cognitive determinants of interests: an extension of a theoretical model and initial empirical...

Journal of Vocational Behavior 34, 318-334 (1989)

Cognitive Determinants of Interests: An Extension of a Theoretical Model and Initial Empirical Examinations

AZY BARAK, IRIS LIBROWSKY, AND SHOSHANA SHILOH

Tel Aviv University

This article elaborates on a previous theoretical model concerning the development and maintenance of interests. According to the current view, individuals- through the operation of various cognitive mechanismsstructure two cognitive processes: self-schemata and performance-related future time orientation cognitions. These two cognitive processes consequently and consistently produce three distinct and measurable cognitive determinants-perceived abilities, expected success, and anticipated satisfaction-which themselves sequentially create subjective affects and motivations defined as interests. Two studies were conducted to test some initial hypotheses derived from this model. In an interpersonal design study, the cognitive determinants highly correlated with interests, and all three significantly contributed for a multiple prediction of interests. In an intrapersonal design study, interests were highly correlated with perceived abilities, which were themselves highly related to internal and stable causal attributions. The implications of the model for career development and choice-related issues are discussed. o 1989

Academic Press, Inc.

In 1970, Osipow was among the first psychologists to underline the important role of cognitive variables in vocational behavior and to call for studying cognitive aspects in career development. The research on cognitive factors in vocational psychology has flourished, parallel to the development of the domain of cognitive psychology, but must be further investigated (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1984; Osipow, 1983). Several attempts have been made at conceptualizing a cognitively oriented theory of career development, such as Krumboltz’s (1979) social learning approach, Mark- ham’s (1983) cognitively influenced vocational development and choice model, or Knefelkamp and Splitza’s (1976) cognitive model of college students’ career development.

In line with these developments, a cognitive model concerning the nature of vocational interests was proposed by Barak (1981). This model analyzed the concept of interest as a psychological construct, and reviewed, categorized, drew inferences, and proposed specific postulates concerning

Correspondence concerning this article and reprint requests should be addressed to Azy Barak, Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.

318 OOOl-8791/89 $3.00 Copyright 0 1989 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

COGNITIVE DETERMINANTS 319

the development via cognitive determination of interests. The model proposed that certain cognitive functions, or cognitive determinants, me- diate between actual (tested) abilities, previous performance, and satisfaction derived from engaging in various experiences, and the subjective sense of interests. The mediating antecedent processes, i.e., perceived abilities, expected success, and anticipated satisfaction, have been identified as those which, in combination, and in varying magnitudes, determine and modify interests in various contents, including activities, tasks, studies, or occupations. The present article presents an attempt to reconceptualize and elaborate Barak’s (1981) model.

Perceived abilities refer to self-perceptions, self-image, or self-concept, while expected success and anticipated satisfaction refer mostly to attributions and beliefs concerning future environmental stimuli. All of these perceptual processes refer to the construct of cognitive schemata. The construct of schemata might be considered as one of the significant departures of the cognitive view from the widely accepted behavioral approach to the understanding of human functioning. While behavioral theories analyze functioning in terms of learning experiences of any kind, including generalized responses, observational learning, etc., cognitive theory puts a heavy and primary emphasis on cognitive representations of past experiences and of future possible imagined circumstances, including an active involvement of a variety of cognitive mechanisms. Thus, “a schema may be construed as a template that individuals impose on their world, enabling them to perceive relevant events selectively, to fill in the gaps when certain information is not readily available, and to be able to recall the essential aspects of an incident” (Goldfried & Robins, 1983, p. 42). Hence, a schemata contains various cognitive constructs, and mediates between individual’s actual past experiences (stimuli) and behavioral and emotional future consequences (responses). Cognitive mechanisms function to form milestones, structures, and orientations and to enable an indvidual to relate to himself or herself in relation to the surrounding world. Various such functions have been identified, e.g., self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1977, 1982).

