tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59301147967457957162024-02-20T06:11:44.410-05:00Career PlanningCareer planning information for those planning a career and for professionals seeking research based informationStephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-4728199636040178192010-04-22T09:54:00.010-04:002010-05-02T13:31:05.524-04:00What to do in these bad economic times<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Today's economy has everyone worried. Rightfully so. Unemployment is the highest we have seen in our lifetime. Hiring is at an all time low. Banks still do not want to loan money for business operation capital and certainly not for new ventures. State governments are having to cut budgets by massive amounts. We have waited for years to see government reduced, but this was not the way we wanted to see it happen. Many states are having to balance this years budget by rolling fund from next year and the next into their FY 10 budgets. I call this funny money. It is not really money that they have for this year. They are playing games.<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>You probably are in a precarious situation because of these uncertain times. It is little consolation, but you are not alone. Many people who worked hard to get a good education that would buffer them against hard times are experiencing unbelievable financial problems. Never in our lifetimes have these conditions existed in America. Our parents told us to get all the education we could and we would always have a good job. That was true for many years. The game has changed, and now we have to adjust to a new paradigm. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>What is the new paradigm and how does it affect each of us? If I knew the exact answer to that question, I could make a lot of money. To begin to understand that new paradigm let's begin by looking at things that we can see happening as a result of that new paradigm.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>What are the Indicators of the New Paradigm</b></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The first of course is high unemployment brought about by low sales, tight money, and numerous factors that affect all phases of business. Consumer confidence is low, fears of coming hyper-inflation are apparent, new government regulations are causing uncertainty in all parts of the economy, demands for greater entitlements are high, and frustration on the part of tax payers is increasing. For many, it seems that the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off and removed from service.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Change is in the offing. President Obama promised change, and it does seem that things are changing. The problem seems to be that many Americans are not pleased with the change that is coming down from Washington. For years there has been evidence that more and more Americans want a pay check without having to work for the check. There is an increasing demand for entitlements. There is a failure on the part of many to realize that someone has to pay for the services and pay checks that are given out. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The demand for liberty is high and the desire to personally defend those liberties is low. Most Americans today expect that this country will continue to enjoy our prestigious position of leadership among the greatest nations of the world. Many expect to work less and enjoy more pleasures and extravagant lifestyles. Saving for the future is at an all time low.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>How does this New Paradigm Affect You?</b></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The affect this new paradigm has on you is dependent on where you fit in the paradigm. We must remember that our society is composed of producers and users. The producers desire to either work for someone else in a productive venture or build their own productive venture. Users, on the other hand, choose to only be consumers who consume products produced by the producers. These users may, hopefully, be consuming by spending money they have previously earned that allows them to enjoy life. Unfortunately, most users are not purchasing products with their money. They are consuming products with money that is being given to them. These gifts are called entitlements. There are times when it is justifiable for someone to receive entitlements. People who have worked all their life and retired from a productive job deserve to receive the money to which they are entitled during retirement. People who have saved during the productive years and are now receiving dividends or interest from that saved money are totally justified in receiving the money to which they are entitled. There is another class of individual that is receiving entitlement money much as a tick receives free blood from a dog. These people have never worked to justify the receipt of the money. They expect to receive money because the are American citizens and therefore feel that they are "Entitled" to a free ride at the expense of the American tax payers. These people are parasites on the butt of America.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I hope that as you read the previous paragraph you began to figure out where you presently fit in this socio-economic fabric of our nation. Are you a producer or a user? Next, I hope you are beginning to decide where you will choose to weave your future into this fabric. Will you choose to be a producer who will spend your life helping to make this nation the envy of the world, or will you choose to be a user who spends your life sucking blood from the life of our nation? If you choose to spend your life as a user, I suggest you close this site and go back to playing Internet Backgammon and texting on that free phone that you got because you are too lazy to work. But if you have chosen to be a producer, then by all means read on.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>If you are reading this paragraph, then you have chosen to be a producer. You have chosen to take your position among the many patriotic heroes of this nation who get up every morning, go to a productive job, support your family, and become an important member of your community. Now let's get on with deciding how this new paradigm is affecting you now, how you will prepare for the new paradigm and your place in the new emerging world, and how your present decisions will affect the rest of your life.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Regardless of your age, you probably have been preparing for a career for several years. You have looked at many options. You have assessed your interests, your desires, and you have investigated several options. But you may be finding now that the game is changing. Some formerly appealing occupations may be waining. Some of those occupations may be paying less money now and facing elimination in a few years. It is hard to know the future. We can only look at trends and try to predict the future. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Where Will the Future Take Us?</b></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The world around us is changing rapidly. Companies that once were sought after for the dependable life-long jobs they offered are now falling from favor. Some companies have stood still while new technologies have made those companies obsolete. They no longer hold a place of prominence in the market place. So where will the job opportunities of the future be, and what do you need to do to prepare for one of those jobs?</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I mentioned technology making some companies obsolete. That same technology has raised the curtain on a new breed of companies that will pave the way into a bright future for you. Your first thought might be the field of computers. Computers will continue to play a huge roll in the developing of new technologies and new companies that will develop and make use of these new technologies. However, the computer field is not exactly one of the fields of which I speak. Newer technologies are emerging daily that will change the way we live our lives and the way we work in the future. Let's take a look at some of those technologies.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Energy has been, is today, and will be in the future one of the most important fields for our nation. Our country uses a tremendous amount of energy in all phases of our lives. Unfortunately, we have become dependent on foreign oil for our source of energy. We must break that dependency and become more self sufficient. We have tremendous natural gas reserves that must be tapped. New technologies are making this endeavor more profitable. Our coal reserve is tremendous, but we must find ways to use coal in the production of energy that will be less detrimental to the environment. Also, mine accidents of recent months call out for mining methods that will be less dangerous for the people that extract the coal from the earth. There will be new exciting jobs in both of these fields helping to bring both of these industries to a new level of production and safety. The oil industry is presently plagued with problems as BP works to contain a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This will certainly become an environmental disaster beyond any we have witnessed in our lifetimes. There seems to be technology available that would have prevented this disaster, but the desire to reduce production costs by cutting corners will be very costly in the long run. There are still discoveries to be uncovered that will make the oil industry safer for the environment and for the people who work to bring oil to the market place. These are old, easy energy sources compared to the new sources we now see being developed.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>As we move beyond the low hanging fruit of the energy tree we see exciting methods being used to harness energy from the sun, from wind, from tides, and from geothermal sources. Though these industries appear mature and ready to provide massive amounts of energy, we know that each of these fields is still in their infancy. New discoveries are making each of these energy sources more efficient, more appealing, and more available for use in providing our energy. There will be tremendous job growth in each of these fields.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Once energy is produced it must be transferred to the point of use. Our traditional methods of transfer have worked for a long time, but in most cases those methods are getting old and new methods will be used in the future. Pipe lines that carry oil and gas are aging. There are now new materials for building pipe lines that are less resistant to the substances being passed through the pipes. New pipe lines are being built of these materials. Electricity transmission lines in the future will not have to be as large to carry more power than todays lines carry. This is because of new discoveries that make it possible to build the lines with less resistance. Not only can the newer lines carry more electricity, but they will use less energy to move the energy.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The really big factor that will have the most profound effect on our job market is America's declining infrastructure. From highways to sewers, bridges to dams, and subways to buses our infrastructure is wearing out. It has to be rebuilt over the next 25 years. It will not be rebuilt as it was built the first time. New methodologies will make it possible to build an infrastructure that will last much longer than the present one did. Concrete has grown up since it was first used in bridges, buildings, sewers, dams, sidewalks, and all parts of our constructed environment. Concrete can now be made harder, more flexible, denser, and smoother. By building smoother roads cars and trucks will not bounce up and down on the road beating the sub-base of the road and causing settling of the surface. This one factor can improve our lives immensely. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>How Do You Get Ready for the Coming Opportunities?</b></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The short answer is education. </div>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-15765197796420865342008-09-17T11:36:00.002-04:002008-09-17T11:39:59.704-04:00Discover Your Passion in LifeI knew what my passion was [my interest]. 1966 saw a “new” educational idea. Distributive Education would teach the student about the business world. ZING! Wow! This was for me. It still is today. I am still learning. I believe the day you stop learning you die. To compensate for giving up the “prestige” of going to college [other than a 2 year AA Marketing degree] over time I have decided that I have a Phd. from the college of life.<br /><br />Silly huh!<br /><br />As for the 3rd precept that is not on my radar.<br /><br />I have endeavored to teach my 3 children to discover their passion in life; to enjoy what they do, and support them at what they do.<br /><br />It is a process.<br /><br />The MONEY may or may not follow but we have a higher purpose for our lives. The Jewish faith teaches among other things; Follow the Golden Rule. All the rest is just commentary. BTW-I am not Jewish but have great respect for that faith. Follow your passion and you will be fine. And don’t let anybody stop you!<br /><br />At this stage of the game I find myself wanting to teach something. Not sure where this comes from, nor what it is that I want to teach, but it is almost purely from the need to give back.<br /><br />Currently I publish a weekly newsletter for my work. It is done out of a labor of love and to prove to myself that I can stick with something when the going gets tougher. Just crossed the 1 year mark. Some areas of Metro Atlanta and a few stores in Oklahoma; small and it will stay that way.<br /><br />So bottom line- I admire a teacher. What courage. What patience. When you discover what moves you, what you want to become the very fabric of your life, your life’s work, your life’s endeavor, then you will have discovered you. It is only then though that you can begin to give back.<br /><br />“A working class hero is something to be. If you want to be a hero, then just follow me. John Lennon<br /><br />This post was composed by Jim NehlsStephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-13488315304510402172008-08-15T15:20:00.025-04:002008-09-04T11:03:54.065-04:00Scholarships, Grants, Student Loans, and Other Financial Aid<script type="text/javascript"><br />var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5283019-1");<br />pageTracker._trackPageview();<br /></script><br />I want to make mention of financial aid early in our discussions because many people who have a great deal of talent pass up higher education because they are not aware of financial aid options. If you are intellegent, talented, motivated, and willing to work to better yourself, you can get financial aid in many different forms. Financial aid offices at colleges and universities have the job of seeing that qualified people can afford to go to college. It is their job! So if you are qualified to go to college, do not pass up the opportunity because of money. The counselor at your high school should help put you in touch with the appropriate people in the financial aid office at the school where you plan to attend. And for those of you who are already out of high school and wanting to pursue higher education, call your old high school, talk to a counselor and ask for suggestions on getting in the loop. All the counselors I have ever worked with are honored that you remembered them and call for help.<br /><br />There are many different forms of financial aid. Remember terminology. A <em>loan</em> has to be paid back. S<em>cholarships</em> and <em>grants</em> are free. Let's talk about scholarships and grants first since those are what I want you to try hard to get. Scholarships and grants are the grandest form of financial aid because each is a gift to the student due to some talent, activity, or skill. If you are still a high school student, work toward getting all the scholarship and grant money you can possibly get. Many different groups give scholarships and grants. Start at <a href="http://www.fastweb.com/">http://www.FastWeb.com/</a> to do a nationwide search for scholarships and grants. Remember that many of these will be for multiple years, but will only continue if you hold up your end of the bargain by being a good student in college. It is never too early to start applying for grants and scholarships. I have seen ninth graders win grants and scholarships. These are banked or held by the generous givers until you start college. Here is a list of additional Internet sites you can visit to search for aid.<br /><a href="http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/">www.fafsa.ed.gov/</a><br /><a href="http://www.finaid.org/">www.finaid.org/</a><br /><a href="http://www.ed.gov/finaid.html">www.ed.gov/finaid.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.petersons.com/finaid/">www.petersons.com/finaid/</a><br /><a href="http://www.usnews.com/sections/business/paying-for-college/">www.usnews.com/sections/business/paying-for-college/</a><br /><a href="http://www.collegeview.com/financialaid/">www.collegeview.com/financialaid/</a><br />These are but a few. If you search for a particular college online, you can then go to the financial aid office for that college. I suggest that you do your homework before going to the financial aid office. Know what is out there. Each year, millions of dollars go unused because no one asked for the money. That's why you need to shake every tree until you get the aid you need to go to college.<br /><br />I suggest that you look locally also. There are clubs and various organizations in your local community that are looking for deserving students to whom they can give grants and scholarships. For some of these, you will need to write a paper or fill out a form that tells about you, your plans, and your need. <strong>Be honest!</strong> You need help to go to college. Don't paint yourself and your family as having everything. Its OK to ask for help to go to college. While I was assistant principal of a middle school, a young lady whose dad was vice president of one of the local banks received an abundance of scholarship and grant money because she asked for it.<br /><br />Now, lets talk about loans. Remember that <em>loans</em> have to be paid back by someone. I firmly believe that students should get loans in their own name and plan to pay them back after they start working. Don't saddle your parents with that load. You will make the money from your education so you should pay for it. There is a good possibility that you will have to help your parents later in life, so don't start out by putting a strain on them.<br /><br />For a good education on how to handle money and develop financial responsibility, I recommend you visit Clark Howard <a href="http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/1/34/">http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/1/34/</a>. Clark is a wealth of information about money for college and how to handle money while in college and after graduation. I need to mention here also that Clark is a wealth of information in many, many areas. Did I say that Clark Howard is a really smart guy?<br /><br />Don't forget work! I worked while I was in college. It was good for me. Not that I had never worked before. I grew up on a farm and was the youngest of four boys. My dad was behind the learning curve on reducing the work load as the older boys left home. When the other three boys were gone, Dad and I did the work of five. I was amazed how quickly he converted to cattle from row cropping as soon as I went off to The University of Georgia. Working for someone other than my dad was a good learning experience. Dad told me that other people would expect me to work harder than what he had expected me to do. Everyone I ever worked for was amazed at my work ethic and my attention to details. That is not a gift from God. It is a gift from my dad. Clark Howard recommends that students work. He has the same feelings about students working that I do.<br /><br />Please have your eyes open concerning the financial aid process. We have people who have borrowed $75,000 to get a job paying $25,000. That does not make sense. Be sure that you are preparing for a career that will put bread on the table and pay the bills. Just use common sense.<br /><br />Before I leave the subject of financial aid, let me mention this little tid bit. You are on the front end of the financial aid process now, but in, what I assure you will be a short time, you will be on the back end of financial aid and your higher education. Put in the back of your mind that there is a process called loan consolidation of which you will need to take advantage. By consolidating your loans after graduation, you can usually get a lower interest rate. Making payments on time, over time will get an even lower interest rate.<br /><br />A little aside here, I believe I have mentioned that I am retired from public education. I started out teaching drafting and math in high school. I later switched from math to computer science and still taught drafting. After 12 years in the classroom, I was given the job of technology coordinator for our school system. After doing that for a while, I was given the job of federal programs coordinator. While in that position the superintendent, who had been the principal at my high school the last two years I was in the classroom, asked me if I would consider preparing for building level administration. I jumped at the opportunity and started working on a graduate degree in Instructional Technology. I felt that I wanted to move back to the position of technology coordinator at some point. The next year, the superintendent asked me to be an assistant principal. At that time I was in the process of completing a EdD at The University of Georgia in Occupational Studies and Administration. I worked in that position for a while and then became a principal. I was then asked by the new superintendent to be the assistant superintendent. I spent my last six years in that position. I served as interim superintendent for six months--long enough to learn that I did not want that position. I said all of that to say this: I never applied for a job. I was invited to accept jobs.<br /><br />That all occurred because I know how to work, I know how to work smart, I know how to get a job done, and I take extreme pride in my work. I believe anyone can have the same kind of career if they are willing to work hard and seek to excel in all they do. And by the way, my first degree was in landscape architecture. I worked in that field a short time before being drafted into the US Army and serving in Vietnam as an infantryman. When I returned from Vietnam, I went back to my old job but could not stand being behind a desk after spending a year living outdoors. I spent seven years in the landscape contracting business. That was long enough to get over my desire to always be outside. At this time, the vocational supervisor in our school system called me and asked if I would be interested in teaching drafting. The rest was my history in education.<br /><br />If you have military experience, I invite you to visit my site that I have established for veterans and soldiers to write their experiences: <a href="http://we-were-soldiers.com/">http://we-were-soldiers.com/</a>. Your story needs to be part of history. That is one of my latest passions. And it is good therapy for me and will be for any veteran or soldier who chooses to write their experiences.<br /><A HREF="http://www.copyscape.com/"><IMG SRC="http://banners.copyscape.com/images/cs-wh-3d-234x16.gif" ALT="Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape" TITLE="Do not copy content from the page. Plagiarism will be detected by Copyscape." WIDTH="234" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0"></A>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-37345398119455659882008-08-02T18:30:00.013-04:002008-09-04T11:09:45.531-04:00History of Interest Inventories<script type="text/javascript"><br />var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");<br />document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));<br /></script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><br />var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-5283019-1");<br />pageTracker._trackPageview();<br /></script><br />This is the seventh article in a series of articles that will discuss the literature on the predominant career theories; history of and theory behind interest inventories; a discussion of the prominent interest inventories; the best use of interest inventories in the career development process; conceptual additions applicable to the study of interest inventories; literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents; and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. All of these articles come from dissertations by Virginia Robinson Richards, EdD, and Stephen Randall Richards, EdD, both copyrighted 1998. These articles are presented as a quick refresher for professional guidance counselors, an introduction to these theories for the non-professional, and as a starting point for students of the many disciplines related to career development theory. The bibliographies are purposely missing. If you choose to copy our work (shame on you), you will at least have to go to the library to find the work and maybe touch the covers of these works. We appologize for the non-academic format, but in a blogging forum it is not possible to keep the work as originally presented.<br /><br /><br /><strong>History of Interest Inventories</strong><br /><br /><strong>Definitions of Interests</strong><br />Hansen (1984) found three distinct components mentioned in the literature addressing the meaning of interests. First, interests have often been linked to personality (Berdie, 1944; Darley, 1941; Holland, 1985) as indicated by Holland’s (1985) reference to six categories of interest as personality types. Next, motivation or drive has been mentioned in defining interests (Berdie, 1944; Darley & Hagenah, 1955; Strong, 1955). The third component has been labeled self-concept (Bordin, 1943; Super, 1990). Composed of intelligence, interest, and social status, Super referred to self-concept as how one sees one’s self and, as such, is an important determinant of career development.<br /><br />A long-standing and comprehensive definition of interests in which personality and motivation are mentioned was defined by Layton (1958). The interests of an individual can be defined as his (or her) like for, dislike for, or indifference to something such as an object, occupation, person, a task, an idea, or an activity. Interests are one aspect of what is broadly considered as the motivation of an individual. Thus, interests are a part of the person’s personality structure of organization. When the individual’s interest is described in relation to occupations or the world of work, we speak of his (or her) vocational interests. (pp. 3-4)<br /><br /><strong>Types of Interests</strong><br />Interest can be characterized as expressed interest ‑ what an individual expresses an interest in, manifest interest ‑ what an individual actually does as an indication of what one’s interests are, inventoried interest ‑ interests determined by the pattern of an individual’s responses to lists of occupations or activities, and tested interest ‑ measurement of one’s vocabulary in a particular area in the belief that if one is truly interested in something, he or she will know the vocabulary used in that area (Super & Crites, 1962). The first studies of interest were centered around expressed interest, but work done during the past half century has focused on inventoried interest since early findings by Arsenian (1942), Bendell (1941), Cronbach (1970), and Darley and Hagenah (1955) concurred in concluding that little relationship existed between expressed interest and inventoried interest.<br /><br />While these early negative findings led to neglect of expressed interests in counseling, studies by Borgen and Seling (1978), Enright and Pinneau (1955), Holland and Gottfredson (1975), and McArthur and Stevens (1955) found expressed and inventoried interests about equally predictive of occupational entry. Super (1990) maintained that expressed interests or preferences held over a long period of time are a very good indicator of occupational entry and success in the occupation. According to Hansen (1984), integration of expressed and inventoried interests is the preferred method of vocational exploration. Students who have a definite occupational choice may use interest inventory scores as confirmation of choices already made, whereas, students with conflicting results between expressed and inventories interest have a reason to explore the reason behind the discrepancies that may lead to a better understanding of an individual’s motivation for occupational selection.