Can People’s Personalities Be Measured?

On Thanksgiving Day 2008 one of the most profound and influential leaders in the field of career development, John Holland, died. If you’ve ever had a high school guidance counselor or college career development specialist, try to help you figure out what you should be when you grow up, then you probably ran across his work in the form of an assigned Holland Code.

What John Holland pioneered was a paradigm by which all people could rate themselves within a set of interest areas that could be measured using his self-reporting inventory. The strongest interests which are self-reported resulted in a profile which could be matched to a variety of workplaces favorable to people with similar profiles. The point being that you are happiest working in a place and doing things that are interesting to you.

Holland identified six paramount interest areas within which we all fit. Briefly they are (in no order of importance):

Realistic (R)- Having an inclination toward active, hands-on, physical activities.

Investigative (I)- Being interested in problem solving, discovery, and always having curiosity.

Artistic (A)- Wanting to show expression in a variety of ways from writing to fine arts to cooking and more.

Social (S)- The desire to be around, involved, and working with people.

Enterprising (E)- Being inclined to practice persuasion, competition, and displaying self-confidence.

Conventional (C)- An interest in order, stability, and in establishing and maintaining pre-determined conventions.

By taking instruments like the Self-Directed Search® and the Strong Interest Inventory®, a Holland Code was yielded such as AEI or RIA. These codes were then used to identify career directions.

Holland or RIASEC codes, along with the type codes coming from another widely used instrument, The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), both try to assist individuals by positioning them in a conceptual framework within which all people can be placed.

The very notion of coding people seems to irk several people, including some career counselors. When I say that I use these instruments with clients, a reaction I often get is something to the effect of, “Oh, do these things really work?” I infer a couple of things from that type of question. One, can people, with all their differences and diversity, really be pigeonholed into a clean and tidy model? Two, don’t you take away the richness and nuance of a person by placing a label on them?

For me, these reactions miss the point. The goal isn’t so much to typecast people like a manufacturer would wrenches (this one is a 14cm and this one is a 3/8 inch). But rather these instruments are useful gateways through which an exploration can take place to discover what makes a person tick. Topics ranging from what proclivities and tendencies a person has to suggestions about what may be the best workplace fit can occur following one of these tests. In short, these instruments are to be used as tools for self-understanding. When trying to solve a problem like what kind of work you should be doing for the rest of your life, more information, not less is called for.

The other thing I like about tools like the Strong and the MBTI is the conceptual premise supporting them. It basically says that all people have worth and value. That anybody can make it. There is opportunity for you no matter who you are or what your background is. There are no “bad” codes or types. Strengths can be found in anyone. That is an optimistic, hopeful, and dare I say, spiritual way of viewing human nature.

John Holland left us with more than just a test. He contributed to an idealistic tradition that believes that as a society we should focus on what is best about each other. We all continue to benefit from that attitude and practice.

Bill Ryan