Person-Thing Orientation as a Predictor of Engineering Persistence and Success

Interest has emerged as an important factor affecting the recruitment and persistence of engineering students. In this study interest is operationalized as a differential orientation to persons called Person Orientation (PO), distinguished by an interest in interpersonal interactions, and an orientation to things called Thing Orientation (TO), distinguished by a desire for mastery over objects. This study was conducted in two phases with approximately one thousand engineering students. The first set of data was collected when the students were in their first year, and the second set of data was collected from the same population of students in their fourth (and for many their graduating) year. Students’ person and thing orientation were measured along with their GPA, and their intention to pursue an engineering major (in their first year) and an engineering career (in their fourth year). The results showed that male engineering students in this sample tended to be higher in thing orientation and that thing orientation was a significant predictor of both an intention to pursue an engineering major and an engineering career.