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A comparison of two approaches to the Cognitive Differentiation Grid
Journal of Vocational
Behavior 30, 155-166 (1987)
A Comparison of Two Approaches to the Cognitive Differentiation Grid MICHAEL
T.
BROWN
Ball State University The Cognitive Differentiation Grid (CDG), much used as a measure of vocational differentiation, owes its heritage to Personal Construct Theory but represents an important departure from the theory and poses serious limitations to the study of vocational cognitions. This study examined whether a more theoretically consistent version of the CDG would yield results different from the currently used CM;. As hypothesized, it was found that subjects using their own constructs evidenced greater vocational differentiation than those using the CM?. It was also found that males evidenced greater vocational complexity than females. These data were interpreted to suggest that the CDG may be problematic in the study of vocational cognitions. The discussion focuses on the extent to which these data replicate and extend earlier research in cognitive complexity and on implications for career development research and practice. o 1987 Academic P~CSS, Inc.
Having its origin in Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 195% vocational complexity has generated a great deal of research activity in recent years (e.g., Bodden, 1970; Bodden & James, 1976; Bodden & Klein, 1972, 1973; Brook, 1979; Cesari, Winer, & Piper, 1984; Haase, Reed, Winer, 8z Bodden, 1979; Han-en & Biscardi, 1980; Lawlis & Crawford, 1975; Neimeyer & Ebben, 1985; Neimeyer, Nevill, Probert, & Fukuyama, 1985; Nevill, Neimeyer, Probert, & Fukuyama, 1986; Waas, 1984; Winer, Cesari, Haase, & Bodden, 1979; Winer & Gati, 1986; Winer, Warren, Dailey, & Hiesberger, 1980). It has been characteristic of researchers in the area to use the Cognitive Differentiation Grid (CDG; Bodden, 1969, 1970) to operationalize vocational differentiation, an index of vocational complexity. The CDG, however, represents an important departure from The author thanks Paula S. Duren and Janet E. Helms for their help in generating the ideas from which this study orginated, Lisa Paponetti and Morey Reindl for help in data collection, and to Teresa L. Story for her help in preparing the manuscript. The helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged. Correspondence concerning this article, including reprint requests, should be addressed to Michael T. Brown, Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services, Ball State University, Teachers College, Muncie, IN 47306. 155 OOOl-8791/87 $3.00 Copyright 62 1987 by Academic Press. Inc. Au tights of reproduction in any form reserved.
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Kelly’s theory and thus may have limitations for documenting and understanding cognitions relevant to vocational behavior. The Bodden grid, a modification of Kelly’s (1955) Repertory Grid Technique, provides subjects with a predetermined set of adjectives (constructs) to rate a number of preselected vocational titles. According to Kelly (1955), individuals differ in how each construes the world (events, people, job titles, etc.) and, consequently, different individuals may not share a standard set of constructs for use in making sense of it (the individuality corollary, p. 55). Consequently, providing constructs rather than eliciting them from persons, as advocated by Kelly (1955), can lead to difficulty in translating provided constructs into the respondent’s “personal” construct system. This difficulty adds extraneous variance to the differentiation scores (see Bannister & Mair, 1968; Cochran, 1977). As some others have observed (Cesari, Winer, Zychlinski & Laird, 1982), investigators of vocational differentiation have encountered characteristically large variances in differentiation scores. In addition, there are data drawn from the cognitive complexity literature which support Kelly’s (1955) idea that personal constructs relative to provided ones are better preferred (Fager, 1954) and more meaningful and useful (Adams-Webber, 1970; Bonarius, 1965; Isaacson, 1966; Isaacson & Landfield, 1965; Landfield, 1965). Yet, Kelly (1955) allowed that while individuals may possess different construct systems, they can be expected to share some common set of constructs (the commonality corollary, pp. 90-94). This would account for the fact that males and females, for example, have been shown to possess similar sex stereotypes of occupations (Shinar, 1975). The CDG was designed to provide respondents with constructs commonly used in thinking about different occupations (see Bodden, 1969, 1970). In comparing personal and supplied construct systems within the context of career evaluation, Co&ran (1977) found evidence indicating that persons were apt to be more coherent (integrated) and less fragmented when using personal rather than supplied constructs. Further, there is evidence that in some circumstances persons make more cognitively complex judgments using personal constructs than when using provided constructs (Barbour, 1969; Bonarius, 1965; Caine & Smail, 1967; Landfield, 1968; Metcalfe, 1974; Nystedt, 1976). Thus, while it has yet to be investigated, persons may be shown to make more vocationally differentiated judgments using personally relevant constructs than when using those provided in Bodden’s grid. Extending from Kelly’s ideas, the study of “personal” construct systems may yield more information regarding the vocational choice process than can be or is presently known through the study of provided constructs (see Cochran, 1977). If, however, the constructs provided in the CDG are in reality those which are commonly used by
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construing individuals, then one would not expect to find significant differences in differentiation between provided and personal constructs. Another important issue concerns the relationship between gender and vocational differentiation. There is ample evidence in the cognitive complexity literature that, depending on the stimuli being judged (rated), sex affects cognitive complexity (Crockett, 1%5; Deaux & Farris, 1975; Irwin, Tripodi, & Bieri, 1967; Little, 1969; Seaman & Koenig, 1974; Soucar, 1971). Brook (1979), though using a modification of the CDG, found that females used a greater number of constructs than did males in construing vocational counseling roles. Using the Bodden grid, Han-en, Kass, Tinsley, and Moreland (1979) discovered a relationship between gender and vocational complexity, though it was mediated by sex-role attitudes. Finally, the vocational literature is replete with evidence suggesting that women’s perceptions of the world of work differ from those of men (see Fitzgerald & Betz, 1983; Fitzgerald & Crites, 1980; Osipow, 1983). The evidence clearly suggests that gender may influence vocational differentiation. The purpose of the present investigation was to study whether differences exist in provided versus personal vocational differentiation scores and whether gender affects vocational differentiation. It was hypothesized that subjects using their own (personal) constructs would evidence greater differentiation than those using constructs provided in Bodden’s Cognitive Differentiation Grid. In addition, it was expected that male subjects would have higher differentiation scores than females, since socialization tends to orient males toward and females away from the world of work (Osipow, 1983; Zytowski, 1969). METHOD Subjects Subjects were 84 undergraduate students enrolled in departmental courses at Ball State University, 30 males and 54 females. Subject participation was voluntary and represented one option exercised by students to obtain course credit. The mean age of the sample was 20.76 (SD = 1.68) and the mean grade point average was 2.72 (SD = 0.44) on a 4.0 scale. The numbers of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors were 11, 25, 24, and 23, respectively; one person was a master’s degree student. Measures The Personal Questionnaire. The Personal Questionnaire gathered demographic data (sex, age, race, grade point average, year in school, college major, parents’ occupational and educational levels). Vocational differentiation. Two measures of vocational differentiation were used. The first was the Cognitive Differentiation Grid for vocationally related constructs (here labeled CDG-Provided; Bodden, 1969, 1970).