<br />Early Work With Interest Assessment<br /><br />Early assessment of career-related interest was attained by asking persons to estimate how they felt about an occupation or activity (Fryer, 1931). Individuals were allowed to try out an occupation by taking courses in the occupational field, reading information about the occupation, or by actually working in the occupation in an effort to increase the accuracy of an individual’s estimates about an occupation or activity.<br /><br />During the early 1920s, interest questionnaires, such as checklists or rating scales, replaced the try-out methods to save time and cost. One of the most popular checklists of the time, Miner’s Analysis of Work Interests (1922), was taken individually and then discussed during a counseling session. Next came rating scales, with Kitson’s (1925) Vocation-to-Vocation rating scale being one of the most popular during the late 1920s. Kitson’s scale asked people to rate the vocation in which they were actually employed in relation to all other vocations.<br /><br />Following on the heels of interest questionnaires, interest inventories were developed in an effort to provide better estimates of interests (Hansen, 1984). Interest inventories were designed with a statistical component for summarizing an individual’s interest into a score representing the degree of interest in a field, profession, or occupation. Interest inventories that incorporated objective scoring procedures were the most common. Though appearing before Miner’s (1922) and Kitson’s (1925) checklists, Kelley’s (1914) battery of questions was the first to be scored and appeared to have provided a template for later inventories. Kelley’s instrument combined both an inventory that asked for estimates of interests and an objective test that measured one’s knowledge about certain occupations.<br /><br />In 1919, Clarence S. Yoakum taught a seminar at Carnegie Institute of Technology during which a pool of over 1000 items was developed without involving any statistical analysis of the items. Rather, an attempt was made to write items representing the entire domain of interests (Hansen, 1984). Though later investigators worked to identify, through statistical analysis, the worth of the original items in terms of the degree to which the items discriminated between the like, dislike, and indifferent responses of various groups, it was determined that changes in society, technological discoveries, and technological obsolescence make the process of refining items pools a never ending challenge. In 1921, the Carnegie Interest Inventory was developed at another Yoakum seminar by condensing several interest inventories developed using samples of the items formulated during the 1919 seminar (Hansen, 1984). Much work was done that closely resembled the original Carnegie Interest Inventory, including the Occupational Interest Inventory (Freyd, 1923), Interest Report Blank (Cowdery, 1926), General Interest Survey (Kornhauser, 1927), Purdue Interest Report (Remmers, 1929), Interest Analysis Blank (Hubbard, 1930), and Minnesota Interest Inventory (Paterson, Elliot, Anderson, Toops, & Heidbreder, 1930). Some of the early interest inventories have been adapted over time and some have disappeared, but one of the most important outcomes of the Youkum Seminar is the Strong Vocational Interest Blank--Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SVIB-SCII) because it is still the most frequently used test in college counseling centers (Hansen, 1984).<br /><br /><strong>Prominent Interest Inventories</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Strong Vocational Interest Blank</strong>--Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SVIB-SCII) Strong was among a group that developed a derivative of the Carnegie Interest Inventory during the 1920s. The research conducted by Clarence Yoakum provided Edward K. Strong with ideas on the measurement of interests leading to his development of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) which placed the technical and usage levels of vocational interest measurement near the technical and usage levels of the measurements of intelligence and aptitudes (Darley & Hagenah, 1955). Strong systematically collected large amounts of test data showing that people in different occupations can be distinguished from each other by the simple procedure of asking them to check their likes and dislikes on a long checklist (Campbell & Hansen, 1981; Super, 1942).<br /><br />Strong’s inventory was developed by means of a strictly empirical procedure, making few psychological assumptions and developing his scoring formulas on the basis of correlations of responses with criteria (Cronbach, 1949). Modifying the initial empirical methods of differentiating occupations one from another by using factor analysis, Strong then developed a method of identifying items within the interest tests to distinguish characteristics of specific occupations from those of people in general (Hansen, 1990). These responses to items that members of an occupation have in common constitute normative scales on which items are internally consistent or homogeneous only for the occupational group which they differentiate, thereby allowing counselors to report the degree to which the test-taker has interests similar to those of persons in a given occupation (Zytowski, 1973).<br /><br />Strong’s initial interest inventory consisted of a list of four hundred occupations, school subjects, hobbies, types of activities, personal characteristics, and similar items with the examinee indicating like, dislike, or indifference to each activity and whether or not the identified characteristic was possessed. These results were then compared to the responses of other persons known to have achieved success in a given occupation. Strong’s normative scales compared interests of an individual with those of persons in a particular occupation or, perhaps, a college major (Campbell & Hansen, 1981; Super, 1942). Campbell and Hansen maintained while the SVIB "cannot tell anyone where he will succeed . . . (it can) act as a mirror to reflect back the individual’s interests in a manner allowing comparison of his likes and dislikes to those in individuals in specified occupations . . . (where he is) likely to find job satisfaction" (p. 2).<br /><br />The SVIB, published in 1927, has been revised twice for men (1938 and 1966). The women’s SVIB, first published in 1933 and revised twice (1946 and 1969), is thought to be psychometrically superior to the men’s form because new techniques and analyses were tried with the men’s form, evaluated, and then modifications were made on the women’s revision. Renamed the Srong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) in 1974, the choice was made to merge the female and male inventories, marking the beginning of an effort to provide equal career exploration opportunities for both women and men (Hansen, 1986). The SCII later underwent revision in 1981 and again in 1986 when SVIB items were selected to represent each of Holland’s personality types. The General Occupational Themes were broadened with the emphasis shifting from offering predominantly professionally oriented occupations to offering a mix of professional occupations along with nonprofessional or vocational-technical, thus, increasing the utility of the inventory to include those with a wider range of occupational and educational goals. Hackett and Watkins (1995) observed that the 1985 revision to renorm the occupational samples, to increase the number of occupational scales, and to decrease the gender restrictiveness has been successful.<br /><br />Used widely with a varied clientele including high school and college students, cross-cultural populations, and minorities in a variety of settings, e.g., educational, business, and rehabilitation, the SII is also used extensively in research efforts (Hansen, 1986). While Campbell and Hansen (1981) purported "From its inception in 1927, the Strong Vocational Interest Blank was an empirical, atheoretical instrument" (p. 28), Strong’s development of assessment procedures cannot be ignored as the SVIB and SCII are among the most widely used interest inventories today and still have a "profound impact on interest measurement" (Walsh & Osipow, 1986, p. vii).<br /><br /><strong>Holland’s Theory Based Interest Inventories</strong><br />Holland’s Vocational Preference Inventory. Holland’s (1966) Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) is based on his earlier psychological rationale (1959) that it is possible to categorize people into six types: realistic, intellectual, social, conventional, enterprising, and artistic. As Holland developed the VPI, he also developed his theory of careers (Holland, 1966). The true significance of Holland’s work is that in each case, he developed his theory first and then designed instruments based on this theory. Holland’s theory was developed by extensively examining the vocational interest, vocational choice, and personality literature to identify interest and personality factors, then determining the relationship between these factors. Scales were developed using occupational titles as items representative of the factors to measure the personality factors. Holland originally developed 7 scales: Physical activity, Intellectual, Responsibility, Conformity, Verbal activity, Emotionality, and Reality Orientation. These were later reduced to 6 and renamed: Realistic, Investigative, Social, Conventional, Enterprising, and Artistic.<br /><br />Holland (1973) developed the Self Directed Search (SDS) as a result of the continued development of his theory of careers. Holland (1973) saw the SDS as “one way in which the classification and the theory have been used to organize the assessment of the person and world of occupations within the same framework” (p. 86), viewing the SDS as simulating “in an explicit way what counselors, parents, psychologists, and personnel workers do in more intuitive and less precise ways” (p. 87).<br /><br />Holland’s Self-Directed Search. The SDS (Holland & Rayman, 1986) was developed for two purposes: to increase the number of people a counselor could successfully work with, and to provide vocational counseling to those who do not have, or who do not wish to have, access to a counselor. First published in 1971 and revised in 1977 and 1985, the SDS provides the test taker an assessment booklet which, when filled out, yields a hierarchical three-letter classification code with the first letter representing the strongest preference for a particular personality type. The three-letter code is then used in conjunction with the Occupations Finder to locate suitable occupations, simulating what a person and a counselor might do together over a period of several interviews. By eliminating unnecessary individual counseling and reducing the time needed to proctor, mail, score, and interpret interest inventories, counselors could spend more time with those who need individual counseling.<br /><br />Based on Holland’s (1985) theory of career choice, the SDS was developed using the hypothesis that certain characteristics, i.e., competencies, preferred activities and self-ratings of abilities, of the individual as well as vocational interests are important in the vocational choice process (Campbell, 1988). Identified by Holland’s research (1985), six personality types, i.e., Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional, serve as the basis to relate a person’s self-assessment of abilities and interests to appropriate occupations. Also based on Holland’s (1985) theory is the concept that a relationship exists between the person’s characteristics and a work environment, and that individuals will achieve greater success, satisfaction, and stability in occupations where the work environment fits their personality. Thus, the SDS can be used in identifying appropriate career choices.<br /><br />Holland and Rayman (1986) considered the SDS to be an advance in interest assessment and vocational treatment for several reasons:<br /><br />1. A person’s vocational aspirations, interests, competencies, and self-rated abilities are organized by a particular theory and related to an occupational classification system using the same theory.<br /><br />2. Self-administered, self-scored, and self-interpreted, the SDS can be used with or without a counselor.<br /><br />3. An ideal innovation, the SDS is an inexpensive assessment-intervention requiring no special training and is compatible with other existing career material.<br /><br />4. The theoretical base of the SDS demonstrates that long term research and development support continued and constructive revisions.<br /><br />5. An open inventory, the undisguised groupings of items on the scales communicate the structure of vocational interests to encourage the test taker to think about work and personal characteristics in a systematic way.<br /><br />6. The SDS and its related theory “represent a technological-theoretical advance” because they provide an “organization for mapping and understanding the massive information about people and occupations and the relation of one to the other” (p. 58).<br /><br />The SDS consists of an Assessment Booklet, an Occupations Finder, and an interpretative booklet Understanding Yourself and Your Career. Developed to counter complaints that the SDS was not as self-interpreting as promised, the booklet was an effort to permit understanding of the theory behind the SDS rather than a simple description of the personality types (Holland & Rayman, 1986). The booklet also encourages test takers to further investigate the jobs identified as appropriate and to view this list of jobs as only suggestions. Consulting with a counselor is also suggested, and some question the ability of individuals to administer, score, and interpret their own SDS (Brown, 1975; Cutts, 1977; Dolliver & Hansen, 1977).<br /><br />The Assessment Booklet includes six scales with 38 items per scale in each of three categories: activities, competencies, and occupations, ability ratings in 6 areas, and 8 lines on which to list occupational daydreams, careers the test takers have daydreamed about, and those the test takers have discussed with others. The test taker then scores the responses given and calculates 6 summary scores. Using the summary scores, the test taker obtains a three-letter code determined by the three highest summary scores. The summary code is then used to locate appropriate occupational options listed in the Occupations Finder which contains 1,156 occupations (Holland & Rayman, 1986).<br /><br />During revisions, additional job titles have been added to the Occupations Finder to make the list more reflective of current occupations. Changes have been made in an attempt to diminish sex differences in responses to the scales by altering selected items on the Occupations Scale. Devised for poor readers, Form E, i.e., Easy, (1979) was a modification of the SDS lowering the reading level several grade levels, i.e., Grade 4, below the standard form, i.e., Grade 8, with the scoring procedure yielding a two-letter rather than a three-letter code. Form E’s Occupations Finder, renamed Job Finder, has been modified to reflect the use of the two-letter rather than three-letter codes (Campbell, 1988; Holland &, Rayman 1986).<br /><br />Campbell (1988) and Manuele-Adkins (1989) expressed concern about the number of scoring errors made by test takers, the inconsistent use of Holland’s typology across sections of the measure, and questions about test fairness because of the use of raw rather than normed scores. Zener and Schnuelle (1976) compared the SDS, the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), and no treatment. High school students taking the SDS or VPI evaluated the inventories as positive, were satisfied with their current occupational choice, considering more occupational alternatives than the control group, and the SDS group had less need to see a counselor. Pallas, Dahmann, Gucer, and Holland (1983) reported similar findings with high school and college students, as well as workers. Additionally, Power, Holland, Daiger, and Takai (1979) found that test takers with a clear sense of vocational identity found the SDS experience reassuring.<br /><br /><strong>The Use of Interest Inventories To Affect Change</strong><br /><br />Little recent research was discovered concerning the power of interest inventories or other exploration instruments to affect change in exploration behaviors, described by Oliver and Spokane (1988) as exploration validity. But work of particular interest in this area is Gottfredson’s (1986) principles of beneficial test usage. Gottfredson prescribes a method for the use of interest inventories and feedback reports to affect career exploration. These principles are of particular importance because they serve as a guide for the successful implementation of the RIPA to maximize the benefits that students receive from the experience.<br /><br /><strong>Gottfredson’s Principles of Beneficial Test Usage</strong><br />Gottfredson’s (1986) list of principles of beneficial test usage was designed to put vocational interest testing in a broad prospective by suggesting how interest inventories might be used in a beneficial manner. She also described types of results that could be expected when interest inventories and feedback are properly used. It is important to have a valid assessment of a person’s vocational interest because these interests reflect people’s perception of who they are (i.e., occupational self-concept) and because they influence career attitudes and behavior. The following list is a restatement and elaboration of principles found in the counseling literature. Gottfredson believed these principles apply to any person or group. Principles of beneficial test usage propose that:<br /><br />1. Inventories should be viewed as treatments.<br /><br />2. Interest inventories and their interpretive materials constitute packages of interventions with specific packages differing somewhat from one inventory to another.<br /><br />3. Interest inventories are most useful when embedded within a broader career counseling process that recognizes the constraints on career choice.<br /><br />4. Treatment should be tied to goals.<br /><br />5. Goals for the counseling process, including interest inventories, should relate to the adjustment and welfare of individuals rather than to social groups of which individuals may be a member.<br /><br />6. Career counseling strategies, including the use of interest inventories, should be targeted to counselees’ career development problems rather than to counselees’ special group status unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.<br /><br />7. Interest inventory scores are useful in diagnosing whether career choice is proceeding satisfactorily and why it may not be if it is not.<br /><br />8. Interpretive materials that accompany interest inventories can be valuable in exposing and treating some underlying problems in career choice.<br /><br />9. Interest inventories are useful in developing next best alternatives when compromises are necessary.<br /><br />Gottfredson’s (1986) principles of beneficial test usage present a model procedure for use of the RIPA in providing the most beneficial results for students. Cole and Hanson (1975) suggested that “interest inventories should no longer be merely reported or interpreted. They should change behavior” (p. 12). Likewise, Zytowski (1978) stated that “interest inventories have become an instrument of social change” (p. 129). This view was resounded by Rounds and Tinsley (1984) when they noted “the active ingredients of several vocational intervention procedures are assumed to be the assessment process itself” (p. 130). Gottfredson suggested that if her nine principles are followed, exploration will be promoted.<br /><br /><strong>Exploration Behavior</strong><br />During the past several years, researchers have been rejecting the importance of predictive or concurrent validity studies for evaluating interest inventories and have begun advocating that an interest inventory should be evaluated primarily for its capacity to generate exploratory behaviors for female and male clients (Borgen & Bernard, 1982). For example, Cooper (1976) challenged publishers of interest inventories to conduct research to provide interpretive materials that would facilitate an increase in women’s exploration of career choices. The concept of exploration validity was first put forth by Tittle (1978), and the concept is evolving as an important index of the effectiveness of career interventions and is viewed as just as important as attitudes and satisfaction with career interventions (Borgen & Bernard, 1982; Oliver & Spokane, 1988; Randahl et al 1993). Randahl et al. noted that though attitudes and satisfaction with career interventions are important outcomes to assess, the evaluation of exploration validity (i.e., instrumental behaviors [Oliver & Spokane, 1988]) of interest inventories or career interventions gradually has evolved as another important index of their effectiveness.<br /><br />The lack of exploration validity studies for the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) was noted as one of its shortcomings (Borgen & Bernard, 1982). As a result of the Borgen and Bernard study, Slaney and Lewis (1986) conducted a study of the SII and the Vocational Card Sort (VCS) with 34 career-undecided female reentry undergraduates. The results of the study showed that both the SII and the VCS were useful in facilitating career exploration.<br /><br />Randahl et al. (1993) conducted a 2-phase longitudinal study to explore the exploration validity (i.e., the power of interest inventories to facilitate career exploration activities such as talking to professionals and seeking vocational information) of the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) for college students. The participants included 75 students in an experimental group which participated in SII testing and a group interpretation, and 67 students in a contrast group which received nothing. Students in the experimental group reported significantly more instrumental career exploration behaviors 1 year after taking the SII than did the contrast group. The Randahl et al. study holds particular significance for the present study as it is parallel to the Randahl et al. study except conducted on the RIPA.<br /><br /><strong>The Influence of Various Independent Variables on Career Development<br /></strong><br /><strong>Career Development and Gender</strong><br />Gottfredson (1996) suggested sex-role stereotyping occurs between ages 6 to 8 and cited many studies to support her proposition. Lapan and Jingeleski (1992) and Sastre and Mullet (1992) confirmed early studies by Gottfredson (1981) that gender, social class, and intelligence are related to the field or level of occupational aspirations. Using factor analysis, Lapan and Jingeleski found six factors affecting eighth graders’ assessment of occupations: Conventional, Investigative, Realistic, Enterprising, Social, and Adventure. This study indicated a strong degree of sex role stereotyping for the less prestigious sextyped clusters (Conventional and Realistic). There were, however, few sex differences in self-ratings for the more sex-neutral Enterprising and Investigative fields of work. The lowest relationship was for cross-sextyped clusters (Conventional and Social for boys and Realistic and Adventure for girls).<br /><br />Looft (1971) and Zunker (1990) found when asked what they want to be when they grow up, most boys respond with football player and policeman, with doctor, dentist, priest, and pilot being less frequent, while most girls answered nurse and teacher most frequently, followed by mother and flight attendant. Additionally, Nilsen (1971) referred to the apron syndrome brought about by the many pictures in children’s reading books of women in aprons. As late as the 1970s, most schools directed girls into typing and home economics while ushering boys into math and science classes.<br /><br />One theory has been put forth that describing what happens to children as they grow, experience influences by various forces, and eventually make decisions about a future career. Though praised by Brooks (1990), severely criticized by Betz and Fitzgerald (1987), and scrutinized in recent research (Taylor &, Pryor 1985; Pryor & Taylor, 1986; Pryor, 1987; Henderson, Hesketh, & Tuffin, 1988; Holt, 1989; Hesketh, Elmslie, & Kaldor, 1990; Hesketh, Durant, & Pryor, 1990; Leung & Plake, 1990), Gottfredson’s (1981 & 1996) theory of circumscription and compromise set forth a developmental theory of occupational aspirations in which she posited the idea that gender will have the greatest influence on occupational preferences from age 6 through 9. After age 9, social background has a greater effect on occupational preference.<br /><br />Gottfredson (1981, 1996) hypothesized that as career choices are made, compromise occurs. Specifically, individuals will give up interests first, prestige second, and sex-stereotyped occupations last. This theory suggests the difficulty for girls and women considering nontraditional careers. Henderson, Hesketh, and Tuffin (1988) found that gender was more important in career choice between ages 6 and 8, but after age 8, prestige was more important than gender in making occupational choice.<br /><br />In a study of 37,000 17 year-old high school students, Miller (1977) found more males aspiring to professional occupations with females seeing themselves as homemakers and in sex traditional occupational roles. Males also chose sex traditional occupational roles, such as craftsperson, farmer, laborer, and manager. In a study of 50,000 12th grade students conducted over a 6-year period, Garrison (1979) found aspirations of women high school seniors for high-status professional occupations had increased while finding a declining interest in clerical-sales careers and lower-level professions for women. Fottler and Bain (1980) found females tended to aspire to professional and technical occupations slightly more than males, but aspired to managerial occupations less often than men.<br /><br />Research indicates that girls may have difficulty making use of occupational information with traditionally male-dominated occupations and may have less confidence in their ability to make certain career-related decisions (Sharf, 1992). In a self-esteem study of 7th grade adolescents, Robison-Awana, Kehle, and Jenson (1986) found that both boys and girls believed that girls had lower self-esteem. Similarly, Betz and Fitzgerald (1987) found that sex-role stereotyping is still entrenched among adolescent boys and girls and is aggravated by sex bias in career materials and in ways that school teachers may relate to boys and girls.<br /><br />Throughout assessment literature, gender restrictiveness has been noted as an issue of great concern (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987; Gottfredson, 1986; Gottfredson; 1996). While Super (1990) and Westbrook (1983) indicated that girls tend to score slightly higher than boys on measures of career maturity, socialization experiences of boys and girls have been and will continue to be different (Sharf, 1992), thereby, presenting the test designer with a tremendous challenge of making tests fair for both genders (Betz, 1990; Hackett & Lonborg, 1994). This fact suggests the need to address all portions of the career development process to assure that individuals understand how to make use of occupational information concerning all occupations.<br /><br />It is possible to see the legislative result of research done in this area in the School-to-Work Act (1996) which established a national framework for states to reform their educational systems to facilitate students’ transition from school to the workplace, expose them to a variety of industries, and provide them with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in the workplace of the future (Education Development Center, 1998). Congress’ intention to promote gender equity is domonstrated in the Act’s mandate that School-to-Work systems incorporate programs to encourage women to pursue nontraditional careers.<br /><br /><strong>Academic Achievement and Career Development</strong><br />Important work has examined the area of the relationship of academic ability and measured interests including the work of Swanson (1993). In Swanson’s study, participants completed the Strong Interest Inventory and a self-rating instrument. Results suggested that interests, abilities, and skills were distinct and should be considered separate constructs that could be assessed independently. However, interests, abilities, and skills within the same Holland (1985) career interest type showed predictable relations to the other. In another recent development, the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS) (Campbell, Hyne, & Nilsen, 1992) has shown important implications for the assessment of abilities, assessment of interests, and job- and community-related variables. Campbell (1993) noted that responses to the skill items can best interpreted as measures of self-confidence.