the effect of cognitive style and manifest anxiety on intellectual and vocational interest in...

Journal of Vocational Behavior 10, 146- I55 ( 1977)

The Effect of Cognitive Style and Manifest Anxiety on Intellectual and Vocational Interest in Adolescents

VERONIKA E. GRIMM AND CHAVA NACHMIAS

The Hebrew, Uni~wsrty of Jerusalem

The relationship of cognitive and emotional factors to concurrent fields of interest and future vocational preferences were examined in a sample of Israeli high school children. Divergent thinking, anxiety, occupational preference, and fields of intellectual interests were measured. High divergent thinkers were found to have a wider range of interest, i.e.. tend to choose occupation and free time intellectual interests in different fields. High anxious subjects, were found to have a narrow range of interest, choosing occupation and free time interest in the same field. They also seem to be more affected by the social prestige value of the occupations in their choice than are low anxious subjects. A strong and significant negative correlation was found between manifest anxiety and divergent thinking. The results suggest that scores on tests of divergent thinking and manifest anxiety may provide useful information for the school or vocational counselor.

Career orientation, vocational interests, and determinants of occupational choice have been the subject of many investigations. Abilities, achievement, personality factors, self-concept, self-esteem, values, fam- ily background, sex, birth order, status, and other social factors have been shown to play a role in the development of vocational interest.

In the present study, the relationship of cognitive and emotional factors to concurrent fields of interests and future vocational preferences were investigated in a sample of Israeli high school children. The cognitive aspect studied was creativity, as operationally defined by a specific test of divergent style thinking (Guilford, 1959), while the emotional factor investigated was anxiety defined by responses to a manifest anxiety questionnaire. The concepts of creativity and anxiety will be used throughout this report in this rather restricted sense.

A large body of research findings indicates that individuals who score high on divergent thinking tests show certain personality traits that distin- guish them from other people. They are said to be generally more independent, curious, energetic, adventurous, attracted to ambiguity, and so forth (for review, see Guilchrist, 1972). These personality characteristics, in turn, can be expected to influence the individual’s tastes, interests, and occupational choice. Indeed, a study of United States Merit Scholars

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COGNITIVE STYLE AND MANIFEST ANXIETY 147

shows that students who scored high on tests of creativity also showed less rigid adherence to conventional standards in their occupational preferences. Creative students more often expressed preferences for uncon- ventional occupations, or expressed more unrealistic occupational preferences than did less creative students (Nichols & Holland, 1963). Their study thus confirms the findings of Getzels and Jackson (1962) in their classic investigation of creativity and intelligence in high school students; they showed that creative children’s vocational choice seemed to be influenced less by the social status value of the various occupations, while highly intelligent but noncreative individual’s choice was related strongly to the prestige of the vocational field.

A role for anxiety in vocational choice or career-decisiveness has been indicated and its possible importance in vocational counseling pointed out (Kimes & Troth, 1974). On the other hand, the relationship of anxiety to divergent thinking has not been clarified. Some investigations found anxiety to be unrelated to creativity (Flescher, 1963); some show that creative individuals are more emotionally stable than the average (Trow- bridge & Charles, 1966); others find significantly higher levels of manifest anxiety among creative people, compared with the less creative (Guil- Christ, 1972).

In the study reported here, divergent thinking, anxiety, occupational preference, and fields of intellectual interests were measured. The focus of this study was on career orientation and range of interest, as measured by career preference and intellectual interest choice and the relationship between them. Since the divergent thinker is said to be characterized by greater stimulus seeking, openness to experience, more independence, and less sensitivity to social pressures, it was hypothesized that: (1) High divergent thinkers would show a wider range of intellectual interest, i.e., their occupational preference and field of intellectual interest would be in different areas; while low divergent thinkers would concentrate both occupational choice and intellectual interest within the same field. (2) High anxious subjects would attempt to minimize complexity within their field of interest by choosing occupations and intellectual interests within the same field because high anxiety levels have been shown to affect the individual’s coping in complex situations (Sharf, 1972). (3) Within each occupational field, high anxiety subjects would choose occupations of higher prestige, and their level of aspiration would be higher than the aspiration level of low anxiety subjects. The choice of high divergent thinkers would be less effected by this criterion.

