The Utility of Measures of Self-Efficacy for

the Holland Themes in African American

and European American College Students
Nancy E. Betz
Laurie R. Gwilliam
The Ohio State University
Three inventories of self-efficacy or confidence with respect to the six Holland
themes were compared in samples of European American and African American
college students. Results indicated that the reliabilities of all subscales were sufficiently high for use in research and that all subscales were as reliable for African
Americans as for European Americans. There were significant gender differences
in confidence levels but few race differences. A multitrait-multimethod analysis
indicated differential degrees of convergent and discriminant validity and the presence of method variance across the scales examined herein.
Keywords: Career self-efficacy, Hollands vocational theory, African Americans,
Holland confidence themes, career development of college students

As manifested by the appearance of several recent special issues of the Journal

of Career Assessment focusing on career assessment and self-efficacy, applications
of Banduras (1977, 1986) self-efficacy theory to career psychology represent one
of the most visible and flourishing areas of vocational research today. Self-efficacy expectations, our beliefs concerning our competence in specific behavioral
domains, are postulated to influence our choices of, performance in, and persistence in areas of endeavor requiring or using those behavioral competencies.
Betz (2000) has reviewed the career domains to which self-efficacy theory has
been applied, and Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1994, 2000) have developed a
comprehensive model of career choice intentions and goals using self-efficacy as
a central construct.
Much current attention is being paid to the assessment of self-efficacy relative
to the activity domains postulated in Hollands (1985, 1997) vocational theory.
This is in part due to the increasing use of parallel measures of vocational interest and self-efficacy in career counseling (e.g., Betz & Borgen, 2000). Evidence
Correspondence regarding this article should be directed to Nancy E. Betz, Professor, Department of
Psychology, 110 Townshend Hall, The Ohio State University, 1885 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1222;
e-mail: betz.3@osu.edu.
JOURNAL OF CAREER ASSESSMENT, Vol. 10 No. 3, August 2002
2002 Sage Publications

283300

283

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284 JOURNAL OF CAREER ASSESSMENT / August 2002

supporting the usefulness of self-efficacy as well as interests in career counseling

has been accumulating since Betz and Hacketts (1981) first study applying selfefficacy theory to the study of career behavior. In that first study, Betz and
Hackett found that both self-efficacy and interests predicted the nature and range
of career options considered by college students.
Since the first study, a number of other studies have provided additional evidence for the incremental predictive ability of perceived self-efficacy (e.g.,
Lapan, Boggs, & Morrill, 1989; Lapan, Shaughnessy, & Boggs, 1996). Probably
the largest scale study was that of Donnay and Borgen (1999), who used scores
on the six general occupational (Holland) themes (GOTs) of the Strong Interest
Inventory (SII) and the six general confidence themes (GCTs) of the Skills
Confidence Inventory (SCI) (Betz, Borgen, & Harmon, 1996; Betz, Harmon, &
Borgen, 1996) to predict occupational group membership among 1,105 adults
employed in 21 occupations. Using discriminant analysis in both a validation and
a cross-validation sample, Donnay and Borgen found significant incremental
validity for the self-efficacy scales (the GCTs) beyond that accounted for by the
GOTs. As a separate multivariate set, the GCTs were somewhat more powerful
than the GOTs in separating the 21 occupational groups (six times greater than
chance versus five times greater than chance). In percentage of variance terms,
GOTs accounted for 70% of occupational differences, GCTs accounted for 82%
of occupational differences, and the combined GOTs and GCTs accounted for
91% of occupational differences.
Isaacs, Borgen, Donnay, and Hansen (1997) investigated the extent to which
self-efficacy added to the prediction of college major, beyond the predictive efficacy of interests. Using the Holland interest themes from the SII and the GCTs
from the SCI, they found that self-efficacy, and the combined synergistic effect
of interests and self-efficacy, added to the prediction of the Holland theme of the
college major.
Given findings of the predictive utility of both interests and self-efficacy, it is
appropriate that means for joint use of such measures in career counseling are
now increasingly available. There are now several measures of self-efficacy with
respect to one or more of the six Holland (1985) types. Lapan et al. (1989) developed a measure of self-efficacy with respect to the RIASEC areas to examine the
degree to which gender differences in self-efficacy mediated gender differences
in interests. Lapan et al. introduced and described each theme as an occupational category, below which examples of occupations in that category were given
(for example, pharmacist, computer programmer, mathematician, and physicist
for the Investigative theme). The focus of Lapan et als analysis was Realistic and
Investigative self-efficacy, which were significantly related to Realistic and Investigative interests, respectively. Path analyses indicated that lower perceived selfefficacy was a major factor in womens lower Realistic and Investigative interests.
Lenox and Subich (1994) also developed measures of self-efficacy with respect
to Hollands themes. Six 5-item scales were developed using activities representing each theme. Only the Realistic, Investigative, and Enterprising scales were

