Holland's Constructs Research Articles

"I will wash it out": Holocaust Reconciliation in Agnieszka Holland's 2011 Film In Darkness

In her recent film In Darkness , Agnieszka Holland constructs two perspectives on the Holocaust: one Polish-Catholic and the other Jewish. This article examines the cinematic techniques and devices employed in the film to block the emergence of a hegemonic “gaze,” or overriding narrative. Instead, the director works to produce parallel narratives and a de-centered perspective so that the viewer cannot develop an allegiance to a single character. The author maintains that Holland uses these artistic strategies to produce a reconciliatory discourse on Polish-Jewish relationships during the Holocaust.

An enhanced examination of Holland's consistency and differentiation hypotheses

The research support for Holland's concepts of consistency and differentiation has been equivocal (Nauta, 2010). To provide a reexamination of these concepts, a new method of operationalizing Holland's constructs of consistency and differentiation using the cosine fit function to the RIASEC score profile is proposed. The relation of these new indices to career certainty, congruence and the moderation of the congruence–certainty relation were examined in a sample of 118 college students (study 1). Support was found for the superiority of the cosine fit definitions of consistency and differentiation over the traditional representations. The cosine fit indices were further examined in a second study on 167 adults examining interest stability over 15years. The cosine fit indices of consistency and differentiation were related to both occupational stability over 15years and career satisfaction. The results suggest that the concepts of differentiation and consistency may still have merit but only with more exact methods of specification.

The Relationship Between Personality and the Teaching Effectiveness of Music Student Teachers

The purposes of this study were to determine if significant differences existed among the occupational personality types (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional) of music student teachers and to determine if the personality types or any of the major constructs of Holland's vocational theory (Consistency, Differentiation, Identity and Congruence) significantly contributed to music student teachers' teaching effectiveness. Subjects (n = 84) were music student teachers from institutions in Ohio, U.S.A. Significant within-group differences were found to exist among the personality types of music student teachers. Subjects' three highest mean scores were on the Artistic, Social and Investigative personality scores respectively. None of the personality types and none of Holland's constructs was found to significantly contribute to the overall variance of teaching effectiveness.

Managerial Work, Job Analysis, and Holland's RIASEC Vocational Environment Dimensions

We examined relations between the environmental dimensions underlying Holland's theory of vocational choice and skill requirements, context characteristics, and task frequency ratings for managerial jobs. The Holland environmental constructs were measured by the recently developedPosition Classification Inventory(PCI). The task, skill requirement, and context variables were measured using traditional job analysis surveys. Ten judges provided estimates of the expected correlations between the job analysis variables and the Holland constructs. The profile of observed correlations was generally consistent with the judges’ expectations based on Holland's theory, providing support for both that framework and the construct validity of the PCI. The one Holland dimension for which the data were least consistent with predictions was “Realistic.” Results provide a detailed picture of the work content, skills, and context variables within managerial work that are likely to be associated with the RIASEC dimensions. Implications for management development are discussed.

The relationship between Holland's theory of vocational interest and Eysenck's model of personality

Holland (1959, Journal of Counseling Psychology, 6, 35–45) has stated that his vocational theory is based on an assessment of personality dimensions. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between vocational interest patterns as represented by Holland's model and personality dimensions as represented by Eysenck's model. The study tested specific hypotheses concerning the relationship between Holland's vocational personalities and personality dimensions as measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). The hypothesized relationships were based on our interpretations of Holland's model and Eysenck's theory of personality. The findings indicated there are some low but significant relationships between Eysenck's personality dimensions. Horney's theory of interpersonal relations provide one possible interpretation for some of the findings. A significant relationship between Eysenck's EPQ and Holland's construct of Differentiation was also found.

Evaluating the RIASEC circumplex using high-point codes

The fit of the circumplex structure to Holland RIASEC codes was examined using loglinear analysis. Two letter high-point code frequency tables of the four Self-Directed Search norm samples (male college students, female college students, male high school students, and female high school students) and Holland's translation of Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) occupations were examined with respect to how they met the assumptions involved in Holland's circumplex model. Results indicated that when account was taken of base rate differences in Holland codes, the circumplex model was a good fit to the data. The results have implications for the measurement of RIASEC types and the definition and interpretation of Holland's constructs of consistency and person-environment congruence.

The implications of Holland's constructs in the prediction of employment: A cautionary note

John Holland's model of vocational choice has been used for both individual and group career counselling, in a variety of social and cultural contexts. Typically, it is used to help people to make career decisions; however, Holland has also proposed that his model could be used for predicting the manner in which individuals would cope with unemployment and/or job change. In this paper, the authors present the results of a study assessing the validity of Holland's claims with respect to the efficacy of his theory in the prediction of job search success. The results of the study provided, at best, limited support for Holland's claims; most predictor/criteria combinations were found to have little or no relationship to each other. The authors conclude that the Holland model is of limited value for predicting job search success, and suggest the use of other data collection techniques for such purposes. The authors also recommend further research regarding the operationalization of Holland's constructs.

Extrinsic job satisfaction and person-environment congruence

Holland's construct of congruence was investigated with job dissatisfaction among 792 men and 1077 women who were working in 1980. A congruence scale was developed based on job aspirations as freshmen in 1971, graduating major, and actual job in 1980. Patterns of relationships identified by median polishing indicated women working in Social environments were more dissatisfied with extrinsic aspects of their jobs than those working in other environments. More men than women were dissatisfied with income, fringe benefits, and opportunity for promotion. Furthermore, those at the highest level of congruence tended to be less dissatisfied than those at the lowest level of congruence.

