Abstract
The Jackson Career Explorer (JCE) is a short form and continuous version of the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS). The 34 scales of the JCE were investigated in relation to the Career Directions Inventory (CDI). Participants (N = 282) aged 14–57 years were volunteers from local high schools and colleges and completed both measures. The reliability values for the JCE scales were moderate to high. In terms of convergent validity, corresponding scales from both measures were found to correlate highly, supporting the use of the JCE and adding information about the CDI.
Introduction
Research has shown that individuals will be most satisfied with their career choices if their personal characteristics align with the environment and activities associated with their job or line of work (Dawis, 2005). One of the first personal characteristics to explore in determining a career is an individual’s interests in various activities related to roles, careers, and fields. To help identify interests and develop a career plan, tools such as career and vocational interest assessments are often used as they measure interests in a variety of different areas and compare an individual’s interests to that of people working in different fields. Interest assessments represent one component of the career development process and can be supplemented with other important information such as aptitude and available opportunities to help uncover career options and encourage further exploration to determine fit.
The current study investigates the relationship between two such career assessments: the Jackson Career Explorer (JCE), which is a short form and continuous version of the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS; Jackson, 2000; for the article describing the original modified version of the JVIS, see Schermer & Vernon, 2008) and the Career Directions Inventory (CDI; Jackson, 2003). The purpose of the present study is to further examine the scale properties and the construct validity of the JCE, by examining the internal consistency of the 34 dimensions, sex differences, correlations with age, as well as the relationship with the 15 scales from the CDI. The present study adds to the literature pertaining to career and vocational interest scales in two ways. First, the study presents information about the scale properties of the JCE. The study also introduces the CDI, a measure not typically found in the vocational interest literature.
The development of the JVIS (Jackson, 1977, 2000) was influenced by the need for a vocational interest measure that was convenient and easy to score, while measuring a comprehensive set of interests to guide individuals toward a rewarding and fulfilling career. Its construction adopted a unique approach to scale development, scoring and, reporting of scores, including careful attention to developing items highly representative of their respective scales and relatively uncorrelated with other scales (Jackson, 2000). The development of the JVIS involved a reconceptualization of occupational preferences as distinct work roles and work styles using psychometric procedures designed to result in optimal levels of scale construction.
The JVIS is frequently used in applied high-school and career counseling situations (Paunonen, 2005) and is appropriate for use with college and university students. It contains 289 pairs of items describing job-related activities. The JVIS is a forced-choice, or ipsative, instrument in which the respondent must choose their preferred activity from two behavioral statements. The items were constructed based on a rational approach in which each statement describes the actions or typical activities of individuals who hold each interest (Jackson, 1977). Scoring yields a profile on 34 interests (Jackson, 1997, 2000; Juni & Koenig, 1982; see Table 1 for scale names and sample items). Respondents receive a report outlining their interest patterns by providing several profiles and scores associated with their 34 basic interests, 10 general themes, and other pertinent career information such as their similarity to educational and occupational job clusters. The information presented in the report along with the helpful resources provided were designed to help respondents make informed career decisions based on their pattern of interests.
Scale Names and Sample Items for the Jackson Career Explorer (JCE)
The CDI (Jackson, 2003) consists of 100 triad behavioral statements. Participants are asked to select their most preferred and least preferred activities of the three options. Scoring yields a profile on 15 basic interests comprised of 20 items each. The scales measured by the CDI include administration (daily operations of an organization), art (performing on stage or creating visual artwork), clerical, food service (preparation, serving, and selling of food), industrial art (building or repairing objects with machinery or manually), health service (trying to prevent diseases through research or applied settings), outdoors (agriculture and possibly dangerous situations), personal service (interacting with people), sales, science, teaching or social service (instruction and helping others), writing (technical or creative), assertive (direct and monitor others), persuasive (advising or influencing others), and systematic (preference for a secure and routine position). The report presents raw scores, percentile scores, and gender-based scores on 15 basic interests. The report provides additional scores and resources for interpretive purposes related to interest patterns, general occupational themes, and top job and occupational clusters.
Gellatly, Paunonen, Meyer, Jackson, and Goffin (1991) reported that the internal consistency values of the CDI ranged from .67 to .91 and that the scales, when examined at the factor level, predicted job performance and satisfaction in a sample of managers. In the manual, results are presented, which demonstrate that the CDI scales have moderately high test–retest reliability (correlations range from .72 to .94 for the basic interest scales) from a sample of high school students tested over a month apart (Jackson, 2003). The validity of the CDI scales was assessed by examining scale profiles for people in certain career groups compared to the general population. In general, Jackson (2003) reports that individuals in the targeted groups did score higher on the corresponding scales (e.g., people employed in skilled trades tend to score higher on scales such as industrial arts when compared to the general population).
As described by Schermer and Vernon (2008), two changes were applied to the original JVIS when constructing the short form version (now the JCE). The first change involved extracting the 5 items with the highest item-scale total correlations, thereby reducing the number of items from 289 pairs to 170 individual items. The second change was to move from the ipsative format to a continuous 1 to 5 Likert-type response scale, which allows for multivariate statistical analyses. Initial results have suggested that the JCE has sound properties (Schermer & Vernon, 2008). Examining the correlations with Jackson’s (2003) CDI will further add to the information supporting the JCE by providing some degree of concurrent validity information.
