Extending Holland's theory to adult women

The potential of Holland's theory for use in the vocational guidance of adult women depends in part on more validity data with regard to the conceptual meaningfulness of the constructs. This study reports the findings of a correlative analysis between scores on Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), which measures the six “styles”, and selected scales on four criterion tests predicted in advance to be related to the VPI. The findings for this sample of adult women indicate strong evidence for the validity of the Intellectual, Conventional and Enterprising “styles”, but questions are raised with regard to the meaningfulness of the Realistic, Social, and Artistic types.     

Repetition of cues in children's oddity learning and transfer

The hypothesis that repetition of specific cues interferes with oddity learning was directly tested by comparing two groups of preschool (3 to 5 years of age) children, one with repeated cues and the other with new cues on every trial. Repetition of cues retarded oddity learning confirming previous speculation based on error analyses. Performance on postsolution transfer trials with repeated cues was not affected by conditions of acquisition. Significant age effects were found in oddity acquisition, while there was only weak evidence for agerelated performance differences on transfer trials. Transfer performance on trials with repetition of cues was not related to whether or not the children were informed of such repetition. The results were related to theories of oddity acquisition and transfer.     

Occupational mobility as measured by Holland's theory of career selection

This study examined the occupational mobility of men ages 45–59 as measured by Holland's theory of career selection and its relationship to men in the work force. Stability was discussed in two distinct ways: (1) stability within a job, and (2) stability in the kind of work a man does over a career. In his research Holland concluded that Realistic and Investigative personality types would change personality type less often and have more stable job choices in comparison to other personality types. The results of this study supported these findings to some extent, but also concluded that stability in a personality type was strongly influenced by the number of jobs available in a particular personality type and the structure of the labor market demand. In addition the results showed that psychological concepts seem to be more important in changing jobs than in selecting initial jobs.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for college-degreed black women

This study, using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self Directed Search (SDS), explored the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college-degreed black women. The VPI and SDS were administered to 93 black women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. The results revealed that four scales of the VPI and five scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical notions. In general, the findings lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college-degreed black women.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for non-college-degreed black women

This study, using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS), explored the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed non-college-degreed black women. The VPI and the SDS were administered to 102 black women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. The results revealed that four scales of the VPI and four scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical notions. In general, the findings lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed non-college-degreed black women.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for non-college-degreed working women

This study, using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS), explored the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed non-college-degreed women. The VPI and SDS were administered to 114 women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's vocational environments. The results revealed that three scales of the VPI and five scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical notions. In general, the findings lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed non-college-degreed women.     

Concurrent validity of Holland's theory for college degreed working women

The study was designed to explore two areas: (1) the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college degreed women using two different operational definitions (Vocational Preference Inventory and the Self-Directed Search) of vocational orientation; and (2) the relationships among same named scales across the VPI and the SDS. Concurrent validity was studied by administering the VPI and the SDS to 179 women workers in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. In general, the findings indicate that the VPI and SDS scales tend to effectively discriminate among the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical framework. In addition, the correlation coefficients for same named scales for the two inventories were all found to be significant. In sum, the results of the study lend some support to the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed college degreed women.     

Factors within the 1969 SVIB for women and relationships to Holland's theory

The Basic Interest Scales (BIS) and the Occupational Scales (O-S) of the revised Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Women (TW 398) were assigned Holland codes, and component scores for the BIS and O-S were separately developed, intercorrelated, and evaluated along with standardized composite scores representing each of the 11 O-S Groups on the profile. The dimensionality of the BIS and O-S was similar, and similar in number to Holland's theory, but the components were only partially congruent. Some profile Groups provided relatively good representations of BIS and/or Occupational scale components, and the grouping of the O-S provided important information not otherwise readily available. Holland's dimensions are not uniformly represented in either the BIS or O-S, and despite some similarities, fundamental problems of compatibility appeared to exist in relating the structure of this instrument to Holland's formulations. Women's interests are in need of independent study.     

