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A project was undertaken at the University of Lund in Sweden to study the following two problems: identification and style of problem-solving in relation to the choice by women of arts subjects and science subjects respectively at the university; and identification and style of problem-solving in relation to research focus and research ability. The initial purpose of the project was to investigate whether the proposed model of cognitive growth and development is a viable frame of reference and explanatory system for the description of an identity apprehension transcending the sex roles and of reactive, cognitive functioning. The model presented is aimed at expanding the paradigm of sex role learning and sexual identity development beyond both the level of conventional, stereotype, concrete operations and the level of formally logical operations to include a dialectical level at which the individual is free to use both "male" and "female" attitudes. Analogies are drawn to the stage of hypothetical constructions described in a model of the dialectics of cognitive development. In both models, this level is described as dialectical; i.e., the individual is relatively free to employ both objectivizing and subjectivizing congitive modes. Preliminary results suggest that the science group has a greater predominance of individuals orienting themselves towards objects or non-self-related factors in their field of experience, while the arts group includes more individuals orienting towards subjects or self-related factors. (SW)

Empirical findings and theoretical conclusions of a Swedish study on students' identification with their parents and their choice of college studies are presented. Attention was directed to parental identification, parental dominance, and social class membership in a group of women who had just begun their studies during the fall 1976 term or the spring 1977 term. Fifty of the women students studied natural sciences, and 48 studied the arts. A structured interview method was employed that covered perception of sex-role and identity, problem-solving style, and psychological defensive structure. Depending on their self-assessed similarity to each parent, the women were classified in four categories: father-identified, mother-identified, mother- and father-identified, and undifferentiated. The analysis of the interview material indicated that the four categories basically reflected four different sets of family conditions, related to the parents' occupation, education, and social class, as well as their relative dominance and their respective decisionmaking competence. Women's educational choice is discussed as a manifestation of different personality strategies when confronted by male dominance, and education is discussed as a means of furthering efforts for women's emancipation. (SW)