Method
Each of the 609 items on the six career development tests was examined to determine the behavior required of the learner. Behavioral statements were written for each item to describe the behavior required of the learner and the situation in which the behavior occurs. An example of one of the 609 behavioral statements is as follows: "Given a brief description of a job performed by an individual and a list of occupational titles, the learner will be able to identify the correct occupational title for the given job description." In as much as a large number of items was found to provide a measure of many of the same behaviors, the total number of different descriptive behavioral statements was 117.
To reduce the length of the descriptive behavioral statements, an abbreviated behavioral statement was written for each of the 117 behavioral statements. For example, the abbreviated behavioral statement for the behavior described in the paragraph above is as follows: "Identify occupational titles of job descriptions."
Each of the six tests was examined to determine which of the specific behaviors can be appraised by using that test.
Results and Discussion
What does an analysis reveal? First, it shows that only the Assessment of Career Development provides for assessing the learner's involvement in a wide range of worker activities. In other words, measurement of these behaviors is included in only one of the six tests.
Second, it shows the difference among the tests in their coverage of cognitive, psychomotor, and affective behaviors. For example, the Assessment of Career Development, Career Maturity Inventory, and Career Development Inventory provide for an assessment of behaviors in all three domains (cognitive, psychomotor, and affective), whereas the Cognitive Vocational Maturity Test and the ETS Guidance Inquiry cover only cognitive behaviors. The Readiness for Vocational Planning test includes behaviors in the cognitive and affective domain but not in the psychomotor domain.
Third, the analysis shows the difference among the tests in the range of cognitive behaviors appraised. The range of coverage varies from the Assessment of Career Development, which includes behaviors in all six cognitive components, to the Cognitive Vocational Maturity Test, which covers only two of the cognitive components. The Career Maturity Inventory has items in all but one of the six cognitive components. The remaining three tests provide for an appraisal of four of the six cognitive components.
Fourth, the tests vary enormously in their coverage of specific behaviors within a given component. Although all of the tests provide for some measure of occupational information (IB), the Career Maturity Inventory measures only the ability to identify occupational titles of job descriptions. On the other hand, the Assessment of Career Development measures 22 additional behaviors within the occupational information component.
Fifth, the difference among the tests in the range of psychomotor behaviors. Only the Assessment of Career Development and the Career Development Inventory assess the learner's involvement in activities related to preferred occupation, and only these two tests and the Career Maturity Inventory assess the learner's involvement in career planning activities.
Finally, the analysis shows the difference among the tests in their coverage of behaviors within the affective domain. Only the Assessment of Career Development and the Career Maturity Inventory include items that were judged to provide an assessment of all three components in the affective domain. However, the Readiness for Vocational Planning does include items dealing with two of the three affective components, attitudes and preferences; the Career Development Inventory provides for an appraisal of the learner's perception of help received from various sources of information.
Both the Assessment of Career Development and the Career Maturity Inventory appraise the ability to identify appropriate jobs for given individuals. The Assessment of Career Development uses only 7 items to assess this behavior, whereas, in a separate subtest, the Career Maturity Inventory uses 20 items. Since the reliability of the appraisal of a particular skill depends in part upon the number of items calling for the use of that skill, judgments as to the extent to which the learner can identify appropriate jobs for given individuals can probably be made with more confidence on the basis of the score from the Career Maturity Inventory than from the Assessment of Career Development.
The point being made here is that, in evaluating a particular test, one should give consideration to the adequacy of the appraisal of each behavior as well as to the variety of behaviors appraised.
Although the analysis presented here can be very useful in determining the learner behaviors assessed by the six tests reviewed, the development of the outline of career development behaviors and the classification of items by the behavior being measured is a subjective procedure. However, some of the subjectivity seems to have been reduced by writing behavioral statements for each item. Perhaps the reader can determine how much judgment is involved by classifying the same items.
