Computer science majors: sex role orientation, academic achievement, and social cognitive factors

Career Development Quarterly, June, 2006 by Chris Brown, Linda S. Garavalia, Mary Lou Hines Fritts, Elizabeth A. Olson

1. The Rotter Internal-External Control Scale (I-E; Rotter, 1966) consists of 29 forced-choice items and measures the degree to which participants perceive reinforcement as contingent upon their actions. Six of the items are filler items to disguise the purpose of the test. Thus, the scale consists of 23 I-E items and 6 filler items. Higher scores indicate an external locus of control. Harrow and Ferrante (1969) reported test-retest reliability of .75 for psychiatric patients over a 6-week interval. Evidence of construct validity is supported by the close relationships between item content and patterns of environment control (Seeman & Evans, 1962).

2. The Career Locus of Control Scale (CLCS; Trice, Haire, & Elliott, 1989) measures locus of control for career planning and consists of 18 statements scored on a true/false format. Scores range from 0 to 18 and are calculated by totaling the number of external responses. Higher scores indicate more external locus of control for career development. Trice et al. reported a test-retest reliability coefficient of .93 over a 3-week interval and Kuder Richardson (K-R 20) reliability estimates of .81 to .89 for college student samples. As evidence of construct validity, Trice et al. reported a positive correlation between CLCS scores and a variety of career development behaviors, such as job search and career exploration tasks.

Sex role orientation. The Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ; Spence & Helmreich, 1978) is a 24-item self-report instrument composed of three scales (M, F, and M-F) that are computed by adding the 8 items comprising each scale, yielding scores that range from 0-32 on each of the three scales. The Masculinity (M) scale comprises self-assertive-instrumental traits (e.g., independent, competitive, aggressive) while the Femininity (F) scale consists of traits described as interpersonal-expressive (e.g., emotional, dependent, helpful). The Masculinity-Femininity (M-F) scale reflects self-assertive-instrumental or expressive-interpersonal characteristics, or a combination of both. Respondents are asked to rate themselves on 24 traits scored on a 5-point bipolar continuum, for example, from A (0) not at all aggressive to E (4) very aggressive. Spence and Helmreich (1978) provided cutoff scores on the M and F scales that reflect Masculine, Feminine, Androgynous, and Undifferentiated sex role classifications. Consistent with Spence and Helmreich's classification guidelines, cutoff scores on the Masculinity and Femininity scales were used to classify participants into the four sex role groups. The cutoff scores provided by Spence and Helmreich on the Masculinity and Femininity scales are the median scores for each scale and were based on their norm sample of 715 college students. As noted by Spence and Helmreich (1978), the burden lies with the researchers to scrutinize their data and determine whether the median-split method is appropriate. Evidence of the PAQ's psychometric soundness has been established, with validation evidence indicating that the PAQ differentiates between the sexes on each of the three scales. Spence and Helmreich (1978) reported Cronbach's alphas for the M and F scales of .85 and .82, respectively.