Journal of Counseling Psychology Copyright 1996 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.

1996, Vol.43, No. 1,90-98 0022-0167/%/$3.OO

The Relationships of Self-Efficacy for the Holland Themes to Gender,

Occupational Group Membership, and Vocational Interests

Nancy E. Betz Lenore W. Harmon

The Ohio State University University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fred H. Bqrgen
Iowa State University

The studies presented in this article resulted in the findings that gender differences in
self-efficacy for the Holland themes are consistent with previous findings regarding gender
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differences in Holland interest patterns, although the gender differences are less pronounced
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in employed adults than in college students. Within occupational group, the self-efficacy
profiles of women and men were very similar and closely corresponded to the Holland
interest code of the occupation. Confidence for and interest in a theme were moderately
correlated, and recommendations for the counseling use of joint combinations of interests and
self-efficacy are made.

One major trend in both the theory and practice of career
counseling is the inclusion of the concept of career self-
efficacy as a major individual differences variable. Career
self-efficacy, based on Bandura's (1977, 1986) theory of
self-efficacy expectations as a major mediator of both be-
havior and behavior change, was first investigated by Betz
and Hackett (1981), who reported that college students'
beliefs about their educational and occupational capabilities
were significantly related to the nature and range of career
options they considered. Their findings have been replicated
in other samples (Layton, 1984; Zilber, 1988), age groups
(Post-Kammer & Smith, 1985), and cultures (Matsui &
Tsukamoto, 1991). More generally, meta-analyses and re-
views (Hackett & Lent, 1992; Lent, Brown, & Hackett,
1994; Multon, Brown, & Lent, 1991) strongly support the
role of self-efficacy as a predictor of academic performance
and persistence and career decision-making intentions and
behaviors.
Since the emergence of research attention to career self-
efficacy, measures of a number of specific career-related
domains have been developed (it should be recalled that
Bandura's concept of perceived self-efficacy is in reference
to a specific behavioral domain, e.g., mathematics, driving
a car, or skydiving). To date, domains of vocational behav-
Nancy E. Betz, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State
University; Lenore W. Harmon, Department of Educational Psy-
chology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Fred H.
Borgen, Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
We would like to thank Karla Klein, Allison Kaplan, and Beth
Parsons of The Ohio State University; Dawn Schauer of the
University of Illinois; and David Donnay and Lori Jones of Iowa
State University for their contributions to this research. We also
acknowledge financial support from, the assistance of, and coop-
eration from the staff of Consulting Psychologists' Press.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Nancy E. Betz, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State Uni-
versity, 137 Townshend Hall, 1885 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus,
Ohio 43210-1222.
90
ior to which self-efficacy theory has been applied include
task-specific occupational self-efficacy (Osipow, Temple,
& Rooney, 1993; Rooney & Osipow, 1992), mathematics
self-efficacy (Betz & Hackett, 1983), career decision-mak-
ing self-efficacy (Taylor & Popma, 1990), self-efficacy with
respect to academic milestones (Lent, Brown, & Larkin,
1984) and scientific and technical careers (Lent et al., 1984),
and career search efficacy (Solberg et al., 1994).
One major career domain for which self-efficacy measures
have both theoretical and applied utility is that represented by
the six interest types of Holland's (1973, 1985a) theory; these
six types, Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising,
and Conventional (henceforth abbreviated as RIASEC), have
been among the major individual differences variables used in
career theory, assessment, and counseling. Although a primary
use of the RIASEC model has been in guiding individuals to
careers compatible with their interests and personality dispo-
sitions, inclusion of perceptions of self-efficacy with respect to
these domains should also contribute to theory explication as
well as career counseling.
In addition to the need for measures of self-efficacy with
respect to the RIASEC dimensions, such measures would
facilitate research on the relationship between self-efficacy
and interest development, a recent focus of research atten-
tion. Lent et al. (1994) proposed a social cognitive theory of
career and academic interest, choice, and performance in
which perceived self-efficacy plays a major role in interest
development and is also related, both through interests and
independently, to career choice goals, actions, and perfor-
mance attainments. The Lent et al. theory is testable using
any relevant domain of vocational interests, and one of the
most interesting questions will involve its differential ap-
plicability across interest domains. Given the centrality of
the RIASEC typology to our conceptualization of voca-
tional interests, testing of the social cognitive theory using
the RIASEC types is an obvious, needed step.
In terms of applicability to counseling, both Lent et al.
