Vocational interests of women: A longitudinal study of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank.

Conducted a longitudinal study of the SVIB using 316 female university graduates representing 7 fields: art, elementary education, home economics education, and occupational therapy; the MD degree; and the master's degree in library science and social work. The average test-retest interval was 8.4 yr. for undergraduate majors and 10.6 yr. for graduate majors. Test-retest correlation coefficients for the total group over all scales ranged from .39-.65 with a median r of .58. On the precollege SVIB, majors were significantly different from nonmajors in the expected direction on the home economics teacher, occupational therapist, and physician scales. At retest, majors were significantly different from nonmajors in the expected direction for all comparisons. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strong Vocational Interest Blank in-general samples.

Throughout the history of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB), the aggregation of "in-general" samples to represent an "average" has been of concern because an adequate in-general sample is necessary for the development of valid occupational scales for the SVIB. 6 in-general samples have been generated over the years to fit different developments of the SVIB. In the present study 20 experimental homogeneous scales were used to measure the similarities and differences among the 6 in-general samples. Generally, all samples were strikingly similar, with the greatest differences appearing between male and female in-general samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concurrent prediction from the Strong Vocational Interest Blank.

Compared the concurrent predictive accuracy of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Men (SVIB), Form T-399, for the same Ss (N = 163) on 3 sets of scales developed for the SVIB to reflect J. L. Holland's occupational-personality types: the SVIB-Holland scales, the Basic Interest scales, and the Occupational scales. Data are reported to provide comparison between the SVIB-Holland scales and Holland's Self-Directed Search with different Ss, between the Basic Interest scales and Occupational scales for the same Ss, between the criteria of single highest scale and scores above a cutoff, and between the 3 types of scales. When cutoff scores were used, the SVIB-Holland scales and the Basic Interest scales predicted occupation held for some 60% of these Ss; about 1/3 of these accurate predictions were considered to be attributable to chance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factor analysis of Strong Vocational Interest Blank items.

Attempted to identify independent interest dimensions that were equivalent across different S samples, as a first step toward mapping the vocational interest domain. The responses to 347 female form items and 357 male form items from the SVIB were obtained, using the appropriate form for the following 5 single-sex samples: women in general, men in general, female occupational, male occupational, and male rehabilitation client (Ns?=?1,000; 1,000; 2,500; 3,600, and 1,874, respectively). The SVIB items were intercorrelated separately for each sample and the correlation matrices were factored by a principal axes technique, using the highest off-diagonal correlations as communality estimates with rotation to a varimax criterion. Factors between same-sex samples were compared using Tucker's coefficient of congruence. The analyses resulted in 11–23 factors, depending on the sample, of which 9 and 8 were judged to be equivalent across the 2 female and 3 male samples, respectively. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability measures of Strong Vocational Interest Blank profiles.

For a sample of 242 freshmen, test and retest profiles on the SVIB were compared on grade changes, and letter grade and group pattern shifts, using Powers' D-score method, rank correlation, and ratings of the extent of interest changes by counselors (validity criterion). The stability measures were all significantly intercorrelated with the validity criterion (.55 to .68). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for men.

Inspection of test-retest reliability studies for the SVIB revealed that 2 factors were important when considering the stability of this instrument: Ss' initial test ages and length of test-retest intervals. To further investigate these 2 factors, median test-retest correlation coefficients were computed for over 1400 college educated males who had been tested with the SVIB at various ages and retested at varying intervals. Greater stability resulted the older the S at initial testing and the shorter the time lapse to retesting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proposed scoring changes for the Strong Vocational Interest Blank.

A study of the effect of replacing with new items 102 items in the current SVIB on the validity and reliability of the SVIB. 8 occupational groups were used. The results showed that the validity and reliability remained essentially the same after dropping the items. Also, the weighting system of the SVIB was compared with scales using unit weights. The results indicated that the unit weights keys were virtually identical to the weighted keys on 3 criteria: validity, reliability, and scale intercorrelations. Thus, the SVIB when revised should be scored using unit weight scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A verification scale for the Strong Vocational Interest Blank, Men's Form.

A new scoring procedure was constructed for the SVIB. Its purpose is to show the pattern of rare item-responses that differ from the chance pattern indicated by the shaded areas of the profile and from the scores typical of people in the various occupations. Ss were 192 freshmen at the University of Missouri. The cross-validation sample had 908 Ss. "At the present stage of development it is appropriate to recommend the V scale be included among the scales currently scored on the SVIB." From Psyc Abstracts 36:05:5LB18F. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The specialization level scale for the Strong Vocational Interest Blank.

On a specialization scale developed for the VIB to separate medical specialists from physicians-in-general, mean scores were obtained for ten occupational groups in three non-medical areas and four medical specialities. Within each area, the occupational groups ranked in the same order by specialization level mean scores as by mean educational level of their members. Research with chemists indicated that those with the Ph.D. degree could be separated by this scale from those with less specialized training. The scale did not, however, differentiate students qualifying for the M.B.A. from those who entered this training but did not complete it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal-external control of reinforcement and the Strong Vocational Interest Blank: A comparison study.

