Testing in Counseling Psychology

Question 1

The Strong Vocational Interest Blank

Answer 1

Shortly after World War I, E. K. Strong, Jr. and some of his colleagues began to examine the activities that members of different professions liked and disliked

people in different professional groups had different patterns of interests.

people in the same line of work had similar hobbies, liked the same types of entertainment, and read the same sorts of books and magazines

Strong set out to develop a test that would match the interests of a subject to the interests and values of a criterion group of people who were happy in the careers they had chosen

Question 2

criterion keying, or the criterion-group approach

Answer 2

develop a test that would match the interests of a subject to the interests and values of a criterion group of people who were happy in the careers they had chosen

Question 3

preliminary studies of the test - The Strong Vocational Interest Blank

Answer 3

groups of individuals from many professions
and occupations responded to approximately 400 items dealing with likes and dislikes related to these occupations and to leisure activities.

criterion keying then determined how the interests of new subjects resembled those of the criterion groups.

Question 4

revised 1966 version of the SVIB

Answer 4

399 items were related to 54 occupations for men.

A separate form presented 32 different occupations for women

Items in the SVIB were weighted according to how frequently an interest occurred in a particular occupational group as opposed to how frequently it occurred in the general population.

Raw scores were converted to standard scores, with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10

Question 5

criterion group used in the construction of
the SVIB contained approximately

Answer 5

300 people, a good normative sample

Question 6

SVIB - reliability

Answer 6

Numerous reliability studies produced impressive results, with odd–even and short-term test–retest figures generally running between the low .80’s and the low .90’s.

Long-term (20-year) test–retest coefficients ran in the respectable .60’s.

Validity data indicates that the SVIB predicted job satisfaction well (e.g., Strong & Campbell, 1966).

In addition, studies have shown that achieving one’s career aspirations contributes to job satisfaction (Iliescu, Ispas, Sulea, & Ilie, 2015)

Question 7

One of the most interesting findings to emerge from the hundreds of published studies using the SVIB is that patterns of interest remain…

Answer 7

relatively stable over time.

Strong made a practice of asking a group of Stanford University students who took the test in the 1930s to take the test again as they grew older.

interests remain relatively stable for as long as 22 years
- most people did modify their interests slightly over this period, and a few people made complete turnabouts; nevertheless, the great majority remained consistent

Question 8

Criticisms of the SVIB

Answer 8

Critics cited a gender bias in the scales because different tests were used for men and women.

Others complained about the lack of theory associated with the test.

Question 9

The Evolution of the Strong Measures - Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory

Answer 9

Campbell published a new version of the SVIB, which he called the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII).

SCII was Campbell’s (1974) response to the shortcomings of the SVIB.

.

Question 10

What did campbell change?

Answer 10

Items from both the men’s and women’s forms of the SVIB were merged into a single form that included scales devoid of gender bias

introduced more theory into the measurement strategy- Hollands theory of vocational choice

Question 11

J. L. Holland’s (1975) theory of vocational choice inspired who?

What was it

Answer 11

Campbell

Holland had postulated that interests express personality and that people can be classified into one or more of six categories according to their interests

Over the years, research has generally supported Holland’s ideas. For example, one detailed study that used all 437 occupational titles from the Bureau of the Census demonstrated that Holland’s system can better describe work activities, general training requirements, and occupational rewards than can a variety of competing vocational classification systems

Over the course of last 60 years, research has consistently supported the claim that occupational interests reflect personality

Question 12

The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey

Answer 12

David Campbell began working on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank in 1960

When Strong died in 1963, Campbell, then an assistant professor at the University of
Minnesota, became the primary representative of the SVIB.

Later versions were published under the authorship of Strong and Campbell

Question 13

The first version of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory was published in

Answer 13

1974.

Question 14

Ownership Dispute

Answer 14

Campbell began working on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank in 1960 when
he was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota

Because Strong had been a professor at Stanford University, Stanford and the University of Minnesota became engaged in a legal dispute over ownership. In an out-of-court settlement in 1988, Stanford received the rights to publish the Strong Interest Inventory while
Campbell received the rights to most of the cumulative work.

Question 15

Campbell published the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS) when

Answer 15

1992

Question 16

CISS asks respondents to assess …?

What is in the scales?

Answer 16

their degree of interest in 200 academic
and occupational topics.

Furthermore, it assesses the degree of skill in 120 specific occupations. The system produces an 11-page profile and a 2-page report summary

The CISS ultimately yields a variety of different types of scales.-. For each of these scales, an interest level and a skill score are offered.

