MORITA Shinichiro, ISIDU Kazuko, TAKAHASHI Miho
Japan Association of Industial/Organizational Psychology Journal, 27(1) 21-30, Nov, 2013 Peer-reviewed
Preferences for different types of occupation among freshmen and sophomores of liberal arts courseswere investigated. In Study 1, a scale was constructed to measure preferences for different types ofoccupations and the degree of each preference. Data collected from 327 Japanese students were analyzed.A scale was constructed consisting of five subscales to measure preferences for occupations characterizedby learning and the development of knowledge and skills, autonomy, cooperation with coworkers,altruism, and qualifications. Scores on these subscales revealed high preferences for altruism and lowpreferences for autonomy.Study 2 compared preferences among students divided into three samples by the level of difficulty ofentering their university and the nationality of their university. Data were collected from 196 Japanesestudents from universities with low entrance difficulty, 105 Japanese students from a university with highentrance difficulty, and 112 Chinese students from a university with high entrance difficulty. Not only thenationality of the university but also difficulty of entering could have a relationship with preference forvarious types of occupations, and preferences for occupations characterized by altruism and byqualifications could adequately discriminate between the three samples.