<br /><br />Studies that indicate more exploration in the use of self-estimates and measured estimates of ability in career assessment are needed (Hackett & Watkins, 1995). Westbrook, Sanford, Gilleland, Fleenor, and Mervin (1988) found that when measured abilities are compared to self-assessment of one’s abilities, considerable variability results. People who underestimate their abilities need assistance in developing a robust sense of educational and career efficacy (Betz, 1992; Hackett & Lonborg, 1994).<br /><br />In a study designed to investigate the longitudinal influence of select demographic and latent variables on the development of adolescents’ occupational aspirations at early, mid-, and late adolescence, Rojewski and Yang (1997) found “that both academic achievement and self-evaluation had consistent, positive, and statistically significant influences on occupational aspirations” (p. 403). Additionally, they found that “aspirations, self-evaluation, and academic achievement were relatively stable constructs across the three points of interest” in the study (p. 402). They did note that occupational aspirations were more likely to change over time than academic achievement. The Rojewski and Yang study clearly indicated academic achievement had a greater influence on occupational aspirations at Grade eight than at Grade ten. This points out a need to provide career development programs at or below grade eight for students of higher academic acheivement. This would be a time when students of greater academic achievement can best take advantage of the career development programs. In later years, students of lower academic achievement seem to catch up in their occupational aspirations. Perhaps students with less academic achievement begin to realize they are drawing near to the time to begin employment if they do not continue their education.<br /><br /><strong>Summary<br /></strong>Throughout the history of career development, the most constant thread has been the importance of individual interests. Early efforts were aimed at measurement of interests for the purpose of predicting the best occupational fit given individual strengths, limitations, and needs (Strong, 1927). Later, measurements of interests were intended to provide an image of the individuals personality (Holland, 1985). Considerable work has been done to try to understand the origin of interests (Roe, 1956; Holland, 1985). As career development theory evolved and matured, measurement of interests has continued to hold an important place. It is important to have a valid assessment of a person’s vocational interest because these interests reflect people’s perception of who they are (i.e., occupational self-concept) and because they influence career attitudes and behavior.<br /><br />Stephen R. Richards, EdD<br /><br />In this series of articles similar threads wre investigated by two different people. One must keep in mind that the review of lietrature for a dissertation must reflect the purpose of the study. Two different purposes will yield slightly different results for the same area of study.<br /><A HREF="http://www.copyscape.com/"><IMG SRC="http://banners.copyscape.com/images/cs-wh-3d-234x16.gif" ALT="Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape" TITLE="Do not copy content from the page. Plagiarism will be detected by Copyscape." WIDTH="234" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0"></A>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-43270087337214349402008-08-02T18:08:00.009-04:002008-09-04T11:10:42.374-04:00Theories of Career DevelopmentThis is the sixth article in a series of articles that will discuss the literature on the predominant career theories; history of and theory behind interest inventories; a discussion of the prominent interest inventories; the best use of interest inventories in the career development process; conceptual additions applicable to the study of interest inventories; literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents; and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. All of these articles come from dissertations by Virginia Robinson Richards, EdD, and Stephen Randall Richards, EdD, both copyrighted 1998. These articles are presented as a quick refresher for professionl guidance counselors, an introduction to these theories for the non-professional, and as a starting point for students of the many disciplines related to career development theory. The bibliographies are purposely missing. If you choose to copy our work (shame on you), you will at least have to go to the library to find the work and maybe touch the covers of these works. We appologize for the non-academic format, but in a blogging forum it is not possible to keep the work as originally presented.<br /><br />In this section, I will examine theories of vocational interest that are clearly an important part of the history of career development theory. Then, I will examine two career development theories that strongly influenced this study. The first is Holland’s theory (1966, 1973, 1985) pertaining to the use of interest inventories as tools of exploratory interventions. The second theory, the work of Super (1990), will be described as it provides a master plan of how the RIPA is used as an exploratory intervention and how it fits in a complete career development scheme.<br /><br /><strong>Roe’s Personality Development Theory</strong><br />Roe’s (1956) theory was examined earlier as it influenced theories of vocational interests, but also of considerable importance is Roe’s personality development theory. Trained as a clinical psychologist, Roe began her theory development through observations of artists and research scientists focusing on “possible relationships between occupational behavior (not just choice) and personality” (Roe & Lunneborg, 1990, p. 68). In looking at other studies, Roe identified and categorized a list of needs involving persons’ feelings concerning work. Common threads in these studies were bodily well-being, a need for food, a need for activity, and a need for self-realization through work. Roe argued that people do not work just to earn a living but that “much more is involved in and expected of a job than a pay check” (p. 23). Roe determined that occupations form a major focus of individuals’ lives through thoughts and activities, e.g., “in our culture, social and economic status depend more on the occupation (of the individual, the father, or even less frequently now, the husband) than on any other one thing‑even wealth” (p. 69). Roe turned to Maslow’s (1948) hierarchy of needs including physiological needs, safety needs, need for belonging and love, need for importance, respect, self-esteem, independence, need for information, need for understanding, need for beauty, and a need for self-actualization. Maslow’s theory suggested that people place greater urgency on basic needs such as food, shelter, and safety before being capable of expressing needs on the higher levels, and, consequently, these other needs remain unachievable to the average individual until those basic needs are satisfied. Roe believed that occupations in modern society can provide satisfaction at all levels of need.<br /><br />Roe (1957) saw the interaction of heredity and environment as important in causing a child to develop a person or nonperson orientation, and to lead an individual to select an occupation that requires either high or low levels of interaction with others. Roe (1957) wrote extensively in describing her theory, but it has been summarized by others (Osipow, 1973; Walsh & Osipow, 1983) as follows:<br /><br />1. Limits of potential development are set by genetic inheritance including intellectual abilities, temperament, interests, and abilities.<br /><br />2. General cultural background and socioeconomic status of the family affect unique individual experience.<br /><br />3. Individual experiences governed by involuntary attention determine the pattern of development of interests, attitudes, and other personality variables that have not been genetically controlled.<br /><br />a. Early satisfactions and frustrations resulting from the family situation, particularly relations with parents; i.e., overprotectiveness, avoidance, or acceptance of the child.<br /><br />b. Degrees of needs satisfaction determine which of Maslow’s (1948) needs will become the strongest motivators.<br /><br />4. The eventual pattern of psychic energies, i.e., attention-directed, is the major determinant of interests.<br /><br />5. The intensity with which an individual feels (Maslow, 1948) needs and the satisfaction of needs determine the degree of motivation to accomplish.<br /><br />Roe (1956) was dissatisfied with available classifications of occupations and developed a list of eight occupational groups including service, business contact, organization, technology, outdoor, science, general culture, and arts/entertainment. Each group was divided into 6 levels of responsibility, capability, and skill needed to perform at each level.<br /><br />Several instruments have been developed using Roe’s (1956) theory. These include Roe’s own (1957) Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire (PCR 1), Career Occupational Preference System (COPS, Knapp & Knapp, 1984), Computerized Vocational Information System (CVIS, Harris, 1968), Ramak and Courses (Meir & Barak, 1973), and Individual Career Exploration (ICE, Miller-Tiedeman, 1976).<br /><br />Although Roe’s theory has not been validated (Osipow, 1973), her work has contributed to an understanding of the importance of the role of occupations in the lives of individuals. Walsh and Osipow (1983) noted that Roe’s greatest achievement may lie in the use of her two-way job classification and the concept of people versus ideas meaning that people will either have an orientation toward people or an orientation away from people. These two ideas have changed the way counselors work with clients.<br />Social Learning Theory of Career Choice and Counseling<br /><br />Social cognitive theory of behavior was developed by Bandura (1969) to explain the way personality and behaviors arise from an individual’s unique learning experiences and the effects negative and positive reinforcement have on these experiences. According to social cognitive or learning theory, three major types of learning experiences influence behaviors and skills that allow a person to function effectively in society. Bandura proposed that (a) instrumental learning experiences occur when an individual is positively or negatively reinforced for a behavior, (b) associative learning experiences occur when an individual associates a previously neutral event with an emotionally laden event, and (c) vicarious experiences occur when one individual observes the behavior of others or gains new information and ideas from other sources.<br /><br />Krumboltz’s theory (Krumboltz, 1981; Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1996) built on the work of Bandura (1969, 1977) to develop his revised theory which “posits two major types of learning experiences that result in individual behavioral and cognitive skills and preferences that allow people to function effectively in the world” (p. 234). First, is instrumental learning experiences which “occur when a person is positively reinforced or punished for the exercise of some behavior and the associated cognitive skills” (p. 234). Second, is associative learning experiences which “occur when people associate some previously affectively neutral event or stimulus with an emotonally laden event or stimulus” (p. 234). Within these factors, Krumboltz developed a number of testable propositions and determined that equal importance rests on the inverse influence of each. Listed here are the three basic factor groups.<br />1. Factors that influence preferences with an educational or occupational preference being an evaluative self-observation generalization based on those learning experiences pertinent to any career task and propositions explaining the acquisition of these preferences.<br />2. Factors influencing career-decision making skills with propositions explaining how these particular skills are acquired.<br />3. Factors influencing entry behaviors into educational or occupational alternatives with propositions explaining factors accounting for the actual entry behaviors into occupations, training programs, or educational courses of study.<br /><br />Brown (1990a) pointed out that the social learning theory is not developmental, does not really account for job change, and would therefore not be useful in determining normative behavior or designing career development programs. Brown maintained that Krumboltz’s (1981) theory is not a major influence on career development research or the practice of career counseling. Brown did, however, expect to see researchers attracted to projects involving the constructs of the Krumboltz theory because the theory is tightly constructed and hypotheses of the theory are testable.<br /><br /><strong>Social Cognitive Career Theory</strong><br />Hackett and Betz (1981), Taylor and Betz (1983), Multon, Brown, and Lent (1992), Hackett and Lent (1992), Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1994), and Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1996) all worked to refine Bandura’s (1969) general theory on social cognition. The work in this area can be summarized with Lent et al.’s (1994) propositions:<br />1. An individual’s occupational or academic interests at any point in time are reflective of his or her concurrent self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations.<br />2. An individual’s occupational interests also are influenced by his or her occupationally relevant abilities, but this relation is mediated by one’s self-efficacy beliefs.<br />3. Self-efficacy beliefs affect choice goals and actions both directly and indirectly.<br />4. Outcomes expectations affect choice goals and actions both directly and indirectly.<br />5. People will aspire to enter (i.e., develop choice goals for) occupations or academic fields that are consistent with their primary interest areas.<br />6. People will attempt to enter occupations or academic fields that are consistent with choice goals, provided that they are committed to their goal, and their goal is stated in clear terms, proximal to the point of actual entry.<br />7. Interests affect entry behaviors, (actions) indirectly through their influence on choice goals.<br />8. Self-efficacy beliefs influence career-academic performance both directly and indirectly through their effect on performance goals. Outcome expectations influence performance only indirectly through their effect on goals.<br />9. Ability (or aptitude) will affect career/academic performance both directly and indirectly through its influence on self-efficacy beliefs.<br />10. Self-efficacy beliefs derive from performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and physiological reactions (e.g., emotional arousal) in relation to particular educational and occupationally relevant activities.<br />11. As with self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations are generated through direct and vicarious experiences with educational and occupationally relevant activities.<br />12. Outcome expectations are also partially determined by self-efficacy beliefs, particularly when outcomes (e.g., successes, failures) are closely tied to the quality or level of one’s performance.<br /><br />Super (1990) saw learning theory as cement holding together various segments of career development theory. In agreement with this, Lent et al. (1994) saw their framework as an effort at unifying rather than proliferating additional theories and should therefore be viewed as “evolving constructions, subject to further empirical scrutiny” (p. 118).<br /><br /><strong>Sociological Theory</strong><br />Prior to 1967, sociological theory was concerned primarily with how social status affected the level of schooling achieved, which in turn affected occupational level achieved, i.e., intergenerational mobility, and was primarily confined to imprecise verbal statements and rough classifications of occupations into broad socio-economic groups, such as blue-collar and white-collar workers (Hotchkiss & Borow, 1996). Blau & Duncan (1967) developed a more formal model of occupational or status attainment with the development of the Socioeconomic Index (SEI), a graded scale to indicate level of occupational status. Blau and Duncan’s work, closely followed by Sewell, Haller, and Portes (1969) and Sewell, Haller, and Ohlendorf (1970), expanded intergenerational mobility theory to include intervening social-psychological processes, such as educational and occupational aspirations, parent and teacher encouragement for further educational attainment, and plans for further educational attainment, along with parental status and parental years of schooling. This model, known as the Wisconsin model or status attainment model, also included academic performance and standardized test scores as measures of ability. Hotchkiss and Borow (1996) summarized the basic theory of the status attainment model by espousing a model whereby a path of influence flows from the parental status to significant others’ attitudes about appropriate levels of education and occupation to career plans to schooling to occupational status level, thereby, affecting the occupational level of their offspring.<br /><br /><strong>Trait and Factor Theory<br /></strong>Parsons (1909) put forth a three-step schema forming the basis of the first conceptual framework of career decision making (Brown & Brooks, 1990a) and the foundation of the vocational guidance movement (Srebalus, Marinelli, & Messing, 1982; Super, 1983). Parsons’ three-part model advocated personality analysis, where individuals gain an understanding of both their strengths and weaknesses of attributes or traits; job analysis, i.e., given these traits, their conditions for success in occupations; and matching through scientific advising, i.e., make career choices based on the aforementioned information to provide the basis for career decision-making (Brown & Brooks, 1990a; Herr & Cramer, 1988; McDaniels & Gysbers, 1992). Parsons’ formulations are often referred to as the basis of trait and factor theory (Brown, 1990b; Brown & Brooks, 1990b), but the work of Holland (1966, 1973, 1985) brought trait and factor theory to center stage where it remains today.<br /><br /><strong>Holland’s Personality Theory</strong><br />Holland’s work with the theory of careers can be traced back to his military experience during World War II. As an induction interviewer, he hypothesized that people could be classified into a relatively small number of types. Holland later counseled students at Case Western Reserve University, and physically disabled and psychiatric patients at a Veterans Administration Hospital. These experiences reinforced his belief about classification (Weinrach & Srebalus, 1990).<br /><br />Holland’s (1985) theory contends that every individual resembles one of six basic personality types, and as a result, manifest some of the behaviors and traits associated with that type. Holland also defined six environments, declared that environments are characterized by the people who occupy them, and stated that an environmental type can be assessed by surveying the occupants of the environment. Holland’s (1985) theory is built on four basic assumptions:<br />1. In our culture, most persons can be categorized as one of six types: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, or conventional.<br />2. There are six kinds of environments: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, or conventional.<br />3. 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.<br />4. Behavior is determined by an interaction between personality and environment. (pp. 2-4)<br /><br />In developing his types, Holland looked at results of a study conducted by Guilford, Christensen, Bond, and Sutton (1954) in which they used factor analyses with data gathered using the Strong Vocational Interest Blank. In that study, Guilford et al. found seven interest factors: mechanical, scientific, social welfare, aesthetic expression, clerical, business, and outdoor. Holland dropped the outdoor classification and renamed the other six as Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Holland (1985) defines the types as follows:<br />1. Realistic people have a preference for activities that entail the explicit, ordered, or systematic manipulation of objects, tools, machines, and animals. Realistic people have an aversion to educational or therapeutic activities.<br />2. Investigative people have a preference for activities that entail the observational, symbolic, systematic, and creative investigation of physical, biological, and cultural phenomena in order to understand and control such phenomena. Investigative people have an aversion to persuasive, social, and repetitive activities.<br />3. Artistic people have a preference for ambiguous, free, unsystematized activities that entail the manipulation of physical, verbal, or human materials to create art forms or products. In addition, artistic people have an aversion to explicit, systematic, and ordered activities.<br />4. Social people have a preference for activities that entail the manipulation of others to inform, train, develop, cure, or enlighten. Social people have an aversion to explicit, ordered, systematic activities involving materials, tools, or machines.<br />5. Enterprising people have a preference for activities that entail the manipulation of others to attain organizational goals or economic gain. Enterprising people have an aversion to observational, symbolic, and systematic activities.<br />6. Conventional people have a preference for activities that entail the explicit, ordered, systematic manipulation of data, such as keeping records, filing materials, reproducing materials, organizing written and numerical data according to a prescribed plan, operating business machines and data processing machines to attain organizational or economic goals. Conventional people have an aversion to ambiguous, free, exploratory, or unsystematized activities.<br /><br />Holland (1985) revised his belief that individuals could be characterized as belonging to a single one of the six types to a belief that one of the six types will predominate and other subtypes influence the person’s personality. All six types are represented in a person’s total profile, but Holland developed a system of defining personalities based on the three most prevalent types found in the individual. A three-letter code was used to describe personality types. The code called RAI would describe a person who is realistic, artistic, and investigative.<br /><br />Through research on Holland’s theory, correlations were calculated that showed the psychological similarity across types. In an effort to present a visual representation of the theory, a hexagonal model was developed showing the relationships between the types. Holland (1973) introduced five key concepts in addition to his four basic assumptions:<br /><br />1. <em>Consistency</em>. Using the hexagon to graphically represent the relationships between the personality types, Holland defined the degree of personality consistency. The closer the types appear on the hexagon, i.e., when the first two letters of the subtype are adjacent on the hexagon, the more consistent the person is thought to be. Low consistency is separation of the first two code letters by two intervening letters.<br /><br />2. <em>Differentiation</em>. Some people and environments more closely resemble a single type, thereby showing less resemblance to other types. Some others may more equally resemble several types. Those personality types resembling several types equally are said to be poorly differentiated while those closely resembling a single type are said to be highly differentiated.<br /><br />3. <em>Identity</em>. Holland considers this construct necessary to support the formulations of personality types and environments. An individual having identity is said to have clear and stable goals, interests, and talents established.<br /><br />4. <em>Congruence</em>. This is an example of the old idiom, “Birds of a feather flock together”, meaning persons tend to be happier and perform better in an environment providing the type of reward that is important to that person. For example, a Conventional personality type who enjoys working in a Conventional environment would be said to be a perfect fit , likewise, the least congruence occurs when persons and their environments are at opposite points of the hexagon, i.e., a Realistic personality type working in a Social environment.<br /><br />5. <em>Calculus</em>. The hexagon not only presents a graphic representation of consistency between person and environment, but also the internal relationships of Holland’s theory, in that “ the distances between the types or environments are inversely proportional to the theoretical relationships between them” (1985, p. 5).<br /><br />Holland’s (1985) theory has strong implications for this study for a number of reasons. First, the RIPA was designed using Holland’s types and the process of the assessment instrument identifies the individual’s interest profile by use of the Holland types. Second, the three-letter code developed by Holland is used to search for a pallet of congruent occupations. Third, the Career Exploration Report uses the Holland types and definitions of those types to explain the use of interest inventories in the matching of individual characteristics with occupations for career exploration purposes. Fourth, Holland’s overall concept of matching people of a given interest profile with environments of the same profile is the basic belief behind the use of the RIPA to stimulate career exploration. This research will test these beliefs in an attempt to encourage middle school students to participate in career exploration.<br /><br /><strong>Super’s Theory of Career Development</strong><br />Super’s (1990) theory of career development is a “loosely unified set of theories dealing with specific aspects of career development, taken from developmental, differential, social, personality, and phenomenological psychology and held together by self-concept and learning theory” (p. 199). Super felt that in a sense, there is no “Super theory”, but rather, the synthesizing of ideas and concepts. Though Super himself was continually seeking to more clearly define an accurate model of career development, his theory is considered a well-ordered, highly systematic representation of the process of vocational maturation (Osipow, 1983). Building on the ideas presented by Ginzberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad, and Herma (1951), Super felt the need to formulate a theory that incorporated their ideas and their attempt to formulate a theory.<br /><br />Much of Super’s thinking about how and why careers unfold as they do was derived from Buehler’s (1933) longitudinal studies of work and related lives of men and women, and Davidson and Anderson’s (1937) work on occupational histories of a representative sample of American men (Super, 1983). From Bordin’s (1943) writings, Super took the notion of self-concept which was described by Bordin as an individual’s self-descriptive and self-evaluative thoughts revealed by behavior. Super (1963) said “an individual’s self-concept is his concept of himself, not inferences made by outside others” (p. 5). Super noted that self-concept formation happens during several phases.<br /><br />The first phase of self-concept formation is exploration. Exploration necessary for self-concept development takes place throughout the life span as individuals adapt to their ever changing environments (Super, 1990; Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996). Super defined specific parts of the exploration process as differentiation, identification, role playing, and reality testing with each being an important part of exploration.<br /><br />The second phase of self-concept formation is translation which can occur in three ways. First, adolescent identification with adults may lead to a desire to portray the occupational role filled by an adult, but role playing or reality testing may lead the adolescent to discard the role. Second, role playing or reality testing may allow adolescents to discover that their self-concept and role concept are congenial. Last, adolescents may discover self-attributes that are thought to be important in a certain field of work, therefore leading to conformation that the field of endeavor might be enjoyable and one in which an individual might do well.<br /><br />The third phase of self-concept development is implementation or actualizing. As one’s education is completed, individuals move into their chosen profession for which education and training have been received. Or in the case of individuals who have failed to prepare for a career, a poor occupational self-concept will often be reinforced by low paying jobs or loss of jobs.<br /><br />Evolving over several years, Super (1990) defined fourteen propositions concerning the role of abilities and interests, self-concepts, life stages, and person-situation interactions in his theory. Super’s propositions are:<br /><br />1. People differ in their abilities and personalities, needs, values, interests, traits, and self-concepts.