) Self-concept theory described j
i
the individual who was developing, growing, and becoming
more aware of the world around him as coincidently experi- :
I
encing his own vocational development. An individual's
vocational or career development is just one of many
aspects of his personal growth and maturity, but one in
i
which the focus is on his relationship with the world of
I
work. This developmental process passes through five
i
stages as a person moves from becoming aware of the need
for a career decision through to the advancement in a I
chosen career (Super, 1953).
Super (1957) felt that to test this theory of a
developing vocational self-concept, or vocational self-
identity, it would be necessary to determine and measure j
the difference between these separate developmental stages.!
This growth from one stage to the next was termed
vocational (career) maturity, and defined as_”th'e~ degree
of development, the places reached on the continuum of
vocational development from exploration to decline1 1
(p. 186).
It became apparent that some form of instrumentation
or procedure was needed that would enable educators, psy
chologists, and researchers to demonstrate an individual’s
career maturity progression. There have been a number of
attempts to create such an instrument or procedure for
determining level of career maturity and for defining
career maturity in a more objective fashion by using
collective attitudes and behaviors to designate different
stages of development (Crites, 1969; Gribbons 6c Lohnes,
1967; Super 6c Overstreet, 1960).
The determinants of career maturity became more
apparent as research such as Super and Overstreets’ Career
Pattern Study (1960), the studies by Ansell and Hansen
(1971), Dilley (1965), Tiedeman and O'Hara (1963), and
Westbrook and Cunningham (1970) were reported. This
compilation of career maturity information led directly to
the development of three separate career maturity instru
ments; the Career Maturity Inventory (Crites, 1973), the
Cognitive Vocational Maturity Test (Westbrook, Parry-Hill
6c Woodbury, 1971, 1972; Westbrook 6c Parry-Hill, 1973) and
the Career Development Inventory (Forest et al., 1972;
Super, 1974). Since these instruments have just recently
, been developed, little research has been undertaken to testl
them except for those studies completed by their respec- i
I
tive authors (Super, 1974). These new instruments will ■
require additional testing of their validity and reliabil- I
ity (Super, 1974), and will undergo extensive use in !
|
studies to discover more about the factors which affect j
and influence career maturity (Herr & Enderlein, 1976; j
Jones, Hansen, & Putnam, 1976). j
Two recent studies have indicated a direction that
future research into career maturity may assume. The first
i
study was completed in 1971 by Biggers who wanted to find I
i
out "what types of occupational information are used by |
(
students in decision making" and if there was a "develop- ,
i
mental trend in the use of information in decision making"
(p. 171). The results indicated that "type of work" was
most important in career decision, and that no "develop
mental trend” was found in "the use of information in
decision making" (p. 171). The implication was that these ;
students from grade 4 through grade 12 did not understand !
the occupational career information, nor did they under- |
stand how they could apply this information to themselves
i
based on what they knew about themselves in relation to
the world of work. * ;
The second study by Omvig, Tulloch, and Thomas (1975) j
i
attempted to identify the effects of a career education !
program for 480 6th- and 8th-grade students on their career
116
maturity as measured by the Career Maturity Inventory
(C.M.I.)- The results indicated that the career education
i
I
program did increase the student’s level of career matur
ity over the 7-month study, but the specific aspects of \
the program that produced these results could not be
identified due to the studies’ methodology. i
In other recent studies, it has been determined that i
i
both short-term counseling and a computer-based educa- ;
tional and exploration system can significantly affect
i
i
career maturity for lOth-grade students (Flake, Roach, & j
I
Stenning, 1975; Myers, Linderman, & Thompson, 1975). How- !
ever, neither this recent research, nor the development of '
the three career maturity instruments has demonstrated in ;
objective or specific terms what types of educational or
informational input affect career maturity (Super, 1974).