Interest may represent a special case of an affective response to an actual or an imagined stimulus on a like/dislike, attracted/rejected continuum. Cognitive theories, especially in therapeutic related approaches, have advocated for the one-way relationship between cognition and affect (e.g., Ellis, 1984; Kruglanski & Jaffe, 1983; Meichenbaum, 1977). This kind of relationship is probably too simplistic, according to various formulations and empirical findings (e.g., Wyer & Srule, 1984). Various theoretical formulations (e.g., Case, Hayward, Lewis & Hurst, 1988; Fiske, 1981) have been proposed to explain these complex relationships. All of these approaches are characterized by the view that the cognition (thought)-affect (emotion) bond does exist, but is mediated by various

320 BARAK, LIBROWSKY, AND SHILOH

additional mediating processes. These complex relationships are still to be investigated, in relation to both interests and other affective responses.

Another aspect that has attracted cognitive psychologists-and is related to the study of interests-is human motivation. Interest represents not only an affective response but also a motivational tendency on the side of the individual, on a want/do not want, aspire/do not aspire continuum. Cognitive theorists conceptualized the relationships between cognition and motivation via the mediating cognitive construct of future orientation (or future time perspective, or anticipation, or expectancies). According to this conceptualization, a person might be striving to maintain the positive value of past success(es) as a means of feeling good about himself/herself (Raynor, 1981). In Thomae’s (1981) terms, future time perspective-or anticipation for certain outcomes-is the cognitive determinant of both attitudes and behaviors. The central role of cognition in future anticipated events was necessitated by cognitive theory to explain the mediating effects of cognitive functions and processes in behavior acquisition through reinforcement (Estes, 1981). Such cognitive operations include hypotheses testing, comparison and classification, or retrieval from memory and have been used to explain human generalization capacity, behavioral tendencies, and motivation.

These latter arguments require special attention. According to these postulates, positive experiences do not necessarily lead to an increase of motivation or interest; the interest, or the intrinsic motivation, is rather a result of a cognitive conception related to the relevant stimulus, that is, its valence and value as a source of future reinforcement to an individual’s needs, as represented in his/her self-schemata. This notion is consistent with Deci’s (1971, 1972a, 1972b, 1975; Deci, Benware & Landry, 1974; Deci, Cascio & Krusell, 1975) cognitive evaluation theory of intrinsic motivation. According to this theory, extrinsic reinforcement does not lead to enhanced intrinsic motivation or interest but, to the contrary, to undermine it. An interest (i.e., intrinsic motivation) could rather be enhanced by creating situations which could restructure individual’s cognitions in relation to their sense of mastery and perceived positive self value. Beyond Deci’s own research, a number of studies have revealed much support for the theory (Boggiano & Ruble, 1979; Butler & Nisan, 1986; Condry, 1977; Daniel & Essen, 1980; Kruglanski, Friedman, & Zeevi, 1971; Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett, 1973; Pallak, Costomiris, Sroka, & Pittman, 1982; Ransen, 1980). These findings clearly show that interests are not simply reinforced and shaped as defined units of behavior, but rather are modified by complex cognitive mediation processes. Therefore, Strong’s (1951) conception of interest as a habitual activity does not offer a full and accurate explanation, in that it overlooks its cognitive determination. The current viewpoint, however, is consistent with Krumboltz’s


(1979) social learning standpoint, and could be considered an extension of the “self-observation generalizations” concept as the basis of interests.

Interests are cognitively determined and are consequences of individual’s cognitive schema, as dynamically structured by various cognitive processes and mechanisms. However, cognitive schemas are distorted and biased (e.g., Fiske, 1981; Goldfried & Robins, 1983; Kruglanski, 1980; Kruglanski & Ajzen, 1983). The biased schemas represent an active process of striving for internal consistency, and thus individual’s interests could be focused in an activity (or occupation) with which his or her self-schema is compatible, but not necessarily his/her actual characteristics. The cognitive mediating process could thus explain the low correlations found between actual and perceived abilities, as well as between interests and success (cf. Bar& 1981; Hansen, 1984). According to the current analysis, the motivational processes within one’s cognitive schema are essential for deduction of one’s interests, thus the assessment of interest should focus on the relevant cognition contents, such as beliefs, expectations, attributions, self-perceptions, or perceptions of external stimuli (e.g., occupations), and so on, related to the interests in question. As proposed by Mischel(l981), apparently people are good sources of assessing their own cog&ions in a wide range of contexts. In relation to interest measurement, it could explain the usual high congruence found between expressed and inventoried interests, the general better predictions of choice and adjustment of the former than of the latter (Zytowski & Borgen, 1983), and the high predictive validity of a very simple and straight-forward interest measurement method (Barak & Meir, 1974).