Question 17

What other scales does the CISS offer besides the specific scales?

Answer 17

CISS offers an academic focus scale
that helps test takers understand how comfortable or successful they may be in an academic setting, and an extroversion scale that helps guide them to occupations with
the appropriate amount and intensity of interpersonal relations

Question 18

Recently, Campbell teamed up with US News & World Report to offer the CISS online

Answer 18

For $19.25 plus tax, you can gain access to the 320-question survey.

The fee includes a personalized report that compares your results to the responses of
people who are successfully employed in 60 occupations, along with a comprehensive
career planner and a guide to help you interpret the results.

Question 19

CISS is a continuation of the research on the

Answer 19

SVIB and the SCII.

Question 20

CISS today

Answer 20

CISS is now shorter and more efficient than the older SCII. The scales are standardized with means of 50 and standard deviations of 10. As with the earlier versions, the CISS uses the theoretical structure of John Holland. The
manual provides extensive evidence for validity and reliability (Campbell, 1995).

New evidence continues to support the validity of the CISS and its subscales

Question 21

Summary of the Components of the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey

Answer 21

Orientation scales
Seven scales describe the test taker’s occupational orientation: influencing,
organizing, helping, creating, analyzing, producing, and adventuring.

Basic scales
The basic scales provide an overview for categories of occupations. Examples of
basic scales include law/politics, counseling, and mathematics.

Occupational scales
Sixty occupational scales describe matches with particular occupations, including
attorney, engineer, guidance counselor, and math teacher.

Question 22

Strong Interest Inventory (SII).

Answer 22

In 2007, Stanford released the new Strong, known as the Strong Interest Inventory (SII).

Previous editions - three-choice format, while the revised version - five-choice, Likert-type format with icons for “Strongly Like,” “Like,” “Indifferent,” “Dislike,” and “Strongly Dislike.”

A core component of the SII is the Basic Interest Scales (BIS) - substantial changes in work life and workplaces new SII includes 41 content scales to represent these areas, 244 occupational scales.

this one - there is more focus on careers in business and technology for both men and women. For example, 122 of the scales include different pairs for men and women.

Examples of the new normative groups include greater diversity in terms of ethnic groups, race, and diversity in the workforce.

Question 23

First published evaluation of the SII

Answer 23

First published evaluation of the SII considered 31 college majors in a national college sample of 1403 women and 469 men to evaluate the relationships between content scales and choice of college major. The study showed substantial concurrent validity for a wide variety of college major choices

basic interest scales were the best predictors of selection of major.

Question 24

The Kuder Occupational Interest Survey

Answer 24

most widely used interest inventory today, it competes with many other interest inventories.

Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (KOIS) ranks second in popularity.

grew out of the original Kuder Preference Survey published in 1939

KOIS presents the test taker with 100 triads (sets of three) of alternative activities
- For each triad, the test taker selects the most preferred and the least preferred alternatives

Scoring of the KOIS scales gives the same information yielded by the earlier Kuder Preference Surveys—data on 10 general occupational interests (e.g., outdoor interests versus social service interests).

Question 25

However, in its current form, the KOIS examines the similarity between

Answer 25

a test taker’s interests and those of people employed in various occupations in a manner much like that of the SCII and CISS.

Question 26

KOIS has developed separate norms for

The KOIS also has a separate set of scales for

Answer 26

KOIS has developed separate norms for men and women.

The KOIS also has a separate set of scales for college majors

Thus, in addition to
suggesting which occupational group might work best with a test taker’s interests,
the KOIS may also help students choose a major

Question 27

To emphasize nontraditional occupations for men and women, a series of new scales has been added to the KOIS.

Answer 27

Examples of these new scales are architect
(female norms), journalist (female norms), and film and television producer or director (male norms)

Question 28

The report is divided into four sections KOIS

1st section

Answer 28

First summarizes the dependability
of the results.

An analysis of answer patterns considers consistency.

The report shown in the table suggests that the results appear to be dependable for this particular test taker.

Question 29

2nd Section KOIS

Answer 29

The second section rank orders interest patterns in comparison to the normative sample of men and women.

In this example, the person taking the test has exceptionally high interests in literary and outdoor areas in comparison to both men and women.

The female test taker had low interests in comparison to other women in the mechanical, social service, and persuasive areas.

Question 30

Third section KOIS

Answer 30

The core of the KOIS report is shown in the third section - ranks the test taker in relation to men and women who are employed in different occupations and are satisfied with their career choices.

