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JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Vol 1 I , 43-55 (1990)
The protestant work ethic and vocational preference
ADRIAN FURNHAM AND EVA KORITSAS Department of Psychology, University College, London, London, U. K .
Summary The study examined the relationship between various measures of the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) and Holland’s (1973) hexagonal model of vocational preference which specifies six personality and environmental types. It was predicted that PWE measures would be positively correlated with realistic, enterprising and conventional types but not social investigative or artistic. The hypotheses were supported but the PWE measures, themselves all correlated, were also positively correlated with the artistic type. Implications of these findings for vocational guidance and the assessment of individual differences is discussed.
Introduction Psychology, compared to most other social sciences, has been late to investigate Weber’s (1905) Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) thesis that attempts to account for the origins of modern capitalism. Psychological research on the PWE has been concerned mainly with devising psycho- metrically assessed measures of the PWE; investigating the relationship between PWE beliefs and other work and non-work related behaviors; and examining the relationship between the PWE beliefs and other individual difference measures of personality, values and social attitudes (Furnham, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986). Since questionnaire measures of the PWE were first developed over 15 years ago, over 50 empirical psychological studies have been published on the topic (Furnham, 1984, 1989), and many researchers believe that it provides a robust and predictive individual difference measure. However more recently others have argued that the PWE alone may not capture people’s work orientations because it is only one of many salient work values (Nord, Brief, Atieh and Doherty, 1988).
People who believe in the PWE tend to have high internal locus of control beliefs (Furnham, 1987; Lied and Pritchard, 1976; MacDonald, 1972; Mirels and Garrett, 1971; Waters, Bathis and Waters, 1975); conservative attitudes and beliefs (Furnham and Bland, 1982; Joe, 1974; MacDonaId, 1971); high need for achievement (McClelland, 1961; Furnham, 1987) and individualistic attribution styles (Furnham, 1982; Feather, 1984). People who believe in the PWE tend to endorse more conservative instrumental and terminal values such as obedience, salvation, cleanliness, security and politeness and be against values such as equality, harmony, love, broad- mindedness and imaginativeness (Feather, 1984; Furnham 1987).
Furthermore, as an individual difference, independent variable PWE beliefs have been found to be predictors of work-related behavior. Blood (1969), using his own scale, found that the more a
Addressee for correspondence: Dr Adrian Furnham, Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WCI, U.K.
0894-3796/90/0 10043-1 3 $06.50 Received 18 April 1988 0 1990 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Final Revision 6 July 1988
44 A. FURNHAM AND E. KORITSAS
worker agreed with the ideals of the PWE the more heishe was satisfied in his/ her paid work and life in general. Aldag and Brief (1975) also looked at the relationship between the PWE (as measured by the Blood scale) and certain work values, (affective responses, perceived task dimension, perceived leader behavior, and higher order need strength). The results confirmed the findings of Blood (1969); PWE beliefs were positively correlated with internal work motivation and growth satisfaction as well as higher order need strength. Similarly Kidron (1978) found as predicted a positive relationship between the PWE and moral and calculative commitment to the work organization. This relationship held over all three organizations tested - an insurance company, a hospital and a personnel department. He concluded that although the PWE is associated with strong moral identification with the organization for which one works, it need not necessarily indicate a willingness to remain in a given system.
Greenberg (1977) in a series of studies found that high PWE scorers’ performances improved and low PWE scorers’ performances declined, when given negative performance evaluation. He also found that, when told a co-worker was superior to them at a task which brought them unearned rewards, high PWE scorers performed at a high level and felt neutral about the task, whereas low PWE scorers performed poorly but tiked the task. In a later study Greenberg (1978) found that belief in the PWE among train commuters correlated positively with the relative frequency of working compared to not working while commuting, perception of commuting as an extension of work rather than leisure and a preference for working rather than commuting. Greenberg (1979) later found that endorsing of the PWE is related to perceived fairness in using various equity inputs. In one experiment high PWE scorers were shown to distribute money to hypothetical workers in proportion to their total productivity by taking into account both the quality and duration of work, while low PWE scorers paid only according to duration ignoring quality. It was also found that high PWE scorers believe it fairer to base reward on performance when differences were attributed to internal rather than external causes, while the reverse was found for low PWE scorers.
