A Factor Analytic Study of Students’ Perceptions of Occupations and Their Characteristics*

Abstract 196 Irish male and female final year secondary school students were asked to rate 50 occupations in terms of 25 job characteristics on 7-point semantic differential type scales anchored by the bi-polar adjectives “probable—improbable”. Subject responses were collapsed, yielding a 50 × 25 means matrix which was then reduced to a 25 × 25 correlation matrix of job attributes. This matrix was subjected to a Principal Components factor analysis with rotation to simple structure using the Varimax criterion. The resulting 4 factor solution represents a summary of subjects’ perceptions of the probability with which various job characteristics would occur together in occupations, and isolates dimensions along which occupations are viewed. The 50 occupations were also rated on 6-point evaluative scales (—3=strongly like; + 3 = strongly dislike). These responses were also factor analyzed, yielding an 8 factor solution of occupational groups. The value of the study was described in terms of the need to obtain factor structures of occupations and job characteristics based on measures developed in and relevant to the Irish context. The procedures employed were also discussed in terms of their usefulness as data reduction techniques for further research.