The report shows that the woman who completed the measure has a pattern of interests that best matches those of journalists who are satisfied with their work. The pattern also shows good correspondence with interests of lawyers, personnel managers, and physicians. The pattern matches most poorly with bank clerk, beautician, and department store sales.

Question 31

Fourth Section KOIS

Answer 31

fourth section of the report matches patterns of interests to those of students who have selected different college majors.

The woman whose results are shown in this example matches interest patterns most closely with women who are majoring in history, English, or political science.

Her interests match most poorly with women majoring in physical education, nursing, and art.

Question 32

Studies show that the psychometric properties of the KOIS are very good.

Answer 32

Short-term reliabilities tend to be high (between .80 and .95), and increasing evidence indicates that scores remain stable for as long as 30 years

One study on the predictive validity of the KOIS showed that half of one group of adults who had taken an early version of the KOIS while they were high-school students were working in fields that the high-school KOIS suggested they enter.

Predictive validity for the college major scales was even better. There was closer
correspondence between interests and the occupation a person was working in for
those who had completed college than for those who had not.

A college degree thus provides more freedom than a high-school diploma does in finding personally desirable work

Question 33

high-school students reported greater confidence in their knowledge of themselves when they received KOIS results than when they did not.

Answer 33

. But knowing the results of the KOIS did not make the high-school students more confident or more satisfied with their career plans, except when the students expressed a special interest in learning about the test results

Question 34

Other studies have considered self-efficacy for the specific occupational tasks in the KOIS.

Answer 34

Self-efficacy represents a person’s expectation that he or she could perform the tasks in the occupational groups.

The research suggests that, in comparison to women, men have higher expectations that they will succeed in mechanical and physical work, and women have greater expectations that they will succeed when working with people than do men

Question 35

KOIS - a growing amount of evidence indicates that it may be quite useful for

Answer 35

guidance decisions for highschool and college students.

Question 36

KOIS, although still in common use, has not
undergone a major revision since

Answer 36

1991

Question 37

Studies using the KOIS have shown that career preferences are

Answer 37

Studies using the KOIS have shown that career preferences are quite stable over the course of time.

one study tested 107 highschool juniors and seniors in 1975 and then retested them 30 years later in 2005.

In general, occupational interests remained very stable, but some of the particular
interest scales were associated with instability in occupational interests

Question 38

Jackson Vocational Interest Survey ( JVIS), revised in 1995 and copyrighted in 1999, is used for

Answer 38

Jackson Vocational Interest Survey ( JVIS), revised in 1995 and copyrighted in 1999, is used for the career education and counseling of high school and college students.

can also be used to plan careers for adults, including those who want to make midlife career changes.

Douglas Jackson, the developer of the measure, was strongly influenced by the psychometric pioneers from the Educational Testing Service

JVIS consists of 289 statements describing job-related activities. It takes 45 minutes to complete, and the scoring yields 34 basic interest scales.
The test construction carefully avoided gender bias.
The scale employs forced-choice formats in which the respondent must indicate a preference between two equally popular interests.

Question 39

Reliability and Validtity JVIS

Answer 39

Studies suggest that the reliability for 10 general occupational themes is
approximately .89 and that the test–retest stability of the 44 basic interest scales
ranges from .84 to .88.

Validity studies suggest that the JVIS predicts university and academic majors more accurately than do most other interest inventories.

Available in both hand-scored and machine-scored forms, the JVIS offers computer software to administer and score the measure

Question 40

The Career Assessment Inventory

Answer 40

designed for people not oriented toward careers requiring college or professional
training.

The CAI is written at the sixth-grade reading level and is designed for the 80% of U.S. citizens who have fewer than 4 years of postsecondary education.

CAI provides information similar to that yielded by the SII and CISS

Question 41

Parts of the Career Assessment Inventory

Answer 41

Each test taker is evaluated on Holland’s six occupational theme scales: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional.

The second portion of the CAI report describes basic interests. Each test taker is evaluated in 22 specific areas, including carpentry, business, and food service.

The third section of the report is a series of occupational scales. Scores for the 89 occupational scales on the CAI were obtained by using a criterion-keying method. The interests of the test takers are matched to the interests of truck drivers, secretaries, waitpersons, and so forth.

Question 42

Validity and reliability studies reported in the test manual suggest that the CAI has desirable psychometric properties

Answer 42

ported in the test manual suggest that the CAI has desirable psychometric properties. Scores tend to be quite stable, and people who find employment in occupations for which they have expressed strong interest tend to remain at their jobs and find more satisfaction with work than do those with low scores for those occupations.

