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Effect of positive, negative, and mixed occupational information on cognitive and affective complexity
Journal of Vocational Behavior 15, 294-302 (1979)
Effect of Positive, Negative, and Mixed Occupational Information on Cognitive and Affective Complexity RICHARD
F. HAASE,
CAROLYN JANE L. WINER
F. REED,
AND
Texas Tech University AND JACK L. BODDEN Veterans Administration
Hospital, Temple. Texas
A series of concentrated research studies over the past 8 years has significantly demonstrated that cognitive complexity in the vocational realm is positively related to congruence or appropriateness of vocational choice. Moreover, research has shown that introducing occupational information significantly reduces, rather than increases, cognitive complexity. The results of the study reported here relate to changes in cognitive complexity as a function of the type of occupational information introduced, namely, information with respect to the advantages of occupations; the disadvantages of occupations, or a combination of positive and negative features of occupations. Our results clearly demonstrated that while positive occupational information alone leads to greater simplicity, negative or mixed information significantly retards the trend toward greater simplicity. Results are discussed from both theoretical and practical perspectives, especially with reference to the typical occupational information provided in routine vocational counseling.
For some years now cognitive complexity (cognitive differentiation) as a personological variable has received considerable research attention in the psychological literature, especially in the areas of social and clinical judgment (Bieri, Atkins, Briar, Leaman, Miller, & Tripodi, 1966). The relevance of cognitive complexity to the vocational realm as an important mediator in vocational choice behavior was initially documented by Bodden (1970) and futher explicated in a series of studies since that time (Bodden & Klein, 1972, 1973; Bodden 8z James, 1976). In these studies Bodden and his colleagues have documented three salient features of the relationship between cognitive complexity and behavior in the vocational realm. Requests for reprints should be sent to Richard F. Haase, Department ofPsychology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409. 294 OOOl-8791fl9/060294-09$02.00/O Copyright @ 1979 by Academic FTess, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
COGNITIVE
AND
AFFECTIVE
COMPLEXITY
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The first of these findings reveals that cognitive differentiation is positively related to congruence (appropriateness) of vocational choice. The more differentiated the person’s cognitive construct system, the more appropriate or congruent the vocational choice expressed by the respondent as compared to his/her measured vocational preference in terms of Holland’s scheme (1973). This initial finding (Bodden, 1970) has been replicated on an independent sample with near identical results (Bodden & Klein, 1972). The second finding in the cognitive complexity-vocational behavior area follows directly from the first. Namely, it has been reasoned in the light of the above relationship that increasing cognitive complexity may have potentially desirable consequences. Bodden and James (1976) tested this proposition by offering occupational information to subjects and testing changes in cognitive complexity as a result of that intervention. Rather than increasing complexity, however, occupational information significantly reduced cognitive differentiation beyond changes measured in a comparable no-information control group. The final feature of previous research in this area is a finding originally documented by Turner and Tripodi (1968) in the social realm and corroborated by Bodden and Klein (1973) in the area of vocational behavior. Both sets of findings revealed that disliked objects (persons or occupations) elicit significantly more differentiated responses than occupations of persons who are liked. In the Bodden and Klein (1973) study subjects were allowed to pick their own stimulus occupations, half they liked and half they disliked. Results unequivocally revealed that more differentiated and more complex ratings were ascribed to disliked occupations. The study reported in this paper took its basis from the research reviewed above. Given the relevance of cognitive complexity to vocational behavior, the fact that occupational information tends to reduce rather than increase cognitive complexity, and the fact that negatively perceived objects are construed as more cognitively differentiated, the present study sought to explore these issues in greater depth. In essence, we have deduced from previous results that reduced differentiation does not result from informational input, per se, but that cognitive complexity may be increased or decreased by controlling the type of informational content presented to the respondent. Bodden and James (1976) used information from the U. S. Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook (1977a) which was primarily positive in nature. We have hypothesized (recalling Bodden and Klein, 1973) that if negative as well as positive information were offered to respondents, then differential changes in cognitive complexity may be observed. An additional feature of the present study is the introduction of a measure of affective complexity in the occupational mode to complement the cognitive complexity measure. It has been shown that occupations
296
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ET AL.
