I__. - International Military Testing Association

Similarly, a number of vocational i n terest inventor i es. have
been devel aped by the Armed Serv i ces for use i n gu i di ng
en1 isted personnel into military occupations. Examples
include the Uocat iunal Interest Career Exa.minat ion (Al ley,
1978>, developed by the Air Force, and the Navy, L’ocs.~~,(~;,~~
Interest I riven tory (Abrahams I L a u , & Neumann r -ao.J .
Al though research has shown promise to enhance the se1 ect i on
and classification processes through the i ncorporat ion of a
formal , measured interest component, with the exception of
the Air Force, i riterests have remained an exper imen tal as
opposed to an operational consideration.
The various vocat i onal i nterest instruments devel uprd by the
Armed Services have used occupational activities, j ob
titles, recrea t i onal activities, and 5.0 forth -- or, a
combi nat i on of such elements. Test subjects are asked to
indicate their i n terests or preferences for each i tern.
Scoring systems then report out an interest type, match the
subject wi th a f-1 occupa t i onal area, or i n 5. cm e 0 t h e r wa)
indicate the interests of the individual.
A few years ago, great efforts were made to cross-code
military jobs between the Services and PJ i t h civil ian
occupat i ons, i n a project sponsored by the Office of The
Assistant Secretary of Defense (FM&P> (Dale, Wright, Haven,
Pavlak, & Lancaster, 1989). The resul t was a taxonomy of
what may be called combined-Services jobs -- identical to no
specific job, but i ncorporat i ng occupat i onal i nf orma t i on
from each Service that has a similar job (plus the Coast
Guard). I t should be noted here that 5 am e .j ohs (e.g.?
infantrymen, dentists, etc.) are n o t represented in t h e
occupat i onal structure of al 1 the Services.
The combi ned-Serv i ces job taxonomy offers a nurnber of
research oppor tun i t i es using occupat i onal i nf orma t i on
specific to DOD jobs. Howeuer, to date, no interest mellsure
h a s used the combined Armed Services jobs.
APPROACH
The combi ned-Seru i ces j chs , both en 1 i sted (w1:34 j a n d
officer (N=71> , 1 isted in the Ni 1 i tarr Career Gu i de
(Department of Defense , 1981) were merged and al phabe t i zed
into a numbered 1 ist of 205 i terns. Whi le there has been much
controuersr over the wisdom of using job t i t 1 es in interest
measurement ) substantial research supper ts the i r use. More
recently, Ho1 1 and, Got tf redson I a n d GaKer ( 1 ppTJ > , i n
research wi th Navy recrui ts, found that use of job t i tles
WCtB both feasible and meaningful. Arguably, the Navy Is job
ti ties are the most esoteric and potential 1~ confusing to a
young person , ret there were few, i f any, problems i n the i r
use wi th young ma1 e sailors. Consequentlr, the even more
understandable combi ned-Serv i ccc. job t i t 1 es were cons i dered
fully suitable for use as items on an interest instrument.
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