In recent years the research of vocational behavior has been characterized by numerous studies which have examined effects and relationships of cognitive variables. Most studies have focused on the specific roles or impact which certain cognitive functions may have. Main cognitive functions examined were the perceived structure of occupations (e.g., Ben- yamini & Gati, 1987; Gati, 1984; Gati & Winer, 1987), cognitive dissonance (e.g., Korman, 1977; Thomas & Bruning, 1984), causal attributions (e.g., Hesketh, 1984), cognitive complexity and differentiation (e.g., Cesari, Winer, & Piper, 1984; Neimeyer & Ebben, 1985; Waas, 1984; Winer & Gati, 1986), and career self-efficacy (see recent reviews by Betz & Hackett, 1986, and Lent & Hackett, 1987). Of special importance to the current analysis are concepts and studies developed by Neimeyer and his associates (e.g., Neimeyer & Metzler, 1987; Neimeyer, Nevih, Prober-t, & Fukuyama, 1985; Nevill, Neimeyer, Prober-t, & Fukuyama, 1986), who conceptualized and studied the cognitive construct of vocational schema.

The current reformulation of the Barak (1981) model of cognitive determination and maintenance of interests postulates that the individual- who pursues various direct (actual) or indirect (observed, imagined) experiences-processes the input information through a complex structure


of cognitive mechanisms, whose methods and impacts are yet to be examined further. The result of these mediating cognitive mechanisms (e.g., causal attributions, cognitive style, cognitive complexity, cognitive dissonance, perception, attention, memory) is divided into two simultaneous and internally consistent categories. First, the experience content-related self-schemata (and, in a broader sense, vocational self-schemata) which relates to the competencies and fitness to perform in this activity, that is, individual’s perceived abilities. This class is related, of course, to career self-efficacy and to Krumbohz’s (1979) conception of self-observation generalizations. Second, the future time orientation schema, which relates to future engagement in this kind of experience; this is subdivided into two classes, i.e., expected success of performance in that activity and anticipated satisfaction which could be derived from engaging in it. These three components (i.e., cognitive determinants of interests&in a complex way still to be studied and in varying combinations-determine the existence and magnitude of interest. Across various activities, an interest profile or structure based on various conceptual dimensions (e.g., activity perceived difficulty, perceived engagement with data) may be formed. It is hypothesized that all three cognitive determinants modify interests and differentiate both between and within individuals’ various interests. It should be noted that the three specific cognitive determinants identified here were isolated and stressed on the basis of empirical data (Barak, 1981) and not solely on a theoretical derivation. Thus, additional determinants, as well as withdrawing any of the three, are possible. This view of interests and, more specifically, of vocational interests, is in contrast to the various current theoretical viewpoints existing on this important topic (see Barak, 1981, and Hansen, 1984, for various approaches).

The two studies reported below directed at initial tests of the model, that is, to examine the necessary (but insufficient) conditions of its validity, that (a) interests are indeed highly correlated with the three cognitive determinants; (b) all three cognitive determinants have significant contributions to the variance of interests; (c) the relationship between the cognitive determinants and interests will be found significant both between individuals (interpersonally) and within individuals (intrapersonally); and (d) cognitive mechanisms cause the cognitive determinants of interests. For this latter purpose, two specific variables were chosen, that is, the impact of causal attributions on perceived abilities. It was hypothesized that internal and stable attributions, rather than external and unstable ones, would be correlated with perceived abilities (e.g., Weiner, 1974) which themselves would be correlated with interests.

Method STUDY 1

Subjects. The subjects were 144 female and 144 male first-year college students in a large university. The subjects volunteered to participate in


the study as partial fulfilment of their introductory psychology course requirements. Within each gender, the subjects were randomly divided into three subgroups of 48 participants in each. Each of the three subgroups (of either gender) was assigned to one of three conditions regarding interests’ stimulus contents, that is, activities, academic courses, or occupations.