can be readily distinguished on the basis of their affective components (Schoon, 1976). However, the concept of affective complexity or affective differentiation has not been tested in the literature in this area. Such a measure was developed and included here to assess the degree to which occupational information might influence affectively based occupational differentiation in a fashion similar to that hypothesized for the cognitive dimension. METHOD Sample
Subjects in the present study consisted of 66 undergraduate students at Texas Tech University recruited from departmental courses. The sample consisted of 36 males and 30 females, and distributed as 48, 28, 12, and 12% freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, respectively. The mean age of the sample was 19.5 years (SD = 1.5). Subjects participated in the study in three separate groups and were given experimental course credit for their participation. As a group they were reasonably certain of their occupational plans, having a mean of 2.95 of a scale from 1 to 4 (SD = .90). Instrumentation
The principal dependent measure used in this study was the Cognitive Differentiation Grid for vocational concepts developed by Bodden (1969, 1970) and used in the majority of his previous work in this area. A complete description of the instrument and its initial validation can be found in Bodden’s studies (1969, 1970). In brief, the Cognitive Differentiation Grid derives from the original work of Kelly (1955) and later adaptations of the same technique by Bieri et al. (1966). The vocational grid consists of a list of 12 occupational titles across the top of a page, each of which is to be rated by the respondent on a series of 12 vocationally relevant constructs (e.g., high vs low status). Each of the constructs appears as a Likert 6-point scale with no neutral point. Scoring the grid requires assessing the number of redundancies (i.e., identical ratings) on the constructs for each of the occupational titles. The higher this index, the greater the redundancy, and hence the less independent meanings the respondent is attaching to each of the titles. Conversely, a low score on the grid reflects little redundancy and hence a high degree of independent usage of the constructs across occupations-cognitive complexity. In addition to Bodden’s Cognitive Differentiation Grid an affective complexity measure was constructed for use in this study. The affective vocational grid was similar in nature and scoring to the cognitive measure. The essential difference was that semantic differential type items were substituted for the factual constructs of the cognitive grid. These items were drawn from the Evaluative dimension of Osgood’s semantic differ-
COGNITIVE
AND
AFFECTIVE
COMPLEXITY
297
ential (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957) and appeared on the rating form in the same Likert 6-point format as was used for the cognitive grid. Experimental
Conditions
and Materials
The design of the study reported here consisted of a single-factor, three-level configuration. The factor of information content was presented in three separate groups, i.e., primarily positive or advantageous information about the occupations presented on the grids, primarily negative or disadvantageous information about the occupations, or a balanced combination of both positive and negative information about the 12 occupations. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions, resulting in 22 subjects in the advantageous information group, 20 subjects in the disadvantageous information group, and 24 subjects in the mixed information group. Cell sizes were unequal due to attrition between preand post-testing in the groups. All of the occupational information presented to the subjects was in written form. Information was abstracted from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (U. S. Department of Labor, 1977a, 1977b), and 100 Careers (Durham, 1977). For the advantageous information group items which referred to the positive aspects of the occupation were included. Items of salary, occupational outlook, training, and so forth were kept positive in tone. No negative information was included. Favorable comments of people already in the occupation were also included as a testimonial addendum. Most of these items were abstracted from Durham’s work (1977). The converse of this pattern was followed for the disadvantageous condition material. All references to the occupation, factual and testimonial, focused on the negative aspects of the occupations. Finally, the mixed information materials contained an amalgam of the positive and negative features of each of the 12 occupations used in the two previous conditions. Procedure
Subjects were tested in three groups as necessitated by scheduling demands. Experimental materials were randomly distributed within each testing session, assuring that all three conditions were represented in any testing session. Following a brief explanation regarding the nature of the study, all subjects were given the pretest on the cognitive and affective grids. In addition a short biographical questionnaire was completed concerning year in college, age, sex, major, intended occupation, and certainty of career choice. Upon completion of the pretest each subject was given one of the information packets described above. Subjects were asked to read the information contained in the packets thoroughly at that time and the experimenter was available to answer any questions about the material. Subjects were then instructed to take the material home with
298
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ET AL.
them, to peruse the information at their leisure, and to report back to the testing room 1 week after pretesting. Post-testing was conducted at this time and the subjects were debriefed as to the meaning of the instruments and the nature of the study. RESULTS The data from this study were analyzed by means of one-way analysis of covariance, with the subject’s pretest score as the covariate. Prior to the covariance analysis, analyses of variance conducted on the pretest scores only across the three informational groups on both cognitive and affective complexity measures revealed that the groups did not differ significantly from one another at pretest (Cognitive: F(2,63) = 1.32, p = .2744; Affective: F(2,63) = 1.95, p = .1507). Strictly speaking, analysis of covariance would not be necessary to equate groups at pretest. However, analysis of covariance was still employed to eliminate any spurious effects due to regression and to control for any residual pretest-post-test correlation remaining in the data. Such a strategy also retains the conceptual value of change scores while avoiding the low reliability typical of such change scores (Cohen & Cohen, 1975, pp. 378-388). Results of the analyses revealed a significant effect of information type on post-test scores, controlling for pretest scores, both for the cognitive and affective measures of complexity. For the cognitive measure, negative and mixed information produced less change toward cognitive simplicity than did only positive, advantageous information (F(2,62) = 4.09, p < .02). Post hoc tests applying Scheffe’s procedure at the .10 level revealed that the negative and mixed information groups did not differ significantly but that both of these groups differed significantly from the positive information only group. For the affective dimension, similar results obtained (F(2,62) = 4.13, p < .02). Scheffe’s post hoc comparisons revealed that the positive and negative groups differed significantly from one another, but the combined positive-negative condition did not differ from the remaining groups. It should be noted that when we speak of the relative position of the groups at adjusted post-test, greater or lesser cognitive complexity is technically accurate. It should be recognized that this statement is relative, and that no condition produced greater complexity from pre- to post-test, per se. Strictly speaking, the negative and mixed groups retarded simplicity as a function of information transmission, while the positive information augmented cognitive simplicity. The conceptually important comparison, however, is relative change in complexity between groups. One can think of either greater complexity at post-test (or less simplicity) for the negative and mixed groups relative to the positive information group. This distinction and its importance for vocational counseling practice is discussed further in the Discussion section of this paper.