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The CDG-Provided employs a modification of Kelly’s (1955) Repertory Grid Technique; it consists of a list of 12 occupational titles across the top of a page, each of which is rated by the respondent on a series of 12 provided and vocationally relevant constructs (e.g., high vs low status). Each of the constructs appeared as a Likert 6-point scale positioned to the right of the grid with no neutral point. Two differentiation scores, the construct and occupational differentiation scores, can be obtained from the grid. The primary index of differentiation (see Bodden & James, 1976) and the one calculated in this study is referred to as the construct differentiation score (see also Neimeyer & Ebben, 1985). This score indicates how independently the constructs in the grid are used in evaluating each occupational title. In order to obtain the score, the number of redundancies (i.e., identical ratings) between the constructs for each occupational title are counted and summed across the titles. The lower this index, the less the redundancy and, hence, the more independent meanings the respondent is attaching to each of the titles-vocational differentiation. Not calculated in the present study, the occupational differentiation score (see Neimeyer & Ebben, 198% represents how differently each of the 12 occupational titles listed are viewed. A more complete description of the instrument and its initial validation can be found in Bodden (1969, 1970). The second measure of vocational differentiation, labeled CDG-Personal, was similar to the first in that the same occupational titles were used. However, subjects were asked to make a series of 12 triadic comparisons of the occupational titles, one for each row of the grid, until 12 construct dimensions were elicited (see Kelly, 1955). For example, for the first row of the grid, subjects were presented with the following triad of occupational titles: farmer, machine operator, architect. They were then asked to choose two of the three occupations which they considered to be most similar and to briefly, in a word or short phrase, describe the similarity. Under one pole (similarity pole) of a rating scale for the row, subjects were asked to write the word or phrase. Next, subjects were asked to describe, in a word or short phrase, how the third occupation differed from the other two and to write this under the dissimilarity pole of the rating scale. A different triad of occupational titles was presented for each of the 12 rows of the grid. The similarity and dissimilarity poles constituted anchor points on a 6-point Likert scale, positioned to the right of the grid, with no neutral point. Subjects were then asked to rate each occupation on each of the 12 construct dimensions they had created. The scoring procedure for the second differentiation measure was identical to that for the first measure. It should be noted that, like the Bodden measure, this second measure also departs from Kelly’s (1955) procedure by providing subjects with a preselected set of occupational titles (elements). In order to ensure that the grid elements would be within a person’s
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range of construing (the range corollary, pp. 68-72), Kelly directed respondents to nominate representative elements within a prescribed set of role categories, which were personally relevant to the respondent. Procedure
and Analysis
Subjects were invited to sign up for one of two testing sessions. In each session, participants were randomly assigned a research packet containing the Demographic Questionnaire and one of the vocational differentiation measures. Three sets of analyses were conducted. First, t tests and x2 analyses were performed on the demographic data in order to determine whether subjects differed between the two testing sessions. Second, t tests were conducted on the demographic data to determine whether subjects who received the CDG-Provided differed from those who received the CDGPersonal. Third, the data were analyzed by means of a 2 (type of grid) x 2 (subject sex) analysis of covariance using grade point average and year in school as covariates. It was expected that a subject’s cognitive ability, as indicated by college grade point average, would be related to that person’s level of cognitive complexity (see Crockett, 1%5). In addition, because grade level has been shown to be related to vocational maturity, which is also related to vocational differentiation (Super & Jordaan, 1982; Winer et al., 1979), grade level was also expected to be related to differentiation (see also O’Keefe & Sypher, 1981, p. 73). Two (type of grid) x 2 (subject sex) analyses of variance were conducted on grade point average and on grade level, and no significant differences were found; consequently, these two variables were appropriate to use as covariates (see Kirk, 1%8, pp. 457-458). RESULTS
The t tests and x2 analyses for testing session differences indicated a statistically significant difference due to subject race (x2 = 5.58, p = .02). Of the five blacks participating, all participated during the second test session; white subjects participated in the first (n = 43) and second (n = 36) sessions in approximately equal proportions, 54 and 46%, respectively. No other statistically significant sessiondifferences were found. As a result of the above analyses, data between testing sessions were combined. Also, analysesof demographic characteristics between subjects receiving different forms of the CDG yielded no statistically significant differences. Table 1 presents the results of the 2 x 2 analysis of covariance. The vocational differentiation cell means, adjusted and unadjusted for the covariates, are reported in Table 2. There was a statistically significant effect due to grid type on vocational differentiation scores (F(1, 78) = 61.40, p < .OOl). An examination of
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TABLE 1 Analysis of Covariance of Vocational Differentiation
ss
Source
MS
F
121,946.03 8,449.16 1,894.13
61.40** 4.25* 0.95
10,860.17 2,385.46 5,513.03 1,986.10
5.47* 1.20 2.78
df
Between subjects Grid type Sex Grid x sex
121,946.03 8449.16 1,894.13
Covariates GPA Year in school All Error
10,860.17 2,385.46 11,026.06 154,915.63
1 1 2 78
Scores by Grid Type and Sex X2
.44 .03 Beta 28.12 -5.29
* p < .05. ** p < ,001.