<br /><br />2. People are qualified, by virtue of these characteristics, each for a number of occupations.<br /><br />3. Each occupation requires a characteristic pattern of abilities and personality traits, with tolerances wide enough to allow both some variety of occupations for each individual and some variety of individuals in each occupation.<br /><br />4. Vocational preferences and competencies, the situations in which people live and work, and, hence, their self-concepts change with time and experience, although self-concepts, as products of social learning, are increasingly stable from late adolescence until late maturity, providing some continuity in choice and adjustment.<br /><br />5. This process of change may be summed up in a series of life stages (a maxicycle) characterized as a sequence of growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline, and these stages may in turn be subdivided into the fantasy, tentative, and realistic phases of the exploratory stage and the trial and stable phases of the establishment stage. A small (mini) cycle takes place in transitions from one stage to the next or each time an individual is destabilized by a reduction force, changes in type of manpower needs, illness or injury, or other socioeconomic or personal events. Such unstable or multiple-trial careers involve new growth, reexploration, and reestablishment (recycling).<br /><br />6. The nature of the career pattern-that is, the occupational level attained and the sequence, frequency, and duration of trial and stable jobs-is determined by the individual’s parental, socioeconomic level, mental ability, education, skills, personality characteristics (needs, values, interest trails, and self-concepts), and career maturity and by the opportunities to which he or she is exposed.<br /><br />7. Success in coping with the demands of the environment and of the organism in that context at any given life-career stage depends on the readiness of the individual to cope with these demands (that is, on his or her career maturity), Career maturity is a constellation of physical, psychological, and social characteristics; psychologically, it is both cognitive and affective. It includes the degree of success in coping with the demands of earlier stages and substages of career development, and especially with the most recent.<br /><br />8. Career maturity is a hypothetical construct. Its operational definition is perhaps as difficult to formulate as is that of intelligence, but its history is much briefer and its achievements even less definitive. Contrary to the impressions created by some writers, it does not increase monotonically, and it is not a unitary trait.<br /><br />9. Development through the life stages can be guided, partly by facilitating the maturing of abilities and interests and partly by aiding in reality testing and in the development of self-concepts.<br /><br />10. The process of career development is essentially that of developing and implementing occupational self-concepts. It is a synthesizing and compromising process in which the self-concept is a product of the interaction of inherited aptitudes, physical makeup, opportunity to observe and play various roles, and evaluations of the extent to which the results of role playing meet with the approval of superiors and fellow (interactive learning).<br /><br />11. The process of synthesis of or compromise between individual and social factors, between self-concepts and reality, is one of role playing and of learning from feedback, whether the role is played in fantasy, in the counseling interview, or in such real-life activities as classes, clubs, part-time work, and entry jobs.<br /><br />12. Work satisfactions and life satisfactions depend on the extent to which the individual finds adequate outlets for abilities, needs, values, interests, personality traits, and self-concepts. They depend on establishment in a type of work, a work situation, and a way of life in which one can play the kind of role that growth and exploratory experiences have led one to consider congenial and appropriate.<br /><br />13. The degree of satisfaction people attain from work is proportional to the degree to which they have been able to implement self-concepts.<br /><br />14. Work and occupation provide a focus for personality organization for most men and women, although for some persons this focus is peripheral, incidental, or even non-existent. Then other foci, such as leisure activities and homemaking, may be central. (Social traditions, such as sex-role stereotyping and modeling, racial and ethnic biases, and the opportunity structure, as well as individual differences, are important determinants of preferences for such roles as worker, student, leisurite, homemaker, and citizen.) (pp. 206-208)<br /><br />Super’s (1990) propositions are of particular importance in this study as an explanation of why and how adolescents use information about self as they cycle through the exploration life stage. Super pointed out that interests are learned and as such are manifestations of self-concept. Information about self is needed in the development of self-concept, and it is important that this information be available to the student at the time and in the amount needed. Super pointed out that “if a student or an adult has given little thought to occupational choice or to the unfolding of a career, he or she is not likely to be ready to use aptitude, ability, interest, or value data in planning the next stage or steps in a career” (p. 244). Super prescribed a plan for career exploration, and it called for guiding the adolescents through the exploratory life stage by facilitating the maturing of abilities and interests, by aiding in reality testing, and in the development of self-concepts.<br /><br />Super (1957) also laid out measures of career maturity that provide a yardstick for determining an individual’s progress through the life stages. Super’s five developmental tasks occurring within the exploratory stages are: a) concern with vocational choice, b) increased vocational information, comprehensive and detailed planning, c) increasing consistency of vocational choice, d) the crystallization of traits relevant to vocational choice, and e) increasing wisdom of vocational preferences.<br /><br />Stephen R. Richards, EdD<br /><A HREF="http://www.copyscape.com/"><IMG SRC="http://banners.copyscape.com/images/cs-wh-3d-234x16.gif" ALT="Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape" TITLE="Do not copy content from the page. Plagiarism will be detected by Copyscape." WIDTH="234" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0"></A>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-9843274933046985522008-08-02T18:02:00.009-04:002008-09-04T11:11:11.811-04:00Theories of InterestThis is the fifth article in a series of articles that will discuss the literature on the predominant career theories; history of and theory behind interest inventories; a discussion of the prominent interest inventories; the best use of interest inventories in the career development process; conceptual additions applicable to the study of interest inventories; literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents; and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. All of these articles come from dissertations by Virginia Robinson Richards, EdD, and Stephen Randall Richards, EdD, both copyrighted 1998. These articles are presented as a quick refresher for professional guidance counselors, an introduction to these theories for the non-professional, and as a starting point for students of the many disciplines related to career development theory. The bibliographies are purposely missing. If you choose to copy our work (shame on you), you will at least have to go to the library to find the work and maybe touch the covers of these works. We appologize for the non-academic format, but in a blogging forum it is not possible to keep the work as originally presented.<br /><br />Parsons (1909) was first to identify the importance of one’s interest in selection of an occupation as he wrote about the relationship between how people felt about their occupational activities and their personal adjustment in the selection of an occupation. Parsons suggested self study as the first step in career exploration. By noting the need for one to know one’s self, Parsons gave rise to thought about ways to accomplish the task of accurately measuring interests. This review of literature will discuss prominent interest inventories, theories behind interest inventories, and the best use of inventories in the career development process. The first section presents major theories of interests. The second section will examines theories of career development. In the third section, the history of interest inventories will be reviewed. The fourth section reviews prominent interest inventories. In the fifth section, I will review literature concerning the use of interest inventories to affect change in those completing the inventories. In the final section, studies that address the relationship of career exploration to such independent variables as gender, race, and age will be reviewed.<br /><br /><strong>Theories of Interests</strong><br />Most theories of interests include 5 determinants that vary in importance depending on how theoreticians envision the career development or career choice process (Hansen, 1984). The five determinants of interest include:<br />1. Interests arise from environmental and/or social influences.<br />2. Interests are genetic.<br />3. Interests are personality traits.<br />4. Interests are motives, drives, or needs.<br />5. Interests are expressions of self-concept.<br /><br />Developers of theories of interest see these determinants as either dynamic or static factors. Those who lean toward the dynamic point of view believe vocational interests are the product of many psychological and environmental influences and emphasize the effect of socialization and learning on the development of interest. Theorists who hold the static point of view believe interests are genetically predetermined. A third, less dominant, viewpoint is held by those who work to define an organizational structure for vocational interests without addressing the process by which interests are developed. Holland (1985) was an example of a theorist who was more concerned for what interests are and developing a relational framework for the interests he measured than for how the interests were developed.<br /><br /><strong>Theories of Vocational Interests</strong><br />Roe (1956) and Holland (1985) presented theories of vocational interest that accounted for the structure of interests. Holland’s early work was not concerned so much with the development or acquiring of interest, but rather with the organizational structure and relationship of interests. Hanson (1984) noted that studies of the structure of vocational interests have accomplished three functions: (a) refinement of existing inventories, (b) development of new inventories or sets of scales, and (c) accumulation of construct validity data to identify psychological traits measured by interest inventories.<br /><br />Early in the history of interest measurement, factor analysis was used with Strong’s data to reduce the number of interest variables, to aid in the identification of interest factors, and to aid in the formulation of theories about interests (Hansen, 1984). During a study conducted by Guilford, Christensen, Bond, and Sutton (1954) using new tests they had developed, factor analyses of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank was verified. Guilford et al.’s study is credited with affecting Roe’s (1956) and Holland’s (1959) theories because they found seven interest factors: (a) mechanical, (b) scientific, (c) social welfare, (d) aesthetic expression, (e) clerical, (f) business, and (g) outdoor. Guilford et al.’s (1954) early work supported a belief that vocational interest factors were genuine psychological entities.<br /><br />Roe (1957) was interested in the relevance of occupations to basic needs and considered Maslow’s (1948) list of basic needs in her study, including several family relationship factors (Roe & Lunneborg, 1990). Attempts to confirm Roe’s theory have not been successful (Brown, 1990a; Hagen, 1960), but the work she did in describing the structure of interests has been of considerable use (Hansen, 1984). Roe (1956) defined two dimensions of interests. First, she described a group dimension that focused on work activities based on eight interest factors or categories: (a) service, (b) business contact, (c) organization, (d) technology, (e) outdoor, (f) science, (g) general cultural, and (h) arts and entertainment. Next, she described a level dimension as being divided into 6 categories according to level of responsibility. Roe defined the level of responsibility as not only the number and difficulty of the decisions to be made, but also the number of different kinds of problems that must be addressed. Level also takes into consideration capacity of performance and skill differentiations at each level.<br /><br />Stephen R. Richards, EdD<br /><A HREF="http://www.copyscape.com/"><IMG SRC="http://banners.copyscape.com/images/cs-wh-3d-234x16.gif" ALT="Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape" TITLE="Do not copy content from the page. Plagiarism will be detected by Copyscape." WIDTH="234" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0"></A>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-38448077511211604732008-08-01T22:45:00.013-04:002008-09-04T11:12:05.200-04:00Career Exploration InterventionsThis is the fourth article in a series of articles that will discuss the literature on the predominant career theories; history of and theory behind interest inventories; a discussion of the prominent interest inventories; the best use of interest inventories in the career development process; conceptual additions applicable to the study of interest inventories; the literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents; and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. All of these articles come from dissertations by Virginia Robinson Richards, EdD, and Stephen Randall Richards, EdD, both copyrighted 1998. These articles are presented as a quick refresher for professional guidance counselors, an introduction to these theories for the non-professional, and as a starting point for students of the many disciplines related to career development theory. The bibliographies are purposely missing. If you choose to copy our work (shame on you), you will at least have to go to the library to find the work and maybe touch the covers of these works. We appologize for the non-academic format, but in a blogging forum it is not possible to keep the work as originally presented.<br /><br /><br />Traditionally, counselors have followed the matching of individuals to jobs as originally suggested by Parsons (1909). A variety of aptitude and interest measures were administered to individuals and then interpreted by the counselors with respect to implications for further education or vocational training. Typically, these individuals were self-referred, i.e., choosing to come for counseling. This traditional approach (Osipow et al., 1984) was based on the idea that careers move in a straight line with individuals identifying their personal career paths early in life and remaining in the same content area for the remainder of their working years. But, in our current era, this assumption may no longer be valid.<br /><br />New approaches focus on critical choice points, or life-stage transitions, that most people experience. For example, the period of early adolescence when children transition from elementary school to middle school or from middle school to high school has been frequently identified as a transition point with implications for career choices and education (Osipow et al., 1984; Super, 1990). Herr and Cramer (1979) stated this time frame is a transition period not only between a general and a specialized education, but also between childhood and adolescence; thus, values, personal responsibility, and choice consequences can have real implications for individuals.<br /><br />Studies conducted by the National Science Foundation and the Committee on Financing Higher Education during the 1950s concluded that schools needed to improve their testing of student aptitude and to identify student potential earlier in the students’ educational careers. Schmidt (1993) stated having the knowledge and ability to make informed choices about career direction is essential for self-development and fulfillment in life with school counselors having the responsibility of assisting students with this endeavor.<br /><br />As adolescents enter middle school, exploration of themselves and of their interests should be stressed in order to provide needed experiences and knowledge to begin internalizing and drawing initial conclusions about themselves as they relate to possible life careers (Drier, 1973; Super, 1990). This exploration provides additional information and experiences with key figures that will lead the adolescent to develop interests in some activities and a lack of interest in other activities. Both the planned and unplanned experiences that adolescents have help them further develop a sense of self, setting them on the road to planfulness (Super, 1990) and decision making.<br /><br />Before adolescents are able to plan, information must be provided, motivation in terms of interests and activities must be present, a feeling of control over their own future, and an idea of what that future might be, must exist (Sharf, 1992; Super, 1990). As these concepts are developing within adolescents, they are not yet able to make career choices that are planful, but can express an interest in occupations based on information they have at this point or based on a role model (Sharf, 1992). Ginzberg et al. (1951) determined that by age 11 children cease to make fantasy choices and, in fact, young boys would comment on whether they would or would not want an occupation like their father. Nine-year olds were found to be able to state interests in activities and occupations (Miller, 1977) with girls better able to do this than boys. Phillips (1995) found that 8 to 11-year olds could clearly state what they wanted to be when they grew up and why. Additionally, a study conducted by Blustein (1987) showed community college students with access to many of the antecedents leading to the development of planfulness, such as relevant part-time jobs, extracurricular activities and opportunities for systematic vocational exploration, were better able to maintain effective progress in the their career development.<br /><br />Assessment instruments available for use both in schools and for individual counseling are for the most part not appropriate for use with middle school students. Of the “Big Three” (Borgen, 1986) interest inventories, the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey) is suggested for adolescent use no earlier than grade 11, and the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory no earlier than grade 9. The Self-Directed Search may be used with those as young as age 8, but like the other two, is primarily a list of occupations and occupational activities which may not be easily understood by adolescents. Of other assessment instruments, the Vocational Interest Inventory requires a 12th grade reading level. While the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey and the Career Assessment Inventory can be used with grade 7, both measure in terms of vocational roles and vocational styles.<br /><br />By appropriate interventions, such as guided activities, recognition of achievement, interest and aptitude assessment, and feedback, students can be provided additional experiences that will offer them a strategy for facilitating meaningful career exploration (Gottfredson, 1986; Tennyson, 1973). In a study conducted with high school students, Bloch (1989) stressed the importance of long term career development programs for those who might be at risk for leaving school early. Blustein, Devenis, and Kidney’s (1989) study indicated high school students engaged in exploration activities were more likely to be seeking information relating to their identities. Research conducted by Grotevant and Cooper (1986) with 102 middle-class, high school seniors upheld their hypothesis that the broader knowledge adolescents have about the content of occupations from which they may choose, the better equipped they are to make a choice consistent with their own personality, interest styles, and abilities.<br /><br />Virginia R. Richards, EdD<br /><A HREF="http://www.copyscape.com/"><IMG SRC="http://banners.copyscape.com/images/cs-wh-3d-234x16.gif" ALT="Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape" TITLE="Do not copy content from the page. Plagiarism will be detected by Copyscape." WIDTH="234" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0"></A>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-16531286528407040452008-08-01T22:34:00.016-04:002008-09-04T11:12:23.751-04:00Characteristics of Middle School AdolescenceThis is the third article in a series of articles that will discuss the literature on the predominant career theories; history of and theory behind interest inventories; a discussion of the prominent interest inventories; the best use of interest inventories in the career development process; conceptual additions applicable to the study of interest inventories; literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents; and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. All of these articles come from dissertations by Virginia Robinson Richards, EdD, and Stephen Randall Richards, EdD, both copyrighted 1998. These articles are presented as a quick refresher for professional guidance counselors, an introduction to these theories for the non-professional, and as a starting point for students of the many disciplines related to career development theory. The bibliographies are purposely missing. If you choose to copy our work (shame on you), you will at least have to go to the library to find the work and maybe touch the covers of these works. We appologize for the non-academic format, but in a blogging forum it is not possible to keep the work as originally presented.<br /><br /><br />As children move into the adolescent stage of their lives, society begins to expect and require different kinds of adaptive behaviors from the individuals (Vondracek, 1994) with certain adaptive capacities attained before moving into the next stage (Erikson, 1963). Theories of human development help to organize, give meaning, and call attention to the changes in behavior that occur as a child develops (Biehler & Snowman, 1990). Erikson’s theory (1963) of personality development stated that middle school children are dominated by intellectual curiosity and should be encouraged to make and do things well, to persevere, and should receive praise for trying new activities. Rewarding curiosity through encouragement and praise helps develop an enjoyment of intellectual work and pride in doing things well (Biehler & Snowman, 1990) and, furthermore, encourages vocational exploration (Jordaan, 1963). Encouraging these “exploratory behaviors of any type not damaging to self or others can have eventual positive consequences in terms of career development” stated Sharf (1992, p. 130). Erickson’s theory also stated occupational choice has great impact on adolescents’ sense of identity and that exploration can have a positive impact on the individual (Biehler & Snowman, 1990).<br /><br />In agreement with Erickson, Super (1990) stated that “vocational self-concept is a reflection of the person’s overall self-concept” (p. 286). According to Super (1957), the process of developing a self-concept begins at birth gradually broadening to create an elaborate and differentiated understanding of self as that of being distinct from others. As an on-going part of this evolution, adolescents are beginning to form ideas about work and the relationship that work has with self as they are changed by each new life experience.<br /><br />Havinghurst (1964) held similar ideas concerning development of vocational identity. Havinghurst proposed children between the ages of 5 and 10 years of age begin to identify with a worker, primarily a parent or significant other in their life. From observation of these key figures, children acquire the basic habits of industry. By doing schoolwork and performing household chores, children are learning to differentiate between the appropriate behaviors for both work and play. In acquiring this knowledge and understanding about the world of work, children are developing the capacity of doing work (Havinghurst, 1964).<br /><br />Piaget’s theory (1977) of cognitive development stated that children of middle school age are starting a gradual process of developing their ability to solve problems and to plan as they enter the formal operational stage where they will be able to deal with abstractions, form hypotheses, and engage in mental manipulations (Biehler & Snowman, 1990). Piaget additionally stated that the amount and quality of environmental experiences could alter cognitive development. Adults become key role models (Sharf, 1992) as children learn about the world of work and develop their own self-concepts through imitation of others (Bandura, 1977). People working in those occupations observed by children offer exposure to key figures (Super, 1990) and increased opportunities for modeling observed behaviors occurs as the children acquire information about self, others, and occupations (Sharf, 1992).<br /><br />This period of time, adolescence, that middle school students are embarking upon is a period of orientation, a time to decide on goals and directions for the future, a time to face and come to terms with various opportunities and restrictions that their lives may offer. Influences from the various contexts in which they function, such as school, home, and the community, serve to bring together certain childhood aspirations and practical expectations as these young people begin to think more realistically about where their future paths might lead (Elder et al, 1994).<br /><br /><strong>Environmental factors</strong>. Environmental factors such as socio-economic conditions of family and community; sexual stereotyping within family, community, and education; conditions of residence, such as rural versus urban; and availability of interventional materials serve as intervening factors to slow down or block out exploratory behaviors of adolescents. Gottfredson (1986) suggested these interventional risk factors while particularly problematic for certain groups, i.e., gender or ethnic groups, may also be factors limiting the career development of any individual.<br /><br />“Limitations upon career development by restricted social class horizons” (Herr & Swails, 1973, p. 55) can result from limited avenues of career choice or limitations upon the knowledge of opportunities available to the individual. Individuals cannot choose or prepare for that about which they do not know (Herr & Swails). Because individuals are often denied access to certain situations, they may be forced to rely on other sources of information. But socioeconomic status often precludes participation in certain school and extracurricular activities, and also may influence the type of occupations the individual may become “acquainted with through observation, hearsay, and contact with other adults (usually located at the same level as the father’s occupation)” (Jordaan, 1963, p. 76). In agreement, Hendry et al. (1994) stated that “young people belonging to families with higher socioeconomic status are exposed to different types of role models than working-class young people” (p.63).<br /><br />Hannah and Kahn (1989) reported a tendency for male students of all socio-economic levels to choose male-dominated fields, while females’ choices differed according to socio-economic status, i.e., choosing a male-dominated occupation was more common for females of high than low socio-economic status. While Goodale and Hall (1976) suggested that parental interest and support seem to moderate the relationship of socio-economic status to career achievement, they also pointed out that sons are likely to “inherit” their fathers’ occupational levels with socio-economic status being one of the most consistent predictors of occupational level achieved by males, whereby higher family socio-economic status is related to higher occupational levels in sons, and sons of lower-class backgrounds achieve lower occupational levels (Brown, 1970). Hannah and Kahn (1989) found that students from higher social classes held higher aspirations than did lower-class youngsters.