Another look at the relationships between similar scales on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank and Kuder Occupational Interest Survey.

Abstract

Questions were raised about the methodology used in earlier studies comparing similarly named scales on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (018), Form DD. Correlations between SVIB standard scores and OIS ranks for 51 pairs of scales were compared with previously reported correlations between SVIB standard scores and OIS lambda scores. Coefficients computed from OIS ranks were significantly higher (p < .05) for 27 scale pairs and significantly lower for 5 scale pairs when compared with coefficients computed from lambda scores. No significant differences were found for 19 pairs of scales. The implications for further studies comparing the two inventories were discussed.Recent studies have reported low correlations between similarly named scales on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB), Form T399, and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (OIS), Form DD (O'Shea & Harrington, 1971;Wilson & Kaiser, 1968;Zytowski, 1968). O'Shea and Harrington found that many SVIB scales were more highly related to a number of dissimilar scales on the OIS than to their counterparts. Because of these findings and the discrepancies noted by Williams, Kirk, and Frank (1968) between the old and revised forms of the SVIB, counselors have been advised to exercise extreme caution in using these inventories, either together or separately, in vocational counseling.Differences between the normative groups, item formats, and scoring procedures for the two inventories have all been cited as possible reasons for the low correlations observed. A difference that has been ignored in previous studies is the varied in-1 Requests for reprints should be sent to Roman Carek, Counseling Center, 320 Student Services Buliding,

High scales on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank and the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey using Holland's occupational codes.

“…Because the test construction and standardization populations are different, a search for Requests for reprints should be sent to Franklin D. Westbrook, University Counseling Center, Shoemaker Building, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742. comparability using statistical procedures alone may be useless. Carek (1972) found, however, that correlations between standard scores on the SVIB and ranked scales on the KOIS yielded higher coefficients than those reported previously. His findings suggest the probability that a procedure that will compare the occupations without analyzing the scores may show similarity.…”

The individual differences tradition in counseling psychology.

“…Counseling psychologists may be charting the same area but with instruments of different names, or they may be using scales with similar names that are not measuring the same thing. For example, various vocational interest scales with similar names do not correlate highly with one another (Carek, 1972;Harrington, Lynch, & O'Shea, 1971). Without universal agreement on a defining set of markers for generic variables, the proliferation of scales can continue indefinitely.…”