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Work values and work interests: Are they the same?
Journal of Vocational
Work
Behavior, 6, 331-336 (1975)
Values and Work Interests:
Are They the Same?
FREDERICK J. BREME and IRVIN W. COCKRIEL University of Missouri
The hypothesis that the VP1 and WV1 are measuring the same domain based on theoretical similarities was tested using 195 male freshmen students. The data were analyzed by correlational technique including discriminant analysis. The results allow for the interpretation that the VP1 and WV1 are in fact measuring two distinctive domains.
One of the problems suffered by the field of psychology is its inability to operationally define its terms in such a way that there is no overlap in meaning and utility. An example of this dilemma is the controversy over the definitions of values and interests (Osipow, 1973). Contributing to the confusion is the “chicken or the egg” question. Do values hatch from interests or do interests spring from values?Dukes (1955) mentions quite appropriately that the terms “interest” and “values” are often used interchangeably. Stefflre (1959) says that interests stem from values which in turn stem from needs. Crites (1961) talks about the possibility of needs such as security, status and service being social and vocational motivators. Are social and vocational motivators the same as interests? Kirmane and Suziedelis (1962) offer the possibility that occupational interests reflect values, needs and motivation which could imply that interests neither follow values nor values interests. As can be seen, the question is far from answered. Indeed, a value may or may not be the mean toward which interests regress or the organizational framework of interests. Perhaps the origin of interests and values is a misleadingand inappropriate issue. Kimrane and Suziedelis (1962) have tried to operationalize the two terms by relating values only to “work values.” This, they say, provides a clearer
distinction
between
interests
and values, agreeing
when
they say that
“any juxtoposition of work-values and interests is meaningful only if the two are operationally distinct.” Their study, however, showed that there is a high degree of relationship between work-values (as measuredby the Work Values Inventory) and inventoried interests (measured by the Strong Vocational Requests for reprints should be sent to the authors, 102-107 Hill Hall, University of Missouri-Columbia, MO 65201. 331 Copyright 0 1975 by Academic Press, Inc. AU rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
332
BREME
AND
COCKRIEL
Interest Blank). Interest patterns reflected work-values. Ivey (1963) explored the relationship between the WVI and the Kuder Preference Record (Vocational) and found that even though there were generally very few high correlations between the Kudor and the WVI, there were some “patterns” indicating a relationship between the clerical, artistic and social service scales of the Kuder and several WVI work-values. Ivey found it “particularly interesting that work-value patterns appear to follow popular social stereotypes of jobs. . . .” Building on Ivey’s statement about stereotypes the present authors considered the similarities of Holland’s stereotype work environments and Super’s work-values. In fact, it appears that Holland’s definition of interests is closer to Super’s definition of values than Super’s definition of interests. Holland describes interests as being “expressions of personality and personal development” which reflect a person’s direction when searching for an occupation. The personality type determines what kind of environment a person will seek out, the type of person in that environment hopefully being like himself. But what are the people in that environment like? Do they have similar interests or values? Super (1970) defines work-values as being workgoalthose attributes or qualities we consider to be intrinsically desirable and which people “seek in the activities in which they engage.” Values are more fundamental, according to Super. Both Holland (1973) and Super (1970) seem to be talking about an attribute or quality toward which a person strives. Holland suggests that people strive toward a particular environment which includes people with similar personalities and Super toward a particular attribute or quality that they desire. It follows from this discussion that it should be possible to predict VP1 scores from the WV1 and vice versa. The purpose of the present study is to determine the relationship between the VP1 and WVI. It is hypothesized that the two measure the same events and that a high correlation exists between the two on appropriate scales.
METHOD Subjects. One-hundred-ninty-five male freshmen students enrolled in Introduction to Edukation classes in the College of Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia served as subjects. One of the objectives of the course is to help each student examine his vocational decision. Many students who enroll in the College of Education are not certain they want to become teachers, and some students who think they will become teachers when they enroll later change majors.
