Date of Award

1996

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

This descriptive study investigated the utility of five variables (extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and age) in predicting the reemployment outcomes of unemployed professionals in an outplacement setting. Fifty-nine individual clients of a corporate outplacement firm volunteered to serve as subjects. All subjects were administered the Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness scales of the NEO PI-R approximately four weeks after they started outplacement services. Date of birth data were also collected. Employment status data for subjects were collected 150 days after their start of services, and the two outcome groups (unemployed and reemployed) were compared for differences on the five predictor variables. Six null hypotheses were analyzed. The first hypothesis concerned the five predictor variables as a set, and it was analyzed using a canonical discriminant function analysis procedure. No significant difference was found between the two outcome groups on this set of predictor variables. Five additional hypotheses addressed each of the predictor variables individually, and they were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance procedure. There were no significant differences on four of the five predictor variables. There was a significant difference on agreeableness. The reemployed subjects were found to be more agreeable than the unemployed subjects. Conclusions and implications were discussed. Recommendations for future research were presented.

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