<br /><br />Nilsen (1971) used the term “apron syndrome” to refer to pictures in children’s textbooks showing women in aprons while Scott (1981) reported girls shown as passive and boys as problem solvers in textbooks. Key figures in school often reflect the same structure with women as teachers and men as administrators (Betz & Fitzgerald, 1987). Frost and Diamond (1978) found that children in grades 4, 5, and 6, who stereotyped children’s jobs such as baby-sitter and newspaper person also stereotyped adult occupations with boys specifying a narrower range of occupations than did girls. Henderson, Hesketh, and Tuffin (1995) found children exhibit gender-type preferences between ages 3 and 5 with boys exhibiting stronger gender typing than girls supporting Betz and Fitzgerald’s (1987) research showing children gender-stereotype as early as age 2 with boys again exhibiting stronger gender typing than girls.<br /><br />Gottfredson (1981) viewed stereotyping by gender as having serious restrictive effects on girls’ aspirations, but Betz and Fitzgerald (1987) and Henderson et al.’s (1995) research would suggest equally or more serious restrictions on young boys aspirations. In studies of working adults (Leung & Harmon, 1990), college (Betz, Heesacker, Shuttleworth, 1990), high school (Hannah & Kahn, 1989), and elementary school students (Henderson, Hesketh, & Tuffin, 1988), women were found to make more cross-gender occupational choices than men with men overwhelmingly avoiding cross-sex work.<br /><br />Rojewski (1995) observed that “the rural environment often raises barriers to individual career development and provides limited career alternatives” (p. 35). Lam, Chan, Parker, and Carter (1987) found individuals living in rural areas had tendencies toward economic, educational and vocational disparities when compared with urban individuals. Rojewski (1993) determined rural youth contend with geographic isolation, fewer employment opportunities, lack of economic vitality, fewer role models, and lower educational and vocational achievement. Sewell and Orenstein (1965) found in general, youth reared on farms, in rural, non-farm areas, or small cities aspired to lower-prestige and lower-paid occupations than did youth raised in larger communities with the population density affecting aspiration levels and occupational attainment. Rich (1979) stated that since occupational aspirations and choice are determined by the occupational knowledge base, rural youth possibly do not have the knowledge necessary to make career choices that are as varied and optimal as those of urban youth.<br /><br />Virginia R. Richards, EdD<br /><A HREF="http://www.copyscape.com/"><IMG SRC="http://banners.copyscape.com/images/cs-wh-3d-234x16.gif" ALT="Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape" TITLE="Do not copy content from the page. Plagiarism will be detected by Copyscape." WIDTH="234" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0"></A>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-68943846414235158872008-08-01T22:23:00.011-04:002008-09-04T11:12:46.263-04:00History of and Theory Behind Interest InventoriesThis is the second article of a series of articles that will discuss the literature on the predominant career theories; history of and theory behind interest inventories; a discussion of the prominent interest inventories; the best use of interest inventories in the career development process; conceptual additions applicable to the study of interest inventories; literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents; and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. All of these articles come from dissertations by Virginia Robinson Richards, EdD, and Stephen Randall Richards, EdD, both copyrighted 1998. These articles are presented as a quick refresher for professional guidance counselors, an introduction to these theories for the non-professional, and as a starting point for students of the many disciplines related to career development theory. The bibliographies are purposely missing. If you choose to copy our work (shame on you), you will at least have to go to the library to find the work and maybe touch the covers of these works. We appologize for the non-academic format, but in a blogging forum it is not possible to keep the work as originally presented.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Interest Inventory Developmental History</strong><br />Parsons (1909), a pioneer in vocational guidance, and other counselors working with him in Boston around the turn of the century saw a strong need for individual analysis, individual occupational study, and counselors who were able to share with the counselee the interpretative activities necessary for successful vocational guidance, but the “lack of adequate techniques of individual analysis meant that most of that work relied on self-analysis” (Super, 1942, p. 2). Establishing the Vocations Bureau in Boston, Parsons chose to help adolescents to identify their capabilities and to choose jobs with reasonable success expectations. In order to accomplish this, Parsons suggested young people read biographies, observe workers on the job, and examine then-existing occupational descriptions.<br /><br />Early researchers such as Alfred Binet, Arthur Otis, and Lewis Terman began studying individual differences in intelligence and developing tests to measure these differences prior to World War I (Super, 1983). Because of the need to classify large numbers of new entrants into the Army and to assign them to appropriate types of military jobs, the Army built on previous research and pioneered the use of intelligence testing and developed special aptitude tests. Those technologists, interested in providing tools for practitioners who were involved in these efforts, led the way in the development of instruments and methods and their use in personnel selection, training, and vocational counseling (Super, 1981).<br /><br />Between 1935-40, the Minnesota Employment Stabilization Research Institute (MESRI), which developed psychological tests and methods for the assessment of the abilities and interests of the unemployed, studied the reeducation potential and problems faced by the unemployed and demonstrated methods of retraining and reeducation. Super (1983) finds the result of MESRI’s work to be the creation of what became known as occupational ability patterns (profiles) providing evidence of the feasibility of measuring many dimensions of individual differences and using these in vocational guidance and placement.<br /><br />From the impetus of the Minnesota work came the development of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT; U.S. Department of Labor, 1940) which presented data concerning the working conditions, worker requirements, and employment opportunities in various occupations. The DOT, General Aptitude Test Battery (Dvorak, 1947), and the Occupational Outlook Handbook, (U.S. Department of Labor, 1949) provided badly needed tools to counselors who had been “handicapped by many (previous) information voids” (Srebalus et al., 1982). Available to defense contractors and the military at the end of the Depression era, these new tools provided for classification and assignment of men and women gearing up for the World War II effort.<br /><br />As World War II ended, other organizations sprang up, evolved, and gained momentum. The pre-World War II Cooperative Test Service became the Educational Testing Service with a focus on testing and providing guidance for college admissions (Super, 1983). With similar objectives of testing and guidance, the American College Testing program provided the launching pad for John Holland in the development of his theory of occupational choice as a process of matching one’s self with a job situation (Holland, 1973). Career counselors were now able to rely on tests and measurement devices and a library of occupational information with both references for clients and technical manuals for counselor use (Srebalus et al., 1982) in their counseling efforts.<br /><br />The early 1950s brought new and important contributors to the field of career development and counseling, such as Eli Ginzberg (Ginzberg et al.,1951), Anne Roe (1956), and Donald Super (1957). These theoreticians began to look at psychological variables, such as the process of human development, and how these variables affect career choice. Whereas prior to this time, vocational decisions had been considered a one-time decision made in adolescence, now emphasis shifted to viewing a vocational decision in the context of the person’s developmental history. These radical new ideas broke drastically from the traditional trait and factor theory.<br /><br /><strong>Major Interest Inventories</strong><br />Although not all career theorists have developed specific instruments for use within their theories, most consider interest inventories an integral tool in the total picture of career development (Campbell & Hansen, 1981; Holland, 1979) to be “interpreted in the context of a wide variety of information about the test taker” (Gottfredson, 1986, p. 136). Watkins and Hackett (1995) stated the three interest inventories receiving the most attention and use by counseling psychologists today include the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (Hansen, 1991), the Self-Directed Search (Holland, 1985b), and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (Kuder & Zytowski, 1991).<br /><br /><strong>Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory</strong><br />Based on the assumption that certain interests are common to various groups, thereby distinguishing them from other groups, a graduate seminar in 1920 led by C. S. Yoakum at The Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh developed a 1000-item pool in an attempt to represent the entire domain of interests (Hansen, 1990). This research provided Edward K. Strong with ideas on the measurement of interests leading to his development of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) which placed “the measurement of interests for vocational counseling on technical and usage levels approaching those of the measurement of intelligence and aptitudes” (Darley & Hagenah, 1955). Strong systematically collected large amounts of test data showing that people in different occupations can be distinguished from each other by the simple procedure of asking them to check their likes and dislikes on a long checklist (Campbell & Hansen, 1981; Super, 1942).<br /><br />Strong developed his inventory by means of a strictly empirical procedure, making few psychological assumptions and developing his scoring formulas on the basis of correlations of responses with criteria (Cronbach, 1949). Modifying the initial empirical methods of differentiating occupations one from another by using factor analysis, Strong then developed a method of identifying items within the interest tests to distinguish characteristics of specific occupations from those of people in general (Hansen, 1990). Responses to items that members of an occupation have in common constitute normative scales on which items are internally consistent or homogeneous only for the occupational group which they differentiate, thereby allowing counselors to report the degree to which the test-taker has interests similar to those of persons in a given occupation (Zytowski, 1973a).<br /><br />Strong’s initial interest inventory consisted of a list of four hundred occupations, school subjects, hobbies, types of activities, personal characteristics, and similar items with the examinee indicating like, dislike, or indifference to each activity and whether or not the identified characteristic was possessed. Results were then compared to the responses of other persons known to have achieved success in a given occupation. Strong’s normative scales compared interests of an individual with those of persons in a particular occupation or, perhaps, a college major (Campbell & Hansen, 1981; Super, 1942). Campbell and Hansen (1981) maintained while the SVIB “cannot tell anyone where he will succeed . . . (it can) act as a mirror to reflect back the individual’s interests in a manner allowing comparison of his likes and dislikes to those in individuals in specified occupations . . . (where he is) likely to find job satisfaction” (p. 2).<br /><br />Strong’s work was carried out at Stanford University, but shortly before his death arrangements were made to move to the University of Minnesota because of the presence of Dr. Kenneth Clark, Chairman of the Psychology Department, Dr. Ralph Berdie, Director of the Student Counseling Bureau, and Dr. David P. Campbell. Formally established as the Center of Interest Measurement Research, it was under the direction of Dr. Campbell who attempted to maintain a “strictly empirical orientation toward the SVII” (Campbell & Hansen, 1981, p. 365).<br /><br />The SVIB, published in 1927, has been revised twice for men (1938 and 1966). The women’s SVIB, first published in 1933 and revised twice (1946 and 1969), is thought to be psychometrically superior to the men’s form because new techniques and analyses were tried with the men’s form, evaluated, and then modifications were made on the women’s revision. Renamed the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) in 1974, the choice was made to merge the female and male inventories, marking the beginning of an effort to provide equal career exploration opportunities for both women and men (Hansen, 1986). The SCII later underwent revision in 1981 and again in 1986 when SVIB items were selected to represent each of Holland’s personality types. The General Occupational Themes were broadened with the emphasis shifting from offering predominantly professionally oriented occupations to offering a mix of professional occupations along with nonprofessional or vocational-technical, thus, increasing the utility of the inventory to include those with a wider range of occupational and educational goals. Hackett and Watkins (1995) observed that the 1985 revision to renorm the occupational samples, to increase the number of occupational scales, and to decrease the gender restrictiveness has been successful.<br /><br />Used widely with a varied clientele, including high school and college students, cross-cultural populations, and minorities, in a variety of settings, including educational, business, and rehabilitation, the SCII has also been used extensively in research efforts (Hansen, 1986). While Campbell and Hansen (1981) purported: “From its inception in 1927, the Strong Vocational Interest Blank was an empirical, atheoretical instrument” (p. 28), Strong’s development of assessment procedures cannot be ignored as the SVIB and SCII are among the most widely used interest inventories today and still have a "profound impact on interest measurement" (Walsh & Osipow, 1986, p. vii).<br /><br /><strong>Self-Directed Search</strong><br />The <em>Self-Directed Search</em> <em>(SDS)</em> (Holland & Rayman, 1986) was developed for two purposes: to increase the number of people a counselor could successfully work with, and to provide vocational counseling to those who do not have, or who do not wish to have, access to a counselor. First published in 1971 and revised in 1977 and 1985, the SDS provides the test taker an assessment booklet which, when filled out, yields a hierarchical three-letter classification code with the first letter representing the strongest preference for a particular personality type. The three-letter code is then used in conjunction with the Occupations Finder to locate suitable occupations, simulating what a person and a counselor might do together over a period of several interviews. By eliminating unnecessary individual counseling and reducing the time needed to proctor, mail, score, and interpret interest inventories, counselors could spend more time with those who need individual counseling.<br /><br />Based on Holland’s (1985) theory of career choice, the SDS was developed using the hypothesis that certain characteristics, i.e., competencies, preferred activities and self-ratings of abilities, of the individual as well as vocational interests are important in the vocational choice process (Campbell, 1988). Identified by Holland’s research (1985), six personality types, i.e., realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional, serve as the basis to relate a person’s self-assessment of abilities and interests to appropriate occupations. Also based on Holland’s (1985) theory is the concept that a relationship exists between the person’s characteristics and a work environment, and that individuals will achieve greater success, satisfaction, and stability in occupations where the work environment fits their personality. Thus, the SDS can be used in identifying appropriate career choices.<br /><br />Holland and Rayman (1986) considered the SDS to be an advance in interest assessment and vocational treatment for several reasons:<br />1. A person’s vocational aspirations, interests, competencies, and self-rated abilities are organized by a particular theory and related to an occupational classification system using the same theory.<br />2. Self-administered, self-scored, and self-interpreted, the SDS can be used with or without a counselor.<br />3. An ideal innovation, the SDS is an inexpensive assessment-intervention requiring no special training and is compatible with other existing career material.<br />4. The theoretical base of the SDS demonstrates that long term research and development support continued and constructive revisions.<br />5. An “open” inventory, the undisguised groupings of items on the SDS scales communicate the structure of vocational interests to encourage the test taker to think about work and personal characteristics in a systematic way.<br />6. The SDS and its related theory “represent a technological-theoretical advance” because they provide an “organization for mapping and understanding the massive information about people and occupations and the relation of one to the other” (p. 58).<br /><br />The SDS consists of an Assessment Booklet, an Occupations Finder, and an interpretative booklet “Understanding Yourself and Your Career”. Developed to counter complaints that the SDS was not as self-interpreting as promised, the booklet was an effort to permit understanding of the theory behind the SDS rather than a simple description of the personality types (Holland & Rayman, 1986). The booklet also encouraged test takers to further investigate the jobs identified as appropriate and to view this list of jobs as only suggestions. Consulting with a counselor is also suggested.<br /><br />The Assessment Booklet includes six scales with 38 items per scale in each of three categories: activities, competencies, and occupations, ability ratings in 6 areas, and 8 lines on which to list occupational daydreams, careers the test takers have daydreamed about, and those the test takers have discussed with others. The test taker then scores the responses given and calculates 6 summary scores. Using the summary scores, the test taker obtains a three-letter code determined by the three highest summary scores. The summary code is then used to locate appropriate occupational options listed in the Occupations Finder which contains 1,156 occupations (Holland & Rayman, 1986).<br /><br />During revisions, additional job titles have been added to the Occupations Finder to make the list more reflective of current occupations. Changes have been made in an attempt to diminish sex differences in responses to the scales by altering selected items on the Occupations Scale. Devised for poor readers, Form E, i.e., Easy, (1979) was a modification of the SDS lowering the reading level several grade levels, i.e., Grade 4, below the standard form, i.e., Grade 8, with the scoring procedure yielding a two-letter rather than a three-letter code. Form E’s Occupations Finder, renamed Job Finder, has been modified to reflect the use of the two-letter rather than three-letter codes (Campbell, 1988; Holland & Rayman, 1986).<br /><br />Campbell (1988) and Manuele-Adkins (1989) expressed concern about the number of scoring errors made by test takers, the inconsistent use of Holland’s typology across sections of the measure, and questions about test fairness because of the use of raw rather than normed scores. Using high school students as a research population, Zener & Schnuelle (1976) compared the SDS, the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), and no treatment. Students taking the SDS or VPI evaluated the inventories as positive, were satisfied with their current occupational choice, were considering more occupational alternatives than the control group, and the SDS group had less need to see a counselor. Pallas, Dahmann, Gucer, and Holland (1983) reported similar findings with high school and college students as well as workers. Additionally, Power, Holland, Daiger, and Takai (1979) found test takers with a clear sense of vocational identity found the experience reassuring.<br /><br /><strong>Kuder Preference Record-Kuder Occupational Interest Survey</strong><br />G. Frederic Kuder (1977) wanted to help young people enter satisfying careers, and as such, stated interests were the logical starting point when searching for a suitable occupation and would provide a way for individuals to “narrow prospects.” As a means of providing this starting point, Kuder developed a “forced-choice” inventory with the choices being everyday activities which Kuder felt almost everyone would be familiar. Kuder purported occupational titles or occupational activities specific to jobs were inappropriate when placed in interest inventories intended for the use of young adolescents with limited experience. On Kuder’s interest inventories, the test taker marks the preferred choice and least preferred choice, leaving the third unmarked. The occupational interpretation is made by identifying the two highest scores in the profile and referring to a group of occupations for which those are relevant. The low-interest scores are also important, as these might be activities the person would dislike performing.<br /><br />Kuder's initial instrument, <em>Kuder Preference Record (KPR),</em> was developed in 1938 to “indicate interests in a small number of broad areas rather than specific occupations” (Hansen, 1984, p. 110). Beginning with factor analysis of single items in order to determine clusters of interests, Kuder identified ten clusters of occupational interests with a cluster being a group of items with substantial correlations with each other, i.e., a homogeneous scale. As the KPR was based on nonempirical evidence, early usage of the inventory was based on inference rather than evidence of predictive validity. Validity evidence has been gathered (Cronbach, 1949) as time has passed.<br /><br />The <em>Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (KOIS),</em> introduced in 1966 with revisions in 1979 and 1985, was empirically keyed (Osipow, Walsh, & Tosi, 1984) and indicated to which occupational groups an individual was most similar. As was the KPR, the KOIS is a forced-choice inventory of one hundred items listing three activities from which to select most and least preferred activities. Responses are compared with those of men in a number of different occupations with an index of similarity reported on a profile. Scores are determined by means of a lambda score which is a ratio between the highest correlation individuals could receive on each occupational scale and the correlation they actually obtained between their responses and the responses of the occupational group (Zytowski, 1973b). The homogeneous scales allow the test taker to see the similarity to both the general and unique interests within the occupational group, whereas the SVIB-SCII shows only similarity to the specific interests of the occupational group itself. The KOIS also rank orders the occupations with which the test taker shows the greatest similarity (Zytowski & Borgen, 1983).<br /><br />Although still considered one of the “Big Three” of interest inventories (Borgen, 1986) in use today, the KOIS has not seen the “pace of development that marked the earlier years of Kuder's inventories” (Zytowski & Kuder, 1986, p. 52). While good reliability and validity data has been reported, the KOIS has been criticized for its limited predictive validity; concurrent validity data availability for only 30 criterion groups; and inclusion of more male-dominated (65) than female-dominated (44) occupational scales (Herr, 1989; Jepsen, 1988).<br /><br /><strong>Other Interest Inventories in Use</strong><br />Many additional inventories have been developed since the 1950s based on theorizing done by Ginzberg et al.(1951), Roe (1956), Holland (1985), or Super (1990). We have come far from the days when only expressed ideas were used to foretell a youngster’s future. According to Tittle and Zytowski, in 1978 approximately 3,500,000 interest inventories were administered while American College Testing estimated the use of their UNIACT programs reached 4.2 million persons in 1994 (Prediger & Swaney, 1995).<br /><br /><strong>Harrington and O’Shea career decision making system.</strong> First published in 1976 and revised in 1978, 1980, and 1982, the <em>Career Decision Making System</em> (CDMS) (Harrington & O’Shea, 1982) contains five self-report modules, i.e., stated occupational preferences, subject preferences, future plans, job values, and abilities. The 120-item interest inventory is a list of work-task activities and occupations using a like, can’t decide, or dislike response format. The five modules plus the interest inventory produces six raw scores that can range from 0 to 20 for each scale and are used to determine the examinee’s two point codes. While based on Holland (1973) typology, the scales use somewhat different names, i.e., Crafts, Scientific, The Arts, Social, Business, and Clerical. The paper-pencil version is a multiple page booklet and is also available in a computer version. Research has been conducted by Kapes and Vansickle (1992), O’Shea (1987), Rearden and Loughead (1988), and Wise and Plake (1990) regarding the reliability of the new computer version of the CDMS with the standard version.<br /><br /><strong>Career assessment inventory.</strong> Considered by Borgen (1986) to be a “clone” of the <em>Strong Interest Inventory</em> although designed to benefit those students with no college plans in their future, the original purpose of <em>The Career Assessment Inventory</em> (CAI) (Johansson, 1975) was to assess the vocational interests of individuals planning to pursue occupations consistent with a technical school, business school, or subprofessional training. Revised in 1982 and again in 1986, <em>The Career Assessment Inventory-Enhanced Version</em> <em>(CAI-EV)</em> (Johansson, 1986) has now been expanded to include some professional level interests.<br /><br />The CAI-EV has three tiers of scales: Occupational scales, Basic Interest Area Scales, and General Theme scales. Using a similar test booklet to the SII, the CAI-EV consists of 370 items and takes about 30-40 minutes to complete. Totally computer-scored, the CAI-EV provides a narrative report (Hackett & Watkins, 1995) to the test taker.<br /><br />Bauernfiend (1989) and McCabe (1988) considered the CAI-EV to have psychometric properties as good as the SCII, but Lohnes (1982) expressed grave concerns about the absence of predictive validities. Wegner (1992) also expressed concern about validity, but in its use with professionally oriented clients, not the nonprofessional for which the CAI-EV was originally designed.<br /><br /><strong>Jackson vocational interest survey</strong>. Borgen (1986) considered the <em>Jackson Personality Inventory</em> to be “state-of-the-art psychometrics” (p. 93), particularly Jackson’s use of forced-choice formats and complex item selection techniques that would control for a variety of response biases. Revised in 1977 to become the <em>Jackson Vocational Interest Survey</em> <em>(JVIS),</em> Jackson intended the JVIS not only for counseling purposes but also as a “tool for theorizing and conceptualizing interests as constructs” (Borgen, 1986, p. 94).<br /><br />The JVIS incorporates a mix of scale types, from homogeneous scales to measures of occupational similarity. Consisting of 289 item pairs, the JVIS provides work-style preference, work-role preference, and general-interest pattern information to high school and college-age young adults and to adults in career planning (Hackett & Watkins, 1995). Incorporating many of the attractive features of the “Big Three” inventories, the JVIS is a forced-choice format, provides an occupational taxonomy, and is computer-scored, providing interest profiles and narratives linked to occupational classifications (Borgen, 1986).<br /><br />Criticism of the JVIS has come from Jepsen (1992a), Brown (1989), and Davidshofer (1988) who stressed limited norm group descriptions, sparse theoretical background, and lack of predictive validity. Considered by Shephard (1989) to be the most serious limitation of the JVIS is that of “extremely narrow test norms and contents at least 10 years old” (p. 404).<br /><br /><strong>Vocational interest inventory.