The factor structure of the Vocational Preference Inventory for black and white college students

This study investigated whether the variables measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) were the same for both black and white students. Kaiser et al. (1969) have noted that the same measurements used with different populations may not measure the same variables and have presented a method of determining the degree of correspondence in the two populations. In the present study, the VPI scores for a group of black students and a group of white students were factor analyzed separately and the black structure was rotated to correspond to the white structure. The correspondence between the variables measured by the VPI for black and white students was found to be very similar. This is to say that the VPI measures the same variables for both black and white college students.     

Academic achievement: An examination of Holland's congruency,consistency, and differentiation predictions

This investigation tested three predictions derived from Holland's (1973) theory of vocational development regarding academic achievement. Groups of 392 male and 424 female entering college freshmen were typed using the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and were categorized in terms of congruency, consistency, and differentiation. Freshmen with congruent college major choices or with definite majors but indefinite Holland orientations enjoyed greater academic success than students who specified incongruent choices or no definite major choice. Students with personality codes of high or low consistency outperformed students with moderately consistent codes. Freshmen males with differentiated personal orientations achieved higher grade point averages than males having nondifferentiated personality profiles. For females, differentiation was not significant. In all sex comparisons female trends paralleled male trends and females generally outperformed males. Implications for vocational development and counseling were discussed in the context of Holland's theory.     

Humphreys's attenuated test of Spearman's hypothesis

Humphreys's test of Spearman's hypothesis (viz., that the size of the standardized black-white differences on various psychometric tests is positively related to the tests' loadings on g, the general intelligence factor) is methodologically weak. It is based on comparison of a fairly representative sample of the black population of U.S. school children with a highly selected sample of the white school population, representing the lowest 15 to 20% of whites in socio-economic status (SES). A fair test of the hypothesis requires that the black and white samples should not be selected on any g-correlated variable, such as SES. Selection attenuates and distorts the relationship between tests' g loadings and the magnitude of the standardized mean black-white differences on the tests. Other unorthodox conditions in Humphreys's study, such as performing factor analysis on the test-score means of various arbitrary demographic groups instead of on individual test scores inflates tests' g loadings and biases the test of Spearman's hypothesis by restriction of reliable variance in g loadings. Humphreys's study cannot be considered a proper replication of Jensen's examination of Spearman's hypothesis in 11 different studies comprising 74 different tests, which consistently bears out Spearman's hypothesis.     

Young children's free responses to anomalous commands

Twelve children, 21–34 months old, six in R. Brown's Stage I and six in Stages II and III, responded to commands varying in length, grammaticality, and meaning. All of the children responded significantly less often when the commands were situationally anomalous and/or ungrammatical. Results failed to replicate the results of E. Shipley, E. Smith, and L. Gleitman (Language, 1969, 44, 332–342) and J. Wetstone and B. Friedlander (Child Development, 1973, 44, 743–750). The results also suggest that young children rely heavily upon situational cues in their earliest comprehension of adult speech, and this supports arguments made by J. Strohner and K. Nelson (Child Development, 45, 567–576) and R. Chapman and J. Miller (Journal of Speech and Hearing, 1975, 18, 355–371). Since subjects rely upon nonlinguistic cues to respond appropriately, syntactic competence cannot be inferred from apparent comprehension.     

The fit between Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory General Occupational Themes and Holland's hexagonal model

Using a multidimensional scaling procedure, the present study examined the fit of Holland's RIASEC hexagon model to the internal relationships among the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) General Occupational Theme scales. SCII intercorrelation matrices for both sexes as reported in the SCII Manual were submitted, separately for each sex, to TORSCA 9 nonmetric scaling analysis. The Wakefield and Doughtie procedure was used to compare obtained TORSCA coordinates with expectations from Holland's hexagonal model. As a comparison, identical analyses were performed on Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) scale intercorrelation matrices, these data having originally served as the basis for advancing the utility of the hexagon model. For females, the SCII-hexagon fit was not good, with a near reversal of the Social and Enterprising scales. For males, the SCII-hexagon fit was good. For either SCII or VPI scales, the female data met expectations from Holland's model less often than the male data. A replication study on SCII data for 305 female clients of a vocational assessment clinic confirmed the previously observed sex differences. Sex differences in the structure of vocational preferences are discussed.     