COGNITIVE
AND AFFECTIVE
299
COMPLEXITY
In order to elucidate the differences in cognitive and affective levels of complexity across experimental groups, means and standard deviations for all groups at pretest, post-test, and adjusted post-test (adjusted for covariate) have been presented in Table 1. Correlations between pretests on the cognitive and affective dimensions and all biographical indices outlined earlier were all nonsignificant. The correlation between pretest on the cognitive and pretest on the affective measures of complexity yielded a value of r = SO (p < .Ol). While statistically significant, the two measures share only 25% common variance, suggesting two somewhat independent measures of the construct of complexity. DISCUSSION Previous research in the area of vocationally relevant cognitive complexity has suggested that occupational information significantly reduces the level of cognitive complexity (increases simplicity) with which occupations are perceived (Bodden & James, 1976). The present study has replicated that finding with an important addition, i.e., the type of information given to the subject was systematically varied from positive to negative, to a combination of advantageous and disadvantageous information. The results obtained in this study as a function of manipulation of type of information demonstrate that increases in cognitive simplicity are not a uniform outcome of information, per se, but rather that differential changes in cognitive complexity/simplicity are a function of the type of occupational information presented to the respondent. Moreover, this TABLE 1 Means and Standard Deviations of Cognitive and Affective Complexity for Three Information Groups Pretest
Adjusted post-testa
Post-test
N
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Cognitive Positive Negative Mixed Total
20 24 22 66
260.7 274.6 291.6 216.1
50.8 64.5 67.4 62.1
328.3 293.5 314.6 311.1
93.3 60.8 89.5 81.6
342.5 294.9 300.2 311.1
Affective Positive Negative Mixed Total
20 24 22 66
314.5 336.5 364.3 339.1
71.7 75.1 102.4 85.4
398.2 348.1 380.5 374.1
97.6 80.9 90.9 90.6
413.1 349.6 365.2 374. I
a Post-test adjusted for pretest covariate.
(Mean)
300
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ET AL.
differential change in complexity as a function of the type of occupational information offered was evident in a measure of affective complexity as well as in the cognitive dimension. Our results suggest that some amount of negative or disadvantageous occupational information is prerequisite to mitigating the simplifying effects of information presentation in the vocational realm. Results presented here demonstrate that positive occupational information alone induces cognitive simplicity. That is, respondents used relatively fewer cognitive constructs or dimensions to construe an occupation if the information about that occupation is largely positive in nature. This finding is remarkably close to that presented by Bodden and James (1976), who studied only positive information. Their data show an increase in simplicity from pre- to post-test of 272.11 to 33 1.62. The data presented here for the positive only condition yielded mean scores from pre- to post-test of 260.70 and 328.25, respectively. However, introducing negative information alone or a combination of positive and negative occupational information reverses this trend. Individuals who were presented with negative only or mixed occupational information were significantly more cognitively complex at post-test than were the positive information only group. If, as previous results have shown, we can presume that a cognitively differentiated state renders the individual more capable of making finer discriminations among stimuli, clearly the cognitively complex state would lead to potentially more accurate decisions regarding the stimuli. The stimuli of relevance here, of course, are occupations. The implications of this line of reasoning for vocational information dissemination and vocational behavior are clear. If in the process of vocational counseling one’s goal is to promote maximally valid decision making, it would seem that inducing cognitive complexity as a mediating state would have desirable consequences, To the extent that cognitive differentiation may be a variable which mediates more adequate vocational decisions (Bodden, 1970), its potential utility becomes even more attractive in the counseling process. The implications of the findings presented here for the process of vocational counseling should be immediately apparent. If Super’s (1957) contention that one of the predominant features of vocational counseling is information giving, and our experience would not lead us to contest this assertion, then the results of this study are particularly important. Our results would suggest that the most efficacious method of maintaining cognitive differentiation is to include a liberal dose of negative information about the disadvantages of any given occupational pursuit. Certainly our results would argue for a balanced presentation of positive and negative information during the course of vocational counseling. To present only the positive aspects of an occupation would appear to obviate the desirable effects of maintaining cognitive complexity. Most occupational
COGNITIVE
