Correlates of the perception of occupational prestige.

Abstract

Measures of the perception of occupational prestige and vocational maturity of 313 high school students representing grades 9 through 12 were investigated together with variables: father's occupation, occupational choice, grade level, age, intelligence, verbal and non-verbal abilities, and reading and math achievements. Significant correlates of the perception of occupational prestige, showing no sex differences. were vocational maturity (p<.001), educational level associated with father's occupation (p<.01), educational level required for the occupation chosen by the student (p<.001), IQ (p<001), verbal ability `p<.001), non-verbal ability (po.:01), reading etra tri-A rtclae(,eryein4(1)<001) achievement (p<.001). There was no correlation, however, between the pertetion of occupational prestige and grade level or age indicating that the perception of occupc-tional prestige hierarchy must have been established much earlier in childhood, at least by grade 9 or 13 years of age. Data on vocational maturity as measured by the Crites Vocational Development Inventory Attitude Scale are also presented and discussed. U.S, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. Paper presented to the 1973 Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association; New Orleans, February 27, 1973. FILMED FROM BEST AVAILABLE COPY CORRELATES OF THE PERCEPTION OF OCCUPATIONAL PRESTIGE The individual's perception of occupational prestige hierarchy may be viewed as the strength of affective responses, positive or negative, he attaches to occupations. The perception of occupational prestige hierarchy as a variable (measured in terms of accuracy or lack of it using as the criterion a national norm established by the 1;ational Opinion Research Center in 1947) has been found to be significantly associates with counseling seeking behavior (Tseng and Thompson, 1968), motivational factors including the motive to approach success and the motive to avoid failure (Tseng and Carter, 1970), socio-economic status (Tseng, 1971), and persistence in school (Tseng, 1972). Vocational maturity is a complex multi-dimensional construct. Super and Overstreet (1960) reported six indicies of vocational maturity which seemed to have construct validity. The indicies were concerned with choice, acceptance of responsibility specificity of information, specificity of planning, extent of planning, and use of resources. According to Cribbons an.:::,ohmes (1964) e4tt Tatiables .,,,n7t.c.1:511ted to readines5 for vocatinO.A' vere-fact-ors_im .1.1=e factors in occupational choice, ,ferbalized strewxhs and weeknessgas, accuracy -,17 self-appraisal evidence of self-ratings, interests, values and independence of choice. Crites (1969) advanced a model of vocational maturity with four dimensions consistency of vocational choice, wisdom of vocational choice, vocational choice competencies, and vocational choice attitudes which subsume eighteen variables. In validating a scale for the measurement of the maturity of vocational attitudes (vocational choice attitudes) in adolescence, Crites found that verbally expressed vocational behaviors matured with increasing age during adolescence (Crites, 1965). Within the framework of viewing vocational choice as a process of longitudinal vocational decision-making that takes place throughout the period of adolescence, the