A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Structure of Vocational Interests

Cole and Hanson (1971) and Edwards and Whitney (1972) analyzed responses of American Ss to several interest inventories. They found the occupational fields to have the following circular configuration in terms of Holland's (1966) classification of occupations: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprise, and Conventional. Two interest inventories were constructed on the basis of Roe's (1956) classification of occupations and were administered to 170 Arab samples and to three samples of Jewish Ss with n's of 231, 220, and 296. The structure of the occupational fields emerged from a smallest-space analysis. It was found that vocational interests have a similar circular configuration in Western and non-Western cultures.