A Study on the Structure Characteristics of Vocational Interests of University Students

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2011, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (3) : 761-766.

PDF(480 KB)
PDF(480 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2011, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (3) : 761-766.

A Study on the Structure Characteristics of Vocational Interests of University Students

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Abstract

The spherical model of vocational interest structure has been demonstrated by several studies and has much more advantages in guiding scale development of vocational interests and counseling practice in the field of vocation psychology. This empirical study endeavors to test the spherical model of vocational interest structure with a sample of Chinese university students and terminally obtain a brief vocational interest scale based on spherical model of vocational interest structure. A sample of 5831 undergraduate students was asked to give evaluation of their acquaintance to a sample of 140 occupational titles on 5 point Likert Scale. The items were selected from the vocational interest scale developed by National Education Examinations Authority, Ministry of Education, People's Republic of China. The number of specialties of the subjects amounts to 129. The development, examination of a spherical structure model of vocational interests was attempted. Multidimensional scaling analysis conducted on the item level responses supported the presence of the three dimensions with the stress value of 0.28 and 72% variance accounted for. The three dimensions could be named data-idea, people-thing and prestige according to the meaning of the items with the high absolute coordinate values on them, which sported the previous studies by James Round and Lirong Long. The configuration of the structures on every plane formed by the three dimensions’ combinations turned out circular shape. And the three-dimension configuration clearly presented a solid sphere. As is known, the items locating on the surface of the sphere have the largest discrimination value and are highly valuable in explaining the difference of subjects. Imitating Terence’s methods, principle component analysis was conducted and three principle components were subtracted by which 57.5 percent of the total variance was accounted for, and twenty-four subscales were created for geometrically defined combinations of the three dimensions which correspond with prestige, people-thing, and data-idea. A hypothesized spherical model was created with these subscales lying on the surface of the sphere. This spherical representation was then examined by means of randomization test executed by the programs of RANDALL and 18RQND96. Strong support was yielded for every circular structure on the three two-dimension planes formed by the three dimensions’ combination and the three-dimension spherical structure. The corr

Key words

vocational interests / multiple scale analysis / spherical representation model

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A Study on the Structure Characteristics of Vocational Interests of University Students[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2011, 34(3): 761-766
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