Other studies have looked at the relationship between PWE and actual work behavior. Merrens and Garrett (1975) suggested that as the PWE holds that hard steady work is itself worthy, and unwillingness to work is seen as a symptom of absence of grace or as sinful, high PWE scorers would perform better on tasks designed to provide low motivation and interest levels. As predicted they found high PWE scorers spent significantly more time participating in a boring repetitive task than low PWE scorers. Ganster (1981) however failed to replicate this result and concluded that Merrens and Garrett’s task was not representative of real jobs and that their experiment may well have induced apprehension evaluation and hence biased the result.
The profile of the PWE believer then is of an independently minded, competitive, hard-working individual who is prepared to persevere at a task to achieve desirable ends. PWE scores tend to correlate significantly with internal locus of control scores, conservatism and beliefs in instru- mentalism, equity and individualism (Furnham, 1989).
Given that people who endorse the PWE have specific values, beliefs and behavior patterns do they as a result have specific vocational choices? Are PWE believers more attracted to certainjobs compared to others?
Although there are a number of theories that have attempted to specify why people choose certain occupations and the consequences of ideal versus non-ideal, or good (person - job) fit versus bad fit jobs, without doubt the theory that has attracted most attention is that of Holland (1973, 1985).
Holland (1973) suggested that one can characterize people by their resemblance to each of the six personality types: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional, which are the product of characteristic interaction among a variety of cultural and personal influences.
PWE AND VOCATIONAL PREFERENCE 45
The environments in which people live and work can also be characterized according to their resemblance to six model environments corresponding to the six personality types. Because the different types have different interests, competencies and dispositions, they tend to surround themselves with people and situations congruent with their interests, capabilities and outlook on the world. People tend to search for environments with will let them exercise their skills and abilities and express their personality, i.e. social types look for social environments in which to work. It has however been suggested that some environments are more satisfying than others irrespective of the personality of the person (Mount and Muchinsky, 1978). Congruent environments provide job satisfaction for the subjects because they are among people with similar tastes and values to their own, and where they can perform tasks which they enjoy and are able to do. Some environments, e.g. the social environment, contain people with whom a wide variety of individuals can get along, and provide tasks which many types of people enjoy and find easy to do. Mount and Muchinsky’s results suggest that even if a person’s aptitude would be more congruent with a realistic or investigative environment, they find a social environment interesting enough to obtain satisfaction from it.
In addition to the core idea of P-E fit some secondary concepts are proposed which can be used to determine more efficiently the goodness of fit between P and E. Firstly, Holland suggests that within a person or environment some pairs of types are more closely related than others, and that the relationship within (which yields a measure of consistency) and between (which yields a measure of congruence) personality types or environments can be ordered according to hexagonal model, in which the distances within and between the personality profiles and job codes are invariably proportional to the theoretical relationships between them. These degrees of relatedness are assumed to affect job satisfaction and general well-being. The types are ordered in a particular manner (R1ASEC)-realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional. As a useful and approximate way of showing the degrees of relatedness among the six types, they are arranged at the vertices of a hexagon such that those which are closest are most similar. Thus the investigative and artistic types are similar and hence close together because both are concerned with intellectual pursuits, although in different ways ~ the investigative type is more methodical and data-oriented while the artistic type is more spontaneous. By inference intermediate proximities on the hexagon depict intermediate degrees of psychological similarity.
A second concept is differentiation, which means that some people and environments are more clearly defined than others; for example, a person or environment may be dominated by a single type (well-differentiated), or may resemble many types equally well (undifferentiated). The better the environment or person is differentiated the more likely the person is to find a congruent job, and the more likely he will be to have high job satisfaction and good mental health as a result.
