The Strong Interest Inventory is a widely used vocational interests assessment developed by E.K. Strong in 1928, updated with 291 items to help high school and college students and adults find suitable careers. It categorizes interests across six occupational themes and offers various reports for age-appropriate exploration activities. The assessment shows strong reliability and validity, with correlations between reported interests and actual occupational selections.
Strong interest inventoryassessment
Strong interest inventory is most widely used measures of vocational
interests in U.S.
a 291-item interest inventory designed for uses by high school and
college students and adults.
In addition to the basic Strong Profile, five other report formats are
available.
These reports for high school and college students incorporate age-appropriate
exploration activities as well as internship and job information related to interest
results.
It was developed by E. K. Strong in 1928.
It has been used for nearly 80 years.
Many revisions along the way to fit with the world of works.
Several revisions were made to the 2004 Strong. Of the original 317 items, 193
were retained and 98 new or adapted items were added for a total of 291 items.
The previous "Like-Indifferent-Dislike" response option was expanded to five
options including "Strongly Like" and "Strongly Dislike."
3.
Strong interest inventoryassessment
6 General Occupational Themes: It was broadened in the
latest revision due to fast growing changes of world of
works. For example, the conventional theme expanded to
include professions with computer programming etc.,
Realistic,
Investigative,
Artistic,
Social,
Enterprising,
Conventional;
Strong interest inventoryassessment
244 Occupational Scales.
Personal Style Scales.
Work Style,
Learning Environment,
Leadership Style,
Risk Taking,
Team Orientation.
7.
Normative Sample
The2004 sample consists of 1,125 women and 1,125 men
and represents a total of 373 occupations.
The female sample had the following racial/ethnic composition:
68.3% Caucasian, 10.3% African American, 6.4% Multiethnic,
6.2% Latina/Hispanic, 4.3% Asian American or Asian, and 3%
Other (broken down further in the manual).
For men, the composition was: 76.2% Caucasian, 6.5%
Multiethnic, 4.4% African American, 3.8% Latino/Hispanic, 2.4%
Indian, 2.2% Asian American or Asian, and 2.3% Other (again,
broken down in the manual).
The average sample member age was 35.46; average time
employed in current occupation was 4.63 years.
8.
Normative Sample
Additionalvolunteers were solicited to form new OSs for the
2004 Strong.
The women in these new occupational samples had the
following racial/ethnic composition: 81.5% Caucasian, 6.1%
Multiethnic, 3.1% African American, 1.7% Asian American or
Asian, 1.1% Latina/Hispanic, and 1.4% Other.
For men, the composition was: 76.4% Caucasian, 4.9%
Multiethnic, 2.3% African American, 2.3% Asian American or
Asian, 1.8% Latino/Hispanic, 1.6% Indian, and .9% Other.
Average age for the occupational samples was 43.21.
There were fewer members of racial and ethnic groups in these
occupational samples than in the GRS.
Occupational sample members tended to be employed longer in
their current position, more satisfied with their work, and more
highly educated than GRS members.
9.
Reliability
The alphacoefficients for the GOTs were in the range of .90-.95.
Short-interval (2-7 months) test-retest reliability coefficients were .84-.89 with a median
of .86.
The median long-interval (8-23-month) test-retest reliability for the GOTs was .84.
Alpha coefficients for the BISs were in the range of .80-.92 with a median of .87.
Short-interval test-retest coefficients were between .77-.93 with a median of .85-.86.
long-interval test-retest coefficients ranged from .74-.90 with a median of .83-.84.
Alpha coefficients for the OSs were not reported. The OS test-retest reliability
coefficients were in the range of .71-.93 with a median of .86.
For the PSSs, alpha coefficients were in the range of .82-.87.
Short-interval test-retest reliability coefficients were between .77-.90 with a median of
.89;
long-interval test-retest reliability coefficients were .70-.91 with a median of .86.
10.
Validity
There aretwo forms of convergent and discriminant validity evidence
for the GOTs.
First, GOTs were correlated with OSs for women and men in the GRS.
Predictable patterns were apparent. For example, the female and
male Engineering Technician OSs had the highest correlations with
Realistic GOT; female and male Buyer OSs had their lowest
correlations with Realistic GOT. A similar pattern of results was
attained for the other five GOTs.
Second, a sample of 879 college students completed the 2004 Strong;
they were categorized as belonging to one of 75 college majors.
Average GOT scale scores were calculated for each of these 75 major
groups; rank-ordered means of these college major groups were
arrayed within each of the six GOT areas. Results again corresponded
highly with expectations. For example, female Literature majors had
the highest Artistic GOT scores.
11.
Validity
The samemethods were used to document the concurrent validity of
the 30 BISs.
Concurrent validity is also reflected in the correlations of the OSs
within their respective GOTs. For women, the OS correlations within
themes were in the range of .39-.57 with a median of .41; for men
the range was .27-.58 with a median of .52. These OS correlations
within theme follow the predicted pattern. The manual includes a
detailed discussion of six predictive validity studies using previous
versions of the OSs. There is a moderate-to-excellent
correspondence between OSs and subsequent occupational
selections. Overall, this evidence constitutes strong support for the
validity of the OSs.
The validity of the PSSs was addressed by examining correlations
with the GOTs and BISs.