The Construct Validity of Holland's Differentiation Concept

Holland's construct of differentiation was studied with various measures of development, career decisiveness, and achievement.

A clarification of Holland's construct of differentiation: The importance of score elevation

In J. L. Holland's (1985, Making Vocational Choices (2nd ed.), Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall) theory of vocational choice, the construct of differentiation refers to the degree to which an individual's interests are clearly defined and is operationalized in the present study as the numerical difference between an individual's highest and lowest scores on the General Occupational Theme scales (GOT) of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) (D. P. Campbell and J. C. Hansen, Manual for SVIB-SCII (3rd ed.), Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Univ. Press). Techniques for measuring differentiation do not account for the elevation of an interest profile; thus, subjects with strong interests (all high scores) are treated as equivalent to subjects with weak interests (all low scores). The present study examined the custom of treating all undifferentiated subjects as if they were equal, by dividing subjects into High-Score Undifferentiated (HSU) and Low-Score Undifferentiated (LSU) groups, based on the elevation of the highest GOT score. Compared to the LSU subjects, HSU subjects (a) were more likely to have SCII profiles which were internally consistent, (b) had a higher mean cumulative grade point average, (c) had a higher mean Academic Comfort score, and (d) were more likely to persist in college. These results suggest that accounting for score elevation does reveal differences between HSU and LSU subjects and that future studies should not treat undifferentiated subjects as a homogeneous group.

Personality Consistency and Perceived Problem‐Solving Behavior and Attitudes: An Extension of Holland's Typology

Holland's construct of consistency was used to predict self‐perceived behavior and attitudes typically associated with “successful” problem solving. The results tend to support Holland's premise that the higher the degree of personality consistency, the more students perceive their problem‐solving behavior and attitudes as successful.

Vocational maturity and its relationship to Holland's theory of vocational choice

The major purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of vocational maturity with Holland's theory of vocational choice. Specifically, Holland's constructs of consistency, differentiation, and congruency, along with demographic factors of sex and age were examined in relation to vocational maturity. Subjects were students enrolled in high- and midconsistency level programs in two post-secondary institutions. Holland's Occupational Finder, Canadian Classification and Dictionary of Occupations, and Dictionary of Occupational Titles were used to determine program selection, and the Vocational Preference Inventory and the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale were used to identify personality type and vocational maturity. Congruency and age related significantly to vocational maturity. Significant differences also occurred within both personality and program typologies.

Congruence and consistency derived from the circular and the hierarchical models as predictors of Occupational Choice Satisfaction

Peiser and Meir ( Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978 , 12, 270–278) tested the predictability of Occupational Choice Satisfaction (OCS) using Holland's constructs of congruence and consistency as applied to Roe's classification of occupations and the circular structure of vocational interests. In the present study congruence and consistency are applied to the same data, but the constructs are defined according to the hierarchical model for the structure of interests ( I. Gati, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1979 , 15, 90–106). The hierarchical and the circular models are found to be of similar efficiency in predicting OCS by congruence and by consistency. Each model, however, has its unique and distinctive predictions, and thus they seem to complement each other rather than to compete.

The predictive validity of Holland's construct of consistency

Holland's construct of consistency was studied for its predictive validity of certain measures of vocational stability. A new measure of consistency used was the difference between two plotted vocational choices on the American College Testing Program's Map of College Majors which 1248 subjects expressed while in high school. This consistency index was found to have no relationship with the similarity of the same subjects' beginning and ending college majors, also measured as a distance on the Map of College Majors. Additionally, no relationship was found to exist between the consistency index and number of college major changes, the number of course withdrawals, academic performance, and scholastic aptitude.

Expressed vocational choice and vocational indecision.

This study equally divided 232 male and female college students into four groups based on their responses to the Occupational Alternatives Question. Groups were composed of subjects who had a first choice and no alternatives, a first choice plus alternatives, no first choice but alternatives, and neither a first choice nor alternatives. The hypothesis tested was that these groups would differ on dependent variables related to vocational decision making. No significant differences were found on socioeconomic status or on Holland's constructs of consistency, differentiation, or congruence with career choice. Significant group differences were found on congruence with college major, total number of Vocational Preference Inventory responses, and scales measuring satisfaction with college major and career choice. Significant differences were also found on two recent scales measuring vocational indecision, that is, the Vocational Decision Making Difficulty Scale and the Career Decision Scale. Significant sex differences indicated that females were more congruent and satisfied with their college majors. The results are discussed and their implications for future research and vocational counseling are examined. In the literature on vocational choice, the variable of expressed choice has recently been gaining increased research support. The definitive review by Dolliver (1969) perhaps gave impetus to the investigation of expressed choice, and at present an impressive number of studies exist which consistently indicate that expressed choices have predictive validity—in terms of college major or career choice—that equals or exceeds that of inventoried interests (Borgen & Seling, 1978; Dolliver & Will, 1977; Gade & Soliah, 1975; Gottfredson & Holland, 1975; Holland & Gottfredson, 1975; Holland & Lutz, 1968; O'Neil & Magoon, 1977; O'Neil, Magoon, & Tracey, 1978; Touchton & Magoon, 1977). The findings mentioned previously on expressed choice become additionally interesting relative to a number of studies that have attempted to measure differences be