Date of Award

2-1-1996

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

Abstract

Presenting problem. The measurement of expressed occupational preference continues to be affected by occupational sextyping, a non-interest related variable. Teasing out bias (sextype) from restrictiveness (real and artifact gender differences) is needed to help improve sex-fairness in vocational measurement. Occupational sextyping may affect internalizations of external expectancies of what one should be like or likes as much as what an individual is truly like or likes, altering preference.Research and methods. Responses were obtained from an anonymous data pool (n = 16,484) of 18-22 year olds who submitted their SII to the test publisher for scoring. Mean age and standard deviation of respondents is 19.61 (SD = 1.32), as compared with the male (n = 6,567) mean of 19.62 (SD = 1.31) and a female (n = 9,917) mean of 19.59 (SD = 1.33). Age is not likely a confound in this study. Gender, subject GOT scale scores, and item Holland Occupational Codes are the independent variables in this investigation. 28 occupational titles on the SII part one were utilized as dependent variables with two levels: "like" and "dislike". DV's were assigned sextype ratings consistent with Shinar's (1975) criteria and findings.Several tests to assess differential endorsement that could control for preference-interest confounds were employed: the signed difference (SPD-X), Beta Mantell-Haenszel procedure $(\beta\sb{\rm M-H}),$ logistic regression (b weight analysis), and related follow-up procedures. Indices that test for uniform differences were then correlated with item sextype to estimate the variance accounted for by sextype on preference, after preference-interest parameters are controlled.DIF indices suggested that male-female differences generally resemble the sextype pattern, even as several deviations were noted. DIF indices have moderately strong correlations with sextype: r =.65 on "like" and r = $-$.66 on "dislike".Conclusions. Gender differences in vocational preference seem to both resemble and have moderately strong correlations with sextype as predicted. Controlling for preference-interest parameters revealed underlying gender differences of even neutrally sextyped occupations. Sextype's influence on preference was discussed. Psychometric and political aspects affecting future (and historical) costs and benefits of item and test revisions were raised.

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