Brown S.D., Lent R. (Editors). Career development and counseling: putting theory and research to work

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between and among the six types that should be similar across social (e.g., men

and women) and cultural subgroups. The large body of empirical evidence ex-

ploring the structure of interests (see Hansen, Chapter 12, this volume) demon-

strates that the arrangement and proximity among the Holland types are

consistent across gender and cultural boundaries and can reliably be character-

ized as hexagonal or, roughly, circular as depicted in Figure 2.1.

Work environments can also, according to Holland’s theory and supportive re-

search, be described in commensurate and complementary terms on the basis of

The Realistic type likes realistic jobs such as

automobile mechanic, aircraft controller, sur-

veyor, farmer, electrician. Has mechanical abili-

ties, but may lack social skill. Is described as:

The Investigative type likes investigative jobs

such as biologist, chemist, physicist, anthropolo-

gist, geologist, medical technologist. Has math-

ematical and scientific ability but often lacks

leadership ability. Is described as:

The Artistic type likes artistic jobs such as

composer, musician, stage director, writer, inte-

rior decorator, actor/actress. Has artistic abili-

ties—writing, musical, or artistic—but often

lacks clerical skills. Is described as:

The Social type likes social jobs such as

teacher, religious worker, counselor, clinical

psychologist, psychiatric case worker, speech

therapist. Has social skills and talents but often

lacks mechanical and scientific ability. Is de-

scribed as:

The Enterprising type likes enterprising jobs

such as salesperson, manager, business execu-

tive, television producer, sports promoter, buyer.

Has leadership and speaking abilities but often

lacks scientific ability. Is described as:

The Conventional type likes conventional jobs

such as bookkeeper, stenographer, financial

analyst, banker, cost estimator, tax expert. Has

clerical and arithmetic ability but often lacks

artistic abilities. Is described as:

Careful

Conforming

Conscientious

Defensive

Efficient

Inflexible

Inhibited

Methodical

Obedient

Orderly

Persistent

Practical

Prudish

Thrifty

Unimaginative

Acquisitive

Adventurous

Agreeable

Ambitious

Domineering

Energetic

Excitement-

seeking

Exhibitionistic

Extroverted

Flirtatious

Optimistic

Self-confident

Sociable

Tal kative

Ascendant

Cooperative

Empathic

Friendly

Generous

Helpful

Idealistic

Kind

Patient

Persuasive

Responsible

Sociable

Tac tful

Understanding

Warm

Complicated

Disorderly

Emotional

Expressive

Idealistic

Imaginative

Impractical

Impulsive

Independent

Introspective

Intuitive

Nonconforming

Open

Original

Sensitive

Analytical

Cautious

Complex

Critical

Curious

Independent

Intellectual

Introspective

Pessimistic

Precise

Rational

Reserved

Retiring

Unassuming

Unpopular

Asocial

Conforming

Frank

Genuine

Hardheaded

Inflexible

Materialistic

Natural

Normal

Persistent

Practical

Self-effacing

Thrifty

Uninsightful

Uninvolved

Table 2.1

The Six Personality Types

Source: Reproduced by special permission of the publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources,

Inc., 16204 North Florida Avenue, Lutz, Florida 33549, from the Self-Directed Search Professional

User’s Guide, by John L. Holland, PhD, Amy Powell, PhD, and Barbara Fritzsche, PhD. Copyright

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Holland’s Theory of Vocational Personalities in Work Environments 27

the personalities of the people working in them and the types of work activities in

which people typically engage. In other words, work environments as well as peo-

ple can be described with respect to summary codes, permitting the study of the

interaction of an individual or group of individuals (e.g., IAS types) with a spe-

cific work environment (e.g., ERC).

Now that the key person and environment characteristics of Holland’s theory

have been described, these elements can be combined to understand how, ac-

cording to Holland, individuals make the choices that they do. Four theoreti-

cally derived diagnostic indicators are central to Holland’s theory: congruence,

consistency, differentiation, and identity.