the adjusted means for this effect revealed that subjects completing the CDG-Personal (A4 = 168.55) reported greater vocational differentiation than subjects completing the CDG-Provided (A4 = 247.37). In addition, there was a significant main effect for subject sex (F(1, 78) = 4.25, p < .05). Males (A4 = 194.66) evidenced greater vocational differentiation than did females (M = 221.19). However, further inspection of the cell means suggested that despite the nonsignificant interaction term, the observed sex difference was primarily evident for respondents completing the CDG-Personal. Consequently, a post hoc t test was conducted for sex differences within each grid type. The results indicated that the score difference between males and females using the CDG-provided was not statistically significant (t(33.55) = -0.58, p = .569). However, sex differences on the CDG-personal approached statistical significance (t(32.52) - 1.97, p = .057), suggesting that males evidenced greater vocational kerentiation relative to females only when both used their personal ways of construing. Construct Differentiation
TABLE 2 Cell Means Adjusted and Unadjusted for Covariates Type of grid
CDG-Provided Unadjusted
CDG-Personal Unadjusted
Subject sex
Adjusted
N
M
SD
M
N
M
SD
Adjusted M
Male Female
15 31
242.20 250.26
41.26 50.66
239.71 247.37
15 23
151.80 178.96
39.47 44.36
149.61 180.90
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DIFFERENTIATION
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Finally, grade point average was shown to have a significant (F(1, 78) = 5.47, p = .02) and positive (p = 28.12) relationship with differentiation, that is, the higher the subject’s grade point average, the greater was the person’s vocational differentiation. A subject’s year in school was found to be unrelated to the person’s vocational differentiation. There were no other statistically significant differences found. DISCUSSION In order to understand vocational behavior, it would seem to be important to understand what and how people think about the world of work. While Kelly’s (1955) theory of personal constructs appears to be a useful model for studying vocational cognitions, these data, in conjunction with earlier reports, suggest that the Cognitive Differentiation Grid (Bodden, 1969, 1970) has important limitations as a means for applying the theory to the area of vocational behavior. The present data confirm the first research hypothesis and replicate the well-supported finding that personal constructs differ from provided constructs, as employed in the Cognitive Differentiation Grid, on a number of qualitative dimensions. They also represent an extension of this knowledge into the area of vocational psychology. The results clearly demonstrate that persons, regardless of sex, show greater vocational differentiation using personal constructs versus using the constructs provided in Bodden’s grid. Along with earlier findings (e.g., Adams-Webber, 1970; Bannister & Mair, 1968; Cochran, 1977), these results suggest that persons can better use their own vocational constructs than those provided by someone else. It is important to note that greater differentiation was found with respect to use of personal versus provided constructs in spite of two important methodological factors which biased the study against finding this effect. First, the CDG-Provided was designed specifically to provide respondents with vocational constructs commonly used in evaluating occupations; consequently, the provided constructs should have been very similar to respondents’ personal constructs. Second, the same occupational titles were used in the CDG-Provided and the CDG-Personal grid forms. Thus, respondents to the CDG-Personal grid were provided with occupational titles which may not have had relevance to their personal construct system (range corollary; Kelly, 1955). It is argued here that more dramatic differences in responses to the CDG-Provided and the CDG-Personal could have been found if respondents using the personal grid had been allowed to nominate their own occupations as well as their own constructs. Because personal constructs indicate more clearly and directly than do provided constructs the personal concerns of the vocational decision maker, examining a person’s idiosyncratic vocational construct system
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may help the vocational psychologist determine what information or intervention is necessary to facilitate vocational choice and adjustment processes. It is important to note that career guidance procedures typically involve providing people with considerations thought to be important in making career decisions (Cochran, 1977); these results underscore the position of Cochran that this practice may not be efficacious. The results of the present study also confirm the second research hypothesis that males would evidence greater vocational complexity than females. These data replicate previous research findings in the literature on cognitive complexity and expand our knowledge regarding gender differences in vocational processes involved in career decision making. It may be that more can be learned about the vocational cognitions of females if their personal constructs are documented and examined; here, again, the Bodden grid poses serious limitations. A potentially important contribution toward understanding women’s career development would be the cataloging and study of personal constructs of women and construing the world of work. However, the above discussion regarding sex differences in vocational differentiation is subject to two important qualifications. First, some previous investigators in the area of vocational differentiation failed to find sex differences in responses to the Bodden Grid (see Bodden, 1970; Cochran, 1983). Second, post hoc analyses indicated that the observed sex difference may be due chiefly to observed differences on the CDGPersonal and not to differences on the CDG-Provided. Considered together, it would appear that sex differences in vocational differentiation may be dependent upon use of one’s personal constructs. Specifically, females appear to evidence a lesser facility in construing the world of work only when they use their personal construct system, not when they are provided with typical ways of viewing the work world. While it is important to interpret the above findings cautiously, it is interesting to speculate how the above observations shed light on the career development of women. It is well documented that sex-role socialization has been found to affect the range of vocational options considered by females (see Fitzgerald & Betz, 1983). Perhaps sex-role socialization operates to restrict the range or type of vocational constructs women possess and thereby limits the range of vocational alternatives women perceive as options. In support of this hypothesis, Lawlis and Crawford (1975) found data indicating that pioneers (women who went into male-dominated fields) evidenced greater cognitive complexity (vocational differentiation) than traditionals (women who went into femaledominated fields). By way of implication, then, expanding women’s vocational construct systems or providing women with different ways of viewing the work world may expand the range of options considered by women. Certainly, the type and number of vocational constructs used