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Betz, Gwilliam / HOLLAND THEME SELF-EFFICACY 285

investigated further, however, because the Artistic, Social, and Conventional

scales were characterized by restriction in range. Lenox and Subich found general support for linear relationships between self-efficacy and interests, although
they found slight curvilinearity for the Realistic and Investigative scales.
The SCI (Betz, Borgen, et al., 1996) is a 60-item measure of self-efficacy, with
10 items assessing self-efficacy for each of the six RIASEC areas. As described in
Betz, Borgen, et al. (1996) and Betz, Harmon, et al. (1996), the SCI was developed using samples of about 1,100 employed adults and 700 college students.
Each confidence scale consists of 10 activities, tasks, or school subjects associated with the relevant Holland theme. The SCI has been shown to significantly discriminate occupational groups (e.g., Betz, Borgen, Kaplan, & Harmon, 1998;
Harmon et al., 1996) and to make a significant incremental contribution to the
prediction of occupational group membership (Donnay & Borgen, 1999; Tracey
& Hopkins, 2001).
Because at least three inventories of confidence with respect to the six Holland
themes are available, their psychometric characteristics, interrelationships, and
relative degree to which they yield gender and/or race differences would be helpful for further research uses or uses in career assessment and counseling. The
present study was designed to compare the three available measuresthe SelfEfficacy Questionnaire (SEQ), the SCI, and the Lapan et al. measure, the SelfEfficacy Rating Scale (SERS)in a sample of college students.
More specifically, the first major purpose of the present study was to examine
the construct validity of the three instruments using the methodology provided
by the multitrait-multimethod matrix (Campbell & Fiske, 1959). Using this
matrix with multiple measures of the same constructs allows the simultaneous
investigation of convergent validity (that is, the extent to which different measures of the same construct are related) and discriminant validity (the extent to
which measures of different constructs are unrelated). The advantage of a multitrait-multimethod matrix is that it also allows the examination of method variance (that is, the degree to which scales are correlated because they use the same
method of measurement rather than because they share valid trait variance).
As defined by Campbell and Fiske (1959), the monotrait/heteromethod values, indicative of convergent validity, should be greater than the monomethod
heterotrait values, indicative of method variance. The convergent validity coefficients should also be greater than heterotrait-heteromethod values, which share
neither trait variance nor method variance. Finally, the patterns of correlations
among a set of traits within a method should be similar from method to method.
The second major purpose of the study was to examine the reliability and
validity of the scale in a sample of African American college students. There is
widespread agreement that the psychometric quality and utility of commonly
used measures must be demonstrated for groups other than those samples in
which the scales were originally normed (see Fouad, 1993; Samuda, 1998;
Subich, 1996). Because these scales were originally developed in samples dominated by European American college students, their utility in other groups is an

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286 JOURNAL OF CAREER ASSESSMENT / August 2002

important question. This study was designed to contribute to knowledge of the

psychometric characteristics of these scales within a group of African Americans
and to compare those to the psychometric characteristics within a group of
European American students.

METHOD
Measures
SCI. The SCI (Betz, Borgen, et al., 1996) is a 60-item instrument designed to
measure self-efficacy with respect to the six Holland themes. It consists of six 10item subscales, each of which addresses a single theme (Realistic, Investigative,
Artistic, Social, Enterprising, or Conventional).
Within each subscale, several items address activities and tasks (e.g., solve
abstract puzzles), and others address college-level courses (e.g., Industrial
Arts). For each item, the respondent is asked to rate his or her current confidence in his or her ability to successfully complete the named activity or to successfully complete a college course on the subject in question. Responses are
given using a 5-point Likert-type rating scale ranging from 1 (no confidence at all)
to 5 (complete confidence). A total subscale score is obtained by summing scores
across all 10 items and then dividing the result by 10. Possible subscale scores
range from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating greater self-efficacy for the
Holland theme in question. Because each subscale measures a theoretically distinct construct, no full scale score is generated.
Previously reported values of coefficient alpha for the 10-item subscales of the
SCI range from .79 to .87 in student samples and from .84 to .88 in an adult sample (Betz, Harmon, et al., 1996). Three-week test-retest reliability coefficients for
the six subscales have been reported to range from .83 to .87 (Parsons & Betz,
1998). There is extensive evidence for the validity of the SCI, including significant and moderately sized relationships with same-named Holland interest
scores on the SII (Betz, Harmon, et al., 1996) and with probability of concurrent
employment in the predicted Holland area (Harmon et al., 1996).
SEQ. Similar to the SCI, the SEQ (Lenox & Subich, 1994) was designed to
measure self-efficacy expectations with respect to each of the six Holland themes.
The SEQ consists of six 5-item subscales, one for each of the Holland themes,
resulting in a total of 30 items. Items within each subscale ask the respondent to
rate his or her confidence in his or her ability to complete activities that require
a particular Holland-theme-related skill, such as Use algebra to solve mathematical problems or Design clothing, furniture, or posters. Responses are given
on a 10-point Likert-type response scale, ranging from 1 (completely unsure) to 10
(completely sure). Total subscale scores are obtained by summing scores across all
10 items. Possible subscale scores thus range from 5 to 50, with higher scores