The first diagnostic indicator, congruence, is Holland’s term for the degree of fit

between an individual’s personality and the type of work environment in which

he or she currently resides or anticipates entering. A highly congruent person, for

example, is an individual who has a three-letter code of AES, who is considering

a career as a film editor (classified on the basis of the Holland types typically

found in this occupation as AES). In contrast, an individual with an AES person-

ality subtype who is contemplating becoming a biological scientist would be con-

sidering a highly incongruent option.

In assessment, counseling, and research,

congruence requires the use of one of several mathematical indices (see Brown &

Gore, 1994; Camp & Chartrand, 1992; Young, Tokar, & Subich, 1998) to assess the

degree of fit between the code of the person and the code of the environment.

Figure 2.1 The Holland Hexagon. [Source: Reproduced by special permission of the

publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., 16204 North Florida Avenue, Lutz,

Florida 33549, from the Self-Directed Search Professional User’s Guide, by John L. Hol-

InvestigativeRealistic

Social

Artistic

Enterprising

Conventional

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Holland suggests that individuals will search for and enter work environments

congruent with their subtype that will permit them to “exercise their skills and

abilities, express their attitudes and values, and take on agreeable problems and

roles” (Holland, 1997, p. 4). A considerable body of evidence confirms that congru-

ence is sufficient, but not necessary, for vocational satisfaction (Spokane, Meir, &

Catalano, 2000) and that individuals who change careers typically move in a con-

gruent direction. Further, the ability to make a congruent choice can be mediated

by several variables or conditions, such as the importance the individual places on

identification with a group, as well as adjustment variables such as anxiety or de-

pression. Research continues in this crucial area of Holland’s theory, but it is clear

that many persons have a difficult time identifying congruent occupational op-

tions, seeking accurate information to evaluate those options, and engaging in ef-

fective entry behaviors. Congruence, thus, has important implications for career

intervention since counselors typically do not see persons who have been able,

without help, to find a congruent career option. The next two concepts, consistency

and differentiation, may also affect how readily individuals can make or adapt to

vocational choices.

The second theoretical indicator, consistency, is a measure of the internal har-

mony or coherence of an individual’s type scores. Consistency is calculated by ex-

amining the position of the first two letters of the three-letter code on the

hexagon. According to Holland’s theory, persons whose summary codes include

types that are close to each other (i.e., adjacent) on the perimeter of the hexagon

(see Figure 2.1) are more similar psychologically (e.g., Realistic and Investigative)

and have more consistent and harmonious personality profiles than do those

with

subtypes that are opposite each other on the perimeter of the hexagon (e.g.,

Enterp

rising and Investigative). Individuals with consistent interest types within

their personal three-letter code should feel more at ease with their personality

characteristics and encounter fewer choice-making difficulties as a result.

Differentiation refers to the distinctness of the individual’s personality profile

(i.e., Does the personality profile clearly resemble some types and not others?)

and is defined as the highest minus the lowest score among the six types or

among the three scores comprising the three-letter code. The highest differentia-

tion possible would be a high level of resemblance to one type alone, whereas the

lowest would be a perfectly flat profile with identical scores on all six types. Low

levels of differentiation should, theoretically, lead to less clarity and more diffi-

culty in making vocational choices.

A final construct, identity, refers to the degree to which the individual has a

clear “picture of one’s goals, interests, and talents” (Holland, 1997, p. 5). Identity

is related to differentiation and consistency in defining the strength of personali-

ties and environments. Identity is measured using the Vocational Identity Scale

(VI) from My Vocational Situation (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980).

The relationships among these four diagnostic/theoretical indicators (con-

gruence, consistency, differentiation, identity) and their use as interpretive

ideas as well as organizing or theoretical constructs are described in detail in

the Self-Directed Search (SDS) professional manual (Holland, Powell, &

Fritzsche, 1994). Other things being equal, a congruent, consistent, and well-dif-

ferentiated individual should have higher vocational identity and will “proba-

bly do competent work, be satisfied and personally effective, and engage in

appropriate social and educational behavior” (Holland, 1997, p. 40). He or she

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Holland’s Theory of Vocational Personalities in Work Environments 29

should, therefore, be better able to identify congruent vocational possibilities,

make career choices and adjustments with less difficulty, and feel more satis-

fied and successful at work.

