Career assessment

1. Chapter Four
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Assessment and Testing in Career
Development and Counseling

2. Objectives
 What is assessment? Define?
 What to be assessed?
 How and why we assesses?
 What is the major problem associated with selecting assessment instruments?
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3. Career related data
Measureme
nt
Assessment
Testing
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4. Terminologies
• Assessment: refers to the process of gathering information from various sources including tests,
oral tests, interviews, and observational data
• Measurement: the process giving numerical value for attributes after collecting data
• Testing: a process of knowing psychological attributes using a set of items
• Career assessment: is a general procedure of gathering qualitative and quantitative information
about a person or his career using oral, written, and observational data
• Career related testing: a specific procedure that involves various kinds of tests such as Kuder
interest inventory, general aptitude test, etc.
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5. Why do we use
• We assume that psychological attributes (e.g. interest, ability, values, intelligence, and personality)
are assumed to be relatively permanent
• These attributes influence career awareness, choice, and performance
• Tests and assessment are used in assigning individuals to different vocations, identify their skills,
values, interests, and knowing their strengths and weaknesses
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6. Prediction
 Tests reveal past and current interest, ability, values, and behavior
 Based on these score, tests can be used to predict future preferences, ability,
values, and abilities
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7. 7
Case 4.1
A career counselor saw the academic scores of a freshman
University student who was about to make his department
choice. He saw that the student had consistent high scores in
Mathematics and physics. But his scores in history and
languages were low in different grades. Based on these test
scores, the counselor she will succeed if she join departments
that include more Math and Physics courses.
Reflect
on

8. Selection
 Psychological tests (e.g. aptitude test) to hire some
individuals and reject others
 Assumption: tests will reveal the one who will succeed or
fail in performing the job
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Case 4.1
Dr. Abebe, dean of a medical colleges hired a career counselor to test
verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, and logical reasoning tests to
select 10 PG applicants. The psychologist administered and handed
the test results to the dean. Then, the dean selected 10 applicants with
the highest scores.

9. Placement
 After selecting individuals, it also needs additional testing to assign
them to different positions or departments
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Case 4.2
…. The dean asked the counselor if there is any criteria to
assign the applicants to different departments. The counselor
made personality testing, interest inventory, interview, work
value survey and finally suggested to assign the applicants to
gynecology, internal medicine, and oncology.

10. What do we assess?
• Interest
• Personality
• Ability
• Aptitude
• Values

11. Career Beliefs Assessment
 The inventories reveal beliefs about careers, decision-making styles,
identity issues, maladaptive behaviors, degrees of anxiety, fear of
failure, and reasons why people are undecided
 Some of the inventories used are the following:
 Career belief inventory
 Career thought inventory
 My vocational situation

12. Career Beliefs Inventory
 This inventory is used to identify career beliefs that can inhibit clients abilities to
make career decisions in their best interests
 The results are computed for 25 scales under the following five headings:
• My Current Career Situation
• What Seems Necessary for My Happiness
• Factors That Influence My Decisions
• Changes I Am Willing to Make
• Effort I Am Willing to Initiate

13. Career thought inventory
 Measure the degree of a person’s dysfunctional thinking in career decision-
making process
 The inventory consists of 48 items and 3 scales
• Decision-making confusion
• Commitment anxiety
• External conflict
 The total score is an indicator of an individual’s overall dysfunctional
thinking

14. My vocational situation (MVS) scale
• Assess difficulties in career decision making
• Used to identify problems related to unclear career goals
• Subscales:
• Vocational identity scale: to assess if there is clear and stable picture of goals,
interests, and personality
• Occupational information scale: the need for vocational information
• Barriers that the respondent perceives

15. Assessment of Aptitude
 Aptitude tests measure potential to acquire a certain skill or knowledge
 Aptitude test scores predict how well an individual may perform on a
job or in an educational or training program

16. What do aptitude tests measure?
 Abstract reasoning: ability to contextualize information and
recognize patterns
 Spatial visualization: understanding and manipulating 2D and 3D
shapes
 Numerical ability: math ability
 Verbal reasoning: ability to relate words

17. Specialized aptitude test types
 Mechanical aptitude test
 Art aptitude test
 Clerical aptitude test
 Musical aptitude test
 Scholastic aptitude test
 Professional aptitude test (e.g. medical, scientific, etc.)