Since high anxious subjects were expected to respond in the opposite direction from high divergent thinkers, and since the sensitivity of these two groups to social pressures was predicted to be different, anxiety and divergent thinking were expected to be negatively related.

148 GRIMM AND NACHMIAS

INSTRUMENTS

Occupational preference and le\vel of prestige within each occupational field was measured with Ramak questionnaire, based on Roe’s (1956) classification of occupations and developed to assess vocational preference in Israel. (Extensive discussion of this instrument is reported elsewhere; see especially Meir, 1973 and Meir & Bark, 1974.) The reliability of the instrument is 0.76.

Seventy-two occupations were classified into eight fields-service, business, organization, technology, outdoor, science, general culture, arts and entertainment. Each field was subdivided into three prestige levels: (1) professional and managerial (2) semi-professional. and (3) skil- led workers. The level reflects the degree of responsibility, capacity and skill required on the job. The instrument yielded three different kinds of scores for each subject: (a) a score measuring degree of attraction towards each of the occupational fields (eight scores for each subject): (b) a prestige score of occupations selected in each field (eight scores for each subject); and (c) an average prestige score of occupations selected in all fields (one score per subject). Scores were computed using intrapersonal percentages of points by calculating the proportion of the responses in each field from the total of points. These procedures prevented a possible response-set bias (for more details on this procedure see Barak & Meir, 1974). Scores were later collapsed into a 3-point scale ranging from low ( 1) to high (3).

Field of intellectual interest is measured with the Courses Question- naire which is a list of 64 subjects that are taught in universities in Israel. This list is a set in a longer list of topics based on Roe’s classification of occupations (Roe, 1956). The same eight fields of the vocational questionnaire are represented here; however, only topics of professional and managerial level are included in the field of intellectual interest questionnaire. To prevent a possible response set bias, scores were obtained by calculating the proportion of the responses in each field to the total points for each subject (see procedure for the occupational preference instrument). The degree of interest in each field is evaluated on a 6-point scale ranging from no interest (1) to high interest (6). The reliability score on this measure ranges between Sl and .83. (The highest coefficient applies to groups of higher levels.) The construct validity of this measure was tested with the SSA-1 method (for detailed discussion, see Meir, 1975). The results supported the validity of the instrument.

Divergent thinking was assessed by the Cattell Fluency of Association test. Four pages were given to each subject. On each page were eight identical curves or lines. The subject was asked to complete each line into an identifiable figure or object, and to make as many diflerent drawings as


he could. A score was given for each completed line drawing showing objects belonging to different concept families. The instruction presented the test as a game of imagination, and no time pressure was applied. The low divergent thinkers are those who fall below the first quartile; the high divergent thinkers of respondents fall above the third quartile.

Anxiety was assessed by a short questionnaire-type test of signs and symptoms commonly associated with tenseness, emotionality or anxiety in school age children. Thirty statements were collected and given to five independent judges (a psychologist, a sociologist, an experienced teacher, and two university students of education). Each judge marked the statements he felt signified “anxiety” or “tension” in children and early adolescents. The 15 items upon which complete agreement was found among all five judges were then used as the measure of anxiety. Each item was scored on a scale from one to six; one represented “the least anxious” and six represented “the most anxious”. For these 15 items scale scores were computed using the method of summated ratings. The scale was then subjected to a discriminant power analysis (Goode & Hatt, 1957) using the upper and lower quartiles. Two items which had a discriminant power of less than .65 (Modal DP was 1.22) were dropped from the scale. Item to total correlations of the scale averaged .8 1, with the lowest being .69. Item-item correlations averaged .50. The low anxiety group con- sisted of respondents who fall below the first quartile; the high anxiety group of respondents fall above the third quartile.