The test developer also took special pains to make the CAI culturally fair and eliminate gender bias. In many ways, the CAI has become the working person’s CISS

Question 43

The Self-Directed Search

Answer 43

Most interest inventories require professional or computer-automated scoring. In addition, they typically require interpretation by a trained counselor.

J. L. Holland developed the Self-Directed Search (SDS) to be a self-administered, self-scored, and self-interpreted vocational interest inventory (Holland, 2013)

SDS attempts to simulate the counseling process by allowing respondents to list occupational aspirations, indicate occupational preferences in six areas, and rate abilities and skills in these areas

Test takers can score their own inventory and calculate 6 summary scores - use to obtain codes that reflect the highest areas of interest

Question 44

Using the SDS, test takers can develop a
meaningful personal career theory

Answer 44

The personal theory goes beyond interests and
includes readiness for career decision-making and readiness to obtain guidance

The SDS is linked to an occupational finder. In the 1994 edition of the system, the individual can locate more than 1300 occupations and match his or her own interest codes to corresponding occupational choices.

Question 45

Items and scales of the SDS

Answer 45

SDS includes 228 items. Six scales with 11 items each describe activities.

Another 66 items assess competencies, with six scales of 11 items each

Occupations are evaluated in six scales of 14 items each. Self-estimates are obtained in two sets of six ratings.

Studies have demonstrated that respondents accurately score their own tests.

Validity studies reflect a moderate, but not high, association between SDS categories and stated vocational aspiration

Computer-assisted approaches to the self-directed search are now available

Question 46

Eliminating Gender Bias in Interest Measurement

Answer 46

Not all members of the society have found the use and development of interest
inventories acceptable.

In particular, advocates of women’s rights justifiably pointed out that the early interest inventories discriminated against women

interest inventories contributed to the policy of guiding young men and women into gender-typed careers.

The interest inventories tended to direct women into their traditional work roles, such as nursing, clerical service, and elementary school teaching

The SVIB, the main interest inventory at the time of the commission report, had separate forms for men and women.

Question 47

Careers on the women’s form, it was noted, tended to be lower in status and to command lower salaries

In response to these criticisms,

Answer 47

In response to these criticisms, the test developers began using the same forms for both men and women

1977 SCII manual, Campbell noted that if Strong were alive, he may have felt that using the same norming tables for both men and women would have harmed the validity of the test.

A unisex interest inventory, according to Strong, ignores the social and statistical reality that men and women have different interests.

knowing the sex of the test taker tells us a lot about his or her interests.

Nevertheless, the measure developers began to make major efforts to reduce gender bias, and newer measures, such as the CISS (Campbell, 1995), have gone even further.

In the most recent versions, normative samples have been expanded to ensure larger and more representative samples. The 2007 SII has separate normative scales for men and women.

Question 48

Most measures have reduced but not eliminated gender bias.

Answer 48

many items in the Strong Interest Inventory function differently for men and for women

these differences have been observed in
cultures as different as the United States and Iceland

Interest inventory developers have worked hard to address these concerns.

Although the basic interest and general theme portions of the SII and CISS compare a respondent’s responses with those from a combined male and female reference group, the occupational scales are normed separately for men and women.

We expect that using the same or different norms for men and women will continue to engender controversy and debate.

The current versions of the CISS, KOIS, and SII reflect the growing concern about gender bias (Campbell, 1995; Hansen & Campbell, 1987). Because career choices for many women are complex, interest inventories alone may be inadequate and more comprehensive approaches are needed

Question 49

Interest inventories have been around for several generations, making it possible
to compare interests of groups born at different points in time.

Answer 49

In the 1940s and1950s, when career interest inventories got their start, the world was a very different place.

Only a small percentage of women completed college and there was little ethnic and racial variability on most campuses (see Figure 16.1).

By 1971, about 42% of college graduates were female and 58% were male. By 2016, that trend had reversed, with women earning nearly 60% of bachelor’s degree

Question 50

Budany and Hansen (2011) studied changes in vocational interests across birth cohorts of college students by integrating samples collected between 1976 and 2004.

Answer 50

They identified doctoral dissertations and journal articles that had used the Strong
Interest Inventory and the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and had information
on the Holland’s RIASEC typology.

there were 12,039 females and 9550 subjects

Between 1976 and 2004, college women showed an increase in enterprising interests,
while college men demonstrated a decrease in the realistic and investigative interests.

