The Self‐Directed Search as a Stand‐Alone Intervention With College Students

The Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1994) is sometimes administered to large student groups outside of counseling to address common career development needs. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the SDS as a stand-alone intervention by comparing a general sample of college students who completed the SDS (n = 39) with a no-treatment control group (n = 41) on several outcomes. Completion of the SDS related to an increase in the number of career alternatives being considered 4 weeks later but did not relate to career exploration, career decision-making self-efficacy, career indecision, and seeking of career counseling services. If the SDS is used outside of counseling with broad student samples, the authors suggest providing additional intervention to ensure that it promotes exploration of any additional careers being considered.Keywords: Self-Directed Search, vocational interests, career exploration, career decision-making self-efficacy, career indecisionAmong the developmental challenges of late adolescence and early adulthood is the need to make decisions about one's educational and career goals (Super, 1953). Although approximately 50% of students indicate they have decided on a career by the time they enter college, over half of those with declared majors change them at least once, suggesting their goals are often still in flux (Kelly & White, 1993). Being uncommitted to a single career choice may reflect a healthy open-mindedness to exploration (Krumboltz, 1992), but because career indecision is associated with distress (Saunders, Peterson, Sampson, & Reardon, 2000), it is not surprising that many college students desire career decision-making assistance (Hannah & Robinson, 1990). In fact, some college and university staffview career decision-making difficulties as sufficiently common concerns that they address them in venues that reach almost all students at their institutions. For example, the Self- Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1994)-one of the most widely used interest inventories (Gottfredson & Johnstun, 2009; Watkins, Campbell, & Nieberding, 1994)-has been integrated into university and major orientation classes to provide students with opportunities to explore their interests and learn how they may be used in career decision making (e.g., Christensen, Gelso, Williams, & Sedlacek, 1975; Collins & Sedlacek, 1972; Micceri & Phelps, 2002).Based on Holland's (1997) theory of vocational choice, the SDS consists of an assessment booklet and ancillary materials. The assessment booklet prompts users to respond to questions about their occupational dreams, preferences for activities and occupations, perceived competencies, and ability self-estimates. Their responses are used to generate scores that reflect their resemblance to each of Holland's six vocational personality types (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional). Accompanying materials, such as the Occupations Finder (Holland, 1996) or Educational Opportunities Finder (Rosen, Holmberg, & Holland, 1997), then help users identify occupations or majors that correspond with the personality types they most closely resemble. Finally, the assessment booklet provides recommendations for next steps in career exploration.Using the SDS to address the career decision-making needs of large groups of students is appealing because it was designed to be selfadministered, self-scored, and self-interpreted (Holland, 1971). In fact, Holland (1972) viewed the SDS as an appropriate stand-alone intervention for many students. Such a counselor-free intervention can be easily implemented in classes or workshops and, if it effectively addresses the career decision-making concerns of students, could reduce the load on counseling centers, which often have lengthy wait-lists and limited services because of increasingly tight budgets.Meta-analyses (e.g., Brown & Ryan Krane, 2000; Whiston, Brecheisen, & Stephens, 2003) have shown that exclusively self-directed career interventions are suboptimal because they have smaller effects than do those involving a counselor. …