Validity regarding the assessment of personality types vs. vocational preferences in a sample of Mexican high school students

Abstract

We show the results of a field study that pretends to establish the concurrent validity of the Types of Personality Types Inventory (PTI) and Vocational Preferences Inventory (VPI) of Wegner (1991), both inventories based on the Holland theory and designed to identify the different types of vocational personality. The results are discussed and the conclusion is that the significant discrepancy between the results of both tests demand the reconsidering the construction of such tests in order to improve the content validity , both external and collateral. The suggestion is that the tests based on personality characteristics have poor content validity due to the complexity of the meaning of the items. In regard to the tests based on the occupational preferences the results suggest that these should include items that are congruent with the regional concepts and main activities that such job represents for the subject answering the test.