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Betz, Gwilliam / HOLLAND THEME SELF-EFFICACY 287

indicating greater self-efficacy. Once again, because subscales represent theoretically distinct types of self-efficacy expectations, no full scale score is generated.
Lenox and Subich (1994) reported data obtained from a pilot study using the
Realistic, Investigative, and Enterprising subscales of the SEQ. Values of coefficient alpha drawn from this pilot study range from .79 to .88. In terms of validity, the authors reported that scores on the Realistic, Investigative, and
Enterprising subscales of the SEQ show a moderately strong correlation with
scores on the corresponding GOTs of the SII (Lenox & Subich, 1994). Lenox
and Subich did not use the Social, Artistic, and Conventional scores because of
reported restriction in range.
Self-efficacy ratings for GOTs. Like the SCI and the SEQ, this self-efficacy
rating instrument (SER) (Lapan et al., 1989) is also designed to measure selfefficacy expectations for each of the six Holland themes. The SER consists of 95
items overall, divided into 12 subscales, 2 subscales for each Holland theme. The
number of items contained in each pair of subscales varies across Holland
themes, ranging from 9 items for the Conventional theme to 20 items for the
Investigative theme.
The SER consists of two separate subscales, one addressing self-efficacy for
educational requirements and the other addressing self-efficacy for job duties.
Furthermore, each subscale of the SER is composed of two parts. The first consists of a list of occupational titles; the respondent is asked to indicate whether he
or she could complete the educational requirements or the job duties for each
occupation on the list. Responses are given on a yes or no basis. This response
method corresponds to Banduras (1977) original definition of level of self-efficacy
expectations and is based directly on the original (Betz & Hackett, 1981) study of
occupational self-efficacy expectations. The second part of each subscale consists
of a single item asking respondents to rate their confidence, on a 7-point scale, in
their ability to complete either the educational requirements or the job duties of
the list of occupations as a whole. This response continuum more closely resembles Banduras confidence rating, a measure of strength of self-efficacy expectations, except that Bandura associated strength ratings with individual level
responses rather than level responses for a whole group of items. Lapan et al.
(1989) obtained scores by multiplying the sum of yeses to the educational
requirements for a group of occupations by its overall confidence rating and
adding that sum to the product of the number of yeses to the job duties for that
same set of occupations and the confidence rating for that occupational group.
Given that this unconventional multiplicative scoring method confounds the
level versus strength definitions and specific versus general definitions of selfefficacy, we decided to retain only the level measurement of specific behaviors,
in this case occupational titles. Accordingly, the SERS was scored by adding the
number of yes responses for educational requirements to the number of yes
responses for job duties for each Holland theme. This method corresponds more
closely to Banduras (1977) original definition of level of self-efficacy, as indicat-

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288 JOURNAL OF CAREER ASSESSMENT / August 2002

ed by whether an individual believes he or she can successfully perform a given

behavior.
No internal consistency reliability data for the SERS had been reported previously. However, the authors reported moderate correlations between scores on
the subscales of the SERS and self-reported interest levels for the corresponding
Holland themes (Lapan et al., 1989).

Participants and Procedures

Participants were 399 students enrolled in an introductory psychology course
at a large midwestern university. All participation was voluntary, and participants
received course credit for their participation. Because we wished to obtain a large
enough sample of African Americans to analyze, we specifically invited their participation. Of the sample, 69% (274) were women, and 32% (125) were men.
Sixty-three percent (252) identified themselves as Caucasian, 28% (111) as
African American, 3% (13) as Asian American, 1% (5) as Hispanic, 2% (6) as
international students, and 3% (12) either identified themselves as other, selected more than one race/ethnic category, or chose not to respond. Eighty-one percent (322) were freshmen, 12% (48) were sophomores, 6% (24) were juniors,
0.8% (3) were seniors, and 0.2% (2) did not indicate their class rank. The average
age of the participants in this sample was 18.7 years.
Participants completed the SCI, SEQ, and SERS, in that order. The SEQ was
administered last because it is lengthy; there are 83 occupational titles to which
participants must rate their educational self-efficacy and self-efficacy for job
duties, as well as provide an overall confidence rating for each Holland theme
area. Administration occurred in group settings of 20 to 30 students per group.
Following their participation, all participants received detailed information
sheets describing the purposes and goals of the study. These sheets also provided
students with information about how to reach the experimenter and information
about campus resources for counseling in case this study aroused any concerns
or psychological distress.

