Vocational interests of youth in Ecuador. Inventory of the Occupational Preferences of Youth - ebook

This methodologically sound psychometric tool has been handed to Ecuadorian psychologists and teachers as a guide in the career counselling field. The tool will have a significant impact on the democratization of youth, assisting them to make well-targeted choices when planning their education and career.

The authors’ study may be viewed as pioneering work, due to its consideration of the significant cultural and geographic regional differentiation among graduates from the Pacific coast, the Andes, the Amazon rainforest and the Galapagos Islands.

Reaching to the classics of literature on the subject (primarily Holland, Super, Prediger and Strong), the authors have performed a momentous work, which is the construction of a psychometric tool that will be helpful in diagnosing career interests in the entire population of Ecuadorian youth.

Worth additional acknowledgement are the high reliability indicators of the career interests questionnaire conducted on a representative and large study group, as well as the defined psychometric accuracy of the scale.

This publication makes a civilizational quantum leap in the education of Ecuadorian youth, guaranteeing them a career choice that corresponds to their interests and ambitions. This pioneering publication on the Polish and world markets confirms the fact that Polish psychologists have the capability to „export” the psychometric school of thought to the Latin American region, with all of the scientific, social and humanitarian consequences involved.

Introduction          7

1. The context of occupational guidance in Ecuador              11

1.1. New challenges of the labor market in Ecuador         13

1.2. Cultural diversity as a challenge for vocational guidance in Ecuador    19

1.3. Ecuadorian youth in the school to work transition       23

1.4. Youth passivity and work instability in the labor market             24

1.5. Need for tools in occupational guidance in Ecuador  26

1.6. Legal aspects of professional guidance in Ecuador  27

2. Determinants and correlates of career choice     31

2.1. Physical constitution and health in professional choices          33

2.2. How does temperament influence occupational choices?       35

2.3. Ability as an occupational success predictor                37

2.4. Interests as personality traits            42

2.5. Beliefs and values as vocational preferences predictors          44

2.6. Personality and vocation   48

2.7. Stages of career development        53

2.8. Career decisions of youth 57

3. Theoretical background of the IPPJ questionnaire             61

3.1. The theory of John Holland              61

3.2. Beyond the RIASEC code letters: Diagnostic aspects of the profile       65

3.2.1. Congruence of professional interests  66

3.2.2. Consistency of professional interests  67

3.2.3. Differentiation of vocational interests  70

3.2.4. Identity and vocational interest              72

3.3. Prediger’s Model of work environment classification                73

3.4. Typology of jobs according to Holland and Prediger 75

4. The design of the questionnaire              79

4.1. The construction of the pilot version               80

4.1.1. The pilot study           81

4.1.2. The validity study      85

4.1.3. The validity study of the 60 item version             92

4.1.4. Confirmatory Factor Analysis 99

4.1.5. The reliability of the IPPJ scale             101

4.1.6. Internal reliability scale: Duplicated items in “Lay key”    105

4.1.7. Reliability as test-retest stability of the IPPJ scores          107

4.1.8. Construct validity study through the analysis of intergroup differences      111

4.1.9. Degree of diversity and intensity of interest       116

5. Normalization procedure and analysis   119

6. Scales’ scores calculation         123

7. In the search of new techniques for vocational guidance practice  125

Conclusions      129

Bibliography      131

Appendices       141

Appendix 1. The pilot version of the IPPJ (120 items)       143

Appendix 2. Answer sheet for the pilot version IPPJ (120 items)    149

Appendix 3. The key of the pilot version scales (120 items)            151

Appendix 4. Items of the final version (60) with type codes after Factor Analysis of the pilot version (120)         152

Appendix 5. The final version of the INVENTARIO DE PREFERENCIAS PROFESIONALES DE JÓVENES (IPPJ) (60 items)        155

Appendix 6. The key of the IPPJ (final version)   159

Appendix 7. The translation of the IPPJ items from Spanish into English    160

Appendix 8. Sten norms for vocational interests of girls (N = 962) (R, S, E, C scales)               163

Appendix 9. Sten norms (R, S, E, C) for professional interests of boys (N = 970)       164

Appendix 10. Sten norms (I, E) for professional interests for girls and boys (N = 1932)           165

Appendix 11. Sten norms for Holland’s Differentiation indicators  166

Appendix 12. Sten norms for Iachan’s Differentiation indicators    167

Appendix 13. Sten norms for the Intensity Indicators         168

Appendix 14: The answer sheet: the table profile or/and the hexagon profile    169

List of figures    171

List of tables      173