Scientific Occupations Research Articles

Vocational interests of career and homemaker oriented women

Women who had completed the SVIB-W as freshmen in college were contacted 13 to 21 years later and were classified as career ( N = 236) or homemaker ( N = 527) oriented on the basis of their actual work experiences. Significant differences between the groups were found on 25 of the 44 occupational scales, one of the three nonoccupational scales, and four of the 19 basic interest scales. The interests of the homemaker oriented women were more similar to the interests of women in business, nonprofessional, and home economics occupations while the interests of the career oriented women were more similar to the interests of women in the verbal-linguistic, verbal scientific, and scientific occupations. The results are discussed in terms of previous research and Holland's Occupational Classification system.

Interest and personality measurement: relationship between Self-directed Search and Eysenck Personality Inventory scores.

Relationships between vocational interests and personality characteristics have long been a matter of concern in vocational psychology. Holland's (1966) theory of vocational choice and his development of the Vocational Preference Inventory (1965) and the Self-directed Search (1970) emphasize the central relationship between these variables. Haase (1971) in a canonical analysis of the inventory and the Strong Vocational Interest Blank extracted six canonical roots. The first root was given the conceptual label 0s. ~ntroversion-extraversion. It correlated positively with the social, enterprising and artistic scales of the inventory and the social service and sales oriented occupations of the Strong. It correlated negatively with the realistic and intellectual scales of the inventory and the Strong scientific occupations. As part of a college sophomore vocational counseling and testing program, data on the Search scales and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Eysend & Eysenck, 1968), measuring extraversion-introversion (E) and neuroticism (N), were obtained. Summary (reflecting the three highest scores in order of preference) codes from the Search scales were compared with scale scores on the Eysenck for 113 males aged 18 to 20 yr. Individuals were categorized into high, middle and low on both the neuroticism and the extraversion scales. Categorization was on the basis of norms for American college students (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1968), with splits being made at the 33.3 and 66.7 percentiles as shown below.

The Vocational Interests of Dartmouth College Freshmen: 1947‐67

Almost every freshman entering Dartmouth College in the last 20 years has completed the SVIB; this is a report of the trends in their measured interests over this period. Briefly, interest in scientific occupations has been increasing, interest in business occupations decreasing. Mean scores on the CEEB and high school rank information are included here, and may show substantial increases among the more recent classes. Selection with these variables may have created the trends in measured interests. Because selection of a student, or of his peer group, is probably the most important influence an institution has on a student, we should know more about the indirect effects of our current selection techniques.

Occupational Careers: A Sociological Perspective.

Professor Slocum uses the concept of career as the central integrating idea for a wide range of information about contemporary work and occupations from current social science research, from historical sources, and from his own considerable personal experience and that of his students. This second edition incorporates much new data and many new approaches that provide insight or raise significant questions about the validity of conventional attitudes toward occupational careers. Greater emphasis is placed on the rapid changes that have taken place in recent years in attitudes toward work, on the continuing impact of scientific and technological developments on occupations and work organizations, on new trends in the demand for academic and professional personnel, and on the career-related problems of women and minority groups. The author proceeds to the analyses of the impact of scientific and technological change on career planning, the occupational requirements of work organizations, occupational status levels, the labor force and employment trends, and recent trends and future prospects in major occupational categories. The work is devoted to detailed discussions of the characteristics of professional and scientific occupations, the relationship between education and occupation, special problems of intergenerational and individual occupational mobility, and the dynamics of educational and occupational aspirations and decisions. The book is directed toward the problems of career choice and planning that are likely to confront the young adults for whom the book will be especially useful. The book is brief but comprehensive in coverage, free of jargon and lucid in expression. It will be an invaluable resource and text for teachers and vocational counselors dealing with problems of the sociology of occupations and work and in educational programs concerned with occupational choice and guidance.

Occupational Prestige in the United States, 1925-63

A correlation of .99 between prestige scores derived from the 1947 North-Hatt-NORC study of occupational prestige and a 1963 replication of it indicates that very few changes in occupational prestige ratings have occurred in the sixteen-year period. Cautioned by the recognition that the North-Hatt-NORC list of occupations is not a very representative or extensive sample of occupations, one can marshal evidence from other studies dating back to 1925 which does not invalidate the view that no appreciable changes in the prestige structure of occupations have occurred in the United States in the last four decades. While over the entire period, 1925-63, no systematic trends can be detected in the prestige of particular occupations, it is possible to show that systematic, though small, changes were ocurring between 1947 and 1963. Scientific occupations were increasing in prestige, culturally oriented occuaptions, were occurring between 1947 and 1963. Scientific occupations were increasing in prestige, culturally oriented occupations were falling, and artisans were enjoying a mild upward trend. Nevertheless, the overriding conclusion must be that the structure of occupational prestige is remarkably stable through time as well as space.

Values, Personal Influence, and Occupational Choice

Values, Personal Influence, and Occupational Choice

Hydrodynamical Analogy to E = m c<sup>2</sup>

For many years the study from certain viewpoints of the theory of gravity waves in a simple fluid has formed one of my scientific occupations. Of late I have been stimulated in this direction by the work of others, for example through the accomplishments of my friend, Professor R. LONG, who in 1956 succeeded in the specification of the more exact solution for the solitary wave problem.

Edward Heron-Allen 1861-1943

The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is a high human endeavour in whatever field it is employed. It may be undertaken in order to acquire learning or explore unknown fields, which may or may not prove of particular intellectual or practical service; but deliberate, zealous and patient endeavours are essential attributes for the attainment of worthy achievement. There are many such students who are not professionally engaged in scientific occupations; and the results of their enquiries are mostly recorded in publications of local and other societies, while a few are given wider recognition. In this band of independent workers who began to increase the sum of natural knowledge with little hope or expectation of attaining scientific distinction, the names of Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Sir John Evans and Sir Alfred Kempe come naturally to mind in connexion with the Royal Society in contemporary history. In his spirit and service, Heron-Allen may appropriately be said to belong to this group of investigators. He was a man of wide-ranging versatility, but whatever enterprise he took up he was never satisfied until with persistent energy he had probed to the fundamentals of it and placed the whole matter in historical sequence. Hence there were few subjects within his ambit upon which he did not, sooner or later, produce a series of papers or a book treating the topic comprehensively and where possible tracing it back to its origins. His spirit was ever that of the scientific enquirer and his method of approach guided by a strong historical sense. Edward Heron-Allen was born on 17 December 1861, the son of George Allen, who was head of the firm of Allen and Son, solicitors, of Soho, London, founded in 1780 by Emmanuel Allen. The family was of Staffordshire origin, where it is known to have been established in the reign of Edward III. A branch spelling the name Alleyne and living at Grantham in Lincolnshire sent out an offshoot to the Barbadoes, where it achieved no little distinction; while the English branch produced at least one man of science in the person of John Allen, M.D., F.R.S. (1660-1741). Ralph Allen, of Bath, was the founder of the cross-country postal service and the grandfather of Emmanuel Allen.

Scientific Workers and the Armed Forces

THE announcement published in NATURE of January 13, p. 61, "that the operation of the Schedule of Reserved Occupations is being relaxed to enable men at or above the age of reservation in scientific occupations to volunteer in approved cases for service in the Forces" calls for certain comments.