Holland’s Theory Of

Personality

Esha Sachdeva
Gabriela Hennig
Michelle Kennedy
Origin of Theory
❖ The theory originated in the social reform movement of the
20th century

❖ Holland’s Theory was introduced over 5 decades ago and it

has been influential in the vocational psychology field

❖ Based on the Person-environment psychology: people

influence their environment and the environment influence
people
Basic Assumptions
❖ People’s career choices and the outcome of those choices
operates as a consequence of people’s personality types and
the interaction with six environmental models.
➢ Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising,
Conventional

❖ Four Assumptions (Swanson & Fouad, 2015)

1. Most people fit within the personality types
2. Environments will also fit within one of the six models
3. People will look for environments that will fit their
personality and vice-versa
4. Behaviour is the product of the interaction between
personality and environment
Constructs of Theory
Four Constructs of Theory

1) Congruence-match between a person and how well they match to relevant factors of the
theory in their work environment. (Swanson & Fouad, 2015).

1) Differentiation-the degree to which a person's interests or environment is defined (Walsh,

2004).

1) Consistency-the coherence of which the individual's interests align with other specific
interests (Swanson & Fouad, 2015). For example a person with enterprising and social
interests is considered more consistent than a person with investigative and social interests.

1) Identity-the level to which the individual has clarity of his/her

goals, or how the work environment has clarity and stability
over time (Nauta, 2010).
Types of Assessment
SII (Strong Interest Inventory)

- The SII is a measure of an individual’s interests.

- Individuals answer direct questions (like, dislike, indifferent) on occupational titles, activities, school
subjects, working with different personality types, and which traits are representative of them (Swanson &
Fouad, 2015).

O*Net Interest Profiler

- The Interest Profiler is a short, interest measure that provides a summary of the test taker’s Holland types
(Brown & Lent, 2013).
- It can assist clients to identify their interest efficiently. The scores can be used to generate discussion career
options as well as outside work opportunities (leisure, volunteering etc.) (Brown & Lent, 2013).

Career Attitudes and Strategies Inventory (CASI)

- Designed to address career issues through scales that measure job satisfaction, work involvement, and
family commitment (Swanson & Fouad, 2015)
Types of Assessment
CISS (Campbell Interest and Skill Survey)

- CISS features seven Orientation Scales. Six of the seven scales measure Holland’s six types: the Producing,
aNalyzing, Creating, Helping, Influencing, and Organizing scales measure, respectively, realistic,
investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional interests.

- The seventh Orientation scale is Adventuring, which measures an interest in physical and competitive
activities and risk taking (Brown & Lent, 2013).

SDS (Self-directed Search)

- Holland developed the Self-Directed Search as a method for assessing a person’s resemblance to each of his
six vocational personality types (Brown & Lent, 2013).

- Daydreams section provides both “expressed” career interests as well as “measured” interests (Reardon &
Lenz, 1999).
Counselling Interventions
Case 2: Susan (Swanson & Fouad, 2015, p. 113)

-Susan is a 17-year-old student. She has a 2.5 grade point average, and
her favorite classes are drafting and woodworking. She enjoys building,
fixing and creating things (Swanson & Fouad, 2015).

-Her father is in the building trades and is worried about her safety. He
wants her to choose a different career path (Swanson & Fouad, 2015).

*This is a summary of Susan’s case. Please refer to the full case.

Counselling Interventions
Interventions for Susan

1) Use the SII (strong interest inventory) to determine Susan’s primary, secondary, and tertiary
types.
-Hypothetically, Susan’s primary type is realistic as she enjoys fixing, building and creating things.

2) Use CASI (Career Attitudes and Strategies Inventory) to examine what her options are given her interest
in building/fixing things. This assessment could also be a useful foundation to explore the weight of family
involvement on her decisions.

3) Cultural and Vocational Genogram for 2 generations.