WORK
VALUES
AND
INTERESTS
333
Instruments. To help the student explore his vocational possibilities, various vocationally related inventories are made available to him as one means to learn more about himself and the world of work. Two inventories utilized are the WVI and VPI. Data Analysis. The scores of the 195 male students who completed both inventories constitute the data studied. Scores from both instruments were key punched onto IBM cards for computer analysis.
RESULTS The SPSS (1970) computer programs were utilized to compute the Pearson’s correlational coefficients. The results of the inter-correlational coefficients between the scaled scores of both instruments are presented in Table 1. One can see that the scales from these two instruments do not correlate highly, the highest coefficient (.384) being between the Artistic scale of the VP1 and the Esthetic scale of the WVI. While this coefficient is significant at the .Ol level of confidence, it explains very little common variance. The VPI scores for each subject were examined for high point code. That is, the six scale scores were examined to determine the scale containing the highest raw value. Subjects with scales tied for highest value were eliminated from further analysis, and the remaining subjects were then classified into Holland’s six personality classifications by their high point code. The results of this classification is shown in Table 2. A discriminant analysis was then performed following the rationale presented by Williams (1972), by using an SAS (1970) computer program. The analysis was completed by using the WV1 values against pregrouped subjects according to VP1 high point codes. Table 2 displays the VP1 high point code classification and the classifications derived from the use of discriminant analysis. For example, nine subjects were classified as similar to persons of realistic type by VP1 high point code, while no subjects were so classified from the WVI data. A &-square test was applied to the VP1 classifications before and after discriminant analysis using the values from the column marked total in Table 2 and the row marked total in Table 2. This resulted in a chi-square value of 16.684 with 5 degrees of freedom, which is significant at the .Ol level of confidence. Results from both the correlation coefficients and the discriminant analysis indicate there is not a high degree of relationship between the scores of males who were administered both instruments. The hypothesis that both tests measure the same stereotypic goals is rejected.
* 195 Male
Realistic Investigative Social Conventional Enterprising Artistic
-.030 -.031 .165 .139 .255 -.025
fresmen.
.022 .130 .104 .llO .204 .166
.044 -.116 -.025 .166 .279 -.118
coefficients
.OOS .113 .079 -.047 -.059 -.061 .137 .177 ,222 .249 .043 -.033
Correlational
-.025 -.045 -.072 .005 .145 -.063
between
-.006 .053 -.050 .130 .179 .005
.249 .085 .152 .130 .184 .384
-.OlO -.142 -.037 .087 .249 -.051
the VP1 scales and the WVI
1
-.Oll -.113 -.131 .196 .209 -.209
TABLE
-.lll -.172 -.120 -.062 .151 .030
scales*
.088 .060 .023 .121 .072 .063
.021 -.131 -.071 .226 .340 -.151
-.066 .012 .218 .009 .055 -.003
-.019 .161 .202 .116 .109 .106
r
f i;j
335
WORK VALUES AND INTERESTS TABLE 2 Discriminant analysis of VP1 high point codes using the WV1 Group (actual)
Realistic (R) Investigative (I) social (S) Conventional (C) Enterprising (E) Artistic (A) Total
Classified by discriminant function
Total
(RI
0)
69
(0
03
(A)
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 11 5 0 4 8 29
2 13 42 1 2 1s IS
0 0 0 3 0 0 3
1 1 0 0 4 0 6
5 9 10 1 5 2s 5s
9 34 51
5 1s 48
DISCUSSION The results of this investigation allow for the interpretation that the VPI and WVI measure two distinctive domains. As did Ivey (1963), this investigation found that there are some significant correlations between the scales of the WVI and VP1 but that very little of the variance is explained. The only “patterns” that are readily observable are the correlations between the Artistic and Esthetic, and the Enterprising and Economic Return scales, and then the correlations are not high. The discriminant function analysis indicated consistency only in the social area, in that 42 of the 57 people pregrouped as socials looked like socials as indicated by their WV1 scores. The implications of these results for clarifying the confusion about interests and values are important. First, it would appear that operational definition of values and interests should be made in terms of the tests used. Osipow (1973) makes a similar conclusion in his review of the relationship between interest, needs and values when he states that, “. . the instrumentation plays an important role in influencing the degree of relationship to be observed among the three variables.” The constructs can be discussed as being the same only with the knowledge that the tests used to measure them are highly correlated. In the general sense, however, good definitions and understanding of the origins of values and interests are still not immediately possible. One conclusion easily reached is that if two concepts stem from one another they should be more highly correlated. The results may indicate that values are indeed different than interests in that values are goals and interests reflect activities that lead one to the goal (Super, 1973). It also appears that “stereotypic goals” are not the link between interests and values, at least as
336
BREME AND COCKRIEL
they are tapped by the WV1 and VF’I. This apparent similarity in Holland’s and Super’s theories is not reflected in the intercorrelations or the discriminant function analysis.
