The Career Decision Survey: Modeling the Army Enlistment Decision

Abstract

This technical report documents results from the Career Decision Survey. This survey was developed as a theory-based instrument designed to validate an application of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) psychological theory of reasoned action. As applied to career choice, this theory hypothesizes a direct relationship between the beliefs youths have regarding a particular career choice and their attitude toward the career. This attitude, in turn, directly influences intention to pursue the career. In addition, the theory states that career intentions are strongly influenced by the opinions of significant social influencers (e.g., parents). Findings validate and support the adoption of this theory as a useful perspective for analyzing Army enlistment intentions. Using individual respondents beliefs and perceptions alone, this model explained between 46% and 61% of the observed variance in career choice intentions. That is, ARI Technical Report 814 using a relatively small number of questions that asked youths about their beliefs and opinions and those of persons important to them, the models were able to very accurately predict career intentions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA203870

Entities

People

  • M. S. Perry
  • Michael J. Wilson

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Birds
  • Business Administration
  • Economic Analysis
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Factor Analysis
  • Families (Human)
  • Literature Surveys
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Personnel
  • Personnel Management
  • Recruiting
  • Regression Analysis
  • Social Sciences
  • Surveys
  • Training

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Organizational Psychology.
  • Psychometric Testing or Psychological Assessment.