Career aspirations among Smith undergraduates

Jacquelynne Eccles, Radcliffe College. Henry A. Murray Research Center

This longitudinal study was designed to investigate intrapsychic variables that might influence women's career aspirations and ultimate career choice. The first wave of the data collection was conducted in spring, 1975. One hundred and ten Smith College undergraduates, enrolled in an introductory psychology course, volunteered to participate in this questionnaire study. The battery of questionnaires included Mehrabian's need achievement and affiliation scales, a modified Internal-External scale (adapted from Black), attributional patterns for success and failure in various occupations, Spence's scale tapping attitudes toward work and family, attitudes toward the women's movement, Goff's agency/communion value scale, and information on background and life goals. The second wave of the data collection was conducted in 1978, when 22 of the original respondents, mostly seniors, were...