THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL PREFERENCE AND APPROVAL EXPECTANCY FOR OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE FROM SIXTEEN ROLE FIGURES IN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Most studies of interpersonal influences on occupational choice behavior have utilized atheoretical measures with only face or content validity. This study used social learning theory to systematically investigate the relationship between the preference expressed for occupations and the expectancy for reinforcement from sixteen role figures for choosing occupations. The moderating effects of race and sex of research participants were also investigated. By testing the validity of the construct approval expectancy for occupational choice, this study set out to explore the social construction of occupational preference.; The study included 100 male and female undergraduate students of three racial groups, from a major metropolitan university. They completed: an instrument which identified seven occupations at seven preference levels (PLs) ranging from most preferred to most disliked; another which identified sixteen role figures (RFs) from family, peer, school, work, and other arenas. These occupation and RF names were entered on the Rockwell Occupational Approval Grid (ROAG). Then, each ROAG elicited 112 (=7 x 16) approval expectancy (AE) scores, each score representing the approval expected from one role figure if the research participant were to enter the occupation at one preference level.; It was hypothesized that occupational preference and approval expectancy for occupational choice are positively related. Because of earlier studies' differing methodologies and conflicting findings about sex/race differences in role figure influence, this study asked research questions about sex/race differences in the RFs for which PL and AE are related.; The data were submitted to BMDP4V's multivariate ANOVA for repeated measures designs. The results strongly supported the hypothesis. AE and PL also were positively related to each role figure taken separately (simple main effect of PL at each RF). No meaningful differences appeared among the race/sex subgroups.; Supplementary analysis revealed that occupational prestige may explain the homogeneity of significant results regarding the research questions. Approval expectancy was offered to explain the social construction of prestige as well as preference. Future research should control for prestige, and examine role figure differences in approval expectancy for choosing preferred occupations differing on factors such as sex-stereotype and Holland codes.