Studied the relationship between the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB), Form T399, and Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale (I-E scale). A previous study by D. G. Zytowski (see record 1967-07353-001) suggested a relationship between locus of control and occupational interest. To verify this, he correlated the SVIB with the I-E scale and concluded that such a relation did exist. Because the SVIB has been revised since Zytowski's study, a comparable study using the newer SVIB form was completed. Using a college freshman sample of 736, Pearson correlation coefficients were computed between the I-E scale and the SVIB; several correlations were significant at the .10 level; however, the largest correlation was -.16. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Occupational groupings of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank and the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory.

Occupational groupings on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) and Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) are useful for (a) extrapolating the results to nonincluded occupations in the same family and (b) judging the reliability of a high score by other scores in the same group. These purposes can be accomplished only if the groups are shown to be homogeneous. For 337 male entering college freshmen tested on the SVIB, Form T399, and 201 tested on the SCII, Form T325, average intercorrelations were calculated for occupations within existing groups and also for new groups derived from a factor-analytic study. Average intragroup correlations of .40-.79 were found for the T399, .49-.73 with the T325, and .60-.68 with the factored groups. The average of all within-groups correlations was significantly higher for the latter than for the other two. The predominant groupings of the factor study were Interpersonal Manipulation, Technical and Scientific, and Verbal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A coding system for total profile analysis of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank.

"A coding system for total profile analysis of the… [Strong Vocational Interest Blank] was proposed which would represent the elevation and shape of the interest pattern as well as have other characteristics desirable for definition, communication, filing, and research. The basic structure of the system was outlined, the steps in coding a profile were delineated, and an illustration of the procedure was given. Some possible areas of research using the coded SVIB profiles were briefly discussed." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Equivalence of the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey and the Strong Vocational Interest Blank revisited.

Median within-S correlation of scores for a total of 332 Ss on the SVIB and Kuder Occupational Interest Survey was .57, representing an increase in congruent validity from that previously obtained by traditional procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ten-year follow-up of the Tyler Vocational Card Sort and the Strong Vocational Interest Blank.

The Tyler Vocational Card Sort (TVCS) and SVIB for men were completed by 67 university students in 1965. The 1975 occupations held by 47 of these Ss were identified. The TVCS was more accurate than the SVIB, by a very small amount, in predicting occupation held 10 yrs after original testing; both methods achieved about 50% accuracy. Of the 47 Ss, 23 took the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) 10 yrs after the original testing. The reliability of the SVIB (1965) scores and the SCII (1975) scores was greater by a very small amount than that of the SVIB (1965) and the TVCS (1975) scores and that of the TVCS (1965) and TVCS (1975) scores. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probability and utility assumptions underlying use of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank.

Decision implications of E. K. Strong's (1955) assumption of equal base rates for his men-in-general and individual occupational groups are explored, using the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) Physician's scale as an example. It is demonstrated that when realistic base rates are assumed, total decision error rate using the SVIB-even when optimal cutting scores are employed-is at best about equal to that resulting from prediction using base rates alone. Use of the SVIB as recommended by Strong implicitly assumes that false negative errors are much more serious than are false positives. When "reasonable" utility or gain matrices are assumed, use of the SVIB can reduce total error rate despite the limitations imposed by low occupational base rates; this effect is greater when statistically optimal cutting scores, rather than those recommended by Strong, are used. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Chance" scores on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for men.

Strong's estimated chance score ranges on the SVIB scales are compared with the chance variance for most of the scales, computed from the assumption of zero item intercorrelations (obtained when the blank is filled out in all possible ways). "Most of the differences are small, and the positive and negative errors of estimate are about equally divided. The greatest difference is in the Aviator scale, where Strong's estimate is about 1.4 standard score points too high. This difference is significant at the 1% level as judged by the F test. Three others (Engineer, Chemist, and Y. Secretary) are significant at the 5% level." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for prediction in veterinary medicine.

Strong VIB scores (Veterinary Scale), ACE scores, and pre-veterinary grade-point averages for 61 veterinary students were compared with scores for a random sample of non-veterinary students. Within the veterinary group, there was no significant relationship between interest score and academic achievement, and academic training did not affect measured interest (based on retest with VIB after four years). Using discriminant function analysis, it was possible to predict curricular membership with a high degree of accuracy. The best predictors were the VIB Veterinary interest score and pre-veterinary grade-point average (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Real-life" faking on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank by sales applicants.

Will job applicants in real-life situations fake an interest inventory? Scores on the SVIB taken by 156 sales applicants were compared with those of 117 salesmen employed for at least 5 years. Applicants looked much more interested in Social Service and business occupations than did employed salesmen. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4LB73K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New approach to the prediction of medical specialization: Student-based Strong Vocational Interest Blank scales.

Studied longitudinal data from 1583 undergraduates in an attempt to devise means of predicting eventual specialization for medical students. Specialty membership was determined in a follow-up study 11 yr. after the SVIB was administered. SVIB scales for surgeons, obstetricians, pediatricians, and psychiatrists were developed, using the items which differentiated the specialist groups as freshmen. Senior-based scales were also tested, but predicted no better than those using freshman responses. The resulting student-based scales were reliable on retest, but on measures of distributional overlap, they did not perform as well as standard SVIB occupational scales. However, their predictive validity was superior to that of previously developed SVIB scales for medical specialists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)