Work environments are described in the theory with a parallel or commensurate

set of constructs (i.e., work environment consistency, differentiation, and identity).

Differentiation and identity of a work setting are calculated by estimating the

number of different occupations present in a work setting. For example, an adver-

tising agency might consist of graphic designers, photographers, and audiovisual

production specialists whose codes would cluster around A—AER, AES, and so on;

account representatives and sales personnel whose codes would cluster around E—

ESA and so on; and perhaps several secretaries whose codes would cluster around

C—CSA. Such an advertising environment would be highly differentiated, but

with a clear identity. Work environments can be classified more formally using the

Position Classification Inventory (PCI; G. D. Gottfredson & Holland, 1991), an 84-

item assessment of the job requirements, skills, perspectives, values, personal char-

acteristics, talents, and key behaviors.

MEASUREMENT OF PERSONS

AND ENVIRONMENTS

Among its most valuable contributions, Holland’s theory has generated several

practical instruments for assessing persons and environments that can be useful

in identifying potentially congruent vocational options (e.g., college majors, oc-

cupations). In addition, because of the generativity and popularity of Holland’s

theory, many extant measures of vocational interests have incorporated scales to

measure Holland personality types.

The measure most representative of the theory is the Self-Directed Search

(SDS; Holland, Fritzsche, & Powell, 1994). The SDS, one of the most, if not the

most, widely used interest inventories, consists of the Assessment Booklet, Occu-

pations Finder, and Interpretive Guide. The SDS was designed to be a self-

administering and self-scoring inventory that both assesses Holland type and

teaches the respondent about the theory. Originally published in 1971, the SDS

has been revised several times, most recently in 1994 (Form R; Occupations

Finder updated in 2000), and includes a comprehensive set of user manuals. The

SDS is also available in online format at http://www.self-directed-search.com for

use by the lay public. A simple graphic of the steps involved in using the SDS is

presented in Table 2.2.

Other instruments developed by Holland include the Vocational Preference In-

ventory (VPI; Holland, 1985); My Vocational Situation and the Vocational Iden-

tity Scale (VI; Holland et al., 1980); the Position Classification Inventory (PCI;

G. D. Gottfredson & Holland, 1991), a psychometric device for classifying work

environments using the Holland system; and the Career Attitudes and Strategies

Inventory (CASI; Holland & Gottfredson, 1994). Other widely used vocational in-

ventories and measures that include scales to assess Holland types include the

Strong Interest Inventory (SII; Harmon, Hansen, Borgen, & Hammer, 1994); the

new Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) workbook, a clever

and colorful intervention for students (Department of Defense [DOD], 1993); the

Vo cational Insight and Exploration Kit (VEIK; Holland, 1992); and other Voca-

tional Card Sorts, as well as the Bolles Party Game (Bolles, 1998). Many of these

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instru

ments are described in related chapters in this volume (Gore & Hitch, Chap-

ter 16; Hansen, Chapter 12; Ryan Krane & Tirre, Chapter 14).

RESEARCH ON HOLLAND’S THEORY

The acid test of any psychological theory or counseling practice must be the extent

to which a model is supported by rigorous scientific evidence. We urge readers to

consult the numerous scholarly reviews of the research on Holland’s theory in text-

books and professional journals, or better still, to read the original studies before

passing judgment on the weight of evidence and support for the theory. The Hol-

land system has been subjected to more empirical tests than any other model of ca-

reer development. A surprising amount (though certainly not all) of this research

has been supportive of the existence of a limited set of types, the underlying circu-

lar (or hexagonal) structure of those types, the validity of the instruments to mea-

sure types, though not to the same degree for the instruments designed to measure

environments, and, to a lesser extent, the interactive proposition of the theory.

