Holland's Theory in an International Context: Applicability of RIASEC Structure and Assessments Technical Report No. 50

Abstract

Holland's RIASEC theory was designed to meet the vocational needs of people in the U.S. in the mid-twentieth century. This article reviews literature relevant to the applicability of the RIASEC model's structure and Holland-based assessments in global cultures and contexts for which they were not originally intended. We examined literature produced after a 1996 meta-analysis of a similar topic, which proved to be mixed but somewhat more supportive of the international applicability of RIASEC structure and Holland-based assessments. The discussion includes a commentary on the applicability of Holland's theory in a post-modern world with its global economy and rapid change.Holland's Theory 3 HOLLAND'S THEORY IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT: APPLICABILITY OF RIASEC STRUCTURE AND ASSESSMENTSJohn L. Holland's (1997) RIASEC theory was designed to address vocational issues of people living in the U.S. in the mid-twentieth century. However, U.S. values of individualism, independent decision making, and immediate-family structure (Stead & Watson, 1998) are not the norm in many places, and relentless global change seems to further challenge this matching theory. As a result, some have criticized the contribution of Holland's theory and doubt its applicability to non-majority U.S. citizens and the 21 st century worker in a global economy (Brown, 2002). This criticism seems to have amplified as there has been increased discussion of the internationalization of career counseling and a rise in post-modern thought with regards to how careers and working are conceptualized (Collin & Young, 2000;Savickas et al, 2009). The present literature review seeks to determine the current, international applicability of RIASEC structure and Holland theory-based instruments in a time of change.Post-modern thought arose when modern philosophies encountered difficulties. Postmodern thought has been influential in many fields (i.e., literature, art, psychology) due to how it addressed cultural influences as diverse cultures have gained increased international respect (Kahn & Lourenco, 1999). Vocational psychology and counseling have also seen the influence of post-modern thought, which at times has led to criticism. For example, Coutinho, Dam, and Blustein (2008) went so far as to suggest that "the notion of career is no longer a sufficiently inclusive conceptual framework, which successfully encapsulates the experiences of work in the lives of the majority of people in the world today" (p. 12). Moreover, Savickas (1995) questioned the degree to which modern theories can address the needs of a post-modern world. Others have called for the revision of old theory, the creation of post-modern oriented theories of vocational Holland's Theory 4 guidance, or the convergence of multiple, modern theories (e.g., Osipow, 1990;Savickas, 2005;Schultheiss, 2007;Severy, 2008;Young & Valach, 2004). Blustein (2006) noted that trait-andfactor theorists, such as Holland, perpetuate a tendency to focus on the privileged, well-educated worker. Others have sai...

Holland’s SDS Applied to Chinese College Students: A Revisit to Cross-Culture Adaptation

“…Holland's typology is also the theoretical backbone of major vocational assessment programs such as the American College Testing Program (1988) and the United States Employment Service (U.S. Department of Labor, 1979). According to Ruff, Reardon, and Bertoch (2008), Holland's theory and models have appeared in197 different journals in countries around the world and Holland's RIASEC typology and related applications have been cited over 1,600 times in the literature from 1953 to early 2007 (Bullock et al, 2010).…”

“…Given the popularity and widespread influence of Holland's theory, model, and assessment inventories, it is not surprising that researchers and practitioners outside the U.S. have worked to adapt his RIASEC model and related assessment tools with the anticipation that they can be useful in investigating vocational interests in different populations (Bullock et al, 2010;Rounds & Tracey, 1996). For instance, Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) has been translated into more than 30 languages (Bullock et al, 2010).…”

“…Given the popularity and widespread influence of Holland's theory, model, and assessment inventories, it is not surprising that researchers and practitioners outside the U.S. have worked to adapt his RIASEC model and related assessment tools with the anticipation that they can be useful in investigating vocational interests in different populations (Bullock et al, 2010;Rounds & Tracey, 1996). For instance, Holland's Self-Directed Search (SDS) has been translated into more than 30 languages (Bullock et al, 2010). Most of Holland's inventories have been adapted to studying young people's occupational interests in other countries, such as SDS in Croatia (Šverko & Babarovic, 2006) and in Hong Kong (Leung & Hou, 2005), Personal Globe Inventory (PGI) in Japan (Tracey, 2002), Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) in India (Leong, Austin, Sekaran, & Komarraju, 1998), and Strong Interest Inventory (SII) in Korea (Tak, 2004), just to name a few examples.…”

“…Nonetheless, empirical research has yielded inconsistent findings regarding the generalizability of Holland's model and inventories (Bullock et al, 2010;Long et al, 2005). On the one hand, some researchers (e.g., Hansen, 1987;Holland, 1985;Yu & Alvi, 1996) provided evidence that Holland's model captures the structure of interests of international and cross-cultural populations almost as well as it does for White western test-takers (Bullock et al, 2010).…”

“…Holland's assessment tools were initially developed over half century ago. Since then, rapid development in science and technology has transformed the educational and occupational systems (Bullock et al, 2010;Tien, 2010). Even though there have been updates to Holland's assessment inventories, continuing examination is necessary to validate the assessment items, especially on the inventories that have been in place for decades.…”