The next logical step in the progression of research
would be to determine more precisely what types of educa
tional and informational determinants affect career matur- :
ity; and even more importantly, to discover what is the
most influential determinant and the best sequence of j
determinants in ascertaining career-maturity growth. By ■
separating the concept of career education, or career
i
information in general, into the two easily defined com- i
I
ponents of self-knowledge information and career informa- j
tion, an attempt could be made to discern in a more objec
tive manner just what types of information really are able !
to affect career maturity.
117
The literature has shown that the concept of career i
i
maturity advanced by Super (1957) has itself developed r
into a very viable and potentially useful tool in the
l
individual determination of career choice, career decision j
making, and future life styles (Crites, 1969; Super, 1974).
However, it was the recent development of instruments j
to measure an individual’s level of career maturity that
i
has made possible the means of discovering what actually ;
does affect an individual’s career development, as well as !
how much effect each possible determinant might contribute j
to that development (Crites, 1973; Forest et al., 1972; j
Westbrook & Parry-Hill, 1973).
The first two tasks of the study focused on the indi- ,
I
vidual and cumulative effect that career and self-knowledge
information had upon career maturity, while the second two
tasks dealt with the relative importance of each type of
information to immediate and long-term career planning
i
and with the positive self-image that these two types of
i
information generate. !
!
Hypotheses
i
Each of the study's 15 hypotheses was constructed
around the four stated general tasks as shown in Table 8.
The first task represented an attempt to determine j
i
whether career information, or self-knowledge information, |
possessed first, a significant or measurable effect on j
career maturity, and second, which type of information had
118
I
!
i
i
i
I
Table 8 ;
Tasks and Hypotheses of the Study
Task Hypotheses j
j
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, j
6 f
7, 8, 9, 10, 11,'
12
13, 14 j
15
119
1. To determine the separate impact
of career and self-knowledge
information on career maturity
2. To discover the combined effect of
career and self-knowledge
information on career maturity
3. To ascertain whether career or
self-knowledge information is
perceived to be more immediately
or subsequently helpful
4. To discover if participants
terminated treatment with a
positive or negative self-image
the more important or significant effect on career matur-
i
ity. The rationale for this first task was founded on the
fact that since 1909 nearly all career development theories!
have based their constructs on the premise that the indi- |
!
vidual who possessed both self-knowledge information and
career knowledge information would use this knowledge or
awareness to make some type of an appropriate career
decision (Crites, 1969; Davis, 1969; Super, 1957; Osipow, \
I
1968). If this premise is true, it should now be measur-
I
i
able due to the development of the recent maturity instru- ;
ments (Super, 1974). The assumption was made that the j
individual must possess enough self-knowledge information
to enable the career information to be of value. Con
sequently, the self-knowledge segment of information was
considered to be initially more powerful in the influ
encing of career maturity for this age group (Super, 1957).
The first six hypotheses in task one can be summar
ized as follows: '
The experimental groups treated with self-knowledge j
information first will display significantly increased
scores at the mid-treatment test over the experimental
groups treated with career information first on each of
the six scales of the Career Maturity Inventory.
The second task represented an attempt to discover ■
the combined effect of both career and self-knowledge
information on career maturity, and to discern which order ;
120
of the information presentation would be effective in !
influencing career maturity. The rationale for this
second grouping of hypotheses was that most career develop-!
ment theories indicated that the enhancement of self- |
knowledge and career information for the individual would
improve career development, and thusly career maturity
(Osipow, 1968). If self-knowledge or the self-concept
I
forms the basis for career development theories, then
i
career information should follow self-knowledge in the i
I
individual’s development continuum, and should follow |
i
i
self-knowledge in a program of career education (Davis, i
1969; Super, 1957). '
The hypotheses 7 through 12 in task two can be
f
summarized as follows:
The experimental groups will display significantly
increased scores at the post-treatment test over the con- |
i
trol groups on each of the six scales of the Career
Maturity Inventory.
