III. The Minnesota Vocational Interest Inventory

Abstract

The development of psychometric instruments for use in counseling is much easier than is the education of counselors. Those who develop such devices for use in counseling should therefore accept the responsibility for incorporating into their scores and interpretive materials as much useful information as they can. Frequently such devices are interpreted only in terms of norms that have little meaning for the counselee. The Minnesota Vocational Interest Inventory provides scores that directly relate to many of the issues counselors and counselees discuss. The difficulty of interpreting the meaning of a score is reduced. The use of occupational titles is appropriate since data are collected on employed workers in those occupations. The counselor who has such information at his disposal can give meaningful assistance to an individual facing a decision regarding his future career. In many instances a device of this sort will be much more useful than one more test of intelligence or one more measure of the multiple dimensions of an individual's personality.