Tests and Assessments

Tests and Assessments are used as tools to help us identify and understand what college majors and potential careers might be of most interest. There are a number of tools that we may utilize, and the choice is largely dependent on the specific needs, goals and background of each individual. The following is a brief overview of the various tests that we utilize.

Strong Interest Inventory
The Strong generates an in-depth assessment of interests among a broad range of occupations, work and leisure activities, and educational subjects. To reveal interest patterns, it presents results on a variety of complementary themes and scales:

• · The General Occupational Themes maps out broad interest patterns to describe personalities and preferred work environments (corresponding to Holland’s RIASEC theory—see also Self Directed Search).
• · Basic Interest Scales provide more specific information about areas of interest
• · Occupational Scales relate interest patterns to those of satisfied workers within the occupation.
• · Personal Style Scales describe preferred style of working, learning, leading, risk-taking, and team participation.

Self Directed Search
The SDS was developed by Dr. John Holland, whose theory of careers is the basis for most of the career inventories used today. Holland's theory states that most people can be loosely categorized with respect to six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.

Occupations and work environments can also be classified by the same categories. People who choose careers that match their own types are most likely to be both satisfied and successful. The SDS report can help an individual to understand more about how individual skills and interests are related to potential career choice.

Harrington O'Shea Career Decision Making System (2 different levels)
This assessment is used to measure abilities, work values, school subject preferences, and interests. Users are able to:

• · Match abilities, interests, and values to possible career options
• · Identify occupational interests
• · Acquire specifics about education and training requirements

CDM then suggests career clusters that feature action steps and career exploration resources.CDM also suggests career clusters featuring action steps and career exploration resources. The six RIASEC career interest areas include:

• · Crafts (R)
• · Social (S)
• · Science (I)
• · Business (E)
• · The Arts (A)
• · Office Operations (C)

The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator
The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people’s lives. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

In developing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [instrument], the aim of Isabel Briggs Myers, and her mother, Katharine Briggs, was to make the insights of type theory accessible to individuals and groups. They addressed the two related goals in the developments and application of the MBTI instrument:

• · The identification of basic preferences of each of the four dichotomies specified or implicit in Jung’s theory.
• · The identification and description of the 16 distinctive personality types that result from the interactions among the preferences

16 PF
The Cattell 16PF (16 Personality Factor) defines our basic, underlying personality, without regard to how we apply it or the environment in which we apply it. A simple analogy would be to think of the human being as a personal computer. Personality profiles such as 16PF measure the basic features of the PC such as the size of the hard disk, RAM, processing speed and so on. If an individual can understand what their personality is, they can then make better use of strengths, and make allowances for the resultant weaknesses.