The Series Five studies involved two instruments. Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) was completed by each participant prior to the lab appointment. The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) was completed at the close of each lab session, immediately following the interpretation of the VPI results in one of the three experimental conditions (face-to-face, text chat, text chat plus video).
Vocational Preference Inventory
The Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), developed by John Holland for assessment of his six-dimension model of vocational personality characteristics, is among the most widely used instruments in career counseling and has an extensive base of empirical support. The VPI (Holland, 1985) is comprised of 160 occupational titles to which the user responds "like" or "dislike". Scores are reported for each of the six personality types in the RIASEC model of vocational personality.
Data in the VPI manual (Holland, 1985) suggest an acceptable level of reliability (internal consistency estimates ranging from .81 to .91). Empirical validity support for the VPI provided in the manual also includes evidence that VPI scores have been predictive of major field or occupational choice in a variety of studies.
Session Evaluation Questionnaire
The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) (Stiles, 1980; Stiles & Snow, 1984) is a self-report scale for rating counseling sessions with four summary scores: depth, smoothness, positivity, and arousal. It is based on responses to 20 counter-balanced bipolar adjective scales.
SEQ depth is the mean rating on scales worthless-valuable, shallow-deep, full-empty, weak-powerful, and special-ordinary. The smoothness score is the mean rating on the scales difficult-easy, relaxed-tense, unpleasant-pleasant, rough-smooth, and comfortable-uncomfortable. Depth is the perception of overall value of a session. Smoothness is the perception of session ease.
SEQ positivity is the mean rating on happy-sad, angry-pleased, uncertain-certain, confident-afraid, and friendly-unfriendly. SEQ arousal is the mean rating on moving-still, calm-excited, slow-fast, energetic-peaceful, and quiet-aroused. Positivity is intended to assess overall feelings of confidence and clarity. Arousal taps the extent to which the session elicited an elevation in activity level.
Stiles and Snow (1984) reported coefficient alpha reliability estimates of .81, .93, .89 and .78 for the depth, smoothness, positivity, and arousal scales, respectively, when the SEQ was completed by clients.
References
Holland, J. L. (1985). Professional manual: Vocational Preference Inventory, 1985 edition. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Stiles, W. B. (1980). Measurement of the impact of psychotherapy sessions. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 48, 176-185.
Stiles, W. B., & Snow, J. S. (1984). Counseling session impact as viewed by novice counselors and their clients. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31, 3-12.
___________________________________________________________________
Guide to Reports