ACTIVITY NO.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT II- INTEREST
INTEREST TEST
Interest test is a self-report inventory in which the participant is required to
express likes or dislikes for a range of activities and attitudes. These are then
compared with the interest patterns of successful members of different
occupations as a means of assessing the participant’s suitability for different types
of work. These tests are used primarily for career counselling. Interest inventories
include items that ask about the preferred activities and interests of people
seeking career counselling. Important examples are the Kuder Preference Record
and the Strong Interest Inventory. Also called interest inventory; occupational
interest measure, which is used in career assessment, career counselling, and
educational guidance. An interest inventory is a testing instrument designed for
the purpose of measuring and evaluating the level of an individual's interest in,
or preference for, a variety of activities; also known as interest test. Testing
methods include direct observation of behaviour, ability tests, and self-reporting
inventories of interest in educational, social, recreational, and vocational
activities. The activities usually represented in interest inventories are variously
related to occupational areas, and these instruments and their results are often
used in vocational guidance.
Most interests’ tests provide you with a list of two activities at a time. You then
indicate which of these activities appeals to you the most. Based upon your
choices, a result with your strongest Interests is reported. Sometimes statements
are given, for which you indicate whether they apply to You or not. Interest
inventories are widely used in vocational counselling, with both adolescents and
Adults. Since these tests measure only interest and not ability, their value as
predictors of Occupational success, while significant, is limited. They are
especially useful in helping high school And college students become familiar
with career options and aware of their vocational interests.
The first widely used interest inventory was the Strong Vocational Interest Blank,
developed in 1927 by E.K. Strong. The original test was designed for men only;
a version for women was Developed in 1933. In 1974, the Strong test was merged
into the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory, which was further revised in 1981.
The test contains 325 activities, subjects, etc. Takers of this test are asked whether
they like, dislike, or are indifferent to 325 items representing a wide Variety of
school subjects, occupations, activities, and types of people. They are also asked
to choose their favourite among pairs of activities and indicate which of 14
selected characteristics apply to them. The Strong-Campbell test is scored
according to 162 separate occupational scales as Well as 23 scales that group
together various types of occupations (“basic interest scales”). Examinees are
also scored on six “general occupational themes” derived from J.L. Holland’s
interest classification scheme (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising,
and conventional).
The other most commonly administered interest inventory is the Kuder
Preference Record, Originally developed in 1939. The Kuder Preference Record
contains 168 items, each of which lists three broad choices concerning
occupational interests, from which the individual selects the one that Is most
preferred. The test is scored on 10 interest scales consisting of items having a high
degree of Correlation with each other. A typical score profile will have high and
low scores on one or more of The scales and average scores on the rest.
The Educational Interest Record is a standardized tool developed by Bansal V. P
&Srivastava D. N. (1975) named as “Vocational Interest Record” was used for
the collection of data. The test Consisted of 128 items of 8 different vocational
areas named as Agriculture, Commercial, Engineering, Fine Arts, Humanities,
Human Science, Medical, and Scientific. In each area, 16 items Are there which
the responders mark. The Educational Interest Record is a self-administering.
There is no time limit for this interest record. Ordinarily an individual takes about
10-15 minutes time to complete it. The Educational Interest Record has been
prepared in both Hindi and English. The educational Interest Record has been
developed for use with school and college students. It consists of 128 vocational
subjects and activities of different faculties and are divided in eight vocational
fields.
One of the major functions of guidance programme is to help the child to
prepare himself for a right vocational choice and, when he has finished schooling,
to help him in making a choice which would accord well with his developed
abilities, aptitudes, interests, personality qualities and present situations and
would contribute to his individual happiness and social good. In other words, the
school should take up the responsibility of helping the child in the vocational
sphere of his life, because occupation is not only a means of earning a livelihood
but also a way of life-a social role.
Therefore vocational guidance should be provided to the child from the very early
stage when the child enters school and continues even after a stable choice has
been made. It is intimately related with child's acquisition of knowledge,
understanding and skill which actually from the basis for his vocational choices.
It is usually happens in the schools where no guidance programme exist, that
pupils choose such subjects for the study which have no or little relationship with
their vocational goals and ambitions, with the result they get fraumatic shock
when they find that they have not prepared themselves for the vocations which
they wanted to enter.
On the basis of the above discussion, now we are in a position to understand the
nature of vocational guidance. In this respect author agrees with Super's (1957)
concept, "vocational guidance is the process of helping a person to develop and
accept an integrated and adequate picture of himself and of his role in the world
of work, to test this concept against reality, and to convert it into a reality with
satisfaction to himself and benefit to society.” Therefore it is included that
vocational guidance programme is essential at all the stages of education-
elementary, secondary & college. The study of interests has probably received its
strongest impetus from vocational & educational guidance & counselling. To a
slightly lesser extent, the development of tests in this area has also been
stimulated by vocational selection & classification. From the view point of both
the worker & the employer, a consideration of the individual’s interest is of
practical significance (Anastasi, 1976). The early investigations included the
direct questionning to find out the individual’s interests, which were discovered
superficial, unreliable and unrealistic (Fryer, 1931). Therefore the indirect
approaches were employed and several standardized interest inventories were
subsequently prepared. Berkshire, Bugental and Cassens (1948) report the Strong
Vocational Interest Blanks, Kuder Preference Record and the California Test
Bureau’s Occupational Interest Inventory to be the most frequently used. The
other important foreign tests of interest are Thorpe, Meyers & Sea: An Inventory
of Children Interest, Steward & Brainard: Specific Interest Inventory. Thurstone:
Interest Schedule, Giest; Picture Interest Inventory.
