Factor analysis of Strong Vocational Interest Blank items.

Abstract

University of MinnesotaThis study was undertaken to identify independent interest dimensions thatwere equivalent across different subject samples, as a first step toward mappingthe vocational interest domain. The responses to 347 female form items and357 male form items from the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) wereobtained, using the appropriate form for the following five single-sex samples:women in general (n = 1,000), men in general (n = 1,000), female occupational(n — 2,500), male occupational (n — 3,600), and male rehabilitation client(n — 1,874). Separately for each sample the SVIB items were intercorrelated,and the correlation matrices were factored by a principal axes technique, usingthe highest off-diagonal correlations as communality estimates with rotation toa varimax criterion. Factors between same-sex samples were compared usingTucker's coefficient of congruence. The analyses resulted in 11-13 factors, de-pending on the sample, of which 9 and 8 were judged to be equivalent acrossthe two female and three male samples, respectively.The Strong Vocational Interest Blank(SVIB; Strong, 1943), initially published in1927, has been one of the most successful andwidely used instruments in vocational coun-seling practice and research. Much of what isreliably known about vocational interests isbased on research with the SVIB (Campbell,1971; Crites, 1969; Barley & Hagenah,1955; Strong, 1943; Tyler, 1965). The sev-enth edition of Mental Measurements Year-