(1994) and Betz (1993) have stressed the crucial role of
 SELF-EFFICACY FOR HOLLAND'S THEMES
restricted experiential opportunity in interpreting low inter-
est scores. Not only may lack of experience prevent the
development of strong self-efficacy beliefs as well as inter-
ests, but also the avoidance behavior that results from low
efficacy expectations would prevent even initial exploration
of interests in those areas. Betz (1993) contended that with-
out the moderate level of self-efficacy necessary for "ap-
proach" behavior, and thus experiential contact, we cannot
adequately evaluate an individual's potential for interest
development. Lent et al.'s Proposition 1G states that: "Gen-
der and racial/ethnic differences in interests and in interest/
goal relations arise largely through differential access to
opportunities, supports, and socialization processes" (Lent
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et al., 1994, p. 108). (It should be noted that the positions
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taken by Betz (1993) and Lent et al. (1994) are not new, as
illustrated, for example, by Cole and Hanson's (1975) "op-
portunity dominance" hypothesis.) Instead, joint consider-
ation of interests and perceived efficacy may assist in the
interpretation of vocational interest patterns and, in some
cases, suggest the design of counseling interventions to
increase exposure to the four sources of efficacy informa-
tion.
Finally, although they do not use the concept of self-
efficacy expectations per se, other researchers (Campbell,
1992; Swanson, 1993) have suggested the use of a related
concept, self-rated skills and abilities, in interest inventory
interpretation and career counseling, and Holland, in his
Self-Directed Search (1985b), has long included a section
on self-rated RIASEC competencies.
Thus, for both theoretical and practical reasons, further
development of measures of perceived self-efficacy with
respect to the six Holland themes is needed. Research to this
point has provided some useful information. Lapan, Boggs,
and Morrill (1989) asked college students to rate their
self-efficacy with respect to occupations representing the
six Holland theme areas and to the occupational group as a
whole (e.g., "jobs which involve science and science-related
activities" for Investigative; Lapan et al., 1989, p. 177). A
total score for each theme was calculated by combining the
separate occupations and occupational group ratings. Al-
though self-efficacy was found to play a major role in
mediating gender differences in Investigative and Realistic
interests, reliability data and plans for further development
of this measure were not reported.
Rooney (1991) cluster-analyzed the items of the Task
Specific Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale (TSOSS; Rooney
& Osipow, 1992) and was able to assign 225 of the 230
items to one of the six Holland theme areas. Number of
items per cluster ranged from 18 (Enterprising) to 56 (Re-
alistic). No reliability data for the clusters was provided, nor
was it suggested that these clusters be used in further
research. Research evaluating the TSOSS (Osipow et al.,
1993; Rooney & Osipow, 1992) has used a four-factor
structure (Verbal, Interpersonal Skills; Quantitative, Logi-
cal, Business, and Scientific Skills; Physical Strength and
Agility; and Aesthetic Skills).
Swanson (1993) reported correlations ranging from .29 to
.46 between RIASEC interests and self-rated skills, and
from .38 to .46 between RIASEC interests and self-rated
91
abilities. She used 14 abilities items and 30 skills items (5
per theme). Reliabilities of the 5-item skills scales ranged
from .68 (Investigative) to .84 (Realistic and Social).
Most recently, Lenox and Subich (1994) developed mea-
sures of self-efficacy with respect to Holland's themes. Six
5-item scales were developed using activities representing
each theme. Pilot data indicated adequate levels of internal
consistency reliability for the Realistic, Investigative, and
Enterprising scales. Lenox and Subich did not report the
results for the Social, Conventional, and Artistic themes
because of extreme restriction of range at the lower end of
the scale.
Thus, although some previous researchers have included
self-efficacy relative to the Holland themes as a variable, or
have begun to develop such measures (i.e., Lenox & Subich,
1994), the present series of studies was designed to use
large-sample methods to develop and validate a measure of
self-efficacy with respect to the six Holland themes and to
examine the relationships of self-efficacy in RIASEC areas
to gender, occupational group membership, and RIASEC
interest measures.
Pilot Study: Instrument Development
Scale Construction
The basis for scale construction was a construct-based
approach emphasizing scale homogeneity, and content and
construct validity (Nunnally, 1978). For each of the six
Holland themes, items reflecting activities and school sub-
jects related to that theme were generated by the scale
authors. Activities items (e.g., build a dollhouse) were in-
cluded because they are one of the most commonly used
stimuli for the assessment of self-efficacy (for example, see
Lenox & Subich, 1994; Rooney & Osipow, 1992). School
subjects (e.g., art) were also included because they have
been found to be the most useful subscale from the Betz and
Hackett (1983) Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale. To con-
struct the initial pool of items, each author developed 15-25
items per theme based on his or her understanding of the
Holland RIASEC system, including published descriptions
of the themes. These author-generated pools were combined
and examined for duplication or overlap. In consultation
among all three authors, agreement of at least two was
required to retain the item for pilot testing. In this way, an
initial pool of 195 items was derived.