The third measure is congruence or compatibility referring to a personality and job type which are very similar e.g. a realistic type in a realistic environment. This measure is also derived from the hexagon model. Incongruence occurs when a personality type lives or works in an environment that provides opportunities and rewards foreign to the person’s preferences and abilities, (e.g. a realistic type in a social environment). Congruence is therefore the best measure of P-E fit as defined by French, Rodgers and Cobb (1974) and Cooper (1983). Strictly speaking it is only congruence and not consistency or differentiation that measures person-environment fit. Consistency is a characteristic of either a person’s profile or of an environment, but it says nothing about the relationship between the two; nor does differentiation, which is only a measure of ‘peakedness’ of a profile. Although consistency and differentiation are not directly measures of P-E fit, they will be briefly considered in this study to make comparison with other studies possible (e.g. Wiggins et al., 1983). The hexagonal model is used in Holland’s theory to derive both consistency and congruence but not differentiation.
46 A. FURNHAM AND E. KORITSAS
Along with many attempts to demonstrate the positive consequences of P-E fit such as job satisfaction and negative consequences such as psychological distress (Furnham and Schaeffer, 1984), various researchers have examined individual difference and personality correlates of the hexagonal types. Using the 16 PF Peraino and Willerman (1983) found, as predicted, that social and enterprising occupations (ones that require sociability, enthusiasm and adventurousness) were more closely associated with extraverted behavior than was found in investigative and realistic occupations. Similarly Costa, McRae and Holland (1984) looked at the relationship between neuroticism, extraversion and openness and Holland’s types. The results showed strong significant associations between social and enterprising vocations and extraversion, as well as significant correlates between investigative and artistic interests and openness to experience. Similarly individuals interested in conventional vocations tended to be closed to experience. More recently, Naylor, Care and Mount (1986) were able to show that Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory was able to accurately and predictably identify the various occpational types.
How are high and low PWE scores related to Holland’s (1973, 1985) six vocational types? The most direct and useful source of evidence for this relationship is a study by Mirels and Garrett (1971) in which subjects with measured PWE beliefs rated their preference for a number of different occupations from the Strong Vocational Interest Bank (SVIB). High PWE scorers preferred conventional and realistic occupations (banker, dietician, farmer, policeman, office- worker, pharmacist, veterinarian) and disliked social and artistic occupations (advertising man, author, artist, architect, music teacher, psychologist).
They concluded that endorsement of the PWE values is associated with interest patterns characteristic of people in occupations demanding a ‘concrete, pragmatic orientation’ towards work. In general the quality and quantity of products associated with these occupations can be evaluated according to basically extrinsic, objective, and easily specifiable standards (such as a farmer’s crop yield). These standards, highly related to earned profit carry much ‘consensual validity’ and are the ones most likely to be used by the worker as a measure of his own success. The service occupations (Holland’s ‘realistic’ type) are associated with endorsement of the PWE are also very amenable to objective evaluation. Typically, occupations associated with endorsement of the PWE, place a premium on conventional adherence to prescribed role- appropriate behavior, and conversely require little innovativeness or creativity and make relatively few demands on emotional sensitivity or close interpersonal skills. These primarily ‘social’ dispositions would be important for success in most of the occupations with interest patterns that correlate negatively with the PWE.
Research on PWE and work values confirms the idea that the patterning and regularity of working hours, role-identity with the task, and intrinsic work satisfaction are important functions served by work for high PWE scorers (Aldag and Brief, 1975; Rim, 1977; Wanous, 1974). These functions relate to the work styles that Mirels and Garrett (1971) associated with the realistic and conventional occupations, and hence it is expected to be confirmed in this study. These defining characteristics separating occupational interests of high and low PWE scorers, are well reflected in the dimensions used to divide the Strong Vocational Interest Bank (Costa, Fozard and McCrae, 1977).
Finally, a very fundamental aspect of the PWE is associated with entrepreneurialship. Atieh, Brief and Vollbrath, (1987), argued that there was a paradox in the PWE literature in that €’WE beliefs seem correlated with conservative, risk-averse behaviors, while entrepreneurs are risk prone. They were not successful in resolving the paradox but argued that from a theoretical point of view PWE beliefs should be oriented towards capitalism and free enterprise. It expected therefore, that enterprising is positively correlated with the PWE scores.
