With respect to Strong Interest Inventory, confirm the following criteria pertaining to
psychometric tool with relevant data from standard text books and journal articles providing
supporting data and facts: Age, number of items, dimensions, response, language, conceptual,
educational level, culture relevance, item clarity, reading level, scoring procedure, reliability,
validity, norms including theoretical and statistical, consent, time, accessibility, scoring and
interpretation, nature of construct whether unidimensional or multidimensional, level of
measurement desired whether nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio, respondent burden, type of data
analysis preferred, psychometric properties required like scalability, item discrimination, target
population
General Characteristics
Age/Target Population: Designed for individuals aged 16+; not suitable for those under
13; recommended minimum administration from 16–17 years onward
Reading Level: Eighth-grade (~9th grade) .
Language: Available in English; normed primarily on U.S. samples; may have cultural
adaptations .
Culture Relevance: Normative sample (General Representative Sample, GRS) of 2,250
U.S. adults, representative by gender and race/ethnicity
Test Structure & Format
Number of Items: 291 total — 282 interest items plus 9 “Your Characteristics” items
Dimensions/Scales:
o General Occupational Themes (GOTs): 6 (RIASEC)
o Basic Interest Scales (BISs): 30
o Occupational Scales (OSs): 122–260 depending on edition/gender
o Personal Style Scales (PSSs): 5
Response Format: 5-point Likert scale: Strongly Dislike → Strongly Like.
“Characteristics” section uses “strongly unlike me” etc.
⏱ Administration & Scoring
Time to Complete: ~30–45 minutes
Scoring Procedure: Computer-scored; generates multi-page report (top 3 GOT codes,
top 10 occupations, personal style)
Interpretation: Requires certified counselor training or publisher workshop; tailored
reports available for different populations (e.g., college, high school)
Accessibility & Consent: Must be purchased; administered under professional guidance.
Clients consent via counseling relationship; not self-administered without oversight.
🔍 Psychometric Properties
Reliability:
o GOTs: α = .90–.95
o BISs: α = .80–.92
o PSSs: α = .82–.87
o OSs: not suited for α due to heterogeneous content
Test-retest reliability: BISs r ≈ .82 (adults); lower in younger groups
Validity:
o Scales show predictive and concurrent validity: GOTs predict work variables;
BISs differentiate professions; PSSs correlate with MBTI etc.; OSs predict
eventual career entry
o Inter-scale correlations follow Holland's hexagon theory (adjacent scales more
correlated)
o Cross-cultural validation indicates minimal gender bias
Norms: Based on GRS; gender-specific norms applied. Scores standardized: mean = 50,
SD = 10. Example: BIS scores interpreted relative to norm groups .
Construct & Measurement
Construct Dimensionality: Multidimensional instrument (GOTs, BISs, OSs, PSSs)
Level of Measurement: Items use ordinal Likert scale; scale scores treated as interval
via standard-score transformation .
Item Clarity: Items empirically selected and reviewed; typical face validity rated
“excellent” .
Respondent Burden: Moderate (~45 minutes, 291 items) but acceptable for adult clients
Preferred Analysis: Classical Test Theory (α, test-retest), IRT not routinely reported for
OSs; factor-analytic methods used to verify construct structure
. General Representative Sample (GRS)
The GRS consists of 2,250 U.S. adults, split equally by gender (1,125 men and 1,125
women) and intended to reflect the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. workforce
This diverse sample forms the norm group for the General Occupational Themes
(GOTs) and Basic Interest Scales (BISs), offering robust benchmark data
👥 2. Gender-Specific Norms
Gender matters: SII continues to use separate norms for men and women because
empirical differences persist in scale scores
o For example, men in the GRS average a score of 55 on the Realistic scale, while
women average 45, indicating a full standard deviation difference
During administration, respondents self-identify gender; their responses are then
compared against the corresponding gender norm
📏 3. Standard Scores: Mean = 50, SD = 10
Scores for GOTs and BISs are standardized to a T-score distribution: mean = 50, SD =
10
Example for interpretation:
o A T-score of 70 on a BIS (e.g., Science) means you're two SDs above the mean—
higher than ~97.5 % of peers of your gender
o A T-score of 45–55 indicates average interest levels
Interpretive Bands (per combined gender norms in new editions):
≤ 34 = Very Little
35–44 = Little
45–55 = Moderate
56–65 = High
≥ 66 = Very High
📊 4. Occupational Scales (OSs)
OSs (approx. 260) use occupation-specific norms—derived solely from workers in the
target job (e.g., Accountants, Engineers)
These are also T-scored (mean = 50, SD = 10), but reflect deviation from that
occupational group rather than the general population
✅ 5. Norms Usage & Psychometric Integrity
Norming ensures fair comparisons:
o GOTs & BISs across U.S. adults by gender
o OSs within occupational peer groups
Separating norms by gender and occupation ensures accuracy, fairness, and reduces bias
in interpretations
The instrument provides percentile ranks based on these norms: e.g., a woman with T =
70 ranks in the top 2.5% among women.