SAMPLE

Data for this study was obtained through an extensive questionnaire survey (in 1975) of 1000 sophomores and juniors in Israel. The subjects were distributed as follows: 350 from two urban schools, 200 from two agricultural schools, and 450 from three regional schools of the kibbutz movement. The schools were selected to represent as diverse a social context as possible. The urban and agricultural schools included a population ranging from lower to upper middle class, and the kibbutz population included a wide range of ideological positions.

RESULTS

Zero-order correlation coefficients were calculated among creativity, anxiety, and average prestige of selected occupations. The matrix, presented in Table 1, shows as predicted, a significant and a high negative relation between creativity and anxiety (r = -.48). That is, respondents who have a high score on divergent thinking tend to be less anxious than do those with a low score.

The correlation between anxiety and level of aspiration shows that in their choice respondents who are anxious are more concerned with the occupation’s status level (r = .37) than are the less anxious respondents.


TABLE I Zero-Order Correlations Among Vartables

Variable Creatwrty -4nxiety Lerel of aspiration

Creativity Anxiety

-.48 I5 .37

Note. All coefficients are significant at the ,001 (F, two-tailed) level.

The small association between divergent thinking and level of aspiration (v = .15) indicates that there are no significant differences in aspiration level between high and low divergent thinkers.

For a more rigorous test of the hypotheses, an analysis of variance was performed on subjects who fell either in the upper or lower quartiles on both the anxiety and divergent thinking distributions. One hundred and thirty four subjects were included in these analyses. To test Hypotheses (1) and (2) a 3 x 2 x 2 analysis of variance for occupational choice, creativity, and anxiety was performed on each of the eight intellectual interest fields. The scores being analyzed were the intellectual interest scores for each of the fields. In other words, the analysis examines differences in levels of intellectual interest (for each field separately) between subjects with varying levels of occupational choice, creativity and anxiety. Table 2 provides a summary of the F ratios and indicates significant effects.

The first line of Table 2 reveals significant main effects of occupational choice in each of the eight fields. Occupational choice and intellectual interest are highly related, indicating that respondents tend to select occupations and intellectual pursuits in the same fields. For example, the significant effect of occupational choice on intellectual interest in the fields of arts and entertainment (F = 66.43) indicates that respondents who obtained a low score in their occupational choice of arts and entertainment, tended to have a low level of intellectual interest in the same field. Similarly those who were attracted towards this occupational field also showed a greater intellectual interest in it.

The second and third lines of Table 2 examine differences in levels of intellectual interest between subjects of high and low levels of creativity and anxiety. The F ratios reveal some differences in the intellectual interests of high and low divergent thinkers. High divergent thinkers had a higher score on the intellectual interest instrument in the fields of arts and entertainment (F = 6.05) and general culture (F = 4.21), whereas low divergent thinkers have higher scores in the technology (F = 3.92), business (F = 9.46), and services (F = 9.44) fields. High anxiety respondents tend to have a higher score in services (F = 10.64) and a lower score in arts and entertainment (F = 3.76).


The hypothesized differences in relations between occupational choice and intellectual interest between high and low divergent thinkers and subjects of high and low anxiety levels (Hypotheses 1 and 2) are equiva- lent to a hypothesis of significant interaction, The fourth line of Table 2 presents the results for Hypothesis 1; the fifth line for Hypothesis 2.

The significant occupational choice x divergent thinking (0 x C) interactions support Hypothesis 1. In six out of the eight fields examined, there were significant differences between high and low divergent thinkers. When respondents are high on divergent thinking, their occupational choice and intellectual interests are not always consistent. In other words, in six out of the eight fields, those who were attracted towards a certain occupational field did not necessarily demonstrate an intellectual interest in it. Conversely, high divergent thinkers who were not attracted towards an occupational field often were interested in it intellectually. The relation between occupational choice and intellectual interest among low divergent thinkers was high and consistent with main effects of occupational choice.

An examination of the 0 x A interaction patterns reveals that in accordance with Hypothesis 2 there are significant differences between subjects of high and low anxiety levels. High anxious subjects responded in the opposite direction from high divergent thinkers. They tended to prefer occupations and intellectual interest in the same field. Low anxious subjects. however, displayed the same pattern as high divergent thinkers: occupations they chose and their intellectual interests were often in different fields.