P W E A N D VOCATIONAL P R E F E R E N C E 47
Method Subjects In all 108 took part in the study as unpaid voluntary subjects. The sample consists of 41 males and 67 females who ranged in age from 17 to 54 years with a mean age of 25 years. Two groups of people were approached: employed people and students. The working people were contacted through a variety of settings, while the students were drawn from the authors’university. Most of the employed people were in professional jobs though there were a few unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Just over half were full-time under- or post-graduate students, while the remainder were in full or part-time employment. Two-thirds had completed final schooling exams (66 per cent had A levels); 27 per cent had graduate or post-graduate qualifications, while only 7 per cent had only some secondary school education. There was a good response rate (92 per cent) though one or two questionnaires were incomplete.
Questionnaires ‘The Self-Directed Search’ (Holland, 1973) This is a measure used to determine each subject’s personality ‘profile’ in terms of the typology as described in the previous section. Since each of the six vocational types are assumed to have characteristic activities, competencies and occupational preferences; the SDS is structured to contain scales for assessing these three aspects of personality. The questionnaire is divided into three main sections; the first is a seale to determine what activities the subject most enjoys - so this section consists of sets of activities typically associated with each of the six vocational types (and grouped under their respective headings). The subject is required to indicate which of the activities he likes to do, and which he does not. The second section is a scale to determine the competencies of the subject, which is measured in a similar way to the activities section - in that the subject indicates the activities he can do well, and those that he cannot do or has never tried, from sets of activities characteristically associated with each vocational type. The third section is a scale to determine the subject’s occupational preferences, and is therefore a very shortened version of Holland’s alternative questionnaire, the Vocational Preference Inventory, and requires the subject to indicate the occupations that interest or appeal to him, and those that he dislikes - from six sets of occupations, again representing the six vocational types. The section of Self-Estimates of the Types was not included in this study, since they are not involved in determining a subject’s ‘profile’, and the high degree of subjectivity involved in these ratings mean that their main value is in vocational counselling, rather than in research.
The SDS was scored according to Holland’s Manual (1985) instructions as far as possible, although alternative methods were used when they improved on the original in some way, by simplicity or clarity for instance. The manual shows acceptable psychometric properties: test- retest reliable median of 0.7 1; and both acceptable levels of concurrent and predictive validity.
The Protestant Work Ethic measures (Furnham, 1988) In all seven PWE measures exist, all with overlapping constructs and different psychometric properties. As the total number of questions from all seven measures barely exceeds 75, it was decided to use all measures. Though probably a little clumsy, there are distinct advantages in using all seven scales: firstly it allows for maximum comparability with the PWE literature in which a variety of scales has been used; secondly the scales tap different dimensions of the PWE
Tabl
e 1.
The
seve
n qu
estio
nnai
res
used
in th
e st
udy
$ Sc
ale
N of
ite
ms*
R
espo
nse
Rel
iabi
lityt
V
alid
ity
Stud
ies u
sing
the
scal
e:
0
scal
e m
Prot
esta
nt E
thic
(PE
) (G
olds
tein
and
Eic
hhor
n, 1
961)
Pr
o-Pr
otes
tant
Eth
ic (P
PE)
Scal
e (B
lood
, 196
9)
Prot
esta
nt W
ork
Ethi
c (P
WE)
(M
irel
s and
Gar
rett,
197
1)
19 (3
)
Spir
it of
cap
italis
m (S
oC)
Scal
e (H
amrn
ond
and
Will
iam
s, 19
76)
6 (0
)
Wor
k Et
hic
and
Leis
ure
Ethi
c 7
(0)
(WLE
) (B
uchh
olz,
197
7)
8 (2
)
Ecle
ctic
Pro
test
ant E
thic
(EP
E)
Scal
e (R
ay,
1982
) 18
(9)
Aus
tral
ian
Wor
k Et
hic
(AW
E)
*Ite
ms
in b
rack
ets
indi
cate
the
num
ber
of r
ever
sed
item
s.
tSB
, Spe
arm
an-B
row
n; K
R, K
uder
-Ric
hard
son;
C, C
ronb
ach.
