1
Outline
1. Career counseling – until recently, unnecessary
2. What changed?
3. Measuring vocational interests
4. Issues in measurement
5. Trait factor approach
6. Other approaches
2
Career counseling – until recently, unnecessary
• Until about 100 years ago,
this concept (career
counseling) didn’t exist
• If you were a boy, your job
was what your father’s job
had been – which was
specified by your surname
– or you could join the
army
• If you were a girl, you
would become someone’s
wife or servant
3
What changed?
• Agricultural equipment
• Fewer workers needed on
farms because new
machines vastly increased
productivity
• So people who would have
been farm workers needed
something else to do
4
What changed?
• Industrial revolution –
• More workers needed in
cities, where they lost
touch with their ancestral
occupations
• Jobs involving machinery
were mentally challenging
so some people were more
suited than others to a
given task
5
What changed?
• 19th and early 20th C
immigration to North
America from Europe
• Immigrants lost touch with
ancient lifestyles, fathers’
occupations
• Immigrants were likely to
be people who were not
afraid of change
6
What changed?
• Late 1800s – roads leading
from rural areas into cities
built throughout USA and
Canada
• Built by large railroads, so
people could get from
farms into cities, thus to
train stations for inter-city
travel
• Side effect: these roads let
rural children get to city
schools to be educated
7
Career counseling – why is it necessary?
• While all this was going on,
North Americans were
becoming more productive
and thus wealthier
• They could afford to
educate their children
• They could also afford to
develop a psychological
testing industry to guide
career choices
• Guidance needed because
choice of careers
ballooned
8
Frank Parsons (1854 – 1908)
• Created the profession of vocational counselor
• First proponent of matching people to
occupations by comparing person’s aptitude
and skills occupation demands
• Opened first counseling office, in Boston
(1908)
9
Frank Parsons (1854 – 1908)
• Three principles we still
use today:
• Satisfying careers are most
likely to be selected if you
know your own strengths
and weaknesses
10
Frank Parsons (1854 – 1908)
• Three principles we still
use today:
• Satisfying careers are most
likely to be selected if you
understand the challenges
particular careers present
and the skills they
demand.
11
Frank Parsons (1854 – 1908)
• Three principles we still
use today:
• It is not enough to know
your strengths and to
know an occupation’s
demands – you must also
match the two carefully
and honestly.
12
Online resources you might find useful
•
•
•
•
O*Net Online
Myskillsprofile
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey
Career Centre at Western
13
Measuring vocational interests
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB)
The Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII)
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS)
Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (KOIS)
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS)
14
Cautionary notes
• Interests vs. abilities
– Holland: interests are
determined by personality
• Clinical vs. actuarial
judgment
– Meehl: clinical is better
• Traits vs. situations
15
Strong Vocational Interest Blank
• Edward Strong (1884 –
1963)
• B.S. (Biology) 1906 UC
• Ph.D. 1911 (Columbia)
• Professor at Stanford from
1923
• Vocational Interests of
Men and Women (1944)
"When I began working on interest measurement," Dr. Strong once
remarked, "no one believed you could build scales to measure
interests, or that such scales would yield any kind of stable scores.
As a matter of fact, I didn't really believe it myself until I had been
working on my test for several years. Each time we got a new
occupational group tested, I fully expected to discover that we
couldn't differentiate it on an interest basis, and that the whole
concept of interest measurement would fall apart…
"What really convinced me emotionally that we had something was a
personal experience. My son had been an indifferent student in
college and had no idea what he wanted to do vocationally. He took
my test and came out with an A on Physician, an occupation he
had never considered entering. Well, he went to medical school,
got straight A's throughout, and has been a dedicated and successful
physician ever since. I began to think maybe we had a method that
would really help young people find where they belonged."
Strong (1944) (emphasis added)
17
Strong Vocational Interest Blank
• First published in 1927
with 420 items reflecting
10 Occupational Scales
• New editions in 1938 and
1946
• 1960 Basic Interest scales
added
• 1974 Holland Codes added
• 1994 Strong Interest
Inventory (now 317 items)
18
Strong Vocational Interest Blank
• Criterion keying – begin by
identifying activities liked
or disliked by people in
different occupations
• Patterns of interest remain
stable over time
• Do some interests mark an
occupation? If so, interests
can be used to guide
career choice
19
Strong Vocational Interest Blank
• Basic Interest Scale:
– Identifies groups of
occupations that share
some qualities that you
might be interested in
– Gives a general direction –
e.g., “You should work with
people”
• Occupational Scale:
– 211 occupations
– Separate scales for men
and women
20
Strong Vocational Interest Blank
• Personal Style Scale:
– Prefer to work alone or
with people?
