Career Counselors' Perception of the Structure of Vocational Interests

The perceived structure of vocational interest fields of 29 career counselors was compared with the structures represented by the circular-hexagonal model (CM) and the hierarchical model (HM). The counselors' grouping of Holland's (1973) 6 types and then Roe's (1956) 8 fields were compatible with both structures, with a slight advantage to the HM. The counselors then examined the similarity between adjacent pairs of fields. Their judgements indicated that, in contrast to the predictions of the model of the perfect hexagon or of the circle with equal distances, the distances are unequal as predicted by the HM. These findings indicate that the counselors' perceived structure of interests is more compatible with the hierarchical than with the hexagonal-circular model.