TASK CONDITIONS, RESPONSE FORMULATION PROCESSES, AND RESPONSE ACCURACY FOR BEHAVIORAL FREQUENCY QUESTIONS IN SURVEYS

Results from two studies confirm recent findings that (1) surveyrespondents often use nonepisodic processes to answer frequencyquestions about autobiographical events, and (2) task conditions,such as the number of events to be reported and the time usedin response formulation, affect the processes used. Resultssuggest that cognitive mechanisms other than episode omissionand episode telescoping contribute to response errors. It appearsthat new methodological approaches, such as directly or indirectlymanipulating the response formulation process, may be usefulin attempts to improve the accuracy of behavioral frequencyreports in surveys.     

ADOLESCENCE, SOCIAL CLASS, AND OCCUPATIONAL EXPECTATIONS

Un survey sur questionnaire de trois cent quarante cinq (345) Ctudiants de dixikme annCe, provenant d'un milieu socio-kconomique hétérogé et fr6quentant les Ccoles secondaires polyvalentes d'un centre métropolitain fut réalisé afin de mesurer le niveau de convergence qui existe dans trois secteurs différents des conceptions Ctudiantes de leur avenir professionnel: (1) la convergence entre les valeurs professionnelles d'un étudiant et le choix de sa profession; (2) la convergence entre les aspirations hancikres professionnelles de l'ttudiant et ses gains monitaires probables; (3) et la convergence entre le choix professionnel d'un Ctudiant et celui de ses parents. Les rksultats dtmontrent que les Ctudiants provenant de strates socio-écono-miques supkrieures obtiennent une meilleure convergence par rapport aux trois dimensions que ceux qui viennent de milieux soci-économiques infirieurs. Des différences quant au sexe des rbpondants apparaissent seulement chez les étudiants des classes Cwnomiques défavorisées. On déduit de ces rhsultats quelques considerations se rapportant h la carribre professionnelle de ces étudiants. A questionnaire survey of 345 tenth-grade students in a socioeconomically heterogeneous, multi-program urban high school was conducted to measure the amount of congruence in three areas of the students' conceptions of their future work lives: (1) congruence between a student's occupational values and occupa- tional choice; (2) coqpence between a student's financial expectations of his work and his actual likely earnings; and (3) congruence between a student's oc-cupational choice and his parents' occupational choice for him. Findings showed that students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds experienced more congruence in all three dimensions than students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Sex differences were important only among students of lower socioeconomic background. Some implications for the future work life of these students are drawn.     

PRODUCT AND SERVICE QUALITY: THE ANTECEDENTS OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Prior literature has examined product quality and service quality separately as antecedents of customer loyalty. In the context of the automotive industry, we present a framework that examines the simultaneous impact of product and service quality on consumers' purchase intentions. The framework is operationalized as several hypotheses that posit relationships between service quality, service satisfaction, product quality, and customer loyalty. The hypotheses are tested using three sources of data: (i) archival data on product quality and customer purchases, (ii) consumersíresponses to a survey instrument, and (iii) Consumer Reports. Results indicate general support for main hypotheses proposed.