Personality Types and Vocational Choice: A Test of Holland's Theory

Abstract

In order to test the adequacy of Holland's theory of vocational choice with reference to a broad segment of entering college students, a sample of the freshman class entering the Pennsylvania State University evaluated themselves in terms of the six personality styles of Holland's theory. Relationships between the personality styles and vocational choices were studied for groups of Decided, Tentative, and Undecided students. While several inversions in the data are evident, the data possess sufficient consistency to indicate that the personality identifications these students made in Holland's frame of reference were related to their initial vocational choices.

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

“…I n v e s t i g a t i v e -The I n v e s tig a t iv e p e rso n s p r e f e r t o t h in k th ro u g h r a t h e r th a n to a c t o u t problem s. They en jo y ambiguous work ta s k s and evidence a need t o u n d e rsta n d by th in k in g th ro u g h problem s. They a re c h a r a c te r iz e d as b ein g s c i e n t i f i c a l l y i n c l i n e d , in v e n tiv e , p r e c i s e , a c h ie v in g , in d e p e n d e n t, sh y , and r a d i c a l . (H olland, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1968Osipow, Ashby, & W all, 1966). 1964;L acey, 1971;Walsh & Barrow, 1971;Walsh & Lew is, 1972;Walsh & Osipow, 1973;Walsh & R u sse l, 1969;W alsh, 1974), s a t i s f a c t i o n (Brown, 1968;H o llan d , 1968;W alsh, O 'B rie n , S an ta-M aria & Edmonson, 1973) and achievem ent (H olland, 1963;Walsh & H anle, 1975).…”

Biodata determinants of vocational typology

“…Gaffey and Walsh (1974) and Lacey (1971) provide support for the concurrent validity of the theory by looking at the re lationship between the occupations of employed adults and their scores on the VPI. Holland (1962Holland ( , 1968 and Osipow, Ashby, and Wall (1966) conducted similar studies, yielding similar results with college students by relating college majors to VPI scores. The theory is also not without evi dence for its predictive validity.…”

Holland's vocational models: A study of work groups and need satisfaction

“…Similarly, a comprehensive study by Osipow, Ashby, and Wall (1966) Comparisons of the subjects by major personality orientation and SVIB group scores revealed consistency between the SVIB scores and assignment to personality categories. For example, Ss in the Realis tic category earned their highest scores, and higher scores than any other personality group, on SVIB groups II and III (science-engineer ing and practical, respectively), which is exactly what the theoretical statements would lead one to expect.…”

“…Holland and other investigators have conducted a number of studies related to the theory and its constructs. These studies have generally used one of four empirical approaches; (l) the investigation of the relationship between personal orientation as measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI; Holland, 1965) and other inventories and educational choice (Holland,i960, 1962(Holland,i960, , 1963aWall, Osipow, and Ashby, 1967); (2) assessment of the range of personal orientation of a variety of educational, vocational, and hospitalized groups (Fairweather, Simon, Gebhard, Weingarten, Holland, Sanders, Stone, and Reahl, i960;Holland, 1958)i (3 ) investigation of the relationship between VPI scale scores and self-ratings on self-description on traits which the various scales are assumed to measure (Holland, 1962(Holland, , 1963b and (h) investigation of the associations and relationships of scale scores with various external criteria (Astin, 1963;Astin and Holland, 196l;Forsyth and Fairweather, 1961;Holland, 1958Holland, , 1962Lopez, 1962;Osipow, Ashby and Wall, 1966). In general, the results of these studies lend support to the meanings attri buted to the scales.…”