CANONICAL CORRELATION OF VOCATIONAL INTERESTS AND VOCATIONAL NEEDS

CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS OF VOCATIONAL INTERESTS GENERALLY POSTULATE A HIGH RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERESTS AND OTHER MOTIVATIONAL CONSTRUCTS, E.G., NEEDS. EMPIRICAL STUDIES HAVE REPORTED GENERALLY LOW CORRELATIONS BETWEEN MEASUREMENTS OF SUCH CONSTRUCTS. 1 EXPLANATION FOR THESE FINDINGS MIGHT LIE IN THE LIMITATIONS IMPOSED BY THE CORRELATIONAL TECHNIQUES USED. CANONICAL CORRELATION WAS USED TO EXPLORE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERESTS AND NEEDS. A VOCATIONAL INTERESTS MEASURE (SVIB) AND A VOCATIONAL NEEDS MEASURE (MINNESOTA IMPORTANCE QUESTIONNAIRE) WERE ADMINISTERED TO 269 MALE COLLEGE STUDENTS AND 262 MALE VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION APPLICANTS. FOR EACH GROUP, 4 DIFFERENT SETS OF WEIGHTS YIELDED SIGNIFICANT CANONICAL CORRELATIONS. MAXIMUM CANONICAL CORRELATIONS WERE .78 AND .74, SUPPORTING THE CONCLUSION THAT A HIGH RELATIONSHIP EXISTS BETWEEN INTERESTS AND NEEDS. (19 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).