Career Versatility of the Psychology Major: A Survey of Graduates

supporting

confidence: 68%

Job Satisfaction Correlates for College Graduates in Psychology

Lunneborg

Wilson

1982

“…The results can help faculty to design programs that will better prepare students for the future. Readerz interested in career programming innovations will discover that some of the authors mentioned in this article (e.g., Lunneborg, 1974Lunneborg, , 1985McGovern & Hawks, 1984, 1986Titley, 1978;Ware & Meyer, 1981) have also written about advising, career planning and placement, and curriculum projects in their departments.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lunneborg discovered complex relationships between educational and career experiences. Ware and Meyer's (1981) work at Creighton University conceptually integrated career development theory with systematic interventions, using the alumni survey to evaluate those efforts. Titley's (1978) study at Colorado State University first introduced a cross-sectional design to gather responses from alumni who had graduated 1, 5, and 10 years earlier.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Carving Out the Niche: A Review of Alumni Surveys on Undergraduate Psychology Majors

McGovern

Carr

1989

Information about psychology majors' activities after graduation is an important ingredient in the evaluation and renewal of undergraduate programs. In this article, we review the survey research on psychology alumni, analyzing the various survey objectiues, samples, results, and program implementations. Based on this review, we make recommendations about the design of future studies, the role of APA's Educational Affairs Office, and the use of life-span development theory and methodology to refine future alumni research in undergraduate psychology. "When . . . considering an undergraduate major, the college student sometimes rules out psychology on the grounds expressed something like this: 'Well, psychology is very interesting, but what can you do with it after you graduate?' " (King & Kimble, 1958, p. 23). After more than 30 years, little has changed in our need to promote the career prospects of undergraduate majors. This is especially true now that the number of baccalaureates awarded in psychology each year has reached 40,000 (Howard et al., 1986). What has changed is that our concern for these students and their future has insvired sovhisticated assessment methods for their employment and graduate school aspirations and innovative curricular interventions to respond to their needs. The future of psychology at the graduate level depends on the quality of our efforts at the undergraduate level (Bickman, 1985;Howard et al., 1986).In this article, we describe the ways researchers have assessed alumni of psychology programs. Surveys pose common questions. How have graduates fared in their employment situations? What are the alumni's retrospective judgments? How do employers analyze the launching and maintenance of successful careers? Resvonses to the surveys inform faculty, administratclrs, and students about life after graduation. The results can help faculty to design programs that will better prepare students for the future. Readerz interested in career programming innovations will discover that some of the authors mentioned in this article (e.g., Lunneborg) have also written about advising, career planning and placement, and curriculum projects in their departments. W e provide readers with an historical and critical analys~s of alumni studies. We believe that future research requires more sophisticated questions and methodology and that psychologrsts need to conceptualize t h e~r lnvestlgatlons of postbaccalaureate llvea more broadly There 15 a wealth of llterature In h~gher educatlon and m adult development to gu~de such efforts. Uses of the data also need to he expanded. The current zeltgelst, calling tor Increased as sessment, evaluation, and accountab~l~ty of programs (Ewell, 1985, Harr~s, 1985, Marchese, 1985 and the enrollment futures of lnstltutlons In whlch students want to guarantee t h e~r ablllty to pay back lncreaslng loan amounts (Kramer & Van Dusen, 1986), should foster well-des~gned studies.In the following sections, we tlrst descrlhe the samples for representatlve stud~es Second, we c r~t~c...

“…The career versatility of the major is welldocumented by Ware and Meyer (1981) and Woods (1979). But the question remains, are our majors equally satisfied in the wide variety of occupations that they enter?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Job Satisfactions in Different Occupational Areas among Psychology Baccalaureates

Lunneborg

1985

The present study addresses the issue of job satisfaction among psychology majors employed in different occupational areas. The career versatility of the major is welldocumented by Ware and Meyer (1981) and Woods (1979). But the question remains, are our majors equally satisfied in the wide variety of occupations that they enter? Malin and Timmreck (1979) noted an overwhelming desire among University of ousto on undergraduates fo; careers in psychology or closely related fields. Forty-two percent wanted careers in clinical and counseling. Korn and Lewandowski (1981) labeled this phenomenon "the clinical bias in the career plans" of majors and argued for making students more aware of employment opportunities in nonclinical fields, as have Titley and Titley (1982). If our graduates are less satisfied using their psychological skills and knowledge as office managers and loan officers, how advisable is it to say, "Look at all the jobs you can do with your BA in psychology?" Surely we must point out the types of satisfactions and dissatisfactions previous psychology -.-.majors say are associated with employment in different fields. METHODThe participants in this study were 178 psychology baccalaureates of the University of Washington who graduated between March, 1978 and March, 1979. A total of 354 psychology majors graduated over these 5 quarters, of whom 304 had addresses to which the survey was deliverable (59% return rate). The postcard surveys were mailed in November, 1983 and follow-ups occurred in December, 1983 and February, 1984 The sample consisted of 65% females and 35% males, and of 69% BA recipients and 3 1% BS recipients. These proportions do not differ significantly from the population as a whole. Thirty-two percent had supplemented psychology with another major as undergraduates, while 55% had pursued further education and 80% (N = 142) were currentlv employed. Their jobs were coded by the author using ~oe's (1956) vocational interest framework, which embraces eight groups. The percentages of the 142 employed respondents in each of Roe's groups are: service 24%, business contact 7%, organization 30%, technical 11%, outdoor 0%, science 12%. general cultural 14%. and arts and entertainment 1%. . -General cultural jobs incllde teaching, law, librarianship, and academic psychology posts.The data were gathered through a postcard survey, which asked for occupational and educational information, and had graduates rate their satisfaction with the psychology BA/BS in six aspects. Following these ratings appeared one of four different career items, including the one which is the focus of this report. It asked "How true of your job are these facts?", followed by eight job satisfactions. Ratings were of the form: 0 = not, 1 = some, 2 = medium, and 3 = very ("satisfied" in the case of the six psychology degree aspects, and "true" in the case of the eight job satisfactions). Data were analyzed using chi-square and analysis of variance. All differences reported here were significant at the .05 level.