</strong> While working with Anne Roe, Lunneborg began looking at the development of an interest inventory, culminating with the <em>Vocational Interest Inventory</em> <em>(VII)</em> in 1981 (Lunneborg, 1981), but no revisions have been forthcoming as in other inventories in use today. Grounded in Roe’s (1956) psychology of occupations, the VII uses a predictive design that allows high school students to compare themselves with students of the same age who later entered the same college majors as they might be considering. Lunneborg strove to create an inventory with minimal sex restrictiveness, excluding items with gender differences, and encouraging exploration by both sexes in nontraditional occupational roles. Additionally, the VII is composed of 112 forced-choice items, with half occupational items and half activities. Roe and Lunneborg (1990) stated this particular format of forced-choices is especially helpful with adolescents who have not crystallized their interests.<br /><br />Lunneborg chose to use longitudinal data collection, inventorying twenty-six thousand high school juniors and seniors in Washington state and then following them into college majors and through graduation, enabling the high school junior now using the VII to ask “To what successful graduating class am I most similar?” This type of data collection is vastly different from the traditional approach of identifying adults in given occupations, then comparing the inventoried responses of young people to those already working in the different occupations, but may be actually closer to the true predictive purpose of interest inventories (Borgen, 1986). Lunneborg’s use of this longitudinal data has been criticized (Hackett & Watkins, 1995) because of its limited sample size and perspective since all those sampled were from Washington state.<br /><br /><strong>Unisex edition of the ACT interest inventory.</strong> The Unisex edition of the American College Testing (ACT) Interest Inventory (Lamb & Prediger, 1981) is a major component in a comprehensive, integrated approach to career planning known as UNIACT. The <em>ACT Guidance Profile</em> was developed under the guidance of John Holland while working at ACT and replaced in 1971 with the <em>ACT Interest Inventory</em>. Introduced in 1977 and revised in 1989, UNIACT, a four program system, assesses academic development and supports career exploration and planning on three levels, i.e., grades 8-12, college students, and adults. Because of the influence of Holland, scores obtained using UNIACT parallel Holland’s six interest personality types although UNIACT’s scales use different names: Business Contact (enterprising), Business Operations (conventional), Technical (realistic), Science (investigative), Arts (artistic), and Social Service (social).<br /><br />Although a <em>visual occupational map</em> was suggested by Cole, Whitney, and Holland (1971), Holland continued to use the three-letter codes. Prediger (1982) chose to build on this idea by introducing two underlying dimensions to Holland’s hexagon; working with data, e.g., facts, versus ideas, e.g., theories, and working with people, e.g., services, versus working with things, e.g., machines. Another addition was the ACT World-of-Work Map (Prediger, 1976), allowing the Holland three-letter code to be used in defining a person’s location within a region of the Map. The World-of-Work Map is divided into 12 regions with each representing a different mix of data, ideas, people, and things. Occupational groups, or job families, are located within these regions. Persons are encouraged to look not only at job families located in their region, but adjacent to their region.<br /><br />The interest inventory, UNIACT, contains 90 test items which emphasize work-relevant activities, e.g., fix a toy, conduct a meeting, with a three-choice response format, i.e., like, indifferent, dislike. Activities are used because the more help people need with career planning, the less likely they are to have knowledge about various occupations (Kuder, 1977). The use of activities is also intended to minimize the effects of response style, i.e., choosing like more often than other responses. Completion of the test typically takes 10 to 15 minutes. Research conducted by Prediger (1981; 1982) and Prediger and Van Sickle (1992) supported the bipolar data/ideas and things/people work task dimensions used within the UNIACT. This use of work task dimensions provides a practical way to locate persons and occupations on Holland’s (1985) hexagon by means of locating coordinate points on the hexagon’s two planes. Prediger (1982) showed that the interests of workers, determined from mean interest scores for 563 occupations, are substantially related to their work tasks as determined by United States Department of Labor job analysis ratings. Usually only one or two of the basic work tasks capture the primary nature of an occupation, therefore, a vocational research psychologist may work with data, but the primary purpose is not to produce data but to apply scientific knowledge to the data, locating this occupation in the ideas region. Swaney’s (1995) work describes UNIACT’s age-graded nationally representative norm groups and also provides results from 14 criterion-related validity studies which indicate the validity of UNIACT’s gender-balanced interest scores are at least as high as those of gender-restrictive raw scores. Kifer (1985), in reviewing the UNIACT, stated “there is a sufficient amount of technical evidence about UNIACT to make me believe that it is as good as its principal competitors” (p. 35).<br /><br />Virginia R. Richards, EdD<br /><A HREF="http://www.copyscape.com/"><IMG SRC="http://banners.copyscape.com/images/cs-wh-3d-234x16.gif" ALT="Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape" TITLE="Do not copy content from the page. Plagiarism will be detected by Copyscape." WIDTH="234" HEIGHT="16" BORDER="0"></A>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-59380591040501415052008-07-31T16:57:00.021-04:002008-08-03T15:53:36.660-04:00Career Development LiteratureThis is the first in a series of articles that will discuss the literature on the predominant career theories; history of and theory behind interest inventories, a discussion of the prominent interest inventories, and the best use of interest inventories in the career development process; conceptual additions applicable to the study of interest inventories; and the literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. All of these articles come from dissertations by Virginia Robinson Richards, EdD, and Stephen Randall Richards, EdD, both copyrighted 1998. These articles are presented as a quick refresher for professional guidance counselors, an introduction to these theories for the non-professional, and as a starting point for students of the many disciplines related to career development theory. The bibliographies are purposely missing. If you choose to copy our work (shame on you), you will at least have to go to the library to find the work and maybe touch the covers of these works. We appologize for the non-academic format, but in a blogging forum it is not possible to keep the work as originally presented.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Predominant Career Theories</strong><br />With the advent of technology, which accelerated tremendously during this century, many new and different jobs began to develop. People began to look at the necessity of shifing workers from the occupations of thier parents to the new occupations required in the current workplace. Early in the 20th century, training was relatively casual and individuals had or made little investment in preparation for the trades they entered. Around the time of World Wars I and II, vocational counselors, psychologists, and others interested in personal development and growth began to develop theories that would enable individuals to focus their attention on career decisionmaking (Srebalus, Marinelli, & Messing, 1982).<br /><br /><br /><strong>Personality Development Theory</strong><br /><br />Trained as a clinical psychologist, Anne Roe began her development of a theory of personality caeer choices through observation of artists and research scientists focusing on "possible relatioships between occupational behavior (not just choice) and personality" (Roe & Lunneborg, 1990, p. 68). In looking at previous studies, Roe identified and cateforized a list of needs involving persons' feelings concerning work. Common threads in these studies were bodily well-being, a need for food, a need for activity, and a need for self-realization through work. Roe (1956) agreed that people do not work just to earn a living but that "much more is involved in and expected of a job than a pay check" (p. 23). From these studies and her own work, Roe determined that one's occupation forms a major focus through thoughts and activities. As part of her own theory, Roe turned to Maslow's (1948) hierarchy of needs including physiological needs, safety needs, need for belongingness and love, need for importance, respect, self-esteem, independence, need for information, need for undestanding, need for bearty, and a need for self-actualization. Maslow's theory indicated people feel more urgency to satisfy the basic needs of food, shelter, and safety before they are capable of expressing needs on the higher levels, and, consequently, these other needs remain unachievable to the average individual until those basic needs are satisfied. Roe (1956) decided her use of Maslow's hierarchy was fairly obvious, I.E., "in our society there is no single situation which is potentially so capable of giving some satisfaction at all levels of basic needs as is the occupation" (p. 29) of the person involved.<br /><br /><br />Roe (1956) emphasized the interaction of heredity and environment as the focus of her work. Roe (Sharf, 1992) decided intelligence and temperament were limited in development by heredity, but interests and aptitudes tended to be determined by satisfaction or frustration through how well individual needs are fulfilled during interactions with others. Needs that are easily satisfied will not become motivators, but needs which are difficult to satisfy, or frustrated, may indeed become motivators. For example, a person may seek information about a certain subject. If that subject is introduced during school class time, the student may develop further interest if information is presented in such a way as to stimulate that interest, but if the student becomes frustrated by inability to grasp the information or difficulty with absorption of the information, interest may not develop. If satisfied with the effort made, the student will work harder to learn more about the subject. If rewarded when meeting this inmost need, the student may be further motivated by seeking additional praise or higher grades.<br /><br /><br />General cheldhood development theory led Roe (1956) to theorize the psychological climate of the home: i.w., concentration on the child, avoidance of the child, or acceptance of the child brings about certain types of personalities within the child. Parental concentration on the child can be <em>overprotection</em> which encourages dependence within the child, restricting curiosity and exploration; or <em>overdemand</em> from the child which seeks perfection and sets high standards of behavior. Parental avoidance of the child can be <em>emotional rejection</em> by lack of love and affection or by criticism; or <em>neglect</em> when the child is ignored due to parental concern with their own affairs, work, other children, and such. Parental acceptance of the child can be <em>casual</em> in which a minimum of love is offered; or <em>loving</em> with a warmer attitude while not fostering dependency. Roe further stated the parental attitudes of concentration or avoidance within homes caused children to be self-centered, aware of others' views of themselves. These same children grow to be people who wish to be in positions of strength when dealing with others and may develop aggressive or defensive attitudes toward others, preferring to deal with data or things in their choice of occupations rather than people. Children growing up in accepting homes are not as likely to be aggressive or defensive, but more interested in working with people rather than data or things in their occupations (Roe, 1956). In support of Roe, Dawis (1997) stated that needs interacting with parent/child practices and attitudes produce a basic personality orientation, e.i., toward persons or toward nonpersons, influencing the development of the work personality and vocational behavior of the individual.<br /><br /><br />Based on this, Roe's theory (Osipow, 1973, Walsh & Osipow, 1983; Roe, 1956; Roe & Lunneborg, 1990) posited:<br />1. Limits of potential development are set by genetic inheritance, including intellectual abilities, temperament, interests, and abilities.<br />2. General cultural background and socioeconomic position of the family affect the unique experiences of the individual.<br />3. Individual experiences which are governed by involuntary attention determine the pattern of development of interests, attitudes, and other personality variables that have not been genetically controlled.<br />a. Early satisfactions and frustrations as evidenced by the family situation, particularly relations with the parents; i.e., overprotectiveness; avoidance or acceptance of the child are evidence of individual experiences.<br />b. Degrees of needs satisfaction determine which of Maslow’s needs will become the strongest motivators.<br />4. The eventual pattern of psychic energies; i.e., attention-directed, is the major determinant of interests.<br />5. The intensity with which an individual feels (Maslowian) needs and the satisfying of these needs determine the degree of motivation to accomplish.<br /><br />Dissatisfied with available classifications of occupations, Roe (1956) also developed a listing of eight occupational groups including service, business contact, organization, technology, outdoor, science, general culture and arts/entertainment. These groups were further divided into six levels based on degree of responsibility, capability, and skill needed to perform at each level, ranging from unskilled to professional and managerial levels.<br /><br />Descriptive research conducted by Roe on artists and research scientists prior to her theory development was “primarily a series of investigations into personality characteristics, background factors, aptitude, and intellectual abilities as theory related to vocational choice” (Osipow, 1973, p. 24). Brown (1990b) felt Roe demonstrated little interest in practical application of her own ideas, doing little research following pronouncement of her theory. Brown, Lum, and Voyle (1997) argue that Roe’s theory has been too easily abandoned through misconstrued, invalid empirical tests of her hypotheses about parent/child interactions and their relation to career choice behavior. Additionally, Brown and Voyle (1997) state that Roe’s theory provides the only available model for linking early childhood experiences, development an individual’s need structure, and vocational behavior.<br /><br />Although Roe (Roe & Lunneborg, 1990) developed only one measurement device, the Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire (PCR 1), used to explore basic orientations of people based on their early childhood experiences, other practitioners have developed many instruments based on Roe’s theory. Examples of instruments based on Roe’s theory include the Career Occupational Preference System (COPS) ( Knapp & Knapp, 1984) and the Computerized Vocational Information System (CVIS) (Harris, 1968) which are based on Roe’s interest framework; Ramak and Courses, Meir and Barak (1973) and Miller-Tiedeman’s (1976) Individual Career Exploration (ICE).<br /><br />Osipow (1973) and Walsh and Osipow (1983) criticized the lack of empirical support for her theory. A longitudinal study with Harvard sophomores conducted by Hagen (1960) failed to support Roe’s theory. Work by Kinnane and Pable (1962) supported parts of Roe’s theory but did not rule out other theories. Studies conducted by Levine (1963), Switzer, Grigg, Miller, and Young (1962), and Utton (1962) supported Roe’s theory of person- and non-person orientation, but provided no support on how or if background factors described by Roe influenced the development or nondevelopment of these preferences. Studies conducted by Belz and Geary (1984), Cairo (1982), Erb and Smith (1984), and Gordon and Avery (1986) used Roe’s occupational groups and levels successfully in predicting target occupations, change within adjacent work fields, and job perceptions. Forty years later, Roe’s theory and classification of occupations is still the subject of research with Tracey and Rounds (1994) study of interest fields and Meir, Esformes, and Friedland’s (1994) use of the Courses Interest Inventory based on Roe’s classification to investigate Holland’s constructs of congruence. Brown et al. (1997), Dawis (1997), and Lunneborg (1997) called for additional research to more accurately test Roe’s theory as a means of better understanding early childhood experiences as they may relate to the development of an individual’s need structure.<br /><br />Lunneborg and Roe (1990) agreed with Walsh and Osipow (1983) that Roe’s greatest achievement may lie, not in empirical research, but in career counselors’ use of the two-way job classification system and “obtain(ing) a family history from their clients (based) on Roe’s dimensions of people vs. ideas” (Walsh & Osipow, p. 60). Roe (1956) herself felt more attention should be paid to the role of occupation in the life of an individual and that occupations should be open to all, particularly women and minorities, since appropriate work can be satisfying not only to society but to the individual.<br /><br /><strong>Social Learning Theory of Career Decision-Making</strong><br />Bandura’s (1969) social cognitive learning theory of behavior assumed individual personality and behaviors arise from an individual’s unique learning experiences and the effects of negative and positive reinforcement as these experiences occur. Social cognitive or learning theory proposed that three major types of learning experiences result in behaviors and skills that allow a person to function effectively in society. These experiences include, (a) instrumental learning experiences occurring when the individual is positively or negatively reinforced for a behavior; (b) associative learning experiences occurring when the individual associates a previously neutral event with an emotionally laden event; and (c) vicarious experiences occurring when the individual observes the behavior of others or gains new information and ideas from other sources.<br /><br />The social learning theory of Krumboltz, Mitchell, and Jones (1976) was an outgrowth of Bandura’s social cognitive theory of behavior. Social learning theory assumes personality and behaviors come directly from the unique learning experiences that each individual has undergone. Additionally, Mitchell and Krumboltz (1990) stated genetic endowment and special abilities, environmental conditions and events, and task approach skills allow individuals to take part in a variety of planned and unplanned learning experiences, thereby, shaping their future career preferences and choices as they make formal and informal assessments concerning their personal capabilities and the world of work in general. Genetic endowments and special abilities are inherited qualities which may set limits on an individual’s skills. Environmental conditions or events are factors over which the individual has no control. Task approach skills are the skills, performance standards and values, work habits, and perceptual and cognitive processes an individual brings to new problems. Mitchell and Krumboltz also consider economic and sociological conditions to be reinforcers for individuals as individuals evaluate each of their unique learning experiences.<br /><br />Krumboltz’s (1981) theory posited three basic factor groups as the determinants shaping career preferences. Within these factors, he developed a number of testable propositions and determined that equal importance rests on the inverse influence of each.<br />1. Factors influencing preferences with an educational or occupational preference being an evaluative self-observation generalization based on those learning experiences pertinent to any career task with propositions explaining the acquisition of these preferences.<br />Proposition IA1. An individual is more likely to express a preference for a course of study, an occupation, or the tasks and consequences of a field of work if that individual has been positively reinforced for engaging in activities one has learned are associated with the successful performance of that course, occupation, or field of work (p. 59).<br />Proposition IA2. An individual is more likely to express a preference for a course of study, an occupation, or the tasks and consequences of a field of work if that individual has observed a valued model being reinforced for engaging in activities one has learned are associated with the successful performance of that course, occupation, or field of work (p. 59).<br />Proposition IA3. An individual is more likely to express a preference for a course of study, an occupation, or the tasks and consequences of a field of work if that individual has consistent, positive reinforcement for engaging in activities one has learned are associated with the successful performance of that course, occupation, or field of work (p. 59).<br />2. Factors influencing career-decision making skills with propositions explaining how these particular skills are acquired.<br />Proposition IIA1. An individual is more likely to learn the cognitive and performance and emotional responses necessary for career planning, self-observing, goal setting, and information seeking if that individual has been positively reinforced for those responses (p. 61).<br />Proposition IIA2. An individual is more likely to learn the cognitive and performance and emotional responses necessary for career planning, self-observing, goal setting, and information seeking if that individual has observed real or vicarious models engaged in effective career-decision making strategies (p. 62).<br />Proposition IIA3. An individual is more likely to learn the cognitive and performance and emotional responses necessary for career planning, self-observing, goal setting, and information seeking if that individual has access to people and other resources with the necessary information (p. 62).<br />3. Factors influencing entry behaviors into educational or occupational alternatives with propositions explaining factors accounting for the actual entry behaviors into occupations, training programs, or educational courses of study.<br />Proposition IIIA1. An individual is more likely to take actions leading to enrollment in a given course or employment in a given occupation or field of work if that individual has recently expressed a preference for that course, occupation, or field of work (p. 63).<br />Proposition IIIA2. An individual is more likely to take actions leading to enrollment in a given course or employment in a given occupation or field of work if that individual has been exposed to learning and employment opportunities in that course, occupation, or field of work (p. 63).<br />Proposition IIIA3. An individual is more likely to take actions leading to enrollment in a given course or employment in a given occupation or field of work if that individual’s learning skills match the educational and/or occupational requirements (p. 64).<br /><br />While a number of studies conducted through the years have provided credence to parts of Mitchell et al.’s theory, this was not the initial purpose of the studies but do appear to be relevant to social learning theory. Almquist (1974) found females selecting male-dominated occupations were highly influenced by female role models to support “proposition 1” and Hawley (1972) found women in nontraditional roles perceived significant males to be encouraging with respect to women’s abilities to engage in serious work to support “proposition 3.” Additionally, Oliver (1975) found verbal reinforcement from counselors could modify stated career choices for high school students. Krumboltz, Baker, and Johnson (1967) and Krumboltz et al. (1976) demonstrated that providing students with simulated work activities produced more occupational information for each student than did presentation of information through pamphlets or films.<br /><br />Mitchell and Krumboltz (1990) stated that all individuals regardless of race, gender, or ethnic origin must have exposure to the widest array of learning opportunities available for maximum career development. These learning opportunities would include mentors and role models in addition to scheduled learning experiences, such as school. Based on changes in societal influences and shifts in conventional values, Obleton (1984) described beneficial results from deliberately planned model-mentor workshops aimed at career development processes when used with young black females, and Gerstein, Lichtman, and Barokas’ (1988) longitudinal study showed professional careers chosen over clerical/sales when female high school seniors were studied. Looking at positive reinforcement issues, Astin (1965), Baird (1971), Chusmir (1983), Brooks and Haigler (1984), Kerr and Ghrist-Priebe (1988), and Osipow (1972) found students felt comfortable even though undecided about formal career plans, raised career aspirations, or changed career or educational plans when they were positively reinforced by a valued person or a valued model. Research conducted by Hawley (1972), Little and Roach (1974), and Trent and Medsker (1968) found a major determinant of decisions to attend college or choose nontraditional careers to be students’ perception of parental support. Fitzgerald, Fassinger, and Betz (1995) pointed out empirical support for social learning theory of career decision making has been largely confined to early correlational studies and little significant evolution has occurred during the past 20 years.<br /><br />Although Krumboltz (1988) developed the Career Beliefs Inventory to help identify inaccurate self-observations, researchers have focused more attention on the area of occupational information-seeking with Krumboltz et al.’s (1967) development of the Job Experience Kits designed to provide clients with successful experiences and job information. As the Job Experience Kits are not identical in content, counselors can individualize the interviewing and “shadowing” of workers, the use of films, and other printed materials to tailor these experiences to the previous learning experiences and interests of clients (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1990). Jones and Krumboltz (1970) developed the Vocational Exploratory Behavior Inventory to evaluate the task approach skills, i.e., talking to counselors, acquiring occupational information, etc., needed by a client in career decision making,<br /><br /><strong>Social Cognitive Theory</strong><br />Hackett and Betz’s (1981) work on self-efficacy is a recent addition to the career field derived from Bandura’s general theory on social cognition. Bandura (1986) defined self-efficacy as “people’s judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performance” (p. 391) and postulated self-efficacy impressions help to determine a person’s choice of activities and environments. Research conducted with regard to self-efficacy by Hackett and Lent (1992) and Multon, Brown, and Lent (1992) showed self-efficacy to be predictive of academic and career-related choice and performance within these same areas. Taylor and Betz (1983) developed the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale (CDMSES) to assess self-efficacy expectations as they apply to career decision-making tasks and behaviors.<br /><br />Adding to Hackett and Betz’s original work has been Lent, Brown, and Hackett’s (1994; 1996) social cognitive framework linking three aspects of career development; career interests, academic and career choice options, and performance and persistence in undertakings. Lent et al. saw their work as theory integration explaining “central, dynamic processes and mechanisms through which (a) career and academic interests develop, (b) career-relevant choices are forged and enacted, and (c) performance outcomes are achieved” (p. 80). From Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory, Lent et al. took triadic reciprocity in which personal attributes, external environmental factors, and overt behaviors act upon and are acted upon by each other. While other theories of career development stress that vocational choices are determined by persons and their environments, these same theories also fail to take into account the behavior of the individual in influencing particular situations which can in turn then affect their thoughts and subsequent behaviors. Lent et al. stated these static career development theories fail to take into account interactions occurring between constantly developing individuals and their ever-changing contexts.