Assessment of self-efficacy beliefs originally utilized a
"level" (yes or no) response and a "strength," or confidence,
rating. Following research suggesting the high correlation
between level and strength-confidence, Lent et al. (1984)
and others have suggested that use of confidence ratings
was sufficient. Thus, respondents herein were asked to
indicate their degree of confidence in their ability to per-
form that activity or task; responses were obtained on a
5-point scale ranging from 1 no confidence at all to 5
complete confidence. For school subjects items (e.g., alge-
bra, art, botany), respondents were asked to indicate their
degree of confidence in completing the course successfully.
 92 BETZ, HARMON, AND BORGEN
Responses were obtained using the same 5-point continuum
used with the activities items. To facilitate accessibility and
face validity in uses with research participants and, eventu-
ally, counseling clients, the resulting inventory was called
the Skills Confidence Inventory (SCI).
Scale Refinement
A heterogeneous group of 73 participants (49 women and
24 men) constituted the initial pilot sample for empirical
item evaluation and refinement. The sample included work-
ing adults and graduate and undergraduate students repre-
senting two public universities and one business organiza-
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tion. Participants were administered the 195-item version of
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the scale.
Electing to use an approach to scale construction that
would yield relatively homogeneous measures of RIASEC
confidence (see Nunnally, 1978, for a description of item
homogeneity approaches to scale construction), we used the
pilot data to eliminate the poorest items from the standpoint
of item-own scale correlations in comparison with item-
other scale correlations. Because we wanted the initial form
for broad scale study to include about 25 items for each
RIASEC scale, it was possible to eliminate any item not
correlating at least .45 with its own scale and, in addition, to
eliminate those items having one or more correlations with
other scales within .15 of or higher than its correlation with
its own scale. For example, the item "Start a conversation
with a stranger," correlated .59 with Social (the scale for
which it was written) and .47 with Enterprising. The school
subject electronics was correlated .73 with Realistic (its own
scale) and .65 with Investigative. These items were elimi-
nated.
Following the elimination of these items, the revised
version of the SCI consisted of 151 items. The number of
items per scale ranged from 23 to 27. Initial analyses of the
scales indicated promising levels of internal consistency
reliability—values of coefficient alpha were .94 (Realistic
and Investigative), .93 (Conventional), .92 (Social), and .91
(Enterprising and Artistic). After construction of the origi-
nal 151-item form, a much larger sample was used to
develop and validate a shorter version of the scale and to
examine its relationships with gender, occupational group
membership, and vocational interests.
Study 1
Method
Participants and procedures. Participants in this study in-
cluded 1147 adults and 706 college students. The adult sample was
obtained from the database collected in 1993 for use in the 1994
revision of the Strong Interest Inventory (SII). Twenty-one occu-
pational groups' selected to be representative of both RIASEC
areas and occupational level were selected. Members of the occu-
pational groups, like those in previous noonings of the SII, met
criteria of reporting adequate job satisfaction, having at least three
years' experience on the job, performing the typical job duties of
that occupation, and being between 25 and 60 years old (Harmon,
Hansen, Borgen, & Hammers, 1994, p. 109). More specific de-
scriptive characteristics of particular occupational norm groups
(e.g., mean age, years of experience, and educational background)
are contained in Appendix A of the SII manual (Harmon et al.,
1994). Of the individuals participating in the 1994 revision of the
Strong Interest Inventory (from which the employed adults studied
herein were sampled), 5% were ethnic and racial minority group
members. Of these, 22% were African American, 27% were Asian
American, 23% were Latino, Latina, or Hispanic, 5% were Amer-
ican Indian, and 18% were minority group members but did not
specify one of these groups. Generally, the minority group mem-
bers were distributed fairly evenly across the occupational groups
included in the normative sample.
Members of these occupational groups who had expressed an
interest in participating in additional research beyond the initial
norming of the 1994 SII were mailed a copy of the SCI along with
the $1 token payment to thank them for their participation. Ques-
tionnaires were mailed to 1,525 individuals, and completed forms
were received from 1,147 (585 men and 562 women) for a return
rate of 75%. Return rates across gender and occupation combina-
tions ranged from 50% (male computer programmers) to 89%
(male marketing executives).
Three samples of college students, a total of 706, also partici-
pated in the research. These samples were (a) 236 female and 157
male students enrolled in introductory psychology courses at The
Ohio State University, (b) 148 female and 84 male students en-
rolled in introductory psychology classes at Iowa State University,
and (c) 61 female and 20 male students enrolled in a measurement
course at Iowa State University. All students were administered the
SCI. In addition, the first 250 students in the Ohio State sample
were also administered the 1985 version of the SII (Hansen &
Campbell, 1985). (These data were collected in the summer and
autumn of 1993, before the 1994 Revision of the Strong Interest
Inventory was available.) Administration of the SII to only the first
250 participants was done to limit costs. Of the 250 participants,
248 provided usable data.