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by women and the impact of these constructs on vocational choice warrants further investigation. Another area of speculation and potentially important research concerns the observation that, notwithstanding the lesser vocational differentiation of females relative to males on the CDG-Personal, both males and females evidenced markedly greater vocational differentiation using the CDGPersonal relative to the CDG-Provided. One might ask whether high vocational differentiation has a positive or negative effect on the vocational choice process. Scholars have taken positions on both sides oftheargument, with some investigators (Cesari et al., 1984) concluding that it is not yet clear whether vocational differentiation is positive or negative, and with another (Cochran, 1983) concluding that both high and low intensity (differentiation) can be positive or negative. The present author is in agreement with Cochran (1983) that it is important to determine under what circumstances vocational differentiation is and is not efficacious. Once that is accomplished, one can determine whether increasing one’s level of vocational differentiation, as suggested here in order to expand women’s vocational choices, is desirable. It should be noted that no investigator has yet determined how to increase differentiation (Neimeyer & Ebben, 1985). The observed relationship between college grade point average and vocational differentiation is also interesting and deserves comment. While it seems reasonable to assert that complexity is related to cognitive ability (see Crockett, 1%5), earlier research has not demonstrated this relationship (O’Keefe & Sypher, 1981). Yet, the present investigation has demonstrated a statistically significant and positive relationship between vocational differentiation and grade point average. One explanation for the discrepant findings may be that since complexity can be different depending on domain (Crockett, 1%5), the domain of construing vocational titles may in some way be more relevant to academic ability than the domains previously studied. Winer, Cesari, Haase, and Bodden (1979) have reported data indicating that vocational differentiation, as measured by the Bodden grid, appears to be an empirically different concept from cognitive differentiation as measured by Bieri (see Bieri et al., 1966). Clearly, the relationship between cognitive ability and complexity in other domains, including vocational domains, needs further study. In summary, the results of the present study confirm the two major research hypotheses (1) that providing vocational constructs yields lower indices of vocational complexity than allowing subjects to use their personal constructs and (2) that males evidence greater vocational complexity than females, at least when personal constructs are used. The findings were interpreted to suggest that the Bodden Cognitive Differentiation Grid may not be as useful as employing personal constructs, as advocated by Kelly, in the study of vocational cognitions. It is also suggested that
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the study of the number and types of personal constructs used by women in making vocational choices may be a fruitful line of inquiry in efforts to understand the career development of women. An additional consideration which is underscored by this study is that the practice of providing people with particular ways of thinking about career issues may actually make the career choice and adjustment process more difficult. An alternative practice would be to determine how an individual currently construes the world of work and to use this knowledge to determine what vocational information or intervention the person would find most useful in the vocational decision-making process. Finally, these data suggest that the relationship between cognitive ability and vocational complexity needs further study. REFERENCES Adams-Webber, J. R. (1970). Elicited versus provided constructs in repertory grid technique: A review. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 43, 349-354. Bannister, D., & Mair, J. (1%8). The evaluation of personal constructs. Orlando/London: Academic Press. Barbour, P. I. (1%9). Some aspects of the reliability of the repertory grid technique. Unpublished M. SC. thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast. Bieri, J., Atkins, A., Briar, S., Leaman, R., Miller, H., & Tripodi, T. (1966). Clinical and social judgement: The discrimination of behavioral information. New York: Wiley. Bodden, J. L. (1969). Cognitive complexity as a factor in appropriate vocational choice. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University. Bodden, J. L. (1970). Cognitive complexity as a factor in appropriate vocational choice. Journal
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Crockett, W. H. (1965). Cognitive complexity and impression formation. In B. H. Maher (Ed.), Progress in experimental research in personality. New York: Academic Press. Deaux, K., L Farris, E. (1975). Complexity, extremity, and affect in male and female judgements. Journal of Personality, 43, 379-389. Fager, R. E. (1954). Communication in personal construct theory. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University. Fitzgerald, L., & Betz, N. (1983). Issues in the vocational psychology of women. In W. B. Walsh & S. H. Osipow (Eds.), Handbook of vocational psychology (pp. 83-95). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Fitzgerald, L., & Crites, J. (1980). Toward a career psychology of women: What do we know? What do we need to know? Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27, 44-62. Haase, R., Reed, C., Winer, J., & Bodden, J. (1979). Effect of positive, negative, and mixed occupational information on cognitive and affective complexity. Journal of Vocational
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Isaacson, G. I. (1966). A comparative study of the meaningfulness of personal versus common constructs. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri. Isaacson, G. I., & Landfield, A. W. (1965). Meaningfulness of personal versus common constructs. Journal of Individual Psychology, 21, 160-166. Kelly, Ci. A. (1955). The psychology ofpersonal constructs (Vols. l-2). New York: Norton. Kirk, R. E. (1968). Experimental design: Procedures for the behavioral sciences. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Landfield, A. W. (1965). Meaningfulness of self, ideal, and other as related to own versus therapist’s personal constructs. Psychological Reports, 16, 605-608. Landfield, A. W. (1968). The extremity rating revisited within the context of personal construct theory. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 7, 135-139. Lawlis, G. F., & Crawford, J. D. (1975). Cognitive differentiation in women and pioneertraditional vocational choices. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 6, 263-268. Little, B. (1%9). Sex differences and comparability of three measures of cognitive complexity. Psychological
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Neimeyer, G. J., Nevill, D. D., Probert, B., & Fukuyama, M. (1985). Cognitive structures in vocational development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 27, 191-201. Nevill, D., Neimeyer, G., Probert, B., & Fukuyama, M. (1986). Cognitive structures in vocational information processing and decision making. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 28, 110-122. Nystedt, L. (1976, August). Cognitive complexity and structural representations of role figures: A comparison of own and provided constructs (Reps. No. 473, l-13). University of Stockholm, Department of Psychology. O’Keefe, D. J., & Sypher, H. E. (1981). Cognitive complexity measures and the relationship of cognitive complexity to communication. Human Communication, S(l), 72-92. Osipow, S. H. (1983). Theories of career development (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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Behavior 30, 155-166 (1987)
A Comparison of Two Approaches to the Cognitive Differentiation Grid MICHAEL
T.