The third task attempted to ascertain whether career 1
information or self-knowledge information was seen as more j
immediately helpful in the career-choice process, and
whether career information or self-knowledge information
would be considered to be more helpful in the next 10 to
15 years. [
The participants in the study were asked to indicate j
i
their awareness of the element of time in the career-choice;
i
121
process by choosing which type of information was more
important to them at their present age (between 15 and 16 |
years), and which they felt would be more important to
them in 10 to 15 years. What was also being investigated 1
I
was the participant's voluntary compliance with most of |
I
the developmental career theory which places more impor- j
tance on self-knowledge information than career information
at this young age in their developmental process, and also ,
i
places more importance on career information later in theirl
developmental process. j
The two hypotheses in task three can be summarized as
i
follows :
The experimental groups will display a significant ;
preference for self-knowledge information as being immed
iately helpful and career information as being helpful
later in their developmental career-choice process.
The fourth and final task was an attempt to discover
if the participants terminated the study with a positive >
or a negative self-image in relation to the world of work. '
Since the general area of career education has been found
not to adversely affect an individual's academic per- ■
formance, it should also be known whether or not it might
affect the individual's self-image, attitudes, or concept j
in any adverse manner (Omvig, Tulloch, & Thomas, 1975). j
This single hypothesis in task four can be stated as ,
i
follows:
I
122 !
The experimental groups will indicate, in significant I
number, that they possess a positive career self-image |
!
over a negative career self-image in relationship to the j
i
world of work. I
Methodology
The sample used in this investigation consisted of
140 randomly selected sophomore (lOth-grade) students from j
Los Alamitos High School who were randomly placed into j
I
four separate groups; Experimental Groups A and B, and
Control Groups C and D. |
While all four groups continued their regular academic
!
and extracurricular educational programs, the two experi
mental groups were scheduled for 9 weeks of a career and *
self-knowledge information class. This class was held
during the Fall, 1975, school semester, from October 13th
until December 15th, and met 3 times a week for 1 hour.
While Experimental Group A was receiving the self-knowledge
information segment of the treatment during the first 4% ,
weeks of the study, Experimental Group B was receiving the ^
i
career information segment. Once both of the experi-
I
mental groups completed the first portion of the treatment :
(self-knowledge or career information) they received the
treatment segment that they had not previously experi- j
enced for the last 4% weeks of the treatment. A variation
of the Solomon Four Group Research Design was employed j
utilizing midtesting procedure and a posttest. The j
123 I
treatment was terminated with the posttest and a ques-
I
i
tionnaire. '
i
|
Results !
The results are summarized as follows: j
Task One
The first task, to discover whether self-knowledge or .
j
career information influenced career maturity more as ,
measured by the six career maturity scales of the Career
i
Maturity Inventory (C.M.I.) resulted in the following sig- !
nificant and non-significant results: |
Hypothesis 1, Self-Appraisal, P < .01
Hypothesis 2, Career Information, No significant '
difference
Hypothesis 3, Choosing a Career, No significant dif
ference
Hypothesis 4, Career Planning, No significant differ
ence
Hypothesis 5, Career Problem Solving, No significant i
difference
i
Hypothesis 6, Career Attitude, No significant differ
ence
i
Hypothesis 1 (Self-Appraisal Scale) was rejected with
I
a computed significance of .00801 which was significant at !
the .01 level of confidence. The experimental group which !
received the self-knowledge segment of the treatment j
124
significantly increased its scores on the midtest, while I
the groups which received the career information did not. j
The results connoted that self-knowledge information
possessed a more powerful influence on level of career !
maturity than did career information as measured by the
Self-Appraisal Scale of the C.M.I. The remaining five
hypotheses, 2 through 6, were all accepted because no
i
significant differences were found to exist between groups.j
i
Although Hypothesis 3 (Choosing a Career Scale) was sig- ‘
i
nificant at the .05 level of confidence, it too had to be !
i
accepted because both groups were found to be significantly!
different at pretesting. In fact, both groups experienced !
mixed, positive, and regressive, score movements on the
I
midtest in most of the hypotheses.
