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Individual Differences in Perceptions of Occupations and Occupational Reinforcers
Author(s) -
SHUBSACHS ALEXANDER P. W.,
DAVISON MARK L.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of occupational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 2044-8325
pISSN - 0305-8107
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8325.1979.tb00464.x
Subject(s) - psychology , similarity (geometry) , perception , multidimensional scaling , reinforcement , social psychology , vocational education , developmental psychology , salient , pedagogy , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , image (mathematics)
Individual differences in subjective occupational perceptions were investigated. Forty‐three students and 11 vocational counsellor/researchers judged the similarity of all possible pairs of 18 occupations, three from each of Holland's categories. Subjects rated each occupation on 11 occupational reinforcers. The unity of all but Holland's Conventional category was supported by the configuration of occupations in a four‐dimensional representation obtained from a multidimensional scaling (MDS) of the similarity judgements. Holland's hexagonal arrangement of the categories was not supported. Regressing occupational reinforcer ratings on to MDS dimensions indicated that the reinforcers were generally a significant component of occupational perceptions. The Independence reinforcer, however, was a significant component only for the counsellor/researchers and Compensation was more salient to the students than to the counsellor/researchers.