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Title: The Role of Social Psychological Variables in the Status Attainment of Young Men
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Koppel, Ross |
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The Role of Social Psychological Variables in the Status Attainment of Young Men Ph.D. Dissertation, Temple University, 1981 Cohort(s): Young Men Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning Keyword(s): Attitudes; Control; Education; Family Background and Culture; Intelligence; Internal-External Attitude; Job Tenure; Labor Force Participation; Labor Market Outcomes; Locus of Control (see Rotter Scale); Marital Status; Occupational Aspirations; Occupational Attainment; Rotter Scale (see Locus of Control); School Quality; Schooling We attempt to ascertain the roles that three social psychological variables play in the labor market attainment of young men. The three variables are: occupational aspirations, self-assessed expectations of reaching those aspirations, and the Rotter locus of control scale. To examine the influences of these factors we observe their effects within a matrix of variables generally thought to determine labor market rewards. These other variables are: family background, intelligence, education, school quality, age, job tenure, responsibility for dependents, marital status, region of country, and size of local labor force. We ascertain our measures near the completion of each respondent's schooling. Labor market outcome measures are collected at the last year of our study period -- five to nine years after completion of school. The data for this research are from the Young Men's cohort of the NLS. Three interrelated research strategies reflect our hypotheses: 1) we determine if any of the social psychological variables significantly affect labor market outcomes; 2) we determine how much of the explained variance is shared between social psychological and other factors; we develop and test path models reflecting the hypothesized interrelations of our social psychological and other variables. Findings include: social psychological variables measured before full-time labor market participation directly affect income and occupational attainment; respondents with higher aspirations and/or more confidence attained higher status jobs than those with less ambitious goals and/or with less confidence about occupational success; "internals" -- those who believed that they have more control over their lives -- have higher earnings than the "externals." Further, we found that those with high expectations of reaching their goals earn considerably more than those who are less optimistic. These data also reveal that a substantial proportion of variance is shared between the social psychological and other variables. Path analysis indicates that occupational aspirations and expectations are important intervening elements in the process of occupational and income attainment, mediating much of the influence of intelligence, family background, and education. |
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Bibliography Citation
Koppel, Ross. The Role of Social Psychological Variables in the Status Attainment of Young Men. Ph.D. Dissertation, Temple University, 1981. |