Task Two
The second task of determining the cumulative and 1
order effect that self-knowledge and career information had'
on career maturity as measured by the six career maturity
!
scales of the Career Maturity Inventory (C.M.I.) resulted
i
in the following significant and non-significant results: ;
Hypothesis 7, Self-Appraisab, No significant differ- i
ence
Hypothesis 8, Career Information, No significant j
difference i
Hypothesis 9, Choosing a Career, No significant dif-
l
ference
Hypothesis 10, Career Planning, No significant dif- !
ference ;
i
Hypothesis 11, Career Problem Solving, No significant |
difference j
Hypothesis 12, Career Attitude, P < .01 j
I
Hypothesis 12 (Career Attitude Scale) was rejected at |
the .01 level of confidence. A very large difference
existed between the experimental and control groups on the ’
posttest indicating that self-knowledge combined with |
career information had a tremendous impact upon career i
I
maturity. It was found that the significant difference ;
i
which existed between experimental groups on the Self-
Appraisal Scale at the midtest persisted at the P < .01 j
level on the posttest. The differences that existed at
pre- and midtesting for the experimental groups in hypoth
esis 3 (Choosing a Career Scale) also existed at posttest.
Generally, no further regression of scores for the experi- 1
mental groups took place. In fact, nearly all of the
scores were increased at posttesting. j
The remaining five hypotheses, 7 through 11, were all 1
I
accepted with no significant differences between the '
experimental and control groups.
i
Task Three ;
The third task discerning whether self-knowledge or j
career information was perceived as being more immediately !
or longitudinally helpful in the career-decision process j
126 I
„ resulted in the following significant and non-significant !
results: • |
Hypothesis 13, Group A, No significant difference
Hypothesis 13, Group B, No significant difference
I
I
Hypothesis 14, Group A, P < .000001 j
Hypothesis 14, Group B, P < .001-
Hypothesis 14 was rejected with a computed chi-square J
significance of .000001 for Group A, and .00267 for Group '
*
B. Both groups met the .01 level of confidence require-
t
l
ment as both experimental groups chose career information j
i
over self-knowledge information as being the most impor- j
i
tant to them for the next 10 to 15 years of their life. :
Hypothesis 13 was accepted, but a majority of both groups j
did select self-knowledge information as being more
immediately important in their career-choice process.
Task Four
The fourth and final task was to detect whether or
not the experimental groups terminated treatment with a
positive or negative self-image. It resulted in the
following significant results:
Hypothesis 15, Group A, Significance Approaches 0
Hypothesis 15, Group B, Significance Approaches 0
i
The hypothesis was rejected, with a computed chi- j
i
square significance that approached 0 for both Groups }
A and B. Most of the experimental subjects indicated that j
i
they possessed a very positive self-image in relationship
127
to the world of work at the termination of the treatment^ 1
The results indicated that a program of self-knowledge and j
career information did not affect the self-image of the !
sample students detrimentally, and may even have assisted j
i
in improving it since their responses could not be normally!
i
accorded to chance alone. |
i
i
Conclusions ]
This study of the effect of career and self-knowledge ;
i
information on the career development (maturity) of 10th- ■
i
grade students had many implications for the fields of ;
career development, career counseling, and career educa- j
tion.
In task one, self-knowledge was seen to have signifi- j
cantly more impact on the students’ career maturity than
did career information. This finding supported similar
conclusions in numerous studies (Crites, 1969; Super &
Overstreet, 1960) and tended to support Super’s theoretical
construct of career development (Osipow, 1968). Super !
indicated that for this age group (14 to 18 years) self- '
knowledge in terms of career interests, values, and means
of relating to the world of work were needed ingredients.
