john holland
(2) Citation.
Devoge, Susan D. “Personality Variables, Academic Major, and Vocational Choice: A Longitudinal Study of Holland’s Theory.” Psychological Reports, vol. 37, no. 3_suppl, Dec. 1975, pp. 1191–1195, doi:10.2466/pr0.1975.37.3f.1191.
(3) Summary. Provide a brief summary of the author’s argument or the information the reading presents.
Published in 1975, researchers measured the effect of students grades and personality and that effect on the major choice. They also measured the major choice effect on employment after college.
(4) Author(s).
Susan D Devoge, a Clinical Psychologist specialist in Reno NV
(5) Key terms. Define at least two key terms or key concepts used in the piece.
Enterprising - how humble or assertive a student is
Conventional - how affected by feelings or emotionally stable a student is
(6) Three Quotes.
"The 16 PF was administered to 132 male college students at both their freshman and senior years to determine the relationship between personality characteristics and major area of study. In addition, the continuity between major area of study and occupation 4 yr. after college was investigated." (1975)
"Though it was not possible to predict occupational types significantly (as classified by college majors) from students' personality scores as freshmen, the relationship between the subjects' occupational types and their personality scores as seniors was significant." (1995)
"The relationship between students' scores as freshmen and college major was nor significant; however, the relationship between their personality scores as seniors and their college majors was significant." (1975)
(7) Value.
This article gives me evidence on how kids in college picked majors prior to the privatization of public education.
This single piece of research from 1975 is interesting, but to make a more meaningful argument you should survey the field of research on college majors over time, pointing to several studies that focused on individual characteristics like "personality" in driving major choice in the 1970s, and then you would have to show that the literature had shifted and no one was any longer writing about "personality" and major choice but, instead, they were looking at economic issues. I think this would not require a huge amount of work, you would just have to look through titles and abstracts from 1970-1980 (mentioning and citing a few) and compare the current literature (mentioning and citing a few) -- and do some searches, perhaps specifically on "personality AND college major" within two date ranges (say 1970-1980 and 2010-2020). It would make at least for an interesting anecdote -- though I am not certain that you would find ZERO research these days on "personalty and college major" simply because there has been a big increase in the amount of academic research, and of research on higher education specifically, since the 1970s. And the literature may have some studies by people specifically showing that "personality" was NO LONGER a factor in major choice. But, if you did find no one researching "personality" anymore, or only doing so in order to show that "personality" is no longer a factor (and this, despite the increase in research), then you would definitely have an interesting point to make based upon research.
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