Of the total sample of 706 college students, 47% were freshmen,
34% were sophomores, 11% were juniors, and 7% were seniors.
One percent listed "other" as their class rank. Of the Ohio State
sample of 393, 76% were Caucasian, 5% were African American,
6% were Asian American, 2% were Hispanic, 1 % was American
Indian, and 10% were international students. Forty-nine percent
were freshmen, and 30%, 12%, and 8% were sophomores, juniors,
and seniors, respectively.
Instruments. The 151 ^tem version of the SCI was adminis-
tered in this study. Based on the data obtained from the 1,147
adults and 706 college students (a total of 1,853 respondents), the
151 item research version was shortened to 60 items (10 for each
RIASEC theme). We selected the best 10 items for each scale
based on three criteria: (a) high correlations (r > .45) with own
scale (total scale score minus the item score in question); (b)
correlations with other scales that were at least .15 and usually .20
to .40 lower than their own-scale correlations; and (c) content, so
that the major substantive meanings of a Holland theme were
included in the item content. In some cases, content considerations
1
The occupations included, in alphabetical order, were actuary,
advertising executive, architect, auto mechanic, bookkeeper, busi-
ness education teacher, chemist, community service organization
director, computer programmer/systems analyst, elementary
school teacher, flight attendant, forester, gardener or grounds-
keeper, life insurance agent, marketing executive, medical records
technician, parks and recreation coordinator, physicist, police of-
ficer, and school administrator.
 SELF-EFFICACY FOR HOLLAND'S THEMES
took priority over criterion b; for example, the school subject
agriculture was correlated .50 with Realistic (its designated scale)
and .45 with Investigative, but its content was deemed essential to
the Realistic content area.
Finally, if the above criteria were met and more than ten items
remained, those with the most extreme gender differences were
eliminated. The t value for the significance of gender differences
in item means was calculated for each item, and t values (absolute
values) greater than 3.5 (p < .001) represented items that were
eliminated to arrive at the desired ten. Even though plans for the
final scale included the use and interpretation for counseling
purposes of same-sex normative scores as well as raw scores,
elimination of at least some of the items with more extreme gender
differences in response was thought desirable. To the extent that
gender differences are minimized in initial scale construction, raw
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and same-sex standard scores yield more similar results.
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Examples of Activities and School Subjects items for each
theme are as follows: build a doll house, industrial arts (R);
perform a scientific experiment, calculus (I); design sets for a play,
art (A); meet new people, counseling methods (S); sell a product
to a customer, public speaking (E); organize systems for filing
information, accounting (C). Two scores were calculated for each
Holland confidence theme—a simple sum of the 1 to 5 confidence
ratings over the ten items and a standard T score (M = 50, SD =
10) based on the entire normative group of 1,853 individuals. For
later use in counseling, same-sex normative scores were also
calculated.
The General Occupational Themes (GOT) scores from the 1985
Strong Interest Inventory are highly reliable, with values of coef-
ficient alpha ranging from .83 to .91, and 30-day test-retest reli-
ability ranging from .84 to .92. In addition, they correlate very
highly with same-named GOT scores on the 1994 SII; correlations
range from .93 (C) to .98 (A).
Analysis of data. Means, standard deviations, and t tests for
gender comparisons were computed separately for each participant
sample (college students and employed adults). In addition, a
comparison of the sample groups was also made. Two-way mul-
tivariate analysis of variance was used to analyze score differences
as a function of gender and the 21 occupational groups, and
following significant multivariate Fs, post-hoc tests were used to
examined the significance of differences.
Correlations between GOT interest scores from the 1985 SII
confidence scores for the subsample of 248 college students were
calculated separately for men and women. In addition, a frequency
distribution of the joint combinations of interest and confidence
scores was produced. Because for eventual counseling purposes it
was postulated that high interest-low confidence and low interest-
high confidence would offer the most challenging information to a
counselor (vs. high interest-high confidence and low interest-low
confidence), their frequency of occurrence was determined by
defining high interest as any GOT score that would have resulted
in the interpretive comment "very high," "high," or "moderately
high" within that gender, thus likely causing that theme to be
suggested for exploration. Confidence scores of 3.5 or more were
also defined as high—a score of 3.5 was selected because it is
halfway between 3 (moderate confidence), and 4 (much confi-
dence). Scores on both the GOT and the SCI not categorized as
"high" were categorized as "low" for present purposes.