Holland’s early studies (Holland, 1962) correlated VPI scores with a compre-

hensive set of self-descriptive adjectives (see Table 2.1) establishing the existence

and validity of the six types in large, representative high school samples and in

college populations. Similarly, educational environments (see, e.g., Astin & Hol-

land, 1961) and occupational environments using work activities (G. D. Gottfred-

son & Holland, 1991, 1996; Helms, 1996; Mount & Muchinsky, 1978; Smart &

Thompson, 2001; Toenjes & Borgen, 1974) were assessed consistent with theoreti-

cal predictions. Later studies explored the overlap between personality and in-

terests (Borgen, 1986; Costa, McCrae, & Holland, 1984; Larson, Rottinghaus, &

Borgen, 2002), self-ratings of abilities and skills (Swanson, 1993), and characteris-

tic behaviors (Wampold et al., 1995). Finally, the sizeable set of empirical studies

of person-environment congruence has been reanalyzed and summarized on

multiple occasions (Assouline & Meir, 1987; Spokane, 1985; Spokane et al., 2000;

Tinsley, 2000). The body of literature examining the validity of Holland’s

theory

is the largest and most diverse of any theory in vocational psychology. Be

cause

Table 2.2

Steps in Using the SDS

Source: Reproduced by special permission of the publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.,

16204 North Florida Avenue, Lutz, Florida 33549, from the Self-Directed Search Professional User’s Guide,

R=Realistic

I=Investigative

A=Artistic

S=Social

E=Enterprising

C=Conventional

Step 1:

Using the Assessment Booklet, a person:

• lists occupational aspirations

• indicates preferred activities in the six

areas

• reports competencies in the six areas

• indicates occupational preferences in

the six areas

• rates abilities in the six areas

• scores the responses he/she has given

and calculates six summary scores

• obtains a three-letter Summary Code

from the three highest summary scores

Step 2:

Using the Occupations Finder, a person

locates among the 1,335 occupations those

with codes that resemble his/her Summary Code.

Step 3:

The person compares the code for his/her current

vocational aspiration with the Summary Code to

determine the degree of agreement.

Step 4:

The person is encouraged to take “Some

Next Steps” to enhance the quality of his/

her decision making.

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of its importance to the theory, recent evidence for the utility of theory across cul-

tures is reviewed in a later section.

ENDER

SSUES

As Fitzgerald, Fassinger, and Betz (1995) noted, the presumption in person-

environment interaction theories of vocational behavior is that when occupational

environments support the expression of (are congruent with) personality, positive

outcomes such as satisfaction, stability, and achievement occur. Consistent with

repeated evidence, when women complete raw score inventories such as the SDS,

their scores reflect higher Social and Artistic scores and lower Investigative and

Realistic scores than their male counterparts. Further, employment data continue

to show that women are concentrated in lower level clerical and service occupa-

tions (Fitzgerald et al.). How and why these differences sustain themselves is a

vexing problem for all vocational theories. Clearly, women’s career development

is directed less by personal preference and constrained by more barriers and me-

diating realities than that of men. Traditionally, women have considered family

issues to a greater extent than have men. In addition, gender role socialization

contributes to reduced efficacy in activities such as mathematics and science.

Some caution should be exercised, then, when assessing or counseling women

who are considering career choices to minimize or counteract the complex con-

straints on women clients. As Linda Gottfredson (1982) appropriately noted, raw

score inventories reflect how interests are, rather than how they ought to be, and

thus should be combined with inventories that employ gender norming in coun-

seling and research. These complex issues should be addressed with clients in

ways that encourage realistic exploration and occupational entry.

One recent study (Betz & Schifano, 2000) took a more direct approach to this

problem and administered either a “neutral” intervention, or a “Realistic” in-

tervention “focused on building, repairing, and construction activities” to 54

undergraduate women. The authors used models to demonstrate the activities,

persuaded and supported, and employed anxiety management strategies in a

three-session, seven-hour attempt to enhance women’s Realistic interests and

self-efficacy. Although demand characteristics were a problem in the study de-

sign, a sharp increase in posttest Realistic self-efficacy was found even though

there was no significant change in Realistic interest item scores. To the extent

that self-efficacy limits already-nascent Realistic interests, this finding is im-

portant. There is some evidence that underlying interest structures may re-

spond to brief interventions (Malett, Spokane, & Vance, 1978), but vocational

interests appear to be enduring dispositions that are resistant to alteration,

though the self-efficacy component of interests may respond to interventive

modification. In addition to concerns about gender differences, researchers are

intensively examining differences in Holland types across cultures.