Scal
e (H
o, 1
984)
7
(1)
Agr
ee-D
isag
ree
I o
r2
Agr
ee -D
isag
ree
6to
1
Agr
ee D
isag
ree
7to
I
Agr
ee - D
isag
ree
-3 to
--3
Agr
ee- D
isag
ree
7to
1
Agr
ee-D
isag
ree
5 to
1
Agr
eeeD
isag
ree
4to
1
Non
e
SB 0.
70
SB 0
.67
KR
0.7
9 C
0.7
0
Non
e
Non
e
C 0
.82
C 0
.76 -
:Thi
s lis
t is
not
exha
ustiv
e.
Non
e C
oncu
rren
t Pr
edic
tive
Con
curr
ent
Con
curr
ent
Con
curr
ent
Con
curr
ent
Pred
ictiv
e
Con
verg
ent
Con
curr
ent
x
0
i
Non
e 2
Ald
ag a
nd B
rief (
1979
). in
Am
erak
es rf
al.
(197
1), F
illey
$
and
Ald
ag (
I978
), R
im (
1977
) M
erre
ns a
nd G
arre
tt (1
975)
, (1
977,
197
8), K
idro
n (1
9759
, G
anst
er (1
981)
, Fur
nham
(1
982,
198
3, 1
984,
198
5, 1
986)
N
one
Buc
khho
lz (
1977
), D
icks
on
and
Buc
hhob
(197
7),
Furn
ham
(198
4, 1
985,
198
6)
Non
e
Ho
(198
4)
P W E A N D VOCATIONAL P R E F E R E N C E 49
not all of which are related to the six types conceptually similarly; and thirdly one could see this as a replication of the results in the same study. These are set out in Table 1 .
Procedure Subjects were tested in small groups either at their place of work or study. They were informed as to the purpose of the study and thanked afterwards.
Results Preliminary results The Distribution of Types Table 2 show the mean raw scores for each of the six vocational types as calculated across all subjects. The vocational type scoring highest in this sample is clearly the ‘social type, with a mean raw score of 20.3 which is high (since the maximum = 36), and contrasts with the lowest scoring type, i.e. ‘realistic’ having a mean of 8.7, and also a large standard deviation. Given the occupation of those in the sample these results are much as to be expected.
Table 2. Distribution of raw SDS type scores
Type Raw score S.D.
Realistic 8.7 10.5
Artistic 16.3 8.7 Social 20.3 6.5 Enterprising 14.3 7.1 Conventional 10.4 6.2
Investigative 16.8 7.2
The Hexagonal Model Correlates Figure I shows the hexagonal arrangement of the six vocational types, which was constructed from the correlations between these types that were found in the present study. This model shows reasonably high agreement between the results of Holland (1973) and those of this study. Certainly this level of comparison is similar to other studies in the area (Furnham and Schaeffer, 1984). Given the size of the Nin this study and the cultural, occupational and temporal difference between these and Holland’s original study, it is perhaps surprising that the results are so similar rather than emphasizing the differences. The correlations between adjacent points on the hexagon (the highest ones) are very similar to those of Holland; but the correlations between more distant types of vocations are less comparable to Holland’s.
Correlates between the PWE measures Table 3 shows the correlations between each of the seven PWE scales. It should be noticed that the correlations should be highly negative between the PWE scales and the WLEL since this is Buckholz’s (1977) subscale measuring the leisure ethic (the opposite of the work ethic). From the above correlations we can see that although they all correlate positively with the appropriate scales as expected, some scales do show higher agreement than others. Indeed these correlations
50 A. FURNHAM AND E. KORITSAS
Figure I . Correlations from the hexagonal model (correlations from Holland in parentheses)
may reflect a lack of convergent validity between these various results. From Table 3 we can thus determine which are the highest correlating scales; and order them accordingly, as in Table 4. Table 3 also shows the means, standard deviations and alpha's for each of the seven measures. 'The low alpha's for the Blood (1969) and Hammond and Williams (1976) results merit attention and may explain why they correlated poorly with the vocational preference measures.