Biggers(1971) supported this concept when he found that j
i
similarly aged students did not know what to do with career!
information when it was provided. Most findings tended I
to indicate that this age group should be presented with |
i
the type of information that helps the student know and
128 !
understand himself, i.e., career interests, values, !
aptitudes, attitudes, and abilities so that they may J
i
develop and be able to use career and occupational infor- 1
l
mation when it is encountered later. This type of infor- j
mation can be termed self-knowledge information and |
appeared to provide the foundation for further career
development.
i
Unfortunately, neither self-knowledge nor for that
j
matter career information, were capable of significantly j
increasing career maturity levels on the other five scales j
I
or divisions of Crites* model of career maturity (1973). j
Especially discouraging was the inability of the career
information segment of the treatment to significantly
affect the career maturity level on the Career Information
Scale.
In summary, it appeared that for lOth-grade students
self-knowledge information, as it relates to the world of
work, was the most influential and appropriate type of ,
information that could be provided. j
The study demonstrated that a short-term intensive ■
career and self-knowledge information program significantly
improved career maturity levels on the Career Attitude
Scale of the C.M.I. These results supported Super's career1
development theory which held that this age range should 1
(
become oriented toward the world of work and be involved j
i
with the accumulation and interpretation of data as well ■
as becoming aware of differentiations in life styles
i
depending on the type of career direction Being considered j
i
(Osipow, 1968). Time involved in the presentation of
i
career information may play a very important role in the !
!
career development of lOth-grade-aged students. Omvig, j
Tulloch, and Thomas (1975) showed that a long-term, 7-monthj
j
program could influence significantly many more areas of
i
career maturity than a shorter pirogram. Career and self- 1
knowledge information that was identical to the informa- j
tion presented in this study also could be presented inter-j
mittently over a similar 7-month span of time to obtain
results similar to those obtained by Omvig et al (1975). 1
Time is very important to all of the career developmental j
theories, and it could be that growth in career maturity
is best served when a career program, regardless of the
quantity of information presented, is spread over a longer
period of time, or presented at a more advanced and recep
tive age. The 9 weeks allotted to the study may not have
provided the necessary time for assimilation and priori
tizing of the information provided (Biggers, 1971). !
The information presented to this age group may not
have been sufficient to increase career maturity scores on '
i
some of the more cognitively oriented scales of the C.M.I. 1
i
and may need the assistance of a personal counseling or I
computer-assisted method of delivering career information :
i
for more significant results (Flake, Roach, & Stenning, ;
i
130 j
1975). Before students can progress in their career i
development past the Value stage of Ginzberg’s approach or !
i
the synonymous Crystallization stage of Super’s theory, |
they may need assistance in decision making or value |
clarification that is better served by a counseling method j
of delivering information rather than simply a program of !
information by itself (Kroll et al., 1970; Osipow, 1968). j
If career information can be provided without the assis- ■
i
tance of specially trained individuals or complex computer
technology, most public agencies, especially schools,
could offer information programs to more people with equal j
i
benefit. ■
The two hypotheses that were statistically signifi-
i
cant in the first two tasks, as well as the 10 which were
not, tended to imply that: (a) the student’s age or
readiness factor is initially very important in determin
ing how he will be influenced by the self-knowledge and
career information presented, (b) the length of time spent ;
delivering the information may influence career maturity
because assimilation of the information takes time and is j
not immediate, and (c) career and self-knowledge informa
tion programs can in general immediately affect greatly 1
career maturity scores on such scales of the C.M.I. as j
Self-Appraisal, Career Information, and Career Attitude, j
i
but can not appreciably affect scores on the C.M.I. Career
Planning, Choosing a Career, and Career Problem Solving \
scales which emphasize cognitive processes. i
_____________________131J
Tasks three and four demonstrated that the study’s ;
participants overwhelmingly chose the self-knowledge !
information as being most important to them now, and felt |
i
that the general career information would be more important1
I
to them later. The results indicated that these students
terminated the information program with a very positive j
self-image in relation to the world of work and their |
i
future career decisions.
i
i
These findings also tended to support Super's
developmental scheme (1957) (Osipow, 1968) which held that 1
this age group reflected an awakening of awareness of the j
i
aspect of time in present and future career decisions by ,
showing a cognizance of the personal and immediate need
i
for information about themselves (self-knowledge) and the
later need for specific career information. This study
supported the view that the age range of 15 to 16 years is
a time for the growth of self-knowledge, personal values,
and career attitudes which form a foundation or perspec
tive of self which is in turn required in order to utilize ;
efficiently career or occupational information when it is
encountered (Super, 1960). A career self-concept based 1
i
on self-knowledge, value formation, and attitude develop
ment forms the basis for a method of personally relating j
to and finding a place in the world of work.