Data Analyses
To assess internal consistency reliability, values of coefficient alpha were calculated for each of the measures under study. In addition, values of coefficient
alpha for each gender and for the two largest race/ethnicity subgroups were calculated to determine whether each measure was similarly internally consistent
across groups.
Mean scores, standard deviations, and other descriptive statistics were calculated for each measure and within male and female and African American and
European American subgroups. These latter two groups, with ns of 111 and 252,
were large enough to analyze separately, whereas the 10 Asian Americans and 5

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Betz, Gwilliam / HOLLAND THEME SELF-EFFICACY 289

Hispanics did not constitute sufficiently sized subgroups. Multivariate analysis of

variance, with gender and race/ethnicity as fixed factors, was done separately for
each inventory of Holland self-efficacy scores (SCI, SEQ, SERS), followed by
post hoc univariate tests in the case of significant multivariate F statistics. The
correlations among all of the measures were arranged in a multitrait-multimethod
matrix. Correlations were also calculated within African American and European
American subgroups.

RESULTS
Table 1 shows sample items for each Holland theme area from each of the
three inventories examined herein. Table 2 provides values of coefficient alpha
for all scales and also provides overall scale means and standard deviations. As
shown in the table, all of the scales met Nunnally and Bernsteins (1994) criterion of a minimum alpha of .70 for use in research, although not all met standard
criteria for applied (counseling) use (alpha = .80, at a minimum). The SCI scales
had values of alpha ranging from .83 (Investigative) to .86 (Realistic and Social).
Reliabilities of the SEQ scales ranged from .70 (Conventional) to .91 (Realistic),
with Artistic also somewhat lower (.79). Finally, values of SERS scale reliabilities
ranged from .78 (Realistic) to .91(Investigative). However, alpha values are
strongly associated with numbers of items in the scale, so differences across the
six SERS subscales may be primarily artifactual in nature.
The Artistic and Conventional scales were among those (along with Social)
criticized by the scale authors Lenox and Subich (1994) as characterized by
restriction in score range, which would also reduce reliability. In the present set
of data, the standard deviations of Social and Conventional (1.3 and 1.4) were
smaller than those associated with other scales, and the mean for Social (8.23) was
closest to the theoretical maximum of 10.0 (complete confidence). Thus, restriction in range is shown most clearly herein for the Social SEQ score. From another vantage point, skewness (negative, showing a ceiling effect) is extreme in the
SEQ Social and to a lesser extent Enterprising and Conventional confidence scores.
Our data did not indicate restriction of range for Artistic self-efficacy scores.
Table 3 presents the multitrait-multimethod matrix showing the correlations
among the three inventories of Holland theme self-efficacy. Diagonal values, representing reliability coefficients, were presented earlier in this section and will
not be repeated here. The first criterion of Campbell and Fiske (1959) is that the
convergent validity values be statistically significant. Given the large N in this
study, statistical significance is an inappropriate criterion because values as small as
r =.10 would be significant at p < .05. Rather, to be indicative of convergent validity, a value of .40 was specified. This is somewhat arbitrary but, in terms of shared
variance, would mean that 16% of variance between the two measures of the
same construct was shared. Validity coefficients should be high enough to lend
some confidence to the assertion that the two measures share common variance.

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290 JOURNAL OF CAREER ASSESSMENT / August 2002

Table 1
Sample Items From Measures Examined
Measure and Subscale

Item(s)

Skills Confidence Inventory

Activities
School subjects
Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
Activities

Self-Efficacy Rating Scale

Occupational titles
(Educational requirements and job duties)

Meet new people (Social)

Design sets for a play (Artistic)
Calculus (Investigative)
Finance (Conventional)
Make simple electrical repairs (Realistic)
Write stories or poetry (Artistic)
Manage a sales campaign (Enterprising)

Veterinarian (Realistic)
Social worker (Social)
Buyer (Enterprising)
Musician (Artistic)
Accountant (Conventional)
Chemist (Investigative)

