Holland's personality types applied to the SVIB Basic Interest Scales

The possible relationship between Holland types and the Basic Interest Scales of the SVIB was explored. The VPI and the SVIB were administered to 432 male freshmen at the University of North Dakota. Each subject was classified into one of the six types on the basis of his highest VPI T score.Scores on the twenty-two BIS were analyzed for differences among the six personality types by means of a multiple regression equivalence of the one-way analysis of variance. Twenty-one of the 22 F tests and 19 of the Scheffe multiple Comparisons among the means were significant. The results support both Holland's typology and his hexagonal model of relationships among the types and suggest their use in the interpretation of the BIS.     

Concurrent validity and Holland's theory

This study was designed to explore two areas: (1) the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed men using four different operational definitions of vocational orientation, and (2) the relationships among all possible combinations of same named scales across the four inventories. Concurrent validity was studied by administering the Vocational Preference Inventory, the Self Directed Search, and the Holland Scales (Set I and Set II) to 153 male workers established in occupational environments consistent with Holland's six vocational environments. The results revealed that five scales of the VPI and of the Holland Scales (Set I and Set II) and four scales of the SDS successfully differentiated the occupational groups consistent with Holland's theoretical framework. The correlation coefficients for same named scales for all possible combinations of the four inventories were all found to be significant. In general, the findings of this study tend to support the concurrent validity of Holland's theory for employed men.     

Concurrent validation of Holland's hexagonal model with occupational workers

The concurrent validity of Holland's hexagonal model was tested with a sample of 362 occupational workers covering five environmental typologies. The personality type of each worker was assessed via the Self-Directed Search while the worker's environment was coded via the Occupations Finder. The results showed strong empirical support for the model in that most subjects were working in environments congruent with their personality types. However there was a lack of empirical support for the proposed relatedness among the environments in the model with regard to person-environment congruence.     

Measuring women's interests using Holland's vocational classification

A Hebrew interest inventory for females in Israel, based on Holland's 1966 1973 vocational classification, was examined on 322 female pupils and 167 working females. Results showed that: (a) with the exception of the Conventional and Enterprising fields, subjects occupied in a field had their highest interest score in that field; (b) for all six interest fields, the highest interest score was the score of those who were engaged in that field; (c) in a smallest space analysis, the activities, competencies, and occupation sections of the interest inventory formed the Investigative, Realistic, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional circular arrangement; (d) a correlation of .38 between interest score and job satisfaction was found.     

Types produce types: An examination of personality development using Holland's theory

This study was designed to test Holland's hypothesis that parents encourage the development of their own personality types in their offspring. Data were collected by personal interviews from three freshmen classes at a large midwestern university. Parent's personality types (occupations) were compared to offsprings' personality types (expressed occupational choices) using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test to determine whether or not the comparisons were due to chance. The results indicated that relationships existed between the personality types of fathers-sons, fathers-daughters and mothers-daughters while no relationship was confirmed between mothers-sons.     

A comparison of Holland's model using constructs measured by two different methods

The relationship was studied between the set of constructs specified by Holland's 1973 theory (viz, Realistic, Intellectual, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) measured by an Adjective List (AL) derived from Holland's theory and the same set of constructs as measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI). The correspondence of the two measures of Holland's model compared the distances between the constructs as measured by the AL and the constructs measured by the VPI in factor space using an adaptation of a model testing procedure reported by Wakefield and Doughtie 1973. The subjects were 174 undergraduates at a state university. The correspondence between the two separate measures of Holland's model was significant (p < .01). These results provide further support of the construct validity of Holland's theory and offer evidence that the relationships hypothesized by the theory are not tied to any one particular method of measurement.     

Holland's theory and non-college-degreed working men and women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences between men and women employed in traditional male occupations using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and the SDS were administered to 103 male and female non-college-degreed workers in three occupations (bus-taxi drivers, police officers, and car sales agents) corresponding to three of Holland's environmental categories (Realistic, Social, and Enterprising). In general, the results indicate that the VPI and SDS scales to some extent discriminate among occupational groups, but expected patterns do not always occur within and between occupational groups.     

The predictive efficiency of Holland's SDS summary codes in terms of career choice: A four-year follow-up

This study was designed to investigate the predictive efficiency of the primary and secondary summary codes of Holland's Self-Directed Search for Educational and Vocational Planning (SDS) in terms of expressed career choice 4 years later. In 1974, 126 voiationally undecided high school seniors were given the SDS, followed by a revision of Trow's Vocational Choice Inventory (VCI) in which they were asked to express a career choice or a state of indecision. In 1978, this same group was mailed a posttest VCI; the responses of 84 subjects were then analyzed. The subjects' expressed career choices on both the 1974 and 1978 VCI were compared to the primary and secondary summary codes on the SDS which they had taken in 1974. Inspection of the responses indicated that 21.4% of the subjects had made career choices predicted by their primary summary codes and 51.2% had made vocational choices found among their secondary summary codes. Only 27.4% chose a career area not predicted by their 1974 SDS results. The results of this study appear to lend support to the validity of using the SDS summary codes to predict eventual career decisions.     