Instruments. Three questionnaires were constructed, each contained a different stimulus content of interests: activities, academic courses, and occupations. The same questionnaires were administered to both genders within the stimulus content condition.

The first questionnaire was designed to assess the respondents’ interests using stimulus content of activities. Using Roe’s (1956) classification of occupations, three typical activities were chosen to represent each of the eight occupational fields of Service, Business, Organization, Tech- nology, Outdoor, Science, General Cultural, and Arts & Entertainment. All the activities involved tasks requiring certain skills and training. The selection of items was done by using four experts who classified an initial list of approximately 100 activities to fields according to Roe’s (1956) definitions. Only activities that had unanimously been agreed upon were included in the final questionnaire. Each activity was followed by a 5- point scale ranging from 1 (definitely not interested) to 5 (very much interested). The interest score in each field could hence range from a low of 3 to a high of 15. A pilot study (N = 35) revealed test-retest average field reliability of .80.

The second questionnaire was similar to the first one, but contained items of academic courses as a stimulus content. The courses were also classified by the four experts, instructed to classify them from an initial list of approximately 70 course offerings according to Roe’s (1956) classification. Also here, only courses that were unanimously classified as representing a certain field were included in this questionnaire. Test- retest average field reliability of interests in the academic courses was found to be .81 in a pilot study (N = 35).

The third similar questionnaire contained occupational titles rather than activities or courses as stimuli for examining the subjects’ interests. The four experts classified approximately 100 occupations into Roe’s (1956) fields, and agreed upon occupations--that also represented various occupational levels-were chosen for this questionnaire. Test-retest average field reliability was found to be .79 in a pilot study (N = 35).

The three questionnaires were used in four different versions. The first version, as described above, examined the subjects’ interests. The second version included the same items, but measured the subjects perceived abilities by instructing the subjects to respond to each item in the way they thought they were “potentially able to perform and have the aptitudes to perform” ineachitem(i.e., activity,course,oroccupation,respectively).


The third version involved the same items but assessed the subjects’ expected success; the subjects were instructed here to respond to each item according to their “expectations concerning success” in the various items (i.e., activities, courses, or occupations, respectively). The fourth version, designed to measure the respondents anticipated satisfaction, instructed them to respond to each item according to their “anticipation of being satisfied” with each of the activities, courses, or occupations, respectively.

In order to reduce possible biases due to subjects’ faking, demand characteristics, or artifical consistency effects, 48 filler items were added to the initial lists of 24 items to make it more difficult to recall responses to specific items. Also, the order of the items was randomly changed in each of the four questionnaires.

Procedure. The questionnaires were administered to the subjects in groups. In each of the six conditions (gender x stimulus content) there were 48 subjects, each two of them received the four questionnaires in a different order, to reduce constant-order effects on the results. Internal consistency coefficients for the various scales and questionnaires were found to be between .80 and .90 in all groups.

Results

Pearson correlations were computed between interests in each field and each of the cognitive determinants, that is, perceived abilities, expected success, and anticipated satisfaction, in each gender group. All correlations were found to be significant (I, < .Ol) and varied from a low of .40 (for male subjects, responding to items of activities, between interests and perceived abilities in the organization field) to a high of .95 (for female subjects, responding to items of academic courses, between interests and anticipated satisfaction in the business field). The mean occupational field correlations (by using z transformations) between interests and the cognitive determinants, across the eight occupational fields, are presented in Table 1. Overall, the (2 genders x 8 occupational fields x 3 cognitive determinants x 3 stimulus contents) 144 correlation coefficients, although differing in magnitude, did not reveal consistent differences among the fields, nor did they reveal systematic differences between male and female subjects. The only systematic trend found was that in either gender and each stimulus content, the anticipated satisfaction usually had the highest mean correlation with interest, in comparison to the other two cognitive determinants (i.e., perceived abilities and expected success). This trend, although frequent in direction, was not found to be significant in magnitude in comparing the correlation coefficients.