BROWN
Ball State University The Cognitive Differentiation Grid (CDG), much used as a measure of vocational differentiation, owes its heritage to Personal Construct Theory but represents an important departure from the theory and poses serious limitations to the study of vocational cognitions. This study examined whether a more theoretically consistent version of the CDG would yield results different from the currently used CM;. As hypothesized, it was found that subjects using their own constructs evidenced greater vocational differentiation than those using the CM?. It was also found that males evidenced greater vocational complexity than females. These data were interpreted to suggest that the CDG may be problematic in the study of vocational cognitions. The discussion focuses on the extent to which these data replicate and extend earlier research in cognitive complexity and on implications for career development research and practice. o 1987 Academic P~CSS, Inc.
Having its origin in Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 195% vocational complexity has generated a great deal of research activity in recent years (e.g., Bodden, 1970; Bodden & James, 1976; Bodden & Klein, 1972, 1973; Brook, 1979; Cesari, Winer, & Piper, 1984; Haase, Reed, Winer, 8z Bodden, 1979; Han-en & Biscardi, 1980; Lawlis & Crawford, 1975; Neimeyer & Ebben, 1985; Neimeyer, Nevill, Probert, & Fukuyama, 1985; Nevill, Neimeyer, Probert, & Fukuyama, 1986; Waas, 1984; Winer, Cesari, Haase, & Bodden, 1979; Winer & Gati, 1986; Winer, Warren, Dailey, & Hiesberger, 1980). It has been characteristic of researchers in the area to use the Cognitive Differentiation Grid (CDG; Bodden, 1969, 1970) to operationalize vocational differentiation, an index of vocational complexity. The CDG, however, represents an important departure from The author thanks Paula S. Duren and Janet E. Helms for their help in generating the ideas from which this study orginated, Lisa Paponetti and Morey Reindl for help in data collection, and to Teresa L. Story for her help in preparing the manuscript. The helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged. Correspondence concerning this article, including reprint requests, should be addressed to Michael T. Brown, Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services, Ball State University, Teachers College, Muncie, IN 47306. 155 OOOl-8791/87 $3.00 Copyright 62 1987 by Academic Press. Inc. Au tights of reproduction in any form reserved.
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Kelly’s theory and thus may have limitations for documenting and understanding cognitions relevant to vocational behavior. The Bodden grid, a modification of Kelly’s (1955) Repertory Grid Technique, provides subjects with a predetermined set of adjectives (constructs) to rate a number of preselected vocational titles. According to Kelly (1955), individuals differ in how each construes the world (events, people, job titles, etc.) and, consequently, different individuals may not share a standard set of constructs for use in making sense of it (the individuality corollary, p. 55). Consequently, providing constructs rather than eliciting them from persons, as advocated by Kelly (1955), can lead to difficulty in translating provided constructs into the respondent’s “personal” construct system. This difficulty adds extraneous variance to the differentiation scores (see Bannister & Mair, 1968; Cochran, 1977). As some others have observed (Cesari, Winer, Zychlinski & Laird, 1982), investigators of vocational differentiation have encountered characteristically large variances in differentiation scores. In addition, there are data drawn from the cognitive complexity literature which support Kelly’s (1955) idea that personal constructs relative to provided ones are better preferred (Fager, 1954) and more meaningful and useful (Adams-Webber, 1970; Bonarius, 1965; Isaacson, 1966; Isaacson & Landfield, 1965; Landfield, 1965). Yet, Kelly (1955) allowed that while individuals may possess different construct systems, they can be expected to share some common set of constructs (the commonality corollary, pp. 90-94). This would account for the fact that males and females, for example, have been shown to possess similar sex stereotypes of occupations (Shinar, 1975). The CDG was designed to provide respondents with constructs commonly used in thinking about different occupations (see Bodden, 1969, 1970). In comparing personal and supplied construct systems within the context of career evaluation, Co&ran (1977) found evidence indicating that persons were apt to be more coherent (integrated) and less fragmented when using personal rather than supplied constructs. Further, there is evidence that in some circumstances persons make more cognitively complex judgments using personal constructs than when using provided constructs (Barbour, 1969; Bonarius, 1965; Caine & Smail, 1967; Landfield, 1968; Metcalfe, 1974; Nystedt, 1976). Thus, while it has yet to be investigated, persons may be shown to make more vocationally differentiated judgments using personally relevant constructs than when using those provided in Bodden’s grid. Extending from Kelly’s ideas, the study of “personal” construct systems may yield more information regarding the vocational choice process than can be or is presently known through the study of provided constructs (see Cochran, 1977). If, however, the constructs provided in the CDG are in reality those which are commonly used by
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construing individuals, then one would not expect to find significant differences in differentiation between provided and personal constructs. Another important issue concerns the relationship between gender and vocational differentiation. There is ample evidence in the cognitive complexity literature that, depending on the stimuli being judged (rated), sex affects cognitive complexity (Crockett, 1%5; Deaux & Farris, 1975; Irwin, Tripodi, & Bieri, 1967; Little, 1969; Seaman & Koenig, 1974; Soucar, 1971). Brook (1979), though using a modification of the CDG, found that females used a greater number of constructs than did males in construing vocational counseling roles. Using the Bodden grid, Han-en, Kass, Tinsley, and Moreland (1979) discovered a relationship between gender and vocational complexity, though it was mediated by sex-role attitudes. Finally, the vocational literature is replete with evidence suggesting that women’s perceptions of the world of work differ from those of men (see Fitzgerald & Betz, 1983; Fitzgerald & Crites, 1980; Osipow, 1983). The evidence clearly suggests that gender may influence vocational differentiation. The purpose of the present investigation was to study whether differences exist in provided versus personal vocational differentiation scores and whether gender affects vocational differentiation. It was hypothesized that subjects using their own (personal) constructs would evidence greater differentiation than those using constructs provided in Bodden’s Cognitive Differentiation Grid. In addition, it was expected that male subjects would have higher differentiation scores than females, since socialization tends to orient males toward and females away from the world of work (Osipow, 1983; Zytowski, 1969). METHOD Subjects Subjects were 84 undergraduate students enrolled in departmental courses at Ball State University, 30 males and 54 females. Subject participation was voluntary and represented one option exercised by students to obtain course credit. The mean age of the sample was 20.76 (SD = 1.68) and the mean grade point average was 2.72 (SD = 0.44) on a 4.0 scale. The numbers of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors were 11, 25, 24, and 23, respectively; one person was a master’s degree student. Measures The Personal Questionnaire. The Personal Questionnaire gathered demographic data (sex, age, race, grade point average, year in school, college major, parents’ occupational and educational levels). Vocational differentiation. Two measures of vocational differentiation were used. The first was the Cognitive Differentiation Grid for vocationally related constructs (here labeled CDG-Provided; Bodden, 1969, 1970).