Table 3. Means, S.D. Alphas and correlations between the various PWE measures
MEANS.D.ALPHAPE PWE PPE SoC WLEL WLE EPE AWE
Goldstein 15.05 4.11 0.71 PE Mirels and Garrett 71.75 12.88 0.77 0.50* PWE Blood 29.39 4.64 0.58 0.257 0.38* PPE Hammond 23.94 6.16 0.49 0.60* 0.54* 0.271 soc Buckholz 35.03 8.00 0.66 -0.31* -0.44* -0.45* -0.161 WLEL Buckholz 23.75 7.38 0.72 0.35* 0.44* 0.207 0.48* -0.08 WLE Rav 81.29 18.27 0.79 0.19: 0.34* 0.09 0.27t -0.227 0.00 EPE Ho 29.09 9.53 0.63 0.36* 0.61* 0.29* 0.53* -0.217 0.38* 0.70* *p<0.001. tfiO.0 I. :p<o.o5.
PWE A N D VOCATIONAL P R E F E R E N C E 51
Table 4. Rank order of PWE questionnaires inter- correlating with one another
Scale Number of scales (total 7) positively correlating to p<.OO1
Best PWE 7 scale AWE 6
PE 5 SOC 4 WLE 4 PPE 3 EPE 2
The Mirels and Garrett (1971) scale and the Ho (1984) scale seem to overlap most with the other measures and the Ray (1982) measure the least. The former two measures have a high degree of overlap while the latter measure had many items dealing with religious and moral issues. This correlation matrix is very similar to that reported by Waters et al. (1975) using fewer PWE measures, and a large study by Furnham (1989) with over 2500 subjects tested on all seven measures.
Main findings The major aim of this study was to examine the relationship between PWE measures and Holland’s six types (see Table 5).
Table 5. Correlations between the six Holland types and the various PWE measures
PE PWE PPE SoC WLELWLE EPE AWE
Realistic 0.17 0.26t -0.01 0.15 -0.15 -0.01 0.741 0.551
Artistic 0.04 0.311 0.10 0.10 -0.217 0.52 0.521 0.46$ Social -0.02 0.18 0.18 -0.02 -0.11 0.01 -0.07 0.08 Enterprising 0.207 0.287 0.18 0.24t -0.07 0.11 0.511 0.511 Conventional 0.42f 0.20* 0.20* 0.307-0.11 0.12 0.15 0.227
Investigate 0.07* 0.10 0.12 0.01 -0.15 0.08 -0.08 0.06
* p < 0.05. tp<0.01 . $ p < 0.001.
These correlations indicate a quite clear pattern. Firstly neither investigative nor social types correlated with any of the eight measures which supports the original hypothesis. Secondly two types - enterprising and conventional were positively correlated with five of the PWE measures. The realistic type correlated with four PWE measures positively and the artistic type three (and one negatively with the leisure ethic). The Mirels and Garrett (1971) and the Ho (1984) questionnaire correlates most frequently with Holland’s types. The main hypothesis was supported with one exception namely the significant association between PWE scores and the artistic type.
Given the weak convergent validity coefficients reported in Table 3 it may have been wiser to factor analyse all the PWE measures and derive one probably multi-dimensional measure to relate to vocational preference. Though this would simplify interpretation it would not allow for comparison with the many previous PWE findings based on the various different questionnaires used in this study.
52 A. FURNHAM AND E. KORITSAS
Finally a stepwise multiple regression was performed on the four types found to correlate with the PWE - realistic, artistic, enterpreneural and conventional. These results are presented briefly in Table 6 .
Table 6. Significant determinants of the four Holland types derived from the stepwise multiple regression
Variable Predictors R2
Realistic EPE 0.54 Sex 0.62
Artistic EPE 0.27 Occupation 0.38
Entrepreneurial EPE 0.26 AWE 0.30
Conventional PE 0.18 Occupation 0.29
As can be seen from Table 6 the EPE is the major predictor of three of the four Holland types, accounting between a quarter and a half of the variance. In two of the four occupations there was a significant predictor though when this factor was partialled out earlier it did not effect the relationship between the PWE and Holland types. Certainly the regression results tend to support the observation that PWE beliefs are a major determinant of vocational choice.
