Revision of the Strong Interest Inventory®

By George Fitzsimmons

The most widely used career planning instrument in the world has been revised for 2005. The new Strong Interest Inventory is more powerful than ever, with major updates and new content that reflect the way people work today. Since the last revision of the Strong, in 1994, the world of work has changed. The newly revised version takes these changes into account and will help provide better direction to thousands of students and adults exploring their career options every year.

This article briefly outlines the enhancements and points to a more detailed technical report. Changes or updates were made to the normative sample, items, response options, General Occupational Themes, Basic Interest Scales, Occupational Scales, Personal Style Scales and Administrative Indices.

The General Representative Sample was expanded to workers in over 370 occupations, with an average age of 35 years, including more than nine years of experience in their field. You will find that it has been reduced in length from 317 items to 291. The response option has changed from like, indifferent, dislike to a five point Likert scale ranging from strongly like to strongly dislike. The report continues to present the General Occupational Themes (RIASEC) for a personal preference snapshot.

The Basic Interest Scales have grown from 25 to 30 categories which better reflect the fundamental components of interests as applied to work and leisure settings. The revised Strong contains 122 Occupational Scales, up from 105, normed on Males working in those jobs and 122 scales normed on Females working in those same occupations. Twenty four new occupational samples were collected as part of the research. A good deal of effort was expended to enhance the graphic design to enable counsellors and their clients to appreciate the significant information. For example, the blocks of occupational information are presented in rank order from most descriptive of the client to least similar. The Technical Brief for the newly revised Strong Interest Inventory assessment is available at www.psychometrics.com. Click this link to go to the brief directly www.psychometrics.com/downloads/pdf/Strong_Tech_Brief.pdf . Contact Point readers will be interested to know that the English language version is now available on-line in Canada through www.CareerID.com. The French language version will also become available soon.

Some highlights of the changes include:

• 30 Basic Interest Scales, with a new focus on technology, finance and investing, marketing, and entrepreneurship
• 6 updated General Occupational Themes, identifying Investigative thinkers to Enterprising persuaders
• Revised 244 Occupational Scales—over 120 jobs, from Network Administrator to Financial Manager to ESL Instructor
• New 5-point answer format to more accurately measure individual style preferences in learning, leadership, risk taking, work style, and team orientation

The Strong Interest Inventory is a registered trademark of CPP Inc. Psychometrics Canada Ltd. provides vocational, and human resource measurement tools to helping professionals in traditional paper and pencil format and online though CareerID.com. It is the national scoring centre for the Canadian Achievement Test series of basic skills tests for grades 1-12. For more information visit www.psychometrics.com

George W. Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., C. Psych. (Alberta) is a Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta. George has also worked as a high school teacher, guidance counsellor and school psychologist. He joined the Department of Educational Psychology in 1973 to lead research and instruction in content related to vocational psychology. He is active in the community through the Rotary Club of Edmonton (Downtown Rotary Club) as chair of the Vocational Services Committee. He can be reached at gfitzsimmons@psychometrics.com.