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The CDG-Provided employs a modification of Kelly’s (1955) Repertory Grid Technique; it consists of a list of 12 occupational titles across the top of a page, each of which is rated by the respondent on a series of 12 provided and vocationally relevant constructs (e.g., high vs low status). Each of the constructs appeared as a Likert 6-point scale positioned to the right of the grid with no neutral point. Two differentiation scores, the construct and occupational differentiation scores, can be obtained from the grid. The primary index of differentiation (see Bodden & James, 1976) and the one calculated in this study is referred to as the construct differentiation score (see also Neimeyer & Ebben, 1985). This score indicates how independently the constructs in the grid are used in evaluating each occupational title. In order to obtain the score, the number of redundancies (i.e., identical ratings) between the constructs for each occupational title are counted and summed across the titles. The lower this index, the less the redundancy and, hence, the more independent meanings the respondent is attaching to each of the titles-vocational differentiation. Not calculated in the present study, the occupational differentiation score (see Neimeyer & Ebben, 198% represents how differently each of the 12 occupational titles listed are viewed. A more complete description of the instrument and its initial validation can be found in Bodden (1969, 1970). The second measure of vocational differentiation, labeled CDG-Personal, was similar to the first in that the same occupational titles were used. However, subjects were asked to make a series of 12 triadic comparisons of the occupational titles, one for each row of the grid, until 12 construct dimensions were elicited (see Kelly, 1955). For example, for the first row of the grid, subjects were presented with the following triad of occupational titles: farmer, machine operator, architect. They were then asked to choose two of the three occupations which they considered to be most similar and to briefly, in a word or short phrase, describe the similarity. Under one pole (similarity pole) of a rating scale for the row, subjects were asked to write the word or phrase. Next, subjects were asked to describe, in a word or short phrase, how the third occupation differed from the other two and to write this under the dissimilarity pole of the rating scale. A different triad of occupational titles was presented for each of the 12 rows of the grid. The similarity and dissimilarity poles constituted anchor points on a 6-point Likert scale, positioned to the right of the grid, with no neutral point. Subjects were then asked to rate each occupation on each of the 12 construct dimensions they had created. The scoring procedure for the second differentiation measure was identical to that for the first measure. It should be noted that, like the Bodden measure, this second measure also departs from Kelly’s (1955) procedure by providing subjects with a preselected set of occupational titles (elements). In order to ensure that the grid elements would be within a person’s
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range of construing (the range corollary, pp. 68-72), Kelly directed respondents to nominate representative elements within a prescribed set of role categories, which were personally relevant to the respondent. Procedure
and Analysis
Subjects were invited to sign up for one of two testing sessions. In each session, participants were randomly assigned a research packet containing the Demographic Questionnaire and one of the vocational differentiation measures. Three sets of analyses were conducted. First, t tests and x2 analyses were performed on the demographic data in order to determine whether subjects differed between the two testing sessions. Second, t tests were conducted on the demographic data to determine whether subjects who received the CDG-Provided differed from those who received the CDGPersonal. Third, the data were analyzed by means of a 2 (type of grid) x 2 (subject sex) analysis of covariance using grade point average and year in school as covariates. It was expected that a subject’s cognitive ability, as indicated by college grade point average, would be related to that person’s level of cognitive complexity (see Crockett, 1%5). In addition, because grade level has been shown to be related to vocational maturity, which is also related to vocational differentiation (Super & Jordaan, 1982; Winer et al., 1979), grade level was also expected to be related to differentiation (see also O’Keefe & Sypher, 1981, p. 73). Two (type of grid) x 2 (subject sex) analyses of variance were conducted on grade point average and on grade level, and no significant differences were found; consequently, these two variables were appropriate to use as covariates (see Kirk, 1%8, pp. 457-458). RESULTS
The t tests and x2 analyses for testing session differences indicated a statistically significant difference due to subject race (x2 = 5.58, p = .02). Of the five blacks participating, all participated during the second test session; white subjects participated in the first (n = 43) and second (n = 36) sessions in approximately equal proportions, 54 and 46%, respectively. No other statistically significant sessiondifferences were found. As a result of the above analyses, data between testing sessions were combined. Also, analysesof demographic characteristics between subjects receiving different forms of the CDG yielded no statistically significant differences. Table 1 presents the results of the 2 x 2 analysis of covariance. The vocational differentiation cell means, adjusted and unadjusted for the covariates, are reported in Table 2. There was a statistically significant effect due to grid type on vocational differentiation scores (F(1, 78) = 61.40, p < .OOl). An examination of
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TABLE 1 Analysis of Covariance of Vocational Differentiation
ss
Source
MS
F
121,946.03 8,449.16 1,894.13
61.40** 4.25* 0.95
10,860.17 2,385.46 5,513.03 1,986.10
5.47* 1.20 2.78
df
Between subjects Grid type Sex Grid x sex
121,946.03 8449.16 1,894.13
Covariates GPA Year in school All Error
10,860.17 2,385.46 11,026.06 154,915.63
1 1 2 78
Scores by Grid Type and Sex X2
.44 .03 Beta 28.12 -5.29
* p < .05. ** p < ,001.