We postulated that the high interest-low confidence pattern is
most likely to occur in gender-nontypical RIASEC areas. More
specifically, the use of same-sex norms on inventories such as the
SII is intended to highlight potential interests in RIASEC areas
associated with the socialization experiences more typical of the
other gender, but same-sex norms cannot provide the performance
93
accomplishments necessary to build confidence. Interventions de-
signed to increase efficacy, possibly structured by the counselor,
may be necessary to build confidence. Similarly, we postulate that
the low interest-high confidence pattern is more likely to occur in
gender-stereotypical areas, where people may have received con-
siderable exposure to and thus competence and confidence in, but
are not particularly interested in, that domain.
Results
Values of coefficient alpha for the revised 10-item scales
indicated adequate internal consistency reliability, with val-
ues of coefficient alpha ranging from .84 to .87 in the
student sample and from .84 to .88 in the employed adult
sample. Within this range, the Enterprising scale had the
lowest alpha (.84 in both samples), and the Realistic scale
the highest alpha (.87 and .88, in the student and adult
samples, respectively).
Gender comparisons in raw scores within each sample are
shown in Table 1.2 Because of the large number of statis-
tical tests performed, we decided to use an alpha of .01 as
the critical value for statistical significance. These data
indicate differences largely in accordance with previous
research on gender differences in RIASEC interests using
raw scores, but the differences are more pronounced in the
college student versus adult sample. Significant gender dif-
ferences in the college sample were found on all but the
Artistic theme, with college men scoring higher on the
Realistic, Investigative, Enterprising, and Conventional
Confidence scales and college women scoring higher only
on the Social theme.
Within the adult sample, gender differences overall were
evident only for the Realistic and Enterprising themes,
toward which men reported greater confidence. There was
no female advantage in Social confidence among employed
adults. Within-gender comparisons of employed adults ver-
sus college students indicated that employed men reported
significantly more confidence with respect to the Enterpris-
ing and Conventional themes (both at p < .001) than did
college men. Employed women were significantly more
confident than college women on the Realistic, Investiga-
tive, Enterprising, and Conventional themes (p < .001), and
on the Social theme (p < .01).
Multivariate analyses of variance of RIASEC confidence
scores as a function of occupational group and gender
indicated statistically significant Fs for occupational group
(Wilks' lambda = .20, F(120, 6365) = 17, p < .001),
gender (Wilks' lambda = .87, F(6,1100) = 27.1,p < .001),
and the group by gender interaction (Wilks' lambda = .87,
F(120, 6365) = 1.3, p < .05). Although individual means
and profiles within each male and female occupational
group are too extensive to be provided here,3 in all cases the
highest confidence mean was congruent with the Holland
2
Combined sex and within-sex standard (7) scores and percen-
tiles are available from Nancy E. Betz.
3
Score means and standard deviations for the 21 occupational
groups, both male and female, can be obtained from Nancy E.
Betz.
 94 BETZ, HARMON, AND BORGEN

Table 1
Gender Comparisons of Scores on the Skills Confidence Inventory for College Students
and Employed Adults
College student raw scores Employed adult raw scores
Men Women Men Women
(n = 261) (n == 445) (n = 585) (n =•• 5 6 2 )
Theme M SD M SD t M SD M SD t
Realistic 3.5 0.74 2.9 0.74 -10.9** 3.6 0.81 3.3 0.83 -6.4**
Investigative 3.4 0.73 3.0 0.76 -6.7** 3.5 0.84 3.5 0.88 -0.2
Artistic 2.9 0.74 3.0 0.80 1.8 3.0 0.80 3.1 0.76 2.0
Social 3.4 0.64 3.7 0.61 6.0** 3.5 0.65 3.5 0.67 1.7
Enterprising 3.3 0.68 3.1 0.69 -3.4** 3.6 0.70 3.4 0.76 -5.0**
Conventional 3.4 0.70 3.1 0.74 -5.9** 3.8 0.72 3.7 0.76 -1.2
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**p < .001.

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interest code of the occupation. For example, the highest the 1985 edition of the SII (the remaining students were
confidence scores of both male and female architects were administered only the SCI). As shown in Table 2, the
Artistic, Realistic, and Investigative—the Holland code for within-theme correlations between interests and confidence
architects in the SII norm groups (male and female) is, range from .46 (Social) to .74 (Artistic) among women;
likewise, Artistic, Realistic, and Investigative. Other strik- values shown for men range from .39 (Enterprising) to .68
ing profile similarities included confidence peaks on Artis- (Artistic). Most of the off-diagonal correlations that are
tic and Enterprising among male and female advertising statistically significant reflect a Holland-theory-predicted
executives, also an Artistic-Enterprising occupation on the similarity between adjacent (on the Hexagon) Holland
SII. Male and female chemists (Investigative-Realistic) re- themes; for example, r = .37 between Realistic interests and
ported greatest confidence on Investigative, and male and Investigative confidence in women and r = .36 between
female auto mechanics (Realistic) reported their highest Enterprising interests and Social confidence in men. Al-
confidence on Realistic. though moderate in magnitude, these correlations between
Table 2 shows the interest-efficacy correlations for the adjacent themes are lower than the confidence-interest cor-
subset of 158 college women and 90 college men who took relations within a theme. However, among both men and
women, Conventional confidence is significantly correlated
with Investigative interests. Among men, Investigative in-
Table 2 terests are significantly correlated with four of the six con-
Correlations Between Skills Confidence Inventory and fidence scores, and among women, Investigative interests
General Occupational Theme (GOT) Scores From the are related to three confidence scores.
