SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PERSONAL VARIABLES RELATED TO THE VOCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK MALE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS

This paper presents the results of a study which was conducted in order to determine the level of vocational development that black industrial workers had achieved. The phrase "industrial worker" is used to refer to those persons employed in industrial enterprises--primarily manufacturing. Industries represented in the study include textiles, clothing, tobacco, and electrical equipment manufacturing.;The questionnaire was in the form of open-ended questions and consisted of 34 items subsumed under four specific categories. The subjects were required to respond to each item, giving factual data about themselves.;The population sample consisted of 76 employed industrial workers randomly selected from three job sites--one in Raleigh, North Carolina and two in Kingstree, South Carolina. Their ages ranged from 19 to 54-years-old. They represented a diversity of experience in the labor force and in terms of their educational attainment.;The findings revealed that the pattern of vocational development among black industrial workers is quite different from what is reported in the literature. Most of the workers followed a trial-stable-trial pattern of development instead of a conventional pattern in which one remains on the same job throughout his work life. An analysis of the workers' perceived quality of life revealed that in general, they believed that the quality of life was improving for them. Their personal concerns were much the same as those expressed by subjects in an earlier study by Kilpatrick and Cantril.;The purpose of this study is twofold: First, an attempt was made to develop a questionnaire that would ascertain information regarding various aspects of the subject's personal and family history. Information regarding the worker's experience in the labor force, his attitude toward his job, his age, marital status, family background, level of educational attainment, and income were collected and examined for possible relationships to the dominant factor being discussed. Secondly, the study was designed to determine the best and worst qualities of life as these subjects perceived them to be.;A discussion of possible reasons why these persons are deficient in their vocational development is presented. Also, some suggested means of intervention by developmental psychologists are presented along with recommendations for further research.