The factors that influence whether college students have made a choice of major and are satisfied with their choice were studied. The relative influence of gender, sex role attitudes, cognitive styles, and decision-making process on choice of major was examined by means of path analysis procedures. It was found that progress in the decision-making process most directly influenced choice of major. Gender, sex role attitudes, and cognitive styles had little direct influence on choice of major; rather, their influence was indirect, via the decision-making process. These results justify the following causal inferences: Gender influences sex role attitudes; sex role attitudes and cognitive styles influence progress in the decision-making process; and the latter directly influences whether a satisfying choice of major has been made.
College students who had made a choice of major and occupation and who had indicated that they were highly satisfied with their choice were studied. The majors and occupations chosen were assigned a male-dominance index representing the proportion of men to women in the field. This index for major and for occupation served as the criterion variable. Gender, sex-role attitudes, and cognitive complexity were the predictor variables. Path analysis arid multiple regression analysis procedures were used. It was found that gender significantly predicted choice of gender-dominant majors and occupations. It was also found that the feminine-related, but not the masculine-related, sexrole attitude and cognitive complexity variables significantly predicted choice. The implications of these findings for expanding the career options of men and women are discussed.
In Study I responses to the 60 BSRI items from 580 college students were factor analyzed. Four factors were rotated to the Varimax criterion and lavalues > +1.0, while Masculine sex-typed per
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