Back in the 1970s, there were significant differences between college men and
women in investigative, enterprising, and conventional interests

Question 51

Aptitudes and Interests

Answer 51

Extensive research on interest inventories reinforces an important but often overlooked point: Interest inventories measure interests, not the odds that people will succeed in the jobs that they find interesting.

Norm groups for the Strong inventories consist of people successful enough in various fields to remain working in them for defined periods

However, degree of success is not defined.

If you obtain a high score for a particular occupation, then it means that you have interests similar to those of the people in that field. Self-rated satisfaction with chosen careers does appear to be higher for people whose interests match those of others working in the field, but repeated studies have emphasized
that the chances of succeeding in that job depend on aptitudes and abilities.

Question 52

Measuring Personal Characteristics for
Job Placement

Answer 52

Interests are just one of the many factors to be considered in career planning and
placement.

Career choices also depend on matches between skills and jobs.

Employers want to find the right person for the job, and job hunters continually seek that one position that perfectly suits their personal skills and interests

psychologists and vocational guidance specialists look at job placement from many different perspectives. Some focus on the person and his or her characteristics, others attend the work environment, while still others concentrate on unique combinations of
people and situations

Question 53

Are There Stable Personality Traits?

Answer 53

People often believe that knowledge of
such personality traits provides them with a convenient way of organizing information
about others—for describing how they have behaved in the past and for predicting
how they will act in the future

the very concept of personality assumes that the characteristics of a person are stable over time.

Although we commonly use trait names in this way to describe other people, the evidence that personality characteristics are stable is a little shaky.

Mischel (1984) showed that personality traits are simply not good predictors of how people will behave in particular situations

Mischel (1968) demonstrated that knowing how someone scores on measures of psychological traits sometimes gives little better than chance insight into how the person will act in a given situation

Question 54

Career assessments may be a good exception to Mischel’s criticism.

Answer 54

The career inventories do not assess personality traits.

Instead, they evaluate how people will respond to some well-defined situations.

In fact, most studies do suggest that career interests are quite stable over long periods of time

Mischel and his colleagues eventually softened
on their belief about consistency of behaviors over time.

For example, they had tested children’s ability to delay gratification over 40 years ago. When some of the same people performed similar tasks 40 years later, they found that impulsiveness tended to be relatively stable (Shermer, 2015). Children who were unable to delay gratification was more likely to be impulsive as adults

Question 55

Other Uses of Interest Matching Methods: The Case of Internet Dating

Answer 55

Developing computer algorithms for matching interest profiles was once technologically difficult.

As result, methods for matching interests are now used in a variety of different fields relevant to counseling psychology. Perhaps the most rapid growth has taken place in Internet dating.

Question 56

Estimates provided by the Pew Charitable Trust indicate that about 11% out of the 38% of American adults who are currently single and considering a new relationship have used Internet dating services.

Answer 56

Among those who have used the services, about two-thirds have gone on a date with someone they met online and about a quarter met a spouse or someone they engaged in a long-term relationship

Most people using the services agree that
online dating is a good way to meet a partner

Question 57

There are a lot of different Internet dating websites. Most relevant to our discussion are services that are based on scientific algorithms

Answer 57

These came online around 2000 with the development of eHarmony.com. eHarmony was developed by a clinical psychologist with training in personality psychology (Warren, 1994). The methodology uses self-report questionnaires to identify preferences, interests, and values.

Within a few years, a variety of very similar services were developed, including PerfectMatch and Chemistry.

Question 58

One of the biggest problems in evaluating Internet dating sites is that the actual
methods are hidden from the public.

Answer 58

We do not know exactly how the computer
makes the matches. The eHarmony survey includes 13 sections with approximately
300 items. These 300 items provide scores on 29 dimensions that they believe are
related to successful long-term relationships.

The items ask for endorsement of
personality adjectives such as warm and competitive, and also ask about interests
including volunteering and being physically fit. In addition, they ask about descriptions of emotions, such as being happy or angry.

Respondants are also asked
to provide self-reports about characteristics such as the ability to make other people
laugh. We were able to retrieve the patent application for eHarmony.com, which
suggests that the matches are based on personality, socioeconomic status, religion,
appearance, ethnic background, energy level, education, and interests (Buckwalter,
Carter, Forgatch, Parsons, & Warren, 2013).

Other dating services use different
questionnaires and items, but most of them focus on personality traits of both the
clients and their idealized partners.