18. Mechanical aptitude test
• Measure future success of technicians, mechanics, and plant operators
• Examples:
• Minnesota mechanical assembly test
• Minnesota spatial relations test
• SRA Mechanical aptitude test

19. Scholastic Aptitude Test
• Designed for selection of students to different fields (e.g. Medicine,
social science, engineering, etc)
• Examples
• Scholastic aptitude test (SAT)
• Stanford scientific aptitude test
• Graduate admission test (GAT)

20. Differential Aptitude Test (DAT)
• Assess multiple separate abilities
• verbal reasoning
• numerical ability
• abstract reasoning
• spatial relations
• mechanical reasoning
• clerical speed and accuracy
• spelling, and language usage
• When verbal and numerical scores are combined, a scholastic aptitude score
is created
• Other subtests are specifically used for vocational and educational planning

21. Other Aptitude Tests
 The General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB)
 Flanagan Aptitude Classification Tests (FACT)
 Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)

22. Achievement Testing
 The tests are administered after a classroom instruction
 Measure knowledge and skills in education
 Academic proficiency has long been a key factor in career planning
 Academic skills such as arithmetic, reading, and language usage are
critical in career planning

23. Achievement tests Measure
 Language arts: Reading comprehension, vocabulary, language,
spelling
 Mathematics: Arithmetic fundamental, arithmetic reasoning
 Social studies:
 Science:

24. Nature of achievement tests
1. General survey battery: The general survey battery measures knowledge
of most subjects taught in school and is standardized on the same
population
2. Single-subject tests: The single-subject test, as the name implies,
measures knowledge of only one subject/content area
3. Diagnostic batteries: Diagnostic batteries measure knowledge of specific
proficiencies such as reading, spelling, and arithmetic achievement

25. Examples of standardized achievement tests
• California Achievement Test (CAT)
• Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)
• Metropolitan Achievement Tests (MAT)
• Stanford Achievement Test (SAT)

26. Interest Testing
• Interest determines career choice and decision
• Two of the most widely used are:
• The Strong Interest Inventory (SII), E. K. Strong (1983)
• The Kuder interest inventories, G. F. Kuder (1963)

27. The Strong Interest Inventory (SII)
 E.K. Strong developed this test for people exiting the military and joining
other jobs
 The test item assess areas related to occupations, subject areas, activities,
people, and characteristics
 David Campbell and Jo-Ida Hansen modified it later
 It was developed based on Holland codes of personality (RIASEC)
 Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and conventional

28. The Kuder occupational interest survey
• It contains 100 activities with three options
• The survey measures broad areas of interest with 10 vocational areas:
• The scores will be compared to scores obtained people occupying an
occupation
Outdoor Literary
Mechanical Social services
Clerical Persuasive
Computational Artistic
Scientific Musical

29. Wide Range Interest and Opinion Test
 This test consists of 150 sets of three pictures from which the individual is
asked to indicate likes and dislikes
 The pictures depict activities ranging from unskilled labor to the highest
levels of technical, managerial, and professional training
 The test evaluates educational and vocational interests of a wide range of
individuals, including the educationally disadvantaged and the
developmentally disabled

30. Personality Assessment
 Personality refers to unique patterns of feelings, behaviors, and
cognitive styles
 Personality has a strong implication in job preference, interest, success
 A career counselor should carefully assess personality pattern of a
client for a best fit in a job

31. California test of personality
 Composed of 434 T/F items
 It measures interpersonal behaviors (e.g., dominance, tolerance,
empathy, sociability, etc.) and identifies mal-adaptiveness
 However, the items are less career related

32. Minnesota Counseling Inventory
 This inventory was designed to measure adjustment of boys and girls
in grades 9 through 12
 It has the following subscales:
 Family relationship, Social relationship, and Emotional stability
 Conformity, Adjustment to reality, Mood, and Leadership
 These scores provide indexes to important relationships and personal
characteristics to be considered in career counseling

33. 16 Personality factor (16PF)
• This instrument measures 16 personality factors of individuals 16
years or older
• A major part of this questionnaire has been devoted to identifying
personality patterns related to occupational fitness projection

