John L. Holland

Exploring Careers with a Typology. What We Have Learned and Some New Directions.

Hollands (1985a) typology of persons and environments is outlined, and support for the theory as an explanation of stability and change in careers and work satisfaction is summarized. Studies show that people flourish in their work environment when there is a good fit between their personality type and the characteristics of the environment. Lack of congruence between personality and environment leads to dissatisfaction, unstable career paths, and lowered performance. The results of recent research designed to strengthen the explanatory power of Hollands typology and link it to the Big Five personality factors is described. Speculations about the application of the theory to future careers in a changing economy are offered.

COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY: CAREER INTERVENTIONS, RESEARCH, AND THEORY

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A merger in vocational interest research: Applying Holland's theory to Strong's data

Abstract Six scales representing Hollands six personality types-Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional-were developed for the SVIB. These were used to score 202 occupational samples from the Strong archives, and the mean scores for each sample on each scale are reported here. The ranking of means conform well with Hollands theory. The highest mean scores were: Realistic: Machinists, tool and die makers, vocational agriculture teachers; Investigative: Physicists, chemists and psychologists; Artistic: Actors, artists, and interior decorators; Social: YMCA staff members, ministers, guidance counselors; Enterprising: Salesmen, department store managers, and buyers; Conventional: Bankers, business education teachers, and office workers. These scales are now available for research use.

A spatial configuration of occupations

Abstract A mathematical analysis of the relationships among the six scales of Hollands Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) yielded a representation of the six VPI scales in a “best-fitting” plane. The projection of VPI means of occupational groups onto that plane gave a spatial map of occupations in which the degree of relatedness was represented by the distance in the plane. The planar configuration was used to measure several concepts of vocational psychology and to test two initial hypotheses.

The Relation of Vocational Aspirations and Assessments to Employment Reality.

Abstract A typology was used to organize Census data about kinds of employment, survey data about peoples aspirations, and the results of vocational assessments made with and without norms for men and women at two educational levels-some high school or above, and some college or above. Results indicate that kinds of employment differ greatly for different educational levels and between the sexes. The distribution of peoples aspirations resembles the distribution of actual employment with some notable exceptions. Results also indicate that the use of sex-based interest inventory norms is unrealistic because they create distributions that diverge greatly from the distribution of actual employment. Some implications of the congruence between kinds of people and their employment are discussed for vocational guidance, test development, and career development research and theory.

Using a Typology of Persons and Environments to Explain Careers: Some Extensions and Clarifications

The purposes of this paper are to show more completely, than before how a theory of careers (Holland, 1973) can be used to explain common career phenomena and concepts, to report some new insights and supportive data, to rectify some theoretical misunderstandings, and to spell out the implications of these ideas for counseling practice and vocational interventions. The theory attempts to provide explanations for some important vocational questions. What personal and environmental characteristics lead to vocational choice, involvement, satisfaction, and career achievement? What-personal and environmental characteristics lead to stability of the kind and level of work a person performs? What personal and environmental characteristics lead to chant of instability of the kind or level of work a person perform Why do some people make choices that are congruent with their-vocational assessments, others do not, and still others are undecided? ,---1.116-st of the problems and questions about careers can be restated in terms of these more fundamental questions. Subsequent sections use these questions to illustrate the use of the theory, to explain common career behaviors, and to reinterpret developmental concepts.

Predictive Value and Psychological Meaning of Vocational Aspirations.

Abstract The psychological meaning and predictive value of a persons vocational aspirations were examined by applying Hollands typology to the vocational aspirations of high school juniors (N = 1005), college juniors (N = 692), employed adults (N = 140), and a second sample of college students studied over a one-year interval (N = 624). The aspirational data were obtained from the Daydreams section of the Self-Directed Search ( Holland, 1972 ). Categorical and correlational analyses show that a persons retrospective vocational aspirations have coherence and yield efficient predictions of subsequently expressed choice. In addition, the degree of coherence or similarity among a persons vocational aspirations provides a potentially useful index of a persons decision-making ability.

An Interpersonal Competency Scale

a person’s &dquo;positive mental health,&dquo; &dquo;personal effectiveness,&dquo; or &dquo;personal competency&dquo; is now axiomatic (Wishner, 1955; Jahoda, 1958; Seeman, 1959). The need to identify and measure a broad range of student talents (Holland and Nichols, 1964; Richards, Holland and Lutz, 1966) is also gaining significance. The present Interpersonal Competency Scale is our attempt to answer these needs by means of a simple, inoffensive scale that might be used for research and that, hopefully, might have some useful application. The construction and validation of the Interpersonal Competency Scale are described below.

Undergraduate Origins of American Scientists

An analysis of the college attendance or college choice for four high-aptitude, high-school senior samples suggests that the differential institutional productivity of scientists and scholars is a function of the differential college attendance, paternal vocational motivations, and their implied correlates among high-aptitude students. This formulation appears to be more probable for males than for females. The institutional productivity hypothesis proposed in previous studies is not supported by the present evidence (14).

The relation of self-reported competencies to aptitude test scores

Abstract The scales of the Self-Directed Search were correlated with the scales of the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery for a sample of 192 high school girls. The two devices have small to moderate correlations that indicate that self-reported abilities and competencies have some concurrent validity.