Validity and reliability evidence for assessing holland's career types

Abstract

Professional interests are a synthesis of personal characteristics and function as a guiding factor for one's career choice. This study shows evidence of validity and reliability for the interpretation of the scores of a measure of career types. The responses of 1,265 high school students to 154 items from the Escala de Avaliação dos Tipos Profissionais de Holland (ATPH) [Assessment Scale of Holland's Career Types] were used. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the six-factor structure is appropriate and consistent to represent the RIASEC types. Evidence of convergent-discriminant validity of parcels of items was demonstrated to represent the latent factors of the ATPH Scale. Results of multidimensional analysis and phi correlation phi partially confirmed the hypothesis of circularity and congruence among the career types, which are organized in the acronym RASIEC. The implications of these results and study limitations are discussed.