Assessment of Interest and Aptitude: A Methodologically Integrated Approach

Abstract

Career assessment is today characterized by a wide range of paradigmatic positions. At one end of the continuum is the trait‐factor position that relies on formal, psychometric assessment. At the other end are approaches that are qualitative. Also, what is to be assessed remains a matter of controversy. This chapter begins by underlining the importance of using a theoretical framework that unifies the self-understanding and the world-of-work elements in the practice of career counseling. Two constructs central to career assessment, namely, vocational interests and aptitudes, are examined. Existing definitions of these constructs and the prevailing debates about the merits of interest-based versus aptitude-based career guidance are discussed. The Jiva Approach to Guidance and Counseling, a method developed for the Indian context, is presented as a case study to illustrate a methodologically integrated approach to career assessment. Two Indian studies are presented, the first of which examines the relative stability of interests and aptitudes. Interests over a 2-year time span were found to be less stable than aptitudes for the adolescents in this sample. It was also found that a blend of interest and aptitude information emerges as the most stable. This data is used to introduce the notion of potential as a blend of interests and aptitudes. It is argued that an approach to assessment and counseling must lay an equal emphasis on vocational interests and aptitudes. Responding to the apparent dichotomy in the literature with regard to methods of assessment, the second study describes an assessment technique that integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches and examines the effectiveness of such an approach for career guidance and counseling. Questions are raised about the prevailing views about the stability of interests in the light of data emerging from the Indian context which indicate that interests could remain unstable and changeable for much longer periods in the individual’s development than indicated in the Western literature. Two possible reasons for this departure are discussed. The first is the involvement of sociocultural factors such as collectivist social organization. The point is made that in collectivist contexts, the expression of interests may reflect the expectations of the collective and hence may not be related “purely” to the individual’s orientations. The climate of economic change of the last two decades that has led to an unprecedented increase in occupational opportunities in emerging economies is presented as the second possible reason. Workers in these economies rush to benefit from these opportunities, placing a “good job” at the center of their decisions rather than personal interests and personal satisfaction. The possibility that interests change when economic and financial prosperity allow greater freedom for self-expression is discussed. The chapter is concluded by presenting the nature of social organization and the impact of socioeconomic change on employment as a matrix within which to understand and interpret vocational interests and aptitudes.