Using Interests and Holland’s Model of Vocational Personality Types in Career Counselling: Some Thoughts and Research Findings

Interests are often used in career counselling and Holland’s model of vocational personality types is often implicitly or explicitly the vehicle used to explain interest scores. In this chapter we set out to investigate interests and the applicability of Holland’s model of vocational personality types in career counselling. We start with a definition of interests and then present some thoughts on the measurement of interests. This includes a discussion of the spherical structure of interests and the general interest factor. We then present some findings on the propositions made in Holland’s model of vocational personality types and show that these propositions continue to be relevant in career counselling. In the last section of this chapter, we briefly discuss the three waves in career counselling and then provide some thoughts on using interests and Holland’s model of vocational personality types in career counselling.