OCCUPATIONAL VALUES AND STEREOTYPES IN A GROUP OF ENGINEERS
| Author | L. Cohen,T. Derrick |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1970.tb00575.x |
| Date | 01 March 1970 |
| Published date | 01 March 1970 |
RESEARCH NOTE
OCCUPATIONAL VALUES
AND
STEREOTYPES
IN
A
GROUP
OF
ENGINEERS
L.
COHEN*
AND
T.
DERRICK
INTRODUCTION
A
LARGE
number
of
studies support the view that personality characteristics and
personal values differentiate individuals in various occupations.’ The engineer-
ing profession,
for
example, has been shown to attract individuals who attach
high importance to the intrinsic rewards deriving from their work and relatively
less importance to the opportunities that their employment affords for working
with people rather than things.2 Other studies point to the important function
of
the self-concept in an individual’s choice of occupation. Selection of a career has
been shown to be congruent with the identity that the individual perceives
himself to have
as
a pers01-1.~
The
proposition that people tend to choose
occupations which are congruent with their expressed interests has been
substantiated by Strong, Kingston, Kuder and Ter~illiger.~
The present study is concerned with the personal values and occupational
stereotypes of two groups
of
engineers, civil and electrical. Personal values are
identified by means
of
the Rosenberg scale
of
occupational values, a ten item
inventory developed from the responses of a large sample of American under-
graduates and used in this country in connection with engineering under-
graduates at Bradford University by Srnithem6 The value-profiles of the sample
of engineers already in employment are intended to provide norms against
which to compare the undergraduate engineering groups during their years at
university and their immediate careers
in
industry. Similarly, the stereotypic
Senior Lecturer in Education and Lecturer in Education, School of Research in Education,
University of Bradford.
J.
L. Holland, ‘Some explorations of a theory of vocational choice: one and two year
longitudinal studies’,
Psychological Monographs,
76,1962
;
J.
L. Holland, ‘Exploration of a theory of
vocational choice, Part
1
:
Vocational Images and Choice’,
Vocatwnal Guidance
Quarterly,
11, 1963,
pp. 232-239; F.
L.
Field, C. D. Hehas and D. V. Tiedman, ‘The Self-concept in Career
Development:
A
Construct in Transition’, Personnel
and
CuidanceJournal,
41, 1963, pp. 767-771
;
A.
W.
Astin and
R.
C. Nichols, ‘Life Goals and Vocational Choice’,
Journal
of
Applied
PJychology,
A.
Roe,
Ihc
Psyclro[ogy
of
Occufithns,
John Wiley
&
Sons, New
York,
1956;
M.
Rosenberg,
Occupions
and
Values,
Free Press, 1957;
J.
0.
Crites, ‘Vocational interest in relation
to
vocational
rnotivation’,jmmurl
OfEducathnal Psycho&,
54,1963, pp. 277-285
D.
E.
Super,
Career
Deveb~:
Se@Xoncept
iVmry,
College Entrance Examination
Board,
New
York,
1963; F.
L.
Field
et
al.,
op.
cit.
E.
K.
Strong,
Vocational
Interests
of
Men
and
Women,
Stanford University Press, California,
1963;
A.
J.
Kingston, C.
E.
George and
W.
P. Meens, ‘Determining the relationship between
individual interest profiles and occupational forms’,
Journal
of
Educational
Psychology,
47, 1956,
pp. 310-316; G. F. Kuder,
‘A
comparative study of some methods of developing occupational
keys’,
Educatwnal and Psychological Measurement,
17, 1957, pp. 105-1 14;
J.
S.
Terwilliger, ‘Dimen-
sions of Occupational Preference’,
Educational and Psychological Measurement,
23, 1963, pp. 525-542
A.
G.
Smithers, ‘Occupational Values in a Technological University’,
Nature,
London, 1969
(in press)
;
A.
G.
Smithers, ‘Aspirations and Expectations of Engineering Students’,
British
journal
of
Industrial
Relations,
Vol.
VIII,
No. 3, November 1969, pp. 414-422
100
48,
1964, pp. 50-58
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