Method
Participants
Participants volunteered for the current research study as part of an assessment program at their respective school guidance or student services department. An invitation to participate was extended to 560 individuals, including 310 high school students and 250 college students. Upon completion of the assessments, participants received a CDI report detailing their results to help them make informed career choices. A total of 282 students completed both measures with a response rate of 50.4%. The sample consisted of 137 males and 145 females (average age of 17 years, SD = 4.91, range = 14–57, with 82% of the participants under the age of 18). Females (M age = 17.72 years) were significantly older than males (M age = 16.24 years) in the sample (t = −2.61, p < .05, two-tailed). Participants were also asked about their current postsecondary education or training and/or future plans. Results indicated that 30.5% of respondents planned to enroll in university, 36.2% planned to or were already enrolled in college, 3.5% planned to or were already enrolled in apprenticeship programs, 5% indicated “other,” and 24.8% did not respond to this question or were unsure at the time they completed the questionnaire.
Materials and Procedure
Participants completed the JCE consisting of 170 items assessing 34 basic interests (see Table 1). Each item was presented individually, and participants were asked to rate the degree to which they were interested in doing the activity described ranging from 1 (would not be interested in doing this activity) to 5 (would be very interested in doing this activity). Each scale consists of five items and scores range from 5 to 25.
Participants also completed the CDI (Jackson, 2003), which consists of 100 triad behavioral statements. For each of the triads, participants were asked to choose which behavior is their most preferred and which is their least preferred. Each scale consists of 20 items and responses are aggregated using weights to arrive at scale scores on the 15 basic interests (see Table 4 for scale names).
Results
Scale Properties of the JCE
Table 2 presents the descriptive statistics and internal consistency reliability estimates for the 34 JCE scales. Cronbach’s α values are moderate to high, with an average of .81 (range = .61–.94) for each of the five-item scales. The average inter-item correlations also suggest that the items within each scale have moderate to high correlation values.
Scale Properties of the 34 JCE Scales
Note. Each scale consists of 5 items.
Sex Differences and Correlations With Age for the JCE
Levene’s test for equality of variances (F test) and a t test for mean differences were computed between males and females for each of the 34 JCE scales (see Table 3 ). Women were found to be more variable on the creative arts, medical service, social service, and elementary education scales. Men were found to be more variable on the engineering, nature-agriculture, and skilled trade scales. With respect to mean differences, women scored significantly higher on the creative arts, social science, personal service, medical service, accountability, teaching, social service, elementary education, academic achievement, planfulness, and interpersonal confidence scales. Men scored significantly higher on the physical science, engineering, adventure, nature-agriculture, skilled trades, and finance scales. These findings are similar to those reported by Schermer and Vernon (2008) and with sex differences typically found in the vocational and career interest literature (Carless, 1999; Costa, McCrae, & Holland, 1984; Harris, Vernon, Johnson, & Jang, 2006; Low, Yoon, Roberts, & Rounds, 2005; Rottinghaus, Betz, & Borgen, 2003; Su, Rounds, & Armstrong, 2009).
Sex Differences and Correlations With Age for the 34 JCE Scales
Note. F test of equal variances; t test of mean differences.
*p < .01, two-tailed.
Sex Differences and Correlations With Age for the CDI Scales
Note. F test of equal variances; t test of mean differences.
*p < .01, two-tailed.
JCE scale scores were correlated with age (see Table 3). Significant positive correlations were found with the creative arts, social science, family activity, teaching, social service, elementary education, business, human relations management, law, academic achievement and technical writing scales. Although some of these correlations may reflect sex differences (in that females were older than males in the sample), four of the correlations did not correspond to the scales with significant sex differences, and for 11 scales, a significant sex difference was found but not a significant correlation with age. The correlations are similar to those reported by Schermer and Vernon (2008) and reflect a tendency for individuals to prefer more conventional and helping positions as they age.
Sex Differences and Correlations With Age for the CDI
Levene’s test for equality of variances (F test) and a t test for mean differences between males and females were computed for each of the 15 CDI scales (see Table 4). Women were found to be more variable on the health service and teaching or social service scales, while men were found to be more variable on the industrial art scale. With respect to mean differences, women scored significantly higher on the clerical, food service, health service, personal service, and teaching or social service scales. Men scored significantly higher on the industrial art, outdoors, science, and assertive scales. These results are similar to sex differences found in previous studies with other vocational interest measures (Costa et al., 1984). With respect to correlations with age (see Table 4), a significant positive correlation was found with the teaching or social service scale (which may have been influenced by the higher female scale score). Significant negative correlations were found with the sales, science, assertive, and systematic scales; two of which (with the science and assertive scale) may be influenced by the younger male sample.