REFERENCES Barr, A. J., & Goodnight, J. H. A user’s guide to the statistical analysis system. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University, 1972. Crites, J. 0. Factor analytic defmitions of vocational motivation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1961,45, 330-337. Dukes, W. F. Psychological studies of values. Psychological Bulletin, 1955,52, 24-50. Holland, J. L. Vocational preference inventory manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1970. Holland, J. L. Making vocational choices: A theory of careers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973. Ivey, A. E. Interests and work values. Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 1963, 11, 121-124. Kinnane, J. F., & Suziedelis, A. Work value orientation and inventoried interests. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1962, 9, 144-148. Nie, N. H., Bent, D. H., & Hull, C. H. Statistical package for the social sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970. Osipow, S. H. Theories of career development. Second Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973. Stefflre, B. Concurrent validity of the Vocational Values Inventory. Journal of Educational Research, 1959, 52, 339-341. Super, D. E. Manual: Work values inventory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. Super, D. E. The work values inventory. In D. G. Zytowski (Ed.), Contemporary approaches to interest measurement. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1973. Super, D. E., & Mowry, J. G., Jr. Social and personal desirability in the assessment of work values. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1962, 22, 715-719. William, C. M. Occupational choice of male graduate students as related to values and personality: A test of Holland’s theory. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1972, 2, 3946. Zytowski, D. G. (Ed.) Contemporary approaches to interest measurement. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1973. Received October 28, 1974.
Work
Behavior, 6, 331-336 (1975)
Values and Work Interests:
Are They the Same?
FREDERICK J. BREME and IRVIN W. COCKRIEL University of Missouri
The hypothesis that the VP1 and WV1 are measuring the same domain based on theoretical similarities was tested using 195 male freshmen students. The data were analyzed by correlational technique including discriminant analysis. The results allow for the interpretation that the VP1 and WV1 are in fact measuring two distinctive domains.
One of the problems suffered by the field of psychology is its inability to operationally define its terms in such a way that there is no overlap in meaning and utility. An example of this dilemma is the controversy over the definitions of values and interests (Osipow, 1973). Contributing to the confusion is the “chicken or the egg” question. Do values hatch from interests or do interests spring from values?Dukes (1955) mentions quite appropriately that the terms “interest” and “values” are often used interchangeably. Stefflre (1959) says that interests stem from values which in turn stem from needs. Crites (1961) talks about the possibility of needs such as security, status and service being social and vocational motivators. Are social and vocational motivators the same as interests? Kirmane and Suziedelis (1962) offer the possibility that occupational interests reflect values, needs and motivation which could imply that interests neither follow values nor values interests. As can be seen, the question is far from answered. Indeed, a value may or may not be the mean toward which interests regress or the organizational framework of interests. Perhaps the origin of interests and values is a misleadingand inappropriate issue. Kimrane and Suziedelis (1962) have tried to operationalize the two terms by relating values only to “work values.” This, they say, provides a clearer
distinction
between
interests
and values, agreeing
when
they say that
“any juxtoposition of work-values and interests is meaningful only if the two are operationally distinct.” Their study, however, showed that there is a high degree of relationship between work-values (as measuredby the Work Values Inventory) and inventoried interests (measured by the Strong Vocational Requests for reprints should be sent to the authors, 102-107 Hill Hall, University of Missouri-Columbia, MO 65201. 331 Copyright 0 1975 by Academic Press, Inc. AU rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
332
BREME
AND
COCKRIEL
