Personality And Background Differences Between Women In Traditional And Nontraditional Academic Majors

Author : Paul David Warner
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (143 download)

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Download or read book Some Characteristics of Female College Students who Select Academic Majors in Fields of Exact Science and Non-exact Science written by Paul David Warner and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present study, conducted in 1974, was a longitudinal followup of two groups of female subjects who had participated in an earlier study (Wright and Johnson, 1960) while the subjects were university students. One group of the subjects had majored in fields considered at that time to be traditionally feminine majors, i.e. social sciences, art, music, education, homemaking, etc. The other group had majored in fields of exact sciences, which at the time were considered more traditionally masculine. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether differences noted in the 1960 study will exist between these two groups of women relative to their life styles and personality characteristics. One of the one-hundred nine subjects who were presently available to participate in the follow-up study, seventy-sex responded to a mailed questionnaire and adjective check list. Thirty-two of the present respondents had originally been in the non-traditional group (exact science majors) and forty-four had been in the traditional group (non-science majors). Of eleven descriptive areas covered by the questionnaire in the follow-up study, only four areas showed a significant difference between the two groups in questionnaire responses regarding age, number who have married since the original study, number of children, number divorced, number who have, or are currently working, and stated reasons for working. The two groups did differ with regard to the percentage who had changed their college major during school, with a much greater percentage of change among the exact- science group (changing from exact science to more traditional majors for women). The two groups also differed in the amount of counseling they had received during their college years, although no differences were found in the amount of counseling received subsequent to their college years, More of the exact-science majors had sought and received professional counseling while in school than was true of the non-science group. Both groups of women perceived ;Thus, the observed differences did not represent intense scores for the study subjects. The present follow-up study recommended that further research be carried out using groups of women who have committed themselves to either non-traditional or traditional roles in order to better determine common or differing personality traits which might characterize each group.