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materials in wide usage at present tend toward positive, or at least neutral, content (cf. Occupational Outlook Handbook). The findings presented here suggest that it would behoove practicing counselors to interject more of the disadvantageous aspects of occupations in the course of vocational counseling. Presenting only positive information may well lead to a prematurely undifferentiated cognitive state, which previous research has suggested would not be a desirable vocational decision-making outcome. It seems obvious, of course, that no information at all would be the ideal condition to avoid increasing cognitive simplicity. But when clients seek assistance, some form of information is, by definition, given, thus constituting a base rate against which the results of the present study may be interpreted. At a theoretical level the results presented here are somewhat more difficult to interpret. Clearly, negative or mixed occupational information maintains a more cognitively differentiated state than positive information, but the processes which underlie this change are not immediately obvious. Bodden and Klein (1973) have suggested a vigilance hypothesis which may have some relevance to the results obtained in the present study, particularly regarding those conditions which included some negative information. Cognitive complexity data collected in their earlier study suggested that negatively perceived occupations elicited more cognitively differentiated ratings than occupations which were positively perceived. They suggest that negatively perceived stimuli may have some psychological threat value, and hence the individual is inclined to be more vigilant about various aspects of the stimuli, leading eventually to greater cognitive complexity. While such an explanation may have relevance here, the fact that the positive plus negative condition elicited as great a degree of complexity renders the vigilance hypothesis less tenable. It is possible that in this mixed information condition the respondents could have ignored the positive information and focused only on the negative aspects presented. But the fact that there are sizable differences between the mixed condition and the negative only condition implies that the subjects were taking into consideration the positive information in the mixed condition as well as the negative information contained therein. While the vigilance hypothesis may account for some of the observed variability, it is our contention that the variability may be more related to the complexity of the information presented. Presenting both positive and negative occupational information is by definition a more complex intellectual activity which may result in greater observed differentiation, over and above what would be expected in a negative, vigilance demanding, information condition. Bannister (1963) has shown that confirming a subject’s construct choices tends to tighten the subject’s construct system, i.e., produce greater simplicity. The positive condition of this study may well have provided confirmation of previously held beliefs about the
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occupations and led to greater simplicity, while the negative and mixed conditions may have offered information which psychologically challenged those beliefs. Further work on the potential impact of confirmation or disconfirmation would prove very illuminating. Differences between methodology in the present study and that of Bodden and James and of Bannister, however, leave these observations at the level of speculation. Further work which experimentally introduces the vigilance concept into the experimental task would aid in further clarification of the role of information in altering cognitive complexity, especially as it relates to the process of vocational decision making. The conditions under which cognitive complexity can be experimentally induced may have important implications for the study of vocational behavior. REFERENCES Bannister, D. A genesis of schizophrenic thought disorder: A serial invalidation hypothesis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1963, 109, 680-686. Bieri, J., Atkins, A., Briar, S., Leaman, R., Miller, H., & Tripodi, T. Clinical and social judgment: The discrimination of behavior information. New York: Wiley, 1966. Bodden, J. Cognitive complexity as a factor in appropriate vocational choice. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1969. Bodden, J. Cognitive complexity as a factor in appropriate vocational choice. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1970, 17, 364-368. Bodden, J., & James, L. Influence of occupational information giving on cognitive complexity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1976, 23, 280-282. Bodden, J., & Klein, A. Cognitive complexity and appropriate vocational choice: Another look. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1972, 19, 257-258. Bodden, J., & Klein, A. Cognitive differentiation and affective stimulus value in vocational judgments. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 1973, 3, 75-79. Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. Applied multiple regressionlcorrelation analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Wiley, 1975. Durham, L. 100 Careers. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1977. Harris, R. A primer of multivariate statistics. New York: Academic Press, 1975. Holland, J. Making vocational decisions: A theory of careers. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973. Kelly, G. The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton, 1955. Vol. 1. Osgood, C., Suci, G., & Tannenbaum, P. The measurement of meaning. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1957. Schoon, C. A study of the affective responses elicited by occupational stimuli. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1976, 5, 95-103. Super, D. The psychology of careers. New York: Harper & Row, 1957. Turner, R., & Tripodi, T. Cognitive complexity as a function of type of stimulus object and affective stimulus value. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1968, 32, 182-185. U. S. Department of Labor. Occupational outlook handbook. Washington, D. C.: 1977. (a) U. S. Department of Labor. Dictionary of occupational titles. Washington, D. C.: 1977. (b) Received: November 9, 1978.