ALIDITY OF

OLLAND

’

HEORY ACROSS

ULTURES

: E

MPIRICAL

TUDIES

There is clear evidence of support, as reviewed in the previous section, for Hol-

land’s theory. However, another equally important way to judge the scientific

merit and usefulness of a theory is in terms of its cross-cultural generalizability

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and practical utility—Does the theory apply as well with persons from varying

cultural backgrounds?—an increasingly important consideration for the counsel-

ing professions.

Three culturally related questions seem important in assessing the cross-

cultural validity and utility of the theory. First, do the same six types exist across

cultures and subgroups, and do they arrange themselves in the hexagonal struc-

ture? Second, what, if any, effect does culture have on the outcomes of person-

vironment interaction? Third, do career assessments and interventions based

on the model have cross-cultural utility? We should not presume a theory to be

culturally valid or useful until empirical support confirms its utility. Conversely,

we should not conclude that a theory is invalid until evidence concerning its inva-

lidity is presented (Lent & Worthington, 2000).

The cross-cultural research on Holland’s theory has primarily addressed the

first and second questions with studies conducted internationally in China,

Israel, France, Nigeria, New Zealand, and Australia. Research has also focused

on cultural subgroups in the United States, including African Americans, Na-

tive Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans. This section dis-

cusses, selectively, cross-cultural studies addressing these first two questions

that have appeared since the last major review of cross-cultural research on Hol-

land’s theory (Spokane, Luchetta, & Richwine, 2002).

Seven recent studies (Farh, Leong, & Law, 1998; Leong & Austin, 1998; Leong,

Austin, Sekaran, & Komarraju, 1998; Leung & Hou, 2001; Shih & Brown, 2000; Soh

& Leong, 2001; Tang, 2001; Zhang, 2000) shed collective light on the cross-cultural

validity of the Holland types in Hong Kong, India, and Singapore. Farh et al. (1998)

examined 1813 male and female freshmen in science, engineering, and business

management. Holland codes were derived from self-reported preferences for occu-

pations and the unisex edition of the ACT (UNIACT) inventory using a combina-

tion of English and Chinese items. Findings revealed that students who preferred

occupations of a particular Holland type generally had interest scores congruent

with that type. Evidence supporting the Artistic and Social types was weaker,

which might be expected from the nature of the sample under study (science, engi-

neering, and technology majors). Similarly, Soh and Leong (2001) examined the

structural equivalence of RIASEC types drawn from samples in Singapore and the

United States. Soh and Leong concluded that there was cultural equivalence for

the S and E types and possibly for I types but not for the A and R types. In a third

study, Leung and Hou (2001) administered the SDS to 456 female and 321 male Chi-

nese high school students in Hong Kong. Congruence rates for male students were

lower than those for comparable U.S. students but were similar for female students

(Leung & Hou). The authors concluded that the SDS could be used to differentiate

Chinese science and arts students.

Leong et al. (1998) use a modified English version of the VPI and a measure of

job satisfaction to examine congruence, consistency, and differentiation in a sam-

ple of 172 natives of India. Congruence was minimally related to occupational

satisfaction in females (r = 0.20) and males (r = 0.14). The authors also addressed

directly the issue of equivalence of measurement by asking subjects to indicate

when they did not understand the meaning of an item (occupational title).

Twenty-four percent (14 of 160) of items had 5% or more of subjects indicate that

they did not understand the item.

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Zhang (2000) administered a shortened form of the SDS to 268 male and 332 fe-

male students at the University of Hong Kong. Holland type was related to think-

ing style, with Social and Enterprising types being related to “external” and

“judicial” thinking style. Similarly, Tang (2001) employed a Chinese version of the

SII, which has demonstrated a “similar structure” to U.S. versions but in which the

RIASEC orders obtained were roughly circular, but flattened, with I and R very

closely spaced and S and A reversed. Alternate models were discussed for explain-

ing these differences—for example, Gati (1991). Finally, Shih and Brown (2000)

studied 112 Taiwanese students in the United States and found a −0.27 relationship

between vocational identity and a measure of acculturation.