– Practical knowledge or
learning for its own sake?
• Personal Style Scale:
– Careful or quick decision
making?
– Risk-taking?
– Team orientation (achieve
goals by working with
others)?
21
Strong Vocational Interest Blank
• Criticisms:
– Sex bias?
– No theory
• Strengths:
– High reliability: Internal
consistency reliability in
high .80s
– Test-retest reliability
(up to 6 months
between tests) in .80s
22
Strong Vocational Interest Blank
•
Strengths:
•
High validity
• Assesses interests among a
wide variety of hobbies,
academic subjects, work
activities, occupations
• Sample for comparisons –
includes impressive variety
of ethnic, social, and
educational backgrounds
23
Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory
• Campbell continued
development of Strong’s
SVIB
• Most widely used interest
test
• No sex bias
• Includes J. L. Holland’s
theory of vocational
choice.
24
Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory
• Test taker responds to each
item: Like, Dislike, or
Indifferent
• Yields 4 different scores
1.
2.
3.
4.
Holland’s Personality Types
Administration
Basic Interests
Occupational
25
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Holland: Occupational
interests reflect interaction
between personality and
environment.
• "People search for
environments that will let
them exercise their skills
and abilities, express their
attitudes and values, and
take on agreeable problems
and roles." (Holland, 1997)
26
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Holland – 6 personality
types:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
27
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Holland – another set of
labels that may help you
remember the different
types
•
•
•
•
•
•
Doer (R)
Thinker (I)
Creator (A)
Helper (S)
Persuader (E)
Organizer (C)
28
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Realistic
•
•
•
•
•
•
Less social
Like the outdoors
Like manual activities
Physically robust
Practical
Non-intellectual
29
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Investigative
• Interested in ideas more than
people
• Not very social
• Dislikes emotional situations
• Appears aloof
30
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Artistic
•
•
•
•
•
•
Creative
Enjoys developing ideas
Enjoys expression
Dislikes conformity
Comfortable with ambiguity
Not especially skilled socially
31
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Social
• Likes to work with other
people
• Helping orientation
• Nurturing
32
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Enterprising
• People oriented
• Goal oriented
• Good at coordinating work of
others
33
Holland’s RIASEC Codes
• Conventional
• Does best in highly
structured situations and
jobs
• Good with details
• Likes clerical tasks, working
with numbers
• Doesn’t like working with
ideas or people
34
The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey
• 1992
• Also uses Holland’s
theoretical structure
• Extroversion and academic
focus scales
• Assesses skill as well as
interest
35
The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey
• Depending on combination
of degree of interest and
skill, the test-taker is
advised to:
• Pursue (high interest, high
skill)
• Develop (HI,LS)
• Explore (LI,HS)
• Avoid (LI,LS)
36
Kuder Occupational Interest Survey
• Second most widely used
interest test
• Criterion keying method
• Measure = 100 triads of
alternative activities
• For each triad, test-taker
selects most/least
preferred
37
Kuder Occupational Interest Survey
• Dependability
• Interest Scores
• Relation of interest
patterns to norms of
men and women
38
Kuder Occupational Interest Survey
• Occupation Scores
• Relation to scores of
men and women
employed and satisfied
in certain occupations
39
Kuder Occupational Interest Survey
• College major scores
• Relation to scores of
students in different
college majors
40
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey
• Douglas Jackson (-) was for
many years a professor in
the Department of
Psychology at UWO
41
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey
• Matches people to
academic or career fields
based on their interests
• 289 pairs of statements
describe job activities
• Forced choice for each pair
• Does not compare scores
to those of people happy
in their occupation
• Yields 34 basic interest
scores
• Predicts university majors
more accurately than most
inventories
42
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey
• Basic Interest Scales –
some examples (not a
complete list):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Creative Arts
Physical Science
Engineering
Life Science
Social Science
Adventure
Nature-Agriculture
Skilled Trades
43
Jackson Vocational Interest Survey
• General occupational
themes (G.O.T.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Assertive
Communicative
Conventional
Enterprising
Expressive
Helping
Inquiring
Logical
Practical
Socialized
44
JVIS – Basic Interest Scales Reliability
• Internal consistency
reliability (alpha)  .54 to
.88.
