To address high STEM college attrition rates, it is critical to understand what motivates undergraduates' pursuit of STEM. The current study investigated the association of a diverse socio-demographic background with different types of perceived chemistry career affordances (prosocial, other communal, and agentic) and their association with…

Decades of research on engagement, retention, and under-representation in STEM conclude that a better understanding of learner development as a long-term, social process is needed. Social identity theory is increasingly used to understand the interplay between individual development and social structure. The present report summarises findings from…

In this study, we surveyed 570 Calculus I and Calculus II students at two large public universities in the Northeastern region of the United States. We explored the relationship between these students' career goals in mathematics and other STEM fields, with their mathematics identity and self-identified personality attributes. Our findings suggest…

The purpose of this work-in-progress study is to examine science identity of elementary school students in relation to participation in science. The questions asked in this initial analysis were: How will a field trip to a science research and learning center affect students' desires to learn and participate in science and does interviewing…

Currently, there is a shortage of Americans entering STEM careers. Furthermore, women remain underrepresented in these fields. In this paper I discuss the career decisions of three undergraduate women mathematics majors who, during their undergraduate years, expressed an interest in obtaining a career in mathematics but lacked substantial…

Teacher attrition poses a problem to music education, with 11% to 27% of music educators planning to leave the teaching profession annually (Hancock, 2008; Killian & Baker, 2006). This author notes, few studies have been conducted to ascertain why music educators make the decision to remain in the teaching field. Members of the Texas Music…

This study examined the relationship between global self concept and the congruence between the individual's current occupation and the rating on the Strong Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII). Employed adults who sought career counseling completed the SCII and the Wallace Self Concept Scale. The subject's current occupation and SCII General…

To examine the interrelationships among undergraduate students' interests and values, their self-concepts, and their choice of an academic major, 298 college students (116 males, 182 females) completed a self-report questionnaire, the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, and the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values. An analysis of the results showed…

Possible selves are concrete images of what people think they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming in the future. It was hypothesized that the satisfaction with achieving the possible self will be higher the more the person has focused on this possible self and the more emotionally involved the person…

A retrospective methodology was used to assess if there are any statistically significant relationships between university students who are in a teacher preparation program or who indicate an interest in becoming a teacher (preservice teachers) compared with those who indicate they are not interested in becoming a teacher (nonteaching students)…

The construct of self-implementation in occupational choice among a population of post high school vocational-technical students was investigated. Results supported the self-implementation construct in the study population but revealed differences in male and female response patterns, some of which had been attributed to self-esteem in previous…

The relationship between anxiety, educational self-theory, and vocational preference was investigated using two separate samples (149 and 262) of high school students. Anxiety was measured using the anxiety component of Zuckerman's Affect Adjective Checklist (AACL). A measure of self-theory was obtained via the Profile of Read/Ideal Scholastic…

The impact of the college experience and the impact of being in the workplace on family and career values need to be addressed. This study examined instrumental and expressive self-concepts and career and family values of college students during and after completion of college. In 1988, 97 first-year college students and 121 college seniors…

This paper discusses the outcomes of a study that examined the importance of personality to identity formation in Terman's sample of 1,528 intellectually gifted children in 1936 and 1940. Based on the children's responses to questions concerning their occupational choice and factors that influenced their decision, participants were classified into…

Perry's scheme of intellectual and ethical development was examined for sex differences with respect to content areas for which sex differences have elsewhere been suggested: occupational choice, interpersonal relationships, and sexual identity. In addition, the content area religion and ego development, as measured by Loevinger's sentence…