This study investigated what relationship might exist between the parents' view of their interactions with their children and the degree of person orientation in their children's vocational interests. The hypotheses of this study were that the parents of subjects with toward-person-oriented vocational interests would perceive their interactions with their children as being more loving and overtly attentive than parents of subjects with away-from-person-oriented vocational interests. It was further hypothesized that these differences would be greater for males than for females.

<p>Person-thing orientation (PTO) describes how interests in people (person orientation; PO) and things (thing orientation; TO) motivate behavior. These orientations have been shown to be predictive of important outcomes, but little is known about <i>how</i> these orientations work as motivational systems for behavior. The current paper explored whether different levels of PO and TO among participants affect individual categorizations of stimuli as “person-like” or “thing-like.” Participants (<i>N</i> = 170) were asked to rate how person-like and thing-like they perceived 100 individual stimulus items to be, and their PO and TO scores were measured. I hypothesized that TO would predict higher ratings of stimuli as thing-like, especially when PO levels were lower, and that PO would predict higher ratings of stimuli as person-like, especially when TO levels were lower. I predicted that this pattern of results would be stronger among stimuli categorized as ambiguous than among stimuli categorized as an unambiguous person or thing. The findings did not support the main hypotheses. Instead, the person category stimuli showed the hypothesized pattern of results. Among these stimuli, PO predicted person ratings and TO predicted thing ratings (but in the negative direction). The results and implications of these findings were discussed.</p>

Abstract This cross-sectional survey study investigated middle and high school administrative team members’ leadership classifications and perceptions of secondary principals’ leadership actions and behaviors in the context of change and to what extent these perceptions are gender specific. In addition to gender, the study also examined the impact of race/ethnicity, age, campus level, length of employment in the district, length of time working with the principal, and closeness to the principals on leadership actions and behaviors. The results of the study are intended to highlight the importance and value of feminine-inspired leadership approaches and administrative team members’ perspectives of leadership in managing and leading the change process. The study targeted the leadership actions and behaviors of 39 middle school and 28 high school principals assigned to traditional secondary schools in the southwestern United States. Administrative team members’ perceptions of secondary school principals’ approaches to leadership served as the basis for the study, which investigated whether administrative team members perceived principals’ leadership actions or behaviors in a change context to be gender specific. Male and female administrative team members (n=210) were surveyed using the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ), Form XII – fourth revision (Ohio State University, 1962). Based on survey results, secondary principals were classified as dynamic, considerate, passive, and structured leaders as rated by administrative team members using the LBDQ. The results of the study revealed that gender and school level of administrative team members did not influence the classification of secondary principals as dynamic, considerate, passive, or structured leaders. The ratings of those principals perceived as dynamic were statistically significantly higher than those of principals as passive and structured leaders. Out of 62 secondary principals, administrative team members classified principals as follows: dynamic leaders 63% (n=39), considerate leaders 5% (n=3), passive leaders 16% (n=10) and structured leaders 16% (n=10). Additionally, dynamic leaders received a statistically significant higher rating of closeness to principal when compared to passive and structured leaders. The findings of the study, which illuminate the perspectives of administrative team members with regard to secondary school principals, have implications for informing research on school leadership as well as educational leadership practices.