Gender Differences in the Validity of Career Interest Inventories

Stephanie T. Burns

Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2014.58089                

Abstract

Predictive validity (including hit rates, kappa coefficients, and chance expectancy rates) between standard scoring and person matching was compared by gender based upon ex post facto data collected on 5143 medical students who had taken a career interest inventory and entered their medical residency. Hit rate accuracy for person matching with females and males in this study was lower than standard scoring. However, person matching demonstrated greater gender balancing in first match hit rates. Additionally, person matching increased career interest inventory validity over standard scoring as it has the greater ability to a) differentiate between and b) assign to specific occupational groups for females and males. Furthermore, person matching has the potential to offer female and male test takers the ability to receive narrative career data, which could improve the career decision making process over the scoring reports of career interest inventories using standard scoring.

Keywords

Person Matching, Predictive, Hit Rate, Gender, Career Interest

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Amundson, N. E. (2009). Active Engagement: The Being and Doing of Career Counselling (3rd ed.). Richmond: Ergon Communications.
[2]	Armstrong, P. I., & Rounds, J. (2010). Integrating Individual Differences in Career Assessment: The Atlas Model of Individual Differences and the Strong Ring. Career Development Quarterly, 59, 143-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2010.tb00058.x
[3]	Borges, N. (2007). Behavioral Exploration of Career and Specialty Choice in Medical Students. Career Development Quarterly, 55, 351-358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2007.tb00089.x
[4]	Borges, N., & Savickas, M. L. (2002). Personality and Medical Specialty Choice: A Literature Review and Integration. Journal of Career Assessment, 10, 362-380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10672702010003006
[5]	Borges, N., Gibson, D., & Karnani, R. (2005). Job Satisfaction of Physicians with Congruent versus Incongruent Specialty Choice. Evaluation and the Health Professions, 28, 400-413. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0163278705281071
[6]	Campbell, D., & Borgen, F. (1999). Holland’s Theory and the Development of Interest Inventories. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 55, 86-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1699
[7]	Cochran, L. (1997). Career Counseling: A Narrative Approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
[8]	Cronbach, L., & Gleser, G. (1953). Assessing Similarity between Profiles. The Psychological Bulletin, 50, 456-473. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0057173
[9]	Donnay, D. (1997). E.K. Strong’s Legacy and beyond: 70 Years of the Strong Interest Inventory. Career Development Quarterly, 46, 2-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.1997.tb00688.x
[10]	Einarsdóttir, S., & Rounds, J. (2009). Gender Bias and Construct Validity in Vocational Interest Measurement: Differential Item Functioning in the Strong Interest Inventory. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74, 295-307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.01.003
[11]	Gasser, C. E., Larson, L. M., & Borgen, F. H. (2007). Concurrent Validity of the 2005 Strong Interest Inventory: An Examination of Gender and Major Field of Study. Journal of Career Assessment, 15, 23-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072706294516
[12]	Glavin, K., & Savickas, M. L. (2011). Interpreting Self-Directed Search Profiles: Validity of the Rule of Eight. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 414-418. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.01.005
[13]	Hackett, G., & Lonborg, S. D. (1993). Career Assessment for Women: Trends and Issues. Journal of Career Assessment, 1, 197-216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/106907279300100301
[14]	Harmon, L. W. (1997). Do Gender Differences Necessitate Separate Career Development Theories and Measures? Journal of Career Assessment, 5, 463-470. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/106907279700500406
[15]	Hartung, P., Borges, N., & Jones, B. (2005). Using Person Matching to Predict Career Specialty Choice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 67, 102-117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.03.001
[16]	Holland, J. L. (1961). Some Explorations with Occupational Titles. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 8, 82-87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0042428
[17]	Holland, J. L. (1966). The Psychology of Vocational Choice: A Theory of Personality Types and Model Environments. Waltham, MA: Blaisdell Publishing Company.
[18]	Holland, J. L., Whitney, D., Cole, N., & Richards, J. J. (1969). An Empirical Occupational Classification Derived from a Theory of Personality and Intended for Practice and Research. Iowa City, IA: American College Testing Program.
[19]	Hyde, J. S. (2005). The Gender Similarities Hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60, 581-592. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.6.581