The convergent validity coefficients are underlined in Table 3. As shown in

Table 3, convergent validity values range from .59 (Conventional) to .81
(Realistic) between the SCI and SEQ, from .37 (Social) to .55 (Investigative)
between the SCI and SERS, and from .38 (Conventional) to .58 (Artistic)
between the SEQ and SERS. Using the arbitrary value of .40, the convergent
validities with the SERS are slightly below that for both Social and Conventional.
Thus, the SCI and SEQ are providing the most similar measurement, in comparison to the SERS. Averaging for themes across measures, validities are highest
for Artistic and Investigative (.63) and lowest for Conventional (.45).
The second requirement of the multitrait-multimethod matrix is that the convergent validities are higher than either the correlations between different traits
measured the same way (monomethod/heterotrait, or method variance) or between
different traits measured differently (heteromethod/heterotrait). These particular criteria are complicated in this study by the hexagonal arrangement of Hollands
themes, with higher associations expected between adjacent themes. It is expected that these correlations would be intermediate in magnitude between the convergent validity correlations and those between nonadjacent Holland themes.
Thus, heterotrait was defined as nonadjacent Holland themes, including the
following nonadjacent trait pairs: Realistic/Artistic, Realistic/Social, Realistic/
Enterprising, Investigative/Social, Investigative/Enterprising, Investigative/

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Betz, Gwilliam / HOLLAND THEME SELF-EFFICACY 291

Table 2
Values of Coefficient Alpha and Measured
Standard Deviations for Total Group and by Gender and Race
Total Sample

Skills Confidence Inventory

Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Self-Efficacy Rating Scale
Realistic (11)
Investigative (20)
Artistic (14)
Social (12)
Enterprising (17)
Conventional (9)

Coefficient (N = 397)

SD

.86
.83
.85
.86
.85
.85

3.18
3.31
3.18
3.82
3.42
3.43

0.80
0.68
0.77
0.63
0.67
0.67

.91
.82
.79
.81
.86
.70

6.36
6.84
5.78
8.23
7.34
7.13

2.2
1.7
1.9
1.3
1.6
1.4

.78
.91
.82
.82
.89
.82

1.26
1.44
1.27
1.59
1.47
1.46

0.48
0.43
0.48
0.41
0.49
0.53

Conventional, Artistic/Enterprising, Artistic/Conventional, and Social/Conventional.

These pairs of correlations were used in constructing Table 4, which shows the
average monomethod/heterotrait and heteromethod/heterotrait correlations. As
shown in the table, the mean monomethod/heterotrait (nonadjacent trait) correlations were substantially and significantly lower than the convergent validity correlations for the SCI (M = .28) and SEQ (M =.38) but not for the SER scales
(M =.49). The heterotrait/heteromethod correlation for the SCI/SEQ (r = .27)
was equal to the mean monomethod/nonadjacent trait correlation within the
SCI, suggesting little method variance for the SCI. In contrast, the heteromethod
nonadjacent trait correlations involving the SERS were smaller (.15 with the
SCI and .16 with the SEQ) in comparison to their monomethod nonadjacent
trait correlations.
The second major purpose of the present study was to examine gender and
race differences in scores, and the relative reliability and validity of the invento-

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292

Table 3
Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix
SCI
(Activities + College Course)
Method

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SCI
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
SEQ
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
SER
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional

.53
.41
.21
.31
.41

.26
.17
.27
.50

.34
.38
.09

.48
.16

.44

.81
.42
.40
.20
.23
.32

.45
.72
.25
.15
.23
.42

.30
.14
.77
.31
.28
.20

.15
.15
.32
.74
.51
.36

.43
.38
.11
.12
.15
.24

.29
.55
.06
.07
.08
.30

.26
.18
.54
.25
.40
.10

.09
.06
.13
.37
.30
.00

SEQ
(Activities)

SER
(Occupational Titles)

.27
.25
.39
.50
.79
.48

.39
.54
.10
.15
.34
.59

.51
.43
.24
.31
.44

.24
.23
.34
.55

.39
.43
.37

.68
.53

.63

.17
.16
.15
.19
.42
.27

.15
.21
.03
.11
.25
.38

.45
.38
.23
.16
.20
.24

.31
.54
.15
.11
.14
.27

.20
.13
.58
.28
.36
.26

.03
.03
.23
.39
.36
.25

.18
.20
.28
.28
.46
.37

.19
.30
.15
.16
.30
.38

.63
.42
.45
.51
.48

.40
.34
.47
.56

.57
.66
.50

.67
.54

.79

Note. SCI = Skills Confidence Inventory; SEQ = Self-Efficacy Questionnaire; SER = Self-Efficacy Rating Scale; R = Realistic; I = Investigative; A = Artistic;
S = Social; E = Enterprising; C = Conventional. For N = 384, values of .10, .13, and .17 are statistically significant at the .05, .01, and .001 levels, respectively.