It seemed that self-knowledge information in assoc- '
I
iation with general career information assisted students
I
132 I
in relating to their future career choices by allowing a '
positive self-image with the world of work to form. j
Much research in this area of career development and j
maturity has been completed (Bartlett, 1971; Borow, 1961)
as well as in the development of instructional material j
(Ellenbery, 1973) and programs to assist in this develop- j
ment (Borow, 1973; Super & Bohn, 1970), but much more study!
I
I
and research must be completed in order to better prepare |
students to make realistic decisions about their future \
(Kroll et al., 1970). j
Recommendations i
Suggestions for further study and research in the (
I
area of career development and maturity are: i
1. More emphasis should be placed on the presentation
of self-knowledge information to the 15 and 16-year-old
age grouping by counselors, teachers, and career education
programs in order to provide a good foundation for future
world of work decisions and relationships.
I
2. Methods of career information delivery such as j
personal counseling, computer-assisted counseling, and
i
informational programs, etc., should be compared and con
trasted to discover which methods were most effective in
assisting career development for specific groups. j
i
3. Specific types of self-knowledge information and !
general career information should be studied to determine j
more definitively the effectiveness of each type of
information on career development as measured by career I
■ maturity.
j
4. A decision-making course or program designed to ;
augment the self-knowledge information program for 15- to
, 16-year-olds would be very helpful in assisting them to
prepare for the more cognitive next levels in career
development. '
5. The time span utilized by the information program ,
I
could be varied to determine if a longer period of time !
should be instituted for more favorable results. !
6. A similar program of career and self-knowledge |
information could be offered to older students.
|
7. From this study, it seemed evident that both
I
career development and self-image in relation to the world
of work could be enhanced by an information program
offered on a secondary school campus. It may be appro
priate to have such a program offered on all secondary
school campuses to orient and assist students with their '
future decisions. i
Further research opportunities in this area of career :
development and career maturity are numerous and varied.
The field, as well as the help it can bring to society,
has just been barely touched by past and present research. J
With new and different job classifications being developed |
I
on a daily basis, accompanied by the rapid evolution of
I
man and his environment, the possibilities for new '
134
knowledge are endless. But, this research is needed and
needed now to assist man in coping and surviving in his
constantly changing world.
1351
____i
References
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of the self-concept. Journal of Counseling Psychology,
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Ansell, E. M., & Hansen, J. C. Patterns in vocational
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Asbury, F. A. Vocational development of rural disad
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Astin, H. S., & Myint, T. Career development of young
women during the post-high school years. Journal of
Counseling Psychology, 1971, 18^, 369-393.
Bartlett, W. E. Vocational maturity and personality
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Quarterly, 1968, jL6, 104-108.
Bartlett, W. E. Vocational maturity: its post, present,
and future development. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 1971, 1 , 217-229.
Beall, L. Vocational choice: the impossible fantasy and
the improbable choice. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 1967, 14, 8 6-97.
Berlin, H. The application of general development
principles to the vocational area. Journal of
Counseling Psychology, 1955, 2, 53-57.
Biggers, J. L. The use of information in vocational
decision-making. Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 1971,
19, 176.
Blackledge, W. L., Blackledge, E. H., 6c Keily, H. J.
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Asset Metadata

Creator McDermott, William Wayne (author)

Core Title The effect of self-knowledge and career information on career maturity

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,psychology, industrial

Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c26-457827

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Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

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