<br /><br />Lent et al. (1994; 1996) saw self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and goals as being particularly relevant within the field of career development. Self-efficacy is an important component in that a set of self-beliefs specific to performance interacts with other personal, behavioral, and contextual factors. Outcome expectations are the individual’s imagined consequences of particular behaviors, such as physical reward, social approval, self-satisfaction, or the inverse of any or all of these. With goal setting, people are providing ways and means of organizing and guiding their behaviors over extended periods of time, thereby, increasing the likelihood that desired outcomes will be realized.<br /><br />Lent et al. (1994) developed the following specific propositions to lay out their ideas behind social cognitive theory:<br />Proposition 1. An individual’s occupational or academic interests at any point in time are reflective of his or her concurrent self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations (p. 91).<br />Proposition 2. An individual’s occupational interests also are influenced by his or her occupational relevant abilities, but this relation is mediated by one’s self-efficacy beliefs (p. 92).<br />Proposition 3. Self-efficacy beliefs affect choice goals and actions both directly and indirectly (p. 96).<br />Proposition 4. Outcome expectations affect choice goals and actions both directly and indirectly (p. 97).<br />Proposition 5. People will aspire to enter (i.e., develop choice goals for) occupations or academic fields that are consistent with their primary interest areas (p. 97).<br />Proposition 6. People will attempt to enter occupations or academic fields that are consistent with choice goals, provided that they are committed to their goal, and their goal is stated in clear terms, proximal to the point of actual entry (p. 97).<br />Proposition 7. Interests affect entry behaviors (actions) indirectly through their influence on choice goals (p. 98).<br />Proposition 8. Self-efficacy beliefs influence career-academic performance both directly and indirectly through their effect on performance goals. Outcome expectations influence performance only indirectly through their effect on goals (p. 100).<br />Proposition 9. Ability (or aptitude) will affect career/academic performance both directly and indirectly through its influence on self-efficacy beliefs (p. 100).<br />Proposition 10. Self-efficacy beliefs derive from performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and physiological reactions (e.g., emotional arousal) in relation to particular educational and occupationally relevant activities (p. 103).<br />Proposition 11. As with self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations are generated through direct and vicarious experiences with educational and occupationally relevant activities (p. 103).<br />Proposition 12. Outcome expectations are also partially determined by self-efficacy beliefs, particularly when outcomes (e.g., successes, failures) are closely tied to the quality or level of one’s performance (p. 104).<br /><br />While dealing with developmental tasks occurring prior to career entry, Lent et al. (1994; 1996) suggested their framework could be viewed across the life span to include work adjustment, career and life milestones, and retirement. In agreement with Super’s (1990) view of cognitive learning theory as “cement”, holding together various segments of career development theory, Lent et al. (1994) saw their framework as an effort at unifying rather than proliferating additional theories and should also be viewed as “evolving constructions, subject to further empirical scrutiny” (p. 118).<br /><br /><strong>Sociological Theory</strong><br />Theorists paying attention to the impact of the social environment on career choice are classified as using a sociological approach, indicating they feel societal circumstances beyond the control of the individual contribute significantly to career choice and the individual’s task is to develop strategies allowing them to cope effectively with this environment (Osipow, 1983). Prior to 1967, sociological theory was concerned primarily with how the social status of one’s parents affected the level of schooling one achieved which in turn affected the occupational level one achieved, i.e., intergenerational mobility, and was primarily confined to imprecise verbal statements and rough classification of occupations into broad socio-economic groups, such as blue and white-collar workers.<br /><br />Status attainment. Research by Blau and Duncan (1967) marked a shift into a more formal model of occupational or status attainment with the development of the Socioeconomic Index (SEI), a graded scale used to indicate the level of occupational status both desired by the young adult and the occupational status held by the parents. Blau and Duncan’s work, closely followed by Sewell, Haller and Portes (1969), Sewell, Haller, and Ohlendorf (1970), expanded of the intergenerational mobility theory to include intervening social-psychological processes, such as educational and occupational aspirations of the individual, parental and teacher encouragement of the individual for further educational attainment, and the individual’s peers’ plans for further educational attainment, along with parental status and parental years of schooling. Named the Wisconsin model, this model also included academic performance and standardized test scores as measures of ability.<br /><br />The Wisconsin model of status attainment has generated large amounts of research by Gottfredson and Becker (1981), Otto and Haller (1979), Hauser, Tsai, and Sewell (1983), Jencks, Crouse, and Meuser (1983), Sewell and Hauser (1975),and Treiman and Terrell (1975) drawing further conclusions that variables such as race, parents’ occupation, gender, marital status, family income, place of residence, and family status, i.e., two-parent or single parent household, interact with other significant variables affecting opportunities with regard to training or further education. While this additional research has refined the status attainment model, Hotchkiss and Borow (1990) felt no empirical study had challenged the basic results of the Wisconsin model. But, critics have been quick to argue, the model is still incomplete with lack of attention paid to rules of access to jobs, salary schedules, job security, and performance standards (Hotchkiss & Borow).<br /><br />Economic theory attainment. Developed as a reaction to the status attainment model, the economic theory of schooling and competitive markets (Hotchkiss & Borow, 1990; 1996) hypothesized that many elements within the structure of work influence individuals’ sense of well-being in their work, such as whether one is a worker or a manager; individual chances for advancement; earning potential; job security; and possible discrimination. Economic theory is composed of human capital theory which purports that individuals make investments, i.e., amount and type of schooling, career choice, in their productive abilities intended to maximize their lifetime earning potential. The second part of economic theory is that of competitive markets based on the assumption that wages adjust to supply and demand within the labor market. Thus, employers are willing to employ more people when wages are low than when wages are high and conversely, fewer people when wages are high than when wages are lower. The outcome of economic theory is then maximum productivity within the economy because individuals have made the best choices for themselves and are being compensated according to their contribution to this productivity. Additionally, economic theory predicts that race and gender discrimination will dissolve under competitive pressures although empirical evidence demonstrates that minorities remain concentrated in low-status, low-income producing fields (Farley & Allen, 1987; Hauser, Tsai, & Sewell, 1983; Porter, 1974; Saunders, 1995; Tienda & Lii, 1987) while women also remain somewhat segregated by occupational fields and demonstrate lower earning power than men (Corcoran & Duncan, 1979; England & Farkas, 1986).<br /><br />While Sonnenfeld and Kotter (1982) acknowledged the important contributions made by sociologists in establishing the relationship between parental occupation, status, and wealth and the income levels attained by the children, they felt these same sociologists have failed to take into account important changes in the social status of occupations, changes in the distribution of population into different occupations, and changes in these individuals themselves over a period of time.<br /><br /><strong>Trait and Factor Theory</strong><br />Theories of career choice have come about through attempts to understand the decision-making process humans go through in an effort to choose a career. In the early part of this century, a growing concern for the plight of American workers led Frank Parsons and others to focus on various methods of help, including “reforms in business, education, and other social institutions to prevent further exploitation of workers and to help workers choose jobs that matched their abilities and interests”(Brown, 1990a, p. 13).<br /><br />Parsons put forth a three-step schema forming the basis of the “first conceptual framework for career decision making” (Brown, 1990a, p. 13) and the foundation of the vocational guidance movement (Srebalus et al., 1982; Super, 1983). This three-part model advocated personality analysis, i.e., whereby individuals gain understanding of both strengths and weaknesses of their personal attributes or traits; job analysis, i.e., given these traits, their conditions for success in occupations; and matching through scientific advising, i.e., make career choices based on the aforementioned information to provide the basis for career decision-making (Brown, 1990a; Herr & Cramer, 1988; McDaniels & Gysbers, 1992). Super (1983) concluded that Parsons' "theory of individual differences in aptitudes and traits which underlies the method of determining occupational ability patterns has been the cornerstone of vocational guidance" (p. 168).<br /><br />Parsons' formulations are often referred to as the basis of trait and factor theory (Brown, 1990a; Brown & Brooks, 1990b). Klein and Weiner (1977) concluded the underlying assumptions and propositions of trait and factor theory are:<br />1. Each individual has a unique set of traits that can be measured reliably and validly.<br />2. Occupations require that workers possess certain very special traits for success, although a worker with a rather wide range of characteristics can still be successful in a job.<br />3. The choice of an occupation is a rather straightforward process, and matching is possible.<br />4. The closer the match between personal characteristics and job requirements, the greater the likelihood of success (productivity and satisfaction).<br /><br /><strong>Holland’s personality theory</strong>. An offshoot of Parsons’ trait and factor theory and redesignated “person -environment (P-E) fit” (Rounds & Tracey, 1990), Holland's theory “sees people as choosing work environments that are congruent with their personality types” (Brown & Brooks, 1990b, p. 6). Developed in 1959, Holland's theory underwent revisions in 1966, 1973, and 1985. Holland saw his theory as structural or typological in that it attempted to organize a sea of information about people and jobs; interactive because careers and social behaviors were the outcomes of people and environments acting on each other; and a fulfillment model because as people seek employment, they are also attempting to reach goals that will utilitize their talents, skills, and interests (Holland, 1985a). Spokane (1996) stated that “modern trait position as represented by Holland’s theory has evolved into an enriched person-environment interaction model that reflects the inclusion of identity, information retieval and processing, and behavioral repertoires as essential components in the transactions individuals make with their environments” (p. 35).<br /><br />Holland’s (1985a) assumptions were based on the idea that interests are one part of what is commonly called personality, therefore, vocational interests also describe an individual’s personality. Within personality, individuals have traits which might be described as preferences for school subjects, recreational activities, and/or work. Holland’s typology, i.e., study of types, contended that six basic personality types exist and all individuals, to some extent, resemble one of these types. The closer the fit between the individual and the type, the more likely the individual is to manifest behaviors and traits associated with that type.<br /><br />Holland's (1985a) assumptions include:<br />1. Most persons can be categorized as one of six types: realistic (R), investigative (I), artistic (A), social (S), enterprising (E), or conventional (C). A type is a model against which we can measure the real person. Each type is the product of a characteristic interaction between a variety of cultural and personal forces, including peers, parents, social class, culture, and the physical environment.<br />2. There are six kinds of environments: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, or conventional. Each environment is dominated by a given type of personality and each environment is typified by physical settings posing special problems and stresses.<br />3. 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. The person's search for environments is varied in many ways, at different levels of consciousness, and over a long period of time.<br />4. A person's behavior is determined by an interaction between personality and the characteristics of environment. If we know a person's personality pattern and environment pattern, we can then forecast outcomes such as choice of vocation, job changes, vocational achievement, personal competence, and educational and social behavior.<br /><br />While Holland (1966) originally set forth that an individual could be characterized as being a single personality type, he has since revised his theory (1973; 1985a) to suggest that while one personality type does dominate, personality patterns provide better descriptions of individuals. For example, while a person’s personality probably contains aspects of all six personality types (R, I, A, S, E, C), personality patterns, or subtypes, may be developed on the basis of the three prevalent types found within the individual’s interest profile. Thus, subtype SAE describes a person having social, artistic, and enterprising characteristics dominating the interest profile of that particular individual. Just as personalities can be characterized, environments, particularly work environments, can be characterized along the same lines by using the Holland typology.<br /><br />In revision of his theory, Holland (1985a) introduced five key concepts in addition to his four basic assumptions:<br />1. Consistency: By using the hexagon to graphically represent the relationships between the personality types, Holland has defined the degree of personality consistency. The closer the types appear on the hexagon, i.e., when the first two letters of the subtype are adjacent on the hexagon, the more consistent the person is thought to be. Low consistency is separation of the first two code letters by two intervening letters.<br />2. Differentiation: Some people and environments more closely resemble a single type, thereby showing less resemblance to other types. Some others may more equally resemble several types. Those personality types resembling several types equally are said to be poorly differentiated while those closely resembling a single type are said to be highly differentiated.<br />3. Identity: Holland considered this construct necessary to support the formulations of personality types and environments. An individual having identity is said to have clear and stable goals, interests, and talents established.<br />4. Congruence: This is an example of the old idiom, Birds of a feather flock together, meaning persons tend to be happier and perform better in an environment providing the type of reward that is important to that person. For example, a Conventional personality type who enjoys working in a Conventional environment would be said to be a perfect fit , likewise, the least congruence occurs when persons and their environments are at opposite points of the hexagon, i.e., a Realistic personality type working in a Social environment.<br />5. Calculus: The hexagon not only presents a graphic representation of consistency between person and environment, but also the internal relationships of Holland’s theory, in that “ the distances between the types or environments are inversely proportional to the theoretical relationships between them” (1985, p. 5).<br /><br />Additionally, Holland (1985a) considered self-knowledge to be an important influence on career choice. Self-knowledge is the amount and accuracy of information an individual has about one’s self that will then allow one to make adequate career choices. Other important aspects of career choice include social pressures during childhood and, similar to Roe (1956), experiences with parents.<br /><br />Many research studies have focused on Holland’s (1985a) concept of congruence finding that types generally aspire to, or already inhabit, fields matching their primary interests. Hecht’s (1980) study of nursing and Henry and Bardo’s (1987) study of premedical students found a majority of students evidencing primary interests that corresponded to theoretical expectations. When non-college-degreed males (Greenless, Damarin, & Walsh, 1988) and females (Mazen, 1989) were studied, they were found in work environments conforming to their predominant interests. Accordingly, positive relationships between congruence level and job satisfaction (Carson & Mowesian, 1993; Elton & Smart, 1988, Gottfredson & Holland, 1990; Rounds 1990) were found in adult workers although Heesacker, Elliott, and Howe (1988) did not find congruence and job satisfaction among sewing machine operators.<br /><br />Holland and others working with him over the years have been prolific mainly in longitudinal studies with results showing “remarkable stability in the degree to which the theory has appeared to generate empirical support” (Osipow, 1983, p. 88). Holland's frequent longitudinal studies attempted to assess a variety of personal (1962a, 1963b, 1968), family (1962b), social (1964), and achievement (1963b) correlates pertinent to his theory. Additionally, studies by<br />Gottfredson and Holland (1990) and Meir and Navon (1992) looked at congruence.<br /><br />Holland has also paid “attention to the development of means to measure personal attributes associated with the constructs of his theory” (Osipow, 1983, p. 299) with numerous revisions of the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) which originated in 1953, the Self-Directed Search (SDS) in 1971, the Vocational Exploration and Insight Kit (VEIK) in 1980, My Vocational Situation (MVS) in 1980 (Weinrach & Srebalus, 1990; Holland, 1966; 1973; 1985; Walsh & Osipow, 1983), Position Classification Inventory (PCI) (Gottfredson & Holland, 1991), and Career Attitudes and Strategies Inventory (CASI) (Holland & Gottfredson, 1994). In addition, Holland's "system was used to organize the profile scores for the SVIB-SCII (Strong Vocational Interest Battery-Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory)” in the revised 1981 version (Campbell & Hansen, 1981, p. 29) to form a “merger of paradigms that can be considered the most significant of all the innovation we have seen thus far” (Borgen, 1986, p. 85). The Holland types are also utilized in the new Strong Interest Inventory (SII) (Harmon, Hansen, Borgan, & Hammer, 1994), the ASVAB workbook (Department of Defense, 1993), and the Bolles Party Game, (Bolles, 1993).<br /><br />Holland's work, regarded by Osipow (1983) as having mostly positive results has generated much research over the ensuing years “partly because of its simplicity, the available instrumentation, and the attempts Holland himself has made to relate his work to other systems in vocational development, such as the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the Strong Vocational Blank” (p. 98). Additionally, Borgen (1986) stated the “amount of research generated by Holland's approach is unequaled in vocational behavior in the past 15 years” (p. 89). On the other hand, a criticism leveled at Holland’s theory by Sonnenfeld and Kotter (1982) is that while relationships between individuals’ personality traits and the occupations they chose have been established, Holland and his followers have simple and static conceptualizations of the occupational environment and fail to take into account that traits and demands of the workplace can change over time.<br /><br />Holland (1985b) changed his definition of environment from the number of individuals of a certain type, i.e., a social environment consisting of people with social codes solving problems by interacting socially, inhabiting that environment to environments defined not only by the census of their inhabitants but also to include what the individuals actually did while in the environment. Spokane (1996) states that “Holland’s writing was full of rich material on the interaction of people in environments” (p. 38) belying the static model. Additionally, Betsworth et al. (1994) in exploring the possibility of locating interests on specific genes and activation of genetic influences determined that between 30 and 50 per cent of variance in occupational interests can be attributed to genetic sources, thereby somewhat vindicating the trait and factor theory.<br /><br /><strong>Career Developmental Theory</strong><br />Super (1990) said his theory is neither integrated, comprehensive, nor testable, but “segmented, formed from a loosely unified set of theories dealing with specific aspects of career development, taken from developmental, differential, social, personality, and phenomenological psychology and held together by self-concept and learning theory” (p. 199). Super credited Buehler and Lazarsfeld’s longitudinal studies of the work and related lives of men and women plus Davidson and Anderson’s work on occupational histories of a representative sample of American men leading him to want to better understand how career development unfolds and why careers develop as they do (Super, 1983).<br /><br />A second area of influence, self-concept theory, came from writings of Rogers and Bordin, who suggested an individual’s behavior is a reflection of that individual’s self-descriptive and self-evaluative thoughts (Osipow, 1983) or, as Super (1963) expressed this, “an individual’s self concept is his concept of himself, not inferences made by outside others” (p. 5). Super (1957; 1963) and Super, Crites, Hummel, Moser, Overstreet, and Warnath (1957) identified the elements, or processes, of self-concept as formation, translation, and implementation of the self-concept.<br /><br />Self-concept formation (Super, 1963) is composed of several phases with the first being exploration which is an ongoing, essential process. Infants look at their fingers; adolescents admire the poem written or the birdhouse built with their own hands; and older workers adapt methods of performing work tasks in view of physical or psychological changes the person may have undergone. Super (1990) stated that the self and its environment are objects of exploration as they develop and change throughout the life span.<br /><br />Self differentiation (Super et al., 1957) is the second phase of self-concept formation as individuals begin to see themselves as separate and different from those surrounding them. Babies recognize their hands as parts of their own bodies rather than those of their mothers; adolescents become aware that they do not talk as much as their friends or that they dress differently from their friends; and first-time job holders see differences in their approach to clients from that of fellow employees.<br /><br />Identification (Super, 1963) takes place at much the same time as differentiation. Tyler (1951; 1956) pointed out the disparity between women’s work roles and those of men in the formation of children’s interests and aptitudes. Douvan (1976), Douvan and Adelson (1966), and Patterson (1973) agree with Tyler in stating the prominence that occupation achieves in men’s lives and the variety of male roles visible not only in work, but also in sports and recreation, tend to channel boys’ identification along occupational lines while girls’ identity development focuses on the feminine role of which jobs are only partial expressions of self.<br /><br />Role playing (Super et al., 1957) accompanies or follows identification. Role-playing may be imaginative or participatory, but does allow one the opportunity to try a role on for size and to see the validity of the developing self-concept. This role playing may take the form of a small child walking like the father, batting left-handed because an idolized ball player bats left-handed, or stating aspirations of becoming a doctor because a doctor aided the child when ill. Reality testing normally follows role-playing. Our everyday life offers many opportunities for this to take place, such as child’s play, i.e., Can I hit enough home runs to be on the school team?; school courses, i.e., How can I be a nurse or doctor if I cannot stand the sight of blood?; extracurricular activities, i.e., Just how hard is it to make it on the stage in New York?; or part-time employment, i.e., Do I want to deliver pizzas or sell cosmetics forever? Reality testing can strengthen or contradict developing self-concepts as these concepts have now been tried out in the real occupational world (Super, 1963).<br /><br />The second process of self-concept development is that of translation. Translation (Super et al., 1957) take place in three ways: (a) identification with an adult may lead to a desire to portray this occupational role, but the role may be discarded when subjected to reality testing; (b) role playing or reality testing can lead to the discovery that one’s self-concept and the role concepts are congenial; or (c) attributes of the individual are thought to be important in a certain field of work, leading to conformation that one might do well and enjoy this field of endeavor.<br /><br />The third phase of self-concept development is implementation, or actualizing, as education is completed and the person enters the actual workplace or professional training is entered (Super, 1963). The potential lawyer is accepted by a prestigious law school. The premed student enters medical college, proud of a developing professional identity. Engineering graduates get their first jobs and see their nameplates on their own doors. Or the high school dropout who never did well academically is fired from yet another entry-level job, reinforcing an already poor occupational self-concept.<br /><br />Super (1990) enunciated fourteen propositions concerning the role of abilities and interests, self-concepts, life stages, and person-situation interactions in his theory. These include:<br />Proposition 1. People differ in their abilities, interests, and personalities.<br />Proposition 2. By virtue of these differing characteristics, they are qualified for a number of occupations.<br />Proposition 3. Occupations require a characteristic pattern of abilities, interests, and personality traits, with tolerances sufficient to allow a variety of occupations for each individual and variety within each occupation.<br />Proposition 4. Vocational preferences and competencies along with environments in which people live and work, and therefore self-concepts, change over time and with experiences, making choice and adjustment a continuous process.<br />Proposition 5. This process of change may be called a maxicycle, a series of life stages, i.e., growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline, and may be subdivided into (a) the fantasy, tentative, and realistic phases of the exploratory stage, and (b) trial and stable phases of the establishment stage. A minicycle of new growth, exploration, and establishment takes place in the transition from one stage to the next.<br />Proposition 6. Parental socio-economic level, mental ability, personality characteristics, and opportunities to which one is exposed determines the nature of the career pattern, e.g., occupational level attained, sequence, frequency, and length of trial and stable jobs.<br />Proposition 7. Facilitation of the process of maturation of abilities and interests, aid in reality testing, and development of self-concepts can by guided.<br />Proposition 8. Career maturity is a hypothetical construct with a brief history and does not increase monotonically.<br />Proposition 9. Facilitating the maturing of abilities and interests through reality testing can guide one through the life stages.<br />Proposition 10. The process of career development is that of developing and implementing self-concepts by a synthesizing and compromising process in which the self-concept is a product consisting of the interaction of inherited aptitudes, neural and endocrine makeup, opportunity to play various roles, and evaluations of these roles by superiors and peers.<br />Proposition 11. The process of synthesis and compromise between individual and social factors, self-concept and reality is that of role playing whether in fantasy, counseling, or real life activities such as school, extracurricular activities, or part-time jobs.