Effect of Positive, Negative, and Mixed Occupational Information on Cognitive and Affective Complexity RICHARD
F. HAASE,
CAROLYN JANE L. WINER
F. REED,
AND
Texas Tech University AND JACK L. BODDEN Veterans Administration
Hospital, Temple. Texas
A series of concentrated research studies over the past 8 years has significantly demonstrated that cognitive complexity in the vocational realm is positively related to congruence or appropriateness of vocational choice. Moreover, research has shown that introducing occupational information significantly reduces, rather than increases, cognitive complexity. The results of the study reported here relate to changes in cognitive complexity as a function of the type of occupational information introduced, namely, information with respect to the advantages of occupations; the disadvantages of occupations, or a combination of positive and negative features of occupations. Our results clearly demonstrated that while positive occupational information alone leads to greater simplicity, negative or mixed information significantly retards the trend toward greater simplicity. Results are discussed from both theoretical and practical perspectives, especially with reference to the typical occupational information provided in routine vocational counseling.
For some years now cognitive complexity (cognitive differentiation) as a personological variable has received considerable research attention in the psychological literature, especially in the areas of social and clinical judgment (Bieri, Atkins, Briar, Leaman, Miller, & Tripodi, 1966). The relevance of cognitive complexity to the vocational realm as an important mediator in vocational choice behavior was initially documented by Bodden (1970) and futher explicated in a series of studies since that time (Bodden & Klein, 1972, 1973; Bodden 8z James, 1976). In these studies Bodden and his colleagues have documented three salient features of the relationship between cognitive complexity and behavior in the vocational realm. Requests for reprints should be sent to Richard F. Haase, Department ofPsychology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409. 294 OOOl-8791fl9/060294-09$02.00/O Copyright @ 1979 by Academic FTess, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
COGNITIVE
AND
AFFECTIVE
COMPLEXITY
295
The first of these findings reveals that cognitive differentiation is positively related to congruence (appropriateness) of vocational choice. The more differentiated the person’s cognitive construct system, the more appropriate or congruent the vocational choice expressed by the respondent as compared to his/her measured vocational preference in terms of Holland’s scheme (1973). This initial finding (Bodden, 1970) has been replicated on an independent sample with near identical results (Bodden & Klein, 1972). The second finding in the cognitive complexity-vocational behavior area follows directly from the first. Namely, it has been reasoned in the light of the above relationship that increasing cognitive complexity may have potentially desirable consequences. Bodden and James (1976) tested this proposition by offering occupational information to subjects and testing changes in cognitive complexity as a result of that intervention. Rather than increasing complexity, however, occupational information significantly reduced cognitive differentiation beyond changes measured in a comparable no-information control group. The final feature of previous research in this area is a finding originally documented by Turner and Tripodi (1968) in the social realm and corroborated by Bodden and Klein (1973) in the area of vocational behavior. Both sets of findings revealed that disliked objects (persons or occupations) elicit significantly more differentiated responses than occupations of persons who are liked. In the Bodden and Klein (1973) study subjects were allowed to pick their own stimulus occupations, half they liked and half they disliked. Results unequivocally revealed that more differentiated and more complex ratings were ascribed to disliked occupations. The study reported in this paper took its basis from the research reviewed above. Given the relevance of cognitive complexity to vocational behavior, the fact that occupational information tends to reduce rather than increase cognitive complexity, and the fact that negatively perceived objects are construed as more cognitively differentiated, the present study sought to explore these issues in greater depth. In essence, we have deduced from previous results that reduced differentiation does not result from informational input, per se, but that cognitive complexity may be increased or decreased by controlling the type of informational content presented to the respondent. Bodden and James (1976) used information from the U. S. Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook (1977a) which was primarily positive in nature. We have hypothesized (recalling Bodden and Klein, 1973) that if negative as well as positive information were offered to respondents, then differential changes in cognitive complexity may be observed. An additional feature of the present study is the introduction of a measure of affective complexity in the occupational mode to complement the cognitive complexity measure. It has been shown that occupations
296
HAASE
ET AL.