the adjusted means for this effect revealed that subjects completing the CDG-Personal (A4 = 168.55) reported greater vocational differentiation than subjects completing the CDG-Provided (A4 = 247.37). In addition, there was a significant main effect for subject sex (F(1, 78) = 4.25, p < .05). Males (A4 = 194.66) evidenced greater vocational differentiation than did females (M = 221.19). However, further inspection of the cell means suggested that despite the nonsignificant interaction term, the observed sex difference was primarily evident for respondents completing the CDG-Personal. Consequently, a post hoc t test was conducted for sex differences within each grid type. The results indicated that the score difference between males and females using the CDG-provided was not statistically significant (t(33.55) = -0.58, p = .569). However, sex differences on the CDG-personal approached statistical significance (t(32.52) - 1.97, p = .057), suggesting that males evidenced greater vocational kerentiation relative to females only when both used their personal ways of construing. Construct Differentiation
TABLE 2 Cell Means Adjusted and Unadjusted for Covariates Type of grid
CDG-Provided Unadjusted
CDG-Personal Unadjusted
Subject sex
Adjusted
N
M
SD
M
N
M
SD
Adjusted M
Male Female
15 31
242.20 250.26
41.26 50.66
239.71 247.37
15 23
151.80 178.96
39.47 44.36
149.61 180.90
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Finally, grade point average was shown to have a significant (F(1, 78) = 5.47, p = .02) and positive (p = 28.12) relationship with differentiation, that is, the higher the subject’s grade point average, the greater was the person’s vocational differentiation. A subject’s year in school was found to be unrelated to the person’s vocational differentiation. There were no other statistically significant differences found. DISCUSSION In order to understand vocational behavior, it would seem to be important to understand what and how people think about the world of work. While Kelly’s (1955) theory of personal constructs appears to be a useful model for studying vocational cognitions, these data, in conjunction with earlier reports, suggest that the Cognitive Differentiation Grid (Bodden, 1969, 1970) has important limitations as a means for applying the theory to the area of vocational behavior. The present data confirm the first research hypothesis and replicate the well-supported finding that personal constructs differ from provided constructs, as employed in the Cognitive Differentiation Grid, on a number of qualitative dimensions. They also represent an extension of this knowledge into the area of vocational psychology. The results clearly demonstrate that persons, regardless of sex, show greater vocational differentiation using personal constructs versus using the constructs provided in Bodden’s grid. Along with earlier findings (e.g., Adams-Webber, 1970; Bannister & Mair, 1968; Cochran, 1977), these results suggest that persons can better use their own vocational constructs than those provided by someone else. It is important to note that greater differentiation was found with respect to use of personal versus provided constructs in spite of two important methodological factors which biased the study against finding this effect. First, the CDG-Provided was designed specifically to provide respondents with vocational constructs commonly used in evaluating occupations; consequently, the provided constructs should have been very similar to respondents’ personal constructs. Second, the same occupational titles were used in the CDG-Provided and the CDG-Personal grid forms. Thus, respondents to the CDG-Personal grid were provided with occupational titles which may not have had relevance to their personal construct system (range corollary; Kelly, 1955). It is argued here that more dramatic differences in responses to the CDG-Provided and the CDG-Personal could have been found if respondents using the personal grid had been allowed to nominate their own occupations as well as their own constructs. Because personal constructs indicate more clearly and directly than do provided constructs the personal concerns of the vocational decision maker, examining a person’s idiosyncratic vocational construct system
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may help the vocational psychologist determine what information or intervention is necessary to facilitate vocational choice and adjustment processes. It is important to note that career guidance procedures typically involve providing people with considerations thought to be important in making career decisions (Cochran, 1977); these results underscore the position of Cochran that this practice may not be efficacious. The results of the present study also confirm the second research hypothesis that males would evidence greater vocational complexity than females. These data replicate previous research findings in the literature on cognitive complexity and expand our knowledge regarding gender differences in vocational processes involved in career decision making. It may be that more can be learned about the vocational cognitions of females if their personal constructs are documented and examined; here, again, the Bodden grid poses serious limitations. A potentially important contribution toward understanding women’s career development would be the cataloging and study of personal constructs of women and construing the world of work. However, the above discussion regarding sex differences in vocational differentiation is subject to two important qualifications. First, some previous investigators in the area of vocational differentiation failed to find sex differences in responses to the Bodden Grid (see Bodden, 1970; Cochran, 1983). Second, post hoc analyses indicated that the observed sex difference may be due chiefly to observed differences on the CDGPersonal and not to differences on the CDG-Provided. Considered together, it would appear that sex differences in vocational differentiation may be dependent upon use of one’s personal constructs. Specifically, females appear to evidence a lesser facility in construing the world of work only when they use their personal construct system, not when they are provided with typical ways of viewing the work world. While it is important to interpret the above findings cautiously, it is interesting to speculate how the above observations shed light on the career development of women. It is well documented that sex-role socialization has been found to affect the range of vocational options considered by females (see Fitzgerald & Betz, 1983). Perhaps sex-role socialization operates to restrict the range or type of vocational constructs women possess and thereby limits the range of vocational alternatives women perceive as options. In support of this hypothesis, Lawlis and Crawford (1975) found data indicating that pioneers (women who went into male-dominated fields) evidenced greater cognitive complexity (vocational differentiation) than traditionals (women who went into femaledominated fields). By way of implication, then, expanding women’s vocational construct systems or providing women with different ways of viewing the work world may expand the range of options considered by women. Certainly, the type and number of vocational constructs used