Betz, Gwilliam / HOLLAND THEME SELF-EFFICACY 293

Table 4
Comparisons of Convergent Validity, Monomethod/Heterotrait,
and Heteromethod/Heterotrait Correlations

Convergent validity
SCI SEQ
SCI SERS
SEQ SERS
Monomethod/nonadjacent trait
Skills Confidence Inventory
Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
Self-Efficacy Rating Scale
Heteromethod/nonadjacent trait
SCI/SEQ
SCI/SERS
SEQ/SERS

Maximuma

Mean r

Minimum

.74
.45
.47

.59
.37
.38

.81
.55
.58

.30
.38
.49

.09
.23
.34

.50 (IC)
.55 (IC)
.66 (AE)

.27
.15
.16

.15
.00
.11

.42 (IC)
.40 (AE)
.36 (AE)

Note. SCI = Skills Confidence Inventory; SEQ = Self-Efficacy Questionnaire; SERS = SelfEfficacy Rating Scale; I = Investigative; C = Conventional; A = Artistic; E = Enterprising.
a. Shown in parentheses are the Holland code pairs where the highest nonadjacent trait correlations were found.

ries for African Americans versus European Americans. Two-way MANOVAs

(Gender Race) were conducted on the six (Holland) scores from the SCI,
SEQ, and SERS. Results of the MANOVA for the SCI indicated significant multivariate effects for gender, F(6, 346) = 10.48, p < .001, and for race, F(6, 346) =
4.47, p < .001, based on Pillais trace V statistic (see Haase & Ellis, 1987). There
were no interaction effects. Results for the SEQ also indicated significant gender,
F(6, 354) = 16.8, p < .001, and race effects, F(6, 354) = 3.4, p < .01. Again there
were no interaction effects. The results for the SERS, however, indicated significant effects only for gender, F(6, 343) = 11.2, p < .001. There were no effects for
race or any interaction effects.
Examining Tables 5 and 6 shows the results of univariate F tests that followed
findings of significant multivariate Fs. As shown in Table 5, men reported higher
Realistic and Investigative confidence on all four sets of scores examined herein
the SCI, SEQ, and SERSwhereas women reported higher Social confidence
on two of the three inventories (all but the SCI, where gender differences have
occurred in previous samples). Men were more confident on the SCI Enterprising
and Conventional themes than were women. No gender differences occurred on
Artistic confidence.
Comparisons of African Americans and European Americans, shown in Table
6, indicate that the former group reported significantly higher confidence rela-

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294 JOURNAL OF CAREER ASSESSMENT / August 2002

Table 5
Score Means and Standard Deviations and Results
of Univariate Analyses of Significant Multivariate Gender Effects
Males
(N = 125)
Measure
Skills Confidence Inventory
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Self-Efficacy Rating Scale
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional

Females
(N = 274)

SD

3.56
3.54
3.2
3.7
3.6
3.7

.78
.66
.71
.64
.70
.61

2.99
3.2
3.2
3.8
3.3
3.3

7.6
7.6
5.7
7.9
7.5
7.2
1.4
1.5
1.3
1.5
1.5
1.5

1.9
1.6
2.0
1.3
1.6
1.3
.46
.39
.49
.49
.49
.55

5.8
6.5
5.8
8.4
7.3
7.1
1.2
1.4
1.3
1.6
1.5
1.4

SD
.74
.65
.79
.62
.64
.65
2.1
1.7
1.8
1.3
1.6
1.5
.46
.44
.47
.36
.49
.52

F
41.2***
17.0***
0.06
0.78
6.7**
22.7***
40.3***
24.7***
0.03
7.6**
0.53
0.004
23.2***
7.6**
0.11
9.9**
0.02
0.03

**p < .01. ***p < .001.

tive to the Artistic, Social, and Enterprising themes of the SCI and SEQ,
although there were no significant race differences on the SERS.
Table 7 provides values of coefficient alpha within race and gender subgroups.
Overall, there were few differences across racial and gender groups. The only
evidence of a slight difference on the SCI was Enterprising confidence, where
the alpha was higher (.87) for males than for the other three subgroups (females
and African American or European Americans, separately). For the SEQ, reliability of the Social and Conventional theses was lower in the male and, to a lesser extent, the European American samples herein than in the female or African
American samples. Contrary to the SEQ, where Social and Conventional were
slightly less reliable among the male and African American samples, Social and
Conventional on the SERS were slightly less reliable among the female and
African American samples. It should be kept in mind, though, that these differ-

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Betz, Gwilliam / HOLLAND THEME SELF-EFFICACY 295

Table 6
Means and Standard Deviations
of Scores for European and African Americans
African
American
(N = 111)
Measure
Skills Confidence Inventory
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Self-Efficacy Rating Scale
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional

European
American
(N = 252)

