Attitudes and Interests
One of the oldest continuous research programs in psychology has been the study of male and female interests. The research begun by Strong in the 1920s, and expanded by a number of scientists, emphaSizes the importance of early interests and experiences in career development. Although interests change for many reasons, vocational decision m?king is nevertheless influenced by adolescent interests. Measures of the interests of high school and college students show that some one-third change between 15.5 and 16.5 years of age, one-third between 16.5 and 18.5 years, and one-third between 18.5 and 25 years.
Although interests are influenced by sex, age, physical development, and the climate of opportunity, it is useful to take an overall look at adolescent interest patterns, particularly since interests are so highly individual.
Sex Differences In Interests
In recreational activities girls show interest in less vigorous endeavors. Boys prefer competitive activity requiring psychomotor skill. They go in for organized sports. These sex differences lessen in late adolescence.
Girls are more verbal than boys. They spend more time on the cellephone (though this observation will probably be doubted by some parents) and express themselves more in writing. Girls often keep a ;ecord of their social and emotional life in a diary; boys rarely do so. By the senior year of high school conversations among boys center on
all games, dates, television, records, and money. Girls give more attention to books, dates, and parties. One study of the college bull 5ession found that men discussed an average of 3.4 topics as :ompared with 5.7 for women. Men tend to dwell longer on one topic than do women. College women talk most about dates, clothes, food, and dancing. Men talk about sex, about topics directly or indirectly related to careers and about sports.
The author, who has studied career decision making in over one ousand college seniors of both sexes, concludes that women are concerned primarily about the dual role they must plan on of raising a ily and making a living. This is part of our increasing concern ut the roles of women in our culture. Men are concerned primarily ut two factors: knowing when all the alternatives have been covered for decision making, and knowing how best to relate abilities d interests to job climate and opportunities.
If it is any comfort to the reader who is finding difficulty in .ating his or her abilities, interests, personality, and goals in a actical way, let us note tbat the problem is widespread. Our estigations show that over half the seniors we have studied are not sure what they really want to do. Vocational interests change freently during adolescence. This may be good. It helps the person are possibilities in something of a laboratory situation before having to make final choices. For those who would pressure the escent (possibly for the better) to think about his or her career, one should be mindful that it is easier to try to exert influence than it is to make judgments and decisions.
There is some evidence to support the position that girls are uraged from showing intellectual interests in our society, although this attitude seems to be changing slowly. In spite of our easing need for the better utilization of women's brainpower, our culture discourages women from more than casual interest in science, mathematics, and those activities involving decision-making esses. The male role centers on a vocational career, expressed by interest in money and success. The role of the female centers on domestic activities and marriage as a career. While girls have an inteest money as a means to an end, boys have a broader and more experience with money during childhood, which is amplified in managing financial affairs ill adolescence. One research study concludes that as girls grow up, they discover that women are not supposed to excel intellectually. By the twelfth grade their growing concept of the "woman's role" prevents them from competing with men. Social pressures by her peers help mold the girl studer·t into the stereotype of feminine charm-to be feminine she must shudder at a column of figures. For the young girl in our culture the marriage-go-round is a primary goal, although tempered somewhat by the newer attitudes generated by women's liberation movements.
The Struggle for Woman's Identity
In 1963 when equal pay for women was made law in the United States, reactions ranged widely, highlighting the role conflict of women. This conflict began to be expressed in the early 1970s as "women's liberation." The stereotypes of male and female roles in our society began to be questioned. In the area of abilities we became m0re conscious that our society. was not using the vast amount of talent that women could contribute. We became increasingly aware that women were not being given an equal chance with men in jobs and in pay. Although women are now going into many "men's" jobs, the proportions are still small, and statistics indicate that most female college graduates who work still go into traditional women's jobsteacher, nurse, dental assistant, lab technician, library work, and the like. More opportunities are opening up for better utilization of female talents, but progress is slow. Legislative debate continued for two decades before equal pay for women became law in 1963, and controversy rages still.
Social pressures, in the form of conflict between the home and the job, restrict both the single and the married woman. Some of the conflict centers on individual identity. Says psychologist Erik Erikson "Young women often ask whether they can have an identity before they know whom they will marry, and for whom they will make a home. Muth of a young woman's identity is already defined in he: kind of attractiveness and in the selectivity of her search for the ma;:l (or men) by whom she wishes to be sought." Another on-the-scene observer writes: "I don't know what immutable differences exis between men and women apart from differences in their genitals perhaps there are some other unchangeable differences; probab there are a number of irrelevant differences. But it is clear that un social expectations for men and women are equal, until we provide equal respect for both men and women, our answers to this questi will simply reflect our prejudices." Strains and inconsistencies a! built into some of the expected roles of the woman in our culture, it often reaches uncomfortable proportions by adolescence and early youth. It even plays a part in the molding of mterests, and in the nays males and females get together,