Discussion As predicted PWE beliefs are associated with certain of Holland’s vocational types. The hypothesis showed that believers in the PWE typically preferred occupations of, and had work styles and values associated with, the realistic and conventional types; and typically disliked occupations and values of the social and artistic types, was partially supported. There were significant correlations between PWE scales and realistic, enterprising and conventional types, however, an additional type was found to correlate with (most) PWE scale scores to the same extent namely artistic, which is definitely at variance with the nature of the hypothesis, and with earlier research. The social type was not found to correlate with PWE scores, which was as predicted; and the investigative type (about which no predictions were possible) did not correlate with PWE either.
In terms of explaining the correlation of the artistic type, there are no ways of approaching this without militating against all previous patterns of findings in this area. This is due to the fact that on Holland’s hexagonal arrangement, the artistic type is very far removed from the other types which correlated with the PWE, and so to explain how diametrically opposed personalities could be associated through the variable of the PWE is problematic. It is possible, however, that PWE beliefs correlate not with a broad ‘artistic’ type but rather with a preference for certain artistic interests which are primarily leisure pursuits as opposed to vocational pursuits. This is suggested on the basis of items from the ‘artistic’group on all three sections of the SDS questionnaire, being related to general aesthetic activities, which do not necessarily imply a disposition toward ‘artistic’ occupations. PWE believers in this study could therefore be classified as ‘artistic’ without conforming to the full range of characteristics that Holland associates with this vocational type. On the other hand, the social desirability of artistic types (particularly for young people) is such that even for high PWE scorer these vocational outlets seemed attractive and hence they may have favored them.
PWE AND VOCATIONAI. PREFERENCE 53
However, the predicted results seems to add credence to the strong associations of PWE believers with certain vocational interests. The only previous study on this relationship (Mirels and Garrett, 1971) used the ‘Strong Vocational Interest Blank’, yet the present study found very similar results using Holland’s self-direct search. The present study overcame the practical problems of earlier research in that it used independent measures (the SDS and PWE scales) which did not have the problem of ‘item contamination’ (overlapping contents of the two questionnaires) which would make interpreting a relationship between the two areas very doubtful.
Relating the PWE to Holland’s typology served to further delineate the vocational groups, in suggesting that certain types may in addition to having different work-styles, have different orientations concerning the significance of work in their life (which the PWE is considered to measure). This suggests that realistic and conventional types place an increased value on work, than other types. Similarly, this investigation also serves to further describe the PWE concept, by relating it to types of vocational interests, therefore translating this particular measure of work orientation into qualitatively different types of work-styles and in suggesting that belief in the PWE somehow predisposes one to certain vocational interests and occupations.
Correlational research of this type however does not allow one to specify the nature or mechanism by which the observed relationship is mediated. It is possible that since vocational interests and PWE beliefs are largely developmentally determined (both claiming to be a product of socialization) there would be inherent difficulty in determining the direction of causality in the proposed relationship between the two areas, i.e. do PWE beliefs cause one to be interested in different vocational activity or, do certain experiences of types of vocations cause one to believe in the ideals of the PWE?
The PWE was found to be associated with four vocational types (realistic, conventional, enterprising and artistic) but this may either imply that there is an association with four separate groups of people, or, if these types were all found within the same person, that there is an association with a certain group of people having a combination of vocational types. These two alternative explanations would each account for a differing number of individuals since the first would involve four different groups of people, and the second only one or two groups of people.
The results from this study suggest that measures or tests of occupational or vocational preferences - such as that of Holland - could be usefully supplemented by PWE measures or any other work-related attitude variable. It is not only the type of work that attracts people but their very attitude to work (their PWE) that may determine why certain jobs are found to be more or less attractive than others. One implication of this study then is that just as people may be dimensionalized in terms of the extent to which they adhere to the PWE, so jobs or occupations may be equally described. Hence vocational guidance may benefit from the use of work values and orientation measures in addition to measures focusing on preferences.
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