Using Profile Elevation to Increase the Usefulness of the Self‐Directed Search and Other Inventories

The authors explore the construct of profile elevation on interest inventories results. They speak to the need for career counselors to maximize their use of the interest inventory and how they can do that by properly interpreting profile elevation. Profile elevation is defined, and correlates of high and low profile elevation are presented. The common interpretive interaction that occurs between profile elevation and differentiation is explored. The authors also present a case of low profile elevation and the career counseling interventions and considerations used with the client. Exploring ways in which the Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, 1994) and other interest inventories can be used to the fullest potential in career counseling is the purpose of this article. We focus on the SDS as a way to illustrate this point, especially the notion of profile elevation. Typical (and minimal) use of the SDS involves drawing on the threeletter summary code to help the client search for matching occupations or fields of study. However, Reardon and Lenz (1998, 1999) and Holland (1997) have shown how the secondary constructs in Holland's theory, such as (a) congruence, (b) consistency, (c) differentiation, (d) coherence, and (e) commonness, can provide some additional information regarding a client's career decision-making process. In practice, these constructs are typically determined in the following ways. Congruence is determined by examining the level of agreement between expressed interests as seen in the SDS Daydreams section and assessed interests as seen in the SDS summary scores. Consistency is determined by examining the relationship between the first two letters in the summary code on the RIASEC (i.e., R= Realistic, I = Investigative, A = Artistic, S = Social, E = Enterprising, C = Conventional) hexagon, for example, adjacent (SE), alternate (SC), or opposite (SR). Differentiation of SDS summary scores is determined by examining the difference between the highest and the lowest scores, and coherence of aspirations is determined by examining the Daydreams occupations to see if the same RIASEC letter appears first in the first three occupational codes. Commonness of the SDS code is determined by looking at the percentage of persons in the normative group having that three-letter code (Holland, 1997). What can be learned from these secondary constructs on the SDS? High levels of congruence between the codes of aspirations and the SDS summary code indicate future persistence related to the code of the first aspiration. It has been suggested that high consistency is positively correlated with more stability in work history and the direction of career preferences or work histories (Reardon & Lenz, 1998,1999). High differentiation is related to the person's exhibition of characteristics attributed to one or more of the six RIASEC types (persons with highly differentiated profiles are more predictable with respect to their interests), and high coherence may indicate future persistence in occupations with the same first-letter code as that of the first aspiration. Finally, common SDS codes are associated with stability of career choices. Commonness can provide the client and the counselor with an idea of how typical it is for a person of his or her age, gender, and education to have his or her code. The opposite levels of these indicators would indicate opposite career decisionmaking conditions for the client (Reardon & Lenz, 1998, 1999). The uniqueness of the constructs of coherence and congruence is important to examine. Both constructs indicate similarity among codes. Because coherence is directed at the similarity among aspiration codes, it gives information regarding a client's work preferences. If a client has low coherence, the counselor and client can work together to understand why the client has such varied preferences in occupations. Congruence focuses on the similarity between the expressed and the assessed codes. …