This article celebrates the 50th anniversary of the introduction of John L. Holland's (1959) theory of vocational personalities and work environments by describing the theory's development and evolution, its instrumentation, and its current status. Hallmarks of Holland's theory are its empirical testability and its user-friendliness. By…

Investigates preference of Social (S) and Investigative (I) people for performing S and I tasks with S or I people or alone. Upper-division undergraduates in S majors (n=38) or I majors (n=15) were utilized in study. S participants preferred working with S people. I participants most preferred to perform I tasks with I people and least preferred…

Priests who voluntarily resign from the ministry cannot be differentiated from those who remain based on personality variables and person-environment interaction factors as expressed in Holland's (1966) theory of vocational choice. A definite similarity in profiles was found on the Vocational Preference Inventory, the Adjective Check List, and a…

Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory was administered to 373 undergraduates. The 11 scales of the inventory were intercorrelated and factor analyzed. Six common factors were obtained. The placement of the six personality types in six-dimensional space by factor analysis corresponded closely to Holland's model. (Author)

Conducted as part of the longitudinal Vocational Development Study, this research applied Holland's personality theory to a sample of 138 Grade 11 male vocational students to determine their personality type and investigate the relationships between personality type and achievement. Personality types were related to several measures of achievement…

The validity of Holland's vocational personality types and their relationship to value dimensions were examined in light of Holland's theory of vocational choice. The results generally supported Holland's postulated personality typologies and value dimensions. (Author/JKS)

This study assessed the differences in Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) scoring patterns among various expected teaching majors for freshmen women enrolled in a required College of Education course designed to aid in their vocational decision-making as it relates to a professional teaching career. The theoretical basis for the VPI centers…