1985 Strong Interest Inventory (SII) for Undergraduate
Women (n - 158) and Men (n = 90) Table 3 shows the number of college students obtaining
off-quadrant score patterns, that is, high interests-low con-
GOT interests (SII) fidence or vice versa. As predicted, patterns of high
Confidence
(self-efficacy) R I A S E C interest-low confidence were most common for themes
associated with the other gender. Sixty-six percent of the
Realistic
Women .63** .29** .34** .19 .12 .06 occurrences among women, versus 42% for men, occurred
Men .62** .28** .23 .00 .04 -.02 in Realistic, Investigative, Enterprising, or Conventional. In
Investigative contrast, 29% of those for men, but only 8% among women,
Women .37** .71** .08 .12 .00 .14 were in the Social theme. For high confidence-low interest,
Men .32* .60** .19 -.04 .06 .07 8 1 % of those for men, versus 5 1 % for women, were in
Artistic
Women .20* .14 .74** .13 .07 -.18 Realistic, Investigative, Enterprising, and Conventional. In
Men .11 .21 .68** .12 .04 -.15 contrast, 32% of those for women, versus 16% for men,
Social were in Social. All of these gender differences were statis-
Women -.11 .09 .10 .47:** .17 -.06 tically significant (p < .001) in pairwise comparisons using
Men .06 .24 .35** .51!** .36** .14
Enterprising the z test for tests of two proportions (Glass & Stanley,
Women -.02 .09 .10 .21* .46** .19 1984).
Men .15 .28* .25 .21 .39** .15
Conventional
Women .15 . 2 5 * •-.17 .08 .27** .62**
Men .20 .28* .18 .22 .06 .41** Study 2
Note. To reduce the possibility of experiment-wise error, the
criterion for statistical significance was set at p < .01. R = Method
Realistic; I = Investigative; A = Artistic; S = Social; E =
Enterprising; C = Conventional. Participants and procedures. Participants were 110 undergrad-
*p < .01. **p < .001. uate students, 29 men and 81 women, enrolled in a career devel-
 SELF-EFFICACY FOR HOLLAND'S THEMES 95

Table 3 significance, respectively. Given the stated criterion of .01

Number of Students Falling Into the Off-Quadrants of a for a, only values of r of .43 achieve statistical significance
Confidence-Interest Fourfold Classification in the sample of men.
High interest and Higll confidence and Given this, it may be noted that confidence and interests
low confidence low interest within a Holland theme are correlated from .38 (Social) to
Women Men Women Men .59 (Conventional) among women and from .14 to .67
(» = 158) (/> =•• 9 0 ) (n = 158) (n = 90) among men. Most other significant correlations are those
between confidence and interests in adjacent themes (Real-
Holland theme N % N % N % N %
istic confidence and Investigative interests among women
Realistic 5 13 1 4 23 11 44 32 and Artistic confidence and Social interests among men). In
Investigative 2 5 0 0 34 16 20 14
Artistic 8 21 7 29 36 17 4 3
addition to a correlation with Realistic, Conventional con-
Social 3 8 7 29 70 32 22 16 fidence is correlated with interests in every area except
Enterprising 10 26 6 25 26 12 17 12 Artistic among women.
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Conventional 8 21 3 13 27 13 32 23
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Total instances 38 24 216 139

Note. Based on the 1985 Strong Interest Inventory. The highest
General Occupational Theme (GOT) interest score was used if no Discussion
high or very high GOT was obtained. Each respondent, there-
fore, had at least one high interest score, and potentially up to The present studies resulted in the development and eval-
six. Thus, column totals can be over the actual number of partic- uation of a measure of perceived self-efficacy or confidence
ipants. Percentages reflect the proportion of occurrences within with respect to the six Holland theme areas. The 10-item
gender. scales were shown to have respectable levels of internal
consistency reliability. Evidence for validity was provided
by score patterns consistent with predicted group and occu-
pational differences, and within-occupation score profiles
opment class at a large midwestern university. The 1994 version of consistent with the Holland interest codes of each occupa-
the SII (Harmon et al., 1994) and the SCI were administered as tion. Moderate correlations with the analogous Holland
part of the course requirements. The SII was administered and interest score, obtained from the General Occupational
interpreted early in the semester, and the SCI was administered at
mid semester.
