TPC-Journal-V3-Issue2

69 The Professional Counselor \Volume 3, Issue 2 expressed interests or vocational aspirations (the Daydreams Section) and a measure of assessed interests. The latter is obtained when users respond to SDS items in four sections: Activities (66 items endorsed like or dislike); Competencies (66 items endorsed yes or no to assess skills assess); Occupations (84 occupations that are endorsed yes or no to assess those of interest); and Self-Estimates (12 scale ratings [1 is low and 7 is high] to indicate self-estimates of skills and abilities as compared to those of a similar age across each RIASEC type). A three-letter summary code is derived by totaling the number of “yes” or “like” responses from the three sections (Activities, Competencies, Occupations) and two Self-Estimates ratings in the Assessment booklet. Intercorrelations among the SDS: Form R and measures of vocational aspiration and college major indicate concurrent validity for male and female college students ranging from .32 to .39 (Holland et al., 1994). Substantial reliability for the summary scales on the SDS are indicated by the internal consistency coefficients (KR-20) ranging from .90 to .94, and test-retest reliability coefficients ranged from .76 to .89 (Holland et al., 1994). Overall, support exists for both the reliability and validity of the SDS. You and Your Career. YYC is a seven-page booklet developed for use in conjunction with the SDS Form R Assessment booklet. YYC includes descriptions of the Holland codes and personality types, suggestions for engaging in career planning, and information on how to use Holland codes. This reusable booklet gives the practitioner a tool for interpreting the results of the SDS assessment activity, and for providing a more complete career intervention (Reardon & Lenz, 1998). Although the YYC booklet was designed to make the SDS a more self-directed activity and support the practitioner’s work, little research has investigated the usefulness of this booklet (Holland et al., 1994). The YYC costs about $1.28 per copy (PAR, 2009). Educational Opportunities Finder. The EOF was first published in 1987 as the College Majors Finder and lists more than 750 technical and college-level fields of study, alphabetically and by three-letter Holland code and degree level (2 year, 4 year, and postgraduate). It is designed to help individuals connect Holland codes to varied educational and training options. It costs about $2.16 and may be reused (PAR, 2009). SDS Interpretive Report. The SDS: IR produces a 10- to 12-page single-spaced Interpretive Report based on an individual’s SDS summary scores and provides a personalized list of occupations using five SDS Summary codes. Each occupation listed includes the DOT number, estimated education needed, and on-the- job training required. The IR also includes major fields of study and leisure options. The Interpretive Report is produced by the software portfolio system that costs $525 for unlimited use (PAR, 2009). SDS Feedback Form. The items on the SDS Feedback Form were adapted from the Computer-Assisted Career Guidance (CACG) Evaluation Form (Peterson, Ryan-Jones, Sampson, & Reardon, 1988) used in studies of computer-based guidance systems (e.g., Discover, SIGI). The original CACG Evaluation Form had alpha reliabilities ranging from .77 to .87. The SDS Feedback Form included open-ended questions assessing how much time participants spent reading their materials, whether they accurately recalled their three-letter summary code, and the information learned by reading the materials. Four specific items from the Feedback Form were used to assess participants’ ability to expand or narrow their options. Occupational Alternatives Question. The Occupational Alternatives Question (OAQ; Zener & Schnuelle, 1972, 1976; modified by Slaney, 1980) is a measure of occupational decidedness that asks respondents to list the number of occupations they are considering and the level of decidedness pertaining to these occupations. The OAQ includes two parts: (a) “List all of the occupations you are considering right now” and (b) “Which occupation is your first choice? If undecided, write undecided.” The OAQ is scored on a scale from one to four and is rated as follows: 1 = a first choice is given with no alternatives; 2 = a first choice is given with alternatives listed as well; 3 = no first choice is given, only alternatives; and, 4 = no choices or alternatives are given. The higher the OAQ score, the less decided the individual. The OAQ has been found to have convergent