A GLOSSARY

Analysis. A phase of career decision making (CASVE cycle) marked by career thoughts associated with identifying the causes and relationships among components of a career problem; a period of reflection to fully grasp all aspects of the problem.

Calculus. The relationships within and between types or environments ordered according to a hexagonal model in which the distances between types or environments are inversely proportional to the theoretical relationships between them.

Career. The combination of a person’s multiple life roles, including worker, student, parent, child, spouse/partner, citizen, retiree. Occupation is an important part of one’s life and career, as well as educational field of study, leisure pursuits, and family roles.

Career problem. A gap between an existing state of career indecision and a more desired state of decidedness; may be multifaceted in nature involving feelings, beliefs, behavior, family, community, leisure and spiritual dimensions.

Career thought. Outcomes of one's thinking about behaviors, beliefs, feelings, plans, and/or strategies related to career problem solving and decision making.

Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI). A 48 item inventory of career thoughts that is a single global indicator of negative thinking in career problem solving and decision making. As scores on the CTI increase, the extent of negative career thinking increases as well. The CTI total score is negatively correlated with the Identity scale of the My Vocational Situation (MVS).

CASVE cycle (pronounced Ca SA’ Veh). A career decision making model using a logical, rational approach to decision making that also recognizes the role that feelings play in this process. The simplest way to think about the CASVE cycle is as the means by which clients recognize and solve a career problem--they need to resolve the “gap” between where they are now and where they’d like to be. The CASVE cycle includes the phases of Communication, Analysis, Synthesis, Valuing, and Execution.

Code. One to three RIASEC letters that indicate which Holland types a person, occupation, field of study, or leisure area most resembles.

Coherence of Aspirations. Degree to which codes of a person's set of vocational aspirations or occupational daydreams belong in the same Holland category. Scores of high, average, or low are determined from analysis of the first three occupational aspirations listed in the Daydreams Section of the SDS: High, first letter of first occupation same as first letter of second and third occupations; Average, first letter of first occupation same as first letter of second or third occupation; Low, first letter of first occupation does not appear as first letter of either second or third occupation. Coherence is related to consistency; high coherence may indicate future persistence in occupations with the same first letter code as that of the first aspiration.

Commitment Anxiety. A CTI scale that reflects an inability to make a commitment to a specific career choice, accompanied by generalized anxiety about the outcome of the decision making process, with anxiety perpetuating the indecision.

Commonness. The frequency with which a given code is observed; there is an extremely uneven frequency of various persons across the RIASEC types. Some code combinations, e.g., AC, CA, are rare. SDS Summary Codes which occur with a frequency of greater than 4.5% are High; those which occur with frequencies of .11 to 4.49% are Average; and those which occur with a frequency of less than .10% are Low. Common codes are associated with stability of choice.

Communication. A phase of career decision making (CASVE cycle) marked by career thoughts related to becoming fully “in touch” with all aspects of a career problem, or the gap between the present and an ideal career situation. Cues about a gap may come from external sources, e.g., a parent’s remark, or internal sources, e.g., negative emotions, avoidance behavior. Awareness of a gap leads to seeking a solution to the career problem.

Complexity Rating (Cx). A number that Gottfredson and Holland (1996) created to estimate the cognitive skill and ability associated with an occupation, e.g., the number of years of formal education required for an occupation or the time required for on-the-job training (OJT) to master a job; Cx scores range from 70 or more to 40 or less; a Cx rating of 65 or higher is associated with a college degree and possibly post graduate work, and OJT of 4-10 years, while a Cx level of 50 is typically associated with a high school degree and a year or more of OJT.

Congruence. The degree of match between two codes, e.g., a person and an occupation. A Realistic person in a Realistic occupation is very congruent, whereas a Realistic person in a Social occupation is incongruent. Degrees of congruence are defined according to the hexagonal model in which Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional types (in that order) are at the six points of the hexagon. High levels of congruence are indicative of a person who will maintain the code of the first aspiration in the future.

Consistency. The degree of consistency in an SDS code is determined by the distance between the first two code letters on the hexagon: High, first two letters are adjacent on the hexagon (e.g., RI); Average, first two letters are alternate on the hexagon (e.g., RA); Low, first two letters are opposite on the hexagon (e.g., RS). High consistency is positively correlated with more stability in work history and the direction of career preferences or work histories.

Decision Making Confusion. A CTI scale that reflects an inability to initiate or sustain the career decision making process as a result of disabling emotions and/or a lack of understanding about the decision making process itself.

Decision-Making Skills Domain. Includes the five elements of the CASVE cycle, comprised of Communication, Analysis, Synthesis, Valuing, and Execution.

Differentiation. The level of definition or distinctness of a personality profile. A person who resembles one type and no other type is highly differentiated, whereas a person who resembles all six types to an equal degree is undifferentiated. Differentiation is usually computed by subtracting the lowest score in the profile from the highest; sometimes a more technical Iachan index is used. High differentiation is positively related to the person’s exhibition of characteristics attributed to the types, especially the highest and lowest profile scores. In this way, persons with differentiated profiles are more predictable with respect to their interests.

Execution. A phase in career decision making (CASVE cycle) marked by career thoughts that involve the planning and implementation of steps to resolve a career problem; may involve a tryout or reality testing of a first choice solution to a gap.