[20]	Ihle-Helledy, K., Zytowski, D., & Fouada, N. (2004). Kuder Career Search: Test-Retest Reliability and Consequential Validity. Journal of Career Assessment, 12, 285-297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072703257752
[21]	Kuder, F. (1977a). Activity Interests and Occupational Choice. Chicago, IL: Science Research Associates.
[22]	Kuder, F. (1977b). Career Matching. Personnel Psychology, 30, 1-4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1977.tb02315.x
[23]	Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data. Biometrics, 33, 159-174. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2529310
[24]	Li, C., & Kerpelman, J. (2007). Parental Influences on Young Women’s Certainty about Their Career Aspirations. Sex Roles, 56, 105-115. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9151-7
[25]	Lippa, R. (1998). Gender-Related Individual Differences and the Structure of Vocational Interests: The Importance of the People—Things Dimension. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 996-1009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.4.996
[26]	Markert, R. J. (1983). Stability and Change of Medical Specialty Choice in U.S. Medical Schools. Journal of Medical Education, 58, 589-590.
[27]	McMahon, M., & Watson, M. (2010). Story Telling: Moving from Thin Stories to Thick and Rich Stories. In K. Maree (Ed.), Career Counselling: Methods That Work (pp. 53-63). Cape Town: Juta.
[28]	Nauta, M. M. (2010). The Development, Evolution, and Status of Holland’s Theory of Vocational Personalities: Reflections and Future Directions for Counseling Psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57, 11-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018213
[29]	Peavy, R. V. (1998). SocioDynamic Counselling: A Constructivist Perspective. Victoria: Trafford.
[30]	Porfeli, E. J., Richard, G. V., & Savickas, M. L. (2010). Development of Specialization Scales for the MSPI: A Comparison of Empirical and Inductive Strategies. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77, 227-237. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.04.011
[31]	Reed, V. A., Jernstedt, G. C., & Reber, E. S. (2001). Understanding and Improving Medical Student Specialty Choice: A Synthesis of the Literature Using Decision Theory as a Referent. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 13, 117-129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15328015TLM1302_7
[32]	Richard, G. (2011). Medical Specialty Preference Inventory, Revised Edition Technical Manual. Washington DC: Association of American Medical Colleges.
[33]	Rogers, M. E., Creed, P. A., & Searle, J. (2009). The Development and Initial Validation of Social Cognitive Career Theory Instruments to Measure Choice of Medical Specialty and Practice Location. Journal of Career Assessment, 17, 324-337. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072708330676
[34]	Savickas, M. L., Alexander, D., Jonas, A., & Wolf, F. (1986). Difficulties Experienced by Medical Students in Choosing a Specialty. Journal of Medical Education, 61, 467-469.
[35]	Savickas, M. L., Brizzi, J., Brisbin, L., & Pethtel, L. (1988). Predictive Validity of Two Medical Specialty Preference Inventories. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 21, 106-112.
[36]	Savickas, M. L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J., Duarte, M. E., Guichard, J., Soresi, S., Van Esbroeck, R., & van Vianen, A. E. M. (2009). Life Designing: A Paradigm for Career Construction in the 21st Century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75, 239-250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004
[37]	Sodano, S., & Richard, G. (2009). Construct Validity of the Medical Specialty Preference Inventory: A Critical Analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 74, 30-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.10.001
[38]	Stockdale, M. S., & Nadler, J. T. (2012). Paradigmatic Assumptions of Disciplinary Research on Gender Disparities: The Case of Occupational Sex Segregation. Sex Roles, 68, 207-215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0228-1
[39]	Stratton, T. D., Witzke, D. B., Elam, C. L., & Cheever, T. R. (2005). Learning and Career Specialty Preferences of Medical School Applicants. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 67, 35-50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.06.001
[40]	Strong, E. K. (1943). Vocational Interests of Men and Women. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
[41]	Su, R., Rounds, J., & Armstrong, P. I. (2009). Men and Things, Women and People: A Meta-Analysis of Sex Differences in Interests. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 859-884. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0017364
[42]	Wetzel, E., Hell, B., & Passler, K. (2012). Comparison of Different Test Construction Strategies in the Development of a Gender Fair Interest Inventory Using Verbs. Journal of Career Assessment, 20, 88-104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072711417166
[43]	Whiston, S. C., & Bouwkamp, J. C. (2003). Ethical Implications of Career Assessment with Women. Journal of Career Assessment, 11, 59-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/106907202237460