Social Psychological Correlates of Occupational Conditions

Schooler, Carmi

Abstract

This project investigates how socio-environmental conditions affect the psychological functioning of the elderly. It tests hypotheses about how, as one grows older, such social-structurally determined environmental conditions as complexity affect cognitive functioning, autonomous self- directed orientations and one's feelings about oneself and one's circumstances. The data come from a follow-up survey of 707 respondents originally selected in 1964 as part of a nationally representative sample picked for an investigation of how occupational conditions affect psychological functioning. In FY96 we made very substantial progress in the first stage of data analysis-- structural equation modeling (SEM) of the psychological and occupational measures. We have also carefully checked the coded data and completed the laborious process of preparing it for SEM modeling. The SEM analyses that we carried out show that the psychological and occupational measurement models that we estimated over twenty years ago continue to be valid and reliable. We have also developed a new model of cognitive functioning that incorporates the standardized measures of intellectual functioning that we added to our 1994 survey. This model promises to add significantly to our understanding of the nature and structure of intellectual functioning. FY96 also saw the completion and acceptance for publication of a variety of papers by Schooler relating the findings of the occupation study to important questions in a range of behavioral and social science disciplines.