Executive Processing. Career thoughts associated with monitoring, controlling, regulating, and evaluating lower-order information processing, including an awareness of one's self as a career problem solver via self-talk, with the complimentary attitudes about one's ability to solve career problems.

External Conflict. A CTI scale that reflects an inability to balance the importance of one’s own self-perceptions with the importance of input from significant others, resulting in a reluctance to assume responsibility for decision making.

Hexagon. A six-sided figure showing the order and similarity of the RIASEC types according to Holland’s theory; can also be used to show the degree of agreement between a person’s type and alternative occupational environments; persons can use a Personal Career Theory to think about careers in terms of personal typologies and matching jobs, e.g., “Where is she on the hexagon?”

Iachan congruence index. An index of congruence between persons and environments proposed by Ronaldo Iachan. This method of calculating congruence uses a three-letter code for an occupation or other environment and a three-letter code for a person to produce a number ranging from 0 to 28.

Iachan differentiation index. An index of differentiation of a personality or environmental profile proposed by Ronaldo Iachan. This way of describing differentiation uses the first, second, and fourth highest scores in a profile. See page 17 of the Professional User’s Guide for more info.

Identity (Environmental). An individual’s perceptions regarding the degree to which the objectives, rules, and rewards of his or her educational/work environment are clear and stable.

Identity (Vocational). The clarity and stability of a person's goals, interests, and talents. The Identity Scale of My Vocational Situation is used to measure identity. High identity leads to relatively untroubled decision making and confidence in one’s ability to make good decisions in the face of some inevitable environmental ambiguities.

Occupational level. The prestige, status, education required, usual remuneration, or substantive complexity of an occupation.

Occupational Knowledge. Career thoughts related to the acquisition, storage and retrieval of information about individual occupations, fields of study, training programs, and the structure of the world of work.

Permutation. Alternative orderings of letters in a code: RIE, IRE, IER, etc.

Personal Career Theory (PCT). Personal views about careers and work that most people possess, which may include ideas about a typology of work personalities and environments, as well as a variety of career thoughts about educational and career decision making, job hunting, and life roles. A weak PCT may lead to career problems. PCTs may be related to the hexagon and the pyramid.

Personality pattern. The profile of resemblances of a person to the six personality types.

Profile. A pattern or order indicating degree of resemblance to the six ideal models or types.

Profile Elevation. The sum of the 6 section scores on SDS:R (the total number of positive responses and the two self-estimates scores). Persons with high profile elevation more likely value new experiences, and have a more outgoing, sociable, and cheerful disposition. Conversely, persons with low scores may be less willing to consider new career options and may exhibit traits of sadness and frustration. Scores range from 14 to 300, and mean scores for adults are about 110 with standard deviations of about 35. Low scores are <87 and high scores are 133>.

Pyramid. Based on cognitive information processing theory, a figure showing the three domains of knowledge (self and occupational) at the base, decision skills in the middle (CASVE cycle), and executive processing at the top. Career thoughts operate at all three levels to inform, guide, and control career decision making. A person’s career situation can be understood in terms of the quality and content of his/her unique pyramid, e.g., “Where is she in the CASVE cycle?”

Rule of asymmetrical distributions of types and subtypes. The distributions of persons across the six types are extremely uneven.

Rule of 8. RIASEC summary scale differences less than 8 on the SDS Form R should be regarded as trivial because they are within the limits of the standard error of measure of the inventory.

Rule of full exploration. Persons completing various forms of the SDS are encouraged to use all permutations and combinations of their three-letter summary code to generate lists of occupations and fields of study for further exploration and consideration; the computer version of the SDS Form R automatically searches and reports all code combinations in the Interpretive Report.

Rule of intra-occupational variability. Research indicates that occupations and fields of study include a variety of types and subtypes. Many occupations tolerate a variety of types. Individuals employed in the same occupation have a variety of Holland codes. Different positions within the same occupation also often have a variety of codes. Put another way, codes describe people in an occupation on average, but it is a mistake to assume that all persons or positions in an occupation have the same SDS or PCI profiles.

Self-Knowledge. Career thoughts related to the acquisition, storage or recall of information about one's personal characteristics, e.g., interests, skills, and values.

Subtype. A two- or three-letter code. For example, saying that a person is identified with the RI subtype means that the person resembles the R type most, followed by the I type.

Synthesis. A phase of career decision making (CASVE cycle) marked by career thoughts related to the formulation of a plausible set of alternatives for resolving a career problem; synthesis elaboration involves brainstorming a wide variety of possible solutions, and synthesis crystallization involves narrowing the potential solutions to the best 3-5 options.

Tied codes. A term describing an equal or nearly equal degree of resemblance to two or more types or environmental models.

Type. Six personality types and six environmental models in explaining behavior in environments. No person is a true type; but indicating the types a person resembles helps to describe the person.

Valuing. A phase of career decision making (CASVE cycle) marked by career thoughts related to the prioritizing of possible solutions in terms of what is best for the individual, significant others, and society; a tentative best choice emerges from this phase of decision making.

Vocational aspiration or work history. A person's desired occupational aim or history of past jobs. Occupational aspirations or daydreams are assessed by expressed interest measurement techniques. Classified lists of aspirations or work histories can be used to estimate a person's Holland code.