A probe trial procedure for the study of children's discrimination learning and transfer

A discrimination reversal problem was presented to 192 children varying in age from 3 to 5 years. At the end of both the initial learning and transfer trials, probe trials were introduced to ascertain the response rule describing children's choices. Results were analyzed in terms of a binary division of the children according to their responses to the probe stimuli; children who responded errorlessly (concept responders) were contrasted with children who made errors on the probes (instance responders). Using this criterion, it was found that many children transferred in a way different from the way they learned the initial problem. There was no difference in the proportion of younger and older children responding conceptually to the original problem, but older children were more likely to transfer conceptually when standard geometric blocks were used as stimuli. Future studies must consider the possiblity that learning and transfer may be accomplished by different processes whose application differs with age, the nature of the stimuli, and the stage of training.     

College major and career choice: A retest of Holland's theory

In an effort to examine whether the previously established relationship between vocational choice and self-ratings on Holland's personality stereotypes among college freshmen would be strengthened with a sample of male college seniors, 109 subjects, sampled on the basis of major field choice, completed a questionnaire to select career stereotypes which described them best. The relationship between self-ratings and academic major was also to be examined. Significant relationships were obtained for four stereotypes (realistic, conventional, enterprising, and artistic) on the basis of both major and vocational choice, although significant stereotypes were not identical in each. Three of these significant relationships based on vocational choice matched those obtained previously. An additional finding suggested that vocational choice was slightly more valid than major field as a basis for utilizing this technique. The more restricted class sample emphasized did not, however, produce a more substantial relationship between self-ratings and occupational choice as expected.     

Comparison of the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for men and women in an enterprising occupation

This study examined the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for men and women employed in an enterprising occupation. Using Holland-theme scores obtained from both the Self-Directed Search (SDS) and the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), the degree of personality-environment correspondence and the relationships of personality type to job satisfaction were examined in a sample of 45 male and 43 female sales managers. In general, the findings suggested that, at least within an employed sample, Holland's theory is valid for women as well as for men. Using both the SDS and the SCII, women and men obtained their highest scores on the enterprising theme, and the mean E-theme scores of women were at least as high as were those of men. Significant sex differences on the Realistic, Artistic, and Social scales, found using SDS scores and SCII standard scores, were in the direction of generally-found sex differences. Both men and women were highly satisfied with their jobs, and moderate relationships between job satisfaction and enterprising and social scores were also found. While the results of this study suggest optimism regarding the theoretical and practical utility of Holland's theory for women as well as for men, differences in results as a function of different instruments and scoring methods suggest the need for further studies of this kind.     

Relationships between the Vocational Preference Inventory and the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule

The Vocational Preference Inventory and the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule were administered to 372 undergraduates. The two instruments were compared using canonical analysis. The analysis revealed three significant relationships between components of the two instruments. The relationships were viewed as supportive of Holland's theory of personality types.     

The Vocational Preference Inventory scores and environmental preferences

This study investigated the relationship between vocational interest as measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory and preferences of 175 undergraduates for structured or unstructured environments. Males having clear-cut preferences for structured situations had significantly higher Realistic-Conventional scores than those not having those preferences (p < .05). Additionally, males with structured preferences had significantly lower Social-Artistic scores (p < .025). Results for females were similar, but not statistically significant. Males also had significantly higher (p < .01) Realistic-Conventional scores than females. The significant relationships between VPI scores and preferences for structured and unstructured situations support Holland's contention that interest scores are expressions of personality needs.     

Related factors of the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes and the Vocational Preference Inventory

The Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA) and the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) were administered to 100 undergraduates. The scales of the two instruments were compared using canonical analysis. The analysis revealed a relationship between a component of the SSHA and a component of the VPI which accounted for 31% of the variance of the two instruments. The related components were interpreted as indicating that a dimension running from an academic orientation to a nonacademic orientation was measured by certain scales of each instrument.