Structural analysis of Holland's personality types using factor and configural analysis.

Abstract

A sample of 358 men and 360 women took the Self-Directed Search, a vocational guidance tool developed by HoEand based on his theory of vocational choice. Data from the sample were subjected to factor and configural analysis in an attempt to verify the relationships among Holland's personality types, to clarify the characteristics of each type, and to extend Holland's hexagonal model to new domains of assessment. The results of the analyses offer empirical support for the hexagonal arrangement of the personality types and also support the organization of the Self-Directed Search and Holland's Occupational Classification.

Choice of Science Courses in Secondary School: Trends and Explanations

“…The agreement is shown in Figure 1. Although these two-dimensional schemes have come under criticism as oversimplifications (Edwards and Whitney, 1972;Lunneborg and Lunneborg, 1975), there is evidence of considerable stability of occupational choice in terms of these classificatory schemes in the Project Talent follow-up study (Cooley and Lohnes, 1968;McLaughlin and Tiedeman, 1974). Within Holland's scheme scientific and technical occupations are described as intellectual and realistic, being equivalent to inner-directed and 'thing' orientated in Roe's scheme.…”

Accountants' personality types and their commitment to organization and profession*

“…This theory accounts for six types of people -realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional -and assumes there is a professional environment that corresponds to each. Holland's (1962 and1973) theory has gained much empirical support in the last two decades (Cole and Hanson (1971), Edwards and Whitney (1972), Mount and Mchinsky (1978), O'Neil (1977), Reuterfors, Schneider and Overton (1979), Salomone and Slaney (1978) and Spokane and Derby (1979)). According to Holland's theory, the accountant stereotype is a specific case of the conventional type that matches the secretarial administrative environment.…”

A Factor-Analytic Study of the Construct Validity of Holland's Self-Directed Search Test

“…In this study, the analysis rested on individual items and not on the six composite personality type scores in each subtest. Second, previous studies (Edwards and Whitney, 1972;Feldman and Meir, 1976) have indicated that assessing personality type by using the SDS does not seem to yield separate factors corresponding to enterprising and social types. In other words, one can discover whether the items are really unidimensional within types and whether it is legitimate to sum them into one composite score.2 2 By using common factor analysis for each subtest and the entire test, one can expect to find a maximum of six factors corresponding, respectively, to the realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional personality types.…”