Interest Blank). Interest patterns reflected work-values. Ivey (1963) explored the relationship between the WVI and the Kuder Preference Record (Vocational) and found that even though there were generally very few high correlations between the Kudor and the WVI, there were some “patterns” indicating a relationship between the clerical, artistic and social service scales of the Kuder and several WVI work-values. Ivey found it “particularly interesting that work-value patterns appear to follow popular social stereotypes of jobs. . . .” Building on Ivey’s statement about stereotypes the present authors considered the similarities of Holland’s stereotype work environments and Super’s work-values. In fact, it appears that Holland’s definition of interests is closer to Super’s definition of values than Super’s definition of interests. Holland describes interests as being “expressions of personality and personal development” which reflect a person’s direction when searching for an occupation. The personality type determines what kind of environment a person will seek out, the type of person in that environment hopefully being like himself. But what are the people in that environment like? Do they have similar interests or values? Super (1970) defines work-values as being workgoalthose attributes or qualities we consider to be intrinsically desirable and which people “seek in the activities in which they engage.” Values are more fundamental, according to Super. Both Holland (1973) and Super (1970) seem to be talking about an attribute or quality toward which a person strives. Holland suggests that people strive toward a particular environment which includes people with similar personalities and Super toward a particular attribute or quality that they desire. It follows from this discussion that it should be possible to predict VP1 scores from the WV1 and vice versa. The purpose of the present study is to determine the relationship between the VP1 and WVI. It is hypothesized that the two measure the same events and that a high correlation exists between the two on appropriate scales.
METHOD Subjects. One-hundred-ninty-five male freshmen students enrolled in Introduction to Edukation classes in the College of Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia served as subjects. One of the objectives of the course is to help each student examine his vocational decision. Many students who enroll in the College of Education are not certain they want to become teachers, and some students who think they will become teachers when they enroll later change majors.
WORK
VALUES
AND
INTERESTS
333
Instruments. To help the student explore his vocational possibilities, various vocationally related inventories are made available to him as one means to learn more about himself and the world of work. Two inventories utilized are the WVI and VPI. Data Analysis. The scores of the 195 male students who completed both inventories constitute the data studied. Scores from both instruments were key punched onto IBM cards for computer analysis.
RESULTS The SPSS (1970) computer programs were utilized to compute the Pearson’s correlational coefficients. The results of the inter-correlational coefficients between the scaled scores of both instruments are presented in Table 1. One can see that the scales from these two instruments do not correlate highly, the highest coefficient (.384) being between the Artistic scale of the VP1 and the Esthetic scale of the WVI. While this coefficient is significant at the .Ol level of confidence, it explains very little common variance. The VPI scores for each subject were examined for high point code. That is, the six scale scores were examined to determine the scale containing the highest raw value. Subjects with scales tied for highest value were eliminated from further analysis, and the remaining subjects were then classified into Holland’s six personality classifications by their high point code. The results of this classification is shown in Table 2. A discriminant analysis was then performed following the rationale presented by Williams (1972), by using an SAS (1970) computer program. The analysis was completed by using the WV1 values against pregrouped subjects according to VP1 high point codes. Table 2 displays the VP1 high point code classification and the classifications derived from the use of discriminant analysis. For example, nine subjects were classified as similar to persons of realistic type by VP1 high point code, while no subjects were so classified from the WVI data. A &-square test was applied to the VP1 classifications before and after discriminant analysis using the values from the column marked total in Table 2 and the row marked total in Table 2. This resulted in a chi-square value of 16.684 with 5 degrees of freedom, which is significant at the .Ol level of confidence. Results from both the correlation coefficients and the discriminant analysis indicate there is not a high degree of relationship between the scores of males who were administered both instruments. The hypothesis that both tests measure the same stereotypic goals is rejected.
* 195 Male
Realistic Investigative Social Conventional Enterprising Artistic
-.030 -.031 .165 .139 .255 -.025
fresmen.