The above interaction effects must be interpreted within the significant occupational choice x creativity x anxiety interaction findings in five (Ae, SC, Te. Or, Sv) out of the eight fields on intellectual interest. For respondents who are creative and nonanxious, there is no relation between occupational choice and intellectual interest (in five fields) especially when they compare with noncreative and anxious respondents who tend to be highly consistent in their occupational choice and intellectual interests. However, both creative-anxious and noncreative-nonanxious tend to select occupations and interests in the same fields.

To test Hypothesis 3, a 2 x 2 analysis of variance for creativity and anxiety (Table 3) was performed on the prestige score of each occupational field. The first line of Table 3 (C) compares the prestige scores (in each field) of high and low divergent thinkers; the second row does the same for high and low anxious subjects.

The results lend partial support to Hypothesis 3. Respondents high on divergent thinking tend to have lower prestige scores than those low on divergent thinking in the fields of arts and entertainment (F = 3.20) science, (F = 12.21) and technology (F = 9.73). However, in other occupational fields, there are no significant differences between high and


TABLE 3 Source of Variance and F Ratios for Eight Occupational Fields

Source Ae Gc SC Od Te Or Bu Sv

Creativity (C) 3.20* 2.31 12.21*** 1.91 9.73** 1.12 2.12 .96

Anxiety (A) 1.52 6.12* 9.36** 1.02 3.12 18.6*** 8.21** 4.31*

CxA .29 .92 4.21* .41 2.36 .76 .67 .38

* p < .05. ** p < .Ol.

*** p < .OOl. Now. For explanation of abbreviations see Table 2.

low divergent thinkers. The findings reveal significant main effects of anxiety in five out of the eight fields, where high anxiety respondents tend to select occupations of higher prestige level. Except for science, there are no significant interactions between divergent thinking and anxiety.

DISCUSSION The relationships found between scores on the fluency of association

test of divergent thinking and those on the questionnaires of both intellectual interests and vocational choice support a large body of previous research showing that a divergent thinking style is associated with a wider range of interest. In the present study, high school students who scored high on a test of divergent thinking, chose fields of intellectual and occupational interest over a wider range of possibilities than their classmates who scored low on divergent thinking.

The findings of this study concerning the relationship of anxiety to divergent thinking are in agreement with those of Trowbridge and Charles (1966); in a large sample of children ranging in age from 3 to 18 years, they found that the more creative children were assessed by various observers as more emotionally stable than the average.

The strong negative correlation between anxiety and divergent thinking in the present study, however, is contradictory to most studies using adults or older students as subjects, which have found more anxiety and emotional instability in more creative individuals (Rees & Goldman, 1961; Guilchrist, 1972). The discrepant findings may indicate that there is an age-related change in the relationship between creativity and anxiety, from a negative one in childhood to a positive one in adulthood.

The actual negative correlation found in this study is in accordance with some of the neo-psychoanalytic thinking about creativity, which posits that creativity depends upon an inner freedom from distortions and obstructions of neurotic origin (Kubie, 1958). The results also support MacKinnon’s (1962) finding that “. . . creative persons are especially

154 GRIMMANDNACHMIAS

disposed to admit complexity and even disorder into their perceptions without being made anxious by the resulting chaos” (p. 489).

Clarification of the role that emotional factors play in the development of various aspects of cognitive functioning requires further investigation. The discrepant findings of the various studies may also be due to the different definitions of both emotionality and creativity and to the various instruments used in assessing these.

The present study measured divergent thinking (which is agreed to be one of the necessary, although not sufficient, components of creative thinking, and related it to one (possibly superficial) aspect of emotionality, i.e., manifest anxiety. Whether the significant negative correlation found between these two aspects of personality is an age-related phenomenon, or whether it is also characteristic of other age groups, will have to be clarified by further research utilizing similar instruments in the definition of divergent thinking and anxiety.

