The authors examined the degree to which 1st-year college students endorse a career calling and how levels of calling differ across demographic variables and religiousness, life meaning, and life satisfaction. Forty-four percent of students believed that having a career calling was mostly or totally true of them, and 28% responded to searching for…

The current study explored the relationship of the presence of, and search for, a calling to the career development of 3091 first year college students. The presence of a calling correlated positively with decidedness, comfort, self clarity and choice-work salience and correlated negatively with indecisiveness and lack of educational information.…

This study examined the variables incoming first-year college students believed were most important to their long-term career choice. A sample of 31,731 students were surveyed from 1995 to 2004, and results revealed that men placed a greater emphasis on making money, women placed a greater emphasis on working with people and contributing to…

A sample of 3,570 first-year college students were surveyed regarding the factors they deemed most important to their long-term career choice. Students as a whole identified intrinsic interest, high salary, contributions to society, and prestige as their 4 most important work values. Additional analyses found men more likely to espouse extrinsic…

The Self-Directed Search is a self-administered, self-scored instrument constructed to enable persons to assess their resemblance to each of 6 occupational types (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional) thereby aiding them in achieving greater vocational success and satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to…

Career orientation of college women was studied through examination of type of major chosen and attitudes influencing career decisions. Subjects were senior university students. Study points out differences between women choosing occupations such as teaching and those choosing careers in science. (EK)

The use of a self-counseling device is explored as a diagnostic tool in identifying college students who may be better suited to vocational training programs. (Author)

To those who remember the student activism of the 1960s and early 1970s, the new generation of college students seems remarkably unconcerned with social issues. A study was conducted to compare the values and attitudes of students attending the University of Maryland, College Park in 1976 and in 1986. Freshmen entering the university in 1976…

Discriminant analyses techniques were applied to freshmen California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and Holland Vocational Interest Inventory (VPI) data for 914 male students and were used to predict curricular membership after two years of university education. (Author)

The Self-Directed Search for Educational and Vocational Planning (SDS) is a self-scoring, self-administering instrument designed by John L. Holland, author of the Vocational Reference Inventory. Preliminary use of the SDS led to the speculation that some people were very dissatisfied with their results and others were quite pleased. Of the 4,631…

The responses of freshman samples from 1973 (N=2407) and 1974 (N=1492) to the University of Maryland Census are described and compared. Results indicated: (1) A greater percentage of freshmen in the 1974 sample was found to be living on campus in a resident hall or Greek house. Of the entering students who commuted to school, a greater percentage…

Occupational goals of students were related to their attitudes and expectations about college. Attitudes concerning selection of major and the career choice process were also related to occupational goals. Occupational goals not only are excellent predictors of future occupation, but also are part of the vocational decision-making process. (Author)

A study examined the extent to which college students differentially evaluated women in traditional, nontraditional, and unspecified occupations. It also investigated whether sex-role identification was a variable moderating the attitudes of students toward the kinds of occupations women selected. The Situational Attitude Scale for Women in…

Four items on educational and vocational decisions were analyzed from the l969 University Student Census of the University of Maryland. A random samole of l00 students from each class was studied and comparisons were made by class and sex. Results indicate that: (1) more freshmen and sophomores were undecided and uncertain about their vocational…

The purpose of this study was to provide test-retest reliability data for Holland's Self Directed Search for Educational and Vocational Planning (SDS). Sixty-five subjects were administered the SDS 7-10 months after they completed it during freshman orientation. Results indicated little change in summary codes obtained by subjects. Median…