The current study applied Holland's RIASEC typology to develop a "Physician Skills Inventory". We identified the transferable skills and abilities that are critical to effective performance in medicine and had 140 physicians in 25 different specialties rate the importance of those skills. Principal component analysis of their responses produced…

An empirical measurement model for interest inventory construction uses internal criteria whereas an inductive measurement model uses external criteria. The empirical and inductive measurement models are compared and contrasted and then two models are assessed through tests of the effectiveness and economy of scales for the Medical Specialty…

Examined predictive validity of Medical Specialty Preference Scales (MSPS) and Medical Specialty Preference Inventory (MSPI). Administered MSPS to 71 medical students and MSPI to 73 medical students. Findings indicated that MSPI predicted accurately three times more than did MSPS. Based on predictive validity and teaching possibilities, MSPI seems…

Evaluates the Medical Career Development Inventory, a measure of career maturity, with student-physicians (N=160). Results indicated that it is possible to construct a measure of vocational development for a population of adults encountering a common set of vocational development tasks. (LLL)

Understanding student problems regarding specialty choice may better be served by studying the decision-making process that produces a specialty choice. The difficulties that impede choice and reduce student certainty about choices made were investigated. (Author/MLW)

The present study tested the hypothesis that medical specialties classified as technique oriented or patient oriented would be distinguished by RIASEC code, with technique-oriented specialists resembling Investigative-Realistic types and patient-oriented specialists resembling Investigative-Social types. Using longitudinal data obtained from 447…

A measure of specialty indecision was administered to 567 medical students along with measures of vocational development and exploratory behavior. Initial evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Specialty Indecision Scale indicate that it is internally consistent, relates more to specialty choice than to career choice, and inversely…

Supervisory behaviors considered effective by medical students were identified and organized into descriptive categories. A second study objective was to compare the supervisory behaviors of family physicians and those of behavioral scientists. Eighty-four sophomore medical students completed a critical incident report form at the end of an…

To establish that measures of vocational identity are sensitive to variations in development, researchers need to demonstrate that different patterns of scores on these measures predict subsequent coping with later tasks of vocational development. This study investigated the ability of the Vocational Identity Scale (VIS) to predict coping with a…