This white paper provides a brief background on the Holland Theory and its applications in the Kuder Career Planning System® (KCPS).
The foundation of interest-based assessments dates back to work by Dr. Frederic Kuder published in 1938. Dr. John Holland later refined and contributed to this work in the development of his own theory of vocational interests. Indeed, Holland relied heavily on Kuder-based assessments as he describes in his (unpublished) autobiography, “My staff and I performed simple cluster analyses of the Kuder profiles . . . we were pleased when we discovered that these preliminary classifications looked plausible.”
Holland’s principle theory is described in his article, “A Theory of Vocational Choice” (1959). Nauta writes, “The theory’s core idea is that most people resemble a combination of six personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (commonly abbreviated with the acronym RIASEC). Each type is characterized by a constellation of interests, preferred activities, beliefs, abilities, values, and characteristics” (2009).
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