• Test-retest reliability (4 to
6 weeks)  .69 to .92.
45
JVIS – G.O.T. Reliability
• Internal consistency
reliability (alpha)  .70 to
92.
• Test-retest reliability (4 to
6 weeks)  .83 to .93
46
Minnesota Vocational Interest Inventory
• Criterion keying, no
theoretical base
• Aimed at men not oriented
towards college
• Emphasizes skilled/semiskilled trades
• Yields basic interest and
occupational scores
47
The Career Assessment Inventory
• Intended purpose similar
to that of MVII
• 6th grade reading level
• Sex- and culture-bias free
• Includes Holland’s
theoretical base
• Scores on scales similar to
SCII and CISS
48
The Career Assessment Inventory
• Vocational version
• 305 items, 91 occupations
that require little postsecondary education
• Enhanced version
• 370 items, 111
occupations including
some that require
significant post-secondary
education
49
The Self Directed Approach
• Self administered, scored,
interpreted
• Rate skill and interest in
occupational areas
• Linked to an occupation
finder
• Accurate scoring
• Lets user develop a
‘personal career theory’
50
Issues in Interest Measurement
• Sex bias
– Leads people to sex-typed
careers
– But elimination might mean
lower validity
– Most scales today have
reduced bias
• We should examine tests
for sex bias and try to
remove it if found, but…
• Women and men are
different in a variety of
psychological and
physiological ways
• Differences in which
careers are suggested may
not result from “bias”
51
Issues in Interest Measurement
• Note the difference
between data and
interpretation:
• Data – some tests
suggest different
occupations for men
and women
• Interpretation 1 – men
and women genuinely
differ in interests and
thus in preferred
occupations
• Interpretation 2 – the
test is biased
• Either or both might be
true…
52
Issues in Interest Measurement
• Interests vs. aptitudes
• E.g., in Strong inventories,
how successful in their
occupations are the norm
groups expressing
particular interests?
53
Issues in Interest Measurement
• Development
– Does it matter for testing
that people change in ways
relevant to occupational
success?
• Personality is stable over
the lifetime
• But other things –
motivation, education,
environment – will surely
change and interests may
change with them
54
Osipow’s trait-factor approach
• Goal is to learn about
person’s overall traits,
not just their interests
• Battery of tests
covering
–
–
–
–
Personality
Ability / Aptitudes
Interests
Values
55
Super’s Developmental Theory
• Suitability for a career is
not static
• Developmental stages
define what vocational
behavior is expected of us
• Vocational maturity is
defined as the correlation
between actual and
expected vocational
behavior
– Actual comes from
developmental stage you’re
in
56
Super’s Developmental Theory
• Super (1954) Theory of
vocational choice –
lifespan developmental
process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Crystallization
Specification
Implementation
Stabilization
Consolidation
Ready to retire
57
Ginzberg et al. (1951)
• Ginzberg et al. (1951) –
career choice is the
outcome of a
developmental path from
childhood to young
adulthood – stages:
• Fantasy
• Tentative
• Realistic
– Exploration
– Crystallization
– Specification
58
Roe’s Career Choice Theory
• Roe: career choice a result
of type of relationship you
had with your family while
growing up
• Relationship success leaves
you with a personorientation
• Relationship failure, leaves
you with a non-person
orientation
59
Roe’s Career Choice Theory
• As a result of rearing,
some people are oriented
towards other people
• they were reared in a
warm, accepting
environment
60
Roe’s Career Choice Theory
• As a result of rearing,
some people are oriented
towards things
• they were reared in a cold,
aloof environment.
• Characteristics measured
by California Occupational
Preference Survey (COPS)
61
Caution
Text, p. 472
“Despite the availability of
many interest inventories,
old-fashioned clinical skill
remains an important asset in
career-counseling.”
• There is lots of evidence
that this claim is not true –
in the work of Paul Meehl
and others on clinical vs.
actuarial judgment