RIASEC interest and confidence cutoff scores: Implications for career counseling

Abstract

One strategy commonly used to simplify the joint interpretation of interest and confidence inventories is the use of cutoff scores to classify individuals dichotomously as having high or low levels of confidence and interest, respectively. The present study examined the adequacy of cutoff scores currently recommended for the joint interpretation of the Strong Interest Inventory (SII: Donnay, Morris, Schaubhut, & Thompson, 2005) and the Skills Confidence Inventory (SCI: Betz, Borgen, & Harmon, 1996, 2005). Cutoff score criteria were evaluated based on a sample of college students and employed adults ( n = 1000), and cross-validated with a second sample of college students ( n = 1, 149) who completed an experimental measure of RIASEC interests and confidence. Results were interpreted in the context of social cognitive career theory ( Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) by testing predictions regarding the relative frequency of individuals with either matched or mismatched levels of interest and confidence.