An Attempt to Measure Vocational Motivation among Undergraduate Students

The present article focuses on the motivation toward the anticipated vocation and investigation were undertaken with undergraduate students. In this study, vocational motivation was defined as a motivation among people with no job experience toward the occupation or work environment they expect to experience. A survey of 257 liberal arts undergraduates (135 males, 121 females and 1 unknown) was conducted. Factor analysis was applied to the survey responses, and four factors were identified. The four factors are interpreted as follows. “Exploratory motivation”is the motivation to learn about the anticipated vocation by collecting information related to it. “Growth motivation”is the motivation to improve oneself on the job by attempting difficult tasks. “Human motivation”is the motivation to interact with people through the job. “Status motivation”is the motivation to achieve higher social status and reputation. Reliabilities examined using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item-scale coefficient were sufficiently high. Relationships between personal traits, work values and motivation to avoid success were examined. The results, in general, indicate the multi-faced definition of vocational motivation.