In sum, studies in Asian cultures find that the U.S. versions of instruments do

readily translate into Asian languages and reveal somewhere between four and six

Holland-like types in a roughly comparable (to U.S. samples) circular/hexagonal

onfiguration (see also Rounds & Tracey, 1996). Gender differences in structures

persist in Asian samples (see also Hansen, Collins, Swanson, & Fouad, 1993, for

U.S. samples), and the I and R types appear to be closer to each other on the hexa-

gon than in U.S. populations (Tang, 2001; Zhang, 2000). The ordering of A and S is

less consistent in these studies. These tentative conclusions should be tempered

by the likelihood of dramatic sampling differences in U.S. and Asian studies. Fi-

nally, congruence appears to be related to theoretically relevant outcomes (Farh

et al., 1998; Leong et al., 1998). Identity also seems related to these outcomes (Shih

& Brown, 2000).

Three studies conducted in Italy (Lent, Brown, Nota, & Soresi, 2003), Ghent (De

Fruyt, 2002), and Iceland (Einarsdóttir, Rounds, Ægisdóttir, & Gerstein, 2002) ex-

amined the utility of the theory in non-Asian cultures. Lent et al. (2003) examined

the relationship of interest congruence to the occupational choices of 796 Italian

high school students and found that interests were strong and significant predic-

tors of occupational choices across all six Holland types. Similarly, De Fruyt (2002)

gave 934 Dutch college students the SDS, the NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-

PIR), the PCI, and the CASI. Congruence was modestly but significantly related to

job satisfaction (especially for I and C types) in a sample of Dutch village students,

as was incongruence, but not to work involvement or perceived stress. In a third in-

vestigation, Einarsdottir et al. (2002) administered the SDS to 438 university stu-

dents and the SII to 449 career counseling clients in Iceland. The underlying

circular structure and arrangement of the six Holland types were similar to that

found in U.S. samples.

In addition to the preceding cross-cultural studies, several recent investigations

tested Holland’s theory in subcultural groups within the United States. In a com-

parison of African American and White college students, for example, Toporek

and Pope-Davis (2001) found no significant differences between the two groups of

students on vocational identity. Day and Rounds (1998) compared the underlying

structure of interests in samples of African American, Mexican American, Asian

American, Native American, and Caucasian American groups (n = 49,450) using

three-way individual difference scaling and concluded that the “groups’ responses

reflected a remarkably similar underlying structure, consistent with conventional

interpretations of vocational interest patterns” (p. 728). The authors noted the

problems of differences in sampling but suggested that there may be “universals”

in the underlying structure of vocational interests and personality (Day & Rounds).

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In sum, the increase in cross-cultural utility and validity studies of Holland’s

theory is cumulating in a body of evidence from which tentative conclusions can be

drawn about the theory’s applicability across cultural and subcultural boundaries.

Given the early state of research in this area and the array of methodological and

conceptual issues that need to be addressed, however, definitive conclusions may

be some years away. Comparative studies of measurements and of interventions

that include more than one cultural sample are still badly needed. Studies of Asian

samples are accumulating, but studies from underdeveloped nations and, espe-

cially, studies accounting for the effects of poverty and socioeconomic status are

needed. Finally, there have been few cross-cultural intervention studies that com-

pare the processes, strategies, and outcomes of career interventions along the lines

of Brown & Ryan Krane (2000) across cultures and subgroups (Spokane et al., 2003).

CASE EXAMPLE

Jennifer, a 37-year-old White female, was referred for vocational counseling by a

colleague who had seen Jennifer for about 18 months for a generalized anxiety

disorder. Such referrals that blend personal and vocational concerns are common

in adult vocational counseling. Initially, the client indicated that she was in “no

hurry” and would prefer to wait several weeks until after the holiday season.

Four weeks later, Jennifer indicated that she would like to arrange a session

quickly because she had just received a layoff notice from her employer, a large in-

surance company.