In addition, multiple correlations were computed between the three cognitive determinants as “predictors” and interest as a criterion for each field by gender. The multiple correlations found ranged from .65

TABL

E 1

Mea

n Fi

eld

and

Mul

tiple

C

orre

latio

ns

betw

een

Inte

rest

s an

d C

ogni

tive

Det

erm

inan

ts

by S

timul

us C

onte

nt a

nd G

ende

r

Stim

ulus

con

tent

Ac

tiviti

es

Perc

eive

d ab

ilitie

s 58

Ex

pect

ed s

ucce

ss

67

Antic

ipat

ed

satis

fact

ion

79

Mul

tiple

85

Men

Cou

rses

68

70

81

84

Occ

upat

ions

Ac

tiviti

es

57

61

75

66

82

77

84

82

Wom

en

Cou

rses

71

79

87

89

Occ

upat

ions

71

67

76

81

Not

e. D

ecim

als

omitt

ed.

N

= 48

in e

ach

stim

ulus

con

tent

gro

up.

All

corre

latio

ns

are

sign

ifica

nt

(p -

=z .O

l).


to .95, most of them in the .8Os. The mean multiple correlations (across occupational fields) are also shown in Table 1. The magnitudes of the correlations, as may be observed, are very high and, as a matter of fact, in most cases almost reach the limit of the scale reliabilities.

The various multiple correlations did not reveal any systematic and meaningful pattern in relation to gender, occupational field, or the nature of the cognitive determinant. This fact, together with the assumption that overlap did exist among the cognitive determinants themselves, made it important to check what cognitive determinants significantly contributed to the magnitude of the multiple correlation. Hence, a tally was made to find out how many times more than one cognitive determinant was needed for the multiple correlation, that is, how many times (out of 2 genders x 8 fields x 3 cognitive determinants = 48 multiple correlations) the contributions of the second and third predictors were significant. The results of this tally revealed that in 40 analyses (83.3%), at least two cognitive determinants were significantly necessary for prediction of the interest score. This analysis also showed that the order of the cognitive determinants changed among the different multiple correlations and, hence, it was unlikely that one of them was systematically unimportant or re- dundant. Rather, it could be deduced that the contribution of all three cognitive determinants to the prediction of interests was significant.

STUDY 2

Method

Subjects. Subjects were 116 female and 107 male job applicants recruited at a vocational assessment center. The mean subjects’ age was 30, and they had various levels of educational training and a variety of career experiences.

Znstruments. A list of activities was composed of 30 items, five of each of Holland’s (1985) six vocational types (i.e., Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprise, and Conventional). The activity items were ordered randomly. The same activity list was presented to subjects three times, while at each presentation they were asked to respond to the list according to different instructions.

In the first presentation of the questionnaire, the subjects were asked to respond to the items according to their degree of interest in each activity on a 7-point scale, ranging from 1 (not interested at all) to 7 (very much interested). In the second administration, the subjects were instructed to respond to the items according to the way they evaluated their abilities and aptitudes to perform in each activity on a 7-point scale, ranging from 1 (very low ability) to 7 (very high ability). In the third presentation of the activities list, the subjects were instructed to respond to each activity according to their causal attributions of imagined success in it. For assessing the subjects’ internal-external causal attributions,


six responses were available for each activity, three of them representing internal causes (i.e., abilities, efforts, desires) and three representing external causes (i.e., luck, help of others, coincidence). The subjects were asked to mark the most reasonable single cause for their good performance on each activity. For assessing the subjects’ stable-unstable causal attributions, they were instructed to indicate, for each activity, whether their imagined success was caused on a random or a single-time basis (unstable cause), or on a repeatable one (stable cause). This method for assessing internal-external and stable-unstable attributions was developed and successfully used by Deaux and Enswiller (1974).

The subjects were, upon the presentation of the questionnaires, instructed to respond to each questionnaire separately and independently. They first responded according to their interests, then according to their perceived abilities, and finally according to their causal attributions. This order, in reverse to the one outlined by the model, was selected to reduce reactivity and demand characteristics effects.

Procedure. The subjects were asked to participate in the study and were assured that their responses would not be reported and would not affect their application procedure. The questionnaires were administered in small groups of approximately 10 subjects each.