In India, sufficient work has been done for the purpose of measuring the interests
of the persons. The first work was done by Allahabad Bureau (1956). Who his
developed the Vocational Interest Record, based on Kuder Preference Record Ray
Choudhary has developed ‘Vernon Ray Interest Survey’ in 1957, and Ojha has
prepared Interest Test based on Strong’s Test in 1958. Chaterjee (1960) has
developed ‘Non Language Preference Record (CNPR) the other important Tests
are PSM: Jabalpur Interest Inventory, Hafeez: Interest Test, Pandey: Interest Test,
Singh: Interest Record, Mascaren Vias: Interest Inventory, Chatterjee: Interest
Inventory, Kulshrestha: Interest Parisuhi, ISPT Semistructured Vocational
Interest test and ISPT: Prediction of Vocational Interest etc.
Forms of Interest Test
All the above mentioned tests are more related to general interest area rather than
specific, Generally we can categorize all the interest tests into three categories (1)
General Interest Test, (2) Vocational Interest Test, and (3) Educational Interest
Test.
VOCATIONAL INTEREST RECORD (VIR)
This interest record was first developel in the year 1965, which was thoroughly
revised in 1970, 1975 and 1977 by the author. By this time this scale has been
used in about 250 research studies. It has been consistently in use for the testing-
practicum at graduate and postgraduate level of many Universities in Psychology
& Education Subject Guidance workers have also found it very useful as a
screening device for discovering the vocational interests of their clients.
Areas of Educational Interest:
1. Literary- L
2. Scientific- SC
3. Executive- E
4. Commercial- C
5. Constructive- Co
6. Artistic- A
7. Agriculture- Ag
8. Persuasive- P
9. Social- S
10. Househeld- H
AIM OF THE TEST
The purpose of using Educational Interest Record Test on students to know their
Interest area. Educational interests are defined as one’s own pattern of
preferences, likes and dislikes preferred in any manner, wisely or unwisely by
self or by any other source for a given educational area or subject. Therefore the
purpose of present record is to aid students to adjust themselves to their education
by making wise choices of the subjects of study. Only by making a right choice
will each child be able to utilize his educational potentialities to the maximum
possible [Link] record has been successfully used for more than a decade
and found suitable at delta and higher secondary level. Many research workers,
later found it also very important and useful for college students and young adults
out of schools and colleges. Vocational interest is defined as one’s own pattern of
preferences aptitudes, likes & dislikes, preferred in any manner, wisely or
unwisely by self or by another source for a given vocational area or vocation.
Therefore the purpose of the present record is to help students to adjust
themselves to the carers/jobs/vocations, by making wise choices. Only by making
right choice the student will be able to utilize his all the potentialities to the
maximum [Link] the main purpose of the VIR is to measure vocational
interests, to enable the pupils to select such subjects in schools which are
according to their preferred vocations. This record has been successfully used for
more than a decade by the research workers guidance counsellors and
psychologists (since 1965) and found suitable for delta and higher secondary
students, as well as for the students of colleges and also for young adults out of
schools & colleges.
MATERIAL REQUIRED
▪ Educational Interest Test Record Response sheet
▪ Scoring key of interest test
▪ Pencil
PROCEDURE FOLLOWED
Both the clients were approached for the test. Rapport formation was done; the
clients were made to feel comfortable by initiating certain general discussion on
their interests. After rapport formation, the clients were given the instructions
about the test. Both were made to understand that there is no time-limit and also
no right and wrong answers between the options, they just have to pick the one
they can relate to more and find interest in. Both were also made to explain that
this test would assess their interests in specific fields which could give them a
clarity on the fields they could opt for to pursue as a career for herself. After the
subjects had answered the questionnaire, the same was collected and subjected
for scoring and interpretation. The raw scores were calculated with the scoring
method as given in the manual.
RESULT 1
Sl. No. Areas of Educational Interests Scores
1. Literary (L) L1 + L2 = 5+5= 10
2. Scientific (SC) SC1 + SC2 = 0+2 = 2
3. Executive (E) E1 + E2 = 2+1 = 3
4. Commercial (C) C1 + C2 = 1+0 = 1
5. Constructive (CO) CO1 + CO2 = 1+0 = 1
6. Artistic (A) A1 + A2 = 4+1 = 5
7. Agriculture (AG) AG1 + AG2 = 0+1 = 1
8. Persuasive (P) P1 + P2 = 2+1 = 3
9. Social (S) S1 + S2 = 0+0 = 0
10. Househeld (H) H1 + H2 = 3+2 = 5
RESULT 2
Sl. No. Areas of Educational Interests Scores
1. Literary (L) L1+L2= 1+0= 1
2. Scientific (SC) SC1+ SC2= 3+0= 3
3. Executive (E) E1+E2= 4+4= 8
4. Commercial (C) C1+C2= 0+3= 3
5. Constructive (CO) CO1+CO2=0+0= 0
6. Artistic (A) A1+A2=1+0= 1
7. Agriculture (AG) AG1+AG2= 0+0= 0
8. Persuasive (P) P1+P2= 1+2= 3
9. Social (S) S1+S2= 1+1 = 2
10. Househeld (H) H1+H2= 0+2 = 2