Instruments. The 60-item version of the SCI, as described in
Study 1, was administered. The GOT scores from the 1994 SII
were also obtained. The revision of the GOT's for the 1994 SII Table 4
began with an analysis of how well the original 20 items in each Correlations Between Skills Confidence Inventory and
scale were working, based on item-scale correlations. Weak items General Occupational Theme (GOT) Scores From the
were deleted and new, stronger items were added. Items were also 1994 Strong Interest Inventory (SII; Study 2)
examined for (low) correlations with other scales and for content.
Thus, internal consistency reliability was increased while main- GOT interests (SII)
taining content and construct validity. The resulting GOT scales Confidence
(self-efficacy) R I A S E c
varied in number of items per scale (from 20 for Investigative to 33
for Artistic), but all six had values of coefficient alpha equal to or Realistic
above .90 (from .90 for Social, Enterprising, and Conventional to Women .53** .36** .16 .24 -.04 .10
.94 for Artistic). The normative sample for these reliability anal- Men .14 .06 .09 .08 -.28 -.21
yses was 18,951 employed adults. Investigative
Women .16 .51** .08 .22 -.17 .00
Men -.09 .38 .29 .09 -.27 -.14
Artistic
Results Women .30** .12 .69** .02 .00 -.23
Men -.05 .12 .51** .48** -.20 -.23
Gender comparisons of score means indicated significant Social
Women .13 .14 .23 .38** -.07 -.10
differences (p < .05) only on Realistic, in favor of men Men -.02 .00 .31 .67** .04 -.15
(M = 3.3 vs. 2.9) and on Social, in favor of women (M = Enterprising
3.8 vs. 3.4). Scores on the other four themes were compa- Women .18 -.06 .17 .25 .49** .25
rable for the two sexes. Men -.17 -.07 -.06 .07 .21 .36
Table 4 presents the correlations between SCI scores and Conventional
Women .31* .34*: - . 2 0 .37** .32* .59**
the GOT scores from the 1994 SII. In examining the data Men -.35 -.05 -.38 -.18 -.01 .52*
shown in Table 4, it should be recalled that they are based Note. N = 81 for women; N = 29 for men. To reduce the
on only 29 men, and thus should not be considered as possibility of experiment-wise error, the criterion for statistical
generalizable, as would correlations obtained in a larger significance was set at p < .01. R = Realistic; I = Investigative;
sample. In addition, with an N of 29, values of r of .37 and A = Artistic; S = Social; E = Enterprising; C = Conventional.
.43 are needed to reach the .05 and .01 levels of statistical *p<.01. **p<.001.
 96 BETZ, HARMON, AND BORGEN
Theme scores of the 1985 and 1994 editions of the SII,
provided additional validity evidence.
Significant gender differences in Realistic confidence
were found in all samples studied herein, the college sam-
ples of Studies 1 (N = 706) and 2 (N = 110) and the sample
of employed adults. College women reported significantly
more Social confidence than did college men, but this
difference was not found in adults. In the large sample of
college students, men were also significantly more confi-
dent than were women on Enterprising, Investigative, and
Conventional, and the gender difference on Enterprising
also occurred in the adult sample. These overall gender
differences are largely consistent with previous research on
the Holland typology, suggesting that Realistic and Social
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
are the Holland interest themes on which gender differences
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
in favor of women have been most persistent when either
raw scores or combined sex norms are used (cf. Betz, 1993;
Gottfredson, Holland, & Gottfredson, 1975; Prediger &
Hanson, 1976). The higher confidence of college men with
respect to the Conventional theme may reflect the heavier
computing and quantitative emphasis of the Conventional
confidence scale, which was designed to parallel the en-
hanced emphasis on these areas in the Conventional GOT of
the 1994 revision of the SII.
On the other hand, there was a relative absence of gender
differences within occupational groups—for example, male
and female architects reported almost identical confidence
profiles. Those few within-occupation gender differences
that were found were on RIASEC themes other than those
characterizing the interest code of the occupation. Thus,
women successfully employed in an occupation appear to
be remarkably similar to men employed in that occupation,
at least in terms of confidence patterns. It should be noted,
however, that the findings from the adult sample are not
generalizable to all employed adults, much less to adults in
general. Because these employed adults were satisfied and
relatively experienced in their jobs, they are not represen-
tative of all employed people. Furthermore, the employed
men may be more similar to college-educated men in gen-
eral than the employed women are to college-educated
women, because many more of the latter take significant
amounts of time out of the labor force (e.g., see Arnold,
1995). Overall, these employed adults possess characteris-
tics consistent with higher scores on the SCI, in comparison
to other groups.