can be readily distinguished on the basis of their affective components (Schoon, 1976). However, the concept of affective complexity or affective differentiation has not been tested in the literature in this area. Such a measure was developed and included here to assess the degree to which occupational information might influence affectively based occupational differentiation in a fashion similar to that hypothesized for the cognitive dimension. METHOD Sample
Subjects in the present study consisted of 66 undergraduate students at Texas Tech University recruited from departmental courses. The sample consisted of 36 males and 30 females, and distributed as 48, 28, 12, and 12% freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, respectively. The mean age of the sample was 19.5 years (SD = 1.5). Subjects participated in the study in three separate groups and were given experimental course credit for their participation. As a group they were reasonably certain of their occupational plans, having a mean of 2.95 of a scale from 1 to 4 (SD = .90). Instrumentation
The principal dependent measure used in this study was the Cognitive Differentiation Grid for vocational concepts developed by Bodden (1969, 1970) and used in the majority of his previous work in this area. A complete description of the instrument and its initial validation can be found in Bodden’s studies (1969, 1970). In brief, the Cognitive Differentiation Grid derives from the original work of Kelly (1955) and later adaptations of the same technique by Bieri et al. (1966). The vocational grid consists of a list of 12 occupational titles across the top of a page, each of which is to be rated by the respondent on a series of 12 vocationally relevant constructs (e.g., high vs low status). Each of the constructs appears as a Likert 6-point scale with no neutral point. Scoring the grid requires assessing the number of redundancies (i.e., identical ratings) on the constructs for each of the occupational titles. The higher this index, the greater the redundancy, and hence the less independent meanings the respondent is attaching to each of the titles. Conversely, a low score on the grid reflects little redundancy and hence a high degree of independent usage of the constructs across occupations-cognitive complexity. In addition to Bodden’s Cognitive Differentiation Grid an affective complexity measure was constructed for use in this study. The affective vocational grid was similar in nature and scoring to the cognitive measure. The essential difference was that semantic differential type items were substituted for the factual constructs of the cognitive grid. These items were drawn from the Evaluative dimension of Osgood’s semantic differ-
COGNITIVE
AND
AFFECTIVE
COMPLEXITY
297
ential (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957) and appeared on the rating form in the same Likert 6-point format as was used for the cognitive grid. Experimental
Conditions
and Materials
The design of the study reported here consisted of a single-factor, three-level configuration. The factor of information content was presented in three separate groups, i.e., primarily positive or advantageous information about the occupations presented on the grids, primarily negative or disadvantageous information about the occupations, or a balanced combination of both positive and negative information about the 12 occupations. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions, resulting in 22 subjects in the advantageous information group, 20 subjects in the disadvantageous information group, and 24 subjects in the mixed information group. Cell sizes were unequal due to attrition between preand post-testing in the groups. All of the occupational information presented to the subjects was in written form. Information was abstracted from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (U. S. Department of Labor, 1977a, 1977b), and 100 Careers (Durham, 1977). For the advantageous information group items which referred to the positive aspects of the occupation were included. Items of salary, occupational outlook, training, and so forth were kept positive in tone. No negative information was included. Favorable comments of people already in the occupation were also included as a testimonial addendum. Most of these items were abstracted from Durham’s work (1977). The converse of this pattern was followed for the disadvantageous condition material. All references to the occupation, factual and testimonial, focused on the negative aspects of the occupations. Finally, the mixed information materials contained an amalgam of the positive and negative features of each of the 12 occupations used in the two previous conditions. Procedure
Subjects were tested in three groups as necessitated by scheduling demands. Experimental materials were randomly distributed within each testing session, assuring that all three conditions were represented in any testing session. Following a brief explanation regarding the nature of the study, all subjects were given the pretest on the cognitive and affective grids. In addition a short biographical questionnaire was completed concerning year in college, age, sex, major, intended occupation, and certainty of career choice. Upon completion of the pretest each subject was given one of the information packets described above. Subjects were asked to read the information contained in the packets thoroughly at that time and the experimenter was available to answer any questions about the material. Subjects were then instructed to take the material home with
298
HAASE
ET AL.
them, to peruse the information at their leisure, and to report back to the testing room 1 week after pretesting. Post-testing was conducted at this time and the subjects were debriefed as to the meaning of the instruments and the nature of the study. RESULTS The data from this study were analyzed by means of one-way analysis of covariance, with the subject’s pretest score as the covariate. Prior to the covariance analysis, analyses of variance conducted on the pretest scores only across the three informational groups on both cognitive and affective complexity measures revealed that the groups did not differ significantly from one another at pretest (Cognitive: F(2,63) = 1.32, p = .2744; Affective: F(2,63) = 1.95, p = .1507). Strictly speaking, analysis of covariance would not be necessary to equate groups at pretest. However, analysis of covariance was still employed to eliminate any spurious effects due to regression and to control for any residual pretest-post-test correlation remaining in the data. Such a strategy also retains the conceptual value of change scores while avoiding the low reliability typical of such change scores (Cohen & Cohen, 1975, pp. 378-388). Results of the analyses revealed a significant effect of information type on post-test scores, controlling for pretest scores, both for the cognitive and affective measures of complexity. For the cognitive measure, negative and mixed information produced less change toward cognitive simplicity than did only positive, advantageous information (F(2,62) = 4.09, p < .02). Post hoc tests applying Scheffe’s procedure at the .10 level revealed that the negative and mixed information groups did not differ significantly but that both of these groups differed significantly from the positive information only group. For the affective dimension, similar results obtained (F(2,62) = 4.13, p < .02). Scheffe’s post hoc comparisons revealed that the positive and negative groups differed significantly from one another, but the combined positive-negative condition did not differ from the remaining groups. It should be noted that when we speak of the relative position of the groups at adjusted post-test, greater or lesser cognitive complexity is technically accurate. It should be recognized that this statement is relative, and that no condition produced greater complexity from pre- to post-test, per se. Strictly speaking, the negative and mixed groups retarded simplicity as a function of information transmission, while the positive information augmented cognitive simplicity. The conceptually important comparison, however, is relative change in complexity between groups. One can think of either greater complexity at post-test (or less simplicity) for the negative and mixed groups relative to the positive information group. This distinction and its importance for vocational counseling practice is discussed further in the Discussion section of this paper.