<br />Proposition 12. Life and work satisfactions depend on the extent the individual finds outlets for abilities, needs, interest, personality traits, and self-concepts within a work situation and way of life that promotes growth and exploratory experiences.<br />Proposition 13. People’s degree of satisfaction with work is proportionate to the degree to which they have been able to implement self-concepts.<br />Proposition 14. Work and occupation provide a focus for personality organization for most men and some women, although this focus may be peripheral, incidental, or even nonexistent with focus instead on leisure activities or homemaking .<br /><br />Super (1981) proposed individuals enter occupations they see as most likely to permit self-expression based on this individually developed self-concept. Super (1983) additionally suggested that vocational behaviors engaged in while developing and implementing self-concept are a result of the person’s stage of life development and external environmental conditions; i.e., vocational decisions arrived at during adolescence are based on different happenings and ideas than those decisions made during middle age.<br /><br />From Buehler, Super (1957) also obtained the idea of life stages, or more specifically, growth, from birth to roughly age 14; exploration, from ages 15 to 25; maintenance, covering approximately 40 years from age 25 to age 65, and decline, till death. From Davidson and Anderson’s research and later work by Miller and Form (1951), Super added the idea of career patterns with career behavior of individuals following general patterns recognizable as predictable after study of the individual. Career patterns may be stable, in which a career is entered relatively early and permanently; conventional, in which several jobs may be tried before settling on a stable job; unstable, several trial jobs leading to what might be considered temporary stability but soon disrupted; and multiple trial, a series of stable jobs, but jobs that remain entry-level (Osipow, 1983).<br /><br />Super (1957) maintained the proposition that each of his two major life stages, i.e., the exploratory and the establishment, have several substages. The exploratory stage is composed of the tentative substage, the transition substage, and the uncommitted trial substage. As these names suggest, a gradual vocational concern is awakened starting in late childhood. The tentative, exploratory questions of childhood become stronger as in early adolescence, youngsters begin to realize the importance of preliminary vocational decisions. Further evaluation, modification, and/or crystallization of decisions then lead to the next stage of development.<br /><br />Two additional concepts within Super’s theory are developmental tasks which occur within the life stages and career maturity. Developmental tasks are those with which “society confronts individuals when they reach certain levels of biological, educational, and vocational attainment” (Super, 1990, p. 210). The five developmental tasks occurring within Super's (1990) exploratory stage are that:<br />1. Students begin to demonstrate concern with vocational choice. Students of middle school age are entering the early stages of adolescence with opportunities to make certain choices, such as course selection. Super (1957) rather succinctly described choice as a “process, rather than an event” (p. 184) with unlimited small choices gradually narrowing an individual's possibilities to a few promising options and, potentially, limiting the individual's future undertakings (Kuder, 1977).<br />2. Students will begin to seek out increased vocational information, and exhibit comprehensive and detailed planning. The student will begin gathering specific information necessary to make decisions when faced with the need to make them. Faced with additional opportunities to make choices, adolescents will practice making decisions in order to better learn the decision-making process (Super, 1990).<br />3. Students will demonstrate increasing consistency of vocational choice. The young person should be encouraged to hold one vocational choice (i.e., an occupational title) long enough to gain substantial information about that choice. The student should study occupational groups, particularly the group in which the individual’s vocational choice falls, to gain needed information about the groups and, in addition, should investigate occupational levels within groups to learn educational and skill requirements to enter at various levels. Having obtained this information, the student should study clusters of occupations to learn job similarities and also learn what is involved in working in the occupation.<br />4. Students will begin to demonstrate the crystallization of traits relevant to vocational choice. During this time of stabilization of traits, students need support as they stabilize interests, exhibit patterning of interests, maximize their career maturity, begin to make independent vocational decisions, develop realistic attitudes, and gain an appreciation for work (Super, 1990).<br />5. Students will also begin to demonstrate increasing wisdom of vocational preferences. An important achievement is the alignment of preferences with abilities when childhood fantasies of what work ‘might be’ begin to disappear and reality comes to the forefront. During this time, students will make an effort to participate in activities complementary with interests and preferences.<br /><br />The second concept, career maturity, is the individual's “readiness to cope with the developmental tasks appropriate to the age and level one finds oneself” (McDaniels & Gysbers, 1992, p. 48). Super stated (1983) that we may expect vocationally mature behavior to appear differently based on the context provided by the individual’s life stage, e.g., “ a vocationally mature fourteen-year-old will be concerned with assessing personal interests and abilities to reach the goal of deciding on an educational plan while the vocationally mature forty-five-year-old person is concerned with ways to maintain career status in the face of competition from younger workers” (Osipow, 1983, p. 157).<br /><br />An instrument, the Career Questionnaire, with the primary focus of measuring vocational or career maturity, was developed by Super, Bohn, Forrest, Jordaan, Lindeman, and Thompston (1971). This then evolved into the Career Development Inventory (CDI) in 1972 with updates in 1979 and 1981 (Westbrook, 1983). The CDI was further updated by Thompson, Lindeman, Super, Jordaan, and Myers (1984) to measure two affective variables: career planning and career exploration, and two cognitive characteristics: information about work and occupations and knowledge of the principles for career decision making. Super was influential in Crites’ development of the Vocational Developmental Inventory (1961; 1965) which later became the Career Maturity Inventory (1978) for use with young people and the Career Adjustment and Development Inventory (1979) for use with the adult population. Westbrook and Parry-Hill developed the Cognitive Vocational Maturity Inventory (1973) emphasizing cognitive rather than attitudinal aspects of vocational maturity. Super (1983) was also influential in Bowlsbey’s development of DISCOVER, a computerized counseling system. In addition, Nevill and Super (1986) developed the Salience Inventory (SI) to assess work-role importance while the Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI) developed by Super, Thompson, and Lindeman (1988) measures concern with the tasks of Exploration, Establishment, Maintenance, and Disengagement.<br /><br />Numerous studies in addition to Super's own prolific work have been conducted over the ensuing years with most “supporting the idea that occupational choice represents the implementation of self-concept” with results “providing an impressive amount of empirical support for the general aspects of Super's theory” (Osipow, 1973, p. 163). Salomone and Slaney (1978) and Kidd (1984) examined the role of self-concept with regard to socio-economic conditions. Their findings indicated that along with intelligence, interests, and social status, socio-economic condition was an important determinant of career development. Self-concept research was also done by Healy (1968) and Morrison (1962) with middle-class students in secondary schools and universities.<br /><br />Much additional research has been done with regard to Super’s vocational maturity concept. Fitzgerald and Crites (1980), Harmon (1974), Lunneborg (1978), and Richardson (1974) conducted studies with both female and male high school and college students. Gribbons (1964) and Gribbons and Lohnes’ (1966; 1968; 1969) longitudinal research tested the hypothesis that occupational choice is indeed a sequential, developmental process. Results indicated that during the time period of eighth to tenth grades, overall awareness of interests and values in relation to the educational-vocational decisions increased, but many educational-vocational decisions were still made based on irrelevant information.<br /><br />Super’s life-span, life-space theory “has the virtue of building upon aspects of the mainstream of developmental psychology and personality theory with considerable utility for both practice and research in vocational psychology” (Osipow & Fitzgerald, 1996, p. 143). Borgen (1986) called Super “a superordinate thinker whose theory reflects an encyclopedic approach to scholarship” concluding that “Super’s comprehensive conceptual work has splendidly stood the test of time [in that] new ideas and trends are immediately comparable with his work” (p. 278). But specific suggestions for theoretical and empirical concerns regarding racial/ethnic minorities are assessed by Fouad and Arbona (1994), Leong (1995), and Fouad and Bingham (1995).<br /><br />Super (1983) espoused "early vocational guidance and counseling for exploratory purposes and progress through a series of learning experiences so that choices would emerge from experience" (p. 31). Additionally, because Super envisioned life as linked stages with minicycles of growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline (McDaniels & Gysbers, 1992; Super, 1990), “career development should focus on decision making over the life span . . . (and) not be restricted to occupational choice only” (McDaniels & Gysbers, p. 50).<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Interest Inventory Developmental History</strong><br />Parsons (1909), a pioneer in vocational guidance, and other counselors working with him in Boston around the turn of the century saw a strong need for individual analysis, individual occupational study, and counselors who were able to share with the counselee the interpretative activities necessary for successful vocational guidance, but the “lack of adequate techniques of individual analysis meant that most of that work relied on self-analysis” (Super, 1942, p. 2). Establishing the Vocations Bureau in Boston, Parsons chose to help adolescents to identify their capabilities and to choose jobs with reasonable success expectations. In order to accomplish this, Parsons suggested young people read biographies, observe workers on the job, and examine then-existing occupational descriptions.<br /><br />Early researchers such as Alfred Binet, Arthur Otis, and Lewis Terman began studying individual differences in intelligence and developing tests to measure these differences prior to World War I (Super, 1983). Because of the need to classify large numbers of new entrants into the Army and to assign them to appropriate types of military jobs, the Army built on previous research and pioneered the use of intelligence testing and developed special aptitude tests. Those technologists, interested in providing tools for practitioners who were involved in these efforts, led the way in the development of instruments and methods and their use in personnel selection, training, and vocational counseling (Super, 1981).<br /><br />Between 1935-40, the Minnesota Employment Stabilization Research Institute (MESRI), which developed psychological tests and methods for the assessment of the abilities and interests of the unemployed, studied the reeducation potential and problems faced by the unemployed and demonstrated methods of retraining and reeducation. Super (1983) finds the result of MESRI’s work to be the creation of what became known as occupational ability patterns (profiles) providing evidence of the feasibility of measuring many dimensions of individual differences and using these in vocational guidance and placement.<br /><br />From the impetus of the Minnesota work came the development of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT; U.S. Department of Labor, 1940) which presented data concerning the working conditions, worker requirements, and employment opportunities in various occupations. The DOT, General Aptitude Test Battery (Dvorak, 1947), and the Occupational Outlook Handbook, (U.S. Department of Labor, 1949) provided badly needed tools to counselors who had been “handicapped by many (previous) information voids” (Srebalus et al., 1982). Available to defense contractors and the military at the end of the Depression era, these new tools provided for classification and assignment of men and women gearing up for the World War II effort.<br /><br />As World War II ended, other organizations sprang up, evolved, and gained momentum. The pre-World War II Cooperative Test Service became the Educational Testing Service with a focus on testing and providing guidance for college admissions (Super, 1983). With similar objectives of testing and guidance, the American College Testing program provided the launching pad for John Holland in the development of his theory of occupational choice as a process of matching one’s self with a job situation (Holland, 1973). Career counselors were now able to rely on tests and measurement devices and a library of occupational information with both references for clients and technical manuals for counselor use (Srebalus et al., 1982) in their counseling efforts.<br /><br />The early 1950s brought new and important contributors to the field of career development and counseling, such as Eli Ginzberg (Ginzberg et al.,1951), Anne Roe (1956), and Donald Super (1957). These theoreticians began to look at psychological variables, such as the process of human development, and how these variables affect career choice. Whereas prior to this time, vocational decisions had been considered a one-time decision made in adolescence, now emphasis shifted to viewing a vocational decision in the context of the person’s developmental history. These radical new ideas broke drastically from the traditional trait and factor theory.<br /><br />Virginia R. Richards, EdDStephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5930114796745795716.post-80798358469503046172008-07-30T17:09:00.016-04:002008-08-18T13:07:36.717-04:00A New Direction in Career Planning<div align="left"><span style="color:#333333;">Today marks the beginning of a new direction in career planning. Several years ago, while both my wife and I were working on EdD degrees in Occupational studies at The University of Georgia, we put the finishing touches on an interest profile assessment as our doctoral research. It was not one work but rather two. During work on my Master's Degree in Instructional Technology, I had worked on the development of a interest profile assessment for adolescents paralleling the work of Dr. John Holland. Rather than names of occupations as was done by Holland, my interest profile assessment instrument uses pictures of easily recognizable activities. As a way to make us work even harder to complete the work, our major professor, Dr. Jay Rojewski, suggested that Virginia should write on the development of the interest profile assessment and I should do a study of the affect taking the assessment and receiving the resulting reports from the assessment had on the career development activities of a population of middle school 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. During our final defense, Dr John Dagley, a member of our doctoral committee and a faculty member of The University of Georgia Educational Psychology Department said, "You need to make this widely available because it is better than any instrument that is available today." I owe an apology to Dr. Dagley because we waited 10 years to make our instrument available to the public. As time seems to move at an ever increasing rate, we have become aware that the time has come when we must put our interest assessment out for use. At the time of our research we named the instrument the Richards Interest Profile Assessment or RIPA.</span></div><br />If you wish to fast forward to one of the research articles you may do so by selecting the desired article below:<br /><p>Theory of Career Development <a href="http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/theories-of-career-development.html">http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/theories-of-career-development.html</a> </p><p>Career Development Literature <a href="http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/07/career-development-literature.html">http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/07/career-development-literature.html</a> </p><p>History and Theory Behind Interest Inventories <a href="http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/history-of-and-theory-behind-interest.html">http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/history-of-and-theory-behind-interest.html</a></p>Characteristics of Middle School Adolescence <a href="http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/characteristics-of-middle-school.html">http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/characteristics-of-middle-school.html</a><br /><br /><p>Career Exploration Interventions <a href="http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/career-exploration-interventions.html">http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/career-exploration-interventions.html</a><br /></p><br /><p>Theories of Interest <a href="http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-is-fifth-article-in-series-of.html">http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-is-fifth-article-in-series-of.html</a><br /><br />Theories of Career Development <a href="http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/theories-of-career-development.html">http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/theories-of-career-development.html</a><br /></p><br />History of Interest Inventories <a href="http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/history-of-interest-inventories.html">http://ripaplanner.blogspot.com/2008/08/history-of-interest-inventories.html</a><br /><div align="left"><span style="color:#333333;"></span></div><br /><div align="left"><span style="color:#333333;"></span></div><br /><p><strong><span style="color:#333333;">Dr. John Holland's Work</span></strong></p><p><span style="color:#333333;">Dr. Holland worked for many years defining the basic areas of interest that we all have and, in the process, devised a method for measuring interests of individuals in each of six interest areas which he initially called personality types. These areas of interest are Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Holland's initial premise assumed that an individual could be characterized as being a single personality type. He later revised his theory to suggest that while one personality type does dominate, personality patterns provide better descriptions of individuals. For example, while a person's personality probably contains aspects of all six personality types (R, I, A, S, E, C), personality patterns, or subtypes, may be developed on the basis of the three prevalent types found within the individual's interest profile. </span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;">Holland further determined that people who are happily working in certain jobs have specific interest profiles. He then surmised that people would do well to determine their areas of interest, or their interest profile, so that they might then seek to enter a profession best suiting their interests. Thus, people will be happier in their jobs. Holland's work was expanded during work with Gottfredson and others. Holland's work was used by Kuder and also by Strong in the development of career assessment instruments. Holland's work has been used by the military and industry for years and, to this day, most interest assessments use some form of the Holland interest codes. One year before Virginia and I started work in the Department of Occupational Studies at The University of Georgia, Dr. Holland was a guest professor at UGA. I am so sorry that we missed him. However, we did get to study under and work with people who had worked along side Dr. Holland, and for that we are thankful. </span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;">In a series of articles to be posted soon, we will review the literature pertinent to the study of predominant career theories, history of interest inventories, conceptual additions applicable to the study that led to the development of the RIPA, a review of the literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents, and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. This work will be more of an academic nature and will be of interest to those practicing career guidance. This work may provide a launching point for individuals desiring to further the research in the area of career development.<br /></span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;"><strong>The Current Situation</strong></span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;">Both Virginia and I are educators. We each worked in vocational education for years. I moved into administration several years before retirement, but Virginia has remained in vocational education. From our vantage point in vocational education, we had the opportunity to help many people work their way through the career development process. My hat is off to counselors in our high schools, but for the most part high school counselors have to spend most of their time being certain that students are getting into the right classes to complete their high school education. Their next priority is seeing that college bound students get all their paperwork completed at the correct time and sent to the proper location. Little time is left to be involved in directing students through the career development process. They are overworked in most cases and cannot spread themselves over all the jobs that are expected of them. So, what does that mean. Well, yes, you guessed it, college bound students are assisted in moving into college in their self chosen career of choice while non-college bound students are simply pointed toward graduation. They are left to find their way on their own. </span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;">The lack of in-depth guidance through the career development process causes great concern for the future of our students. Many leave high school not only with no idea of who they are and what occupation they may be suited for, but unfortunately they do not have the tools necessary to make the decision. Some people literally spend years searching for a job in which they can be successful and feel fulfilled. </span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;"><strong>The Direction of Our Current Work</strong></span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;">We are in the process of developing a multifaceted Internet based career counseling program that will provide a clear path toward a fulfilling career for anyone wishing to take advantage of the program. Our goal is to make the basic components of this program available at no cost to clients. The components of the program will consist of the following:</span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><ol><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><span style="color:#333333;">Informative, research based writings about the career development process written by Virginia and I and by guest writers who have a similar vision of wanting to assist individuals in the career development process.</span></li><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><span style="color:#333333;">Development of a database for tracking client's career development through a clear and simple personalized road map for success.</span></li><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><span style="color:#333333;">Make the RIPA (our interest profile assessment) available free of charge on the Internet.</span><br /></li><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><span style="color:#333333;">Integrate the individual's interest profile into his/her career development plan.<br /></span><span style="color:#333333;"></span></li><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><span style="color:#333333;">Develop instructional units that will guide the individual through the process.</span><br /></li><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><span style="color:#333333;">Expand the online database to allow clients to input work experience, hobbies, goals, education and training, skills, and any other pertinent information.</span></li><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><span style="color:#333333;">Develop an online resume generator that will allow the individual to easily generate a resume for use in obtaining a desired job.</span></li><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><span style="color:#333333;">Develop a database of employers and available jobs with specific requirements for the jobs. This will allow clients to be matched with available jobs based on a search that compares the qualifications of all clients in the system with requirements and expectations for the various jobs. Clients will be able to search for jobs in their geographic area or any specific area of the country.</span></li></ol><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;"><strong>Time Line</strong></span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p>At the time of this writing, work is being done to move the RIPA to the Internet. The standalone version works well and yields great results, but designing for the Internet is presenting a new set of challenges. Work is being done to link our database (presently running on SQL 2005) to the Internet. These are the big pieces at the present time. We hope to have these pieces completed by the end of 2008.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p>When these elements are running satisfactorily on the Internet, we will roll out our career development database component. This component will provide clients with a personal road map for their career development process and provide various suggestions for the completion of every step. As steps are completed, the client can check off the completion. Some portions of this component will be designed in conjunction with the basic database elements. We expect to complete work on this component by the end of the 1st quarter of 2009.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p>By the end of 2009, work is scheduled to be complete on the resume generator and the job search components. That will complete the project as we presently envision it, but, as with most major projects, there will be new ideas generated as a result of the presently planned work. </p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p>Hopefully this project will evolve and grow into a very useful tool for clients on the career development quest and will add yet another tool for counselors as they work with their clients.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><strong>So What Now?</strong></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p>We will continue to write on the career development process. Our writings will be research based but written in terms that will allow anyone of 7th grade or higher reading level to fully understand. The one exception to the writing level will be a series of articles concerning career development theory, history of interest inventories, conceptual additions applicable to the study of interest inventories, a review of the literature that has focused on career indecision in adolescents, and educational interventions with additional focus placed on middle schools. Career development is an individual activity that requires considerable guidance. The individual who works through the career development process will understand himself/herself more fully and will be prepared to make intelligent career decisions. Of great importance is the concept of arming individuals with this self knowledge so they might use it as many times as needed in the future as they move from one career path to another. </p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><br /></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><span style="color:#333333;"></p></span>Stephen R. Richards, EdDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04528398785993388343noreply@blogger.com0