This study employed a within-subjects design, that is, examination of the hypotheses derived from the theoretical model intrapersonally. Ac- cordingly, each subject had four sets of 30 scores (i.e., interests, perceived abilities, internal-external attributions, stable-unstable attributions, of the 30 activities). For the statistical analysis, Pearson correlations were computed within each subject between the four variables and across the 30 activities.

Results

Table 2 presents the mean intercorrelations among the four variables of women (upper right hand) and men (lower left hand), and the percentages of individual significant correlations (IV = 30; r L .35 for p 5 .05). As may be seen, the ‘results, in both genders, consistently show significant positive (and relatively high) correlations among interests, perceived abilities, and the two kinds of causal attributions. As hypothesized by the cognitive sequence described in the theoretical model, relatively high correlations were found between perceived abilities and interests. The mean correlations were 59 in both genders, and 91% of the women and 87% of the men had personal correlations between these two variables equal to or above .35 (the critical significant value for p < .05). The mean correlations between the two kinds of causal attributions and perceived abilities were also high. For women, mean correlations were .53 and .64 for the internal-external and stable-unstable attributions, respectively, while for men the equivalent correlations were .48 and .59,

TABL

E 2

Mea

n In

trape

rson

al

Inte

rcor

rela

tions

of

Int

eres

ts,

Perc

eive

d Ab

ilitie

s,

Inte

rnal

-Ext

erna

l, an

d St

able

-Uns

tabl

e At

tribu

tions

fo

r W

omen

an

d M

en

? Pe

rcei

ved

Inte

rnal

-Ext

erna

l St

able

-Uns

tabl

e c

Inte

rest

s ab

ilitie

s at

tribu

tions

at

tribu

tions

;“:

Inte

rest

s r

- 59

45

Ei

(9

1)

:x

(73)

g

Perc

eive

d ab

ilitie

s -

64

< (S

SY)

(ii,

(94)

E

Inte

rnal

-Ext

erna

l at

tribu

tions

-

62

“5

(Z)

(Z)

WV

Stab

le-U

nsta

ble

attri

butio

ns

59

2 -

& (9

1)

(&

z No

te.

For

wom

en

(N

= 11

6) th

e in

terc

orre

latio

ns

are

pres

ente

d in

the

uppe

r rig

ht

hand

. Fo

r m

en (

N =

107)

the

inte

rcor

rela

tions

ar

e pr

esen

ted

0 F in

the

lower

le

ft ha

nd o

f th

e ta

ble.

De

cimal

s we

re

omitt

ed.

The

num

bers

in

pare

nthe

sis

repr

esen

t th

e pe

rcen

tage

s of

per

sona

l co

rrela

tions

th

at

Z we

re f

ound

to

be s

igni

fican

t (r

2 .3

5; p

5

.05)

.

COGNITIVEDETERMINANTS 329

respectively. The mean correlations between the two kinds of attributions and interests tend to be lower, and they were in the .3Os and .4Os. This finding too is consistent with the sequence of the cognitive processes described by the model. This phenomenon, as well as the overall structure of the correlations, was similar for men and women.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

The cognitive theory of interest development and maintenance proposed herein, as an elaboration of Barak’s (1981) previous model, received initial support from the current studies. The findings of Study 1 showed that, across individuals, interests were highly related to persons’ perceived abilities, expected success, and anticipated satisfaction. These findings were found consistent in the various occupational fields-though different in magnitude-and for both women and men. It was also found, as hypothesized, that interests were multiply determined by the three cognitive determinants and that all three were necessary in the cognitive modification process of interests. The findings of Study 2 showed, within individuals, that perceived abilities-as the one cognitive determinant chosen to be examined here-were highly correlated with a person’s degree of interest with various activities. And, as predicted by the theoretical model, perceived abilities were themselves related to the cognitive process of causal attributions: The more internal (versus external) and the more stable (versus unstable) the attributions, the higher the perceived abilities to perform in specific activities. The magnitudes of the correlations gave initial, though yet inconclusive, support to the sequence of the interest modification process as was theoretically stated: perceived experiences, cognitive mechanisms (e.g., causal attributions), cognitive determinants (e.g., perceived abilities), and interests.

