Survey...

CAREER PATHWAYS RESEARCH:
WORK-RELATED THINKING STYLES & CAREER SATISFACTION

I am carrying out a worldwide study of the relationship between career pathways and thinking styles at all levels of management. Please consider completing some brief surveys - it takes approximately 10 minutes, and is totally anonymous. All responses are untraceable.

This project is part of my research to achieve a PhD at the University of Wollongong. Last year, 250 women completed my first survey and my findings were published by the Australian Psychological Society.  

Psychologists have shown that we develop life-long styles of explaining events. I now need the help of 1000 male and female volunteers  to complete a questionnaire that looks at the ways we explain work-related events. These are 16 situations that can take place in any organisation or team. However, if you are self-employed or retired, simply imagine you are in each situation. There are also questions about self-esteem at work, career satisfaction and everyday happiness.  

There is a huge amount of evidence that an optimistic explanatory style increases chances of success in sales, education, politics, sport and mental health. However, no previous study has investigated the relationship to management levels.  Your responses, simply giving ratings for 63 statements, can be submitted anonymously at the following website: www.surveymonkey.com/s/76XC7KG

Please forward to your colleagues and friends. If you have any questions or concerns, all feedback will be appreciated. If anyone who completes the surveys then wishes to receive some optimism/resiliency training notes, I'd be happy to email a few pages. These will provide guidelines for you to review your answers to the questionnaire.

Many thanks,

Paul Smith
BSocSc(Hons), BSc(Ed), MAPS
Psychologist
University of Wollongong, Australia
Tel:  02 4296 3579
Email:  ps994@uow.edu.au