Structure of interests in employed male and female members of US racial-ethnic minority and nonminority groups.

This study explored the structure of interests across large samples of employed U.S. racial-ethnic minority and nonminority adults drawn from over 38,000 individuals who were part of the 1994 revision of the Strong Interest Inventory (SII; L. W. Harmon, J. C. Hansen, F. H. Borgen, & A. C. Hammer, 1994; N?=?805 African Americans, 795 Asian Americans, 36,632 Caucasians, and 686 Latinos-Hispanics). Correlation matrices from the general occupational themes of the SII were subjected to 2 analyses commonly used in structural analyses of Holland's themes: randomization test of hypothesized order relations and multidimensional scaling. Analyses tested whether the data fit the circular and equidistant hexagonal structure models. All of the data fit the circular model that corresponds to Holland's calculus assumption, but the data for women and for some of the male racial-ethnic groups did not fit the more stringent equidistant hexagonal structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of the 1994 Strong Interest Inventory with racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

During the revision of the 1994 Strong Interest Inventory (SII; Harmon, Hansen, Borgen & Hammer, 1994), information was obtained about the race–ethnicity and careers of over 55,000 employed adults in 50 different occupations. The national norm group, the general reference sample, contains 18,789 individuals who identified their race–ethnicity in the following manner: 378 African Americans; 363 Asian Americans; 17,365 Caucasian Americans; 349 Hispanic Americans/Latinos (Latinas); and 77 Native Americans/American Indians. Concurrent validity across racial–ethnic groups was examined by typing their 50 occupations into the appropriate Holland (1997) job family. Then the General Occupational Themes, the SII scales corresponding to Holland's (1997) 6 vocational personality types, were examined for their ability to predict Holland (1997) job family in similar ways for the different racial–ethnic groups. Results generally showed comparable validity and interpretive counseling implications in using the SII with these racial–ethnic groups. Some interesting trends and important limitations were also noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cluster analyses of interest inventory scales as tests of Holland's occupational classification.

Compared J. L. Holland's occupational categories with groups of occupations that resulted from the application of L. L. McQuitty and J. A. Clark's iterative intercolumnar correlational analysis to the scales of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank, the Minnesota Vocational Interest Inventory, and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey for men and women. Results indicate that clusters of occupations exist that are internally consistent, and these usually agreed with the groups of occupations in Holland's classification. The hierarchical structure of the clusters followed the hexagonal ordering of Holland's occupational categories suggested in other studies. In addition, the usefulness of all 3 letters in Holland's occupational classification was supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership perceptions as a function of race–occupation fit: The case of Asian Americans.

On the basis of the connectionist model of leadership, we examined perceptions of leadership as a function of the contextual factors of race (Asian American, Caucasian American) and occupation (engineering, sales) in 3 experiments (1 student sample and 2 industry samples). Race and occupation exhibited differential effects for within- and between-race comparisons. With regard to within-race comparisons, leadership perceptions of Asian Americans were higher when race–occupation was a good fit (engineer position) than when race–occupation was a poor fit (sales position) for the two industry samples. With regard to between-race comparisons, leadership perceptions of Asian Americans were low relative to those of Caucasian Americans. Additionally, when race–occupation was a good fit for Asian Americans, such individuals were evaluated higher on perceptions of technical competence than were Caucasian Americans, whereas they were evaluated lower when race–occupation was a poor fit. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that race affects leadership perceptions through the activation of prototypic leadership attributes (i.e., implicit leadership theories). Implications for the findings are discussed in terms of the connectionist model of leadership and leadership opportunities for Asian Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of interests and Asian-American college students.

Unweighted multidimensional scaling (MDS) analyses were used to investigate whether J. L. Holland's (1985) theoretical structure of interests described the interest structures for 2 cultural groups and for genders within those groups. The intercorrelation matrices of the Strong Interest Inventory General Occupational Themes, for 168 Asian-American (mean age 20.5 yrs) and 285 White-American (mean age 20.7 yrs) university students, were submitted separately to MDS analysis. Metric, 2-dimensional solutions for each sample demonstrated that a circumplex structure underlay the interest domain for all 4 groups. Results were mixed in support of the hexagonal structure and the Realistic–Investigative–Artistic–Social–Enterprising–Conventional ordering suggested by Holland's theory. Possible explanations and implications of these results are discussed within the context of existing research on Asian cultural thought and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability of Holland codes across interest measures for adult females.

