A study of need theory and career choice.
In recent years a number of investigations have demonstrated that students undergo a change in attitudes as a result of college experience. Typical of such studies are those by Webster (1958), Lagey (1956) and Sandgren and Schmidt (1955). In the main, these studies have been concerned with changes in attitudes toward issues treated in course content rather than with the more informal pressures of the over-all college environment. Little, if any, attention has been given to the general effects on attitudes toward careers, particularly toward teaching as a career. This, together with a comparison of changes resulting from experimental communications is the subject of the present paper. Such information would appear to be of particular interest in a day when educators, and the public in general, are concerned about the supply of teachers. Certainly, the question is of no small importance for liberal arts colleges whose graduates, in increasing numbers, are going on to prepare to teach through an additional year of study at schools of education or teachers colleges.