Abstract:
This study examined whether high school students were better able
to assess their scores on an interest inventory when the self-racings were either marched
or unmatched with the interest categories in an interest inventory. Students (N=
329) completed the Career Interest Test and a survey containing the same seven interest
dimensions (Outdoor, Practical, Scientific, Creative, Business, Office, and People
Contact). At the same time they completed four ratings of interests in the Data, Ideas,
People, and Things work-task dimensions. Findings indicated higher convergent validities
for matching self-ratings. The median correlation for matching categories was .52
and for unmatched categories was .21. Results supported the validity of self-ratings
and the use of matched categories for the assessment of interests.