COGNITIVE
AND AFFECTIVE
299
COMPLEXITY
In order to elucidate the differences in cognitive and affective levels of complexity across experimental groups, means and standard deviations for all groups at pretest, post-test, and adjusted post-test (adjusted for covariate) have been presented in Table 1. Correlations between pretests on the cognitive and affective dimensions and all biographical indices outlined earlier were all nonsignificant. The correlation between pretest on the cognitive and pretest on the affective measures of complexity yielded a value of r = SO (p < .Ol). While statistically significant, the two measures share only 25% common variance, suggesting two somewhat independent measures of the construct of complexity. DISCUSSION Previous research in the area of vocationally relevant cognitive complexity has suggested that occupational information significantly reduces the level of cognitive complexity (increases simplicity) with which occupations are perceived (Bodden & James, 1976). The present study has replicated that finding with an important addition, i.e., the type of information given to the subject was systematically varied from positive to negative, to a combination of advantageous and disadvantageous information. The results obtained in this study as a function of manipulation of type of information demonstrate that increases in cognitive simplicity are not a uniform outcome of information, per se, but rather that differential changes in cognitive complexity/simplicity are a function of the type of occupational information presented to the respondent. Moreover, this TABLE 1 Means and Standard Deviations of Cognitive and Affective Complexity for Three Information Groups Pretest
Adjusted post-testa
Post-test
N
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
Cognitive Positive Negative Mixed Total
20 24 22 66
260.7 274.6 291.6 216.1
50.8 64.5 67.4 62.1
328.3 293.5 314.6 311.1
93.3 60.8 89.5 81.6
342.5 294.9 300.2 311.1
Affective Positive Negative Mixed Total
20 24 22 66
314.5 336.5 364.3 339.1
71.7 75.1 102.4 85.4
398.2 348.1 380.5 374.1
97.6 80.9 90.9 90.6
413.1 349.6 365.2 374. I
a Post-test adjusted for pretest covariate.
(Mean)
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ET AL.
differential change in complexity as a function of the type of occupational information offered was evident in a measure of affective complexity as well as in the cognitive dimension. Our results suggest that some amount of negative or disadvantageous occupational information is prerequisite to mitigating the simplifying effects of information presentation in the vocational realm. Results presented here demonstrate that positive occupational information alone induces cognitive simplicity. That is, respondents used relatively fewer cognitive constructs or dimensions to construe an occupation if the information about that occupation is largely positive in nature. This finding is remarkably close to that presented by Bodden and James (1976), who studied only positive information. Their data show an increase in simplicity from pre- to post-test of 272.11 to 33 1.62. The data presented here for the positive only condition yielded mean scores from pre- to post-test of 260.70 and 328.25, respectively. However, introducing negative information alone or a combination of positive and negative occupational information reverses this trend. Individuals who were presented with negative only or mixed occupational information were significantly more cognitively complex at post-test than were the positive information only group. If, as previous results have shown, we can presume that a cognitively differentiated state renders the individual more capable of making finer discriminations among stimuli, clearly the cognitively complex state would lead to potentially more accurate decisions regarding the stimuli. The stimuli of relevance here, of course, are occupations. The implications of this line of reasoning for vocational information dissemination and vocational behavior are clear. If in the process of vocational counseling one’s goal is to promote maximally valid decision making, it would seem that inducing cognitive complexity as a mediating state would have desirable consequences, To the extent that cognitive differentiation may be a variable which mediates more adequate vocational decisions (Bodden, 1970), its potential utility becomes even more attractive in the counseling process. The implications of the findings presented here for the process of vocational counseling should be immediately apparent. If Super’s (1957) contention that one of the predominant features of vocational counseling is information giving, and our experience would not lead us to contest this assertion, then the results of this study are particularly important. Our results would suggest that the most efficacious method of maintaining cognitive differentiation is to include a liberal dose of negative information about the disadvantages of any given occupational pursuit. Certainly our results would argue for a balanced presentation of positive and negative information during the course of vocational counseling. To present only the positive aspects of an occupation would appear to obviate the desirable effects of maintaining cognitive complexity. Most occupational
COGNITIVE
AND
AFFECTIVE
COMPLEXITY
301