Derived 8 3-letter codes representing J. L. Holland's (1973) personality types from 3 inventories: the Self-Directed Search, the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (3 types of scales), and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (4 types of scales) for each of 52 adult women. Comparisons between codes derived from these sources revealed that agreement between any 2 sources of codes was varied. Some pairs agreed to the extent that the 3 letters of the codes were the same although not in the same order; others agreed to the extent that the 1st 2 letters matched 2 from the other. Findings support Holland's injunction to consider all codes that may be derived from the 3 highest ranking types rather than to limit consideration to occupations related to the code in only the order produced by the instrument. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

College women's Holland-theme congruence: Effects of self-knowledge and subjective occupational structure.

Examined personality/occupational choice congruence as a function of self-knowledge of personality and consistency of occupational perceptions with a task-oriented hexagonal model of work proposed by J. L. Holland (1966, 1973), using 94 female undergraduates. Ss completed the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) to measure Holland personality and a self-ranking on the 6 Holland themes to measure self-knowledge. Ss expressed perceived similarities among the 6 Holland occupational environments by rating all possible pairs of the types on a numerical similarity/dissimilarity scale. Convergence between S's self-ranking of personality and her SCII-derived personality profile defined self-knowledge. Correlation between S's similarity ratings among pairs of environments and distances in Holland's hexagon determined the degree to which perceptions were consistent with a hexagonal model. Results indicate a significant relation between congruence and both self-knowledge and hexagonal subjective occupational structure. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relatedness of the Holland-grouped Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory Occupational Scale placements.

The Occupational scales of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) have been placed into broad interest categories that are based on J. L. Holland's (1973) system. These placements are important in the process of SCII interpretation; scales that are placed together may be interpreted as if they were related statistically as well as conceptually. The assumption of a statistical relationship may or may not be valid. The present study estimated the relatedness of those placements according to empirical and theoretical criteria for 87 female undergraduates. The empirical criterion was based on the Occupational scale intercorrelations within each Holland category. The theoretical criterion was based on Holland's occupational codes listed in the Occupations Finder. Occupational scales were identified as related or discrepant by one or both of the study criteria. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural differences in optimism, pessimism, and coping: Predictors of subsequent adjustment in Asian American and Caucasian American college students.

Cultural differences were examined between 111 Asian American and 111 Caucasian American students matched on age and sex in a prospective design study. Using separate optimism and pessimism scores, Asian Americans were found to be more pessimistic than Caucasian Americans. Asian Americans were also found to use more problem avoidance and social withdrawal coping strategies than Caucasian Americans. When health outcomes were assessed 6 weeks later, Asian Americans were found to report more depressive and psychological symptoms, but not more physical symptoms, than Caucasian Americans. Results of separate regression analyses for each ethnic group indicated that along with different coping strategies, lack of optimism predicted all 3 health outcomes for Asian Americans, whereas pessimism predicted 2 of the 3 health outcomes for Caucasian Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigating the Validity of Holland's (1959, 1997) RIASEC Typology Among Native Hawaiians.

The present study extends the literature base that is answering the call to examine the validity of J. L. Holland's (1959, 1997) 6 types of themes (realistic [R], investigative [I], artistic [A], social [S], enterprising [E], and conventional [C]) in his typology when applied to populations that are culturally different from the populations with whom the typology was developed. Native Hawaiians (N=156), a group not previously investigated, completed a personal demographics form and the Strong Interest Inventory (L. W. Harmon, J. C. Hansen, F. H. Borgen, & A. L. Hammer, 1994). The construct validity of Holland's typology was supported in that Holland's vocational interest types were arranged in a circular R-I-A-S-E-C order. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural invariance of vocational interests across Japanese and American cultures.

Two samples of college students (Japanese, N?=?373; American, N?=?401) were given the Inventory of Occupational Preferences (T. J. G. Tracey & J. Rounds, 1996a), and the structural invariance across cultures was examined at the item and at various scale levels. Correlations of principal-components factor loadings demonstrated that the item structure was similar across cultures. Three separate scale structures were examined: Holland's six-type circular model, Tracey and Round's eight-type circular model, and Tracey and Round's spherical representation. The fit of the six-type and spherical models to the Japanese sample was significantly worse than their fit to the U.S. sample. There were no differences in cross-cultural fit for the eight-type model. Few structure differences were found between and within genders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Universality of vocational interest structure among racial and ethnic minorities.