The first session centered on the client’s background, work history, and pres-

ent job loss. Jennifer’s cultural background emphasized traditional Western val-

ues of independence, individualism, and a career success orientation. All three of

Jennifer’s siblings held professional positions. During this session, the client de-

scribed a 10-year series of events, including a history of substance abuse during

and after college. During her first year at college, she became depressed after an

incident in which her father criticized her active social and sexual life. She with-

drew from college and went home to work as a bank teller, which she hated. After

one failed marriage, Jennifer met her present husband, an independent business-

man who owns two family businesses and several properties that he manages.

This marriage, by all reports, is solid and supportive for both Jennifer and her

husband, who was also divorced.

This case, in addition to being an excellent example of the use of Holland’s the-

ory, is a good illustration of the overlap between career and personal issues during

career intervention. Following the initial interview, sessions focused on generat-

ing and rehearsing possible future scenarios, formal and informal assessments,

and discussion of related family and personal issues. Despite her complex per-

sonal life, Jennifer completed her BS in accounting (Conventional) and worked for

six years as a bookkeeper or accountant. Her ideal day in the future and her pres-

ent community service reflect a growing interest in artistic and creative endeavors

as well as hands-on and practical physical work interests. Early in our discussions,

it became clear that Jennifer’s vocational interests were complex in nature and

might cause difficulty for Jennifer in integrating her diverse interests. This com-

plexity became increasingly clear as we examined the resulting assessment proto-

cols. Jennifer completed multiple inventories to ensure both full coverage of her

complex interests as well as gender balance.

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Holland’s Theory of Vocational Personalities in Work Environments 35

After two sessions with Jennifer, we agreed on an intervention and assessment

plan. Jennifer indicated that she was considering several options for work-lifestyles

and was unsure how to proceed. As a result, we began with a guided fantasy (ideal

day/typical day) in which the client imagined several general lifestyle scenarios in

the future. In addition, the client completed the Tyler Vocational Card Sort, a Q-sort

of occupational titles designed to ascertain a pattern of positive and negative choice

constructs being employed by the client (see Spokane, 1991 for a description of

these techniques). Because the client expressed an interest in general work-

lifestyles, she also completed the 16PF Personal Career Development Profile,

which generates personality information as well as information on problem-

solv

ing resources, coping patterns, interaction styles, organizational preferences,

and career preferences. Finally, Jennifer completed the Self-Directed Search.

The Holland code from the SDS was ACS (see Figure 2.2). ACS is a “rare” code

with no occupations listed in the SDS Occupational Finder. Further, the code

shows minimal evidence of differentiation—five of the six type scores were

within 15 points of one another. The first two letters of the code, C (Conventional)

and A (Artistic), are opposite each other on the hexagon (highly inconsistent); the

combination with S (Social) is also unusual. There are no occupations listed in the

SDS Occupations Finder that were consistent with the code ACS, thus complicat-

ing Jennifer’s search process.

The Career Interest scale of the 16PF was consistent with the SDS profile and re-

vealed a combination of hands-on orientation with a strong “producing” interest

defined in part by mechanical activities and woodworking and a strong creative

interest reflected in writing, performing arts, and arts/design. The Personal

Lifestyle Effectiveness scale was suggestive of independence and alerted the client

to a tendency to overlook her own needs and to focus on practical rather than the-

oretical activities. The pattern of specific occupational scales was both consistent

with the client’s background as an accountant and reflective of her expressed in-

terest in urban design and architecture.

The Tyler Q-Sort suggested a negative association with occupations lacking in

independence and creativity, a negative reaction to overly scientific and detailed

activities, and a dislike for desk-type jobs or those requiring a hard-sell approach.

Positive constructs included a blended life and work-style orientation with a fun,

down-to-earth component and an interest in historical architecture.

The Typical/Ideal Day Fantasy revolved around the restoration of historical

buildings with an independent schedule and a strong family orientation.

Options generated for exploration included:

1. Return to work in an organizational setting using accounting background.

Work for a nonprofit organization concerned with urban design and

planning.

3. Start small business reupholstering furniture.

4. Start small business development including restoring buildings in her

neighborhood for rental.

5. Manage the family business.

Sessions (10) continued until the client concluded that she was happy for the

foreseeable future with purchasing and restoring older buildings in her neighbor-

hood for rental and lease. This work has continued for several months resulting in

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