Using Holland's personality theory of occupational decision making, a study examined the influence of personality/career fit on initial medical career aspirations of college freshmen, and the extent to which the fit is associated with maintaining or abandoning these aspirations. Overall, results support the theory and illustrate how personality…

Because it focuses on the interactions between students and their environments, Holland's theory of vocational choice provides a powerful framework for studying college experiences. The present study assessed the relative merits of psychological and sociological interpretations of Holland's theory by examining the relationships among students' …

A model is posited that teaching career choice at the end of the sophomore year of college was function, not only of aptitude, family backbground, secondary school experiences, and precollege career choice, but also of college characteristics, institutional environmental dimensions, and measures of the college experience. (Author/MLW)

Faculty at a large state university were classified according to Holland's theory of vocational choice. The findings were supportive of Holland's theory and indicated that changes in instructional workload will not affect research or public service activities of faculty members. (Editor/LBH)

Patterns of degree selection in 1970-71 and 1978-79 are compared with each other and with that of men. The rate at which women's representation in a field changes is judged by an index of rate of change, and the redistribution of women among fields is analyzed. Possible explanations are offered. (MSE)

A survey of 305 undergraduates tested a causal model for choice of computer science as a major. The model found causal differences for males and females. Attitudes toward mathematics played a more complex and stronger role for men, and experience played a stronger, more positive role for women. (Author/MSE)

Women employed in sex-balanced and male- and female-dominated occupations in the public sector have comparable levels of job satisfaction. In private firms, women in sex-balanced careers are more satisfied with the intrinsic nature of their jobs than those employed in female-dominated occupations. (Author/MLW)

Data about alumni, students, and staff--organized around concepts of job entry, decisions, and changes in goals, jobs, and majors--revealed the importance of satisfaction on the first job, a changing relationship between jobs and majors, the impact of the liberal arts' study on educational aspirations, and the rationale for choice. (Editor/JT)

A longitudinal study, based on Holland's theory of occupational choice, found accentuation of initial group differences for artistic abilities in both male and female college students and for enterprising abilities of male students within academic subenvironments. Data support Holland's theory that students' initial selection of academic…

A study investigated relationships between academic majors and six undergraduate student work values (authority, recognition, administrative responsibility, financial success, helping others, artistic creativity), using Holland's theory of occupational choice. Subjects were 18,137 students persisting at four-year institutions from 1985 to 1989.…

The intergenerational effect of mother's or father's possession of a baccalaureate degree was examined for two racial groups who were respondents to the 1971 and l980 CIRP surveys. A 15-variable block recursive model was estimated to study vocational behavior processes as related to five categories of variables. (Author/MLW)

A survey of engineering students (436 responses) who participated in either an academic research or a cooperative work program found that both programs strongly influenced participants' skills, job values, and life objectives. Cooperative employment influenced students' skills and career decisions, and research experience influenced values and…

Examined the persistence of students (n=937), 24 years of age or older, studying in two- and four-year degree programs by combining data from a survey questionnaire and institutional records. The structural equation model of Cabrera et al. (1993) was adapted for this older population, with identification of three additional variables: career…

A study investigated causes of initial interest in and attrition from natural sciences and engineering among 5,320 students entering 4 highly selective institutions in 1988, with attention to probable causes of disproportionate attrition of women. Reasons for high attrition were based on cognitive variables or the perceived "chilly"…