Some multicultural theory holds that it is quite possible for subgroups within the United States to have such divergent thought patterns from the White majority that mainstream psychological inventories are inappropriate measures. Differences in the circular structure of J. L. Holland's (1959, 1997) Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional vocational interests were investigated across racial and ethnic groups (African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Caucasians; N?=?49,450), separated by sex. Three-way individual-differences scaling revealed that the 10 groups' responses reflected a markedly similar underlying structure, consistent with conventional interpretations of vocational interest patterns. The common structure of vocational interests is theoretically related to R. R. McCrae and P. T. Costa's (1997) claim of personality structure as a universal. (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)     

Holland personality types and academic achievement.

J. Holland (1973) viewed vocational choices, preferences, and achievements as functions of personality and contended that individuals can be categorized into 1 of 6 basic personality types: realistic (R), investigative (I), artistic (A), social (S), enterprising (E), and conventional (C). Holland's primary code types for 323 male and 352 female college freshman were assessed using the 6 General Occupational Theme scale scores of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. First-semester GPAs for each code type and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores served as criterion indices. Mixed support merged for Holland's prediction. Using primary personality types alone as the predictor of 1st-semester college GPA had some validity for males only. Although both I, S, A, and C males and females achieved the highest GPAs, the observed ordering of the groups did not conform with Holland's prediction. When SAT Total scores were examined, differences among the types emerged for both sexes. On this variable, I and A males achieved higher scores than S, E, or Tied types. Analogous with the GPA findings, A males appeared superior to the R types, whom Holland predicted to be the lowest achievers. I females obtained the highest mean SAT Total score, as predicted by Holland. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The geometric relationship between Holland's personality typology and the Vocational Preference Inventory for blacks.

Administered Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory to 115 black undergraduates. The 1st 6 scales of the inventory were tested for correspondence to J. L. Holland's personality theory using a method recently presented by J. A. Wakefield and E. B. Doughtie (see record 1974-08049-001). The scales for the black Ss corresponded generally to Holland's model but not as well as they do for white Ss. 3 weaknesses in the correspondence between the scales of black students and Holland's model were identified. The Realistic and Intellectual scales were not as closely associated to Holland's model for blacks as for whites; the Social and Enterprising scales were not as closely associated; and the Conventional and Intellectual scales were not as closely associated as they are in Holland's model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating Holland's and Gati's vocational-interest models: A structural meta-analysis.

In a recent review, I. Gati (1991) criticized J. L. Holland's model of vocational interests and concluded that his own hierarchical model was superior. A major problem with Gati's comparison of his and Holland's models was that it was based on an incomplete specification of Holland's model. The relative validity of Holland's order and circumplex models and Gati's 3-group partition model as they fit 104 published (1965–1989) correlation matrices is evaluated. Using 3 separate structural meta-analytic techniques (L. Hubert & P. Arabie's, 1987, randomization test of hypothesized order relations, confirmatory factor analysis, and individual-differences cluster analysis), the fit of Holland's and Gati's models to the data were compared. Holland's order and circumplex models were found to be adequate representations of the structure of vocational personalities and work environments, and were found to be superior to Gati's model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Occupational preference and the validity of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory for college men and women.

Validity studies of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank have produced consistent results with male samples; to compare validity for females and males on the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), 232 female and 386 male undergraduates took the SCII and a satisfaction measure 3? yrs after initial testing with the SCII. Using the McArthur method (see record 1955-06355-001), excellent predictive validity (good hit) was evidenced for 42.5% of females and 59.3% of males in the direct-hit category. Concurrent validities were 58.0% and 64.0%, respectively. A MANOVA revealed differences among good-hit, poor-hit, and clean-miss groups on satisfaction, perceived congruence, and J. L. Holland's theoretical signs (see Pa, Vol 58:6452). Limitations with respect to the comparability of male and female validity data and the selection of a follow-up criterion for females are discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The geometric relationship between Holland's personality typology and the Vocational Preference Inventory.

Administered Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory to 373 undergraduates. The 11 scales of the inventory were intercorrelated and factor analyzed. 6 common factors were obtained: (a) Conventional Economic, (b) Feminine, Social, (c) Social Desirability, (d) Material World Orientation, (e) Status, and (f) Artistic. The distances between each pair of the 6 personality types in the 6-dimensional space defined by the common factors were computed and compared with Holland's 1971 hexagonal model of the relationships among the 6 types. The placement of the 6 personality types in 6-dimensional space by the factor analysis corresponded closely to Holland's model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On measuring the vocational interests of women.

Examined the structure of women's interests as shown by the SVIB, the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey, Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory, and the American College Testing Vocational Interest Profile. Analyses of the interrelationship of scales and of the interest patterns of women selecting various occupations support the similarity of the structure of women's interests to the structure previously found for men. It is suggested that this information be used to provide women with information about more and more diverse career options than are now commonly available. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)