Extending Holland's theory to the later years

Sixty-five men and women, aged 50 to 88 years, completed Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and a work history questionnaire. Each participant was assigned one-letter Holland personality type codes for his or her first full-time job, longest full-time job, last job (if retired) or present job (if employed), and hobbies. In general, VPI scale scores and high point codes were consistent with the occupational codes but less consistent with the hobby code. The usefulness of Holland's vocational theory to the aged population is discussed.     

A test of Holland's theory in a population of accountants

The study examined the SDS scales and work attitudes of 1952 Canadian Chartered Accountants (Anglophones and Francophones) and Californian Certified Public Accountants. Combinations of C, E, and S were found the most frequent personality patterns, and they constitute 27.8% of the total population. Scores on these types were positively related to organizational and professional commitments, as well as to vocational satisfaction. The level of congruence was positively correlated with the vocational criteria only in the American sample. The consistency level correlated with professional commitment in the Francophone sample, whereas the differentiation score showed mixed results.     

The applicability of Holland's typology to clients

Holland, 1966, Holland, 1973 has generated a vast amount of research seeking to validate or to challenge the hexagonal model and the associated constructs of consistency and differentiation. A review of the studies related to Holland's typology, however, reveals a very small number of studies with clients as subjects. The present study was an evaluation of Holland's model using the General Occupational Themes of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) (D. P. Campbell & J. C. Hansen, Manual for the SVIB-SCII, 3rd ed., Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1981) obtained from college students who had sought vocational counseling. The use of the hexagonal model as a framework for the interpretation of relationships among the SCII General Occupational Themes was supported, and the SCII was found to be a valid instrument for vocational counseling in a client population.     

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.     

Holland's theory and non-college-degreed working black and white women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences between black and white American women employed in traditional female occupations who took the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and the SDS were administered to 110 black and white non-college-degreed workers in three occupations (laboratory technicians, sales clerks, and clerk-typists) corresponding to three of Holland's environmental categories (Investigative, Enterprising, and Conventional). In general, the findings for the three VPI and SDS scales and for these six occupational groups are mixed. On the SDS scales, findings indicate that black and white women in the same occupation seem to be far more similar than different. On the scales of the VPI, however, white and black women in the same occupation seem to be more different than similar.     

The predictive validity of Holland's construct of consistency

Holland's construct of consistency was studied for its predictive validity of certain measures of vocational stability. A new measure of consistency used was the difference between two plotted vocational choices on the American College Testing Program's Map of College Majors which 1248 subjects expressed while in high school. This consistency index was found to have no relationship with the similarity of the same subjects' beginning and ending college majors, also measured as a distance on the Map of College Majors. Additionally, no relationship was found to exist between the consistency index and number of college major changes, the number of course withdrawals, academic performance, and scholastic aptitude.     

Holland's theory and college-degreed working black and white women

The main concern of this study was to investigate differences between black and white women employed in traditional male occupations who took the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and the SDS were administered to 155 black and white college-degreed workers in three occupations (engineering, medicine, and law) corresponding to three of Holland's environmental categories (Realistic Investigative, and Enterprising). In general, the findings for the three VPI and SDS scales for these occupational groups indicate that white women when compared to black women in the same occupation tend to report similar mean raw scores.     

The accuracy of self-administration and scoring on Holland's Self-Directed Search

This study assesed the extent to which Ss commit various types of errors when completing Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) entirely on their own. Nearly all Ss made some type of error and approximately half of the Ss made errors which affected their final three-letter summary codes. Almost one-fifth of the Ss made errors resulting in an incorrect high-point code. Whether or not Ss made errors that affected their summary codes was unrelated to the extent to which they were interested in knowing more about occupations or academic majors they might like. Neither were such errors related to whether Ss felt the occupations suggested by their summary codes seemed reasonable. Only slightly over one-third the Ss actually did feel that the occupations seemed reasonable.     

Personality correlates of Holland's occupational types: A cross cultural study

Recent studies have investigated the personality traits of persons in Holland's six occupational categories. In the present study the generalizability of Holland's characterizations of adults within the occupational categories was investigated in a group of 402 Mexican-Americans. Occupational Scale scores on the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey were used to classify subjects into Holland's occupational types. Multiple discriminant analysis of groups' Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey scale scores resulted in significant overall groups differentiation and two significant discriminant functions for males but no significant results for females. The personality characteristics of the male groups provide strong support for the generalizability of Holland's characterizations to Mexican-American males.     

Beyond the high point code in testing Holland's theory

This study was designed to test and expand Holland's vocational development theory by utilizing more than a single high point code in classification of personality patterns of jobs. Significant positive results were obtained to support Holland's premise that people search out environments and, hence, vocations that are compatible with their personalities. A more “refined” and/or “subtle” difference was shown in the personality-job relationships when two high point codes were used.     

Vocational maturity and its relationship to Holland's theory of vocational choice

The major purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of vocational maturity with Holland's theory of vocational choice. Specifically, Holland's constructs of consistency, differentiation, and congruency, along with demographic factors of sex and age were examined in relation to vocational maturity. Subjects were students enrolled in high- and midconsistency level programs in two post-secondary institutions. Holland's Occupational Finder, Canadian Classification and Dictionary of Occupations, and Dictionary of Occupational Titles were used to determine program selection, and the Vocational Preference Inventory and the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale were used to identify personality type and vocational maturity. Congruency and age related significantly to vocational maturity. Significant differences also occurred within both personality and program typologies.