ABSTRACT:
The significant role of personality factors in deter mining.occupational preference has been studied by various psychologists. Sensation seeking w.h1ch has been explained as a trait defined by the need for varied. novel and complex situations and experiences and the willingness to take the physical and social risks for the sake of such experience, also seems to be related to occupational preference. Taking this view into consideration the present study tested the hypotheses. (a) the subjects would differ in their sensation seeking scores because of difference m their occupational preference as different occupations involve varying degrees of variety. novelty and risk, and (b) males would show higher degree of sensation seeking tnan females. For this purpose 160 students of 15 to 17 years studying in class X of six diff schools of erent Raipur city were used as final sample. Half of the students were males and remaining were females. Sensation seeking Scale developed by Zuckerman was used to measure the degree of sensation seeking of the subjects and occupational preference was assessed by using paired comparison method which included 28 paired names made out of 8 different occupations, namely, Engineer, Doctor. Police Officer, Professor, Pilot, Bank Officer, Artist and Business man. The obtained data were analyzed through a 2-way ANOVA in which the first independent variable.ie. occupation was taken on eight levels and the second independent variable. i.e sex (male and female) was taken on two levels. The sensation seeking score of the subjects formed 1he dependent variable. It was observed that the students who preferred different occupations significantly differed in their sensation seeking scores and the students who preferred the occupation of Police Otticer and Pilot showed comparatively higher level of sensation seeking whereas the students who preferred the occupation of Bank Officer and Doctor showed independent level of sensation seeking. Sex was also found to affect the degree of sensation seeking. i.e. male students showed higher level of sensation seeking than females.
Cite this article:
Verma and Thakur (1990). Occupational Preference and Sensation Seeking. Journal of Ravishankar University (Part-A: SOCIAL-SCIENCE), 3(1), pp.12-19.