The role of manifest anxiety has also been studied in learning tasks of various complexity. High anxious subjects generally were found to per- form better in simple than in complex situations (Spence & Spence, 1966). The findings of this study suggest that high anxious subjects tend to function in nonlearning situations also in ways that reduce environmental complexity, i.e., they are seen here to reduce environmental complexity by restricting their area of intellectual curiosity, and tend to choose interest and future occupation in the same narrow field. For the high anxious or the low divergent thinker, the interest test is a good predictor of occupational choice; conversely, vocational choice can be used to assess fields of intellectual interests. This is not the case with the student who scores high on divergent thinking. The divergent thinker’s interests range widely, and he or she typically picks occupations and intellectual interests in different fields. For these students, interest tests may not be valid predictors of vocational choice, and vocational interests may not reflect their fields of intellectual curiosity.

On the basis of the present findings it would seem that assessing the student’s thinking style and anxiety level by using tests of divergent thinking and manifest anxiety (in addition to measures of IQ and school grades) may provide useful information for the school or vocational counselor, increasing his efficiency in helping the student make both curricular and later vocational choices.

In summary, to a large extent, all three hypotheses were supported by the results. (1) High divergent thinkers were found to have a wider range of interest, that is, they tended to choose occupations and areas of free time interest in different fields. (2) High anxious subjects were found to choose occupations and intellectual interests within the same field. (3) High anxious subjects seem to be more affected than low anxious subjects


by the social prestige of the occupations in their choice. No clear cut evidence was found to support the second part of Hypothesis 3, that is, that high divergent thinkers would be less affected by the social prestige of the occupation in their choice. High divergent thinkers were found to be less affected by the social prestige of the occupation in some fields, but not in others. A strong and significant negative correlation was found between manifest anxiety and divergent thinking.

REFERENCES Barak, A., & Meir, Elchanan I. The predictive validity of a vocational interest inventory-

“ramak”: Seven year follow-up. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1974, 4, 377-387. Flescher, I. Anxiety and achievement of intellectually gifted children. The Journal of

Psychology, 1963, 56, 251-268. Getzels, J. W., & Jackson, P. W. Creativity and intelligence: Explorations with gifted

students. New York: Wiley, 1962. Goode, W. J. & Hatt, P. K. Methods in social research. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957. Guilchrist, M. The psychology of creativity. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University

Press, 1972. GuiIford, J. P. Three faces of our intellect. American Psycho/ogist, 1959, 14, 469-479. Kimes, H. G., & Troth, W. A. Relationship of trait anxiety to career decisiveness. Journal

of Counseling Psychology, 1974, 21, 277-280. Kubie, L. S. Neurotic distortions ofrhe creative process. Lawrence, Kansas: University of

Kansas Press, 1958. MacKinnon, D. W. The nature and nurture of creative talent. American Psychologist, 1962,

17, 484-495. Meir, E. I. The structure of occupations by interests-A smaller space analysis. Journal of

Vocational Behavior, 1973, 3, 21-31. Meir, E. I. The measure of vocational interests based on Roe’s method. Megamor. 1975,21,

194-201 (in Hebrew). Meir. E. I., & Bark, A. A simple instrument for measuring vocational interests based on

Roe’s classification of occupations. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 1974, 4, 33-42. Nichols, R. C., & Holland, J. L. Prediction of the first year college performance of high

aptitude students. Psychological Monographs, 1963, 77 (7, Whole No. 570). Rees, M. E., & Goldman, M. Some relationships between creativity and personality.

Journal of General Psychology, 1961. 55, 145-161. Roe, A. The psychology of occupations. New York: Wiley, 1956. Sharf, R. S. An attempt to extend Taylor-Spence drive theory to vocational choice be-

havior. Journal of Vocarional Behavior, 1972, 2, 343-351. Spence, J. T., & Spence, K. W. The motivational components of manifest anxiety: Drive

and drive stimulus. In C. D. Spielberger (Ed.), Anxiefy and behavior. New York: Academic Press, 1966, pp. 291-326.

Trowbridge, N., & Charles, D. C. Creativity in art students. Journal ofGenetic Psychology. 1966, 109, 281-289.

Received: April 29, 1976.

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