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Article Excerpt
The present research indicated substantial variation within the 5 RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) profiles obtained by each of 99 individuals who responded to the same 5 interest inventories. The authors concluded that the RIASEC indicators on each inventory probably reflect different portions of the trait complexes denoted by the RIASEC types. Furthermore, some amount of the intraindividual differences in RIASEC profiles may be attributable to each participant's degree of "traitedness."
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Counselors often use vocational interest inventories to identify the dominant occupational interests of their clients. In interpreting the scores from these inventory results, the client and counselor attempt to determine a group of educational and vocational alternatives that merit further exploration and information gathering before settling on a few alternatives from which to choose. The most common means of assessing and interpreting vocational interests organizes scale scores into Holland's framework of vocational personality types and work environments for matching people and occupations (Holland, 1997). Several prominent interest inventories have incorporated Holland's RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) typology into their interpretive reports (e.g., the Self-Directed Search [SDS; Holland, Fritsche, & Powell, 1994]; the Strong Interest Inventory [SII; Harmon, Hansen, Borgen, & Hammer, 1994]; the Revised Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory [UNIACT-R; ACT, 1995]). A few other inventories provide methods to convert broad interest patterns into the RIASEC typology (e.g., the Campbell Interest and Skills Survey [CISS; Campbell, Hyne, & Nilsen, 1992] and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey [KOIS; Kuder & Zytowski, 1991]).
Because vocational interest inventories have largely conformed to the RIASEC typology as a means of conceptualizing broad interest patterns, it seems that each of them should produce similar RIASEC profiles for the same individual. In fact, scores from the above-mentioned vocational interest inventories do show at least a modest degree of convergent validity. Savickas, Taber, and Spokane (2002) reported that the median correlation of RIASEC scores from different inventories correlated about .50 and that the RIASEC scales from the particular set of five inventories used in the present study correlate about. 60.
Although relations between these sets of RIASEC scales for groups of individuals are largely sound, questions still remain. For instance, although it is known that operational definitions of the same RIASEC constructs on different interest inventories show convergence at the level of groups, it is not known whether individuals receive similar RIASEC profiles from different inventories. Given a median correlation of .60, counselors can expect some variation in RIASEC profiles for the same client when using different interest inventories. Most counselors would assume that this variation would be minor, yet to our knowledge, the question has not been examined empirically. Thus, the present research investigated the amount of variation in RIASEC profiles that can occur within individuals by examining the agreement of RIASEC profiles for the same individuals across five different interest inventories. In short, we sought to determine how accurately different inventories produce the same results for individuals.
METHOD
Participants
Participants were conference attendees at a biennial conference of the Society for Vocational Psychology, which focused on vocational interests. As a part of the registration process, participants completed five interest inventories: the CISS (Campbell et al., 1992), the KOIS (Kuder & Zytowski, 1991), the SDS (Holland et al., 1994), the SII (Harmon et al., 1994), and the UNIACT-R (ACT, 1995). The data participants submitted were anonymous but did indicate their sex and occupation. Of the 150 conference participants, 118 (80 women, 38 men) agreed to submit their interest inventory results for use in subsequent studies. Of those who submitted their interest inventory results, 19 did not complete all five inventories and were dropped from the analysis. The sample thus consisted of 99 participants (66 women, 33 men). Some 44.4% (n = 44) of the participants in the study identified themselves as career counselors, 41.4% (n = 41) identified themselves as career counseling researchers and teachers, 9.1% (n = 9) listed their primary occupation as "other," and 5.1% (n = 5) did not specify their occupation.
Measures
The present study compared scales on five interest inventories: CISS (Campbell et al., 1992); KOIS Form DD (Kuder & Zytowski, 1991); SDS Form R (Holland et al., 1994); SII, Skills Confidence Edition (Harmon et al., 1994); and the UNIACT-R (ACT, 1995). Complete technical data appear in the manuals just cited and are briefly summarized therein.
CISS (Campbell et al., 1992). The CISS consists of 320 items that...
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