Correlations between same-theme confidence and inter-
ests indicate overlap but also some distinctiveness, ranging
from .39 to .71 in Study 1 using the 1985 SII, and from .38
to .69 in women and .14 to .67 in the 29 men in Study 2,
using the 1994 SII. Moderate correlations are consistent
with both theoretical expectation and some previous re-
views and research (e.g., Lenox & Subick, 1994; Lent et al.,
1994), but many herein are higher than Rooney's (1991)
correlations of .20 to .45 with Vocational Preference Inven-
tory interests. The present study does not address the issue
of causality, for example, as postulated in the Lent et al.
(1994) social cognitive model. Structural models or, better
yet, intervention studies, are needed to address this question.
In addition to the moderate correlations between confi-
dence and interests within a theme, some unexpected cor-
relations were also found. For example, the tendencies of
Conventional confidence scores to correlate (positively or
negatively) with nonadjacent interest themes and for Inves-
tigative interests in men to be correlated with several con-
fidence scores need further study.
Given the very promising nature of the present findings,
however, we suggest that the SCI be used in further research
and theory testing. We also believe that it is useful in career
counseling. We suggest that at a descriptive level, confi-
dence scores can be interpreted as the individual's confi-
dence in her or his ability to perform activities and in
academic subjects related to each RIASEC theme area.
Higher levels of confidence indicate greater comfort with
one's capabilities in an area and, theoretically, greater like-
lihood of "approaching" versus avoiding that behavioral
domain. Lower confidence scores suggest a pattern of either
past failure or lack of experience, either one of which is
predictive of continued avoidance of that behavioral domain
unless interventions are introduced.
If we assume, as the Lent et al. (1994) model implies, that
both interests and some feeling of confidence or self-effi-
cacy are necessary before a client will pursue a career
option, then joint interpretation of interests and confidence
may prove useful. Holland theme areas of both high interest
and high confidence provide fairly obvious general areas to
explore, and the high confidence scores may serve to
strengthen suggestions based on high interests. Low
interest-low confidence themes can generally be eliminated
from further consideration unless the profile suggests few or
no other options. Areas of high interest-low confidence may
have been rejected by the client, but if efficacy-increasing
interventions can be structured by the counselor (see Betz,
1992), that RIASEC area may be re-opened for the client.
We postulated that the high interest-low confidence pat-
tern is most likely to occur in gender-nontypical RIASEC
areas. More specifically, the use of same-sex norms on
inventories such as the SII is intended to highlight potential
interests in RIASEC areas associated with the socialization
experiences more typical of the other gender. Examination
of the frequency of occurrence of off-quadrant patterns for
the 248 students who were administered the SII as well as
the SCI indicated that women were significantly more likely
than men to obtain high interest-low confidence patterns in
traditionally male RIASEC areas, and men were signifi-
cantly more likely than women to obtain this pattern in
Holland's Social theme. The reverse pattern was true with
the low interest-high confidence pattern.
Same-sex as well as combined sex norms for the SCI are
available (footnote 2), but the use of the SCI to alert the
counselor to areas in which lack of confidence may be
preventing exploration of possible interest areas suggests
the desirability of interpreting confidence scores in an ab-
solute, that is "raw score" sense. Use of SCI raw scores is
consistent with the use on the SII of same-sex norms in that
both are intended to have the result of broadening options
 SELF-EFFICACY FOR HOLLAND'S THEMES
beyond those suggested by traditional gender role socializa-
tion. Scores are only a means to an end in counseling, in this
case broadened exploration, so our endorsement of SCI raw
scores and SII (GOT) within-sex normative scores is not
inconsistent. Additional research on the effects of using raw
versus same-sex normative scores is also needed to address
questions of their differential effects.
Although the applied focus of the SCI and its underlying
theory suggest interventions capable of increasing expecta-
tions of self-efficacy or confidence, Lent et al.'s (1994)
theory would also suggest that in expanding confidence we
can expand interests, because facilitating approach behavior
should facilitate interest exploration. People may have in-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
terest potentials that are never developed or are underdevel-
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
oped because they were never exposed to the activity—for
many reasons, this may be more likely to happen in activity
areas traditional for the other sex. As there is a theoretical
basis for increasing self-efficacy via the four sources of
efficacy information and therefore approach behavior, it
may be possible to start with confidence and see under what
conditions interest development follows.
More research is needed on the correlates and utility of
the SCI, but we suggest that use of a confidence measure
along with a measure of Holland's interests has consider-
able potential to increase the educational and career options
of individual clients and to stimulate the design of effective
career interventions. We especially recommend research on
the effectiveness of interventions based on efficacy theory
and on the interrelationships of efficacy, interests, and ap-
proach versus avoidance behavior.
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