The current model puts a heavy emphasis on the role of cognitive processes as sequentially determining the nature and the magnitude of interests. Learning experiences as such are relevant to the process of interest development through the way an individual develops cognitions (e.g., beliefs, perceptions, expectations) about the world, as represented in the cognitive schema. Actual experiences are important, as they were found to enhance interest score validities (Prediger & Swaney, 1986). But, according to the cognitive view, the internal representation of these experiences, as long as they function as stimuli for future interest responses, are of higher and even critical value. According to the cognitive viewpoint (e.g., Kruglanski, 1980), the individual seeks internal cognitive consistency and validates cognitions against one another, regardless of their source, and will attribute various degrees of confidence in the validity of certain information sources to fit the general consistency rule. By this dynamic process, an individual may distort, make errors, or create biases (Kruglanski & Ajzen, 1983) to keep all cognitions consistent. Thus, actual, observed,


generalized, or imagined (fantasized) experiences, may be of similar cognitive value, pending on the individual’s beliefs.

According to this view, an interest may be defined as an affective and a motivational subjective response to a perceived stimulus which is a product determined by the process of an individual evaluating his or her degree of ability to perform a specific activity, the degree he or she expects to succeed in performing it, and the degree he or she anticipates being satisfied from this performance. These self-evaluations are modified by various (different and/or common) antecedent cognitive processes and mechanisms. The current research highlighted the role of two such mechanisms (causal attribution processes) in forming perceived abilities conceptions. These two specific mechanisms were chosen primarily on an arbitrary (though theoretically and empirically justified) basis and not because of their superior importance in comparison to other cognitive processes. As stressed earlier, there are numerous cognitive processes and mechanisms that may take place in the sequential path of affect and motivation modification, such as attention, memory storage and retrieval, differentiation capacity, cognitive style, etc. In the specific process examined in Study 2, it was shown how causal attributions of imagined success were related to individuals’ cognizance of their abilities. Individuals tend to perceive themselves as having higher abilities in performing activities for which their imagined success was attributed to internal and stable causes. This finding is consistent with causal attribution theory (Weiner, 1974; Weiner, Frieze, Kukla, Reed, Rest, & Rosenbaum, 1971). Individuals were also found to develop interests toward activities for which they perceived themselves as possessing higher abilities. Similarly, future research may examine effects of other cognitive mechanisms. One of the promising directions, consistent with previous vocational research, is the effects of career self-efficacy, not only as related to success (cf. Betz & Hackett, 1986; Lent & Hackett, 1987), but also as related to vocational interests and to the cognitive determinants of interests. Another possible direction could be to study effects of gender stereotypes, both of the individual and of a perceived occupation or activity, as a special distortion mechanism of the cognitive schemata, which may be thus related to the interest determination process.

The two studies reported here tested some necessary, but insufficient, conditions necessitated by the theoretical model. Also, both studies share a common weakness of examining the hypotheses in a concurrent validity testing. The natural next stage of testing the theory’s validity is by longitudinal as well as experimental designs which can better examine causal relationships among the various variables. However, since the current research employed both interpersonal (across subjects), and intrapersonal (within subjects) designs, which yielded consistent results, initial support for the theory may indeed be inferred.


Future research should be conducted to test the cognitive theory of interest determination, and its implications on career development, measurement, choice, adjustment, and couseling. Some techniques and approaches have been proposed recently in implementing cognitively oriented procedures in career counseling (e.g., Gerler, 1980; Keller, Biggs, & Gysbers, 1982; Lewis & Gilhousen, 1981; Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1987; Nevo, 1987; Sarnoff & Remet-, 1982; Zakay & Barak, 1984). The current model may be used to draw directions for furthering such procedures. It should be kept in mind though that interests, although necessary, are, of course, insufficient for career choice, entry, and adjustment. These behaviors are related to many other relevant factors. The study of cognitive aspects of vocational behavior, through the construct of interests or other important variables, may advance our understanding of career-related issues (Osipow, 1983, 1987) and consequently contribute to our ultimate goal-the growth of the person.

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Received: July 8, 1988

cognitive determinants of interests: an extension of a theoretical model and initial empirical...

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