.022 .130 .104 .llO .204 .166
.044 -.116 -.025 .166 .279 -.118
coefficients
.OOS .113 .079 -.047 -.059 -.061 .137 .177 ,222 .249 .043 -.033
Correlational
-.025 -.045 -.072 .005 .145 -.063
between
-.006 .053 -.050 .130 .179 .005
.249 .085 .152 .130 .184 .384
-.OlO -.142 -.037 .087 .249 -.051
the VP1 scales and the WVI
1
-.Oll -.113 -.131 .196 .209 -.209
TABLE
-.lll -.172 -.120 -.062 .151 .030
scales*
.088 .060 .023 .121 .072 .063
.021 -.131 -.071 .226 .340 -.151
-.066 .012 .218 .009 .055 -.003
-.019 .161 .202 .116 .109 .106
r
f i;j
335
WORK VALUES AND INTERESTS TABLE 2 Discriminant analysis of VP1 high point codes using the WV1 Group (actual)
Realistic (R) Investigative (I) social (S) Conventional (C) Enterprising (E) Artistic (A) Total
Classified by discriminant function
Total
(RI
0)
69
(0
03
(A)
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 11 5 0 4 8 29
2 13 42 1 2 1s IS
0 0 0 3 0 0 3
1 1 0 0 4 0 6
5 9 10 1 5 2s 5s
9 34 51
5 1s 48
DISCUSSION The results of this investigation allow for the interpretation that the VPI and WVI measure two distinctive domains. As did Ivey (1963), this investigation found that there are some significant correlations between the scales of the WVI and VP1 but that very little of the variance is explained. The only “patterns” that are readily observable are the correlations between the Artistic and Esthetic, and the Enterprising and Economic Return scales, and then the correlations are not high. The discriminant function analysis indicated consistency only in the social area, in that 42 of the 57 people pregrouped as socials looked like socials as indicated by their WV1 scores. The implications of these results for clarifying the confusion about interests and values are important. First, it would appear that operational definition of values and interests should be made in terms of the tests used. Osipow (1973) makes a similar conclusion in his review of the relationship between interest, needs and values when he states that, “. . the instrumentation plays an important role in influencing the degree of relationship to be observed among the three variables.” The constructs can be discussed as being the same only with the knowledge that the tests used to measure them are highly correlated. In the general sense, however, good definitions and understanding of the origins of values and interests are still not immediately possible. One conclusion easily reached is that if two concepts stem from one another they should be more highly correlated. The results may indicate that values are indeed different than interests in that values are goals and interests reflect activities that lead one to the goal (Super, 1973). It also appears that “stereotypic goals” are not the link between interests and values, at least as
336
BREME AND COCKRIEL
they are tapped by the WV1 and VF’I. This apparent similarity in Holland’s and Super’s theories is not reflected in the intercorrelations or the discriminant function analysis.
REFERENCES Barr, A. J., & Goodnight, J. H. A user’s guide to the statistical analysis system. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University, 1972. Crites, J. 0. Factor analytic defmitions of vocational motivation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1961,45, 330-337. Dukes, W. F. Psychological studies of values. Psychological Bulletin, 1955,52, 24-50. Holland, J. L. Vocational preference inventory manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1970. Holland, J. L. Making vocational choices: A theory of careers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973. Ivey, A. E. Interests and work values. Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 1963, 11, 121-124. Kinnane, J. F., & Suziedelis, A. Work value orientation and inventoried interests. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1962, 9, 144-148. Nie, N. H., Bent, D. H., & Hull, C. H. Statistical package for the social sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970. Osipow, S. H. Theories of career development. Second Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973. Stefflre, B. Concurrent validity of the Vocational Values Inventory. Journal of Educational Research, 1959, 52, 339-341. Super, D. E. Manual: Work values inventory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. Super, D. E. The work values inventory. In D. G. Zytowski (Ed.), Contemporary approaches to interest measurement. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1973. Super, D. E., & Mowry, J. G., Jr. Social and personal desirability in the assessment of work values. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1962, 22, 715-719. William, C. M. Occupational choice of male graduate students as related to values and personality: A test of Holland’s theory. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1972, 2, 3946. Zytowski, D. G. (Ed.) Contemporary approaches to interest measurement. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1973. Received October 28, 1974.