Psychometric Characteristics of a Public-Domain Self-Report Measure of Vocational Interests: The Oregon Vocational Interest Scales

Abstract

We investigated the psychometric properties of the Oregon Vocational Interest Scales (ORVIS), a brief public-domain alternative to commercial inventories, in a large community sample and in a college sample. In both samples, we examined the factor structure, scale intercorrelations, and personality correlates of the ORVIS, and in the community sample, we also examined the correlations of the ORVIS scales with cognitive abilities and with the scales of a longer, proprietary interest survey. In both samples, all 8 scales—Leadership, Organization, Altruism, Creativity, Analysis, Producing, Adventuring, and Erudition—showed wide variation in scores, high internal-consistency reliabilities, and a pattern of high convergent and low discriminant correlations with the scales of the proprietary interest survey. Overall, the results support the construct validity of the scales, which are recommended for use in research on vocational interests and other individual differences.

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Correction to: “Psychometric Characteristics of a Public-Domain Self-Report Measure of Vocational Interests: The Oregon Vocational Interest Scales”

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants 410-2007-0700 and 410-2007-2159 and by Grant AG20048 from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service.

Notes

¹Of the more than 30 questionnaires administered to the ESCS during the 1993 to 2006 period, the CISS was the only one for which no honorarium payment was provided; and doubtless because of this, participation was lower than for the other surveys

∗ns; for all other d values, p <.01.

²A confirmatory factor analysis of the ORVIS items is unsuitable for the following reasons. First, the ORVIS scales will not be strictly unidimensional, because each scale would likely contain several implicit (i.e., not explicitly hypothesized) “facets” or lower order factors representing various subdomains. Second, most ORVIS items would be expected to show appreciable associations with one or more scales other than the intended scale, because some activities and occupations will involve two or more areas of interest. Our aim in conducting the factor analyses was simply to evaluate how closely the eight ORVIS scales correspond to the eight largest factors underlying the ORVIS items, and not to find a model that would provide close fit to the data.

³The ORVIS items that correlated most strongly with mathematical ability were “Be a mathematician” and “Solve complex puzzles,” with correlations of .25 and .27, respectively.