materials in wide usage at present tend toward positive, or at least neutral, content (cf. Occupational Outlook Handbook). The findings presented here suggest that it would behoove practicing counselors to interject more of the disadvantageous aspects of occupations in the course of vocational counseling. Presenting only positive information may well lead to a prematurely undifferentiated cognitive state, which previous research has suggested would not be a desirable vocational decision-making outcome. It seems obvious, of course, that no information at all would be the ideal condition to avoid increasing cognitive simplicity. But when clients seek assistance, some form of information is, by definition, given, thus constituting a base rate against which the results of the present study may be interpreted. At a theoretical level the results presented here are somewhat more difficult to interpret. Clearly, negative or mixed occupational information maintains a more cognitively differentiated state than positive information, but the processes which underlie this change are not immediately obvious. Bodden and Klein (1973) have suggested a vigilance hypothesis which may have some relevance to the results obtained in the present study, particularly regarding those conditions which included some negative information. Cognitive complexity data collected in their earlier study suggested that negatively perceived occupations elicited more cognitively differentiated ratings than occupations which were positively perceived. They suggest that negatively perceived stimuli may have some psychological threat value, and hence the individual is inclined to be more vigilant about various aspects of the stimuli, leading eventually to greater cognitive complexity. While such an explanation may have relevance here, the fact that the positive plus negative condition elicited as great a degree of complexity renders the vigilance hypothesis less tenable. It is possible that in this mixed information condition the respondents could have ignored the positive information and focused only on the negative aspects presented. But the fact that there are sizable differences between the mixed condition and the negative only condition implies that the subjects were taking into consideration the positive information in the mixed condition as well as the negative information contained therein. While the vigilance hypothesis may account for some of the observed variability, it is our contention that the variability may be more related to the complexity of the information presented. Presenting both positive and negative occupational information is by definition a more complex intellectual activity which may result in greater observed differentiation, over and above what would be expected in a negative, vigilance demanding, information condition. Bannister (1963) has shown that confirming a subject’s construct choices tends to tighten the subject’s construct system, i.e., produce greater simplicity. The positive condition of this study may well have provided confirmation of previously held beliefs about the
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occupations and led to greater simplicity, while the negative and mixed conditions may have offered information which psychologically challenged those beliefs. Further work on the potential impact of confirmation or disconfirmation would prove very illuminating. Differences between methodology in the present study and that of Bodden and James and of Bannister, however, leave these observations at the level of speculation. Further work which experimentally introduces the vigilance concept into the experimental task would aid in further clarification of the role of information in altering cognitive complexity, especially as it relates to the process of vocational decision making. The conditions under which cognitive complexity can be experimentally induced may have important implications for the study of vocational behavior. REFERENCES Bannister, D. A genesis of schizophrenic thought disorder: A serial invalidation hypothesis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1963, 109, 680-686. Bieri, J., Atkins, A., Briar, S., Leaman, R., Miller, H., & Tripodi, T. Clinical and social judgment: The discrimination of behavior information. New York: Wiley, 1966. Bodden, J. Cognitive complexity as a factor in appropriate vocational choice. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1969. Bodden, J. Cognitive complexity as a factor in appropriate vocational choice. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1970, 17, 364-368. Bodden, J., & James, L. Influence of occupational information giving on cognitive complexity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1976, 23, 280-282. Bodden, J., & Klein, A. Cognitive complexity and appropriate vocational choice: Another look. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1972, 19, 257-258. Bodden, J., & Klein, A. Cognitive differentiation and affective stimulus value in vocational judgments. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 1973, 3, 75-79. Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. Applied multiple regressionlcorrelation analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Wiley, 1975. Durham, L. 100 Careers. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1977. Harris, R. A primer of multivariate statistics. New York: Academic Press, 1975. Holland, J. Making vocational decisions: A theory of careers. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973. Kelly, G. The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton, 1955. Vol. 1. Osgood, C., Suci, G., & Tannenbaum, P. The measurement of meaning. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1957. Schoon, C. A study of the affective responses elicited by occupational stimuli. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1976, 5, 95-103. Super, D. The psychology of careers. New York: Harper & Row, 1957. Turner, R., & Tripodi, T. Cognitive complexity as a function of type of stimulus object and affective stimulus value. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1968, 32, 182-185. U. S. Department of Labor. Occupational outlook handbook. Washington, D. C.: 1977. (a) U. S. Department of Labor. Dictionary of occupational titles. Washington, D. C.: 1977. (b) Received: November 9, 1978.