SD

SD

3.2
3.4
3.4
4.0
3.6
3.6

.80
.63
.75
.62
.67
.70

3.2
3.3
3.1
3.7
3.3
3.3

.80
.69
.74
.62
.62
.63

6.6
7.1
6.4
8.5
7.7
7.4
1.3
1.5
1.3
1.6
1.5
1.5

2.2
1.7
1.9
1.4
1.7
1.5
.49
.44
.46
.37
.47
.50

6.2
6.6
5.5
8.1
7.2
7.0
1.2
1.4
1.3
1.6
1.5
1.5

2.2
1.7
1.8
1.2
1.6
1.3
.46
.42
.47
.40
.49
.53

F
0.65
0.15
7.7**
9.1**
12.0***
3.7
0.80
3.05
16.8***
4.9*
6.3**
0.10
3.10
2.5
1.2
1.6
0.10
0.19

Note. The multivariate Fs for race for the Skills Confidence Inventory and Self-Efficacy Questionnaire were statistically significant, permitting interpretation of univariate F statistics. Those for
race for the Self-Efficacy Rating Scale were not statistically significant, so univariate Fs should not
be interpreted.
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

ences were small and were not statistically significant. Overall, they suggest similarly reliable scales across gender and race subgroups. For example, mean alphas
across the six subscales in each inventory were as follows: SCI (.85 for African
Americans vs. .84 for European Americans), SEQ (.83 vs. .80, respectively), and
SERS (.84 for both groups).
Finally, Table 8 provides summaries of the multitrait-multimethod matrices
within African American and European American groups.1 It may be noted that
although the convergent validity correlations are slightly higher among African

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296 JOURNAL OF CAREER ASSESSMENT / August 2002

Table 7
Values of Coefficient Alpha Within Gender and Race Subgroups

Scale
Skills Confidence Inventory
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Self-Efficacy Rating Scale
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional

Males
(N = 124)

Females
(N = 273)

African
American
(N = 110)

European
American
(N = 274)

.87
.83
.81
.87
.87
.83

.85
.82
.85
.86
.80
.84

.88
.80
.85
.87
.82
.86

.87
.84
.84
.86
.80
.83

.91
.78
.82
.74
.86
.62

.89
.82
.78
.84
.86
.70

.89
.81
.79
.86
.87
.74

.91
.83
.78
.79
.85
.65

.78
.89
.82
.87
.90
.85

.78
.91
.82
.78
.89
.80

.80
.92
.82
.80
.88
.79

.77
.90
.82
.83
.89
.83

Americans, so are the monomethod heterotrait values, indicative of method variance. Using the z test for the difference between independent correlations, the
difference in the mean values within the SCI (.45 for African Americans and .20
for European Americans) is statistically significant (p < .01), as is that between
the heteromethod-heterotrait correlation for the SCI/SERS for African
Americans (r = .28) versus European Americans (r = .07). Although not statistically significant, all other comparisons also indicate higher correlations among
African Americans.

DISCUSSION
The present analyses of inventories of self-efficacy or confidence with respect
to the six Holland themes indicated, first, that all subscales were adequately reli-

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Betz, Gwilliam / HOLLAND THEME SELF-EFFICACY 297

Table 8
Comparisons of Correlations for African and European Americans

Convergent Validity
SCI SEQ
SCI SERS
SEQ SERS
Monomethod Nonadjacent Trait
SCI
SEQ
SERS
Heteromethod Nonadjacent Trait
SCI SEQ
SCI SERS
SEQ SERS

African Americans

European Americans

.76
.51
.51

.72
.45
.42

.45
.47
.53

.20
.32
.48

.36
.28
.29

.19
.07
.13

Note. SCI = Skills Confidence Inventory; SEQ = Self-Efficacy Questionnaire; SERS = SelfEfficacy Rating Scale.

able for research purposes (alphas above .70), but several scales were not sufficiently reliable for counseling uses, as suggested by a minimum alpha of .80. The
unsatisfactory scales from a counseling standpoint were the Conventional and
Artistic scales of the SEQ (both of which had been judged unsatisfactory by their
authors, Lenox & Subich, 1994) and the Realistic scale of the SERS. The reliabilities of the six SCI subscales were more consistent (.83 to .86) than the more
variable values found for the other inventories (.70 to .91 for the SEQ and .78 to
.91 for the SERS). The reliabilities of the SEQ, however, are based on short (5item) scales, whereas those of the SERS are based on from 9 (Conventional) to
20 (Investigative) occupations each, with a mean scale length of 14 occupations.
Multitrait-multimethod analyses were used to examine the extent of convergent validity, the degree to which convergent validity coefficients were larger
than correlations of different subscales within the same inventory (monomethodheterotrait correlations postulated to indicate the presence of method variance),
and correlations of different scales assessed using different measures. These latter
two sets of values, if lower than the convergent validity coefficients, provided evidence for discriminant validity. Using these criteria, there was stronger evidence
for the validity of the SCI and SEQ relative to the SERS. The average correlation of same-named confidence scales across the SCI and SEQ was .74 versus
mean correlations of .45 and .47 when each was paired with the SERS. For the
SCI and SEQ, their convergent validity correlation was significantly greater than
the monomethod heterotrait correlations indicating method variance (.30 and
.38 for the SCI and SEQ, respectively). In contrast, the mean convergent validity correlations of the SERS (.45 with the SCI and .47 with the SEQ) were not

