There were 73 Males and 67 Females Involved. Comparison of Geist Career Interest Scores for All 10th Grade Students of a Secondary School in Australia.

The entire tenth grade class of Langwarrin Post Primary School, Langwarrin, Victoria, Australia 3910 were administered the Geist Picture Interest Inventory in late 1987. It included 73 males ranging in age from 15.0 to 17.0, with a mean age of 16.1; and 67 females ranging in age from 15.0 to 17.0 with a mean age of 16.1. Langwarrin is a newly being developed model school, and this represents the first graduating class. The scores are planned to be used as an integral part of the school career guidance program.

Sex Comparison of Geist Scores

In Table 4 we used the rotated factor scores with a discriminant analysis statistical technique (SYSTAT2) to discern between male and female students. Clearly there is a statistically significant difference between Geist interest scores for the male and female populations of this study.

If we are to consider the magnitude of the score as a measure of intensity of career interest, clearly, the male students display a more intense career interest in general as compared to the females (based on maximum score indices). Further, the following observations might be made, as well:

1. Male and females alike show the highest career interest in mechanical careers (M’s for Males = 9.6, Females = 6.1)
2. Males show considerable career interest in computational, outdoor, scientific, artistic, and persuasive (all m’s are over 6.0)
3. Females show little career interest in artistic, scientific, clerical, and computational (all m’s over 4.0)
4. Females show little career interest in outdoor, musical, literary, and dramatics (M’s of 2.0 or less).
5. Males have displayed career interest in all areas except personal services (test not given to males)
6. Females less interested in dramatics than males

Intercorrelation of Geist Career Scores

The data from Table 2 suggests that each of the 11 career interest areas have little or only modest relationship to all other scales. The following observations may be made:

1. Persuasive and computations career interest areas, show unusually high commonality (r = 614).
2. Outdoor and mechanical show unusually high commonality (r = 583).
3. There is an unusual absence of commonality between clerical and computational (r = 000).

A principal components factor analysis using varimax rotations was accomplished and 11 independently organized factors were extracted, one for each of the 11 Geist Career Interest Areas. For the population involved in this study, each of the 11 career areas appears to be independently organized.