-Valuable for Susan to evaluate the cultural component of education and career. Relational
influences.
-Practically speaking it might be wise to combine assessments from Holland’s RIASEC model (Swanson &
Fouad, 2015) with a detailed cultural genogram (Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnson, 2014) to create a broader
picture of influence.

4) Examine patterns and interpret results.

Counselling Interventions
❖ May also be worth evaluating the areas where clients express incongruence to
determine what they would rather NOT do (Cowger Jr., et al., 2009).
Advantages
❖ Theory and application is parsimonious and provides a simple method for
communicating results to client (Kang & Gottfredson, 2015; Swanson & Fouad,
2015).
❖ Holland’s Theory provides an array of assessment tools and has operationalized
evaluation. Holland’s Occupation Finder and Dictionary of Occupational Codes
provides vocational suggestions pertinent to clients three primary RIASEC types
(Kang & Gottfredson, 2015; Swanson & Fouad, 2015).
➢ Leslie can investigate potential careers for her ISC personality type.
❖ According to Umbach & Milem (2004) Holland’s theory may also provide for
information to assess client’s interest and comfort with cultural diversity and can
provide institutions with clues for evaluating their ‘diversity-related initiatives’ (p.
626).
Disadvantages
❖ Holland’s typology is easily misapplied (Caron, 1994)
■ Incongruence
■ Poor training
■ Cultural insensitivity
■ Counsellor self-interest
❖ Observer vs. Personal Perspective (Hogan & Blake, 1999)
■ Given the very human desire to preserve reputation clients may
misrepresent themselves
■ Counsellor may observe client differently than client sees themselves
■ Requires personality inventory to measure ‘reputation’ AND interest
inventory to measure ‘identity’. Alone they do not provide a complete
picture.
Disadvantages Continued
❖ Research confirms only a pervasive attitude and Western, capitalistic
understanding of vocation.
■ Fails to take into account socialization and marginalization regarding
gender, sexual orientation, disability race and/or SES (Chen & Simpson,
2015; Rees, et al., 2007).
● Girls v. boys interest in STEM related careers

❖ Holland’s types of Environments do not take into account contextual and/or

relational understandings of environment and the ways in which individual
environments interact with personality and vocational choice (Rees, et al., 2007).
References
Brown, S. D., & Lent, R. W. (2013). Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to
work (2nd;2. Aufl.;2; ed.). Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

Cowger, Jr., E., Chauvin, I., & Miller, M.J. An “inverse” validation of Holland’s theory. College Student Journal, 09/2009, 43(3), 807-811.
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Kang, Z., & Gottfredson, G. D. (2015). Using Holland’s theory to assess environments. In P. J. Hartung, M.L. Savickas, & W. B. Walsh
(Eds.), APA handbook of career intervention, Volume 2: Applications ( pp. 41-56). Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.

Swanson, J.L., & Fouad, N.A. (2015). Career theory & practice: Learning through case studies 3rd Ed. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks,
CA.

Gysbers, N. C., Heppner, M. J., & Johnston, J. A. (2014). Career, multicultural, and marital genograms: Helping clients tell their stories
about their career-family connections. In Career counseling: Holism, diversity, and strengths (4th ed., 197-207). Hoboken, J: Willey.
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References
Nauta, M. M. (2010). The development, evolution, and status of Holland’s theory of vocational personalities: Reflections and future directions
for counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(1), 11-22. doi:10.1037/a0018213

Reardon, R. C., & Lenz, J. G. (1999). Holland's theory and career assessment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 55(1), 102-113.
doi:10.1006/jvbe.1999.1700

Umbach, P.D., & Milem, J.F. (2004). Applying Holland’s typology to the study of differences in student views about diversity. Research in
Higher Education, 45(6), 625-649. doi:10.1023/B:RIHE.0000040266.98138.dd

Walsh, W. B. (2004). Holland's theory (vocational personality types). In C. D. Spielberger (Ed.), Encyclopedia of applied psychology. Oxford,
UK: Elsevier Science & Technology. Retrieved from
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