Correlates of Life Style: Personality, Role Concept, Attitudes, Influences, and Choices

Abstract

Using the California Psychological Inventory, the Inventory of Women's Life Styles, and the Inventory of Women's Role Concept and Attitudes, three separate life-style patterns were delineated for women leading Traditional, Neotraditional, and Nontraditional life styles. These women differed significantly in personality; role concepts; attitudes; choices of college majors and occupations; motivation; quality of employment experiences; parents' life styles; perceptions of husbands' preferred life styles and attitudes toward male/female roles; own and husbands' education; and family size. Influence of parents' life style, the single most potent variable, contributed .64 of the variance to the daughter's choice of life style. Personal and professional variables which remained significant when influence of parents' life style was controlled were attitude towards college training, educational level, and choice of occupation.