34. Cattel’s 16PF
Dimensions High Low
Warmth Warm Reserved
Reasoning Concrete Abstract
Emotional stability Reactive Emotionally
stable
Dominance Deferential Dominant
Liveliness Serious Lively
Rule-Consciousness Expedient Rule
conscious
Social Boldness Shy Socially bold
Perfectionism Tolerates
Disorder
Perfectionistic

35. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
 This inventory measures individual preferences by personality types: extroversion
or introversion; sensing or intuition; thinking or feeling; and judging or perceiving
 Scores are determined according to the four categories
 The publisher’s manual provides descriptions of the 16 possible types
(combinations)
 This inventory provides direct references to occupational considerations based on
one’s personality type

36. Assessment of Values
 Individual values may include theoretical, economic, aesthetic, social, political, and
religious values
 Career counselors are often deal with beliefs and values in the career decision-making
 An important function is to act as agents who provide methods for clarifying values
 For counseling purposes, we classify values inventories into two types:
(1) inventories that primarily measure work values
(2) inventories that measure values associated with broader aspects of lifestyle

37. Work value inventories
 Inventories designed to measure values associated with job success
and satisfaction (achievement, prestige, security, an creativity)
 Values found to be high priorities for the individual provide another
dimension of information that can be used in career exploration

38. Values associated with broader aspects of
lifestyle
 These values are considered in much broader terms but can be related
to needs and satisfactions associated with life and work
 Thus, both types of inventories provide information that can be
especially helpful for clarifying individual needs associated with work,
home, family, and leisure

39. Work Environment Preference Schedule
 This inventory measures an individual’s adaptability to a bureaucratic
organization
 A total score reflects the individual’s commitment to the sets of
attitudes, values, and behaviors found in bureaucratic organizations

40. Work Values Inventory (WVI)
 This inventory measures sources of satisfaction individuals seek from their work
environments
 Scores yield measures of altruism, aesthetics, creativity, intellectual stimulation,
independence, prestige, management, economic returns, security, surroundings,
supervisory relations, value of relationship with associates, way of life, and variety
 The scores provide dimensions of work values that can be combined with other
considerations in career counseling

41. Career Maturity Assessment
• Super put the process of career choice on a continuum, with “exploration” and
“decline” as endpoints (as discussed in Chapter 2)
• Career maturity is considered the degree of vocational development in this
continuum
• Super measured career maturity within several dimensions: orientation toward
work (attitudinal dimension), planning (competency dimension), consistency of
vocational preferences (consistency dimension), and wisdom of vocational
preferences ,realistic dimension)

42. Career Development Inventory
 This inventory is a diagnostic tool for developing individual or group
counseling procedures
 It can also be used to evaluate career development programs
 Scores yield measures of planning orientation, readiness for
exploration, information, and decision making
 Both cognitive and attitudinal scales are provided

43. Career Maturity Inventory (CMI)
 The 1995 edition of the CMI yields three scores:
 Attitude Scale
 Competence Test
 Overall Career Maturity
 The CMI is designed to be used with students from grades 6 through
12 and with adults

44. Cognitive Vocational Maturity Test (CVMT)
 This test is primarily a cognitive measure of an individual’s knowledge of
occupational information
 Scores yield measures of knowledge of fields of work available, job
selection procedures, work conditions, educational requirements
 It provides information about career choice abilities
 The scores can be used as a diagnostic tool for curricula and guidance needs

45. Adult Career Concerns Inventory
 Three major purposes are listed for this inventory: career counseling and planning;
needs analysis; and measuring relationships between adult capability and previous,
concurrent socioeconomic and psychological characteristics
 Scores are related to career development tasks at various life stages as follows:-
 exploration, establishment, maintenance, disengagement, retirement planning,
and retirement living

46. The Salience Inventory
 This instrument, a research edition in developmental stage, is designed
to measure five major life roles: student, worker, homemaker, leisure,
and citizen
 Inventory results provide counselors with an evaluation of an
individual’s readiness for career decisions and exposure to work and
occupations

47. Online resources
• Career Interest assessment
• https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Careers/interest-assessment.aspx
• ONET Interest Profiler:
• https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip
• Work value assessment:
• https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Careers/work-values-matcher.aspx
• Myers and Briggs personality Indicator:
• Personality trait test mobile apk

48. •Thank you!...