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298 JOURNAL OF CAREER ASSESSMENT / August 2002

significantly different from the method variance correlations (M = .49). The convergent validity correlations for the SERS were, however, greater than the heterotrait-heteromethod correlations, providing some (though less convincing) evidence for construct validity.
In addition to examination of the characteristics of these inventories in the
total group, examination of their psychometric characteristics within the samples
of African American and European American samples was of interest. Alpha reliabilities were as high or slightly higher for African Americans as they were for
European Americans; comparisons of .85 versus .84, .83 versus .80, and .84 for
both groups characterized mean alphas for African Americans versus European
Americans on the SCI, SEQ, and SERS. The results also suggested a relative lack
of race differences on measures of confidence with respect to the Holland themes
and, in this sample, at least suggest that African Americans may feel somewhat
greater confidence than European Americans relative to the Artistic, Social, and
Enterprising dimensions of Hollands vocational theory. However, these differences occurred only on the inventories using activities and school subjects rather
than on that using occupational titles.
Evidence for convergent validity indicated comparability between the two
racial groups studied herein, but the use of the multitrait-multimethod matrix suggested lower levels of discriminant validity and greater method variance for the
African American versus European American sample. Monomethod-heterotrait
correlations for African Americans ranged from .45 to .53 across the three inventories, indicating probably greater relevance of method variance to the resulting
scores. And in fact, although the convergent validity correlations for the SCI and
SEQ were significantly greater than their method variance values (monomethod/
heterotrait), the convergent validities of pairs including the SERS (SCI-SERS
and SEQ-SERS) were not different from the method variance values within the
African American sample.
The present study provides several findings that suggest the utility of the multitrait-multimethod matrix. First, the analyses suggested that item type (whether
activities and school subjects, as in the SEQ and SCI) versus occupational titles
does influence self-perceived confidence for the six Holland theme areas. Not
only was this finding supported by the convergent validity correlations, but also
the presence of race differences (in favor of African Americans) when activities
items versus occupations items were used is of interest. Furthermore, the multitraitmultimethod analysis suggested some problems in the discriminant validity of
these inventories when used with African Americans. Whether this suggests that
self-efficacy is a more generalized characteristic among African Americans than
European Americans warrants further study.
A finding consistent with previous research (see Gasser et al., 2001) is that the
highest nonadjacent trait correlations occur between Investigative and
Conventional, especially as the content of the latter theme more consistently
includes computer activities. For example, the correlations between Investigative
and Conventional herein were .50 (SCI), .55 (SEQ), and .56 (SER), which were

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Betz, Gwilliam / HOLLAND THEME SELF-EFFICACY 299

actually higher than the majority of convergent validity correlations (i.e., the
same trait) using the SERS. These were the highest nonadjacent trait correlations found of nine such nonadjacent trait pairs.
Although not the focus of the study, gender comparisons of scores were also
done, using MANOVA followed by post hoc univariate tests. These analyses indicated gender differences consistent with previous research on confidence and
self-efficacy with respect to the Holland activity areas, with males reporting consistently higher confidence on Realistic and Investigative on all four inventories
and greater Enterprising and Conventional confidences on the SCI. Females
reported higher confidence on Social. Because self-efficacy measures are ideally
used in practice to target individuals for interventions that can increase selfefficacy and, thus, vocational options (see Betz, 1999), score patterns herein continue to suggest the inadequacies in confidence among college-age women.
In summary, the present study has used multitrait-multimethod matrices and
other psychometric criteria to provide useful information about the psychometric quality and utility of three inventories of confidence with respect to the
Holland vocational themes. Further research might be directed at further exploring the confidence differences in favor of African Americans and, at the same
time, the questionable degree of discriminant validity across Holland dimensions
for the African American sample. Findings that convergent validity is strongly
influenced by the type of item used should also be carefully noted in other
research of this type.

NOTE
1. Because of space limitations, we have omitted the full multitrait-multimethod matrices within African American and European American subgroups. They may, however, be obtained from
the first author.

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