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The Kinds of Items That Work in an Interest Activities Index

Author(s):
French, John Winslow, 1918-
Publication Year:
1964
Report Number:
RB-64-36
Source:
ETS Research Bulletin
Document Type:
Report
Page Count:
21
Subject/Key Words:
Cooperative Interest Index, Grade Prediction, Interest Inventories, Majors (Students), Occupational Tests, Test Items, Vocational Interests

Abstract

One hundred items, half of the items in the Cooperative Interest Index, which consists of a list of activities familiar to high-school students, were analyzed against freshman grades in six different subjects, against satisfaction with 11 different major fields, and with regard to their popularity among students majoring in the same 11 fields. Almost all of the items in the scale for a particular field showed themselves to be more popular among majors in that field than among majors in any other field. With grades and with satisfaction, however, the relationships of the items to their corresponding fields as well as the validities for the scales were found to be less good. While the difference are not clear, the grade criteria were usually found to be best predicted by items that pertain to academic learning activities or situations in which younger students are more likely to have participated, while the satisfaction criteria are best predicted by reading activities that suggest professional work in the field.

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