Relationships Between the JCE and CDI Scales
The correlations between the scale scores from the two measures are presented in Table 5 . Of note are the very high and significant correlations between scales of similar constructs from each measure. The administration scale from the CDI assesses financial and record keeping roles within a business. Positive correlations are found between the administration scale and the JCE finance, human relations management, law, and professional advising scales. These correlations suggest some degree of convergent validity. The art scale from the CDI is described as including creating and performing in the arts, but the strongest correlation with the JCE is with the creative arts scale with a significant and positive (but of lower magnitude) correlation with the JCE performing arts scale.
Correlations Between JCE and CDI Scales
Notes. Decimals have been omitted. CDI scales: 1 = Administration; 2 = Art; 3 = Clerical; 4 = Food Service; 5 = Industrial Art; 6 = Health Service; 7 = Outdoors; 8 = Personal Service; 9 = Sales; 10 = Science; 11 = Teaching or Social Service.
*p < .01, two-tailed.
Strong support for convergent validity is found between the CDI clerical scale and the JCE office work scale. A significant positive correlation was found between the CDI food service scale and the JCE family activity scale. Possibly this result is due to both scales assessing the interest in meal planning. The CDI scale of industrial art is described as assessing an enjoyment of using machinery. Not surprisingly then, there were strong positive correlations between the industrial art scale and the JCE engineering and skilled trades scales.
For the CDI health services scale, a very strong correlation was found with the JCE medical service scale, and had moderately strong correlation with the life science scale, suggesting that the two measures are converging on this interest. The CDI scale assessing outdoor interests includes an interest in working with plants and animals and possibly dangerous situations. Strong positive correlations were found between the CDI outdoors scale and the JCE engineering, adventure, and nature-agriculture scales. The personal service scale from the CDI measures an interest in providing services to other people. A strong positive correlation was found between the personal service scales from the CDI and the personal service, family activity, and social service JCE scales.
The sales scale from the CDI was found to have a significant positive correlation with the corresponding sales scale from the JCE. The CDI science scale had strong positive correlations with the JCE mathematics, physical science, and engineering scales. Very strong positive correlations were also found between the CDI teaching or social service scale and the JCE teaching, social service, and elementary education scales. In general, these correlations further support the convergent validity of the JCE scales as scales measuring similar constructs were found to have significant positive correlations.
Discussion
In summary, the scale properties of the 34 JCE scales all exhibited moderate to high internal consistency reliability estimates. It is interesting to note that the highest JCE basic interest mean scores were found on the scales that reflect work styles, which describe preferences for certain work environments that emphasize job security, stamina, accountability, planfulness, and interpersonal confidence. In contrast, work roles describe preferences for certain work activities. The highest mean score for the work roles was teaching. Given that the sample consisted of students, it can be inferred that teaching is one of, if not the most, familiar role to students, as they would observe it almost every day. This finding suggests that it may be easier for participants to identify with and endorse items related to environment preferences rather than activities, especially if they are unfamiliar with the activities described in the items.
The lowest mean score for the work roles was sales. As this role may be somewhat familiar to students, future research on this assessment could examine the items that are used to measure this scale to ensure the items are current and accurately capturing some of the advances in marketing and technology that may be influencing this field. Future research might also investigate the degree to which job familiarity influences interests. Future test development for career assessments could focus on experimenting with items to ensure they keep up with advances in their respective fields and experiment with formats that define or explain activities in greater detail.
Sex differences and correlations with age for the JCE scales, as well as the 15 CDI scales, corresponded well with former trends from other vocational and career interest measures (Carless, 1999; Rottinghaus et al., 2003; Su et al., 2009). It is interesting to note that in the current study, the pattern of sex differences suggests that preferences for some traditional roles are still present in young people who are preparing to enter the workforce. For example, women scored significantly higher than men on personal service, teaching, social service, and elementary education, while men scored significantly higher than women on physical science, engineering, adventure, skilled trades, and finance. Future research can continue to investigate ways to increase exposure of different careers to both sexes. Another interesting finding was that women scored significantly higher than men on JCE interpersonal confidence; however, men scored significantly higher than women on CDI assertiveness. The constructs of interpersonal confidence and assertiveness are related yet distinct and may suggest tendencies for different leadership styles or preferences. Career assessments should be reviewed often to ensure that items are gender neutral and free from biases with respect to the types of activities and work styles described by the items.
With respect to the relationships between the individual scales, convergent validity was supported for the JCE with respect to scale scores on the CDI. Although these correlations suggest convergent validity, there is little published research using the CDI, suggesting that for both measures, future research is needed to assess how the assessments relate to other vocational and career interest measures.
The current study illustrates that the JCE is a relatively short yet effective career interest assessment that produces continuous scale scores that can be used in multivariate analyses. Therefore, the JCE can be very useful for academic and vocational counselors to aid individuals in deciding upon education or career paths that coincide with their interests as well as providing a useful measure for researchers. Future research on career assessments such as the JCE and the CDI can explore current trends and changing career interests within a generation of young people that grew up with advanced technology, information accessible and available at any time, and potentially fewer perceived barriers to careers traditionally dominated by the opposite sex.
Footnotes
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.