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by women and the impact of these constructs on vocational choice warrants further investigation. Another area of speculation and potentially important research concerns the observation that, notwithstanding the lesser vocational differentiation of females relative to males on the CDG-Personal, both males and females evidenced markedly greater vocational differentiation using the CDGPersonal relative to the CDG-Provided. One might ask whether high vocational differentiation has a positive or negative effect on the vocational choice process. Scholars have taken positions on both sides oftheargument, with some investigators (Cesari et al., 1984) concluding that it is not yet clear whether vocational differentiation is positive or negative, and with another (Cochran, 1983) concluding that both high and low intensity (differentiation) can be positive or negative. The present author is in agreement with Cochran (1983) that it is important to determine under what circumstances vocational differentiation is and is not efficacious. Once that is accomplished, one can determine whether increasing one’s level of vocational differentiation, as suggested here in order to expand women’s vocational choices, is desirable. It should be noted that no investigator has yet determined how to increase differentiation (Neimeyer & Ebben, 1985). The observed relationship between college grade point average and vocational differentiation is also interesting and deserves comment. While it seems reasonable to assert that complexity is related to cognitive ability (see Crockett, 1%5), earlier research has not demonstrated this relationship (O’Keefe & Sypher, 1981). Yet, the present investigation has demonstrated a statistically significant and positive relationship between vocational differentiation and grade point average. One explanation for the discrepant findings may be that since complexity can be different depending on domain (Crockett, 1%5), the domain of construing vocational titles may in some way be more relevant to academic ability than the domains previously studied. Winer, Cesari, Haase, and Bodden (1979) have reported data indicating that vocational differentiation, as measured by the Bodden grid, appears to be an empirically different concept from cognitive differentiation as measured by Bieri (see Bieri et al., 1966). Clearly, the relationship between cognitive ability and complexity in other domains, including vocational domains, needs further study. In summary, the results of the present study confirm the two major research hypotheses (1) that providing vocational constructs yields lower indices of vocational complexity than allowing subjects to use their personal constructs and (2) that males evidence greater vocational complexity than females, at least when personal constructs are used. The findings were interpreted to suggest that the Bodden Cognitive Differentiation Grid may not be as useful as employing personal constructs, as advocated by Kelly, in the study of vocational cognitions. It is also suggested that
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the study of the number and types of personal constructs used by women in making vocational choices may be a fruitful line of inquiry in efforts to understand the career development of women. An additional consideration which is underscored by this study is that the practice of providing people with particular ways of thinking about career issues may actually make the career choice and adjustment process more difficult. An alternative practice would be to determine how an individual currently construes the world of work and to use this knowledge to determine what vocational information or intervention the person would find most useful in the vocational decision-making process. Finally, these data suggest that the relationship between cognitive ability and vocational complexity needs further study. REFERENCES Adams-Webber, J. R. (1970). Elicited versus provided constructs in repertory grid technique: A review. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 43, 349-354. Bannister, D., & Mair, J. (1%8). The evaluation of personal constructs. Orlando/London: Academic Press. Barbour, P. I. (1%9). Some aspects of the reliability of the repertory grid technique. Unpublished M. SC. thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast. Bieri, J., Atkins, A., Briar, S., Leaman, R., Miller, H., & Tripodi, T. (1966). Clinical and social judgement: The discrimination of behavioral information. New York: Wiley. Bodden, J. L. (1969). Cognitive complexity as a factor in appropriate vocational choice. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University. Bodden, J. L. (1970). Cognitive complexity as a factor in appropriate vocational choice. Journal
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Seaman, J. M., & Koenig, F. (1974). A comparison of measures of cognitive complexity. Sociometry, 37, 375-390. Shinar, E. H. (1975). Sexual stereotypes of occupations. Journa/ of Vocational Behavior, 7, 99-111. Soucar, E. (1971). Vigilance and the perceptions of teachers and students. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 32, 83-86. Super, D. E., & Jordaan, J. P. (1982). Careers in the making: Floundering, trial, and stabilization after high school. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University. Waas, G. A. (1984). Cognitive differentiation as a function of information type and its relation to career choice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 24, 66-72. Winer, J. L., Cesari, J., Haase, R. F., & Bodden, J. L. (1979). Cognitive complexity and career maturity among college students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 15, 185-192. Winer, D., & Gati, I. (1986). Cognitive complexity and interest crystallization. Journal of Vocational Behnvior, 28, 48-59. Winer, J. L., Warren, G. D., Dailey, K. C., & Hiesberger, J. (1980). Complexity of occupational titles among Holland types. The Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 29, 1224. Zytowski, D. G. (1%9). Toward a theory of career development for women. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 47, 660-664. Received: June 22, 1986.