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Introduction to the special issue on interest measurement.

Article Excerpt
The five articles chosen for this special issue on interest measurement represent themes that we felt were worthy of consideration. In our original call for articles, we asked that topics include material on interests and leisure, interests of lower socioeconomic status clients, interests and multiculturalism, validation of interest measurement, online interest assessment, interest assessment and constructivism, interest assessment over the life span, and responsibilities for consequential validity. We were not disappointed; many fine papers were contributed and those that were eventually chosen addressed a majority of these topics. The articles illustrate different emphases in interest assessment, including validity and logical positivism, postmodernism, contextualism, and meaning making in career choice.

The utility of interest inventory data is naturally dependent on evidence of its validity based on empirical research along with clinical use of the inventory. The long-term predictability of interest measures has been enormously important to consumers and counselors alike and, of course, will continue to be. Harrington's (2006) work has been included in this special issue because it addresses the long-term predictive validity of the interest inventory portion of the Harrington-O'Shea Career Decision-Making System (CDM; 1980, 1992, 2003) that was developed in 1975. Long-term follow-up studies (Campbell, 1966; Strong, 1955; Zytowski, 1976) of the predictive nature of interest inventories have been far too rare in the literature on interest inventories, and both Harrington and Rottinghaus and Zytowski (2006) advocate for more longitudinal investigations. Harrington's work, using a longitudinal hit rate approach summarized by Hood...

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